From My Art Journal: Playfulness and Acceptance

It's time to share a few more pages from my art journal.  The first two were my own, the second two are a collaboration between my 3 year old son and I.  I really love having him be a part of the creative play that I do each day.  He keeps me on my toes, and teaches me to let go of expectation and vision (which can often be stifling boundaries in the creative process.  Hope you enjoy them today!

 If there are any other art journalers out there, feel free to share any links to pages that you've posted lately.  I'd love to see them and learn a bit more about you.

There is still time to enter my sponsor giveaway this week! 8 incredible prizes for one winner! Click Here to Enter. 

XO, HARMONY

Blooms and Roofs: A Color Study

I've been experimenting in my sketchbook lately exploring color and pattern, working up the nerve to do some serious fabric design on my newly purchased canvas cloth.  I started with some loose sketching of flowers layered on top of each other on one page and then a repetitive pattern of house doodles on the opposite page.  I really wanted to play more with using bright colors against soft hues.  I watered down some simple craft paint and started to play.  Here are a few peeks of what I created in the end.

Dont they remind you of crisp autumn leaves against a sunset sky?  As I was painting the houses, I started to imagine a story about little costumed ghosts and princesses going trick or treating door to door.  Do they inspire you to try a bit of fall inspired art making of your own?  If you'd like to try working with this color palette, I made it super simple for you.  I isolated the colors that I created with and made a digital palette just for you!

As soon as I completed my pages, I left the room and my 3 year old son snuck in and picked up his own creative inspiration on the next page.  I was able to catch him on tape and interview him a bit on his process.  If you have a child, a childlike heart, or maybe need a bit more childishness in your creative world, I highly recommend that you spend the next 2 minutes letting him inspire you.

XO, HARMONY

Even A Three Year Old Can Do It: Painted Fabric Video

The weekend has begun! I hope that you are safe and sound and enjoying your favorite morning cup of whatever getting lots of creative inspiration for your days off.  I wanted to offer you a bit of fun, energy, and lots and lots of color today! (oh and a bit of rock and roll)  So for your viewing pleasure, here's my latest episode of Creative Play with my 3 year old son.

I needed to design some fabric for a project I will be showing you later next week, and it seemed like a perfect mommy and son art-tivity.  We taped a piece of white muslin to a plastic table, grabbed a couple of sharpies (BTW: Under 5yrs + permanent markers typically demands being outside to avoid the "accidental" inspiration on your walls).

Then when our fabric was entirely covered in our creations, we watered down cheap-o craft paint and did a watercolor play over the design.  The effect was gorgeous, lots of pretty mixing of color.  There was seriously no way to screw it up, which made it PERFECT for little helping hands.  When it was finished we hung it up to dry and Voila, ready to use fabric for lots of projects.

 There it is drying with the sunshine coming through, so pretty.  While it was drying, I started gathering up laundry to start a wash since we were already playing outside, and my son starts yelling "Mommy!" "MOMMY!" like something was wrong (but honestly right now, every bit of information he has to share is urgent to him, regardless of the reality).  I poked my head out and asked what he needed.  "Mommy! (still yelling like it's very serious) It's PRETTY! I LIKE IT!" pointing at our creation.  Sometimes he totally kills me with cuteness.

(FYI: This fabric is NOT washable, so you cant use it in wearable art.  To make it washable use fabric markers and watered fabric paint and then heat set).  I hope I've inspired you to try to try this project by yourself or with a little helper the next time you need interesting fabric for a project.

BTW: If you didnt see my post yesterday, right now I am on the hunt for some artsy/crafty/creative bloggin people that I can team up with, more information HERE.  Have a wonderful Saturday!

XO, HARMONY

Try It! A New Perspective in an Instant

The mommy-son team has been at it again.  Last night, right before bath time for my 3 year old, he asks me if we can color together.  Who am I to deny a creative inspiration moment for a silly thing like a bedtime routine?  So we pulled out a large piece of illustration board and my tray of soft pastels and had a glorious time!  Such a mess, such fun, I love those moments with him and am really aware that I have only 3 more months of just he and I before we add another set of tiny hands to our world.  When we finished and headed towards the tub, we had really started something interesting (it went way beyond pastel sticks at this point).  I had recently heard a tip for visualizing a piece differently by cropping into different areas and getting a new ideas from those details for a direction for the entire piece.  Since I had no real thought or idea for this work, I thought I would try it. 

I am officially in love with this technique for seeing things differently.  I totally know where I want to go with this painting now.  Try this sometime.  Take something that you are working on and need inspiration for, photograph it, and then crop into different areas and blow the images up! Instant New Perspective!

FYI: Just a reminder that there are only 2 more days to enter my giveaway for 3 hand stitched hoops, and I'd love to get more people a chance to take these little cuties home.  Click on the button in the top right corner to enter.

XO, HARMONY

Inspiration Through Messiness

I've been painting today! My son went out for the day with his dad, and I am soaking up every second of me time I can while they are away.  This of course means making lots and lots of mess in my art room.

I needed a creative jumping off point, and since I'd been so excited about this art book I just bought, I decided to start there. I've come to realize that abstract painting using bright bold colors mixed with different mediums and textures is really attractive to me, and as an artist still seeking her unique voice and point of view in my work right now, I am becoming really sensitive to what feels like "me" when I run into it.  So using some of the tips from the book, and my recent obsession with all things from this other artist/designer, along with a long running deep love for the work of this artist, I let my inspiration run wild.

I call it creative play, even though I usually refer to CP time as art making time with my son.  This was just me, trying to let go of my thoughts and expectations and just let loose my inner child.  It was happy play time just for me.  I video taped the first bit of it until my batteries ran out, but you get a really fun look at the process of mixed media work.  (FYI: a miracle occurred and the dead video camera decided to start working again, hooray!  It apparently just needed a week off to recover from its fall)

For this piece I used: paintbrushes, my fingers, and an ink roller to manipulate: water soluble pencils and oil sticks, gesso, block printing inks, black alcohol ink, distress inks, vintage photos, vintage wrapping papers, various fabric strips, painted tape, doily, gel medium, and archival glue on a cold-press heavy weight illustration board cut to 8"X10".

I LOVE THIS PICTURE SO MUCH!  It makes me really happy, from the bright colors, the contrast of the black ink, and all the yummy textures from the different materials.  I feel many more like this one will be created very soon.  I really feel like I am a bit closer to my goal of creating a unique and cohesive style and vision for my work through this piece.  We'll see where it takes me...

XO, HARMONY 

When Creative Play Turns Very Very Messy

Sometimes my creative play ideas are fantastic and sometimes they are just pure messy chaos.  (If you are unsure what the Creative Play Projects are, click HERE)  This last project turned out to be the latter.  Still tons of fun, but definitely not for the faint of heart when it comes to creating a giant dirty mess.  Usually I like to video tape my son and I creating together, and then post it for you to witness the pure magical chaos and fun, and perhaps give you ideas for your own artsy playtime (presence of a kiddo is definitely not required to have fun like this!). 

Yesterday's project started with a very organized set up, two tables in the yard, one covered in garbage bags with our "canvas" on it, and one as a work area for paint and cups and whatnot.  My very compliant husband cut and screwed together several different sizes of squares together for us to pour our paint on, and I had gathered a bunch of old cheap craft paint that I had been collecting over the years, and one bucket of very old white house paint found rusting away in the garage which we would mix with the colored paints to get the amount we needed for this project and create a soft color palette for the end piece.  

I convinced my hubs to video tape us as we played, and just as I was talking him through my vision for the cinematography of it, we heard a crash on the concrete patio.  Looking up we see a mischievous little monkey holding his sticker book which I had absently placed under my video camera on the awning shelf, which was now in pieces on the patio.  So no more video camera for me, I was so sad, but could only blame myself for such poor placement and lack of foresight.  But that didnt stop our fun!

So its a picture story for you today...  Here is our morning of mess recreating "The Art of the Pour".

ALL SET UP.  HEY WHO STARTED PAINTING WITHOUT ME?

MIXING UP THE COLORS, ALREADY COVERED IN PAINT

HE BECAME OBSESSED WITH CLEANING UP THE ENTIRE TIME

AND THE POURING BEGINS!

HE WAS NOT VERY INTERESTED IN THE POURING, SO IT WAS MOSTLY JUST ME AS HE WATCHED

ITS STARTING TO FLOW!

HE WANTED TO TOUCH IT AND I TOLD HIM HE HAD TO WAIT UNTIL IT DRIED.  SO HE STARTED BLOWING ON IT.

EVEN MY DRIPS LOOKED AMAZING IN THE PAINT RIVER

MY FAVORITE UNEXPECTED DISCOVERY WAS THE PAINT SPILL IT CREATED IN THE DIRT AS THE EXCESS PAINT DRIPPED OFF THE TABLE.  SO PRETTY!

ALL DONE!  NOW JUST NEED TO LET IT DRY (WILL PROBABLY TAKE A WEEK!)

I am super psyched about how this project turned out, and even though my son didnt end up helping me pour the paint, he had a wonderful time helping and getting messy and that is what its really all about, right?!  I'll show you a end result pic once it is dried and on the wall.  Here's a fun end result that I had to deal with after all the paint clean up was done in the yard.

TIME FOR BUBBLE BATHS!

XO, HARMONY

Mesmerized By the Art of the Pour

Sometimes the creation of art takes a force of nature.  I stumbled upon Holton Rower's Pour painting series this morning, and they absolutely mesmerize me.  I've been exploring the use of unusual color combinations and patterns to incorporate in my own work and the natural integration of vivid colors and naturally created patterns in these works definitely intrigue me and get me excited to try something new.  Here are a few pics of the creation of a HR Pour painting.

He apparently doesnt even do the pouring, he directs people to do it in particular timings, amounts, colors, a true director of the art making process but at the same time allowing his vision to transform and morph as all the different variables start to play out in the moment.  I want to be more like that with my own process.

I started thinking, maybe this would be a good Creative Play project for me to try with my son.   If you are new to my blog, I do an ongoing video series of art projects that I create in collaboration with my very unpredictable and energetic three year old son.  It is a lot of fun and tons of mess, but it teaches me to stay fluid in my vision for a piece of art and allow me to not stay attached.  So he and I are off to hunt through the wood shed to see what we can find for our morning mommy/son playtime.  (We just cant stop making huge messes together!)  I'll post the video of our work together tomorrow. 

Until then, you just have to watch this video of the creation of the HR Pour work that the pictures were taken from.  It is, as my son said when I showed it to him over breakfast, "so pretty!"  The process of fluid color flow is incredibly breathtaking.  Enjoy!

(all pics and video found HERE)

XO, HARMONY

Shop Update: 20% off Summer Sale

I'll be posting a shop update on Fridays to catch you up with what is new and available for purchase.
Here's some new pieces that are recently finished, now available in my Etsy Shop.  I am offering a 20% off sale now through the end of July.  Use Code JULYSALE20 at checkout to get the discount.

New Original Mixed Media Works

 Original mixed media painting "Waiting For Spring" $105 

(only $84 with discount) *all discounts are apx.

Paired with new mixed media embroidery piece "Find Magic"- $35  

($28 with discount)

"Inspire Me" 13" mixed media original with embroidery - $125 

(only $100 with discount)

"Waiting For the Rainbow" - 5" Mixed Media Embroidery Original - $53   

(only $43 with discount)

 "The wings to fly" 3" Mixed Media Embroidery hoop - $25  

(only $20 with discount)

Paired with my original painting "First Flight" - $55 

(only $44 with discount)

New Prints now available!

 "The Magic Dinosaur" block Print now available! - $48  

($38 with discount)

"Life of a Flower" 8X10 Print - $20  

($16 with discount)

"Self Discovery" - Original $85 

($68 with discount)

4X6 wood mounted block print - $25  

($20 with discount)

I also have several totally unique Art Journals Available!

"Dream Flight" 8X10 Mixed Media Handmade Art Journal - $42  

($34 after discount)

...and much much more to see in the SHOP.  

I'd love to have you stop by and take a peek.  This sale will only be going through the weekend, so if this peaks your interest, dont delay!  Have a safe and blessed weekend!

XO, Harmony