Lost Aussie on the loose

Layers and Layers

Life is like art at times, and vice versa...
There are layers..and then there are "layers".

Up to the individual to divine the veracity or validity of each in it's unique situation!

So, aside from rather delightful 'banker wife' duties this week, I have been hard at work in the Studio.  Creating mixed media pieces for a collaborative project and having a lot of fun with prototype making along the way.

The artwork above is one of those traditional "gel and goop" things with a transfer of an altered photo atop.  The base media, whether you can see it or not is Aluminium Foil with layers of gesso and paint. (and no, that is not a typo, where I come from its ALUMINIUM!)

The next offering is a digital piece.  There are some 20 digital layers to this piece.  No paint, no gesso, but plenty of depth and interest none the less...don't you think?

Illio Friday - Multiples

I made the mistake of peeking into my mailbox before heading to bed tonight and saw that the Illustration Friday topic for the week was "Multiples".

I create many pieces of artwork that are parts of Series, but none more wonderful than the two small men who are nearest and dearest to my heart!

With eyes as big and bright as the wide brown land they live in, smiles always ready to say I Love You and Hearts that encompass their world of Family and more...what better "Multiple" could I create???

This one is for you guys..
xoxoxoox Mum

"Wot" a Lot of Snow!

Even after living in Europe and the Northern US for many years on and off, the sight of copious quantities of fluffy white stuff never seems to lose it's thrall (except of course when you have to shovel the darn stuff!)

So at last count there was a good 6" of snow decorating the outdoors in a splendid blanket of white.
I may even get outside later on and make a snowman for the boys - as I don't think I will be going anywhere else!

When In Doubt..

...go make ART!

I have finally managed to haul the Muse out of the deep freeze and have been working non-stop in the Studio all day today.
Just as well DH is in the middle of one of his massive merger thingies, leaves early, comes home late and doesn't really see what he is being fed or that nothing has been done around the house since he left at 6:30am!.

Once this current project is complete I am going to get down to designing some NEW STAMPS for my art pal Catherine.   She is the most talented PMC and jewelery designer and will be teaching and vending for the first time this year at ARTFEST.  If any of you are going, I wholeheartedly advise you to stop by her vendor booth early to snag something wonderful so that you are not disappointed!

The new stamps will be designed especially for mini projects and charm making, either with PMC or clay of any other sort and will initially only be available to Catherine's students and at her table at Vendor night.  After Artfest they will be available for sale on the Lost Aussie website.

And with that I'll say ciao for now..

Photoshop Farming

I'm in procrastination mode at the moment, and have been for a few days. 
Supposed to be working on a particular project and it has my head twirling and my studio looking like something out of the Post War Blitz era with rolls of paper and transparency strewn on the floor, paints and gels littering the work surface and a bunch of prototype pieces layered across any horizontal surface ....

So to soothe the muse, today I resorted to one of my favourite pass times and went "Photoshop Farming" - a small personal phrase that describes my spending copious hours browsing across the internet for tools, tricks, actions and filters to 'soup' up my CS3.  I suppose it's a little like when guys go and get shinny mag wheels for their cars or buy bits to make their engines go faster, or in some cases, just louder!

Todays fun find..and heaven knows where I ended up getting it, as I had trawled the web for ages, was a cool little kaleidescope plug-in.  If you are interested, I do know that my search began at http://graphicsoft.about.com

The result was a re-invented piece of seagrass tha now looks more like a seaurchin with star appeal and the piece below started life as a bit of train wreckage.  Kind of cool huh?

The Things You Do Late at Night

There I was at 12:30am tonight, tucked up happily in bed, draped in cats and watching the end of Bagger Vance when I suddenly realised that I had some 130 photos on my camera that I took today and had not downloaded.  So, I slipped into my trusty UGG boots (of the genuine Australian variety, thankyou) and made my way back to the studio....

We'd headed off to the City this morning in search of various things but had stopped first at one of the massive cemeteries alongside the LIE (Long Island Expressway) where I have often spied copious quantities of cemetery "art".  It was a most rewarding little side trip with lots of different angels in all shapes and forms, snapped at happily and stored away.

We then headed to the Fashion district, around 7th Ave and 38th St, where I was keen to find "Mood" Fabrics, of Project Runway fame.  Sad to say the store is not open on Saturdays, so pics along the way were all that was to be taken.
More success was had in finding a few of the Flea Markets we had bookmarked (courtesy of Google), not so much for the junk for sale but again the pics to be had.

Topped the day off with a little tour of the Union Square market and art displays as well as some very tasty brew beers and seriously hot Jalapeño Poppers (to which I am particularly addicted).

Amazing how much fun you can have when it's FREEZING!   

.... so here are a few souvenirs of the day!
Enjoy!

ps. Tha's not my hubby at the bottom, it's the owner of the mannequin, who he claims is the cheapest girlfriend he's ever had!

OWOH Winners

The following five people are the lucky winners of the Lost Aussie OWOH giveaway.  (The winners were picked at RANDOM using one of those number generator thingys)

I'd like to thank each and every person who left a comment!  The response was awesome.

The winners are as follows:
Angie http://arttvisionz.blogspot.com/
Joee http://thecartbeforethehorse.blogspot.com/
Sherry http://gotart4u.blogspot.com/
Laume http://laumesstudio.blogspot.com/
Angela http://altermyworld.typepad.com/

(OH and the reason I'm a tad tardy posting this today is 'cos the Matchbox 20 concert lastnight was AWESOME!!! and I snatched a few extra zzzzz'ds today...quite exhausted I am!)

Roses Are Red...

...and you can't complain when a dozen of these beauties arrives on your doorstep from "The Loved One"! Thank you Dahlink!

My other delightful Valentine's gift (which I did know about before hand) is tickets to see Matchbox 20 tonight!  Faboo or what?

And for those of you who have entered the OWOH Giveaway, the winners will be announced tomorrow (as soon as I'm up and about!).  So good luck, fingers crossed and a big thanks to all the wonderful participants and Lisa for organising.  It has been quite a blast!

Happy Valentine's Day to One and All

xoxox

Go Ahead, Make MY Day

I had a lovely surprise when my blog buddy at the Altered Page kindly nominated me for his You Make My Day Award. Seth is a very active and inspirational blogger, showing off both his own wonderful creativity and seeking out that of others.

In keeping with the spirit of this blog award I'm passing it on!  The rules for the "You Make My Day" award are to name 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blog land. Let them know through email or by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. I present this award to the following 10 artists, in no particular order:

Carla Naron
Carla Kurt
Christine Baier
Sarah Fishburn
Catherine Witherell
Robin-Marie Smith
Emmy Tofa
Catherine Moore
Denise Lombardozzi
Julie H
...and backattcha Seth!   Thanks again for nominating me!

And for today's art offering, another "Val" themed piece.  This one is just for heartwarming purposes.  I've already picked out and printed the giveaway postcard art!  Can't believe that there are sooo many comments on the OWOH post, it's really going to be quite the lottery to pick just five winners!

 

Oh and PS, my friend Christine very kindly sent me this wonderful scan of a card that she's made using the Lost Aussie Stamps. Oh to be such a talented and creative Stamper!

 

Ciao for now

"Heartfelt" Postcard Series

This is another piece created for part of the OWOH Postcard Giveaway. 
I'm blown away by the number of entrants for this great event and have been and visited many many new blogs as a result of all the comments and links posted here.

If you are interested in participating via my blog, don't be shy, just leave your comment here right up until midnight EST USA Feb 14th.

Creating in front of my computer has been a warm and welcome pass-time today.  I popped outside to run some errands earlier and could not believe that the temperature was a MERE 21F!!!  I can't even imagine what that is in Celsius.  I only know that it's not the sort of weather that you strip down to your bathers and meander along the beach in!  Brrrrrrrrrr....