Altered photo book

Here is a little handmade book I just finished. I made it using two 5x7 canvas style boards that i painted and I added an altered photo to the front of it. I forgot to "fix" the black charcoal around the photo, so it smudged a bit when I sealed the whole thing with modge podge, but it still looks pretty cool I think. I plan on painting the inside pages and adding the altered photos to the book when I get a chance...Thanks Karen Michel for teaching me how to alter photos in your workshop...it is still one of my favorite techniques!

Hershey

Meet Hershey...he was a sweet dog I had the pleasure of photographing over the weekend. We had a really beautiful day here on Friday...close to 80 degrees, a perfect day for a photoshoot on the beach. I love the shot of him sticking his tongue out...Have a great day everyone!

Greeting Cards

I am working on a new line of dog/cat greeting cards and this is my first sample. The photo is handcolored and distressed with sandpaper, then mounted on a handpainted acrylic background. It measure's 5x7 and would be part of a series. In an effort to produce these with less time involved, I am going to try and scan the original hancolored photo and get prints of it already altered...that way I can sell them for less and create more inventory. I am probably going to leave them blank, eventhough I am tempted to put my little sayings on the art work (i.e.-"Home is where the dog is.") What do you guys think? I would love to hear your opinions !

One of my favorite things...

Almost every evening a group of Cranes or Egrets? settle themselves in this one tree for about an hour or so. I like to think they come there to watch the sunset before they retire for the night. I don't know why it fascinates me, but I am always awed when I see them together. Maybe because they usually seem so solitary, hunting for fish by themselves in the local marshes. I suppose there is some scientific reason for this gathering every evening, but I like to think of it as one of those things that do not need an explanation. To me it is one more example of natures magic. It truly is one of my favorite things here in Virginia Beach

Clancy & Wiley

I am almost finished with this painting of two of my dogs, Clancy & Wiley. I need to work on Wiley's face (he's the one on the right) because he still looks really sad to me...I am quickly discovering that it is really hard to paint dogs! They seem much more diffcult to me because their faces have a lot more dimension than cats. Here are a few detail shots as well...

Art Journal Grunge Style

My nephew just turned 18 and since he is a very creative, artistic soul, I thought I would make him an art journal of his own for his birthday....He sent me some of his poetry, artwork and favorite CD inserts to use as a background for the book. I decided on altering an old Time Life book on Central America that I first prepared with gesso. It was a fun project for me because I wanted to do a book that was a style that reminded me of him, but kept a part of me laced through the pages. I embraced my inner grunge and had at it...very cathartic and freeing after all my recent oil paintings...I sent it off to him with a note saying that I wanted him to make it his own....write in it, paint over stuff he didn't like, add more images, burn it if wanted too...but to be fearless and not worry about messing it up or doing something "wrong". Now, if I would take the time to work on my own....this week!

Last cat painting for the show...

Here is the last one for the cat show....I tried to keep this one a little bit more simplistic...not so many patterns and details....He looks like one indifferent party animal...like "take this hat off my head before I scratch your eyes out"...

cat collage

This is a cat collage that I did today....I used one of my photos that I cut out and glued down to a collaged background that I made...I used telephone book pages, dress patterns, acrylic paint, bird epherma and Lyra aquacolor sticks. I am thinking about sealing the whole thing with beeswax so it has that wonderful smell and a little bit more depth....