Lilies in the Pond

I am so very sorry it has taken me so long to post September's challenge - I overbooked myself these last two months and have struggled to meet my deadlines, this one included. I took a photo of this lily at my friend's home in her pond. I added a fish, for effect. I covered the canvas with absorbant medium after trying this technique in Lisa Kaus' class at Art and Soul. I then drew the design with pencil and colored the painting with Golden Acrylics. After the painting dried, I went back in and used Titanium White and water soluble crayons to heighten the color. I then waxed the surface and polished it. The wax does not photograph well, so the color is more muted in the photograph than on the canvas.

It was great meeting those of you I had not met in person before and wonderful to catch up with old friends at our Nature Gathered meeting at Starbucks. I look forward to our future challenges together, even more enjoyable now that I can put a face and a name together. Enjoy!

Art and image copyrighted 2008 by Jan Harris

The Hiding Place

Hi everyone.....sorry...I've had the artwork done since BEFORE Art&Soul and just plain forgot to post. I tried to stick to just flowers....then just leaves but it just didn't feel right for me. Trees and tree tops have always been a safe haven for me so I guess this piece just comes naturally if you'll pardon the pun. The quote written in the background is as follows....

To live content with small means, to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion, to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich, to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly, to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart, to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never, in a word to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common, this is to be my symphony.
William Henry Channing

Hope you've enjoyed this entry.....Bee.

Art and image copyrighted 2008 by Bee Shay

Columbine

Inspired by Art and Soul, I tried a different approach using Marshall's Photo Oils and water soluble oil pastels to hand color a photo. I used a high end 100% cotton rag paper for inkjet and sealed it with Hahnemule photo preserver. I used the diffused glow setting and sepia toning on the photo then colored it. What fun!

And thanks again Traci for a great class at Art & Soul!

Art and image copyrighted 2008 by Suzie Wolfer

Under the Canopy of Leaves

I like to take a daily stroll through a small park at the end of the street where I live. Sometimes I would stop in the middle of a group of trees and look up. This piece below shows what it is like to walk through the woods and enjoy the intricate patterns formed by the trees' leaves and branches.
Every time when I walked through this suburban park, I often felt like I was deep in the mountains or large forest. While many people would find it to be intimidating or too isolated, I enjoy going through the larger forests as I often find them to be peaceful or uplifting.

Art and image copyrighted 2008 by &rew Borloz

Flowers From My Garden

Background is fiber fused bits of fabric and yarns. The botanicals are from my garden. The tall light green/grey leaves are "dusty miller" and the flowers are petunias. I had pressed them so decided to use the real thing in my creation.

I used a purple fine point permanent marker to outline the flower petals and to make distinquishing markings where the petals had pressed over one another. Although the glitter looks silver it is really a very light pink glitter.

The tiny birds are punched from cardstock and glittered with the same pink glitter as the centers of the flowers.

I am at a loss for the name.

Art copyrighted by Marylin Huskamp 2008

Flower Power

For our flora challenge, I layered decorative paper, acylic paint, one of my line drawings and a collaged tissue paper flower. The flower is much brighter and a deeper rose color in person. I like the combination of line drawings and collage. I enjoyed getting to know many of you at Art and Soul.

Art copyrighted by Paula McNamee 2008

Flora by Cynthia Mooney

Art copyrighted by Cynthia Mooney 2008

Flora challenge

We're in the middle of remodeling our kitchen.I had a friend cut some pieces of the old birchplywood cabinet doors to use in this 8" x 8" challenge. It was heartbreaking to see so much of the great old wood go into the dumpster to be replaced with particle board and veneer.

My "Flora" piece began wilth previously prepared paper with a circle of free-form"iris folding." The petals were formed from old postcards and the whole thing was attached to the birch board with gel medium. I used my new digital camera to take the picture and I learned to get the photo out of my camera and upload it to Nature Gathered for the first time (mostly) by myself.

Art copyrighted by Judi Stack 2008

September Flora

Art and image copyrighted by Traci Donahue 2008

life is good when the task worth while

A million choices, or so it seems every time I work on a new theme. As I start to narrow down the number of ideas, other thoughts constantly flood my mind concerning each possibility I am carefully weighing.

It is definitely problem solving at its best, taking abstract and/or random thoughts and making something of them, making them tangible. It took forever for me to decide what I was going to do. I felt like I mulled this month's artwork over and over again before I finally settled on a direction.

Sunflowers were not my first choice. I arrived at this floral through a process of elimination from my choice of pattern. And to be honest, this particular pattern was also not my first choice.

My research for this piece began by looking through the pages of a large oversized book on the Quilt's of Gees Bend. If you have never seen these works of art I urge you to RUSH down to your local library or nearest bookstore and check them out. The quilts shown are beyond breathtaking! Even if you have no interest in fibers or fiber art, you can not help but be amazed by their patterns and color combinations. I always feel inspired by looking at them.

I started with full intentions of mimicking a Gee's Bend Quilt pattern, but fate stepped in and led me down another path. Several days before I began working on the piece, I happened to receive a retail catalog in the post. This particular catalog had a patterned pillow that I could not stop thinking about. From that moment, I knew I needed to follow my instincts and go with my own version of the pillow pattern. So, no matter how much I plan there are ALWAYS surprises along the way, where I change my mind or a opportunity presents itself, which I kind of like!

Using such a tall, leafy, repeat pattern also provided that perfect opportunity to incorporate the sunflowers as a believable flower that might appear on such gangly stalks. Again, I try to take the viewer through thoughts of what is real and what is pattern by blurring the line between the two halves.


Art and image copyrighted by Tracie Lyn Huskamp 2008

Forest Flora Fantasy

Here is my September offering to our challenge. It incorporates a leaf from one of my maple trees, twigs from a willow and recycled tin can and copper leaves.

I took a class, taught by Suzie, on playing with acrylics and that is how I painted my background. Using rubber stamps to stamp into gel medium and leaving wonderful impressions. I had already pressed and dried the leaf and then covered it in gel medium to make it more pliable. I cut and tied the twigs and then attached them to the canvas board and glued the heck out of them to make them stay. The "flower" is held together by small wires that are coming from the back and used as the stamens.

Enjoy!

Art and image copyrighted by Z'anne Bakke 2008