Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Art, Food and Drink!


                                            (see the complete painting towards end of post)


 Hello all! Thanks so much for popping in this past week again. Always good to hear from you! I hope that those who celebrated Mother's Day this past Sunday had a really lovely day. I was lucky to have a two day celebration. Saturday hubby and I walked into town to have dinner and ended up hopping around to several of our favorite places, then seeing a phenomenal band before getting home late:)

 We started out at Tapas on Main which I have mentioned many times (think sangria!) for a drink and a small plate of cheese, bread and a dark cherry compote. It was a gorgeous day and so many of the outdoor tables along the way were full. Sadly we were too late to catch the sidewalk art show (you can see some of the closed tents in the back). From there we went to dinner at the Hotel Bethlehem for a fabulous meal. I was so into it I forgot to get pics - our crab cakes were divine!

 It was still fairly early so we went back to Tapas to check out the evening's entertainment -and stayed til the end. The Craig Thatcher Band was there -guitar, drums and violin-and wow!! They played a mix of rock and blues standards and some Celtic and all three guys could not have been any nicer. I even got to hold the special 1932 violin the young player used when he told us the story behind it. Awesome evening.

 Sunday I made dinner for my Mom and our son joined us too. His girlfriend Kyra stopped by for dessert . It's only been a few times since we met her but she is the sweetest girl-and she even brought me a bouquet of flowers...awe

 The art part. Last week my friend LuAnn and I got together for an afternoon of some serious gelli plate printing!

                       Lots of paints, stencils, mark making tools, and paper products to print on!

 We used up every space we could to lay our prints out to dry:

                                                     from the stovetop and counters...

                                                                       to the floor

 This is a print LuAnn did that we both thought was just the coolest:

          I love the bold colors and it appears to be multi-dimensional even though it isn't!

 We also tried printing on stickers for the first time and they turned out great! Have you ever done that? If not, go to your office supply store and get a variety of sticker sheets to play with next time-FUN!


  This is a page in my 9" x 12" journal. I used scraps of gelli plate printed deli paper to cover the page.

  And this is the start of a portrait:
 I'll share the completed page in a future post. Not quite sure where I'll go with this yet. The face template is courtesy of Effy Wild.

 Another journal page:


This is only the background which was done by collaging various napkins to the page. I decided to try a technique shared by artist Melissa Johnson on pgs. 28-31 in Somerset Studio Jan/Feb 2015.

 And here is the completed page:


 In the detail photo at the top of the post you can kind of see the bits of mica flakes sprinkled on the page. I'll definitely be doing this again!

 Linking this week to T Stands For Tuesday, Art Journal Journey ("the sea" theme); Mix It Monthly (theme is -"a happy couple"); Art Journal Every Day; Art It Friday-Show Your Face; and Paint Party Friday. See you there!

          "The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever."    Jacques Cousteau




46 comments:

  1. Those paintings look real nice. Best wishes!

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  2. What a lovely day you had for Mother's Day, and then to follow it up with another for your own, great fun indeed! Love the gelli prints, they look fabulous.and I love what you have done with the stickers too!

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  3. Wow, Linda, what a fun week you have had. From spending time with your mother and son, to getting flowers from your son's girlfriend, it sounds like Mother's day was wonderful. And it sounds like your Saturday might turned out great, even though you were too late for the art show.

    I am in awe of your gelli printing. What a fantastic amount of papers you made. Makes me think i need to give my gelli one more chance. And that was great napkin art, too.

    Thanks for sharing your wine, your art, and your gelli fun with us for T this Tuesday.

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  4. Fantastic painting Linda a WOWSER is this!
    Great you had such nice days!
    The prints look fabulous as well and your page in progress.. you seem to be on a roll!
    Thank you very much for joining Art Journal Journey again Sweetie!

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  5. What a fabulous Mother's Day weekend! Family, flowers and good wine.....can't top that!!

    I have resisted getting a gelli plate, but love all the prints the two of you made. I had to giggle at them laying EVERYWHERE. Art should ALWAYS be on TOP......on top of the stove, on top of the table, on top of the counters............LOL

    Thanks for the earlier visit, loved the comment, always enjoy them.

    Happy T-day

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  6. lovely layers and lots of great artiness

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  7. It sounds like you had the perfect Mother's Day celebration! :)

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  8. Fabulous projects Linda. I am itching to use my gelli plate now. But I don't have it with me here. Do keep us in your prayeRs. We are planning to fly back home by the end of this month.
    Hugs
    Susan

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  9. What a busy week you have had. The flowers from son's gf are ever so pretty, that was very nice of her to bring them for you. Your craft session was very productive indeed. Lovely results. :o)) Happy T Day :o))
    Thanks for your lovely comment for Wee Man, he is amazed that other people know some French too, lol :o))

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  10. Awesomely full post Linda.

    Those gelli plate prints look a m a z i n g ! ! !

    Karen x

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  11. Love the life and and the art captured in your pictures. And as ever envy you and LuAnn the close proximity which enables you to art together.

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  12. Sounds like you had a super fun weekend and lots of great fun art!!! Love the pages you created :)

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  13. Looks like you've had a great week...food AND art.......perfect.

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  14. Looks like you have been pretty busy enjoying good company, food and entertainment!
    So nice that you can walk to town and enjoy the sidewalk cafe. Oh, and look at all the neat gelli art you created with LuAnn, too!

    At least we both put most of our Basil to good use before the plant fizzled out!

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  15. Love all your work this week, and especially the wonderful journal page for Art Journal Journey! Hugs, Valerie

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  16. Linda, your happy dolphin couple is so lovely, in fact everything in this post is lovely and heart-warming.
    Thanks for sharing so much.

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  17. Sounds like a fun night! What pretty flowers she brought!
    Love all the gelli plate fun! I had just seen a video on using sticker sheets and would love to try that one day. Fun post!! Happy T-Day! :)

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  18. So pleased you enjoyed your day! I love tapas so very jealous. Your prints are great as is your watery undersea world.

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  19. You've been busy and sound like it's been an exciting week since Paint Party Friday. Love your gelli prints, they are so colorful. And the napkin collage is really retro and fun.In fact, they are so pretty fun.

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  20. this Looks like a wonderful gelli session! the dolphin journaling is gorgeous!

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  21. From wine and cheese to family and Gelli prints! Life is good. I have a gelli plate that I haven't played with lately. I do believe your lovely prints have inspired me to dig it out again. Thanks for sharing. Keep smiling and creating. Happy T-DAY

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  22. This looks sooo awesome! I love that there are palmtrees seen in the one of them and that the blue from the water is so translucent...it feels as if I was underwater, swimming with them ;)
    ♥ Conny Mix It Monthly

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  23. What a fantastic bunch of papers to play with for future art. Sounds like an amazing week. xox

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  24. The completed page is beautiful, looks like you had a great week too.

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  25. What a week to remember Linda! Your face is so pretty, looks like she is wearing her hair up:-) xxx

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  26. Fantastic work Linda. Just beautiful. Looks like it was a wonderful weekend. Very nice.:)

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  27. So glad you had a lovely mothers' day! I don't have a gelli plate so I'm always fascinated to see how people use them. I love how you created using yours - such amazing depth of colour on them. xx

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  28. Looks and sounds like you had a wonderful Mother's Day... and I chuckled at your comment about space when creating Gelli prints ~ I can relate! Lovely art!

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  29. Gorgeous geli pages Linda and sounds like a fabulous much deserved celebration! The girlfriend sounds like a keeper! Love the flowers!! Very nice sea painting too!!

    Hugs Giggles

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  30. luv all your pieces today, the beginning portrait sparked my interest, would luv to see it completed

    have a nice PPF

    much love...

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  31. Sounds like you had a wonderful day! I'll be interested to see how she develops Linda, Thanks so much for linking to Art It Friday - Show Your Face. Kx

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  32. Hope to see the finished face because the holds the promise of something special xx

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  33. Gorgeous work, Linda. The pages look like so much fun to create.

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  34. Sounds like you couldn't have had a better weekend. I can relate to finding empty surface spaces for the gelli printing and I will have to try it on stickers.

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  35. Thanks for the lovely comment and not calling me Karla ha-ha! Made me laugh. Enjoy your weekend.

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  36. Linda, your dolphins are beautiful!

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  37. Beautiful sea voice that does speak to the soul. Love the backgrounds. Thank you for visiting and your sweet words! :-)

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  38. Exquisite compositions! Wonderful colors and textures, I love !!

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  39. Loads of beautiful gelli plate backgrounds and finished art!

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  40. Fabulous art work, you've been very busy!

    Love and hugs
    Maarit

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  41. All so lovely here! That sea piece is great, I can feel the depth of the ocean, beautiful!

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  42. Really, really beautiful piece! I love the idea altogether (haven't read my issue yet ;) and I bet the mica sparkle up a storm! Plus, all those papers make me swoon ;) Happy Belated Mother's Day - your son's girlfriend sounds just lovely ;) xo

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  43. Linda, I love sangria. Ours are perfect!Your pagesand the bouquet are mesmerizing and the dolphins are superb. That quote by Costeau is so true. I live in front of the sea and I think it pit a spell on me a long time ago. Can't live without it!

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  44. oh, those gelli plate prints look like so much fun. I really need to get out my plate again and experiment some more. Your portrait started out fabulously, and I love your voice of the sea painting!

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  45. Linda ~ love the 'voice of the sea' creation ~ hope you are well ~ Hubby is handsome ~ you are blessed ~ more distant healing reki energy to you ~ xo

    Happy Week to you,
    artmusedog and carol

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  46. Fabulous to see the beginning of your beautiful lady along with so many other fab creations dear Linda!
    Your 'voice of the sea' piece is so you too = really lovely!
    oxo

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