De's Gesso Soup for WOYWW

We had my kind of cookery lessons

in art class today.

There wasn't an oven or a saucepan in sight.

My teacher has invented a new

technique and has called it

Gesso Soup.

It's probably the only cooking

I've ever enjoyed.

It involves gesso (well duh), water,

paint, bags, onions, noodles,

 and a whole lot of

slopping and glooping.

Yes, it looks a bit garish but it will lay almost flat

when it dries and this technique is guaranteed

to cure all sorts of ills, just like chicken soup.

There is already a textured layer of goop

under here and this will add to the texture

without texturing. 

Yes, it's texture without texture.

No I haven't gone stark raving mad

(well any more than usual).

It looks really textured but it is in fact

virtually flat and then it's easier to paint on

and I can add texture only where I want it.

See.... really clever huh.

 I've finished my bird and just sealed it

 It's all shiny from the sealer and hard to get a photo.

There's a ton of mica paint and it glows in the sunlight

just wish I could get the glow in a photo.

My boat is finished too.

Same shine problem.

They are both going into a show soon,

hope they sell.

I am picking up a new pair of glasses tomorrow

so I hope to get around to lots of WOYWWer's

but if I don't it's because of the glasses.

I explained the problem in my last post

here, if you're interested.

If you want to see other desks

around the world today,

go over to 

Julia's Stamping Ground

and have a visit.

I'm going to cook up some more soup,

mwa ha ha.

 

You lookin at me?

My post title can be used for two things

the first is the actual title

that I've given my bird painting

that I've finished at long last.

 Well, look at that face, doesn't

it just say "You lookin' at me?".

The second title is a little more scary

as I think that it'll be me saying that 

after thursday next week.

Why??

Well, I've finally done something that's 

either very dumb or rather clever,

that is to be determined

(keeping in mind that I'm blonde).

I've ordered a pair of graduated glasses

cos I'm fed up with wearing two pairs

and yes that is at once.

If I need to see something more than three feet away

 I need my long distance glasses

but to see anything close up I need my reading glasses

and many a time I have both pairs balanced precariously

upon my nose.

So it's graduated glasses for me.

Now I'm going to call them layered glasses

because I only went to grade 12 

(high school to non Aussie countries)

and I'm blowed if I'll put some stuck up glasses

onto my nose that think they are better than me

and "graduated" college.

So layered it is, just like my paintings

layer upon layer of goop

and ink

and paint

you get the picture.

When I went to order my glasses they kept on

saying, you'll adjust to them easily,

just follow your nose.

Now that is a scary thing in itself,

imagine following your nose everywhere.

If my nose is a bit bent at the end

I could find myself spinning around in endless circles

just like a dog with it's tail.

Or I could be permanently cross eyed

trying to focus on my nose and nothing else.

Argh, the mind boggles.

What have I done??

At least I was a little clever,

I've finished all of my paintings for

an upcoming show.

They just need sealing now

I should have at least three coats on the boat

before the dreaded layered eyes arrive

and I've drawn up and started another canvas.

Now I just have to hope that my nose

leads me into the studio

and not into the wall.

Mind you, that could knock some sense into me.

Linking up to PPF.

 

 

 

Back to painting and a win for WOYWW

I've been AFK (away from keyboard)

as my kids would say, for two weeks.

Yes, it was the dread of all parents,

school holidays.

I survived with just a little bit of art but now

I'm rearing to go.

One good thing I did on the holidays was

to get a huge skip bin, toss out heaps of

stuff and complete my evil plan

to take over the lounge (mwa ha ha).

It's mine, all mine, ha ha ha ha ha.    

See that big space in the middle, 

I'm going to get a huge piece of heavy plastic

 and use my long fold up table to do lots of sloppy

prep coats on lots of canvasses at once. 

 That way I can keep on working in my studio.

It'll be like a big production line of canvasses

all at different stages.  

You may notice that I have a lot more inks on my Ikea

trolley and in the pot on the floor.  I came into some

unexpected money!!!

Remember this painting that I took to a show?

It sold and I won the Peoples' Choice Prize!!

I couldn't believe it. The prize was cash so I 

bought a heap of inks to play with.

Which brings me to the scary part.

I am going to attempt to ink this canvas

 

at home, all by myself with no De Gillett,

my lovely teacher, to help stop me screwing it up.

 So, if you feel the earth rumbling and shaking tomorrow,

don't panic, it's just my knees knocking together in fear

 as I squirt copious amounts of ink all over my canvas.

I have a paper bag handy just in case of hyperventilation,

hmm, might need it now just thinking of what I'm doing

tomorrow.... ARGH....

While I go suck on a paper bag,

may I suggest you go over to

Julia's Stamping Ground

and see what's on the other desks around the world.

Breath in, breath out,

yep that feels a bit better,

just hope I can keep it together tomorrow...

Eyes, beaks and a little less punk for WOYWW

My desk this week is pretty bare

and waiting for me to start

back on my bird painting

 I've been madly painting

eyes and beaks this week.

My parrots were living up to their

cheeky, naughty reputation

by fighting me all the way.

I just couldn't get the beak right on the front bird,

I was pulling my hair out at one

stage and all that did was hurt,

me, not the bird. 

After a lot of swearing and threatening 

to wring their rotten necks,

they finally started to co-operate

and the faces were in

They'll need a little bit of tinkering but almost there.

I resisted the urge to add rings through the beaks

as I knew their punkness would be toned down

in class today.

Tone down is an understatement.

Those who know me well, know that I really

hate the colour brown, don't know why,

but we discussed this in class today and the 

general thought was that in the eighties, the colour 

for most houses, both walls and fences was

mission brown.  I don't know if you had that colour overseas

but here in Australia it was everywhere.  If it stood still

it was painted mission brown.  

The trouble was mission brown was the dullest

most ugly brown you've ever seen and my parents

loved it (ugh).  

We think my hatred of this colour stems back to

seeing that awful hue everywhere and

having it burned into my retinas.

My lovely teacher, De decided

I should tone down the punk colour with,

you guessed it, brown....

Of course I hated it, so we compromised and

added some purple, much nicer but still very brown.

As usual and I say this with my eyes rolling,

she was right and the colour was just right.

Sorry about the picture angle and the lights shining.

The pic is still very wet and my arms are very short.

Here's one a bit closer.

My punk birds aren't so punky now.

I bet the top bird can't wait to get his feet painted so

he can land on the branch.  I bet his wings are getting tired,

ha, that'll teach him for making it hard to paint the beak!

Next week I'm going to turn up to class with

"Yes De, you were right"

written on my forehead,

that way I can just flash it at her each time she is right,

AGAIN!!   (sigh)

Well, that's my week and desk.

If you visit

Julia's Stamping Ground

you can see what's on the other desks

around the world today.

 

 

Punk birds and splodges for WOYWW

It's been a big week again

with things happening on

four different canvasses.

Firstly to my desks

Some of you may remember that in a

moment of sheer madness a while ago

I cleaned up my studio

(I still shudder at the thought of it).

Well, you will be surprised to know that 

it is still reasonably

 (that might be stretching it a bit)

tidy

 (please note, you can see the floor).

There is just a bit of mess on the desk but it looks 

far worse than it actually is (cough, cough).

All those bits of paper up on the high notice board are

my filing system for phone numbers and

the rest are bits of paper with ideas on and general

junk that lands there.

This is my gooping station, where I put all my goop

in bags to keep it fresh and ready to play with.

Here is my storage area, where my paint, inks and 

all sorts live.  There are a few shelves with my

"pretty things" on.  Whenever I feel flat or I

can't find my mojo, I look at all those lovely things

and it helps with the inspiration.

I haven't shown you all the corners, 

hey a girl has to 

have some secrets!!

So painting wise, I sealed my bird painting,

finished the jelly fish painting and sealed it as well.

Just have to add the hangers when it is really hard.

Most of the week I've been bent over my new bird canvas

and yes my back really aches.

I've nearly finished gooping, just the bird to go now.

I've got so much goop on that sucker

that it's gonna weigh more than me

and that's saying something!!

If you visited me last week you would have

seen my cockatoos (here).

Well they have had a little change in attitude.

I give you the the new

Punk Cockatoos

Oh yeah, this is really in your face type stuff.

I'm starting to really panic now.... 

I trust my teacher but this is pushing the envelope a tad.

There is a lot of glazing to come so it will quieten down some.

If I keep saying that I might convince myself it'll happen.

I am painting in the faces and feet this week,

hmm, wonder if I should paint in some piercings,

maybe on on an eyebrow and one through a beak.

What do you think?

That's my little corner of the world for this week,

why not hop over to 

Julia's Stamping Ground

and visit more desks around the world

this wednesday.

I've got some head banging to do to

get me in the mood to paint these birds. 

 

Tap heaven for WOYWW

I have been madly working on

my jellyfish painting this week.

I'm entering an art show that I thought

was ages away and it turns out it's only a couple

of weeks away (oops).

The Jellies are closest to finished so they are going

in along with my finished bird painting.

My desk is full of inky goodies

with bottles of straight ink and some mixed with clear ink

to make it less dark.  I use a paint brush to glaze areas

that I want darker so the jellies stand out more.

I still can't get the turquoise to come out and it isn't bright blue, it's violet! Argh, cameras hate me!!

I still have a bit of adjusting to do but you have to wait for

it to dry before doing the next layer, drives me nuts

and that's why I don't use oils anymore.

I also had some gooping fun with the bird I drew up last week

Still a long way to go but looking good so far.

My liposuction parrot (from last week) is looking really nice now

she's all inked up and raring to go...

Just need to do a head and foot transplant  :)

Still some poocack to go into the background.

But ... and it's a bit but

the best thing has happened...

I need new taps for our upstairs bathrooms

because the water is coming from the taps instead

 of the spouts and I saw the perfect taps.

What does this tap remind you of????

The clue is standing behind the tap..

But then I saw the name of the tap

Oh yeah, all is right in the world now!!!

Every time I turn on the shower I can yell

EXTERMINATE!!!!!

My hubbie's gonna go nuts (mwa ha ha).

cough, cough.

Well, that's mine for this week,

now why don't you have a look at the other

desks around the world.

Just press here

to go to Julia's Stamping Ground.

There's some ink calling my name, time

to go and play.

 

All sorts for WOYWW

This week has been a week of 

all sorts. I did heaps of

bits n pieces to try and

get some paintings close to finished.

First to my desk,

it's the usual mess

I have my Doctor Who mug, which is a necessity

for creating, my gorgeous art journal cover,

thanks to LLJ and numerous bits of junk 

that just land there.  

Well you don't think I'd leave it there now do you?

In the centre is the photoshopped print of the next painting

I've just started.  You can see I've marked out

 all the points I need to draw it up on the canvas.

Here are the steps I've done so far.

You start with poo,

add a little cack

and you get a poocackarama!!

Then you can start drawing it up.

I'm still drawing, can't rush these things..

I became an art surgeon this week and 

I performed my first artistic liposuction.

Mrs Cockatoo was complaining that she was was

far too fat,

and I had to agree, so I operated

I removed the excess fat and

re-sculpted her tummy to make a much

slimmer lady.

If anyone wants to lose a few pounds,

and doesn't mind being slapped with a soggy wet cloth

  and dug with a pallette knife,

I'm available and kinda cheap

but never easy!

The cockies were inked today and they look great

but you'll have to take my word for it

as stupid here forgot to take a picture.

I could show you all the ink colours used

cos they are still all over my fingers.

I like to try to write down the colours of ink that were used

 and it's a good way to remember,

I just look at my fingers and write it down.

Even then I still can't get the colour right on the next one.

I think I'm colour theory blind!

I inked some more of my jelly fish

Would you believe this is violet and turquoise, it just won't photograph.

slowly adding tentacles but still a way to go.

There was some other paint slopping as well

but nothing exciting.

Well, that bird isn't going to draw itself,

although I wish it would, so

that's it from me,

now how about you go and visit

Julia's Stamping Ground

and see what's on everyone elses

desk this wednesday.