My continuing series on grids.  This time, instead of painting directly on the sketchbook, I'm cutting up pieces of gel printing pages I've made before and re-arranging them on the grid.  I love this  since it gies me even more ideas for making compositions.

This week, I'm working in my sketchbook doing some gel plate mono printing.  It is challenging working in a spiral bound book but I like the idea of all my prints being seen page after page.  

I'm also adding multiple layers using masks to block out areas I want preserved from ne layer to the next.  Making paper stencils as well to add blocks of paint (gold) as well as commercial stencils to create focal points and textural interest.  

Covering dark layers with light layers is a concept that is new to me since I'm used to working light to dark.  This piece also uses up the last of my favorite color:  Golden Nickel Azo Gold.  Golden discontinued this paint and that makes me sad!

This is another way I Swatch my colors and hang them on a wall.  But I've found this system less helpful since I never use them!  Each one of these bundles represents one companies paints or water color.  I DO like looking at the wall!  I will always swatch new paints as they are changing all the time and I really just like the process.
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I used to swatch my paints with the color that came out of the tube, or from the jar, or the "pure" color.  but now, I am trying to satch colors to tone down or lighten the colors to see what other colors I can get that are not"pure" but mixedith something different.  For this series of watercolor swatches, I swatched the pure color, added brown, added Paynes gray and then added white.  It's amazing what you can mix to get new colors from a few tubes of paint!

It's no wonder that some artists spend their entire lives studying color.  You can read tons of books about how to get the perfect color from your paints but actually doing it, makes all the difference.

I love this photo of someone engaged with my Rolodex Artist Book.  

This "book" has 100 "pages" of art.  Each page is unique and is back-to-back so 200 pieces of tiny art all together.  I donated this to ARTMA — a charity devoted to curing childhood cancer.  It sold for $525 and that made me happy.  
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Now that I'm back into hand stitching again, I'm working on some small pieced pieces just using simple stitching.  It reminds me of the Crazy Quilting stitching of years ago.  There is something that attracts me to this process, and the color, and the contrast, and the design.  I don't plan anything, just react to what's I'm looking at as I make decisions on what thread to use, where and if I want to do a running stitch, French knots, or X"s.  I don't know what I'm going to do with this piece (very small measuring 4" x 8") but I never worry about that.  Eventually, an idea will come to me.  Meanwhile, I'm just enjoying the process!

One of the non-profits I like to support is the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, CO.  Every year, I donate sewing supplies to their annual "garage sale" and I donate a pice of my art to their annual fund raiser luncheon "Fabric & Friends".  This year they are also asking people to donate a miniature quilt.  

Several years ago, I started watercolor paintings on paper.  I liked the exercise of mixing different hues to create unique colors.  I liked how they came out so I uploaded several to Spoonflower to be printed on fabric.  But I never knew how to use them until several weeks ago.  I thought if I added hand stitching to each square, it might make a beautiful miniature quilt!

Now that the top is finished, I love the texture and the colors.  I also enjoyed the process of stitching on this piece every night.  Tomorrow, I will turn this into a "quilt" by adding batting and a backing and finishing with my rattail binding technique.  Then, I need to add a sleeve and label to the back and deliver it to the museum before the deadline of March 15th!

Last night, I attended the ARTMA gala with another artist friend.  We have been donating our art to this fund-raising event for many years.   ​ARTMA is a unique, funky, and fabulous biennial auction of art.  The proceeds support the non-profit Morgan Adams Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life and survival rates of children, teens, and young adults diagnosed with cancer.

ARTMA attracted more than 300 donating artists and more than 1,000 art-buying patrons.  I donated one of my Rolodex Art Books to this event and was gratified seeing it had several people bidding for it.  It was the first time I have exhibited my book so it will be interesting to see what it finally sold for.  

​This organization really knowd how to treat artists.  Besides providing 2 complimentary tickets to the event, they also send an email after the event to all of the artists, telling us who bought our art and how much it sold for.  I was happy to see how my book was presented and seeing other artwork presented in a gallery format.  All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday night.

Still working on my gel plate and made this book this week. Inside are watercolor paper pages full with gel prints.

I absolutely love the texture I can get from printing with acrylics on the gel plate.  I never know what the rusult will be but if I don't like it, I am also learning how to work ith the paper to get something I DO like.  Such a fun way to spent my time in my studio.
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