Atonement

this evening begins Yom Kippur, a day of atonement. Amends or reparation made for an injury or wrong. It is the most solemn of all holidays. While I'm not Jewish, I think the concept of setting aside a 24 hour period to fast, make amends, and pray is just not that bad of an idea..

Leviticus 23:27 decrees it a day of rest. So, from sunset tonight til sunset tomorrow night. Rest. Fast. Pray. Make atonement.

כז אַךְ בֶּעָשׂוֹר לַחֹדֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִיעִי הַזֶּה יוֹם הַכִּפֻּרִים הוּא, מִקְרָא-קֹדֶשׁ יִהְיֶה לָכֶם, וְעִנִּיתֶם, אֶת-נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם; וְהִקְרַבְתֶּם אִשֶּׁה, לַיהוָה.

I finally got my mac to where I can copy and paste Hebrew. I have a workbook and am learning to print the Hebrew characters. Which got me to wondering......I have over 1500 fonts on my laptop. That means I can print each letter of the alphabet approximately 1500 ways.

So even though I am learning to write Hebrew from a workbook......can I alter the letters, design a "font", make them look different for the purposes of art?

Guess what! I think I can! I took this, which is the word "chai" which means "life". I have always thought I could see a polar bear in this word. Do you see it?


So, I sketched the symbols on watercolor paper and then sketched a polar bear around it. And then added color:

I even did a second one and really skewed the images a bit as I wanted the bear to be shorter and longer and the head tilted down.....

And take another look. One is the negative of the other. Pretty cool!

So I'm thinking this could be a good way to teach myself the characters of the Hebrew language.....to sketch them and see what other design they look like. I'm figuring this can pretty much take up the rest of my life....but oh! what a great learning experience!!!

If you want to read more about today's holiday, I like antipas.net It really makes you think!!!

Mom says......

I have always loved this painting that mom did. She scanned it in and then printed it as a card and sent it to me years ago.

And so I have tried to replicate it. Well, I think it's not so bad for my first attempt. But like mom says - if I paint it 15 more times, I'm sure one of them will look fine!

Mom - she always has the best sayings!

May you have a good year

This evening at 7:04 pm (in Denver) - sunset - marks the beginning of Rosh Hashanah. It is the end of the year 5769 and the beginning of 5770. It is the first of 10 days of repentance ending with Yom Kippur. This is the beginning of the High Holy Days.

L'Shanah Tovah.....may you have a good year.

L'Shana tovah tikavev v'etahetem.....May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.

The Shofar blows his horn 100 notes......last year I wrote a poem and made a scrapbook page. Apple slices dipped in honey represent our hope for a sweet new year. "May it be Thy will, O Lord, Our God, to grant us a year that is good and sweet." And then eat some challah which is bread shaped into round loaves to symbolize the continuation of life.

This year, I painted........



Lev 23:24 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first [day] of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.

This evening begins a new year on the Hebrew calendar. Tradition says that on this day we examine our past deeds and ask for forgiveness for our sins....review the history of the Jews and pray for Israel.

It is stated that the destiny of all mankind is recorded by G-d in the Book of Life.

As my greatest blessing ever, I woke up this morning to an email from my friends Haim and Yaffa who live in Israel. He wrote, "we wish ourselves a Blessed New Year and include you and your family in our blessings."

To receive a blessing on this, the eve of Rosh Hashanah, from Jewish friends, from Israel, simply overwhelmes me. I know that G-d is with this man and I pray this for myself, that I might reach out one day soon and grab hold of the corner string of him that is a Jew........

Zec 8:23 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days [it shall come to pass], that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard [that] G-D [is] WITH YOU."

May Jehovah Yeshua Messiah bless Israel, bless her leaders, and bring down the armies of the heavens to protect her.

May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.

L'shana tovah tikatev v'etahetem.

saran wrap paintings

On the day class, April added a second painting technique - this one using saran wrap.



When it's dry, you "find" the "flower" and add more color to them to make them a little more brilliant for you.



Brilliant watercolor techniques this week - more than fun!!!

Speed painting

I think it's something like speed dating? You just move on to the next one without thinking about the last one? LOL!!! We did SIX paintings in 3 hours last night! Oh my goodness! And it was so much fun! So, in addition to the coffee painting that I blogged yesterday, here's what we learned:

2. Using hairy fibers/eyelash fibers to paint with

3. Upside down painting:

4. Salt Painting

5. Paper towel clouds and trees

6. Water and color

That's probably the reverse order of how we actually learned to watercolor paint...but I'm still stuck with the simple fact that we completed 6 paintings in 3 hours! Absoultely amazing!

And she repeated the classes today....so yep, I did them all again. I tried to do them all just a little different and I learned that I am afraid to put down color. Most of mine are just too pale....but it's a start. I learned sooo much....and of course, will take these techniques and apply them to other mediums! Hmmmm.....coffee in my Friendly Plastic? Look out world! LOLOL!!!

Coffee anyone?

My youngest sister is here teaching free watercolor classes for 2 days.

This was done with coffee.



Oh! WOW!!! And yes....I did this!!!

We did 6 paintings in just under 3 hours tonight and almost everyone here had never painted before. It was just so much fun! I'll post more photos tomorrow.

Don't you wish you lived in northern Colorado? We sure know how to play!!!

Painting 802

Today is Thursday. Tomorrow.....we start the BIG SALE at Scrapbook Your Life!!! If you live anywhere in southern California.....get yourself down to Hwy 8 & Hwy 5!!! HUGE discounts on every machine. You pre-order, pre-pay, and the more you buy, the bigger your discount! But I can't tell you what the discount is.....you have to come into the store to find out.

AND....there's a different sale on Saturday

AND....there's yet a different sale on Sunday!!!

So come see me all 3 days and we'll just play!!!

I'll be doing some make n takes, some demos and on Friday and Sunday I'm teaching classes and Susan is teaching on Saturday!

WOW!!!  What a weekend!!!

I will be buying! :o)

Earlier this week, I actually took a day off and took a class myself!  We started out previewing what we were maybe going to do.  I love that.....possibility thinking!

But it didn't take too long for the fun to start.......
And it didn't take very long for the mess to start......beyond my comprehension...but then I rarely take a painting class.
And then a period of intently listening while we each tried to figure out what we were going to create:

And then it was off to play.....
Can't share it yet......but I did like the techniques that I learned.  Some of the girls finished theirs.....not me!  I will need a lot of time to get mine done!

Why 802?  Well, I can't really explain it because the teacher never got to finish the class!  LOL!  But I actually got to take a class out here.....and just wanted to share how messy and how intent all of us "students" could be.  

Where is the little girl?

Where is the little girl?
I have lost her today
I need to go find her
And see if she will play!!!

Mom and I have been playing this morning and I made this for her friend Elaine



I laid diecuts made with the cricut and cut in regular 80# white cardstock on top of watercolor paper...and then started painting with Twinking H20s.




I decided that my frog is sick - he has the measles today....

and my tree has gold leaves.  Well - all I said was we were playing!  It's not perfect, but we did paint.

I think that tree is pretty good considering it's watercolor paints on regular cardstock - not watercolor paper!

Now, of course, the one mom painted is just perfect!  So 10 days after a stroke.....mom is back painting.  Isn't she amazing?  I will post her painting tomorrow - it has to dry first!

Who knew you could use diecuts to create 3D watercolor paintings?  Truly fun!!!

Sunflowers

Did you know that sunflowers track the sun? So if you put tiny little gadgets down inside them that generate power, then they will track along the sun and generate more power per day than any other flower. So imagine a field of sunflowers that is actually producing solar power and giving back to a community. How cool is that?



There is just a very subtle difference with the added color, but enough to make me feel happier about this watercolor.



And yes, one of my friends has already grabbed this one up! LOL! So let's see, this is my 6th watercolor painting....and I have NONE to show for my "work"! LOLOL!!! I started a winter mountain scene and am learning how to use frisket and salt. Perhaps I will keep number 7! On the other hand, it's so much fun playing that I don't mind giving them all away. I am learning so much and it's just so much fun!!!

Maybe this summer I should plant a sunflower solar power garden! Nope, I'm too old for that! I'll just stick with painting my sunflowers!!!

You're the best!

I've been at mom's this week, playing with watercolor paints. Not sure I've learned a whole lot, but I've sure been having a blast!

So today, I wanted to see if I could paint a picture to match the paper I was using. So here's what the original piece of paper looked like it's Scenic Route Paper, Sonoma, Red Bouquet. You can click on it to make it bigger:



I did a small (4x6) watercolor painting to match the flowers in the paper. Tucked it behind the flowers that I cut out. Notice that I even extended the leaves from the paper onto the watercolor paper. Then I inked pieces of daisies from the sheet of paper I used a couple of nights ago. This is a glitter lasercut sheet of paper in white. Love it! Then I used a Cricut to diecut the daisies in the center. You really can't tell much difference from those and the ones from the lasercut sheet. I also used the Cricut to create my title. I used a Heidi Swapp stencil to add flourishes on the background, my white pen to doodle and dot around them.



I gave this to one of mom's neighbors, Elaine - because she IS "the best"!

There is just nothing quite so fun as coming to mom's retirement center, playing with her and all her friends and neighbors, and understanding fully where I will be in 20 short years. YIKES! I best play hard while I can!!!

Inspired by B-Line Designs

Sometimes, the size of a stamp just isn't right. Or perhaps you only need elements of the stamp. So, I took the huge flourish stamp from B-Line, turned it upside down, and looked at it as I sketched the flourish onto some watercolor paper around the star of david. I added olive leaves to the flourish. Painted entirely with twinkling H2Os.



and then double matted and framed:



I gave this as a gift to our friends who were here from Ft Lauderdale.....but from the scan, I made prints and cards for mom.

Not too bad for my 4th watercolor painting, huh? And what a great use for stamps....use the design to inspire other art!

I don't paint, either!

My youngest sister teaches watercolor painting classes at mom's retirement center every Tuesday. I was there and she "made" me paint. But I don't paint!



I didn't finish it while I was there, so this week, I took the time to paint the sky. It was already snatched up by one of my friends...but I remembered to take a quick snapshot of it before it got away!



Now, mom....she is a fabulous watercolor artist. I took a class from her several years ago. I remembered that we started and the next moment I looked at my watch and it was EIGHT hours later. The day just vanished without a thought and it scared me to death that time could fly like that. OK, so that was way before I knew about right/left brain activities.

I'm just totally afraid that my life is passing too fast as it is....what would happen if I took up painting?

Altering me

Well, it's not the easiest thing I've ever done, but it may qualify as the thing that has me giggling the most! I just keep adding things. No, nothing is attached in this photo...but it is now. And I went shopping today and found a few more things to add to it. Teaching 4 classes back to back starting in 10 minutes and then tomorrow, we're taking the ferry to Catalina.....so no idea when I'll post the final pic...but I must like it...I bought 2 more canvases at Blicks today!!!

Oh! It's so much fun to play!

I have Monday's off while teaching in San Diego, so guess what I did today? I took a class! LOL! Went to Sally's house and she showed me how to paint myself. Here is one of her self-portraits....these are huge....on canvas...and a mixed media collage:



This is the one she is currently working on....so it's a work in progress: (just click on it to see a larger view)



You start with a portrait and blow up each quandrant to 8x11. So this is 16 x 22 overall.



The hardest thing was to match up the center lines. Took me forever!



Then you paint each quadrant separately. Then lay them all on canvas. Paint them on the canvas using gel medium, then blend the paint on the original quadrants into each other. Wow! What complete fun!!!



I decided to be part blonde, part red head, part blue hair, and I'm not sure what the purple and bronze age is....maybe really old! And there's silver metallic flecks throughout all my hair.....yep, reflective of all the grey!



I got this much done today and decided to wait a day or 2 and then start my collage. But the more I look at this, the more I think I might just leave it as it is. You know me, when I start to collage....I just never know when to finish!