Already on Day 16 of #thehundreddayproject.

And I’ve been good about doing a small painting every day but --- I’m feeling like I need to change things up a bit.  The small paintings have been more like sketches and they are great fun to do so I’ll be doing more of them.  Here are a couple of them --

 

I’ve also done a couple non-representational pieces – collage and painted --

 

 And yesterday while working on one of the Art Tribe collaborative pieces I played a bit with paper and fabric which lead me to my stash of fabric scraps and today I think I’ll do a stitched collage. I know I want to do more of the florals.  Some turned out well, some not so good.  Practice –

 

But there are other things I want to do as well.  Last week I saw a video Roben-Marie Smith did making a small journal using an old book.  She used the cover, cut it up into three small journals.  I’m a collector of old stuff – I have old books and as I moved from my laptop into the studio there on a shelf was an old book cover ready to do something with.  I did –

I didn’t consider this part of my 100 Day Project but I have a drawer full of similar journals that I’ve made to be used as Art Journals that never got used as such. I'm not a bookmaker but I enjoy making books.  This is one that's been in the drawer for a couple years. 

 

I think I'm going to add Art Journaling to my project.  And stitching.  For a long time I've done a quick graphite sketch every morning, something that took 5 minutes or less. For this project I want to do something everyday, something that takes a little more time and effort that gets my creative juices flowing.  So my theme has changed -- but not too much.

 

 

Tuesdays and Christmas

 Another coffee shop with my Tuesday group.  This time Jumpin' Java because it was closing its doors at the end of the week.  We'll miss it but all is not lost, there are two more coffee shops in our downtown.

I'm still working on the 5 minute pieces but the most recent have been Christmas Ornaments. I started some awhile back intending to take them to the Gallery for the holiday exhibit. I didn't get enough done so I took Christmas Trees instead. The trees are similar to these that are around Ed's Sinterklass. I made him several years back for my Dutch husband. The ornaments will go to the Gallery next year.

 

 

Planning for next year has also been a priority but first a review of this year, the good and the bad.  Do you review your year?  I've been recording my thoughts on it in an art journal I recently made trying to improve my coptic stitch bookmaking. I still need to work on the stitching part.

 

My plan is to put a light coat of gesso over the journaling and use the journal this month to do some journaling about what I want to accomplish next year, another coat of gesso and start the new year with the journal actually serving as an art journal.  

Do you set goals and accomplish them?  I set them but don't always accomplish them. Intention matters to the artist—but so is play. The act of creation by nature is intentional. While art can be serendipitous, overall it is not accidental, we go into the studio with the intension to make art! I need to work on avoiding thinking, evaluating, judging or pre-conceiving when I start. I believe spontaneity and playing is an important part of the art process but I tend to miss that part.  Not always but often. 

Tuesday Painters and A New Sketchbook

 This Tuesday there were just two of us at the Aldea Coffee Shop.

We have our granddog here this week so studio time has been limited.  But that didn't mean I didn't do any art making.  While I'm not a bookmaker I do make books every once in awhile and that seemed the perfect thing to do at the kitchen table while the granddog lay between my spouse and me.

Awhile back I had seen Laly Mille's youtube instructions on how to make a coptic stitch art journal without a a cover (it would be added later) and with all stitching on the outside rather than the inside.  Perfect time to try it so I got out paper and began making folios, then the signatures and finally stitching.  And when my spouse took the granddog for a walk I went into the studio to dig for paper to cover the book boards.  

 

This is a paper I made by layering the string between two pieces of tissue paper and applying gel medium.  Once dry I added the color.  Perfect size for what I needed.  So I covered the boards, glued them to the first and last pages of the journal and a leftover piece was perfect to cover the stitches on the spine.  Iset a bunch of books on top to be sure it all dried flat and happily opened it up the next morning.

I've decided to use this small one to review my year and hopefully figure out what I want to concentrate on next year.  Granddog is still here so I've started folding and stitching a larger one.