Getting Ready for Christmas

Only six and a half weeks before Christmas, only two weeks before the shopping season officially opens.  I’m working on Angel ornaments and dolls which means painting has been put on the back burner for now.  My next exhibit isn’t until March but I will have to get crackin’ once the holiday work is done. 

These are the first of the angel ornaments… I still have more in process and with each one I discover another way to do something so they are all very different.

And the bottle doll… this is the first one done and I learned a bunch about how these can go together.  Now I have to get busy on making some for the gallery.

I also have to share some of the exercises my beginning watercolor students have been doing.  In addition to learning how to use the medium, I’m also working on getting them to think a little differently about their work.  Every week we do some sort of exercise that forces them to let their left-brain thinking go and realize that they they don’t have to stay in the lines to make a good painting.

Holiday Gifts

It’s past time to be thinking about making gift type items for sale this holiday season,  I’m starting anyway.  Last month I did a couple wine bottle dolls using the bottle cut in half.  I thought about using the top of the bottle next until I walked into my studio recently and noticed this bottle.

This is not a very good photo, the bottle sits on top of one of the tall bookcases in my studio.  I made it years ago and never did anything more than put it up there.  On another shelf sits a stump doll I made a couple years ago; she won an award and I realized she had a shape rather like a wine bottle, no legs.   Hmmmm …  maybe I could put a head on the cork. Oh yes, and then perhaps one of the many inspirational quotes I collect can go inside the bottle… another prototype is now in process and I’m really liking this one….

Still a ways to go on her but I know the head works.  This one will stay here with me.  I’ve got a small collection of wine bottles but I’ll need more and I think something other than Chardonnay, this one has very droopy shoulders.  Guess I need to drink more wine

West Virginia Retreat

I’m just back from a week spent with 6 wonderful women that I graduated from high school with.  We’ve all taken different paths in life yet the bond remains strong 53 years later.  In this first photo 6 of us are headed off on a hike while our hostess takes her afternoon nap.

She and her husband bought this lovely spot in West Virginia as a place for their large family to gather because they are scattered around the country.  Fortunately for us, it’s large enough for us to gather too. 

Our week was spent just relaxing, enjoying conversation, cards and our surroundings….

 

I took along sketching supplies and some wine glasses and glass paint so everyone could paint their own glass.  Everyone had fun doing the glasses and I did a bunch of zentangles and a few sketches.  The sketches haven’t been scanned yet.

It was a great week, I feel blessed to have these women in my life.

Citra Solv and The New York Times

I promised Citra Solv that I would do  a mini tutorial on how I used its product to alter the look of the pages in the New York Times Magazine.  It occurred to my addled mind that some of you might also be interested.

The supplies I use… a squirt bottle, Citra Solv and the magazine. 

I know some artists use National Geographic and Citra Solv; however, the only magazine I’ve ever found to give me the results I’m looking for is the New York Times Magazine.  I need to do more experimenting with National Geographic.

I hang the magazine using clips on a small rod in my studio, a clothes line would also work.

If you use a clothes line you can lay the magazine out flat and spray each page, then hang it over the line.  I hang it like you see above and then lift all of the pages and begin lowering them one by one, spraying each and then let it drop.

I let them hang all day or overnight before opening the pages to see what I got, sometimes I hang it back up and spray again.  These are examples of the results from the one I’m spraying above.  Some of these I’ll leave as is, some I’ll spray again

 

I’ll use the resulting paper for collage, mixed media work and to cover wood frames. 

The Sketchbook Project

I signed up this morning after reading about the project on Diahn Ott’s Facebook page.  I’ve been a member of The Art House on-line cooperative for awhile so I knew about the project and every now and then I’d think, yes, I should do that because I do a lot of sketching.  Reading Diahn’s post and the interesting theme she got grabbed my attention again and this time I acted on it.  My theme is “In Five Minutes.”  Details about the project are here if you’re interested in participating or if you just want to know a bit more about it.  Once the sketchbooks are done they will be traveling around the country.  One stop is Chicago and I plan to see them when they are there.

I’ve also started a studio Facebook page, Helen Percy Lystra Studio, where I will be posting what’s going on in the studio.  Currently I’ve got three paintings in process and my mind is churning around two more.  I’ve agreed to do a water themed exhibit in March so that will be my concentration for the next several works.

These are reference photos for one of the paintings though I may not be able to put it in the exhibit.  This is “Pirate”  A Seawind Ketch that we sailed for 15 years.  She may have to hang here at home once the painting is done.

A Rusty Old Truck and Journaling

This rusty old truck was one of the images over at the wetcanvas weekend drawing event.  I love texture and old rusty stuff so I had to do it.  I’ve also discovered that I really like doing a watercolor sketch right over the top of my journal entries.  They aren’t covered up, it’s all still readable… if I don’t care if someone reads it.  If I do care a little gesso over the writing takes care of it and that makes for a totally different look that I also like very much.

These journal pages originally were just for my own pleasure and to be sure that I do make some sort of art every day no matter what else is on the docket.  I’m thinking that they might make nice note cards to sell on Etsy.  I may to more fruits and veggies since the flower season is pretty much done here in my corner of the world, except for the fall mums.

Meanwhile, I’ve also started two new paintings… here’s the drawing for one that will be a 16” x 16” watercolor.

More on that as the work progresses.

Wine Bottle Dolls

Last week I had a couple of my creative friends over for lunch and stimulating conversation that always happens when creative friends gather.  The next day I went to the opening of a new exhibit at the Gallery Uptown here in Grand Haven, more stimulation. 

Several weeks ago I had the idea that a wine bottle bottom might make a doll body so I asked a glass artist friend to cut a couple bottles for me.  Saturday I finally got around to doing something with them.  One is a garden doll with beer bottle caps for legs and a polymer clay head.  (I drink the wine but the bottle caps come from friends.)

 

The second doll is still in process.  I decided mid-dollmaking that she would be a bell; however, not having planned that in the beginning she has no way to hang.  That doesn’t matter to me since she’s the experiment.  I’ll rig some way for her to hang and I already have an idea how to do the next one so it can hang properly.

I’ve also decided to use both parts of the bottle next time… that way I don’t have to make a neck.

Today is grey and wet here so I plan to stay inside.  I’ll work on her and maybe even get started on a painting I have had sketched ready to do for a very long time.  It’s time to get back to painting.