Using Your Energy Creatively

  Before I go into posting this week's art I want to mention that I announced the giveaway winners in my last post . I still need to hear from Alex-Topogina Bonetto-so please contact me with your mailing address so I can mail out your ATCs.

  Ok, so those of you who have read my last few posts know that I have been immursed in Celtic festivities. Well hubby and I had yet another exciting eve. Wed.! We had tickets to see Paul Byrom and guest Damian McGinty (formerly of the group Celtic Thunder) at The State Theatre in our area. It is a gorgeous old theatre beautifully renovated -we just love this place. This was a special event in that it was being filmed for a future PBS television special. Let me tell you-these guys were on top of their game!! A full orchestra was directed by the famous Phil Coulter. The show lasted for I believe over 2 hrs.(it started at 8PM) with a brief intermission. And then came the surprise!! They were going to film a special Christmas segment and anyone that wanted to remain was welcome. We watched them set the stage for Christmas and then got to see the performance-wow!! We never got home until midnight :)

  Here is a pic-not very good tho as we weren't supposed to use a camera and Bill tried to get one or two without a flash.

  Paul (on the right) has a wonderful cheeky sense of humor besides being one of Ireland's top tenors, and Damian (being only 20-on the left) also has a great voice. He had made several guest appearances on the TV show "Glee".

  Here are two pics of the State Theatre:

This is a view of one of the balconies-see that boom camera? We sat about the 10th row back and left center of the stage-not bad at all:).Perhaps you'll see us on TV in the audience :)

 With all this Celtic energy going on I was anxious to release some of it and get something painted on a page. I recently got Dina Wakley's new book Art Journal Freedom and am about finished reading it. Now I can put the exercises to paper and experiment and PLAY! Dina's book explores color, composition, flow , depth, black and white spaces, symmetry and asymmetry amongst other topics. She includes in depth explanations along with so many fabulous examples and projects true to her style. She shares step outs for her techniques and also includes ways to further challenge your own art. I LOVE this book and highly recommend it for anyone at any skill level!!

  I knew I wanted to play with a silhouette so the first thing I did was cut out two images from a magazine and scan them to my computer. I then grabbed two of my gelli print papers, resized the images and then printed on to the back side of my prints.

 This way I can easily cut them out and  have the cool patterns on a silhouette. Yep, this makes me really happy:)

 Here's my finished page:

  Sorry, forgot to take pics in progress because I just couldn't stop. Gessoed page in my watercolor journal. Scraped some Cobalt Teal, Olive Green, Quinacridone Magenta on page. Used Mini Roman Stencil (TCW-Dina Wakley Designs) and Transparent Pyrole Orange. Added some circles with a stencil and yellow acrylic. Spritzed an area (where I wanted my gelli print silhouette to go) using Dylusions Black Marble Spray ink. A thin black marker was used to outline the silhouette,circles and printed words. Added a bit of writing along the silhouette with my Signo Uniball pen.Done!

 I can't wait to take more time to further explore the techniques in this book but I have to get some Easter cards done first. We'll be celebrating Easter Sunday on the 31st.

 I'm linking up this week to Art Journal Everyday, Paint Party Friday, Show and Tell Saturday at Artists in Blogland, Mandarin Orange Monday and hope to catch up with many of you who inspire people like me:)

  " Compassion enables you to meet someone where THEY are without compromising where YOU are."  Alan Cohen