It's cooling down here...

in British Columbia, Canada, which means more time in the studio, of course.  And it's a hodge-podge on one of the tables.  I can actually see four books-in-progress on this half of the table alone.  You'll note the toilet paper roll thingy is just above that riotous canvas piece.  It was not nearly the success it was meant to be, although there are parts of the painty blue and pink twists and turns on that canvas.

One of the books received some black ink work on the fabric cover with the next step to include addition of beads on those trailing elastics.

The floral signature in process received some more flowers and decorative pen work this week;  goodness knows what else will add to the fun.

A highlight of the week was a Saturday morning playtime with Eileen and Laura.  Eileen brought a project for us (just in case we got bored 🤣); she'd been making tassels for an upcoming market giveaway, so we got to make some too.  Eileen had cut a large amount of her wonderful hand-dyed fabric into strips, so there was ammunition aplenty.

My first attempt included an over-inked stamped word, so I kept that one for myself and made a couple more to add to the box for Eileen.  It was great fun, and has me giving the side-eye to a pile of fabric that I keep handy in the studio for goodness-knows-what. 

Laura and Eileen were so fast with the technique that they had the box near-full when I was on my third one!

The photo above, if you can believe it, is of the same canvas piece that is in the first photo.  It makes me wonder how many layers are on there, and how many more can I add?  With this week near finished, I'm thinking I can get three more layers on it before the weekend.  Maybe? 🤔

Happy week to you all - I'll pop over and check out your week when this is ready to go!  

It's been a mixed bag this week...

...but a fun one, nonetheless.

With friends in the studio for a morning, we got our playtime on.  Laura was working on inking a painting as she readies for The Square Foot Show.

Eileen was playing with a small series of abstract pieces which, of course, had me yearning to do the same.

As a consequence, I threw some paint at a journal spread

in a trio of colours that was well out of my usual range.  Lavender, warm yellow and burnt sienna were the suggestions for my September art prompt, and I had fun with them.  More to come on this spread once it truly dries, I suspect.

As I looked through this journal after our playdate, I was struck by the range of luscious colour and texture in some of the spreads, and thought you might enjoy a peek at some of them. 

Now that I've got my abstract appetite whetted once again, I think I'd better get back to the studio.  Have a happy September week, my friends!  

Putting the cart...

..before the horse is a talent of mine, I'd say.

I wanted to test a fabric cover for a book case, but given that I'd no book completed, I just went ahead and started the process anyway.  I spray glued (Super 77 by 3M) a cyanotype print to a piece of 140 lb. watercolour paper.

Given that the paper was boring white, I definitely needed to buck that up a bit, so I ghost-printed it in a coordinating colour

and tore into it.  In the meantime, I'd found a gifted stab-bound book in my stash, so I actually had a size to work to.  Seems like the creativity gods were working my favour.

Still in process, I've already discovered something new - the fabric, although well-secured, had unraveled a bit at the cut edges.  Running a bead of acrylic liquid gel medium over the edges fixed that issue.  More to come on this project at the finished stage.

And I was lucky to have a friend visit in the studio this week.  Eileen Gidman wanted to learn the basics of creating a journal slipcase, and we had a terrific time.  Look at what she accomplished in a couple of hours, even with all the chatting we did to catch up on our lives!

Eileen, being in recycle mode, used an old watercolour painting to create her cover, and it's truly gorgeous!

Both front and back are stunning, and her plein air and botanical drawings are surely going to benefit from such a wonderful slip case for her journal.

I'll leave you today with a bit of colour from the front patio.  The peonies were gifted from Laura Leeder's garden.  Stunning, no?

And I can't get enough of these beauties in the hanging baskets...it's hard to know whether the colour or texture pleases me more.  

As we move into summer, my walks are stop and go as I push my nose into every rose bush (wild, heritage and cultivated) around the area.  I'm so grateful we live where we do - supremely fortunate are we!

Cows are pretty boring...

don't you think?  Their muted colours just don't call to me, although their dispositions are often calming, and I enjoy the soft moo from a contented cow.  In my world, though, cows would be a wee bit more colourful, 

as would their surroundings.

I'm pretty sure they'd be popping with colour

with their makeup done to the max.

Surely they'd sport every possible combination 

of contrast and impact?

Well, the good thing about being a crazed artist is that one can create any world that floats through one's imagination.  

And that makes me wonder what one could do with hippopotamusssssses or .....

NB  This whole post is brought to you because a fellow artist, Eileen Gidman  issued an invitation from  Kootenay Meadows Farm to attend their Spring Turnout on April 23.  This event is the release of their dairy cows 'into the wild' and is a popular event for locals, artists included.  While I'm not attending I know Eileen will be there, and my Colour Spirit will be mentally painting the cows as I see them in my dreams.  😄  

And I'd love to know what you would do to make the world brighter, lighter and more colourful?

It's great to have...

so many fabulous artists friends online, and I really enjoy following their blogs.  So I'm letting you in on some good ones in this post, and will repeat this type of post periodically, 'cause there are just so many!!!

Make sure you pop over to The Stardust Factory.  You'll love the luscious layers in Deann's digital work, and when they're coupled with her oh-so-spot-on bits of quotes/poetry/songs, the double whammy is outstanding.  Here's one of her recent rich pieces called Gypsy Dreams:

For thought-provoking insights, you can't outdo Soujourner.  Tracy does wonder-full journal work as well as paintings, book-bindings and more.  Her introspective posts are clear, concise and pack an excellent humanistic wallop.  Check out the colour in this page, called 'Close to home'.

One blogger that is always great for a belly laugh is MadebyCHook.  Corrie's work is always beautiful, and often side-splitting; for that I am beyond grateful.  I swear she made this one up from my head:

For garden-inspired beautiful mixed media, I encourage you to check out Laura Leeder's work.  One can't help but think of garden light when viewing her birds and flowers and this one, Peace on Earth, is so serene.

Eileen Gidman is an artist accomplished in many areas - from watercolour to plein air painting to dyes on textiles.  It's the latter that really pulls me in.  The process is labour intensive, but the results are so worth it; her new series of wow-colour pups just makes me grin.  This one is called Playful.

I'll be sharing more of these wonderful artists soon;  in the meantime, do pop over and give these artists some love.  You'll be most welcome!

Hasn't this been a terrific week?

I've been gifted with a fabulous bag created by local artist Eileen Gidman.  She took a painted canvas of mine and turned it into a wonderful sketch bag.  It's the perfect size to hold a small sketch book, case of pencils, eraser (and you should know that's the most-used item when I'm out there😄) and a water bottle. 

It's just perfect, so I took it out for a test drive almost immediately.  No, I'll not show you the results - it's been a full year since I was out sketching the last time.  

I spent a great deal of time this week playing in my journal noire (thanks for that quick and sweet label, Deann!).  It seems that I was really into colour this week.

I couldn't get enough of the Inktense crayons, and I suspect there will be more of that this week.  There is such punch when strong colour hits black and white, right?

Tell me what you've been up to this week...are you well, staying safe and enjoying the summer?  I always look forward to hearing from you.

Wham, bam...

...I'm Studio Sam (or Samette?), back in the thick of it.

My first guests in the new studio brought it on in style.  It started with Lynne Mizera making this fantabulous 3D new studio card complete with an extensive array of fussy-cut items on the walls including photos of me, and in-progress works on the table.  Call me gob-smacked!

When you realize the whole card is about 8 inches in width, 4 inches high and 2 inches deep your eyes will cross and head roll when you imagine doing all those teeny, tiny, itsy, bitsy cuts!  Accompanying a lovely little art journal (more play time coming up), it is a stupendous gift.  

She brought it when she joined three others here for a play date.  While we normally have a theme for our playtimes, this particular morning was a free-for-all.

Maureen worked on this fabulous collage - Here's to Hue! indeed.  Could it get any more colour-full?!

Eileen finished this watercolour she'd been working on,

and then started another one in her dog series.  She was on a roll, and so intent that I'm not sure she even heard the conversation around her.

 Deni was tearing into the Gelli plate, making prints and turning them into cards.

Lynne worked in a journal, and was delighted with the bits and pieces she found in the scrap box - why is it that they always look better when they're in someone else' box?!

Those of you who know of my struggle when it comes to spatial relationships will laugh when I tell you it took near three hours to figure out how to make an envelope for a booklet I'd created (more on that later).  Had there been a photo of me, it would have shown me staring stupidly into space as I faced the task with confuddled bemusement.

While still in progress, it's likely to get done today or tomorrow, delivery will happen soon, and I can do a post for you on the envelope contents.

I did have 20 minutes or so at the end of the morning, where I was able to toss all thought aside and play with the Gelli plate. 

As always, I enjoy the look of the newly-painted stencils, too.

I'd love to hear about your week - catch me up in the comments below, and feel free to add a link!