Friday, October 17, 2014

Answering Challenges

                                                                  Still Life Bouquet

  This bouquet goes to Kristin and EVA for hosting Paint Party Friday, and to all the contributing artists. Since discovering their PPF blog and meeting with so many talented souls each week  I have seen my art grow as I continue to be inspired. I have become much more relaxed in my own artistic skin and take away a hunger to create even more after visiting everyone. I have connected with challenges and artists I most likely wouldn't have gotten to know if it wasn't for PPF. A heartfelt thank you to everyone!

  Still Life Bouquet represents tackling my fear of working on a black or very dark background. Here is how it evolved:

  OK, I tell myself to take a deep breath (or two), get out the black paint and some mark making tools, and let go of the fear!


  The photo here looks a bit lighter than it actually was. I applied a fairly thick coat of black paint then did some mark making. Once it dried I did some scratching into the surface (sgraffito). Now what? I really thought this page would sit like this in my journal a long time- either that or get covered up. A few days later however inspiration struck! At Mix It Monthly , Piarom's (Conny) challenge this month is "still life" and I knew I wanted to do a vase of flowers on a table. With still a nice pile of vibrantly painted gelli prints nearby I got started. The vase, table and large flowers are all printed papers. The little white flowers and stems were painted in afterwards. I had let my fear go, and out emerged a page I am so proud of!
  So, how about you? How do you conquer your artistic fears? And have you been pleasantly surprised by the outcome?

              Linking to Paint Party Friday, Mix It Monthly, Art Journal Every Day.

  Another monthly challenge I have discovered through PPF is Art Journal Journey with Susi. Her many art pages for each of the monthly challenges are so varied- and gorgeous!! The theme this month is "Deep in The Forest" and here is my first contribution:


   The page already had some mopped up green and pink spray ink on it. I saw the trees and used a fan brush  along with some green acrylics and Payne's Gray (another dark color that scares me) and just tapped the loaded brush for the shapes. Once dry I painted on trunks . The words were added digitally. 

 And now for a completely different art project! Freshly Made Sketches is a wonderful blog that features a new card sketch each week and shares fresh and clean cards created by the design team to inspire. This week's sketch was created by Jen T:

 And here's my card:



I flipped the sketch around to make my card. Products: patterned paper (Stampington and Company); patterned card (DCWV); orange card stock; cat image, October 31 and black German border (ARTchix Studio); stamp image (Giga Guidelines UM set-Papertrey Ink); Versafine Onyx Black ink(Tsukineko); buttons, embroidery threads from my stash; sentiment -computer generated.

 I'm also linking this to the Simon Wednesday Challenge Blog (theme this week is Color Coordinates-black, slate, orange, green apple and lavender).

 Thanks so much for stopping by!
 
                                         How about I give YOU a challenge now?
                                          Choose a fear you have about creating-
                                        whether it's a medium, a color, a style, etc.
                                                      and let go of that fear!
                                                              Just try it!
                                                                 Play!
                                                 And be pleasantly surprised!

                                          " Feel the fear and do it anyway."      Susan Jeffers










40 comments:

  1. Well, I'd say you definitely conquered your fear of a black page, Linda! I love your pretty still life painting!! And, the forest painting is amazing. You are rockin' these challenges. Your take on the sketch and color challenge is cute as can be!

    Enjoy your weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  2. beautiful still life bouquet, love the dark background!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wonderful work this week, lots of eye candy! Valerie

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful work this week again, lots of eye candy! Valerie

    ReplyDelete
  5. Beautiful Linda.. I love you still life bouquet and the forest with this fab quote and your card is a colorful treasure.
    Thank you so much for joining Art Journal Joureny again - so happy to have you with us!
    Happy weeend ♥♥♥
    Susi

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love your bouquet!!!!
    Your art is so fresh!

    ReplyDelete
  7. How true your first paragraph is and how nicely put.
    I really love all three artworks here, each so different.
    Your bouquet of flowers caught my eye immediately, then how fascinating it was to read how you made it.
    Your "Deep in the Forest" piece is terrific, love the depth of the trees in the forest and the magenta pinks. AJJ is one of my favourite challenge blogs.
    And thanks for the link to the card site, new to me. I really like your orange black and green card, it's beautifully designed, and the message is fun.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love your still life. It is stunning. I think you need to work with black paint some more.
    Isn't it interesting that as your grow as an artist you just want more?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Lots of beautiful artwork Linda. Have a fab weekend, Happy PPF, Annette x

    http://nettysartadventures.blogspot.co.uk/

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wonderful pieces. I particularly love your still life bouquet. Its so effective on a black backround. Challenges are a great way to make friends in blogland. I've found people are so very encouraging :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Delightful colors and exquisite paintings with delicious flowers, a beautiful design!

    ReplyDelete
  12. It's great to see how you connected with the challenges and made beautiful art.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Great work Linda! LOVE the still life.

    ReplyDelete
  14. You should never have any fears about your wonderful art. Those trees are so real they are popping off the page. Beautiful work.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Great pieces and fun techniques . . . I am always looking for new ways to express myself through art . . . and I am sure that I can learn a lot just tagging along here with you. I am your newest follower.
    Happy to met you.
    Connie :)

    ReplyDelete

  16. Your Still Life Bouquet looks wonderful Linda. Somehow the trees for Susi's challenge remind me of Christmas.
    Have a great weekend
    Susan

    ReplyDelete
  17. Your flowers turned out beautifully. The scratchy black background is very interesting and something I must try as black is not a colour I ever use! You have used it so effectively. I like you love blogging as the inspiration of others can be so infectious! :)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Fabulous post!! I feel the same about ppf!! Great people and inspiration! Thanks for the generous tutorial! I LOVE your deep in the forest and still life!! Gorgeous!! Thanks for sharing all this yummy art!

    Hugs Giggles

    ReplyDelete
  19. That's a beautiful still life, Linda. Love all the interesting pattern details.

    ReplyDelete
  20. What an awesome post! The flowers for Eva and Kristen are beautiful and your words hit deep for me and I am sure so many others who have found themselves at PPF! I have to say I love your forest! Such depth and it was great to see where you started..then adding dark (always scary) and what a beautiful creation that emerged! Great job and cute card too! You are a very busy artist! Happy PPF Rasz

    ReplyDelete
  21. Stunning work Linda.... I love the still life especially.

    Karen x

    ReplyDelete
  22. Love the still life- and inspiring post:)

    ReplyDelete
  23. LInda your still life is gorgeous!!! So brave to go with the dark background and so beautiful the flowers shine with it! Love the papers you use...makes it way more interesting and the light, grazile flowers..they look so alive and I bet they smell amazing ;) PPF is such a wonderful place, I agree with you!! Mix It Monthly ♥ Conny

    ReplyDelete
  24. Great post! So good to just let go of fear and have fun! Good for you!

    ReplyDelete
  25. WOW Linda!!!! Those journal pages are really gorgeous!!! I am challenged by still life and can never be satisfied with what I end up with. We just have to keep on trying.... ;)

    ReplyDelete
  26. Lovely creations and I am especially drawn to your beautiful still life bouquet!!!
    oxo

    ReplyDelete
  27. Hi Linda. So glad you overcame your fear of painting on black. I am trying to think what I would be afraid of doing - probably a miniature painting the size of a stamp as I love to get loose and paint big. I will face my fears!! Happy PPF

    ReplyDelete
  28. Wow! Really great pieces. I love the bright colors showing through the black over painting. Having just had my collage class I really enjoy the way you have used your gelli papers to make the vase, table and flowers. I hope to sometime get into consistently doing journal pages. The third example, I like your end result, but don't really understand how the challenge works. Thank you for your comment on my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Fabulous card
    Thank you for joining us at Simon Says Wednesday Challenge this week.

    Jo x

    ReplyDelete
  30. I loved your experiments and seeing the process. You are such a talented and creative artist!

    ReplyDelete
  31. Thank you so much for showing the process asI wouldn't have read the picture that way from the finished product. How interesting and brave! Don't you love just letting it come together!!!

    ReplyDelete
  32. This is such a fabulous design and use of colors. Great card! Thank you for sharing with us at Freshly Made Sketches!

    ReplyDelete
  33. That's a wonderful still life. The black background really makes the colours pop. Good on you for conquering your fears!

    ReplyDelete
  34. Love your still life bouquet especially!!

    ReplyDelete
  35. Thank you for the still life. The black is awesome and I would never have known you had a fear of working with dark backgrounds. It looks so natural.
    Have a grand week
    Nicole/Beadwright

    ReplyDelete
  36. I like your creation of the dark/black background. This is something I definitely want to try.

    ReplyDelete
  37. I just loved seeing how you created the dark background and your pretty blue vase!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for your comments; it's a pleasure to connect with you!