I LOVE my Stabilo pencil

OK, so what is a Stabilo pencil? It is a water soluble, rich, black pencil that you can smear with your fingers, blend with a wet brush or just draw with. If you use it to draw, say a face, then paint it with acrylics, all sorts of nice shading happens almost magically. These pages are in my art journal that I use to do demonstrations for a class I teach at the St. Louis Artists Guild every Monday morning. I will start a Saturday morning class in June so watch for info on that or check the guild website.

So, the demo last week was on how to do a pop-up page. we use discarded old books as recycled..upcycled (!) art journals. I usually glue two or more pages together to give them some body and then gesso them. In this case I drew a flower with my faithful Stabilo pencil, blended and accented it, then cut off all the excess paper just leaving the center part that I had drawn on. without the weight of the extra paper, the page just pops up! In this case I added a quote from Colette regarding memories of flowers..which is, after all, what a drawing of a flower really is if you think about it.

I had so much fun with one demo, I had to do two! This one I painted the gesso on very thinly so some of the original imagery appears softly in the background. this book is about ballet so there are dancers doing a little flower dance around my popped up poppy.

I really liked the sketchy effect of these drawings. It gives them a nice sense of life and immediacy. Me and my Stabilo are off to play together again today...This time with a bit more color and some collage. Mr. Stabilo, where ever you are: hugs, kisses and please don't ever discontinue these yummy pencils!

A real winner.....

This piece will be one of many amazing art works that will be available at the St. Louis Artist's Guild's Collector's Choice event. The opening party and chance to see all the works is on May 20 and the  bidding is on June 12. The ticket buys you a chance at one of the paintings and a great dinner as well as two great parties. If you are in St. Louis it is worth grabbing a ticket or two! This one was actually inspired by a trio of much smaller pieces I did some time ago. I decided not to part with them....but began a new series, which I am loving! I just finished another one yesterday and have a third background already done. I love these colors and shapes.there is always a sense of mystery about what lies beneath us. I actually worked as an archaeologist back in Texas and the entire concept of these lost secrets right below our everyday lives is enchanting to me. Trees seem to know it all. they are so much older than we are in some places and their very roots are tangled in those ancient mysteries. What tales they could tell, if we could only hear them? Sometimes when I am sitting beneath the trees in my backyard and the wind is just strong enough to set the leaves to whispering...especially in the Spring when a few blossoms can join in the conversation, I think I can here those stories. I try very hard to listen. It helps a great deal if you take off your shoes and wiggle your bare toes into the grass a bit..getting directly into the soil is even better. You can hear everything better and even colors and shapes seem brighter, stronger...even the wind. So these fine whisperings and secrets turn into images in my head and out comes a painting. Who says there is no such thing as alchemy? A recent description of my work that went out on the Internet via Somerset magazine included the fact that I taught Alchemy. YES!!! By gosh, I do and if you don't believe me stop by one of my classes ! The Saturday classes start up this summer and Monday mornings are the same time every week. Alchemy lessons!

So when my love of playing in the dirt and listening for tree songs really takes a hold, I dive in hands first and garden. I just added a new flower bed and enlarged my veggie garden. Last week I planted morning glories, poppies, a real fairy garden (it said so on the package...right from the Missouri Botanical Garden) all edges in a border of fragrant thyme. I thought this one should look good and smell good. I planted an old bird cage and stand right in the middle so the morning glories could climb up and around and make a little sanctuary in the center. Last year I had a toad living under the tomatoes. Every single day my furry friend, Demi would stop by and sniff around for that little toad, but he had his tomato sanctuary, all safe and sound. So new growth inspired the piece above. You can see the bulb with its roots has a story in it, if we look closely enough. We may not be able to understand the particulars, but we can get the idea. Imagination isn't necessarily making stories up. It is being open enough to the stories around you in Earth, Sky and Wind. It is being able to stop all the outside noise in order to hear the inside story. OK, maybe it is taking dirt and turning it into gold..alchemy of nature to alchemy of paint. I love it!!!!

Icon workshop

There has been much ado here in Middle Earth! In reviewing my photos for this blog I realized I have left out so very much that has been happening in the studio. I have totally rearranged my little studio area, attempted to impose some sort of organization on my class materials and, on top of that, been painting madly. It has been a wonderful whirl and I will catch you up over the next few days.

To begin with, last Saturday I taught the Alchemy of Icons class at the St. Louis artists' guild. We had a wonderful time. This first piece is my demo for the class. Start to finish with no additions afterwards. I love how her face developed. The collage layer is pretty wild. You can see some of the paint textures and a dictionary page behind the figure.There is gold gesso both behind and on top of her. What a tale she could tell with her round sun harp and unusual breastplate. Her halo actually started out as a photo of bowl of roses! Her gown is an image of the queen's room at Versailles!

The most important definition of an icon is that it is created as doorway to another world. They were created to amaze and focus our attention and lift us above the everyday to a place of wonderment. The soft and timeless glow of gold underlines the other worldliness of these faces and figures. Our more modern touch is the layering of paint, collage and more paint and maybe even more collage to make an icon for our times and place. Everyone took that inspiration and ran with it to places no one else had ever been to build images no one else has ever seen. ALCHEMY!!!! Turning the everyday into the amazing. A joyful wonderment for me as well as for the artists that joined me that day. We centered ourselves by drawing our way into a labyrinth, a mystical journey to that level of openness and a path to the place where we can find the courage to let loose our visions. What fun!

The above photos are Marsha and her icon beneath. Marsha has never really painted before and I love her colors, her originality, her absolute courage. The details are amazing. Everyone was amazing! You can see Marsha's labyrinth on her worktable. Marsha...paint some more!

This is Mike and his icon. Mike is usually a sculptor who does a lot of work with kids in third world countries. Mike, you have a great future as a painter, collage artist, icon maker and whatever else you want to be. I can't say enough about how wonderful everyone was. I will post more of the work that was done at the workshop. We actually had TWO men participate... both Mikes ! Each work was amazing. Some folks even skipped eating to keep working on their icons. I tried to encourage them to keep up their strength with coffee and chocolates...next time we may need to call out for pizza! I hope everyone was inspired enough to keep on creating their very own icons.

Sleeping on the job

No, I haven't been snoozing...in fact, I have been painting madly, drawing near to my pup and slapping glue where no one would dare.. OK, the last one may be a bit out there. I HAVE been remiss in posting photos and showing new works so I have spent this softly grey day..perfect for photos..doing just that. I started drawing Demi a few months ago and try to get in a few sketches every once in awhile. It was a bit easier when DH built a fire in our fireplace and Demi decided it was the perfect place for a little snooze. she can be a very active model and wants to play more than stand still for something she just doesn't quite get. I can see it in her eyes.."Ms Kathy, just what are you doing with that piece of paper and little stick in your hand and why are you looking at me so funny?...what should I do? roll over? Dance around your feet? Run and get Mr. Steve ?" Hard for a puppy to figure these things out. Hard for me to measure the distance from her eyes to her nose! charcoal works best because it is quick and I can adjust the darks and lights after she has wandered off on me.

She gets disenchanted with me and won't look at me. I drew her anyway. Funny little fuzzy! I really didn't want to work from a photo and though DH would prefer a showdog type piece of artwork, I love these sketches because they are full of life and the things she really does.They seem more alive.

After all that work, we had to celebrate...new classes, new venues, all sorts of fun. I just needed to work with some sunshine colors and do something just a bit silly. It says the word "Celebrate " across the bottom. and "You" on the top, with a tipsy tilted cake in between. I had fun just splashing around, doodling in the details and creating something just for the love of it.

This last little puppy face is still Demi, but very foreshortened in the nose area. She likes to sit at the top of the stairs, Queen of all she surveys, waiting for me to plunk down beside her and tell her what a wonderful fuzzy she is. she is really quite vain and requires this of me at least once a day or she sulks. My funny girl.

Will you join me?

Would you join me for lunch. It's been a busy day and I could use a break, some conversation, a few giggles. I've made you a nice lunch, some oranges, cheese and wonderful whole grain sourdough bread. The sun is especially nice and warm and I'll open the windows just a bit so we can hear the birds singing and chirping. I think they are building several nests in the trees just outside the dining room window!

I've been busy in the studio all morning, planning a whole new series of Art Journal classes, an Icon workshop, a painting for the St. Louis collectors choice event. In the middle of all that, I am doing some new paintings and sketches. So many things are drying on the floor and table that my poor Demi dog is afraid to come in the door. she comes in a few steps, sniffs a bit then just sighs and looks for a less busy place to take a nap. I love being this creative, trying to figure out how to make my classes fun and informative, how to create new art journal pages and how to take a break for lunch!

I am sooooo excited about the icon class, which is here in St. Louis March 19 at the St. Louis Artists guild. I've got some brand new icons to share as well as few new tricks up my sleeve. Hope some of you can come and join me!

Spring Fever

Oh, I am so loving these promising days of warmer air, the smell of the earth and garden catalogs all over the house. It seems I go awol regularly, especially if I wander out the door to run the quickest of errands...I wind up making detours to wooded trails and lakeside wanderings. SIGH. I know it will get cold again before I REALLY have Spring to celebrate. In the meantime, I feel like a big old sunflower turning towards the sun every chance I get. I can get stopped in my tracks just crossing a parking lot by that warmth on my face spinning me towards it and just holding me there for enough moments to make me smile at my own silliness.This pretty above is really an orchid. I have been in awe of by sister-in-laws who seem to be able to call up their orchid blooms again and again. . My mother-in-law also had a green thumb with these beautiful exotics, but mine always died after they bloomed. This specimen was given to me by my husband at last years orchid exhibit at the Botanical gardens. It has done me right by blooming its little head off this year and I am just so proud of it for not keeling over.

My friends are wondering just where I have wandered off to with comparative silence on FB and other media. I have had a lot on my mind as you can see by this little doodle. I am still working out all this money and business stuff. Taxes due. A sad anniversary coming at me. All that and a spiritual journey that is leading me to question so much in my life. Not in a bad way..in a very good way, but it all takes time. Then there are the things I really WANT to do. Writing articles, sending off packages to Far Away California, painting my heart out.

Then there is the nesting thing. My little family of man and dog who need to be fed and petted on a regular basis. A house that wants to invite more folks in for dinner and laughter, a yard that wants to bloom, furniture that wants paint, cakes that want to be baked...um..lemon blueberry bundt in the oven this minute.....I want to do these things, too. I love my nest...a teacup of a nest. Fragile, delicate, yet in a very wonderful way productive in the sense that new things always seem to be growing...created, invented.There is just so much potential in my little space and I want to light it all up!.

Distracted.....

Oh my, I have been a very bad blogger, I have. My brush has been a magic carpet taking me all over this city from downtown to U City to my haunts in Clayton, back to Kirkwood with very few stops at my nest in Creve Coeur. Excuses, I know, and I apologize to any who visits here looking for a few new photos or artworks ! My class at Clayton just rocks and we have such a wonderful group over there journaling madly , creating the most wonderous imagery in their recycled art journals. The angels conspire to bring together such a group but rarely and I am truly blessed to be their teacher. That said, any artist needs inspiration themselves and the wonderful Misty Mawn never ceases to send me off to the studio to fling some paint about. I am participating in her latest online class and this doodle drawing is one inspired by her week of drawing challenges. It started at the circle design in the center, which is actually a sketch for a carved stamp I had worked on several weeks previously. I just let my gel pen wander about the page and suddenly I saw a hat, and if I saw a hat, I needed a head..so the face was actually the last thing I drew. It was so much fun, I've done a few more since. A sketchbook and a few pens transport easily and I sat in the Art St. Louis gallery doing my gallery sitting duties and doodled my three hour stint away in what felt like minutes. This could be addictive.

Last week I doodled, sketched and collaged my heart out. Then my brush took me to my church where I painted a funny, Happy dragon on a child's rocking chair and a huge floating banner with a splashy Christian fish symbol the very next day. My brushes are beginning to think they live in the car instead of their cozy studio. Me, too. You can see the happy mess on my worktable. it is a very happy mess, let me tell you!

Oh I have finished quite a few pieces and I will try to be a better little blogger and eke them out over the next few days. The snowstorm, which is still blowingly white outside my window, has clipped my wanderings for a few days. The upside of that is some high quality cooking time...cupcakes and enchiladas, stuffed sweet potatoes and spicy stir fries have been scenting the house most deliciously. This last piece sat on my easel throughout most of the holidays wondering just what she was doing. You see, she had misplaced her wings and just could not fly...but she was hopeful...very hopeful. These were different colors for me. I am trying to step outside my beloved quin red, titan buff and Quin Gold to some limey greens, some bright turquoise and a splash of magenta. I really think I am trying to channel Springtime in the midst of all this white stuff! I am reading the autobiography of Isadora Duncan. she writes, in one passage, of being in Italy and becoming enchanted with Botticelli's Primavera, meditating for hours until she has an epiphany regarding her own creativity. Primavera is also my own favorite. I own a copy from its home museum in Florence and the colors and figures always seem to me to be promising warm, scented breezes and barefoot dancing in the grass. SIGH......So these brighter springier colors are calling and it is time to wander back to the studio. Stay warm and cozy!