Saturday, June 14, 2025

Creative Mindfulness with Casey: Peru Inspirations.

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We have had two Creative Mindfulness Mather classes this month with Casey with prompts from Peruvian Art.

Mather Classes
Mather classes


Casey took a trip to Peru in May...and came back so excited about all the arts, fabrics, scenery of the country which she will be sharing for the month of June. 


Mather classes

Our first class on Peru was Rainbow Mountain or Mt. Cuzco, Peru. Yes, this is a real place. There are a ton of photos on this location, and it seems the colors are different certain times of the year. The shot on the right is an actual photo...and you can see the tiny people at the base of the red part, walking. Left is Casey's take on the scene.

Yes, the hues can be very bright, depending on the angle of the sun and time of year. 
Here is a clip of a Pinterest photo...

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I love the jacket that has all the colors and variations in it similar to the hills. The colors occur because of all the minerals in the different layers that were upheaveled when Teutonic plates converged and created the Andes mountains.

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Anyway, our prompt was to draw our own mountain, and hills, background and sky and fill in each layer with whatever color we wanted.

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Creative Mindfulness is all about getting lost in your work, and filling in all the stripes of my mountain with pencils was very soothing. I might try a water color in the future,  I  increased the width of the lines in the foreground, to give an idea of detail and closer proximity, and used more faded colors in the background hills. I scribbled the sky and clouds without any details.

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I used black Sharpies, pencil, eraser, and colored pencils, and later watercolor washes.

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I do love becoming lost in a project...it's the journey not the destination.

The next week, we had something entirely different.
HANDWOVEN FABRICS. 

Here I used a few pencils, markers, and some water color washes, and I chose to tape off some straight lines...because I simply can't make a long straight line....LOL.

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The patterns are from weavings in clothing and rugs. Peru is known for it's Alpacas and Lamas and some sheep, and the gorgeous uses of natural dyes and colors.


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We were encouraged to make lines, similar to the ones on the left example.

mather classes

A black and white breakdown of all the images in the block patterns was provided on a worksheet. 
Mather handout

Enlargement of some of the motifs used in the fabric example. These showed the simplicity of the images. I chose to use some for my blocks, as well as horizontal dividing bars to break up the designs. Again this was a starting point for our own take on the patterns.

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I used a light sticky tape for my 3/8" lines...way easier to do than drawing long straight lines and protecting the surface from my screwups while adding my designs.
 I didn't remove the tape until all the drawings and coloring with pencils was done. Once removed, I washed all the areas with earth-toned subdued watercolor washes.

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The muted washes filled in all the blank spaces and didn't overtake any of the pencil sketching. I did add the shading on the stripes afterward with pencils as they were too blank for the rest of the design. I criss-crossed my brushstrokes to give the idea of warp and weft. Here you can see where I removed my outside tape and then just had to add one more swoop of the brush.

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The larger images on the right and left edges were what I imagined would be on a rug. 

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I took some of the motifs from the right and enlarged them for the outside left, and similar for the right side. Again, experimenting with my take on the subject. 

Mather Classes

I really love these Mather Classes for the different artists/artforms we explore each week. I really enjoyed both of these artforms and the information on Peruvian art.

Again, Mather Senior Classes are free on Zoom for 
Seniors over 55....and are available, HERE. 
I appreciate the interaction and being able to ask questions, share on a community facebook page...and most important LEARN new techniques and materials, in a safe and congenial space. The instructors I've had,  are all Art Therapists and excellent.

Have you ever done 
Artwork from a vacation trip? 


All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own unless identified, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown.  














 

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Thrifty Art Supplies

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Finding Bargains in Art Supplies. 

I shop everywhere. Having been involved in arts and crafts most my life, I know how expensive it can be to buy new art supplies.
So, I keep my eye out at thrift stores, as well as closeout aisles, sometimes kits and everywhere else... for something I might need. Not that I buy new all the time...I don't.

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How many pencils is too many pencils?
This is my current regular colored pencils stash! I also have a set of Derwent Soft pencils in a set that was purchased after Christmas, cheap. Those blend very nice, but are soft and smudgy and not for details.

What I really needed was some watercolor pencils.


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Since this is OldNewGreenRedo, recycling and going green is always recommended. I just had to pick up this double set of pencils, lightly used, missing one of  the regular pencils and another side with...

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...all watercolor pencils. These are all Artist Loft, Michael's store brand for student quality art supplies. Well, but $2.99 ...was just too good a price at the local thrift store. (I priced a similar set at Mike's today, $24.99 just for the Watercolor set.)

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Wow...and this is a complete set...only the red and pink had been used a little.

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This WAS my pitiful selection of Watercolor pencils, before, and the green keeps on breaking, the blue is missing? Where do pencils go, same place as dryer sox?  

I will probably do a few pages of scribbles to assess which ones work the best.  I plan on doing some daily sketches in colored pencil and micropoint ink pens or drawing pencils.

HAPPY THRIFTING and PENCILING? is that a word?


All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own unless identified, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown.  


Sketchbook Revival Binge Fest with Karen Stamper: WILD GARDEN

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Karen Stamper was the instructor for this 'Wild Garden' multimedia foldout in my sketchbook. 

Karen is an artist who works in multimedia..is a firm believer in working in sketchbooks everyday in a million different ways. 

This particular exercise of the Wild Garden was to use different media: Charcoal, pencils, pens, ink, erasers, watercolor, crayons, resists, mono printing with leaves, scratching...you name it. All in like 30 minutes.

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She uses multi-page accordion sketchbooks. We were encouraged to add paper by taping to make an extra foldout in the sketchbook. I only did three pages, because I was slow. I had gathered materials together, but not everything that she was using.


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Karen is British and talks very quickly...so my scribbles of instructions are a bit garbled. And I write in a sort of crippled shorthand-my own version.

Left column: Wild Gardenm, Multi-media, Charcoal pencils, (drawing Pencils) SMEAR, Soft Prismacolor(white and black), black acrylic or watercolor paint, White eraser, ink pens, sponges, tape, scrub brushes, washi tape, black, fine point markers.
(forgot to write down, pastels, conte crayon, or oil pastel) because I didn't have those available.

Right Column: other recommends, inks, ink sprayer, water sprayer, water. 


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We started working across the page with broad scribble strokes with crayon or charcoal pencil. I used the charcoal pencil layed on it's side. These were to be 'trees/grass/ or branches. Next she wanted ust to scribble some leaves, then add white crayon or wax to make some blank spots, smudge some of the charcoal. We then added printed leaves with paint...I stuck my fingers in the paint and put some blobs, thinking they might look like mushrooms

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Here's my other note. In the middle of the whole thing I tipped over my water (small amount) and not wanting to miss any of the lesson, I used coffee with creamer from my cup to make some washes on the left side pieces.

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Resist was formed with the crayon, and I had a resist pen that made the tiny speckles...circles, loops, lines ---she encouraged all these movements...

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Here you can see the writing is bleeding through on the back side. I mistakenly grabbed mny alcohol spry instead of water and it activated the pen on the other side. I was really scurrying to keep up--so another lesson be aware of what you use on your surfaces.

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Is it art...no....I think it is exactly what it's meant to be...play and experimentation. I found some things I did in the heat of play I will use again. 

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Here you can clearly see the mono-print leaves (peppermint) and the mini fine print pen details of small plants on the garden floor.

Maybe even the coffee ....LOL

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I will definitely explore doing multiple page/accordian style sketchbooks. I have another prompt of hers that I'm going to try ...a city scape multimedia, and I'm collecting collage materials for that, which will be much more controlled and realistic. 

HAVE YOU Had FUN trying
 ANYTHING NEW
LATELY? 

Coffee watercolors Anyone?

Thanks always for visiting, 


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All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own unless identified, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown.