This has been a big week in our house due to Tony’s deteriorating health, so I have spent part of today relaxing and catching up on #CreativeJumpStart21. This was the perfect way for me to wind down a bit after a rough night where we didn’t get a lot of sleep. (yes, we have a plan for making tonight better!)
Today’s #creativejumpstart21 artist was Martice Smith. Martice talked about her art practice, which is strongly influenced by her surroundings, and then showed how she develops gelli prints. I chose to use a variety of leaves from the garden to gelli print with, then worked back into some of them with various pens. I ended up with a nice stash I can use for collage.
Today’s #creativejumpstart21 artist was Marsha Valk, and we made an accordion fold book using gelli printing. Mine isn’t quite to script, but I had a lot of fun doing it. I used Dina Wakley and Reeves paints, Dina Wakley collage paper, and a lovely Golden gold paint.
This year is the 10th year of Nathalie Kalbach‘s Creative Jump Start – I’ve missed a year here and there, and am so excited to be participating in 2021. There’s a new video every day, from 45 amazing artists from around the globe. It’s a great way to kickstart my art practise for the year. It’s not too late if you want to join in, and there’s no pressure to work daily if you don’t have the time or energy.
Today’s video, from Nathalie, was about sign writing a word that will inspire you throughout the year. For me, this course is about reinforcing the habit of daily art, so practise sprang to mind. I didn’t make a sign as such, but did go for an aged look in refernece to a story she told in the video. I’m working in a 5.5×8.5 Dylusions journal and used mainly Dina Wakley Media paints and Stencil Girl stencils.
Today’s artist is the lovely and talented artist Mary Beth Shaw, creator of StencilGirl Stencils. I own a *lot* of their stencils, and love them, so was delighted to see Mary Beth’s name pop up. Most of the work I do for #cjs each year is in a cheap A5 journal; today’s piece is one of those times when I wish I’d worked on better paper. Damn it!
The artist for day 23 of #cjs20 was John DuVal, a painter who specialises in watercolour. He captured the light and the feel, more than the details, and that appeals to me. Initially I wasn’t going to try it, even though I do landscape painting. Tony asked why not and I didn’t have a good reason! I’m pleased I did because actually his approach suits me.
I visited Pukakaiki, on the West Coast of the South Island, in December with Alan and was fascinated by the rock formations. This small watercolour is based on one of the photos I took.
I’ve been busy for a few days, so I’m working backwards, scanning things as the pages dry. Day 24 of #cjs20 was Rachel Greig, from Darkroom Door, who I have followed for years so it was great to see her pop up as one of the artists. It was my kind of project so I leapt right in; I used my fav Dina Wakley mixed media album and discovered I only have a few pages left. Eek!
I skipped day 20 for various reasons, despite it being a great project. Today’s #cjs20 artist is Andrea Chebeleu. I hadn’t seen her work before and like the project but, again, it wasn’t something I could make straight away so tried her ideas on my manilla storage folders. It’s come out brighter than I intended and I didn’t follow the instructions well (the writing should have been reverse printed then gel transferred – oops) but am pleased with it all the same.
Today’s #cjs20 artist was Marsha Valk, whose colourful work I’ve seen (and liked) before. Her entire project wasn’t something I wanted to tackle in an evening so I used elements of her style to decorate a manilla folder. I use plain brown manilla folders for storing collage elements, painted papers, gelli prints etc so this was a useful project and a lot of messy fun.
Cath Sheard 