Christmas Reflection by Howard Thurman

When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the king and princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flock,

The work of Christmas begins:

    To find the lost,

    To heal the broken,

    To feed the hungry,

    To release the prisoner,

    To rebuild the nations,

    To bring peace among all,

    To make music in the heart.

PS: someone asked about this picture, it is my photograph. i always give credit if  if not my original work.....until i forget due to my advanced age:)

Pages 8 through 11

i do not practice minimalism but maximalism......so frustrating when i want to follow the principle that sometimes less is more....ahhh.... Now you will want to ask  me "But why don't you?" and i will answer with 2 round eyes and a blank look on my face! Fortunately for me and those around me i still have my sense of humor...grrrr....The fish, well, the fish is a lost case, it never started lightly but the iris i had started it gently, yes, in a sort of minimalist way...but something took over me and i went at this poor flower with a vengeance......
The creature from page 6 keeps appearing and so i keep having to make up a new image: it becomes a strange fin for the fish and then an even stranger moth-type winged creature.

Next Pages: 4, 5, 6 and 7

The strange flowers/plants on page 5 continue on page 7 to become....whatever:) That was one of the purposes of the book but i quickly found out that this was quite difficult for me! The drawings are very much inspired by the book Art Forms in Nature by Ernst Haeckel (you can find it  at Amazon), if you don't already own it. What a genius this man! By the way when  Lynne will  see these little paintings she will no doubt chuckle when she will think of my recent comment on her blog and her response:)

First Pages of The Book.....

.....done!

i am finishing the next ones (4,5,6,and 7) which i will post soon. i decided that i did not like the heaviness of the acrylic paint on this type of background so for the next pages i switched to watercolors, much more satisfying.

Working On Junk Mail Book

(Picasa is giving me lots of trouble these days , very frustrating.)

My sister and i are taking Carla Sonheim's fun class "Junk Mail Artist Book" and in spite of my very hectic life right now i have been able to finish the pages and bind them (the easiest way possible) into this book. Now onto the drawing part The junk mail were first heavily gessoed then several coats of watercolors were applied followed by a slight buffing.....to be followed

Once More from the Garden

Too bad the red of the maple leaves got lost in translation from my picture to the blog, bummer! It was a much more fiery red.

44 Years Ago Today

i arrived in New York City from Paris. So today my son David gave me a beautiful postcard  to celebrate this anniversary...along with a bottle of Champagne....from France, of course!
But that being said, here is my demi-grapefruit finished, including pics of the process. Once the rind is removed (deliciously useful  in our Cosmopolitans btw) i let it dry out and then slice it in half to eat it (i have to use a sharp serrated knife at this point because it has become VERY hard)

This is what it looks like at this point, after a very brief stay in the oven.

A couple of layers of Golden medium later...

Now is the time to collage little bits of my handpainted papers inside...

Now on the outside

Done!

Cute little container, nice gift!

Plaster Exercise

5"x6", plaster , acrylics, with transfers and wax layer

Sunlight on a golden hosta leaf.

The marabou is a transfer on plaster while the left drawing is a transfer on wax. i had problems with both but especially the left one: when i was fusing it, i started losing the lines and details which were moving  in the direction of the air flow from the heat gun. i am a newbie at that, a lot to learn as i keep practicing. My drawings were kinda lost in the process, oh well!  Sisterette says it's fine!♥♥♥

L'Inconnue

6"x10", oil pastels, casein, graphite, watercolors on a page from my vintage book "Encyclopedia of Chinese painting",. The Universal Book Company, pub.

i wonder how many of us have been inspired by Lynne Hoppe.....i have found a couple of folks out there but is that all? i think not! i hesitated about my "Inconnue" because, well you know, because of the strangeness, but both Steve and i liked her instantly so she feels secure now, part of the family.
Now working on some plaster piece in the studio and thinking about what i could do to the empty rind of a half grapefruit which has now hardened beautifully....whew, a mouthful:)


A few hours later:
i am reading over my post and i realize that with my pathetic English i poorly expressed myself  (misleading): when i wrote "a couple of folks",  i meant people who were inspired to actually draw/paint faces in the manner of Lynne...we all know what an inspiration she is to so many people in so many different ways.

In the Garden

Still beautiful! As for these amazing maple leaves, i stand in silence and humility.

Quickie Face

i was experimenting with this Chinese paper (book) on calligraphy. i have always loved these characters and find them totally beautiful. This was very quickly done especially when i noticed that i had not painted a layer of medium to protect the paper which is very fragile....made a couple holes...these characters are like rubons , showing quite a bit of relief. i love this paper and i intend to do more like this one but i will prepare my paper before hand!

Halloween

Re-Post, I think, of a journal page from a couple years back. Original drawing, commercial stamps of birds.
PS: Monday Nov 1, I edited this post to change the pic from scanner to photography, much more accurate! My drawing of the little pumpkin was poorly rendered  by the scanner.

Salvia is Here

9"x12" watercolors,gouache, casein, graphite, oil pastels on vintage book page on watercolor paper and YES, these are my stamps used for stamping the border.

Detail to show relief (colors off)

i took countless pictures but could not achieve the real colors. i like the real thing much better. for some reason i was seeing red and fell into the lure of all the different delectable reds of my Sennelier oil pastels box. i was in a frenzy of red reds, rose, pinkish reds, purplish reds, maroonish reds, orangish reds. By the time i was done it was a bloody disaster so i started darkening the borders and practically worked my little finger....to a blister:) In the end i like it pretty well but, who knows, i might put a slight coat of whitish over the border after all this! Poor little pinky!

Another Face From the Studio

Laelia, watercolors, graphite, oil pastels, gouache on vintage Chinese book, 9" x 12"

Her name is Laelia, (beautiful Autumn flower). This paper is gorgeous but oh so fragile! i had to handle it with great care, collaging it using Golden medium onto a 300lb Arches watercolor paper. One can see worm holes to the right of her neck, very decorative:) The designs shown in and around her head are patterns for bound feet shoes.

We Love Our.......

......D I A B L O !...
just a reminder,  pure ART!

Plaster Experiment # 5

6" x 8", watercolor, oil pastels, casein graphite on plaster on wrapped canvas

i call her "La Reine Folle", just came to me....That was an interesting experience, kind of fun, cracking and re-cracking the plaster, you know, the opposite of "Oh, don't touch it, you might break it" kind of thing.......or perhaps, dear readers, you were the type of children well-behaved  and polite, always saying "yes, mother", "no, mother"......unlike this one, I might add:)
PS: i know, i know, my blog has been put in the washing machine with a gallon of bleach.

An Apple a Day?

left apple: 4,5" diameter, 13" circumference, right apple is a normal medium size apple

Not like this one! This is more like an apple for a family of 4...

Plaster

i started our next project, cracked plaster applied on a substrate using burlap. Because i am an idiot i quickly applied the wrong surface (plaster) down on my canvas heavily covered with glue! i went into panic mode but was able to remove most of the glue. The plaster is not yet fully dry. You can see some yellowish glue spots still. Talk about a humbling moment.....

Pebbles in our Pond

Finished Works

i went back to Protea and collaged her onto a watercolor sheet and filled in the borders with oil pastels (a lot!). Then i stamped a few areas with my hand carved stamps. To soften these i put a layer of oil pastels on top, thicker in some areas than others. i liked the results. The new face on the block is Aster whose borders are treated in the same manner. i have not been able to get good pictures!

I exaggerated  the light to show you the texture of the oil pastels

A Glimpse ......

...at the work in progress. Yes I know it's a very tiny glimpse, don't want to reveal too much, keeping you on your toes... so you'll come back! lol

Hello Woodpecker

This type of bird seeds in a netting bag  has worked beautifully for us!