Get Inspired! Vintage Gift Wrap and the Feeling of Neon Pink

Ever since a friend of mine gave me a few scraps of wrapping paper from the 1950's that she had found in a relative's attic, I've been hooked on the stuff.  I cant get enough!  I love using it in my artwork so much that I even bought a book about it and was even more inspired.  Nobody can do patterns and odd color pairings like the paper designers of the 50s, 60s and 70s.   I just love the bright colors, the bold patterns, and the thinness of the actual paper used, making it perfect for using in my mixed media background layers.  I thought we could all use a dose of color inspiration today.   Here are a couple of my favorites!

 Do these colors inspire you too?  I thought I'd turn one into a color palette for anyone to use.  I really liked this particular palette because it plays with primary colors with the bright neony pink on a background of mustardy yellow, something I would NEVER think to put together, and it just works beautifully! Try this one out in your next work or in your sketchbook or art journal.

I dont know what it is about the neon pinks in these papers that just make me so happy.  So here's hoping your day is feels like the color neon pink today! I've got the whole afternoon to work in my studio, so I know mine will!  What color does your day feel like to you?

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

Discovering My Vintage Side

It's Pinterest Day! I've been noticing a bit of an odd trend in my pins for me lately and thought I would share a bit of my sources of inspiration with you today.  You see something strange has happened to me this year.  I am becoming a vintage girl totally without my consent.  I was never attracted to "vintage" growing up.  The word meant "old" to me as a child and that we'd be buying my Easter dress at a thrift store instead of a department store.  Then later meant "country" while as a teenager as I watched my mother fill her home with "vintage" finds that made our rural home look like the decor of a Cracker Barrel restaurant (you southern interstate travelers know exactly what I am talking about).  I was totally against vintage...until now.

Now I find myself obsessing to find the perfect group of 60's and 70's bed sheets to make a quilt from.

Source: flickr.com via Harmony on Pinterest

Or I'm doing late night ebay searches for vintage newborn outfits.  They are just so precious on chubby baby legs!

Source: etsy.com via Harmony on Pinterest

I am also quite seriously thinking about starting a collection of vintage tea plates for my kitchen wall (yes totally Dolores Jane Umbridge style except less cats).

Source: etsy.com via Harmony on Pinterest

And I definitely am starting an obsession with vintage patterns and papers.  (I would love to do this to all my doors in my home with vintage wallpapers, some paint, and a sander).

Source: flickr.com via Harmony on Pinterest

I still cant quite bring myself to shop primarily at thrift stores for my own clothing, but I figure I'm taking baby steps in my transition to becoming a vintage type of girl.  Instead I fall in love with new lines of clothes in a vintage style, like these amazing tea dresses.

Source: etsy.com via Harmony on Pinterest

I am dying to donate all my matchy-matchy totally boring coffee mugs that I amassed from my wedding and start collecting retro cups and mugs to start my day out with some whimsy.

Source: etsy.com via Harmony on Pinterest

One thing I can say for myself is that I have always adored old books. I dont care if I ever read them, but I just cant stop collecting vintage literature.  I love the way they make my living room feel when they are filling my book shelves with all their stories both told and untold.

Source: etsy.com via Harmony on Pinterest

I wish I had discovered the gorgeous magic and fun to be had by wearing enameled flower brooches before they became so incredibly popular.  I mean have you seen those wedding bouquets made from collections of these vintage pins?  I'm only seven years happily married and am ready to have a second wedding just to carry one of those.  I just love the incredible colors found in these bobbles.  I might have to let them inspire a painting...hmmm.

Source: flickr.com via Harmony on Pinterest

And lastly to share with you today, I have recently realized that vintage metal hoops make every embroidery project I frame in them look a bazillion times more lovely.  I will never use another regular old wood hoop again.  I've been converted to vintage only.

Source: etsy.com via Harmony on Pinterest

Well, there you have it.  My latest obsessions and inspirations.  Are you the vintage lovin type?  What are your obsessions in the world of vintage right now?  Any particular finds you are most proud of?  I am just getting started in my discoveries and would love to hear from you pros.

XO, HARMONY

Is It Pinteresting? My Latest Inpirations.

 I recently got swept up into the Pinterest craze.  It's an easy one to get swept up into.  There are so many incredible photos that people are sharing there, that I can follow links for days discovering creative ideas, getting lots of inspiration, and finding new artists that I truly adore.  For those of you who havn't caught on yet, Pinterest is a virtual pinboard.  Almost like an etsy treasury or a Flickr Round-up but better, because you can organize your boards, keep adding for days, and any photo file on the web is fair game.  What I love the most is how each person's boards reflects glimpses into their passions, their hopes, and dreams, and their style, really you get a fun picture of who the person is (or who they would like to be).

Source: trishyrose.tumblr.com via Harmony on Pinterest

I also REALLY love that you can easily find exactly where the original image came from.  As an artist whose art images are flying around the web going who knows where, I think this is a brilliant feature to respect the work of original creator/poster.  Pinterest is not for everyone, though.  My husband totally does not get it.  He barely uses facebook and so this new social networking idea has totally perplexed him.  Try explaining what a virtual pinboard is to someone who doesnt really use social networking interfaces and see how silly you sound.  So we have this joke between us now, whenever he sees me clicking away on the computer across the table during our morning coffee time, he asks me (with a bit of a smirk on his face, mind you) "What's Pinteresting Today, Hon?"  To which I reply, "Oh my goodness, you should see this incredible yarn bombed tree!" or "look at the rainbow made of coordinated crayons" or "this is the most adorable baby bunny I have ever seen!"

Source: dailymail.co.uk via Harmony on Pinterest

At which point, he looks at me like I am nuts, smiles affectionately at me and goes back to checking sports stats on his phone.  So perhaps my overly manly man isn't my audience for this new found love of Pinning amazing images, but I have a feeling I am preaching to the choir here.  Any Pinterest groupies here?  Let's have a Pinterest party today!  Here are some of the links from my boards that have me swooning and brimming with creative ideas. 

Source: diedie.com.ar via Harmony on Pinterest

Source: fastcodesign.com via Harmony on Pinterest

Source: flairful.com via Harmony on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Harmony on Pinterest

  

Source: flickr.com via Harmony on Pinterest

Source: megduerksen.typepad.com via Harmony on Pinterest

Source: honestlywtf.com via Harmony on Pinterest

As you can see, I am having a bit of an obsession with fiber arts and color.

What do you find Pinteresting?  I would LOVE IT if you could post links to your latest Pinterest favorite find in the comments here.  I want to see a bit of your passions and dreams.  Oh, and not to be totally self serving, but I would be honored if you ever wanted to "pin" any of my photos or artworks to your boards.  It's a great way to get more people to see my artwork.  

Have a Pintastic Day Everyone!

XO, HARMONY

Discovering Old, Adding New... A Creative Photo Journey

We visited my brother and his wife a week or so ago to help them a bit with renovations on their newly bought house.  It was one of those bank repo-type deals, so there was a lot of work to be done to get the home ready for them to move in.  In all honesty, we spent most of the weekend playing, hanging out, and eating, but I promise that a little bit of work actually happened in there somewhere.  Here's some random pics I took on that day on the home site.  I was inspired by the shapes, textures, and patterns that could be found anywhere, even in an old and ugly house under construction.

And then there was this guy so focused with his baby sized-roller brush...

Speaking of Patterns, Colors, and Shapes, I am super super psyched to start this ecourse with Alisa Burke this week!  I am hoping to learn some new techniques and get more ideas for how to incorporate unique fabric that I created into my art.  Haven't heard about it yet? Watch this intro video she made for it and you may not be able to resist the fun.
beneath the surface online class from Alisa Burke on Vimeo.

Let me know if you are taking this course too.  I'd love to connect and share photos!

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

From Inside My Art Journal

I had a bit of time this morning before I had to leave the house for my clinical group supervision (an experience just as exciting as it sounds, I promise).  So I decided to crack open the new sketch book I had purchased and do some exploration.  I used to be such an avid Art Journaler a while back, but kind of stopped when life got so chaotic with toddler play, 2nd pregnancy, final clinical for my counseling degree, you know life stuff.  I've been feeling really guilty about it, since I am such an advocate for sketching and journaling as a healthy life process.  So today, I picked it back up and it was really fun to create with no expectations.  To motivate myself, I am going to commit to showing you at least 2 pages from my journal every week.  Here's a bit of what I did today...

Here's what it did look like when I thought I was done...

But someone thought it was too clean and this pudgy little hand sneaked in...

I looked at the other page and saw this... kind of a Sabrina Ward Harrison sort of feel dont you think? So I kept going and here are the finished pages...

The words came from thinking about my son and the intense amount of joy he brings to my soul with his unconditional love.  Any other Art Journalers out there?  What are you working on right now?

XO HARMONY