Back to a little journaling..........................:)

I just finished a painting for an upcoming show and it was a very emotional piece, for me, which I will share in near future.

I felt like I had to get back to some journaling.

These are pictures of what I recently created in my sketchbook journal. You'll see the whole spread, here, and then the individual pages. I love quotes and used two of my favorites for these pages.

The one quote at bottom of spread (handwritten) with the butterfly covering the woman's face is:

"Happiness is a butterfly
which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp,
but, if you will sit down quietly,
may alight upon you." Nathaniel Hawthorne

The other quote was stamped (Tim Holtz stamp) with white acrylic but it's not showing up clearly with my lack of picture taking :). But; here is the quote; I love this one:

The CREATIVE is the place where no one else has
ever been. You have to leave the CITY of your
comfort and venture in the WILDERNESS of your
intuition. you can't get there any other way, only by
taking RISKS and by not quite knowing what you're
doing. what you'll DISCOVER will be wonderful, what
you'll discover will be YOURSELF!

WOW right?

Hope you are all safe and happy; enjoying your week and getting lots of art time in for yourself. I love sharing with all of you and have been visiting your Blogs and am constantly inspired by what you are creating! Seems like you're all discovering YOU! Enjoy!

Love to all............................Marilyn xxoo

Online Workshop Fun to share......................:)

I just recently completed a fantastic online workshop that I discovered on the Creative Workshops Online website.

The workshop instructor is Jodi Ohl.

Jodi offered a Faux Encaustic Workshop and it has been so much fun I was sad to see it come to an end :).

I am sharing the canvases, here, from the beginning to end. The bottom is the first layering and the top picture is the final project. The process is layers after luscious layers, of collage papers, stamping, doodling, journaling, mediums, charcoal, graphite, gesso - you name it!

The theme is seasons and we could choose our colors and images - I just had a blast!

I intend to start another series very soon! Thanks, Jodi, for a fantastic offering!

Wishing you all a wonderful, safe and artful weekend.

Love to all.....................Marilyn xxoo

Untitled, 9 x 12 mixed media on art board.........

I've discovered the joy of creating on art boards. This is a picture of one of my recent works that is done on a 9 x 12 piece of maple art board. The surface is so wonderful to create on and very forgiving. The board is very acrylic, oil, watercolor and pastel friendly :) However, I do prime the surface first.

I haven't titled this piece. I'm sure it's hard for you to read but at the bottom left-hand corner there is an excerpt of a poem that was written by Carole Fults, a friend of mine, who not only writes poetry but is a fantastic photographer and painter. She honored me with some of her poems to use in my work. The excerpt here reads:

"I want to be long enough in one spot so that the trees hold memories of me within their hearts...."

I thought these words were fitting with what I created for this piece.

Wishing you all to be safe with your day and hope you are having a joyous week.

Love much - Marilyn xxoo

Really cool postcards..........................

I love participating in giveaways even if I don't win. It's just fun to be part of them and the anticipation of who is going to win and maybe even me :)

This is a picture of my second win participating in a giveway. I won two each of these beauties!

They are the coolest postcards created by Roben-Marie Smith

Check out Roben-Marie's really neat envelopes that she makes. Click on her name, above, that is highlighted and it will lead you to her site. She has a video of her creating these unique envelopes! Way cool!

These very creative postcards will soon be offered in Roben-Marie's online shop.

Thank you, Roben-Marie, for a terrific opportunity!

I am thinking of all of you and wishing you a safe, joyous, and artful week ahead!

Much love .......................Marilyn xxoo

Masked Text papers........................

In my previous post I mentioned that I made some collage papers at my Altered Book session last Friday evening at the Albany Art Room.

While our altered book spreads were drying, I shared with students, a fun technique working with old text pages.

I love old text and scripts and love to have the original pages show in some form.

Here is a picture of some of the papers that I made. We used the Adirondack Spray Inks that come in luscious colors. I wanted to use these autumn-like colors to use in a mixed-media piece that I will be working on soon. I got out my favorite masks and just had fun playing. I really like the result and cannot wait to start using these papers! They take a little bit of time to dry but worth the wait!

Hope you're all safe, having a good week and getting some art time in!

Thinking of you all..............................Love, Marilyn xxoo

Altered Book spread..................................

This past Friday evening I conducted an Altered Book Club session, at the Albany Art Room, and we all got to work on our spreads.

I love script paper; especially from really old books. I have such trouble covering up the print and it doesn't matter what it says unless it's something; well ya know - kind of "off color". :)

This is a picture of the spread I worked on during our session. As the page was drying I worked on creating some fun papers with left-over script papers, Adirondack spray inks, and masks. I will be sharing those in near future.

The altered book is very near and dear to my heart. I just love creating the spreads without a particular theme in mind; just playing and very free-flowing. That is the beauty of it I think.

I was recently approached by the Director of the Albany Public Library and she asked me if I'd be interested in conducting a two-part altered book workshop this coming Fall. I am extremely excited about this and I'd like to add an exhibition of the books in time!

Again; thank you all for your lovely words, you leave here, and for those of you who visit and can't leave comments but I know you're out there :) Your friendships mean the world to me!

Hope you're having a good weekend; wishing you to be safe for your day and upcoming week.

Much love - Marilyn xxoo

Paperbag Studios :)

Paperbag Studios is one of my very favorite websites It is owned and operated by Roben-Marie Smith. I had the privilege and opportunity of attending an art workshop with Roben-Marie in Florida, some time ago, and she has inspired me ever since. Her rubber stamp offerings just call to me and I feel are so meaningful and emotionally charged. Her website also offers wonderful digital art that can be downloaded for scrapbooking, journaling, greeting cards, etc. I have also been thoroughly enjoying Roben-Marie's videos on her site. I really love her spontaneous approach to journaling. Go here to see :)

Roben-Marie honored me, recently, in asking if I'd join her Creative Team! I immediately accepted with much excitement.

Here you will see pictures of my first samples that I did to meet Roben-Marie's July stamping challenge. I had to create samples using any Paperbag Studio rubber stamps with the theme Home Sweet Home.

When you get an opportunity, check out Roben-Marie's July stamping challenge on her Blog. You will have a chance to win a very generous coupon! The winner will be announced in early August.

Thank you all for your wings of constant support and friendships. I've always said I couldn't fly without you!

Be safe and have a joyful weekend ahead.....................Much love - Marilyn xxoo

"The Gathering", 16x20, mixed media, canvas

Our weather wasn't that great, this morning, so I decided to continue with a mixed media piece I've been working on over the past couple of weeks. I call this The Gathering. I still have a bit more to add but I always like to take pictures of my work as I'm creating. It helps me to step back, a bit, and check color balance and composition.

The first picture is of the actual piece and the second picture is of it that I flipped into Photoshop adding some cool filters. The digital picture appears that the "gathering" has multiplied by quite a few :) I liked that effect.

It's clouding up here, again, and we're going to get some more storms. The one, just before noon was a doozie!

Thinking of you all and hoping your day is being good to you! Love - Marilyn xxoo

Foiled....................................:)

I had some etched and painted aluminum foil left from my Zetti ATC's (previous post) and decided to use it on this 6 x 6 piece of hardboard to create a mini mixed media piece.

We've been enjoying our weather, here, the past couple of days. The sun has been out and no rain with very comfortable temperatures; hope you are experiencing same.

Thank you, all so much, for visiting and leaving your lovely comments. Your support and friendships I could not do without.

I wish you all a safe and joyous week filled with lots of art time :)

Much love.......................Marilyn xxoo

For the love of "Zetti" :)

I am a faithful visitor to Marion's Blog and she is offering an ATC exchange that I just couldn't turn down. The theme is Zetti. Zettiology is a rubber-stamp company that offers these marvelous haunting images with rubber stamps and collage sheets. I've always been drawn to them.

These are my creations for the swap. The backgrounds are created with etched household aluminum foil that has been painted with acrylics and alcohol inks. (the picture isn't that great due to the glare factor with the foil).

I really enjoyed getting back to ATC's and I loved getting out my favorite Zetti image and altering her a bit to add to my backgrounds.

Thank you, Marion, for a fun offering!

Wishing you all a safe, joyous, and artful weekend! News flash! It's NOT raining today! Yet - anyway :)

Much love to all of you.........................Marilyn xxoo

Joy of Friendship :)

My first picture, here, is a 5 x 7 mixed media collage I created for someone special :)


I hope you are all having a good week. Our weather, here, is terrible! We've had rain and storms, each day, for the past week. We get torrential rains with hail, thunder, lightening - a real mixed media of nature :)

Our streets, here, in the city were flooded last night. The drainage system could not keep up. Many cars were stuck in high water and people had to be rescued from their vehicles. And; there's more rain coming today! We are hoping this terrible weather pattern shifts soon.

The bright spot is I am dog sitting for a friend of mine this week and Haley (5-year old Golden is a delight). I took a picture of her, yesterday, to share. She's the perfect house guest!

All be safe, I'm thinking of you and hoping you're getting some art time in. Have a joyous day!

Much love - Marilyn xxoo