And a New Year begins

Hello and Happy New Year!

 

I woke up on New Years Day and decided that I would spend most of the day painting and drawing,  totally guilt free, not worrying about all the Christmas messiness that surrounded me.  I thought this would be the perfect way to spend the first day of the year, doing what I love and also knowing that this was what I wanted for the rest of the year too.

And what a productive little day I had.  I need to do this more often.  I tend to paint a little bit here and there, whenever I can sneak it in, never quite getting into the flow.  So maybe my New Year's Resolution needs to be to commit to one day a week of nothing but painting and drawing.  A day where I can work without worrying about vacuuming or dirty bathrooms or laundry.  I think it might be a fun resolution to try and work on.

I've been thinking about taking Misty Mawn's  "Face to Face" with Mixed Media Art:  A study of portraits and beyond and I think that is how this painting came about.  This piece started with my usual coffee stained background and then I glued tea bags over the top of it  and it created a wonderful brown background with subtle tones and variations.   Her face was created with light colored tea bags, charcoal and acrylics.  Her hair from painted coffee filters.  Her dress is part coffee filters, tissue paper, gesso and charcoal.  

Fischer my son looked at her with a wrinkled up nose and said "she looks like she is from another country"  and I think he is right.  My niece left for Spain the day after Christmas to study for a semester, perhaps there was a Spanish influence? 

I'm imagining her partner with a big black mustache.

Happy New Year!

out with the old and in with the new.  new year's eve has always been a bit of mixed emotions for me.  i'm always a little sad  when i have to say goodbye to the old year, but it's also exciting to greet the new year and all of its possibilities.

right before Christmas i filled up my old art journal/sketchbook and began my new one.  it's always fun to start a new art journal/sketchbook.    a blank slate, endless opportunities and ideas just waiting to be put to paper!   a little intimidating, but always exciting.  it took me just over a year to fill my last journal/sketchbook.  this seems like kind of a long time to fill it up, so one of my new year's resolutions will be to draw more. my art journals are just like the old year, it's always fun to look back on them and see what has happened over the year.  the pages of my old journal are mostly filled up with pictures of girls, lots and lots of them.  the first page of my old journal started with many sketches of girls faces and  while getting the photos ready for this blog post, i realized that i did the same thing on the first page of my new journal.  hmmm, what does that mean?  i'm not really sure, but i wanted to practice drawing faces from different angles and it just happened to be the first page of the journal.   i can't say that i see much of an improvement in my drawings, but i think i'm starting to see my own style start to emerge which is exciting.  all of this only reinforces my resolution to draw more.



i welcome this new year and all that it has to offer.  it's time to bring on those new year resolutions and new goals.  it's time to open up an etsy shop,  it's time to be more confident and brave with my artwork,  it's time to become a better writer and blogger, while still finding time to create, and with time i hope to become a better listener, a more patient mother and wife and organize my time better and finally it's time to open myself up to more friends.