Funky Medieval Village

This past weekend I was at an art retreat (the first one I've been to in the past year and a half).  I didn't finish any new work to post but I was asked about my "Funky Medieval Village" series, so I'm posting that.  They are all 6" x 12" on canvas.  The first one is called "Beginning", as it is the first one I did and I think it's pretty poor.

 "King David" is the next one and I like it.

This one is "Bird in a Gilded Cage" with a smattering of real gold leaf.  There are a couple more but I will put them in a separate post.

This is an  illumination from the DeCosta Hours that I want to share with someone.  The blog has been totally inactive because I had a house fire in October 2012.  Almost all my artwork was burned and I haven't been doing anything new.

Mezuzah Shrine

I really should take a better picture of this, as it looks much better in "real life".  I started this in a class with Laurie Mika several years ago.  Last year, it won a Director's Choice award (including small check) at a local juried show.

Anne of Brittany Lets Her Hair Down

April was really blah for me - I finished up some artwork but didn't feel like posting.  This is one of those pieces:

Another encaustic

This encaustic I started from scratch at Art & Soul and got about 90% finished in one class which is unusual for me.  I kind of want to call it "Pimping the Renaissance", as in "Pimp my Ride", but I have a feeling most people wouldn't get it, so for now I'll call it "Pink Renaissance".

Things from Art & Soul

A couple weeks ago, I was in Virginia Beach, at the Art & Soul retreat.  Things did not go real well in some ways but I did learn some useful things, got some work done and connected with other artists.  The most fruitful time was the 2 encaustic classes I took from Serena Barton.  (Her name has come up here before.)  I had started several encaustic pieces last August at CREATE Chicago but I wasn't happy or done with them.  I brought them along to Virginia and now I have a bunch of finished  works.

I'll start today with just 2 little ones - I have to do photos of the others:

These are a little bigger than ATCs, so they are called Little Princess and Little Mermaid.

Fairy Tail

This isn't a new piece but rather one I did before I started the blog.  I'm posting it so that a friend of mine, who moved to North Dakota can see it.

Twice in 1 month!

I said in my last post that I wanted to make dent in my pile of UFOs (Un Finished Objects) and here is another one! 

Carnival - the putting away of the flesh



This was started last April, in that class I took from Sarena Barton http://www.serenabarton.com/index.php
at Artiscape.  Some things just take a while to mature.

Goth Arches

I love gothic arches but I thought this picture should be about something more than just an architectural form.  Thus all the goth faces.  Most of them are from http://www.grandmasgraphics.com/index.php   a clipart site called Grandma's Graphics.

The final layer of gel medium did make it kind of soft and bumpy but I think some of that is some camera shake as well - I probably should re-photograph it.  Hopefully, I'll have some more work to post soon - I'm making an effort to finish several half-done pieces.

A Couple Christmas Cards

I am not much of a card person - while I used to send out store-bought Christmas cards to my friends, most of them didn't do that, so I didn't get many in return.  These days, about the only Christmas cards I do are handmade ones for the members of my paper arts group.  I want to be creative rather than bored, so each card is different.  Here are a couple from this year's bunch:

fabric collage

I started this in a class I took at CREATE art retreat in Chicago this summer, taught by Elin Waterston.  There is a picture of it as a work in progress in her blog:
http://willlovelogic.blogspot.com/

Tracks of India

Pearl Ex backgrounds

A Yahoo group for mixed-media artists, Cloth, Paper, Studio,is discussing art supplies one buys and then forgets what they were for.  Pearl Ex was mentioned and I brought up the technique of spraying dark paper (textured is best) with spray starch, sprinkling a little Pearl Ex and manipulating with a sponge brush.  Really simple!  I've scanned some of the papers I've done although the metallic sparkle doesn't photograph that well:

Back from CREATE

I didn't go to CREATE last year because it is scheduled so soon after Pennsic, but since I can't go to Art Is... this year (they've scheduled it with Saturday falling on Yom Kippur), I thought I'd give it a try.  The classes I took were interesting and enjoyable, but I didn't manage to get much finished.  However, during the Encaustic ATCs class, I got the materials and the advice to finish something I'd started at Art Is... last fall.

Elizabeth Regina

I also completed an abstract ATC in that class.

Back from Pennsic

I meant to post something before I left for 2 weeks to a large medieval re-enactment camping event, but there is so much to pack and so much to organize that I didn't get to it.  I did do some art work while I was there but didn't finish anything, so I will put up a picture from a couple years ago that is thematically appropriate.

Gothic Architecture

Okay, this isn't medieval

After titling this blog Medieval Mixed Media, the first new thing I have to post isn't medieval at all but based on the 1920s.  I made the background in a class that I took with Serena Barton ( http://www.serenabarton.com/index.php ) and added the lady in the lower left corner and all of a sudden, I was in the Roaring Twenties.

Jazz Age

First Post

Well, here it is - I finally have a blog!  I realize I'm at least 5 years behind the times and everyone else is doing social media now but I just wanted a place where I could post my artwork and have it easily available to friends all over the country or right here in Erie, PA.

Things may change, but I envision this as mainly a blog of pictures rather than a description of my home life, my travels or my cats.  I tend to work slowly so don't expect frequent posts - there will be a new one when I have something to show you.

This is called "Death Comes to the Magic Castle".  The background is acrylic paint, the castle is an inkjet print of the Victorian engraving colored with Pan pastels and the tree and part of the sun are made with Golden soft molding paste put through a stencil.  The skeleton figures are from an illuminated French manuscript on the Dance of Death, found online, printed and cut out.