Wild Art Summer...

For many months I have been yearning for a new online class that would rock my world creatively... one that I would adore working on... hardly able to wait for the next installment...  I have searched and searched... and for this time... I am so thrilled to have found it~  Junelle Jacobsen's delightful Wild Art Summer.

I have loved painting since I was very young... painting in oils, acrylics... and dabbling with watercolors... Watercolors make me soooooooo happy... with their yummy, transparent, etherial lusciousness...but it is quite a tough medium to master... I cannot say I have mastered it... but I ADORE the challenge of this online class.  Junelle is a fabulous teacher, and I am learning so much...  the perfect lazy days of summer diversion.

I sketched and watercolored the entrance to my own dear cottage...

Weeding my garden...both physically and emotionally is such a special exercise for me...

Watercolor palettes show the quintessential dreaminess of summer colors...yummmm~

Love love love the wildflowers of summer... such special specimens for sketching and coloring...

Ahhhh... the coneflowers...

Where flowers bloom...

...love's truest language...

... true happiness...

oh... how I love the cosmos...

at the edge of the petal...

still sketching, coloring...practicing...

with acrylics ... learning to "blossom"....

Awash in nature's watercolor magic

Awash in the watercolor magic of nature... I have already filled my first little nature sketchbook...  With my obsessive personality, I find myself totally immersed right now in simple little sketches on gessoed book pages, watercolored and mounted in this old book.  

In most recent days, I have been sketching my ever-favorite birdies...  I collect pictures of these magical creatures and I love trying my hand at sketching them.  The birds are more of a challenge for me than the flowers... but I am forever drawn to them and all they symbolize.

The lesson of being the early bird is one taught me by my mother.

Listen to the music~ nothing like the sweet songs of the birds.

My final spread in the little nature sketchbook holds a thought I love...

As I write this post, I'm waiting for some summer sketches, freshly watercolored, to dry, so that I can do my pen and ink work on them...  A vintage book, in softest "Baby Jane blue" is waiting... ready to hold these fun, new summer dreams...  I hope your summer dreams all come true... 

Enthralled with nature and watercolors

Lately I have been enthralled with sketching natural elements and watercoloring my sketches~

The cover of my nature sketchbook features a rusty slide mount, cut out words, and flower sketches on watercolored canvas.  The thrifted book is the perfect home for all my splattered sketches and other elements.  

One of my favorite things is to cut out random words from a discarded large print book.  I keep a stash of those words in a box and when I'm ready to create... I spill out words and see what speaks to me... what connections I can make... almost as much fun as the sketching and coloring...

Another way I find inspiration is from wonderful, meaningful quotes.  I adore matching those favorite quotes with my art elements. Thumbnails of my photographs are a natural compliment to my drawings.

The photographs are of flowers and plants from my very own garden.

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."

"Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature."

"Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart."

"Seek not outside yourself~heaven is within."

My fern sketch from last time is now colored and splattered... with a message for you~  CELEBRATE-

My new nature journal/sketchbook

I'm taking a wonderful online class with the delightful Junelle Jacobson~  Her authentic passion for the playfulness of art is absolutely contagious... and I definitely caught the bug!  I have repurposed a yummy old book, altering it with torn out pages and slathered gesso... I hope not to offend any of my book-loving, purist friends, but it is such fun to give new life to an old book... I just love it~

My sweet pal Kristi and I had a blast plundering through the stacks of old books at our local thrift shop.  Kristi, with her good eye, helped me find four "jewels in the rough"  to transform into new avenues for art play...

One of the books had tiny little flowers on it in yellow and orange... the perfect backdrop for my nature sketchbook. 

My title page inspiration came from a newly fallen oak leaf from my yard... sketched and colored, with touches of "baby jane" colors, of course!

Everything I see on my walks outside with Buttons causes me to stop, look closer and perhaps bring in  tiny specimens from the yard to observe, sketch and watercolor.  That practice, in and of itself, has such a calming effect on my spirit... Being one with nature is such a spiritual experience for me.... helping me always to be grounded.

Before the pounding rains of earlier in the week, I had cut a few roses, placing them in a darling vase given to me by my sweet friend, Ille.

Looking at them in my garden window gave me the inspiration and courage to get out the sketchbook... a bit rusty for sure... and just start sketching and coloring...  what fun it is... imperfect, yet rewarding...  sketched and painted right atop a gessoed lunch sack...

Photos I snapped during the peak of our azalea season gave an unexpected "pop" to my book, too.

My ever-favorite crape myrtles are budding with tiny tinges of red on the ends... so sweet and tender...

New growth... what we all need in every season... in every year... I know I need it, for sure...

Art is a journey that truly helps me find my new path of growth... I'm always looking for it... and when it comes, I am deeply grateful... always grateful... 

That little fern frond is calling my name... I have a penciled sketch, just waiting for the watercolors to dance upon it... ahhhhhhh..... art bliss...

Back to some creative play~

I've been in a bit of a creative lull lately... I guess we all go through those times now and then.  The last few days I have been back to the art table, thanks to a new class I'm taking on collage.  My art table started out with a pile of papers, stamps and paint~

One of my favorite things in all the world is to escape slathering layers and layers of gesso, paint, stamps and rub-ons... Oh, Be still my heart!

The papers I chose dictated my color palette... all the baby jane colors... I just fell in love with the effect.

This may very well become a journal cover or another piece of art that I will enjoy for many days to come.  

The quote is a special one for me.  How fun printing on my Ingles grocery bag!!!  

Do something out of the ordinary this week.  You may be surprised at how it will perk up your day~