62 Huge Happy Dots “What if . . .” + 15,000 coffee filters from Costco + leftover paint water + too many art supplies + lots of idle time = 62 huge happy dots Even the napkin I used at lunch was part of the fodder party. Ecoline liquid watercolors, acrylic inks, alcohol inks, India ink, Distress stain, Neocolor ll, oil pastels, and dirty paint water were the mediums used. Ghost prints from inky water left on the waxed paper underneath turned out quite nicely. 

  Flow Art Going for the grunge; accepting what is, and letting it all flow. Weekend retreat hosted by Jenny Grant. The first part of the retreat we made a zine journal from a single piece of paper. In my case, I used an old file folder (I have hundreds of used folders left over from our winter filing cabinet purge), collaged on top of it, and painted random mark-making embellishments. I wish I had taken a photo of the whole collage before I folded and cut it.  After folding and gluing pages together and while waiting for it to dry, I set about making a book band with an old rusty piece of metal  that was part of a framed collage of pins and other artifacts that I got for a few bucks at the Garibaldi Museum yard sale many years ago. I have no idea of its original use, but it took quite a bit of thought to figure out a way of fastening it. Fun to get out the old beads and leather from my jewelry supply stash.  Decorating the cover was an act of serendipity. Some found...

 Fodder School 3: May Project This month’s lesson, taught by Susanne Randers, is relaxing and uncomplicated with minimal art supplies (so far). I needed that kind of project. I love her introduction: The first part of each month’s lesson is fodder making. Floral doodles was right up my alley. Loved it! Next lesson was painting various substrates with Ecoline liquid watercolors. Glad I already had a large stash of those. (Some papers did not accept this medium well.) I  decided to use her color palette, as pink, yellow, and green is a palette I have never used before. Guess what? I like it! (Colors shown are much less vibrant than they truly are. The pigment and light fight each other in my camera.) Now for lots of mark-making with a variety of funky tools . . . skewers, sticks, feathers, straws, bottle caps, kitchen tools, ink droppers, credit cards, markers, etc.  Final fodder making lesson is making portfolio pages and cover. This calls for spray inks, and I am resistin...

  Windows to the World Challenge May challenge by Louise Browning @artsolute_beginner. 4 weeks in May to do watercolor backgrounds and fun abstract doodles in grid patterns for the #windowstotheworldchallenge.    My first grids. A 4-grid and a mixed grid. Fun to watercolor again! Now to brush up on my tangle repertoire, as I haven’t tangled for quite some time . Funny how the patterns become less mentally accessible without diligent practice. We’ll see what happens.  I love painting with metallic watercolors! First piece is completed! 

 Abstract Play Some wild and crazy play days as spring arrives. Lilacs, rhodies, azaleas in bloom. Purples, pinks, blues , greens , and whites abound. Learned some new abstract play from Andrea Garvey. Lots of fun acrylic ink wash made with my own hand-mixed inks. Chemistry and art. Colors I rarely use. Incorporated found text and finished off yet another art journal. And now working in a new larger journal notebook.  New journal cover: