You know how much fun we have...

in the studio when guests come to play, and this time we really overdosed.  You know what can happen when there's alcohol involved, and this time was no exception.

Alcohol inks are a versatile medium, as you can see here:

Gay got right into blowing through a straw
on the white-on-white wallpaper.

Eileen loves to draw, so she worked a great deal
on the plastic coated paper.

Lynne went a wee bit drop crazy for a while.

Linda went to Paris on a colourful rainy day.

There was so much lusciousness going, I'm just going to zip it up, unlock my jaw and let you take a look.

See the star in this piece of Lynne's?  She used a crayon as resist.

Here water was spritzed on the wallpaper first to create a unique look.

Inks dropped on paper and spritzed with a fine spray of 99% alcohol.

Linda's dripping and spritzing for the rainy Paris look.

Gay's luscious colour.

One of my subtle pieces on the plasticised paper.

Eileen's woodpecker looks fabulous...

...as do her landscapes.

Look at this blue/green mouth-watering piece by Lynne.

Love the look on Gay's face here - hardly having any fun at all!  😉😉😉

Truly, we couldn't have had more fun if there had been drinking alcohol in play...the colour was yummy, and the experimentation was wild, wild, WILD.

In case you think I'm doing nothing but purging and playing, I have a couple of finished paintings for you this week...remember I said a while back that I was working on a stack of twenty or so?

'I'll Meet You at the Crossroads'
12" x 9" mixed media on cradled wood panel
© Win Dinn

'A Notable Woman
12" x 6" mixed media on cradled wood panel
© Win Dinn

That's it for this week!  Do tell me what you've been up to this past week - how are you getting your joy on?

I've got a great stash...

of alcohol inks, and you know what's happening to the stash.  It's 'use it or lose it', so I've been playing with them on wallpaper this week, and I've got a gaggle (or is that a giggle?) of friends coming on Friday to do the same thing.  You gotta know we'll be inked up to the eyebrows!

I love the way the inks run on the white-on-white wallpaper.  Here's a quick video of the technique

and some results of my play.

I turned that first one into a flower - it was the exact shade I needed for a journal page.  You can see the start of it here, sitting on the wallpaper.  It's quite a transformation, right?  

I can hardly wait to see what our giggle does with them on Friday!  What's your colour hit this week?  I'd love to hear about it in the comments below.  

This post is...

brought to you by the colour red, because I love, love, LOVE red. Whether it's paired with near neighbours on the colour wheel,

or dominating through sheer force,

it's a colour that just brings me joy.

It can be tinted and darkened,

mixed in with a host of other colours,

or part of  a high key piece;

 it just says energy and pizzazz to me.

 I love it for the range from cool to hot,

and for the 'thumbing my nose at you' intensity.

It truly says most of what I want to say, and so quietly too.  😉😉😉

Do you have a colour that really sings for you?  Share a link in the comments below to let us see some of your favourites!

I know, I know...

...I'm supposed to be purging, but when there's white paper involved, look what can happen!

Acrylic ink on printer paper

Here's the story:  I've been avoiding,  postponing, deferring, delaying, evading, circumventing, skirting, sidestepping, or ducking the purge.   I've been procrastinating for the last ten days years.  Who really, truly wants to do a deep clean in the studio?!

A deep clean means the task of splitting old-style continuous form paper (for use with dot-matrix printers) into useable pieces has been neglected and then rescheduled at least 37 times.  It was the last bit of paper in my large white paper container, and it's been screaming at me for such a long time that I am near-deafened.  At least that's what I tell John when he complains that I'm not listening.

So I started ripping

and tearing

until all the side strips were removed, when I could then start splitting, page by page, by flippin' page.

Now I have a fabulous pile of printer paper or paper for printing (are you thinking what I'm thinking?  Painted paper and Gelli prints are SO fun!).

And of course, all those side strips have to turn into something.  Perhaps they'll be part of another 'Expat' folded book; they certainly fit the strangeness factor.

There were a few spoiled pages from the process, so I crumped them thoroughly and then sprayed with water.  Liberally covering them with painty stuff was a blast.  

Want a closer look at some of the other results?

Fluid acrylics topped with India Ink

India ink on vellum (a stray bit tucked in there from somewhere?)

India ink on continuous feed paper 

More India ink topped with acrylic ink...don't you think this looks like a crime scene?
Maybe I've been reading too many murder mysteries over the holidays!

Now I know I'm not the only one who procrastinates, and I'm betting you can add to the list of words for it in the second paragraph.  What's your favourite?  Lollygagging, perhaps?  Let me know in the comments - I NEED more words for this pastime because I'm becoming first-rate at it, and need to write the book (when I have the inclination).