my back yard

APR #27 (hosted by Jenn at Just Add Water Silly) this week wants a peek at what's going on in my back yard - literally or figuratively. I'm short on time this week since we're headed out of town for a little vacation (again!) and I've been scrambling about. Since I'm really not much of a sketcher/drawer, but I am a bit of a photographer, here's my back yard:

I love the color in the red grass and this is in a big pot on my deck.  We've actually had sun recently and the grass leaf shadows caught my attention.

One of my favorite things to do is kick back on the deck with a glass of ice tea (that would Long Island Ice Tea) and enjoy the occasional flash of sunshine!

We have a nice big yard - lots of room for a party!  The windows seen here are my office where this computer is and I spend most of my free time. I have a great view out to the back yard and have planted blooming things in the bed on the right.

I have flowers planted in pots that line the perimeter of the whole deck - I absolutely LOVE looking out and seeing flowers from spring to fall.

We grow dahlias and revel in their color and size every year. We're too lazy to dig them up and as long as they keep coming back and looking so good, we're going to leave them alone! :)

I only paid $5 each for these rose bushes as kind of an experiment to see how roses would do on the deck and this is the second year of stunning blooms - now that's a bargain!

So that's a brief tour of my yard and garden, such as it is.  I don't know if I grow flowers mostly to cut and bring in the house or to photograph - I enjoy both so much.  Thanks for wandering down my garden path with me.

featuring

The new magazine that's receiving lots of buzz around the web is Featuring.  While I haven't bought one myself, I've seen the magazine at my friend Jenn's home - it's a beautifully done magazine.  Professionally printed and filled with interviews of artists from all mediums, beautiful photos and more, it's worth adding to your library.

The second issue of this fledgling publication is ready and you can read about the contents here.  While shipping is a little pricey to send to the US, they are offering a discount for multiple issues, so now's the time to order both 1 and 2.



Jenn from Just Add Water Silly is now one of the contributing editors/writers and she'll be adding her delightful prose to lots of upcoming issues.  From her site:

Once again, FEATURING is a highly readable, colorful and interesting spread. Of course, we have our regular sections, "In The Spotlight" where we highlight one inspiring artist, this issue we turn the spotlight on Michelle Reussand "Into The Studio" where we explore an artist's place of work. This time the artist's space we invade is Jennifer Beinhacker's. (I wrote this article!) We also have a "Featured Blogger", Tammy Garcia of Daisy Yellow and don't forget our "Theme Gallery" where we publish art from our readers, this issue's theme way The Road Ahead. There's a huge selection of other interesting articles on Zentangling, photography, Twitter & henna art, with lots more to keep you reading.

Did you know that FEATURINGmagazine wants YOUR art?? Yes we do!! With every issue we choose an inspiration for our Theme Gallery and we ask our readers to send in artwork to represent what that theme means to them. Our theme for Issue 3 is "Soundtrack Of My Life". You, as the artist, can take this sentence literally or metaphorically, we just want to see your interpretation of our theme. Click here to read all about how to enter your artwork to FEATURING Theme Gallery. The deadline forIssue 3 is November 30. There are a bunch of other ways to participate and be in our publication, read all about that here.

Hopefully you'll take a moment to check out the magazine and realize it's chock full of artsy stuff you need to know!  

artful progress

I found time this weekend to work a little more on my large canvas - still not done, but moving along.....

At the end of last weekend it was here:

This weekend I added some tiny dots for more size variety (hole punch size from a pepsi box), gessoed over the circles to push them back a bit, added my "stem" drips with india ink.

I think the next step is to add more depth again by creating some contrast around some of the circles and layer a bit of something over them....not quite sure.....

In between and around working on this, I also dug out the stash of fall leaves I pressed and dried last year.  I haven't known what to do with them, they're just pretty.  I tried an experiment and coated a few in gel medium and attached to postcards and sent them off into the world.  They survived!  So, I picked my prettiest leaves and coated them all in preparation for more art uses.

Early this year Karen (I am Rushmore) participated in a swap of Inspiration Card Deck cards and I wanted to participate but found it too late.  Now I'm on top of it and eager to join in.  There's lots of time because it's not due til 11/15 - you can check her site and see how she's tackling the task of altering/decorating 52 playing cards and then adding a bit of inspiration to each card.  At the end of the swap you'll have an entirely different deck, filled with 52 creative sound bites of creative love! (whew, a bit flowery doncha think?)  Anyway, I got started.  My thought is to keep a few cards in progress at all times on my desk and add to them with bits and pieces of ongoing projects - very different from how Karen is approaching hers.  If you think it sounds like fun and want to join in, visit here.  It's going to be FUN!

Host Jessica says:

 

Using gesso (black and white) and starting with a base....

Last, but not least, I tackled a solution to a long standing problem.  I can't draw bodies, human forms, anything remotely like that but sometimes I wish I could add a body/form to my journal page or art.  So I finally tried something I'd been mulling around for awhile.  I'm sure I've seen it somewhere online but when or where, I have no idea.

I went through my photos looking only at body positions, printed them in black and white and traced the body shape with a marker.  Cut it out.  Traced it onto my art. Easy.  THEN, how about if I make a stamp of it?  So I traced it onto that thin little craft foam, cut it out and glued it to a piece of foam core.  Instant stamp. Cool results.  I have more body shapes that will be showing up.  Hooray - this was a fun, easy project with great results.....

Started with a reworked piece of art on 8x6 watercolor paper - collage and paint.

Make some cutup body shapes.....

Traced and painted figure & words added.... (maybe some day I'll get brave enough to try adding hair!)

Added to the art on the right, body cutout and foam stamp in center and stamped image on left.

So, once again I had a fruitful weekend.....all this plus time for a beach combing walk, an afternoon spent with friends watching college football and a Netflix movie to unwind at night.  All in all, a great weekend.
Hope yours was fabulous too.