Blog Archives

Ocean Alchemy — Alisa Burke

5/30/2021

My take on seaweed.

Before I left for Florida, I signed up to take a course from Alisa Burke. It is called "Ocean Alchemy". I thought that would be a perfect fit. Also, it was only $15 for 30 short videos. A bargain!

Alisa is more of an illustrator than a painter and that fits my style exactly. She simplifies shapes and marks to their essence, giving people a sense of what they are seeing, not an exact replica.

While in Florida, I didn't really have everything I needed away from my studio so just concentrated on making backgrounds in my sketchbooks. During this time I learned two things. One — you can watercolor and paint with acrylics in a cheap student notebook and that took away all my issues with painting in expensive journals or on watercolor paper. (So freeing!) and two — using matte acrylic paint eliminates the issues with pages sticking together. (I didn't know there even WAS such a paint!)

So now, I have the freedom to truly experiment in my cheap sketchbook, and improve it in my regular sketchbook, and, if inspired, I can improve it further in one of my expensive sketchbooks. I like seeing the progression and learning from my mistakes. Of course, there are no mistakes, right?

Birds

5/23/2021

I've never been a good illustrator or a person who could draw something from nature. but I'm actually going to try next week because of this photograph I took on the beach.

I'm devoting a journal to capturing my experiences at the beach this month. It will take a while since I'm still just working on the backgrounds with watercolor and acrylics.

But this heron captured my imagination. So majestic. So snow white. And how do those knees bend the wrong way???

I'm back in Denver and missing the sounds of the ocean so what better way to spend my time than to re-capture everything from the past weeks.

After un-packing, that is.

On the Beach

5/18/2021

This is definitely not a beach photo.

But it is planted at the beach condo we are renting and obviously can survive beach conditions. I loved the colors so this will be an inspiration for my art in the future.

The palette here is all neutrals, blues and greens. I'm more of a vibrant colorist so it's hard for me to get inspired here.

It's also hard to make art when my days are spent at the ocean instead of at my studio. But I'm thinking I needed a break in any case. I am interested to see how my art changes when I get back to Denver.

A Change of Scenery

5/11/2021

I'm on vacation. Finally.

I grew up on Long Island so the beach was where I spent most of my summer weekends. So vacation, to me, means going to the beach.

I find it hard to concentrate on making art when I spend the day listening to the compelling sound of the ocean waves, sitting under an umbrella, and reading fun books.

But I brought lots of art supplies with me and my mission today was to find some shells and use the color of those shells to paint a watercolor background in my journal.

I'm also taking a 30 day class from Alisa Burke called, aptly enough, Ocean Alchemy. While she is inspired by the west coast, I'm inspired by the east coast. It will be interesting to see the difference our art journals will be. Certainly, the palette will be quite different as well as the flora.

You can check out her classes here
https://www.shopalisaburke.com/collections/online-classes