Silk Painting explored

The fun of an Artsy Journey is just that: it's fun! For the past few months I've enjoyed various forms of silk painting with more or less a YouTube education. That in itself is another story, but I have played with some pretty basic tools to the more traditional dyes used by the professionals and have just scratched the surface. I think I know now,  how my painting students who come to me and say "I know nothing about painting" feel. :-)

Special markers on white silk scarves

So anyway I've played with resists, different dyes, washing, ironing...wow more work than a portrait!  You never know what I'll create next-keep watching!

Dyed with abstracts drawn by hand onto the scarf

Stretched, silver resist and hand drawn and painted

Same horses but with background dye added and silk salt for texture

Silk scarf embellished

Blackberries and Cobbler and.... art?

juicy blackberries

It took me 30 minutes to collect 4 cups of blackberries. The old pasture was full of heavily laden bushes and the previous year I had vowed to cut trails among and around them in order to access the lush fruit.

Paths around blackberry bushes? For those of us old enough to remember Song of the South and Brer Rabbit, there is an apt line in the story where Brer Rabbit pleads with the bear "Please don't throw me in the brier patch! Please don't throw me in the brier patch!....." and the bear does, not knowing that it's the rabbit's safe hideaway.  I can tell you that IF you were able to get into these bushes, you would never get out...they were the thorns from hell and I picked them with gloves on!  I seem to have two varieties. One is now almost through producing. The other, the one with killer thorns and huge berries is in the midst of producing.

Rosie the Corgi following the path around the thorny bush

So why go to all the trouble to pick berries such as these when they are obviously a lot of trouble?

For the TASTE! How can it not be inspirational to head out on an early morning, before the summer heat sets in and, followed by happy dogs (who also like the berries!) spend a quiet hour communing with nature? I mean after all, plucking nature's free harvest is....liberating!                                                                                

Thorns from hell from a 10 ft high bush!

 But it was not just for the immediate gratification of eating the blackberries-it was for the later treat: Blackberry cobbler!

Now I confess that the image below is not mine but the cobbler is identical in looks and OH SO EASY!' What my mother used to make!

Preheat oven to 375.

4 cups black berries

1 TB lemon juice

1 cup flour (reg)

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

6 TB melted butter

Lightly grease bottom and sides of an 8 x 8 pan/baking dish

Add 4 cups blackberries, sprinkle with lemon juice (1 Tbs)

In an medium bowl, mix sugar, regular flour and one egg until mixture forms a crumbly mix. Scatter over blackberries. Dribble melted butter over flour/sugar mixture. Bake 35 minutes until brown and bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before serving! Sure you can add ice cream or whipped cream and it is good hot or cold!

Blackberry Cobbler!

And what does any of this have to do with art? Let's just say that cooking is an art so I have, in onefell swoop, captured ALL the sensory elements of art :-)

Debutante Stools

Debutante Stools

Imagination is both a necessary and yet freeing component of art.  Although I may predominantly be a portrait artist,  I love to PLAY in the arts.  One of the keys is to shed some of those rules, attitudes and inhibitions ingrained into art students at a university :-) Once that happens, imagination is freed and all sorts of wonderful things happen.

So below is one result of thinking differently...yes, this was purchased as a 2013  Debutante Stool by a horsey young lady and her mom...I simply added her initials and date at the bottom. Another stool, painted in  a black base with white abstracts also went home with a new owner but not at a Deb stool!

Interested in your own stool? Whether for your bar, a debutante or home decor-solid, sturdy or you can provide your own! Contact me through my website or Facebook!

I can go from simple abstract to stunning, actual goldleaf!  

Close up (w/watermark-not on actual stool)

Motivation and the Artist's Life!

June 15, 2013 Artist's Life Blog

An impressive early summer storm rolled across the country with towering, angry thunderheads and gale force winds and left as quickly as it arrived just a few days ago. We had battened down the hatches-the animals, house and art studio were as secure as we could make them and when the storm passed in a matter of less than an hour, the change in the atmosphere was palpable!  Cooler temperatures combined with low humidity felt as though we had walked into a summer morning in the mountains and today, I am enjoying that now from the front porch of my art studio.

Storm front over the Art Studio

I have discovered over the years that Humidity affects my ability to work. Low humidity is invigorating and high humidity is a strength zapper. My "to do"list grows in proportion to the humidity!  I have been rising early (before 6 am) as I like to do and enjoy my coffee on either the front porch of the house or the studio. On humid mornings, I skip it. On these stunning mornings, surrounded by 5 dogs flopped around me on the porch (they have to be fed first or I will have no peace!), I not only have sipped away my coffee but hoed the garden beds, fed the ponies and chickens, raked grass for the chickens, filled the bird feeders, walked the pasture checking on the readiness of the blackberry crop (huge!) and then taken up my post at the railing looking for that elusive indigo bunting.

The Morning Sun

All of this is a prelude to the work that I know I must start today-a large 24 x 36 pastel portrait of a charming little girl whom I photographed a month ago. Time to get cracking. Today is the first Saturday in awhile that we have not been at a show, art classes, delivering artwork or in general having to "be" somewhere.
The beauty of being self employed is that what I just recorded for this morning can be enjoyed on any day. And we do just that. Motivation is not just one illuminating moment. It is a series of steps to get to where the artist begins to work. Procrastination is only a problem when there is no reason to get something done-no urgency. For the self employed artist, whose every bill must be paid with the earnings of art sales, procrastination is a temporary condition. For many of those who have always dreamed of being an artist, it is a lifelong procrastination. But earning a living as an artist is not for every artist and the happiest, I have found, are those who know themselves well enough to make that choice and feel good about it!

Ageless art

SO June 8 was our ART RETREAT and oh my, what a great time we had! And yes, one of our participants was a vibrant 79 years old and jumped right into the art zone with us!

Journaling is all about the journaler and what she wants to include on her various pages. So using  basic art supplies available to everyone, and incorporating some stress relieving tips and techniques, each participant spent the afternoon learning to become "one with her art."

Yep-it ain't that easy initially because we ALL want to be told what to do and especially in art-expectations are always based on one's previous art experiences and teachers! So step by step the ladies all learned to loosen up, let go and then-walla! They created.....and marveled at how easy it was after all!

Check it out! below:

See the woman in blue standing to the left and sitting and raising her hands in the air to the right? Patricia was our 79 years young student who, along with the others, reveled in the freedom of "no holds barred" art.

Each person took home the enthusiasm and techniques necessary to continue their art journey-there are a lot of pages to cover!


Our next art retreat is scheduled for Saturday July 27! Visit me on facebook to stay up to date on what's happening! www.facebook.com/MTheresaBrown or www.facebook.com/artstudentacademy 

In just a few days...ART RETREAT!

JUNE 8 ART RETREAT!

LADIES ART RETREAT!

Join Theresa and her special guest, artist Ophelia Staton, Saturday JUNE 8 from 1:00-4:00 at our LADIES ART RETREAT and learn some new and exciting tips in creating or adding to your Art Journals!   Ophelia is a creative and carefree artist whose easy teaching  style will inspire and motivate you to step into the world of art journaling, expressionism and "no holds barred" art. 

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Read more about Ophelia here:http://opheliasart.blogspot.com
Read more about Theresa here: www.ArtsyJourneys.com

Creativity with Crayons

If you think that crayons are just for "coloring" you are partially right! But see what happens when you challenge a teen art class to take simple perspective a few steps beyond the basics and apply what they learned about shading techniques using paper, a pencil and crayons! Wondrous results!

 Shading and highlighting the contour shapes makes the piece seem to undulate on its own!

Crayons, used in this manner, are a simple, cheap and effective art tool for all ages!

Highlights are the white of the paper, uncolored!

Draw the pencil perimeter first, add the contour lines, then enhance with shading