ART for the SOUL of it

July 30, 2022

First We Painted Brushes...

then we painted BRUSHES! Last month's theme of Painting our Art Supplies was such a blast and so many awesome paintings were painted. But on week 4, I introduced a final project of painting simple cheap scruffy paint store brushes. The inspiration was from a talented artist, Alexandra Dillon, I found online.* Here are 3 of my painted Face Brushes. And why not paint the backs of them too? A couple of my cat paintings, with the kitty Face Brush. Another face painting I am not quite finished with yet, standing as background to my two Face Brushes. * Look at Alexandra's brushes - Aren't these brilliant???? Click on image to see more. ... AUGUST THEME - Look Ma, No Brushes! We will be letting go of our tightness and control by letting go of our brushes. But don't worry, there are many ways to make marks on a page that will create expressive and joyful paintings. Care to join us? Monday 10am - noon Monday 1:30 - 3:30pm Wed 10am to noon All classes via Zoom in Pacific Coast t

July 23, 2022

Art Supplies Paintings and August Theme

By JoanieART No comments

Our July theme was painting our own Art Supplies. I gave some instruction on how to photograph them to get some strong compositions. And how to photo edit just a bit. We meet via Zoom each week and after a check in, start drawing and painting in whatever medium calls to our Inner Muse at that time. It is so important to pay attention to one's inner leading....I practice that I am a new artist every time I sit or stand at my art desk. What works for you to keep yourself inspired and your work fresh and new? The first painting is a nod to my new Nova Color acrylic paints. So far I am really enjoying them. The Nova formulation is soft body as opposed to the heavy body acrylics I have been using for well over a decade now. Title: Jars of New Paint . The next painting is on a collaged cardboard canvas. I am a nut for cardboard, you may recall. I painted this in acrylic but the brushes needed some pizazz so I took out some fineliner with black and white high flow paint to add some &q

June 28, 2022

ART TIP, JULY Theme and new SHOP feature

By JoanieART No comments

Ok, folks..a new tip & more... Now that my SHOP is up and running (I cannot even express my relief and joy over this) I feel rejuvenated with my own painting. I have hardly stopped....I will have some new art studio pics soon to show you some inspirations of organization and paintings. ART TIP Acrylic painting is messy, at least for me. And my aging hands hurt after cleaning all the paint off. So here are a few things that have made this so much less painful and easier: 1. Use a rich hand cream before painting. I currently have some foot cream, yep, that works great. 2. Pumice Stone - omgosh, I used to use a vegetable scrubber and man oh man did my hands hurt. Chewed up my cuticles and everything. So it seems strange, I realize, but a pumice stone rubbed into soap, and gently massaged over painted hands, is much gentler, and cleans even better in seconds. my hands aren't beautiful...but they are clean! ha ha ... JULY Theme for my Zoom classes We are painting our Art Supplies

June 05, 2022

SHOP is open!

By JoanieART No comments

Hello dear creatives, Thank you so much for your patience as it has literally taken me YEARS to get a shop back up on my site. Thank you for all the nudges and questions and continual prodding. There were times I thought, oh forget it, I'm too old, blah blah blah. I finally got tired of my own excuses, and by an enormous measure of Grace, got 'er done! I chose 5 categories for my paintings: Everyday Stuff (still life, I love painting the flotsam and jetsam just laying around the house) Faces (well, duh...) Furry Ones (duh, again) Flowers - this was going to be merged with Everyday Stuff but I had so many it really warranted its own category. Outside Views - I have very few in this category....but did have some work with this subject that made me smile. This is the lineup of categories......if you click the graphic it will take you to main Shop page. Each and every painting I posted (66 to start) makes me happy, hits a personal standard. I accomplished the goal, whatever that

June 02, 2022

JUNE THEME and Exciting News!

By JoanieART No comments

Hello Fellow Creatives, June is here but we took Memorial Day week off to get refreshed....and hope you all got some chill and relax time in. As for me, well.....more in a minute. JUNE THEME In my weekly Zoom classes this month, starting next week, June 6 and 8, we will be painting ICONS OF YESTERYEAR. You can intrepret that however you like.....but will most definitely be challenging and fun, and create a stir. I will be introducing some intentional collage ideas to incorporate, and add that extra little spice to our projects. WHO'S YOUR

April 28, 2022

MAY THEME: Shapes, Shadows & Silverware

By JoanieART No comments

This should be fun...oh yeah. We will start with some drawing.....silverware -------- surprisingly tricky and alluring and addictive! I will teach a few photography ideas to make some really unusual shapes, shadows and reflections. Then we will do some value paintings to get a good LOOK at all those fascinating reflective shapes and place them where they belong. And of course Color and Composition will play a big role, don't they always?

April 28, 2022

APRIL Summary of Oil Pastel FUN

By JoanieART No comments

Hello dear artistic souls, This past month we ventured into the oh so wonderful, smooshy and fun world of oil pastels. What a grand experiment!

April 01, 2022

APRIL THEME: Oil Pastels - All Mixed Up & ZOOMing into our Art Community

By JoanieART No comments

All mixed up? What? During our 4 weeks of April classes, we will cover a few basic techniques for this exciting medium, some different ways to blend and all that. BUT the main focus will be on how and when to use this creamy medium in our watermedia paintings. And some fun mixed media applications thrown in. Care to join us? There are very few seats available for Mon 10 - noon and Wed 10 - noon.

February 01, 2022

February Theme - Faces / Portraits and the Story behind them

By JoanieART No comments

Hi folks I have't blogged in a bit, and it's aways amazing to me how time just elapses....poofs, disappears, appears again, then poof! Thought i would take a minute to share that all my classes are back online again for a wee bit longer....as covid continues to cast its monkeywrench whereever it is found, which is basically everywhere? Hope you are all staying safe and healthy of body and mind. Takes a bit more work these days, I find. Thankful for technology and cameras that zoom in on an art desk for demos and all.....we collectively persevere, thrive in one another's company and continue to practice our craft. No stopping the creative process!!! Here are a few portraits I have painted over the years that I quickly gathered from around the house.....and see if you can "feel" a different story from each one. Yes, of course, they are different "people" but there is much more that depicts the "story." That's what we will be looking at and

September 12, 2021

A Day in the Life.....Making Nocino and Hiding Stains!

By JoanieART No comments

Hi Folks, Hope all is well with you.....and that you are managing to eke out some fun in these remaining days of summer. Just a little check-in here, my gal pals and I met on Saturday for what has become our Annual Nocino Making get-together. We started by enjoying some delicious Bento boxes from our local Japanese restaurant, Sushiko. It's a treasure of a place here in Rohnert Park. After we fortified ourselves with miso soup and sushi, we stepped outside, set up some plastic tablecloths (not enough), pulled out some heavy hammers, chisels and our trusty homemade walnut smashing wood and got to work. We knew enough to wear nitrile gloves, but those weren't enough AT ALL! This is messy work. Really godawful messy. No joke! NOTE TO SELF for next years Nocino Event.... wear full on playtex rubber gloves wear the schloppiest of clothes, truly throw-outables collect walnuts a tad earlier with softer shells? keep the covid masks!!! cover EVERYTHING in plastic M brought the wal

August 26, 2021

Keeping a Painting Fresh

By JoanieART

Hi Everyone, During August we (me and my students) are having lots of fun creating Contemporary Botanicals. Here are a few of mine (gouache and mixed media). We worked loosely with our paint to begin then added all sorts of mixed media for line and interest. So many beautiful interpretations of plants were birthed this month!!!

July 29, 2021

My Art Studio - DONE and DONE!

By JoanieART No comments

Hi everyone, I did it, finally got the labels on, and finished painting all the furniture white, and making a few revisions to my easel. So here is the REVEAL.... (don't mind the bare floors, i ripped up all the old carpet, all new lvp flooring being installed in a couple of weeks, can't wait.)

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