01 Tuesday Aug 2017
Posted in Art
Tags
100 Mandalas, acrylic glazes, acrylic paint, Art, collage, Mandala, Zentangle, Zentangle Inspired Art, ZIA
This summer I have been working on a large (30″ x 30″) mandala collage. You have already seen the background layers of the gessoboard. Here is a sample of the Zentangle patterned mandala pieces that I have been working on all summer. By the end of this week I hope to unveil the whole thing in a blog post of my process and the product. This is mandala 47 of 100.
19 Wednesday Jul 2017
Posted in Gratitude Journal
Tags
acrylic glazes, acrylic paint, Art Journal, Art Journal Every Day, Gratitude, Gratitude Journal, Journal, Let it be a dance
All of July so far has been captured in 2 art journal page layouts. There are a lot of layers in many ways in these pages. I hope you find some beauty or inspiration. I use my journal to practice affirmations and recognize what went well and what I’m grateful for from the day or week.
The background of this page layout came from my 50 small paintings endeavor that I worked on during Lent. I’m happy with how abstract the flowers in the vase turned out and I think they make a nice background for my gratitude journaling. I have been doing morning pages off and on for a while and I have gotten back into it recently. I have had a rough patch of depression and keeping track of gratitude is very helpful for me. I also have a quote from the Barbara Kingsolver book “Flight Behavior”
Her every possession was either unbreakable or broken.
The rectangle of wood on the right hand page is from a restaurant in Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. Turns out I’m really not a beach in summer kind of person. But the rectangle of wood is from a restaurant that is so popular that we were never able to get to eat there. I loved these business cards that are printed on a very thin slice of wood and so that is the memento that made it into the journal! We really did have a nice time camping with some friends, even when it rained.
These pages have a few layers of journaling and lots of glazes. I’m really becoming obsessed with acrylic glazes. The left hand page has 2 pieces of the large mandala I’m working on and trying to decide if I want to do a glaze or 2 over the top. Maybe I will assemble it without the glaze and post it to see how it works. The white writing on the right hand page is some of the lyrics from the song “Let It Be a Dance We Do” by Ric Masten. I go to a Unitarian church here and we sang this last Sunday and it resonated with me. Most Sundays we sing something that really touches me. “Without the dark there would be no light… Share the laughter, bear the pain.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3s1XkTZEos
This sketch is of some flowers my husband brought me while I was in the hospital. This is the inside cover of one of the journals I use for my morning pages. I plan to collage these pages when I finish the journal.
What are you grateful for this week?
13 Thursday Jul 2017
Posted in Diva Challenge, Zendala
Here is my Zendala for the Diva Challenge this week. It is Zendala 4 of 100 and mandala 46 of 100. I’m a little late in the week posting and its going to be a short one. I’m having some new health problems and have exacerbated some old ones, but I’m making art and checking blogs as I can. For more Zentangled Hearts see the Diva.
07 Friday Jul 2017
Here is my third Zendala, also known as mandala 45 of 100!
Can you see where I miscalculated? There are no mistakes in Zentangle® and it all worked out!
02 Sunday Jul 2017
Posted in Zendala
Tags
100 Mandalas, 100 Zendala Challenge, Art, Mandala, Zendala, Zentangle, Zentangle Method, Zentangle Tile
The Zentangle® tiles that have been created for drawing mandalas are called Zendalas®. They are die cut from lovely hot press watercolor paper and take the addition of shading and color so beautifully. The key to improving any skill is repetition and I have been participating in a 100 Mandalas challenge for a few years. These small Zendalas® are really rejuvenating my mandala drawing practice! I’m so excited to kick off my 100 Zendalas® challenge and I hope you will join, too!
01 Saturday Jul 2017
Posted in Art, Zentangle Method Class
Tags
art class, Artist Trading Cards, Certified Zentangle Teacher, Drawing Class, Zentangle, Zentangle Class, Zentangle Inspired Art, Zentangle Method, ZIA
Yesterday I met with the board of the Morris County Art Association and discussed class offerings. I will have 3 opportunities to teach, mostly Zentangle®, but I will have a one day workshop on making artist trading cards.
I will be offering an in depth 8-week Zentangle® Method class for each session. The first session runs from September 14 – November 2 and will be on Thursdays from 4:30-7pm.
What is the Mandala Meet Up? The third Saturday of each month from 2-5 pm we will meet at the Art Association Studio to create Zendalas®. Zentangle® patterns are used to provide a drawing meditation to fill the circle with beauty. All materials will be provided. Materials fee $5. Prices and full descriptions of the classes will be available on the home page of my blog. While I’m going to continue my 100 mandalas challenge, I’m going to try for 100 Zendalas® also. I’m looking forward to helping people create these little works of art.
26 Monday Jun 2017
I’m not much of a beach person in the summer. Crowds and traffic can trigger my anxiety and heat triggers my migraines and vertigo. So on my trip to Rohoebeth Beach with some friends my husband and I headed home a day early and stopped in Dover at the welcome center. The Biggs Museum of Art was a block a way and was having an Ansel Adams Exhibit.
I totally fell in love with this contemporary artist, Louise Gatanas.
I love the use of color and lines in this one, Nature’s Pulse by Marcia Reed.
They also have a nice collection of historical work.
The view of Broadway at the top left is a different take on the big apple. I am finding I enjoy the Hudson School of Art and, as always, the Impressionists. The painting on the top right is of Rehoboth Beach, DE. It didn’t look like this when we were there. There were hoards of people and not any green spaces. The boardwalk was interesting, if not my cup of tea. I didn’t take my camera to the beach because of concerns of carrying it in my increasingly heavy bag and sand.
Here is another lovely selection of Hudson School of Art and I’m not sure what category the flower box falls into, but I liked it. I think my favorite painting in this collection was the one of the trees.
21 Wednesday Jun 2017
Posted in Gratitude Journal
Tags
acrylic paint, Art Journal, Art Journal Every Day, colored pencil, Gratitude, Gratitude Journal, mixing paint, Prismacolor colored pencils, purple, Reticula, Zentangle
This page layout is a little bit of a mess, but that is because I’ve been doing so much work. I made a batch of Artist Trading Cards and included some leftover bits from that on the left hand page. These include my new business card stickers from MOO that I put on the reverse side. People love these as my business cards. It is like they get there own little piece of art. I love the stickers and I hope you do too!
The right page has a prototype of one of the pieces of my Draw the Circle Wide mandala that is under construction. I made a photocopy and painted it with gouache to test how it would interact with acrylic matte medium. No smearing or bleeding of colors and the colors turned out nice and clear. I think this is how I’m going to paint these sections. Part of the development for that mandala was finding just the right purple. I also used this layout to document all my new Prismacolor colored pencils.
It turned out that I needed to use magenta to get any purples that I liked. What was interesting was experimenting with Payne’s Gray as a blue. It also demonstrated that I have a lot of shades of blue and not as many reds. I may explore that further. Or maybe there just isn’t the same variety of hues. Do any of you know about that? In any case I used Ultramarine blue and magenta to make the purple for my iris.
Another feature of the right page of the gratitude journal entry was my playing with reticula in a mandala. What is a reticula?
It is a pattern that you put in a grid. Changing the orientation creates different meta-patterns. This was one of the really wonderful things we explored at the Certified Zentangle Teacher seminar I went to in April. There is a lot of gratitude for my husband in these pages, too. I haven’t used one of my stencils for him in a while. Maybe this week. What are you grateful for? What is new in your art practice?
I hope you have a beautiful day.
13 Tuesday Jun 2017
Posted in Art
I don’t generally post my photography on this blog, but I think I will share my art observations. This Chihuly exhibit at New York Botanical Garden was really wonderful and I recommend it to anyone going to New York City this summer/fall.
Some of my favorite blooms in the NYBG were made of glass at the Dale Chihuly glass studio. Like this one.
To see the rest of my post check out New York Botanical Garden Chihuly Exhibition.
Jeanette Clawson Art 