Art Nest Retreat part 2

The class with Misty was called Spontaneous Art and it definetly was. The goal being to get paint on paper immediately and just do it. She demonstrated on several paintings and it was a joy to watch. We used everything in our work. Paint, rags, gel medium, collage items, rubber stamps, stencils, rubber stamp re inkers, Shiva paint sticks, interference paints, twinkling h20's, watercolor crayons, craft punches to make stencils, even that 99 cent folk art craft paint. What this did was make me realize I can use up some of the old stuff I had for other crafts.

I have tons of photos of Misty demonstrating so I put them in my flickr account for those interested.














This was my first piece, it just a background I will probably ad something to it later.


















Then I did this small piece, it had been bigger but the gel transfer I tried did not work so I cut the paper down. I do like making smaller pieces.



















I tried her to go with a different color than I usually would and used the technique to make a silhouette. I may journal on the open space or add something else later, I know it needs something else but I am just not sure what.



















This piece I really liked, I loved this picture I found years ago and it was fun to use in this way.


















This last piece is the technique where you cut out a face and then paint over it. I had a hard time with skin color. She is all blotchy, I do plan to sand down her face and redo, but I still like her. Misty helped me with the arm but I think I need to put another one in and paint the hand.

These pieces were so much fun to do, I can not wait until I can do more of them. Let see if I can think of some other techniques. Misty uses unmounted rubber stamps. The ones that come mounted she pulled off their mounting block. They are easier to use with this technique. Just think about how much room that would save. The Uniball white gel pens are awesome, the are available here I used them to highlight the whites on the butterfly I used. I also like the stablio marks all pencil. We used those for outlining areas. They are available at Dick Blick.

A good transition to painting your own faces is to start with magazine faces that you have painted over, eventually you'll use different images and put them together and be painting your own faces from scratch. I like this ides cause it takes you from through a progression and helps you advance as a better painter. I saw Misty take two different images and put them together in a new way. I could see myself trying that too.

A real bonus was that Misty gave away one of her painting she made in class in a drawing. Julie one of hosts was the lucky winner. Misty also brought work for sale and there were some lovely pieces. I kept thinking about mine and how I really need to get it framed. When I was looking at the new stuff I kept thinking what was it about mine that I loved so and when I got home I thought oh its everything the face the bird the whole essence of the piece. For my new readers look in the archives for Feb 21, 2007 and you can see the painting. I think that is enough rambling for the day.