ATC Play Day

Some of my friends came to my studio Saturday and we had a 'play day' to make ATC's to trade. Stephanie, Shirley, Charlotte, and Carla came about 10:00 AM and spent most of the day. We took a break at lunch time and went to Panara to eat.

Some of the girls brought their sewing and embellishing machines and of course lots of fiber goodies galore. I actually cleaned up my studio and moved in an extra table so everyone would have a work space all to themselves. That's the great advantage of having a large studio....the downside is trying to keep it clean!

Here are the cards I made for the trade. Of course I had to finish them up on Sunday because I didn't have time on Saturday. I think Stephanie was the only one that finished 4 cards on Saturday. I was going to take photos of everyone working but I totally forgot!

Time Changes and Gumby's Friend

Here are a couple more ATC's that I made last weekend. Daylight savings time kicked in on Sunday and I'm still trying to adjust! I hate daylight savings time! I named the card on the left "Time Changes" which is my attempt at showing how I'm effected by the time change. The other one was made for a friend of mine that loves Gumby.....you remember the green flexible toy? She has Gumby photos posted all over her Facebook and they are hilarious! I made the little face a long time ago not even thinking about Gumby so when I started making ATC's I decided it was the perfect size but needed some arms and legs. Then I joined Facebook and discovered Mary's attraction to Gumby so wah-la "Gumby's Friend" was born. He now lives with Mary and Gumby.

Now it's finished

I made a few changes to this still life painting and now I think it's finished. However, I reserve the right to change my mind again and add more paint but I'm ready to move on to the next one.

I still have two other paintings that aren't finished and one fiber piece that is getting close to completition. I will need to paint a canvas to mount the fiber piece on and I'm looking forward to that project. Of course, I will use acrylic paint for that canvas.

ATC's are therapy

I made a few more ATC's this weekend. I ordered a variety of blank atc cards made by Strathmore to use for the back of my felted atc's but they would actually be better for painting or collage work. I cut up old cereal boxes for these and they work perfectly. I'll use the Strathmore cards when I have the FAD group over for a play day.

Studio Still Life

Last week was very busy and stressful but I made time to paint over the weekend to retain my sanity. Carla came over and we set up a still life. I wanted to try my hand at painting a still life after taking Dan Robinson's workshop a couple of weeks ago. I felt like I had learned a lot in his class and the best way to find out is to paint. I compared this painting to my old still lifes and I can see a vast improvement. I know I still have a long road ahead of me but at least I can see progress.

I included a photo of the actual still life setup. I thought that might be interesting to see but I took the photo in different lighting so it makes a big difference. Of course there is a bigger difference in the way I interpret shapes! Wow, now that I compare the photo to the painting I can see lots of things that would need changing if I wanted it to be a exact replica. I would rather my painting be a interpretation of a subject.