Using Photoshop Elements 4

I haven't posted in quite a while. I haven't bee doing any art til these last few days when I have been playing with my Photoshop Elements. I am trying to learn from a book and by "just doing".It's been interesting.

My Mother passed away on Dec. 4 and I miss her very much. She always loved to see what I have been working on and I think I got some of my talent from her. My Dad was pretty good at drawing as I recall. I don't know if they would think doing digital art was really art but technology in art is really catching on. Here is something I created yesterday with a background that I had painted and Photoshop brushes that I downloaded.

comments appreciated. Jean

Happiness

I gave a Mixed media collage workshop at the senior center in North Ridgeville Ohio for 8 ladies yesterday. This painting "Happiness" is the result of my demo. Sorry about the glare. there is a lot of texture in the painting. I used metal gutter guard as a stencil with Heavy gel medium. The result was a snake skin look. I also used some gauze and handmade paper with inclusions

The Bird Sings

this is my latest painting. I did a photo transer of my daughters face then painted over it ,making some changes. I also collaged and stamped using acrylics.

"Summer's Day"

I just finished this 16x20 painting on watercolor paper using image transfer, collage, rubber stamping and acrylic painting. I'm trying to get some artwork together for my art league's annual art show in September. I hope to enter these last two. Need to get them framed now.

New artwork

I got the idea for this from an article by Misty Mawn in Cloth, Paper, Scissors July/August issue.I did an image transfer of parts of a Davinci painting then painted over it with acrylics. Its on a 12x16 canvas board. No title yet.

new pin project

I got the idea for these on artizine, So cute. I made this one from an vintage button,aged copper and clip art.

I need to get busy and do some paintings. the Fireland area Art league art show is coming up in September. I would like to have 5 pieces of art to enter. I could enter some photos and jewelry also.

My hubby,Don, and I went to Medina,Ohio, Sunday, to "Art in the park". They had some really beautiful art on display. It was very crowded and it looked like people were buying too.

close up of beeswax house

Here is a closer view of some of the houses.

The "angel" with the maple seed wings is my Mom.

Her are some photos of the projects I have been working on using beeswax as the final coating.I paint the roof then adhere papers for the background and add scanned photos and other embellishments on the houses. I used large puzzle pieces and made wall hangings and small puzzle pieces for earrings.

Beeswax collage on large puzzle piece

My whole house smells like beeswax(and thats not a bad thing). I've been making anything I can think of using beeswax to sell at a local apiary gift shop. I've been doing greeting cards,little wooden houses and collaging on large puzzle pieces. Its been fun.

reworked last painting

I haven't posted for a while. Been working on some beeswax collage cards and little wooden houses for a local Apiary and gift shop.

I reworked the last painting and like it better now. I posted it on the wet canvas website and took their advice as to what might be done to improve it so here it is. Hope you like it. Please let me know what you think.

I just finished this one today. I actually painted liquid watercolor layers on a whole sheet of printmaking paper then cut it into smaller pieces and added further layers of acrylic ,collage and stamping. so I still have 3 more pieces to work on.

un-named abstract

I just finished this last night. I used layers of transparent Golden acrylics along with interferance and iridescent colors(which don't show up well in the photo) and added some tissue paper collage. Did stamping with various items.

first abstract collage

This piece is something a little different for me. I can't believe how long I struggled with it but I like the way it turned out.I started with tissue paper from a gift bag on a gallery wrap canvas.added paint ,some dry brush.then the leaf. It's 8x10.

Polaroid emulsion lift

Did this at the workshop too. Kinda kewl. Mark photographed my peacock feathers then we put it in boiling water and lifted the emulsion to watercolor paper.

This was composed of a vintage photo and some peacock feathers, taken with Mark Greggs (the teacher) Polaroidcamera,then transfered to watercolor paper.

Polaroid transfers

I went to a Polaroid transfer workshop yesterday sponsered by the Firelands Area Art League. This was from a photo I took with my digital camera.It was a lot of fun,however, I don't have the equipment to do this at home. :-(

I finished this one yesterday and really enjoyed creating it. I love the poem that inspired me.

painted background

The background is a digital photo I took of a very textured painting I did then added a photo digitally.

There was something about my collage"Beauty" that bothered me. ( Look at earlier post)The man in the lower left corner! he looked like he was falling. So I took him off and put another"beauty" in his place. I think it looks better.What do you think?

solvent papers

Here are some samples of the solvent papers I did at our meeting Saturday.

Art Gang Ohio meeting

We had a great meeting today. There were 7 of us attending. We did "show and tell", some fun techniques ,ate our lunch then made "turp papers" only we used Citrasolve today. They turned out really neat. We also used white on white fabric for a backfround technique then used Elmers glue as a resist and used Neverdull on magazine pages.. As usual the ladies were generous with handouts for everyone and snacks too. We meet on the 4th Saturday of the month at my home in New London Ohio. I will get some pictures put on here of the "turp papers" I did.

Admiration

This is at Kellys Graphics and Art in Milan Ohio.It got an honorable mention at the Firelands Art League art show last fall.

5x5 matted to 8x8 in gold frame "Imagine"

I used spackling,tyvek,UTEE,polymer clay,wire.bead,natural stone. this photo doesn't show the detail well at all.

Just finished this one yesterday

This is matted with black to 16x20 size.this title is "Beauty".
There is gold foil in places that doesn't show up very well in this photo.

Snow and polaroid workshop

Another snowy day! My hubby and I went out to feed the livestock(2 cats,two guinea fowl and the wild birds) and shovel the walks and clean off the cars. them went to town to get the Sunday paper. My hubby likes to "play in the snow". the roads haven't been cleared off yet.
I took my cane,it helps me get through the 2 feet of snow, and went back to the Guineas pen to feed them and they weren't there! Theymust have flown back in the woods to roost. They do that sometimes. Probably so the coyotes don't get them.
I received a newsletter for the Firelands Area Art League yesterday about a Polaroid transfer workshop taught by Mark Gregg. It's on March 17 at the Salvation Army Community room in Norwalk Ohio. for more information call419-668-0786. Sounds like fun! I'm planning on going.

This is one of my recent mixed media collages.
I don't have it framed yet. It's about 12x14.

My very first blog

I have decided to join the bloggers. So here I go! I love doing all kinds of art but I'm not very productive at times. Sometimes I can't get the creative ideas out fast enough and other times I'm a total blank. Thank goodness for my very inspiring friends that belong to our "Art Gang Ohio" Yahoo group.
I'm in the process fo trying to frame one of my mixed media collages. I went to the craft store today but didn't have much luck finding what I needed. I guess I will have to order what I need or spend some extra $$ and take it to a framer.
Do most of you artists frame your own art or have them done professionally?