Spring is Here!

Good morning, good morning!  Spring is finally here!  Everything is in glorious bloom (almost everything).  It is still very chilly and we are having our share of rain, hail and bits of snow but the sun is starting to win out over it.

It has put me in the best mood and I have decided to go forward with my plans for my organic garden.  It's all very exciting for me even tho it will be a ton of work.  I had a landscape contractor meet with me yesterday to give me some pointers and to help me realize this dream.  It will be a small garden but for me it is a huge step in furthering my dream.

The biggest excitement of all is the new barn like art studio I am having built next to the garden.  I have already been flea market shopping to find fun things for this project that aren't expensive.  My budget is pretty tight so I scoop up inexpensive vintage finds when I can.  The pickings are pretty slim here but that's o.k. I have a lot of junk already, lol!

As I work on redesigning this blog, I will share progress reports and of course, new art.  For my art offering this blog post, here is a photo of my mixed media garden girlie I have framed for my studio wall.  She's 11 x 14 inches and I think I used a bit of everything in my studio supplies to create her.

I started with 300 lb. watercolor HP paper and collaged the background with bits of decorative papers, acrylic paint and gesso.  I did her face in color pencil and her hair in watercolor pencil.  Her dress is scrapbook paper, the collar is a paper lace doily and she has a fabric flower at her throat.

Well I'm off to fill my hanging basket by my front door with red geraniums.  I hope they will be hardy enough to last through the next few Spring storms.

Enjoy your Spring arting and maybe add a bit of dirt to the paint under your nails! (We will be twins!)

Forever in art,

Jessi

Longing For Spring

As I sit in my studio looking out at the gray landscape I can't help longing for Spring.  Spring with her bright new cheerful colors and fresh promises of sunny days is all I can envision as I continue to work on my Garden Girl journal.

Here is my offering from the journal for this weeks post...

Not sure sure why my camera doesn't pick up the true colors in this spread.  The background should be a beautiful soft aqua and the faces not so gray.  Might be the fact that Spring is not really here yet and there is no sun or warmer light when I take these photos.

I did the faces first in colored pencil and watercolor pencil.  Then I collaged the dresses and flowers on, worked over them in colored pencil and then gessoed the background and used a bit of acrylic layering over that.  The spread is 12 x 18 inches.

Hope you enjoy my touch of an early Spring!

Forever in art,

Jessi





Garden Girls

Hello Blogland!  It's been so long since I've posted it's embarrassing.  I just got so discouraged with Blogger freezing and deleting my followers.   If I am able to get back into the groove I will be starting a new blog site so that I can have followers again and know my blog friends are out there!

So here goes...  I've been arting like crazy all this time I have been away from blogworld.  Most recently I started an art journal called "My Garden Girlies" and here is a photo of one of them.

Garden Girlie from 1st Spread

She's done in a mixed media 9x12 art journal and rendered in prismacolor pencils.  The background was done with watercolor crayon and gesso over stamping and her dress is mixed media collage with colored pencil.  The paper buckled so I'm not too happy with the journal.  I should return to my hot press Fabriano watercolor paper I love so well but alas, I have started this one and will try to see it through.

Just to catch you up on the last 6 months or so, Mom's doing very well and so am I.  I spent a good part of my Summer and Fall organizing my house and garage and I'm still not finished - no big surprise there!  

The studio got re-organized too but is currently in a state of messiness.  That's because there is so much arting going on!  Ha!  Part of my issue is a rather large acrylic painting I started in the Fall that I haven't quite finished and seem to be a little disinterested in at the moment.  Of course it's another fairy.  I will be sharing her when she is finished - and that will be soon I hope!

My art is continuing to be a huge part of my life and realize it's growing larger and larger in importance to me.  I have started branching out into different mediums and subject matters although  fairies and mermaids are always making their enchanted presence known in my journals and canvases.  They seem to come to me most when I'm arting in my magic chair or prowling about in the forest and braving the cold windy Oregon coast.

They never cease to ease life's stresses for me and I will continue to share them here on my blog.  I hope they will ease your path too!

My song pick for the studio this week was:

Rascal Flatts - Life is a Highway

Album - Me and my Gang

Forever in art,
Jessi

Finale - Summer of Enchantment

Hellooooo!  It's our finale week of Summer of Color 2. For this last week Kristin has chosen the ice cream colors from BR's watermelon sorbet with chocolate chip seeds. 

To round out my theme "Summer of Enchantment", I've decided to share Little Red Riding Hood in my altered book journal.

I will be adding writing to the spread but of course I haven't been able to get to it yet,lol.

I must say I had a lot of fun with this years' challenge and I thank the lovely Kristen at Twinkle Twinkle for her hosting and organization of this very popular challenge.  Will she continue with it next year?

To you my readers, I have loved and appreciated your comments and hope you have enjoyed my content.  I must admit I was extremely busy during this time and was not able to visit all of you and thank you personally yet.  But never fear, I will get to you all!  I have to see everyone's entries and I need to pop by your blogs even if you didn't participate.  I miss you all so much!

I will be continuing to post along this Enchanted Summer theme and will be sharing painting in the future as well.

I am having to re-organize the studio once again.  Whew!  What a mess, lol!  At least it shows that I've been doing something in there.

I've got some exciting ideas to work on rest of the Summer. Hope to share more later.

Music in the studio this week was Pink!, Funhouse.  I really love "Glitter in the Air" - I never tire of it.  I also "spun" the Dixie Chicks, Fly.

Keep your personal fan pointed AWAY from your mica pigments and keep those pencils and brushes moving!

Forever in art,

Jessi