Life on the Coast

Sailing by the otters in Morro Bay Harbour. 

From the Bookshelf

This is one of the first books I picked up when I started keeping travel journals a decade ago. The author has spent many years roaming the globe and documented his travels with pen and ink and watercolour.  He offers advice on supplies, locations, and techniques. Every page features sketches and pages from his journals.  I return to it often for inspiration and eye candy galore.

Paper Neighborhood!

For our anniversary Margot surprised me with this cool set of architectural stamps from Paper Neighborhood.  By using them one can recreate any/all details of Italianate  buildings.

 I have barely started to play with them, but am looking forward 

to many fun hours of being an architect!

 
They come in a faux paint can with their own ink pad, though I'll use Rangers' Jet  Black Archival.  I'll post some results when I've designed my first structure!

Tag You're It!

I've been up to my ears in tags this week.

Colouring with Tim Holtz Distress Inks and stains

Stamping with a variety of designs; 

Christmas, birds, French, Alice in Wonderland,

Grunge with compasses,

And some just grungy, to add your own stamps to.

Six in a package and available at the 

Paso Robles Festival of the Arts later this month.

Paso Robles Festival of the Arts

Coming in two weeks!  Paso Robles Festival of the Arts

Join me for a day of mixed media fun!!

Suitcase Saturday - Pinterest Style

While checking my Pinterest boards the

 other day, I put in a search for suitcases,

and found a plethora of vintage beauties. 

For traveling, for display,

and even for cats!

9 Years of Happiness and Love

Nine Years ago today my beautiful wife Margot and I, surrounded by friends and family, took our vows and started an amazing life together.  Four years after that, we did it again and were legally married during California's 5 month window before Prop 8 passed.  We are incredibly happy and in all that time our love and happiness has not demeaned or spoiled anyone's heterosexual marriage.  Love only begats love -  and what can be wrong with that?

Renaissance Steampunk!

I first got the idea for these 5x7" panels last October  at a workshop with Anne Bagby.  We did clowns, but even at the time I thought it would be fun to try some with other themes.

The steampunk plan came to me a couple of months ago, and I figured on using Victorian line drawing faces as the substrata for the clusters of ephemera.  But after much searching, I didn't find anything that spoke to me.

Just last week, I had one of those lovely "A-ha!" moments and decided to use Renaissance portraits.  My all time favourite (I use her constantly) Raphael's La Fornarina", Leonardo's Ginevra Benci and the man with the unfortunate nose the Duke of Urbino by Piero della Francesca.

I printed out the pictures and then adhered them to the panels with matte medium.  I covered the backs with decorated paper and then rubbed the edges with rust coloured ink.  I then used a very small amount of gesso, dry brushing over the surfaces of the pictures to give them a softer look.  A length of Tim Holtz tissue tape was added to one side of each panel.

Then the fun began - delving into my stash and pulling out lots and lots of steampunkish embellishments, arranging and rearranging them on the pieces and finally affixing them all with heavy gel medium.

We all know that feeling when we've had a picture in our minds what a finished piece will look like and then it doesn't quite.  But we all also know how glorious it is when it turns out just the way we imagined.  This was one of those times and I couldn't be more pleased.

These will be available at the Paso Robles Festival of the Arts 

on May 25.  See you there!

Life on the Coast

A field of lupine - a feast for the eyes and the nose! 

Enjoy this lovely spring weekend.

From the Bookshelf

I recently came across this one on my shelf.  It had been awhile since I'd looked through it. Glad I did, lots of good ideas and solid techniques.  Features altered books by a wide variety of artists well known in both the mixed media and the scrapbooking world.  One of my favourite people, Lisa Hoffman, is featured with a book she created for her BFF Frani. 
 I'm pleased that as time as gone by there seems to be a lessening of the great divide between scrapbook and mixed media.  We use so many of the same products, techniques and materials and more and more  often the line is blurring or becoming non-existent.  And this is a good thing.  We can all learn from each other.  Artists like Tim Holtz and Seth Apter have demonstrated this time after time.  This book is a good compilation - whether you consider yourself one or the other (or a bit of both) I think you like it.