Upcoming Exhibits
Allied Arts Council
Spruce Grove
35 - 5th Ave, Spruce Grove, Alberta
(in the Melcor Cultural Centre)
Box 3511, Spruce Grove, Ab T7X 3A8
Phone: (780) 962-0664
Tues. - Fri. - 10:00 - 5:00PM
Sat. - 10:00AM - 5:00PM
Closed Sunday, Monday and all Statutory Holidays.
Thanks for stopping by. Please feel free to poke around and see what is here. Enjoy your visit and please sign my questbook. Your comments are welcome.
Lately I've been tinkering around with Mixed Media and made myself a Journal. Now I`m not a person who keeps track of the events in my life, but I am a person who likes to get her hands in glue and paint once in awhile. So over the last couple of weeks I decided to give this a shot. This was a blast and it looks much better than here( my photo skills are not stellar) . It`s my attempt at a faux metal cover. The book was an inexpensive coil book from the dollar store.
Here`s how I did it.
1. Glued letters that I bought cheap.. just cardboard or the ones you get in packs at Micheals. Also glued some chain, buttons, ( the big copper ones were actually silver ones from an old coat or something that I painted with metallic paint. The round bits are plastic curtain rings and the screen looking stuff is drywall tape. Some ornament hangers that look like scrolls. You get the idea.
2. Then I covered the letters, and everything else with foil tape. You can get this at a hardware store like Home Depot but be sure to ask for foil tape. There is another tape that is foil but it has writing like 3m or something on it. This foil tape is plain and looks like foil on a roll the size of duct tape. Around $10.00 cdn . I cut strips off the roll and it is self adhesive so I just laid it over things . Make sure to use a stylus or paper stump to outline and give dimension to the glued on bits.
3. Then when that was all done I just sprayed the cover with some alcohol inks I made with ink, rubbing alcohol and for shimmer I added some Liquitex Irridescent Medium. Or just look up on you tube ``How to make glimmer mist`.
4. I sprayed it with a spray varnish and that`s it. Oh ... the buckle! I went to the thirft store and bought an old belt for three bucks. I cut the ends off and rivited them on. ( ``Look up rivit gun `` on you tube. ) or you could just glue the belt parts on with some good glue like E 6000
This was an easy project. Although it took me a few days, I gave a tutorial to one of my friends and she did the thing in a few hours. So once you have your materials it doesn`t take long. By the way.. don`t through out those little bits and bobs from your junk drawer. They are great for this kind of thing. It`s all junk on this album cover.
Have fun experimenting!
JUST ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE!
So lately I've been like a loose cannon... going from one project to another just enjoying how the day and artworks have been going along.
I've been teaching Zentangle at the North Edmonton Seniors Association, and what a great group of people. So full of life, energy and knowledge, it was my pleasure to be there. Ive found that retirement IS all it's cracked up to be.
The Art galley had it's big fundrasier a Black & White Masquarade, on the 30th of October and the weather co-operated with no snow. A great time, good food, and lots of laughs as well as a successful art auction. The wolf is a drawing I did for a mentoring project and it is already sold.
A good friend as well as another Zentangle teacher Catherine Nicols, and I took a workshop on building a box. Sounds silly I know, but I really enjoyed using paper to create a lovely item. My goodness! so many talented artists everywhere I look. Who knew you could manipulate, cut and glue paper into such artistic things. Really enjoyed it , so of course have made a few since.
This is the Christmas Box
Another one with the tabs . They can be used for all kinds of things from photos to recipes to small artworks. Really cool.
Take a look
September, 2015
It's been a short hot summer and hubby and I enjoyed evey moment.. Well not so much the weeding and yard work, but most other things. I am still madly tangling and teaching Zentangle® but have managed to slip in some graphite drawing, and other small bits of artwork.
This is the latest drawing.
"On Alert " is done in graphite pencil, on Strathmore bristol vellum paper.
Size 11" x 14" On and off it took me about a month to complete. It's one of those drawings that just takes you to a place of appreciation for wildlife.
It will be entered into the Alberta Open Art Competition being held at the Melcor Cultural Centre in Spruce Grove, Alberta. The reception is on September 19th, 2015 at 7 p.m.
March 30, 2015
Time for the Easter Bunny again. Those chocolates are deadly. They should have a warning printed on the outside.."Contains no eggs... just fats". Goodness knows I've been trying to do my share to eliminate all the Chocolate that finds its way into this abode. Guess I'll just have to try harder.
I am still tangling and loving every minute of it. I have been teaching it at the gallery here and also giving small classes out of my home. I'm doing tiles everyday, and sketching in my sketch book working out my own designs.
Life is busy, but good.
The March 21, 2015 "We love to Tangle" get together in Calgary was informative and fun, with 50 avid tanglers participating.
I've decided to try and do the "I am the Diva" challenge which may or may not work out.
For anyone who has accidentally stumbled on this page and is interested in finding out more about Zentangle® please jump on over to Zentangle.com to find out more about this fascinating meditative art form.
In the coming year, I'll be posting new links and widgets to help you find the Zentangle community places that I find most helpful.
Here is the latest ZIA ( Zentangled® inspired art) that I completed.
Just a bit of info
So we are on our way through the winter months and heading 0nto the downhill slope into Spring. Thanks goodness! We are all tired of the cold and snow even tho it hasn't been all that bad this last winter.
Time for new beginnings and more fun and art.
I have started a blog as well with some ramblings and my zentangle thoughts. Please feel free to drop in if you're so inclined.
http://valenders2.blogspot.ca
http://valenders2.blogspot.ca/
Zentangle® is still in the forefront of my artwork although I did take an still life oil class recently. Very enjoyable. I had forgotten how much I miss the brushes. Not quite ready to post it up yet. Still in the works.
I'm still loving the Zentangle® and it is now a part of my daily routine. Somehow this one never gets boring, and I have been meeting new people and students and enjoying the experiences.
This year I will post the odd article when I need to write, and I'll see how good I do (try to) post a zentangle® tile on as many days as I can.
The tile today is composed of the following patterns:
Maryhill, Nzepple, Shattuck.
Finally the weather is trying to warm up. I have been tryng to keep up with some artwork and will post my new pieces here but first I want to see if I can actually get a "Welcome" and "Happy Spring posted." Looks like things are A-ok so I am posting this photo of my latest colored pencil/pastel drawing. It'll go into the seniors competiton this month at the gallery here. The reference material is from a gentleman who kindly allowed me to use his photo as a reference. Thanks to Gary Jones. The majority of the painting is colored pencil but since I lost the white of his beard a bit , I touched it up with some pastel. All in all I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.
This is a colored pencil 11"x 14" on suede board. I did this as I normally don't do animals but thought I'd try my hand at it. Have to admit is was lots of fun!
Well March is almost over and here I am late at updating, but from what I've seen so is everyone else so no excuses and let's just move on...
For the month of March I will be showing my artwork in the annex next to the gallery.
The show features my Zentangle art, and is entitled "All Tangled Up" . Please drop by and visit . It runs until the end of March, 2014.
For the month of March I will be showing my artwork in the annex next to the gallery.
The show features my Zentangle art, and is entitled "All Tangled Up" . Please drop by and visit . It runs until the end of March, 2014.
http://northernstar-online.com
Please take a moment to visit the Nortern Star website where you will find numerous informative and humorous articles.. Make sure to checkout the blog section where you can enjoy my recent and archived humor articles. They are also posted here on my blog page.
Well, it's October already and the little witches and Goblins will be out soon, and then good grief.. Santa... Yikes, let's forget about that and move on. I've had some issues with posting on my webpage and am trying again with a new browser, so hopefully I can get this up once and for all... here goes:
Updates since last posts.....
I am tryig a new type of artwork, Zentangle, and am enjoying this meditative art form comprised of repetitive patterns.
I entered and won 3rd in the Advanced category at the Alberta Open Art Competion held in the City of Spruce Grove.
Also sold a painting of the Kananaskis mountains ( oil on Canvass) at the gallery. The painting is on it's way to Japan. ( sorry no photo)
Myself with Mayor Stuart Houston, and alderman Bill Steinburg at the awards reception this past Sept. 2013
June 2013
Small autumn painting in Acrylic . Haven't done any painting in Acrylics for awhile so did this one just to keep myself interested and in tune.
June, 2013
This is one of my bracelets made from some beads that I had from my stash . Each bead is sewn onto a base of beads and it took me about a week to do. Actually it turned out really well and I can wear it with a lot of different colors.
April 13, 2013
I guess we'll just have to wait for spring, as it seems it is in no hurry to arrive in this neck of the woods. It's a busy time at the gallery, and I have made time to do a little writing and painting. Not as much as I like but at least it is something. I'll post the photos here.
It's time to get down to the business.
I've been bitten by the jewelry bug badly. It started innocently enough by making a few bracelets for the sale at the art gallery, and mushroomed into a huge addition. A wonderful addiction I have to add.
I will be posting some of my creations here as soon as I get them photographed.
All over the web, I have met wonderful Bead Artists, that have great sites and blogs, who are generous with their knowledge and free tutorials. Thank you everyone! I will post some links below so that you can take advantage of the information that is out there.
Here are just a couple to start, I'll post more as I go along. There are just so many good ones, you can just do a google search and see where it takes you.
Toucan October's Pencil drawing.
Still working in colored pencil
And before I knew it, it was autumn. Had a great holiday doing the Alaskan cruise now it is back to work. Time to do updates. Us artists are slow at keeping up our pages sometimes.
Seems like I am doing mostly pencil lately as well as doing some jewellery items in my spare time. We all know that there is not enough time to do the things that we would like to. Oh well, less complaining and more work. Cats seem to be the item for the day . I like cats as long as they just visit and don't crap in the flower beds.
Colored Pencil Portrait Study
One of My Colored Pencil Portraits
"RURAL EYE CANDY"
"My Favorite Painting"
Original Oil on canvas
"Take your Pick" oil on Canvas Peoples choice award at AAC "The Color Red Show" Dec. 2012
"Baby It's Cold Outside"
Colored Pencil on Stonehenge
Original watercolor of "Red" Watercolor 1/2 sheet Arches
Study in "Skin Tones"
watercolor study