Inspiration Avenue's challenge & PostCard Swap UpDate

Inspiration Avenue's challenge for this week is "Art Journaling" and our hostess Maggie showed us so many beautiful examples of art journals, plus she included videos showing how some go about creating them!

I have an art "idea book" / sketchbook but haven't used it as an art "journal" and what's in there isn't even close to the examples of what Maggie showed us. However i decided to give it go.....

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And now for the 

Post Card Swap Up Date!

Only four arrived, I hope the fifth one wasn't lost in the mail! But here are the four that arrived and you can tell that each one was made with their own artistic flair!

I love each and everyone, & thank you all so much!!

This was the very 1st card that arrived & is so pretty! It's from Peggy Gatto !

A wild Bohemian w/ a 3D butterfly was created by a mother & daughter team, LiLa O!

Earthy & loaded with texture, "BE" is from Jeanet Annott !

This lovely creation is from my IA sister, Cindy & is decorated with tiny jewels !

Plus this surprise bonus from another IA Sister, Kim !

This swap was so much fun i can't wait for the next one ! 

becoming Brave HeARTed

At etsy where i have my little online shop, there is a new feature they'd like us to incorporate, called "about" (link goes to my "about" page). In this section we're to write what makes us tick, or how we make our creations. 

Despite my anguish about having to put down my philosophy, the exercise really was good for me. It forced me to seriously think about why i create. I thought of two artists that i admire and their outlooks. One, Russ Potak, said to "paint with abandon". Another, Kim Collister, a "sister" via Inspiration Avenue, talks about being brave and fearless. 

Courage

 I am trying to be brave enough to listen  to the voice that's deep inside trying to get out, not to hold back and be safe. Little by little, more and more, I've been listening to that voice and as i do i see my art getting more expressive, bolder and more abstract!

Andachten ~ Devotions

 I'm not sure where this heart is taking me on my artistic journey, but i hope to be brave and fearless on it!

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!

P.S. Postcard Swap!

The Inspiration Avenue's "P.S."  postcard swap is in full swing! Postcards are being mailed and postcards are being received, and good things are arriving daily!

Here are the postcards that i have mailed out. Three are going to IA sisters. These three cards all have something in common, they have a chickadee bird. What makes that special is that my sister-in-law gave me a very special birthday gift which was wrapped in gorgeous bird tissue paper. I love that paper & have saved it to use on special projects.  I thought this paper would be perfect for my IA Sisters postcards!

The other two postcards are on their way to South Africa and England.

So far I have received three and when all five arrive I'll share them with you right here! :)

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

Days of the Week - I A Challenge

Kim of IMGIRL, is hosting her first Inspiration Avenue Challenge, her theme, "Days of the Week" as according to the nursery rhyme.   We were challenged to create a piece of art that fits the description for the day we were born. Kim even included a link so we could determine that. :)

 Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for his living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

 It turned out I was born on a Wednesday.... "full of woe".

I tend to create more uplifting or even whimsical art & landscapes and rarely create anything somber, so this was a bit of stretch!  What kept going though through my head was the classic Spiritual... "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen, nobody knows but Jesus. Nobody knows the trouble I've seen; Glory Hallelujah."

I painted this with burnt umber ink and and a bit of Mayan Blue watercolor, on 5x7 Fabriano Hot Pressed paper.

 For this version I played around and digitally enhanced the color a bit .

It still isn't too late to submit your entry for the Inspiration Avenue's challenge, you have till Sunday noon!
Thanks so much Kim for this interesting & terrific challenge! I really enjoyed this!... oh maybe i shouldn't say that since i'm a woeful Wednesday child... revise that... it was a miserable experience! LOL  ;D

What an ART themed Week!

Wow this past week has been brimming over with artistic milestones for "The Expressive Palette"!
The first time my art was published, the first time my art was featured in a blog, and the first time i "hosted" an art challenge, all happened within one smashing week!


First, Jenn McLean, artist and blogger extraordinaire  of Just Add Water Silly,  did a feature on this artist and her art! She took me by surprised when she initially asked if she could write a feature about my art. It has been barely a year since I began my journey  back to art; and I am still finding my voice & my medium.  Yet Jenn wrote as if I am an established artist already. Bunches of thanks Jennifer for your generous spirit, talent and encouragement! You may read her feature here.

 Second, it was the very first time i  hosted the Inspiration Avenues Weekly art challenge. The theme I selected was art "Inspired by Words". We had twenty four awesome entries, making it very difficult selecting just one winner. In the end I selected a 3D piece of art by Angie called "Unwritten Poem".

Then, lastly, the magazine "Featuring" came out, and I'm in it! All of this thanks once again to Jennifer for asking me to submit a butterfly painting for "The Butterfly Project".  This project is for the Holocaust Museum in TX.  Jennifer wrote a wonderful article that "Featuring" published!

and on the back cover....

 :)

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!!

Foliage ~ IA's Team Challenge

Jenn from Just Add Water Silly, is this weeks hostess For the Inspiration Avenue's Weekly Team Challenge, and her theme for this week is "foliage".

Originally i intended to do a watercolor with lots of ferns and fiddle-heads that i am so fond of; however yesterday i changed my mind & decided to try this as a collage. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment in the process of creating this piece, and with each collage i make, i love the medium more and more.

Stormy Weather - IA Team Challenge

Inspiration Avenue's team challenge for this week was Stormy Weather. I'm late in getting to it, but here is my entry called "Storm's Brewing".  This is a Vermont scene with Camel's Hump mt in the distance.