a Pair of Pears for Artists Play Room

Jenn McClean, IA sister, friend, artist, blogger extraordinaire, and now a contributing editor of the new art magazine "Featuring", has another challenge for  The Artists Play Room this week  ...  "Pears".

I thought I'd use this challenge to see if i could do an 

abstract collage of pears.

Pears 1

&

Pears 2

Here's how i did these...  

*WARNING, Don't try this at home!*

Because i have no idea of the "proper" way to do this and wouldn't want to lead any of you astray!

(also color and quality of step by step photos aren't very good 

as they were taken rather hastily 

on the kitchen counter where i work)

I made "sketches" in acrylic paint on 

Strathmore Archival Acid-Free Premium linen canvas 246 lb. paper

casually painted the backgrounds knowing a bit of those colors will be seen under the upcoming layers of paper and paint

then i begin adding torn papers

more paint and more papers

still more layers, 

sealed with varnish

& finally trimmed the edges of the finished pears

I wasn't that happy with the 2nd pear, it was too "warm" and drab.
I also needed better contrast
so i added blue and a touch more white.
~

I have noticed that my method of work has been changing.
It is more loose and free. 

i have a vague idea of where i want to go and

allow the painting to guide me... 

 i am loving this new freedom!

BOOKMARKS! ~ Artists Play Room challenge

Jennifer McLean of Just Add Water Silly, and hostess of the Artists Play Room, gave us the topic.. "Bookmarks" for this week's challenge.

Now I have bookmarks that i painted in watercolors in my shop, but I wanted do try creating them in mixed media collage. Besides, for Mothers day, my daughter gave me a Dick Blick gift card and took me to their shop in Chicago. What i time i had selecting all sorts of gorgeous papers, it felt like heaven!! 

So by doing my bookmarks in collage, i would be able to play with & to experiment with the papers!

Darkness & Light ~ Artists Play Room Challenge

Jennifer McLean's challenge for this week's Artists Play Room is Darkness and Light.  I've been thinking about this all week and decided to do a landscape. The  challenge for me was having a strong sense of the darkness and light  (my weakest area) yet i didn't want it to be too harsh.

So I did an ink & pen landscape, then added washes of color. I really liked it but for this challenge i wanted to see what would happened when i enhanced it digitally.

 4x6 inches, Fabriano 140 lb Hot Pressed

Thanks so much for another terrific APR challenge Jenn! I loved doing it :D

Making Time for Tea - APR challenge

Jenn has a new challenge in her Artists Play Room, "Coffee & Tea"  and boy was this fun to do! In fact I had so much fun playing around that it was difficult to stop!

I didn't go with any of my usual mediums, instead it was all digital photography.

Thanks so much Jenn for this wonderful challenge!!

a bit o Green for the Artist's Play Room Challenge

The much long awaited Artists Play Room Challenge is launched today by Jenn McLean, blogger and artist of  Just Add Water Silly at etsy. To celebrate her Irish heritage, our challenge is "GREEN". 
So here is my entry.... lots of green grass and a sky of gold for the proverbial lucky Irish "pot o gold"!