Brush Tub and Blog Break

I don't, at all, consider myself a "product pusher" even while teaching workshops. But I came across this neat brush tub the other day. It's made by Loew-Cornell, Inc., although there are many brands on the market. I saw this in Michael's and picked it up with my coupon. The tub is made of very heavy plastic although there are other metal ones but didn't think I wanted to invest quite that much.

Anyway; I brought it home and gave it a whirl while working on a painting. I love this tub! It comes with a nicely snug cover and as you can see from the inside picture, here, the edge has different size holes for holding brushes. At the bottom of the tub are two sections. There is a water line to guide you as to how high to fill the tub and as you can see, from the photo, on the left - there is a lined grating of sorts and this is for swiping your brush back and forth across the grating to clean off the paint on your brush. It's marvelous and works like a charm! The section on the right has areas to hold your wet brushes while you're working with others.

I do have a tendency to leave my brushes in water for awhile and I know I shouldn't. But; I really love this brush tub and had to share with all of you. You may already own one or have seen them in magazines or on the Internet.

On another note; I am going to take a Blog break for a couple of weeks. I have some art projects I have to finish for an upcoming show, I want to work on some ideas I have for future classes, here, in my area. I also signed up for a womens' artist retreat that is coming up soon. I can hardly believe it as I signed up for it at the end of winter! WOW! I'm very excited about this; it's artsy as well as time to take, for ourselves, to listen to some inspirational speakers and enjoy beautiful surroundings.

I will certainly share my experience, with all of you, on my Blog, in future post.

In meantime, all stay well and happy. Know you are all in my daily thoughts and will miss you. But..............................I will be back :)

Love and peace to all...........................Marilyn xxoo

Belle Jardiniere

This is a journal spread I worked on this weekend. It's layered with tons of crinkled tissue paper. I sketched the figure right over the crinkled tissue once it dried and painted over; I love the wrinkled, aged, effect of that! It was fun to paint over, too. Note: if you click on the picture, here, you can really see the tissue paper wrinkles.

I normally stay away from true green; don't know why but I decided to try it as I wanted to create a balance between the two pages. On the left side is one of my favorite tissue papers which I'm almost running out of and have searched and searched for it to no avail. I even went back to the place I originally bought it and the store is out of business. Oh well; I can keep it, here, in the journal as a memento. Plus; the small piece I have left, I'll scan into my computer. That will help, too, for the design.

I hope you all are enjoying your weekend; it is still quite warm here. We've had unbearable heat and humidity. Today is a little better, we even have a breeze, after some violent thunder storms came through in the night - yikes! There's always a price for something isn't there? We paid a huge price for this lower humidity with the storms - they knocked down trees and power lines in some areas. It could have been worse; everyone is okay but any time we have this constant build up of humidity, we know we're going to eventually get these storms. So; I'm going to enjoy this less-humid day as much as I can because the humidity will be climbing back again this week.

Thinking of you all, hope your upcoming week is safe and happy!

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

Journal while you wait :)

Well; the Internet switch/transition went quite smoothly. We are now "FIOSed" :) The installation took awhile; about 4 and a half hours-yikes! But; it was successfully done and I am now serfing at the speed of sound :)

While I had time to chill here while the service man was working, I turned to my journal. I felt like taking a leap - a color leap! I'm finding I really enjoy adding some surreal colors to a face as well as using more vivid colors in the surrounding piece. This is a mix of mediums; oil pastels, graphite, acrylics, glitter paint (in eyes).

My actual journaling reflects my thoughts on how I'm always so afraid to go with color. It's fun to take a "leap" once in awhile; spices things up :)

Hope you and yours are all doing well and, again, thank you so much for your positive and supportive feedback. I truly couldn't take leaps without you!

Love to all; may you have peace in your heart and mind.......................Marilyn xxoo

"The Secret To Life"

"The Secret to Life" is one of my favorite James Taylor songs. I think it captures, for me anyway, how to try to live my life as best I can; simply by enjoying the passing of time. It transcends my mind to more simpler thoughts; pleasures and activities and how to incorporate them into my daily living. I play the song a lot.

Life can be stressful, for us, that is certain but I, for one, am so glad my creative spirit decided to be there, for me, when I needed it the most. It was there, waiting, with perfect timing :)

I recently picked up a small journal so I could carry it with me if I choose. Or if I just want to practice some small sketches and the pages are thick, enough, to handle wet mediums.

This journal page reflects the joy I feel for being able to turn to my art no matter what I might be going through; such a peaceful and joyous time even if it's for an hour that I can take for myself. It also reflects my feelings of joy for being able to plant my cone flowers successfully :) as well as the joy I feel spending time in my home, creating art while sipping on a new-found flavor of Fresca - Peach!. Ah; the simpler life - simple pleasures; enjoying the passing of time. The Secret to Life :) Thanks JT!

I tried a new technique, with this sketch. It's a little "ghostly" but I like it. It's sketching with water-soluble graphite pencil then going in with Gesso. The Gesso smudges the graphite but I actually like the effect. I was going to leave the sketch untouched with color but decided on combining some acrylics with Conte crayons. As I mentioned, this little journal allows for the option of paints, etc.

If I'm a little quiet, this week, it's because we are having our Internet service switched over and although I don't see any problems with the installation; one never knows about these things. I'm hoping for a quick transition. We shall see :) One can only hope :)

In meantime, stay cool, healthy, safe and may you all experience the simple pleasures, of life, in your day so you can enjoy the passing of time.

Thinking of you all - always. Love much - Marilyn xxoo

A "twofer" or maybe a "threefer" :)

I have felt like a recluse these past few days with this unbearable heat and humidity we've had all week. Today, at least, it's raining and we are supposed to be getting a "weak" cool front for today and tomorrow. But, by Monday, we'll be right back in the HHH's. I'm whining aren't I? Sorry.

Anyway; being held up in the air conditioning, here, the positive spin is I'm getting a little more art time in. Here is a picture of what I refer to as a "twofer" as it is an exercise in journaling as well as portrait for my online classes. I decided to add some violet to the face, as shadows, and liked it vs. always going in with gray tones. Sometimes when I look at, not only the colors in my face, but others, there are other hues in our skin especially around our eyes. I find it interesting. So; if you are with me, in person, and you find me glaring at your eyes and surrounding features, it's because I'm studying the colors around your face :)

For the "threefer", I am not a gardener, per say, and would venture to say my thumb is not green (speaking of colors); more like blue (on the cool side) :) I'm not very successful with planting flowers or vegetables but, this year, seems to be a little different for some reason. All my flowers are at the front of our house. I am very much attracted to black-eyed susan's, daisies, and especially cone flowers (ecchinachea-spelling?) or as I refer to them, here, as "cone head" flowers. I know they can be spindly but there are different varieties and the picture, here, is of a successful planting of mine - woohoo! I just love them and also - maybe they will ward off a cold or two - lol! Isn't eccinachea a herb that is supposed to help when you have a cold? Can't hurt right?

I wish you all a safe and happy weekend.

As always; I so appreciate your visits, here, leaving your caring and supportive comments that continue to keep my wings in the flying position. Thank you!

Much love always - Marilyn xxoo

Blog Award and Journal Exercise :)

I wanted to share these two items, with all of you, as they happened upon my life on the same day :)

The sweet and cuddly bear you see, there, symbolizes a Sweet Blog Award I was given by Diane of http://dianesalter.blogspot.com/. Please check out her Blog when you have a chance; her art is so creative, filled with color, perfect shapes and design! (I apologize for not being able to "highlight" her name for her Blog link but Blogger was not cooperating with me this morning). Must be the heat.

Thank you, Diane, for this honorable award and I was absolutely thrilled to receive it. One of the rules of the award is to reference 10 other Blogs for the award. I know Diane will understand when I say this is one rule of a Blog award that I cannot fulfill. It's because all the Blogs that are linked, here, which include my followers - I want to honor with this award! I can never narrow down a number. My inspiration comes from all of you! Again - Diane; thanks SO much!

The second picture, here, is an exercise from the recent Journal 365 online course that I am taking from Pam Carriker. It is one of the best things I've done, for myself art-wise, in a long time. For this lesson, we were to use our own artwork (previous journal pages), color copy them and turn them into collage elements and without much thinking on it, randomly adhere the torn elements to our journal page, add oil pastels, graphite, acrylics and turning the page into one cohesive piece. It's amazing how a "tossed salad" of sorts with your own artwork can product a blended and meaningful page.

It is so hot and humid, here, as I know others are suffering with it, too. I am keeping positive thoughts that this heat wave will end soon. We are supposed to get a bit more comfortable over the weekend with storms predicted. At this writing, the high 80's will seem cool :)

Is it September yet?

Thinking of you all; be safe, cool, and know you are all in my thoughts.

Much love, Marilyn xxoo

Journaling

I hope you and yours had a safe and happy 4th of July weekend. For some, here anyway, it is an extended day off as many businesses and government offices are closed today.

I made some time to work in my art journal, this weekend, in between tending to outdoor chores, grocery shopping, watching the World Cup, laundry, family events - how do we all fit things in?????

Anyway; this spread reflects how my mind has been swirling around with all kinds of thoughts; some conflicting, some thinking of art workshops I want to do in future,personal art projects, things I want to do to complete a goal or two I have for myself this year. Time is such a factor with all of this and it gets frustrating, at times, that I set out to do some things and then - well; life happens.

The figure in this spread is one that I sketched and painted; model from a magazine. The body language just was perfect for my feelings and the swirls, in the spread, reflect how my mind has been spinning with stuff.

I'm sure you all go through this. And when it happens, how do you handle it? I guess one of the things that I did, this weekend, is MAKE time for myself and just did it - like Nike :) I put some things, on hold, a bit, so I could work in my journal. I was itching to get to it.

Sometimes I can't fully relax, creating art, knowing I have so many things to do. Does this happen to you? I've got to learn to let some of this go - let the dust bunnies turn into elephants, let the laundry go a couple days, let "them" eat cake! :)

Well; this rant felt good! Thanks for listening :)

Enjoy your day; hoping you have today off from your work so you can relax, a bit, and like Nike says - "just do it"! Make time for yourself - create some art!

We're in for a heat wave, this week, with temps climbing to the high 90's with oppressive humidity :( - maybe that will force me to stay inside with the a/c and work on more art! We shall see. I wish you cool temps and art time this week.

Much love to all of you! Marilyn xxoo