Sunday Painting and Collage Techniques

Hello!  Hope everyone had a relaxing weekend:)  Today the husband spent most of the day watching the final World Cup soccer match so I was able to paint out in my studio ALL day long!  *Lovely*

First I made myself a lovely and refreshing drink to keep me going:

This little drink is made up of cranberry juice and club soda with a squeeze of lime!  I am obsessed with club soda right now.  It makes everything fizzy:)  Also it is KEY to have a fun straw..straws make everything better:)

In my studio I decided to work on some collages.

I am using found papers from magazines, old envelopes, and basically anything pretty that catches my eye:)

Here is the matte medium I use to glue down my papers.  I use a paint brush to apply the medium to the back of my papers and also apply this on top of the papers to give a nice hold.  I also use the back of my paintbrush to burnish the top of the papers so they stick down.  Matte medium dries clear so it is a wonderful material to use for collage:)

After I have my collage pieces down, I use acrylic paint to paint over parts of my collage.  Here are some finished painted collages:

Once I have my painted collages,  I begin to paint my subject matter on a separate piece of paper with acrylics or watercolors.  

For this piece I chose to paint a coffee mug and saucer.

I also LOVE to use Golden fluid acrylics.  They are amazing for fine detail!

When my coffee cup was dry, I used an x-acto blade to cut it out and then I glued it to one of my finished collages with matte medium:

I also added some writing to my little painting with white fluid acrylic paint:

So that is what I did today:)  

Return to blogging!

Well...I am back!  I took a couple month hiatus from blogging because I honestly got sick of going on my computer!  I needed some time to just read, be outside and finish up school.  Has anyone gotten so sick of their computer and the thought of being online?  I just needed a break but now I feel more refreshed!  So here is some new art that I just finished!  I am on a lemon kick I think.  I just love how fresh lemons are (they smell amazing also!)  I can't stop drinking lemonade lately and just love the look of lemons in a bowl as a centerpiece.  So here are some lemon-inspired artworks:

And here is a painting inspired by just the idea of being able to eat and drink outside!  I just adore summer:)

I call this painting "Tea Alfresco"  Yay for outdoor tea (or coffee) parties!

Well all of this talk about outside is making me want to actually GO outside:)  I will leave you with two things.  1)  This lovely inspiration page I found in my "inspiration" file box. It is from Midwest Living magazing (2/2010) and the colors are just so fresh and summer-like.  I hope it inspires you as much as me:)

2)  I will leave you with this lovely song

Vespa!

Here is a little sketch I did on altered paper (I collaged tissue paper and painted gold paint on top) of a little Italian vespa.  I used a combination of charcoal pencils, paint and marker to complete this mixed media drawing.

Ciao for now!