Jackie's Monthly Give Away!

Jackie is giving things away! Be sure to visit The Art in You and check out all that is going on. Let me know if you visit her site. Don't miss it. She is one of the nicest person and obviously generous persons you will ever meet.

Play Days in May

Julie Prichard's online class at Sally's

Tuesday, May 20, Diane Chen, Nina Reebe got together at my house to try our hand of Julie Pirchard's 1st class assignment that had been posted the previous day. We had watched the video at home and I had taken notes. Now, it was time to pick up the brush and see what we could do.

Diane and Nina working away

Here's Nina in the middle of her first canvas. We really did have fun with color!

Nina's Palette

Scratch, scratch, scratch

Nina really got the hang of the method and the "drips." You can see all the scratches she made in the paint while it was wet.

Nina's and the drips

This was the first time Diane and Nina had meet and we hit it off splendidly. I think Nina finished the most canvases. We experimented and had suggestions when asked, for each others work. It was really a lot of fun working together.

Diane with her "Grotto" painting
a week before Julie's Lesson 2

Diane thought this canvas looked like a Grotto or Lagoon. The next week in Julie's Lesson 2 class, it was almost all about what Diane had painted using similar colors!

Another of Diane's canvases

Neither Diane nor I have started lesson 2. I have viewed Lesson 2 but spent the weekend at Liberty Station taking a wonderful 2 day class with Chris Cozen. There were 16 of us learning everything we every wanted to know about Golden's Gels of every sort and how to make transfers with theses products.

Chris Cozen's Transfer Class

Memorial Day Weekend, Chris Cozen taught a transfer class at the Pat D'Arrigo ARTS Center at Liberty Station. We had access to every acrylic color that Golden makes and every gel they have created. We were given a little canvas book that she had already gessoed the pages so it was ready to be worked on. Plus, she had two already created boards with one having Golden's Crackle Paste and the other having Golden's Molding Paste, for us to paint and transfer two as we learned and experimented.



Here is a slide show of photos taken during the two day class. There are photos of Chris' Canvases with beautiful transfers. I can't believe how much trouble I had putting this slide show together. I think I learned a lot and it will be easier the next time I use this.

The only person I knew before this class was Josie Rodriquez (local artist extraordinaire). I had taken two classes from her at her home/studio when I first started dabbling in Altered Arts. Her husband, an artist/teacher in his own right, was our host.

Part of the 16 students and Chris Cozen

I met new friends and learned that a lot of them are book artists and friends of Kathie Gillaspey's. Everyone was very interesting. There seemed to be a lot of "serious" artists in this group. One of the lady's had just won either 4 awards including 1st place or 4 First Places in a show that can be seen at our Antheneum downtown, La Jolla.

I sat next to a new friend named Dominique who I think I have taken classes together at Stamping Details. We both thought we looked familiar to each other. She was very helpful. She paints many things, one of which are murals. She was a lot of fun.

I thought the facilities at Liberty Station and the Pat D'Arrigo ARTS Center were marvelous. Liberty Station is amazing. I can't believe how developed the area is that used to be the Marine Recruitment Base on Rosecrans in San Diego. The area has been totally re-developed and is so beautiful.

Across the table from me was an interesting artist from Tijuana named Angela Gonzalez. Her medium of choice is oils and she draws. She is now branching out and exploring acrylics. We hit it off spendidly and she will be coming to my home to paint and do transfers this Thursday.

Art Meet Up at Jackie's

My Bottle Doll

Lastly, is the bottle doll that I made at Jackie's. She had me over to create a doll of my choosing from one of her bottles. I had missed the Art Meet Up at her home when everyone gathered at her home. So, it was just me and her upstairs in her art rooms! ready to play.

When I left her, I had painted the head but not attached it to the bottle. It had been a plastic cheap doll head I had gotten at Zinnia's in Pasadena a year before. At Jackie's direction, I had cut off all her hair and painted her head white and then put a glaze over it.

I had Jackie's wonderful doll in front of me as a sample. (Isn't she wild?) But, I couldn't figure out what I was going to do with my doll head and what other embellishments I was going to adhere besides Jackie's "neck" that she found for the doll (thank you Jackie) and the branch around her neck and the wrapping paper that I cut out bird motifs to glue to the bottle.

Jackie's Bottle Doll

Remember, with me, "more is better. . ." My husband, Ernie and his friend Richard, came by my art room and peeked in and were "lost for words . . . " as to describe the creation I made with Jackie's bottle. . . What do you think?

Jackie also has a personal blog called The Art In You. I hope you will visit and see what is happening in the San Diego area with all her many friends.

Lisa Bebi and Karen O'brien's classes continued

Sally's work in progress canvas

Things are really popping at my house getting ready for Julie Prichard's online class. She is up to 135 people taking this class. Wow! Good for her. I can hardly wait. It starts tomorrow, May 18! Be sure to visit her website and see what it is all about.

Two of my friends will be taking it also, Diane Chen and Nina Reeba (Ruthie from David, Shelly and Chainsaw fame). We will be getting together on Tuesday to go over and continue what we will have learned from Julie's first video.

Deborah and Kathie

In the mean time, I have finally gathered photos from the play day where 6 of us got together to continue working on what we did in Karen O'brien's class. Deborah Truesdale and Diane and I had taken the class together at Stamping Details (Nina was sick and was suppose to be here with us.). Deborah had the best memory of the directions and had already been working at home on what she learned. Her pages were great and I am so sorry I don't have any photos of her pages.

Kathie's finished canvas

Kathie Gillaspey came and finished her work on her Lisa Bebi's canvas. I loved what she did with a photo of her husband's father (grandfather?).

Hilari says "Attitude is Everything!"

And surprise, surprise, Hilari Ford took a rather long lunch break to join us in the afternoon. I got out a project Bets and I had gotten at a make-n-take at Del Mar Expo and brought stuff out for her to play with and have her own make-n-take. Be sure to visit Hilari's Esty shop.

Georgia, Hilari and Diane

Georgia came with Deborah and finished working on her Lisa Bebi canvas of her husband and his twin.

Georgia's canvas

I have found that even though my table opens way out and we had 10 around it for Lisa's class, that painting - 4 is the best and 6 is the max around this table. In fact when last Thursday, Diane came to play and paint, the two of us took up the entire table!

Diane holding Chloe

This week I get to play at Jackie's because I missed her Art Meetup at her house. I hope my doll heads get here before Thursday. If not, I have a plastic doll head that Bets and I got at Zinnia's when we had our road trip last year where it rained and I got a speeding ticket for going really fast. Jackie says I'll just paint the plastic face and alter it. She had a really cute one she did. Be sure to visit her website. She always has fun things there.

Here are some of the background canvases I have created, but are not finished, using Karen's techniques. I hope you can see all the texture. I did 10 canvases (five pages) in all. Now they need some collage and finishing touches.

"Baby gone a bunting"

Mother's Day at Kari's

My kids - Erik and Kari

What a fun day. Kari' just purchased last year in the fall a 2 bedroom Townhouse in Torrey Highlands, just east of Carmel Valley. She finally has some furniture and decided that she would host the first family get-together at her new place. She met us at the front door in the apron I had gotten her last year when the Short Sale after months and months, had finally gone through. Since she is so tiny, it wrapped around her like a skirt!


She and Shannon talked over the menu and such and decided on this shrimp recipe that Shannon had fixed at her place and Kari had liked. It needed to be a dinner that could be cooked in the kitchen since Kari does not have a BBQ. The shrimp was perfect for my diet since it wasn't fried. She boiled it in all sorts of spices and then had a great dipping sauce that had horseradish sauce as part of the ingredients. It was nice and spice but not too hot.



Shannon and Erik brought fresh strawberries from the fields in Oceanside to put over Angel Food Cake for dessert with choice of vanilla or chocolate ice cream.

Shannon and kari checking out her spices.

Note the apron that looks like a skirt.

We had yet to celebrate Shannon's birthday and so I planned on surprising her with a dessert I thought she would like (Shannon really doesn't like desserts). The day before I made a Key Lime Pie from scratch that was very light and airy. (Squeezed 10 likes for 1 cup of fresh lime juice!) Well, dunb mom - me - I forgot Shannon's present. So she still doesn't know what I got her for her birthday. I did send her pie home with her for either freeze or finish up when ever.

Shannon getting some Key Lime Pie

This is the first time we have all been gathered around Kari's dining room table. The table looked so pretty with her red dishes.

The dinner was a success. It all tasted delicious. Nothing was burnt or not correct. We all thanked Kari for having us to her new home and she thanked Shannon for being her right hand person. We took photos and then, since it was a Sunday, and people had to get to work the next day, we all went home with happy tummy's.

Shannon, Erik, Kari and me

I tried to use a filter on some of the photos that were blurry. I need a NEW camera with the anti shake!

Erik and me chilling

Ernie and me out in front

Julie Prichard's Online Class

Be sure to watch the video below of Julie Prichard's upcoming online class, The Land of Lost Luggage. It is a class teaching the art of making backgrounds. You will learn how to do layer upon layer to give your background depth. I think it is going to be a really exciting class and something new to do and learn. Please join me and sign up for her class.

Mixed Media Painting with artist Julie Prichard from Julie Prichard on Vimeo.