I got this fabulous book yesterday and it is brilliant! Written in plain English, this comprehensive guide is almost 300 pages of information, a great resource or reference book.  It begins by explaining common terminology, and goes onto discuss Surfaces, Brushes, Pens & Pencils, Charcoal, Inks, Pastels, Watercolours, Gouache, Tempera, Acrylcs, and Oils, finishing up with How to care for your work. Each chapter lays out what the materials is, how it is used and potential pitfalls. I can see this book being well worn before too long, there is so much I don’t know about art and art materials but I think this books will play an important part on my journey.

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I talked to an old friend online a couple of days ago. It was good to hook up with her, as it has been some time. I am sad that life is such a challenge for her and I wish there was something I could do to relieve her aching, but she has overcome so much in her life already, so I am sure she will deal with these things in the best way for all concerned. I can’t believe we have known each other so long, since I was 15 and she was 14. Woahhhh! That’s almost 20 years! I think I need to sit down - ha!ha!

I also got an email from another very old friend who lives abroad, informing me that she has had a baby! Woo-hoo! Cormac, such a beautiful name.

This friend also I have known for 25 years, a lifetime. So much has changed in that time and I’m sure that with each of these friends, we have grown apart in many ways but true friendships like these two are not to be thrown away lightly.

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Last week we bought the 140lb Arches watercolour paper, 22″ x 30″. We also bought a few acrylic brushes and a cool bamboo wrap for them, the the brushes will be coming to my art class on Wednesday with me

This week there were loads of posts about soaking and stretching the paper Vs. gessoing both sides. I finally got my hands on an issue of CPS yesterday and managed to read through THE article today. It says to gesso both sides of the watercolour paper, and I think it is only necessary to soak and stretch the paper if peparing it to receive watercolour paints.

Anyway, we soaked the paper in a oval-shaped bucket (as we don’t have a bath) and then stretched it using gum tape, attached to my standing frame. After the paper was dry and Miles cut it in half for me, today I decided to gesso both sides of the sheet anyway. With paintbrush in hand I still wasn’t sure what I was going to do for the background so I read and re-read the 2 articles in CPS and gathered a dozen or so of my Golden’s heavey bodied acrylics around me. In the end I went for the fluid acrylic in transparent red iron oxide and just went for it! I kept watering down the paint on my pallet and painting on and dabbing it off with a kitchen towel. When I had finished opainting I felt quite elated, like I was on a high or something. I can’t remember feeling quite like that even after finishing other pieces that I have really liked. Perhaps it was about working on a different surface or something. I just felt really liberated! I thought about adding more to it or layering anoother colour, but then realised that I actually liked it just the way it was It is difficult to see on the image because it is a lot lighter in colour than the paper is IRL, but it has lots of dept and texture. The texture is uneven, not just because of the paint effect but because I used clear gesso there were bits I missed and bits I went over a couple of times and have more gesso and more/less texture than the rest of the paper.

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I have completed the art dolls for a swap, they came out better than I expected. I followed some instructions in Lisa Vollrath’s Monthly Muse, with a little alteration.

I had great fun doing these, and in the photos at least, the faces look quite realistic. In reality they look a bit grubby like urchins or something.

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OK, I told you I had signed up to the collage explorations group, right? Well, the 2nd exercise has been posted and I haven’t even attempted the 1st one yet I’ve been saying that it’s because I haven’t got enough time and I’ve got too many other things to do first before I can commit my time and energy to doing the excercises - before I can learn something new! I had the same feelings when I joined the watercolour collage group, and I never did get involved in thegroup and slowly drifted away from it - after buying all the supplies - and never even attenpted to actually make a watercolour collage.It made me think about all the reasons I give for not doing something, everything from lack of materials (ohhh yeah, right!) to lack of time, but if I don’t have time, with no kids, and 9-5 , who does have time? I read in Kelly Angard’s blog that the things that stop us from doing stuff is in fact fear, and it’s the reason we make so many excuses. So, what am I afraid of?

• afraid of ‘wasting’ my art materials? Surely it’s a bigger waste when paints sit in a box for so long, unused, that the start to separate, solidify, thicken and are eventually un-useable and need to be binned?
• afraid of running out of not having enough time to finish the numerous other projects I have on the go? Maybe the need for deadlines make me complete the work for those other projects, and knowing that I have to send something off because there is someone else waiting for them somewhere.
• afraid to show myself up as the fraud I really am? I’m not really good at this stuff, it’s just a justification of my time, and the money I spend. The art I make isn’t actually good, it’s just a figment of other peoples’ imagination, they haven’t seen what other people make. Those people are proper artists. Maybe I’m afraid of hearing those words and believing them to be true.
• afraid of showing people a real piece of me, instead of what I think ‘they’ want to see? Perhaps it is time to stop worrying about what other people think and just create for myself.

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did I sound sufficiently like Donald Duck there? and completely OT do you know the name of Donald’s “Lady Friend”? *Answers at the end of this post…..

OK, remember I’ve been talking about stepping back from the groups and the swaps and concentrating on my own art… since like… FOREVER?? Weeeeeeell, I have some good news and some not-so-good news on that front…….

Good news #1 I have enrolled on a Collage & Painting course at the Mary Ward Centre, and have set up a category on here to upload some work to so you can keep an eye on what I get up to there.

Good news #2 I have asked Emma if she would like to take over as Moderator in charge of Monthly Challenges. I have yet to hear from her, but hopefully if she accepts it will enable me to relinquish some of my control over the group, and begin to let go.

Not-so-good news#1 I have joined a new Yahoo group, BUT

Good news #3 It is a group called Collage Explorations and is about looking at Collage and our own individual styles .

Not-so-good news #2 I have signed up for a new round robin (NO! don’t walk away!)

Good news #4 it IS a collage round robin - so watch this space!

I am SO excited about all these new collage experiences! I can’t wait!!

* Donald’s “Lady friend” is called Daisy

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