Palette and large brushes

The concept behind this technique is to simply help you loosen up…you use  a lot of paint and NO water (you clean your brush with  lots of paper towel).  By a lot of paint, I MEAN ALOT…you go through tubes of paint!  At first,  this was a little painful  for me, since I still have paint from college ( I graduated in the late ’80′s) but then after awhile, using gobs of paint  was liberating!  Rather than (traditionally) mixing color on a palette and then applying paint, (see below)

Traditional Palette

with this technique you use a limited palette, and mix the paint right on the canvas in as few strokes as possible. The results, I think are unexpected and REFRESHING! Below are three studies that I did after my trip to the farmer’s market.

Zucchini and Onion...what's for dinner

Can't get enough Zucchini

Don't forget the tomatoes!

My water cup, AFTER I painted the Tomato Study

Although these studies were supposed to be about Viridian Green, as you can see…in my world there is no such thing as studying one color. When observing color, you can actually see a myriad of color. The real key, is well, NOT TO BE AFRAID TO  USE THEM! Ok, now that  I gave away my biggest secret…:)
Harry Chapin  eloquently stated this idea in  his song “Flowers are Red” . …”there are so many colors in a rainbow, so many colors in the morning sun, so many colors in flower  so let’s use every one!”…

No shameless plugs this time…but if you want to go to my etsy store, that would be great ! http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6387043&ga_search_query=anothercreation&ga_search_type=seller_usernames

May your days be filled with color! ~’Til Next time, Michele

Color for 7/25

A shade of green..with some blue in it. Not quite Viridian, but an interesting color none the less.
While I was biking with my family in the Green Mountains of Vermont a couple of weeks ago, I came across a pile of slate, that was just begging to have an image painted on it. So I picked up a piece and continued on my way. Then came another surprise. See below

Cow and a shirtless farmer on the bike path

A Cow on the bike trail.  I am not sure what was funnier, a cow that would not MOOVe (sorry for the pun) or a shirtless, shoeless farmer chasing after her!
Well lucky for me..Green was a primary color in this shot, so only time will tell what direction the next post will go in.
Below is the painting that I created on the piece of slate that I picked up.

Vermont Landscape on Slate found in VT

Side view of the multiple layered rock that I found

No shameless plugs this time for my etsy store. Only one last photo of a (green, of course) leaf.

Who knows what else I will find !

Paint set-up

What can I say?  Some people never learn.
One beautiful morning I decided to gather my supplies and paint outside…an activity that I usually only do when I am on vacation. This summer, I don’t have any big vacation plans.  This was one of my “staycation” days…and I decided to go for it.  Next on the agenda, was to decide what to paint…I still wasn’t satisfied with my exploration of the color of the moment, rose/melon.  The sun was shining brightly, and I ran to the freezer. I was going to give the ice pop another try. If I paint fast,  I would be  hopefully be able to capture the subtle nuances in the colors of the pop. Below is my first study.

Ice Pops

Melted ice pop

All kidding aside..I knew the ice pops would melt, I was looking forward to the challenge of painting them during their change of phases from a solid to a liquid !

Ice pop card

This card was created from the first study shown above. I printed it onto cotton fabric, and then did some thread painting. I mounted the image on repurposed denim and added the tag “I’m melting”.
Now for the shameless plug. This card is available in the handmade greeting card section of  my etsy store:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=28161093

If you purchase this card, and mention my blog in “a message to Seller”, then you will receive a COLORFUL Surprise with your card!

May your days always be filled with color. ‘Till Next Time! ~Michele

What was left of my watermelon still life

As I continued to examine the color of the week (well now it looks like it has become the color of a couple of weeks ) rose/melon, I decided to do a study of a watermelon. I cut the melon, and arranged the composition on a plate.  I left what was a still life to me, but a delicious looking snack to my 15 year old daughter. I went up to my studio to gather some supplies, and I heard her say that she was hungry. Of course I gave the usual reply of “I’ll be right there..” which was not really true. After checking email and various other things, I unintentionally, didn’t come back for a good 1.5 hours. Well, that should teach me! You guessed it. My still life was..well… all but devoured.  She did say it was delicious! Above is the drawing that I did of what was left of my still life.

I took the image thay I created and turned into..(you guessed it!) a one of a kind greeting card. See below:

Water melon card

I took the image and printed it on repurposed (new word for recycled in the art world) white fabric. I then bleached out some areas to get a nice thick white outline. After that, I went in with some paint to redefine areas that had gotten a “little soft” during the printing process. After that, I did some thread painting  and to finish off the job I mounted the image to a piece of repurposed denim. The tag in the left corner says
” Sweet Memories of Summer”. This image is suitable for framing!  Now it is time for the shameless plug.
This greeting card is available at my etsy store in the handmade section. Here is the link:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=28160232

If you mention my blog in a “Message to the Seller” you will receive a SURPRISE with your order!
May your days always be filled with color. ‘Till Next Time ~Michele

Ice Pop B-Day card cover

Now for the shameless plug. This card is available at my etsy store in the category of handmade greeting cards.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=28159018

May your days be filled with color. Till Next Time! ~ Michele

color for week of 7.1 ~ Rose

Since it was finally starting to feel like Summer, I decided to do a sketch of an ice pop…it kind of took off on its own (the way most of my art usually does) and became this:

ice pop illustration for the color "Rose" or Acra Red with a tint of white

I think that it is begging to become a handmade greeting card. I will post whatever happens to this masterpiece, it may wind up in someone’s mailbox in the not too distant future . My goal this week is to do a bunch of short studies of rose/melon colored things. Stay Tuned! Have a happy 4th! ~Michele

Final version of my lemon (yellow) study

 Here is a close up of the painting.

close up of painting

This original painting is available at my etsy store: http://tinyurl.com/ckabsa (look for original art)

 Here is the “one of a kind” handmade greeting card (blank inside)

Thanks for stopping by, until next time! ~Michele

This week's color for inspiration is checked

For those of you who are familiar with my work, the images that I create will probably be some sort of mixed media collage.  All of the images and their various forms will be for sale at my etsystore, anothercreation or http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6387043. Below is my initial study of  lemons. Tomorrow I will post the changes that I made to piece. Come back…I think that this is going to be a Colorful adventure!

First study of lemons