Mixed media canvas and bits of nonsense

I started this blog on 1st January 2011 and the New Year is always a time to reflect on the previous year. I often think back to what I've achieved in my art work over the year and also take the time to read what I've written in this blog. I have not done much this year but I realise that there are some things I haven't loaded up here so I'll take that opportunity, for my benefit really! Also, reading through my blog I see I've mentioned things in my life that have not come to fruition. I thought I would address that here. That may get a bit personal so if all you want to see is art work, let's get that out of the way first and then you can decide if you want to read further.

A lot of my quilting work more recently has involved some surface design. I love messing about with stuff on fabric. I've been watching YouTube videos on art journals and mixed media techniques and decided to give some doodles a bit of a go. I had a small spiral bound notebook already so that determined the size, 100x150mm or about 6" x 9".

Here are the ones I made from Dec 2017.

Unfinished until I find my inktense blocks!

And then a whole year later, I made another one. I stamped the birdie with brown ink which didn't show well on the gold paint. So I stamped it again with black ink. Now the idea is to slightly offset the stamping for that 50s look. It just looked like how I see when I have a migraine! I tried again with slightly different colours and this is more of the look I was going for. I prefer the little branch I drew rather than the inked ground.

This was inspired by this video from Kim Dellow. There is so much inspiration out there. My question to myself is, why don't I just go for it. This didn't take long, turned out wrong and so I did it again. No big deal, right? I don't know what I'm going to do with them but that's not the point. The point is to be creative, even if it's only copying someone else.

The beginning of 2018 was incredibly busy. Sue and I used to be part of a Caribbean steelpan band in Auckland. Sue now lives in Waihi and I live in Tauranga, about an hour from each other. She is a very talented crafty person. We were asked to design five different costumes for a carnival parade and then organise and help make 20 of each. So 100 costumes in total! I'm going to do another post about that. I thought I could cut it down to 5 photos but I can't!

I did start and finish one complete art piece in 2018.

This mixed media canvas started with a base of stamped tissue. The metres and metres of fusible web I bought for the costumes came with tissue between. It has green writing on it but a great mixed media resource all the same! Then I've stamped, stencilled, added modelling paste, sprayed and painted. The image was from a magazine. The stamping on her cheek was done using a meat tray from either PacNSave or New World. I can't remember which but it's not somewhere I shop often. Lovely texture! Then I've added scrapbooking doodads and gold and white acrylic paint pens.

That's all the art work. Now, what has been going on in my life...

You know what, I wrote a whole load of crap and then decided that it wasn't me anymore. Why talk about what went wrong. Here's what has gone right in bullet point form.

• Mum and I moved to Tauranga 3 years ago.
• I bought a house just over 2 years ago and Mum lives very close in a lovely retirement village.
• Fox was born in Dec 2016. I've put a couple of photos of him up here already.
• I adopted a retired racing greyhound. Paris is just the most gorgeous dog and is getting me out and about. She talks to everyone at the park!
• I started singing with a choir, the recently renamed Scholars Baroque Aotearoa. This has been incredibly challenging but also a lot of fun.
• I've been at my new school for three years now and this was the first year I didn't try to leave! Ok, that's a bit of a downer but I'm actually looking forward to teaching with a new team next year. So that's good news.
• I'm feeling a lot better on the health front and finally managing to lose weight. I got a new fitbit for Christmas, a Charge 2, and discovered that I'm fitter than I thought I was. I've got a very fast recovery rate. That made my day!

I still love fabric and quilting but I've just found it really difficult to get back into it since the move down here. However, I am enjoying the mixed media art and I have ideas about how to put the two together. I'm looking forward to being more productive this year.