Lost Aussie on the loose

Postcard Love

I've been playing with paint (the real stuff) for the last few days as I need to make some mixed media postcards for a Postcard Swap that I have signed up for.

Although I don't have too many painterly skills to boast of, I have lots of fun slapping watercolours, acrylics and inks across a page to make a colourful mess.
Best of all, I know that I can scan said "mess" and create lots of other goodness from my paper based fiddles and leverage them in many ways in Photoshop.  I can also alter the large scanned images endlessly, make new art, create brushes, play with text and well .... you get the idea.

If you are interested in Postcard swapping the sign-ups are open until January 20th!  It's an International Swap so you might get some cool art from some far flung places and the stamps alone will be fun to see.
Click on the Button above to go and check it out.

The Blue Night of Winter

"The Blue Night of Winter"
 

The cold chilly wind rips through branches bare,

winter's light falls on hard ground.

Snow missed but not lamented

knowing it will come soon enough.

Time to enjoy the sparkle of stars

that kick at cold clouds

dancing across the bright night sky.

Marie Otero © 2012

 

(Mixing media - a photo reworked and incorporated into an encaustic painting - with the painting then scanned and digitially altered in Photohsop.... with a few added words!)

What's Your Style?

A challenge is always a good thing (see previous post).  Pushing your boundaries and stretching beyond what is "usual" for you.
However it's also nice to work in your own comfort zone and style.

I'm often interviewed and asked about my "style" and how I would describe it.  I guess these days I am refinining the descriptors to " illustrative, (somehwat) surrealistic, photographic come painterly.

I think really it's mixed media, collage and painterly - if I could be bothered to execute all the wet and messy steps that it would take to create the same work with brushes, paint and medium.

I started playing with Photoshop LONG before it became fashionable - and it's always been a passion of mine to integrate the realistic with the digital format.  Where even if the image was printed you would get a sense of depth and texture.

So tell me about you.  Do you work exclusively in mixed media or can you integrate your digital files, dreams, obessions into your current artwork?

Getting Ornamental

...playing a little catch-up here and making ornaments for some exhanges that I am part of.  Needless to say there were clouds of glitter, glue and a whole lot of punched snowflakes flying around the room while they got invented, reinvented and then into production!

Now to brave the Post Office....

Re-Cycling Away

No - I'm not just twiddling my fingers and watching the grass grow - though it's doing a good job of that, all by itself, despite the fact that Winter seems to have come back for a visit!

We are making very very busy, lists all over the place, the Studio looks like a combination of a Staples store and copy shop.  My three "pooters" are all whirring away doing different jobs and I think DH will be quite happy when all of this Art n Soul business is off the table and he can find his wife (sane and sensible) again.

Anyway, as I was cutting up sheets of Tyvek and preparing Class packets this afternoon, I decided that it was the 'perfect' time to do something creative - total derail of focus - as I snagged a piece from my carefully grown pile and had at it with the printer and sewing machine.  My excuse was that I needed another "sample" to show students - well that works - right?

I'll be showing students how to work with the Tyvek during the AnS Surface Magic class as well as in the Online Class - which by the way is now FULL!  Thank you to everyone who signed up!  It was a rush and a roar and looks like I will need to hold another one soon!

Working with Acrylic Skins

I have been working on more Class stuff.  Messing with videos and a few other things.

So without giving away "state secrects" that "Paid" folk will enjoy, I'm going to use my Blog Buddies as guinea pigs for a little show and tell..  ENJOY!

Sorry the video is a tad long winded for such a basic procedure...but I am LEARNING as I go along (with the techno dweeb stuff)!

And yes, I know there is more to the story than I have shown you here, like how to make the skins and all that jazz....so there will be more about that at a later date!

Two and A Half - Family

For those of you who don't know, I have a very far flung Family.  My sons are in school in Australia, I have two brothers who live in Vietnam and my sister lives in the woolly wilds of WA, my parents in Aus' too and the rest of my Family live in the UK.

So this week it was a rare treat to have #2 son and one of my brothers in the same space.  It will have been nearly 3 years since I saw my brother Alistair, again in New York, and not long after we moved here (my how time has flown!)

It turns out that David might just be staying a tad longer than he had planned (secret Mom Happy Dance!).  He's here with 21 other boys from his school for a NYC Art Tour and they were supposed to head back to Australia tomorrow....but thanks to the smokey Volcano in Iceland, all flights to Europe and connecting destinations have been canceled and they are stuck here for the time being!!!  Of course it could also mean that we have 22 boys for sleep-over soon if the planes are not back on track!

Life.............never easy!

Oh and if you felt in need of a little art to accompany the post............I found my way to Photoshop tonight - in order to soothe my "soul" and concocted this new little ditty!...

So, that's all for now.  I have a suspicion that the weekend will be busy, fraught with travel aggravation and who knows what else!

One Down, One to Go

Wrapping my head around Adobe's InDesign - I have finally finished the first set of class instructions for Art N Soul.  A 12 page interactive PDF that students will be able to flick through and read during class as well as take away on disk and get all the benefits of the live web page links to resources and other fun stuff in the "privacy" of their own home.

I used DH as the guinea pig and he managed to follow along with the program, so I am hopeful others will be able to as well.

I know from experience that its no fun to take a class with no notes, bad notes or ones you can't really make head nor tail of after you leave the room - so I am doing my best to make sure everyone has enough information and insight so that  they can accurately replicate their new skill set after they leave the Classroom!

Both my classes in Virginia are now SOLD OUT - so if you have missed out you might like to try the Portland Venue later in the year!

Masking Tape Magic

Always in search of something new to create texture and backgrounds - I've been messing around with masking tape today.  It makes a great substrate for printing on and you can get quite creative in the brush department too.

And while blog browsing, I found this over at Kind Over Matter and thought you might enjoy it!

News from The Island

 I've been working away getting class instructions for Art N Soul ready, happily distracted yesterday by a trip to the town of Worcester in Massachusetts.  I'd hoped for sunshine and the opportunity to take some good pictures, but sadly the view was pretty much like this.....

...... all day long!  Nevertheless it was a fun day and a nice ride with DH, "NPR" and a visit to AC Moore while he took care of business.

I'm also rolling along on the love machine with the Hipstamatic iPhone app (me and a bunch of my friends!)  I've even discovered that you can buy "extra" film, lenses and other cool doodads for the app - to make it even MORE fun!



and finally before I go to bed (need some sleep as #2 son arrives from Australia in the morning! - more on that tomorrow)...
another Art Journal face that I worked on today!

Now - after checking Flight Tracker stats - it seems I REALLY need to go to bed as for once, the aeroplane might land early!