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Showing posts from 2012

Tomorrow is the Last Day to Vote in the Fabric8 Design Contest

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  Tomorrow is the last day to vote in the Fabric8 design contest sponsored by Spoonflower and Robert Kaufman. I am so excited my Butterflygarden collection has made it to the finals! If you don't mind taking the time to vote for my collection (or one of the others), you may go here to do so. Learning to do fabric repeats has been a steep learning curve for me, but I'm getting the hang of it. I guess my background in graphic arts is coming to the foreground as I have found I really, really enjoy doing surface design.
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Here is the link to my profile for the Fabric8 Finalists in the contest sponsored by Spoonflower and Robert Kaufman. Voting will begin June 7th and I will post a link to the voting location here. I'm working, working, working to come up with the 7 additional fabric designs to compliment the Butterfly Garden entry. Tiring but very fun and addictive! Keep your fingers crossed and send me inspirational and encouraging thoughts, please! Best, Linda

Fabric Design - Trials & Tribulations

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Butterfly Garden - fat quarter Wowee Zowee! I can't believe it. I have wanted to design fabric or try my hand at other surface designs (wallpaper, giftwrap, etc.) but, I have been struggling with seamless repeats for patterns. My original art education did not include computers and that has been a learn-on-the-fly experience for me. I have been aware of Spoonflower for about a year. They provide beautiful fabrics by fantastic independent designers and you can upload your own designs to be printed as well. The site includes designing tools and lots of friendly online and other assistance. Spoonflower sponsors weekly design contests and I thought that I would enter one about a year ago. (I have found that competitions are good for my productivity. The deadlines and parameters help me stay on track despite my natural ADD tendencies to fly off in a million directions.) Well, after numerous attempts to create a design and have it duplicate without looking like it was a creatio
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Yea!!! I was thrilled to receive word today that I've been juried into the Art & Conservation 2013 Our Hidden Treasures event. Through a lottery I have been assigned to a ranch in Comfort, TX where I will visit 2 - 3 times over the next 12 months for reference material in creating artwork for the 2013 event. I am really looking forward to participating in this. I love nature - and of course, art - and the combination of the two helps preserve what is so difficult to preserve. I used my "Beauty Beneath" colored pencil painting which is based on the cypress trees from Camp Verde to apply for inclusion. http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fcibolo.org%2Fnode%2F1795&h=qAQEqwjsR
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Fun with zentangle-inspired images continues. I created this little 4.5x6.5 piece with colored ink. I can't resist experimenting with new materials and ideas. I completed a larger colored pencil piece yesterday that is unusable. I will post it as a "learn from your mistakes" item later. Have a blessed Sunday! All the best - Linda
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I continue to find zentangle-inspired images relaxing and fun! There are many sites on the web where you can find ideas for designs to incorporate into your doodling. I like to work on these while my hubby is driving - though unexpected bumps result in a few squiggles here and there. I've begun including color in the images and like how it pops. I hope to get more sophitiscated in the use of the doodles and size of the marks to help create depth and shading within the images. Update on the artwork in the previous post: "Wrong Turn" - is SOLD. Prints may be available at a later date. All the Best - Linda

Wrong Turn

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Here's a colored pencil painting that I finished yesterday. It's 22"x16" on Stonehenge. This past summer an artist friend commented to me, "You like art that tells a story." I had never thought of that before, but perhaps I do. I very much enjoy doing representational still lifes and landscapes, but I suppose when I do something that is totally created from my imagination, it does tell a story. I often have the title of a piece in mind before I start on it, so I guess that figures in, too. This one is titled "Wrong Turn". Sometimes purchasers want to know what I was thinking when I created a certain piece. I don't mind sharing, but I prefer for the viewer to have their own story. If I tell them mine first, I feel it limits what it can be for them. Most of us have made a wrong turn or two in our lives, and I hope that idea doesn't cramp your story when you consider this image. 

It's an abalone shell...

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Here is the finished (I think) artwork with the abalone shell that I was working on in the previous post. It was a lot of fun to do and I'm already off on my next colored pencil painting. I hope to have it finished by the end of this month so that I can enter two of them for the jury process of the Colored Pencil International exhibit. Only one piece per artist can be selected, but I figure having two will double my chances to get in. I would really like for that to happen so that I can get my 10-year merit status. Back to the drawing board...

What is it?

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This doesn't look like anything more than a bunch of squiggles, right? When you look up close, even the most realistic renderings can look very abstract. I have to remind myself, as I do my students, to "draw what you see, not what you think you know". We all develop some kind of preconceived ideas of how things should look from a very early age. To accurately reproduce what we see, it is helpful to shift away from naming the object or thinking about what it is. Focusing in on small areas and duplicating what we see rather than what it is helps to make the shift.  This is a small area - about 4" square from a 16 x 22 image. It's  Prismacolor pencil on Stonehenge paper .  I hope to finish it within the next couple of weeks and will share the whole image here.

Zentangle, Zendoodle...

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Zentangle - In the latest issue of CPSA's "To the Point", Verna Curnow presented an article on zentangle or zendoodle. An artform where repetitive patterns or shapes are used to create a meditative image. Easily seduced to try something new with art, I began my patterns with ink pen in hand. I used archival Pitt pens and made my image on Stonehenge paper. I have to admit it was time consuming, but thoroughly enjoyable. I titled this little piece "Edge of Entanglement". It's on an 8 x 6 sheet of Stonehenge paper. It's something I could work on between other projects with very little needed for materials. I did some of it while riding in the car and had to stay away from the finer lines while bumping along in the Mustang. Seems those sports suspensions are not built for smoothness. LOL! Now I'm thinking of doing a whole art journal in this style. Wonder if I can stick with something that long...Anyone can do this type of art and it if doodling is

Colored Pencil Treasures - coming soon!

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I am so very honored to have my artwork included in Ann Kullberg's "Colored Pencil Treasures" book. My work appears on page 34 as seen in the previews here http://www.annkullberg.com/cptreasures_2.php This is the third book that includes colored pencil artwork that I have created. I continue to work on improving my skills in fine art and to promote colored pencil as a viable medium for creating fine art.

Keep Trying!

I can't believe it's been over a year since I posted on this blog and vow to be much more attentive to this in the coming year. Just this week I helped judge artwork at the local junior livestock and homemaking show. It was interesting and inspiring to see such wonderful work being created by local children ages 6 - 12. I was moved by the ability of so many of them and encouraged by the interest of all of them. We were instructed to make comments on each judging sheet. As a sometimes instructor of adults who have shared their childhood experiences with me, I strived to find positive comments for every piece and to frame negatives and suggestions in a constructive manner. I thought about abandoning my blog as it takes time away from other things I might like to do a little more. But then, I thought about how easy it is to give up on things and that's what so many kids do even though there was something they longed to communicate. So, my message to myself and to you is: Keep