Jen Bowles Design

Bloom True: More Layers

I can't believe we're already into week 4 of Flora Bowley's Bloom True class.  Time flies when you're being brave and loving what you're learning!

At the last painting group get-together I attended, I worked on Layers 3 & 4 of my canvases.  We've been meeting at my mom's house, she's very welcoming☺.

There were 4 of us at this meeting:  me, my mom, friend Lynn, and cousin Penny.  It's always fun and interesting to see someone else's interpretation of the class--and how that translates to the canvases.  The great part about meeting in person is being able to exhange ideas, share materials, and see other people working.  Of course I'm easily distracted...but I love the kinship.

Here are some glimpses at our in-progress canvases...

Lynn

Penny

Mom

Me

I can only imagine what everyone's canvas will look like this coming weekend at painting group--with 2-4 more layers added.  Totally transformed, I'm sure!

I fell behind on last week's painting lessons and then just couldn't pull myself together to go to painting group this past weekend.  Yesterday afternoon though, I rallied and painted at home in my studio.

After Layer 5:

After Layer 6:

I used my fingers a lot on these latest layers--and loved it.  In fact, when I was done with the canvases for the day, I couldn't resist using up the rest of the paint on my palette.

First I did this background on a 4x6 canvas

Then I went to town on my Art Journal/Play Book. 

Are these backgrounds or nearly finished pages?  Who knows!

I used the last little bits of paint on a book page.
Very fun, very freeing and feeling very fortunate to be part of this journey!

Art Journal Peek

Since filling up my Moleskine months ago, I've been a bit adrift in terms of working in any sort of an art journal.  A few weeks ago, armed with a 50% off coupon at ACM, I finally took the plunge and bought myself another book to play in. 

The pages are much larger than my Moleskine, which is good and bad but mostly just different. With the goal of just getting something started, I looked to one of my favorite children's book illustrators for inspiration.

Oh, Melissa Sweet.  I could look at your artwork all day long.  She's only in Maine, I wonder if she gives studio tours?? I can only imagine: all the paint, writing instruments and ephemera...swoon!

This first page is pretty much a complete "scraplift" of the green and haiku page in Carmine, with a few of my own touches.

I replaced the text with an Anne Frank quote and substituted letters cut from books and magazines for most of the handwriting. 
I used gouache (first time), watercolors, colored pencils and pens. Using the watercolors is particularly relaxing...

This next page is also heavily influenced by one of Sweet's illustrations, this time from the back cover of Carmine.

Again I added a few things to try to make it my own, at least a little bit.  The ABC letters are cut from magazines, the ruler paper tape is from Cavallini & Co., and the rub-ons are from my stash (by Karen Russell for Creative Imaginations I believe). 

I really enjoy looking through my shelves of old books for fun and quirky words and phrases to use.  The sentence at the top about festooning a pig is from a book of letters from Theodore Roosevelt to his children☺.

This striped and dotted page I did on my own--notice the drop off in detail!
  I used gouache to paint the stripes and then I was stumped.  I ended up adding numbers from another roll of Cavallini paper tape and book text along with the circles cut from assorted scrapbooking papers.  
I tried out an old fountain pen dipped in ink to write the words.  I had some puddling of ink and then turned the page, forgetting it wasn't dry.  Oops.  Ink blobs add character, right?

Finally, this page that is actually the first one in this new book.  This was quick and easy. 
Again, I used gouache for the background and spattered brown acrylic paint with a toothbrush (hard to see).  All of the words and the image are cut from magazines.  The central image is from a TIME magazine (January 2009) issue about the brain.  The words are from Woman's Day or a similar publication.
  It seemed fitting.

So there you have it, my new art journal/play book.  I'm underway and doing my best to experiment with some new materials & techniques and...enjoy the process!

Thanks for stopping by,

Sunday Scenery: The Beach in Winter

In Winter, the ocean beach takes on a different mood.  Still beautiful but feeling more open and vast...

And yet everything remains comfortably the same.  The rocks, the shells, the treasures waiting to be discovered...

Just beyond the seawall, the winter sun illuminates a variety of textures of a beach town in the off-season...  In winter, there are fewer distractions and more time to stop and notice the details...


At a nearby harbor, seagulls gather...
Fishing boats sit idle...
And dry docks are stacked high.
Here too, there are details waiting to be noticed...

and captured.

St. Patrick's Day Door Decoration

When I took down my Valentine's door decoration the other day all of a sudden my apple green door looked awfully bare.

Green door, St. Patrick's Day approaching?  How could I not put something up??

I didn't have anything in my holiday decorating inventory so I decided to make something.  I was thinking some kind of wreath but my materials instead led me to a door canvas.

Inspired by Lisa Kaus' new gift collection, particularly this banner, I got to work.

Here's what I came up with:

Materials:  18x24 studio canvas, canvas paper, book pages, watercolor paper, ball fringe, acrylic paints, gouache, gel medium, charcoal pencil

Some highlights of how I did it:

• painted the background of the canvas
• used gouache to paint book pages, cut out heart shapes
• attach everything to canvas with gel medium
• cut out bottom banner shape from canvas paper
• paint stripes with acrylic paints
• add trim (ball fringe, ribbon on sides to cover up staples)

I thought about adding '17' somewhere on the bottom right but decided against it.  After everything dried overnight tonight I hung it on our front door this morning.

After all, everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day ☺.

Linking up to these fun parties:

 

Hello and...

Happy Valentine's Day ♥

Bloom True: 1st Layer

This week Flora Bowley's very first e-course, Bloom True, kicked off and I'm so happy to be part of it! It already feels very different from anything I usually do and I'm really enjoying the non-painting parts of the course especially.

Of course the painting is pretty fun too ☺.

I  completed the first layers of my two canvases yesterday.

Loving the magic that is happening...even if it's going to get covered up!  

Tomorrow I'm scheduled to get together with a small group of friends who are also "Bloomers".  We'll be working on our canvases, for me that means my second layer. 

Painting and friendship, sounds like a good Sunday morning to me.

 

Handmade Valentine Projects: Day 14, Love Monster

Hard to believe, but today is the final day of my '14 Days of Handmade Valentine Projects' series!  Thanks so much for checking in, hope you're enjoying the projects and gleaning some inspiration as well!

One of my kids' favorite sayings is 'Save the best for last'.  While I'm not sure this is my best project, it is the softest, cuddliest and maybe the cutest~a Valentine Love Monster ♥.

And yes, there was plenty of Pin-spiration for this project including these adorable softies:

Source: etsy.com via Jen on Pinterest

Source: emmallamb.blogspot.com via Jen on Pinterest

 

It took me about an hour to put together, using my usual hand-cut, no pattern, learn as you go method.  I had all the fabrics on hand including the pink chenille, the super soft dotted pink minky, and the assorted pink and red fabric scraps.

I meant to stuff the ears but when I turned things inside out I realized I had sewn a seam right along the opening.  Oh well, at least they are right side out and in the right place!  They stick up on their own anyway...

I also used several different attachment methods including fast grab glue, hot glue, straight and zig zag machine stiching along with hand stitching.

I must say, he's awfully endearing, sitting around on the hot pink pom-pom throw, looking all sweet.  He might just need some friends...

Thanks for stopping by and do let me know if you have any questions about any of the projects!

 

 

Handmade Valentine Projects: Day 13, Valentine Angel

Eek, we're almost there--day 13 of 14!

I considered making several different projects for today (mobile, cards, pendant or bracelet) but in the end I decided to make a sweet Valentine angel.

My inspiration came from a trio of angels my mom gave me several years ago when Sarah Lugg had a licensed line of home decor items. 
I love her work. 

For my angel, I started with a cardboard cone from my stash.  I started to draw a face but it didn't look quite right so I turned to my collection of vintage children's books.  Jackpot!  This lovely face was perfect.  It was a black and white illustration, I added color with pencils and glitter glue.  Her halo is thin gauge wire.

Her wings were handcut from scrapbook paper.  The heart she's holding is wooden (painted) with book text.

Along the bottom I painted a row of scallops and outlined them with charcoal pencil.

I find her to be simple, sweet and quite endearing ☺.

Thanks for stopping by,

Handmade Valentine Projects: Day 12, Valentine Word Art

Today's project just kind of happened.  There were a few different ideas spinning around in my head:  the uber popular subway art, Valentine's Day themed song lyrics and using the new, tiny tipped brush I bought for $1 at AC Moore to paint cursive words.  Add that to a scrap piece of plywood and some acrylic paints and this is what you get:

The lyrics are excerpted from The Beatles 'All You Need Is Love'.  I sort of painted them by the seat of my pants, without a lot of thought to spacing or exactly which lines of the song I wanted to highlight.  I started from the beginning and pretty much painted what fit (with at least one word omission) until it became clear that not all I wanted to paint would fit--so I skipped a few lines of the song and finished up with 'all you need is love, love is all you need'.

I'm looking at it as an experimental piece.  It could probably benefit from a darker background color to give more contrast with the writing.  Maybe some sort of mixed media heart in the center instead of just a painted one.  But I do love how the script turned out.  I freehanded all of it, and it took a while to complete but I just sat at the table while the kids did their homework so it didn't feel like a big deal.  I got more comfortable as I went along and by the end was hitting my stride.

Maybe I'll paint another one with a Springtime theme...and a bit more pre-planning☺.
Thanks for stopping by,

Handmade Valentine Projects: Day 11, Heart Ribbon Wand

Today we kick off the last week of my Handmade Valentine Projects series.  It's been a fun challenge to come up with new projects for each day--just the kickstart my creativity needed for the new year.  We'll see where it takes me ☺.

My  latest creation is a Valentine wand.

Combining a stitched, stuffed heart, a painted dowel rod and a variety of ribbons, this wand is definitely capable of casting a spell of ♥.

Thanks for visiting,