Splashy Block O'Love...using water patterns

For my next batch of blocks o’ love valentines, I treated myself to some new acrylic spray paint by Liquitex!

They seem to have a bigger range of colors, and hoping they clogged less frequently than the ones I was using prior-(Montana Gold brand). And since the valentine palette is not my “normal” color range, I needed to add some more colors to my collection (note- any type of rationalization is acceptable when it comes to buying new art supplies!! :)

Anyhow armed with these new colors, I warmed up in my art journal and I pulled out some papers to practice on. My theory is when you are doing processes that require quick 

spontaneous actions, you need to do lots- some to warm up, and then make many so you have options and can be selective about which ones are the best. Picasso said the artist best tool can be the garbage can! In other words- edit yourself. If they suck, paint over them and keep going. But if they work- they deserve to live:) It’s being able to recognize the difference and stop at the right point that has taken years to perfect. So those fun splashy designs you see and think must've taken only a moment to create are are usually the 6th or 7th or 10th attempt, not the first.  Why not just apply with a brush? Because I think naturally derived patterns are gorgeous- and letting water do what it does naturally creates some lovely shapes and patterns. Thus- my use of many fluid processes…

So on with the fun part! I did some splashing, spraying, then quick wiping away before the paint had a chance to dry.  A couple of them I dropped in some liquid inks on, maybe some more water, and let them dry.  Seal them up with a quick layer o clear acrylic once they were dry and they were ready for next step.

 For this one, I liked the pattern created by the water so much, didn't want to add too much more - so I opted to add two little hearts and no text or screens. I scrubbed/sanded off a little more magenta to have a simpler background for the hearts. Then I cut some stencil hearts, but once I sprayed them I thought they were a bit too solid- so to add some texture I scratched back into the paint with the end of a paintbrush. I thought it still needed a little more contrast/definition, so I loaded one of my new ink pens with FW inks in black, and just traced the hearts with playful lines and a couple o dots here and there.  Voila! dry, spray seal,-done! 

This block was bought to give to a mom and her little girl… sweet! 

Spreading the love….

See the rest of the blocks o’ love here….

http://www.cherylholz.com/art/artwork.php?Subject=1760

Playing in the studio with JJ!

So this past Monday on Martin Luther King day, when the kids had the day off, I invited some of my nieces and nephews over to the studio to play and make valentines. I have been meaning to do this for a while and life just kept getting in the way, so even thought JJ was the only one who could make it we went ahead with it! So the lucky boy had the whole studio to himself!

When he got there, he asked me if he could sculpt, and looked bummed that we would only be painting instead. But as soon as he saw me start to play around with all the spray inks, he got into it right away. We worked with just a simple concept of a resist using acetate shapes, plastic grids, leaves, strings, and anything else we could think up (our hands!).  You lay down the resist materials, and spray and squirt. The ink will absorb into the paper wherever its not covered.  We filled up two tables of painted papers  then took a lunch break. When we came back we were going to assemble them into collages/ cards, but JJ wanted to do round two! So he made some more papers before we got to the cutting and gluing.  With a little help, we made his mom and dad cards for Valentine's Day.  Dad's heart came from the foam shape were used as a resist for mom's, so dad's heart came from moms. Perfect. Thanks for coming and playing in studio JJ!

               

JJ getting the hang of it- and loving the flour de lis shape! 

         

Mom helping out- and JJ hamming it up for the camera! 

some of our papers...

...and mom and dads Valentine day cards....

Although I missed my other nieces and nephews, it was kind of nice to be able to adapt and improvise based on one person. I really do enjoy teaching, but resent the time it takes out of my studio practice to clear away all my materials, plan and order materials,  advertise/enroll, and then of course teach! followed by clean up and setting up the studio again.  But with one or two people- a major studio reorg is not necessary.  So perhaps I need to reconsider the concept of classes, and maybe do a solo or small groups. What do you think?