A Fascination With Abstract Art

   The last few months have had me desiring to dabble more and more with a style way out of my comfort zone. I have been so inspired especially by several artists who have been sharing their art and techniques on their blogs:

   There's my friend Lenna Andrews who took classes with Bill Buchman and shared some photos and videos beginning with this post. It looks like it was such a great series of classes full of freedom and color! Lenna's examples are gorgeous!

   Then there is Jane Davies who so generously shares not only her art but also many of her techniques with downloadable PDFs and mini videos on her blog Collage Journeys. She's also a very popular teacher! Jane has a book out which is the same title as her blog and it is one of my go-to books. She has been a huge inspiration in my attempt at creating some abstract designs-especially after first watching this video. Waaaay outta da box for me since I'm SO into color-and lots of it. But I've been playing with the B/W thing and am really enjoying it. Once I decide what I'm going to do with my papers I'll share some projects.

  Next up is Jo Murray, my latest inspiration! I only  "met" Jo when I launched my blog back in March of this year. It didn't take me long to become a follower. Jo is a very talented collage artist who is gaining more and more recognition every day. You must take a look at her blog-her accomplishments and works are amazing!! I recently won one of her pieces of art in a giveaway and cannot tell you how happy I am to have this piece (more on that along with a pic at the end of this post)!

  Needless to say the art journal spread I'm sharing today and linking to Julie Balzer's Art Journal Everyday project is the first completed attempt at some abstract art in the form of a grid design which I created thanks to Jane Davies' great PDF tutorial on the subject which you can download for free by clicking on "PDF tutorial" which I linked to her post containing the download.

   For the basis of my color choice this was my inspiration/jump start:

  This is a top I bought last summer at a  Chico's Outlet Store ( I LOVE that place!). I had just worn it and it hit me that I needed to play with yellow and grey in my journal.

   And this is my finished abstract grid. I used yellow acrylic paint and Sqeezed Lemonade and Iced Spruce distress inks for the background, along with some stencils and the teardrop stamp I carved recently. It was a dark and rainy day and the spread was reminding me of a sky that gets a strange tinge of yellow just before a rip roaring storm comes thru with its lashing winds and hail. Ok, the yellow in the sky isn't this bright but you know what I mean :) I then grabbed some scraps of a variety of papers within a very limited color range and cut a bunch of shapes. I like how some of the papers although squared had a pattern of circles making them more cohesive with the background. The cool thing about this too is that I rotated it every way and although I still like this way the best the other ways weren't so bad either. One last note about the colors-when I was allowing it to completely dry I checked my emails and found this lovely post from another artist I admire and follow, Becky Shander. The title of her post? "A Buzz of Yellow". Check it out. You immediately feel Becky's warm, loving, giving and spiritual nature in her words, her photos and her art. She blesses us with her talents on her blog and in numerous magazines published by Stampington and Company.

   I will definitely explore the world of abstract collage further and try other color combinations. If anyone has any suggestions, critiques or tips please lv. me a comment-I don't profess to know what I'm doing, it's all play.

  I mentioned above that I won a piece of art by Jo Murray and here it is:

   This is an ATC (2 1/2" x 3 1/2" ) but as you can see it is FULL of perfectly placed textured papers and bits!! I loved it the moment I saw it as it reminds me so much of the ocean and beach, and that triangle immediately brought to mind the trinity-of Father,Son, Holy Ghost, or even child/woman, goddess, crone. Thank you Jo!!!

 It definitely was a very good week for me as I also won a prize package of my choice of 6 collage sheets from Retro Cafe Art for this collage (one of three I entered on their FB page) chosen by a guest judge!! You can see the other two here on a previous post..

  A heartfelt thank you all for your glorious inspirations. Please take a moment to visit the artists blogs I mentioned above and you'll be inspired too-I dare you not to be!

  Have a beautiful, restful weekend. And thank you for sharing a kind word or two. It fills me with joy and gratitude.

                                       "Half of doing is believing that you can."