For the Love of Pen Art

Just sharing some love of pen art today! One day last week, I had about a half-hour of computer-down time at work, and I made this little bird drawing. I left it for my co-worker who was on vacation, to spread some joy created during a time of complete technological frustration. Ha!

I had forgotten how therapeutic it was to just DRAW. Anything. Nothing. More leaves, fewer leaves. A bird? Sure. I loved the calming blue.

And that inspired me to complete a card-a-day. I cut them to artist-trading-card sizes (2.5" wide by 3.5" tall), particularly so I could store them in baseball-card sleeves in a binder. Much to my surprise, Ellie picked up this fun little exercise too and has been filling her own sleeves with painted and doodled cards. She's drawing all of the My Little Ponies. It's adorable. Pics to come on our Instagram account!

And, for more pen-art inspiration, check out Andrea Joseph's blog. I've shared it before, but it's worth sharing a million times! Every time I visit, I feel inspired to just sketch and draw. Her loose drawings seem so simple, but her composition is stellar, so her scenes are really interesting and fun! So, the goal is to fill my own sketch journal in the same way!

Some other things we're up to: teaching more classes at The Art Store. If you haven't already, follow their Facebook page (here), so you can be notified about upcoming classes, workshops, and doodle exercises!

And We're Off!

So, believe it or not... I'm actually going away ALONE this weekend! Okay, not exactly, but you know what I mean... a little non-toddler time! Kim and I are going to the Breaking into Business program put on by the Vermont Arts Council! We leave tonight and come back on Sunday.

I expect lots of silliness and a little serious business talk too. We're also hoping to find time to visit Robert Frost's grave... will we make it there? You'll have to follow us on Instagram/Twitter to find out!

If you're following our Instagram feed, you'll know that we are busy updating our daily doodle calendar (#asvt2015calendar). That has been so fun! We're using @Tinkerlab's #tinkersketch list for prompts this month.

Also, stay tuned the weekends of the 21st and 28th as we attend a book-binding (by Kristen Watson) class AND an advanced version of the creature-drawing class, both at Artists' Medium in Williston! If you can, check out their site and join us!

PLUS, if you haven't yet donated to my Zentangle certification, please consider either donating, linking, sharing, or liking on Facebook! All those things help spread the word, even if you can't donate funds!

Until next week, happy creating!

Valentine's Day Doodle Class!

Come join our Saturday morning Valentine's Day Doodle Class at the Stowe Art Store! Make a print or card for a loved one! All ages welcome. To RSVP, visit our Facebook event page (here) or email me at artsourcevt@gmail.com!

For those of you who aren't local, please let me know if you would be interested in a web doodle class (see poll on the right), and I'll try to set up one for the month of March, if I get enough interest!

Let's Get Serious!

I had a wonderful chat with Ashlee Rubenstein and Kim Gifford on Sunday about their artwork, at One Arts Collective, and I walked away with a healthy dose of inspiration to create some real pieces. Ashlee specifically related a story about slowly working through pieces, leaving them, going back to them, and I thought, "Hey! I can do that, too." Or, at least, "I can try some new projects, finish them right away, then re-work them or start over!"

I really love the idea of my recent chandelier doodle (see previous post). I like the contrast between the real objects interacting with a fantasy "world" or doodle. Now, I'm wondering if I can push it further and questioning what the watercolor lends to this style. I feel like I'm making real artist assessments and decisions, critiquing my own work. I never do that. Sure, there's something to be said for just creative doodle time, but I'd like it to eventually lead somewhere, to some finished pieces. So, these are my first attempts! I think I still have a ways to go, but the concept is there!

Other Stuff
--Stay tuned this week/weekend for separate feature-artist posts about Kim and Ashlee! They're two of my favorite local artists!
--A few of you wrote to me asking how I made this piece/the watercolor background. I'll post a video tonight, probably a quick tutorial via Instagram. Thanks for the feedback!

Business Cards

Hey, hey! We have business cards now! I can put them up everywhere! I wasn't sure how I was going to design these.

I knew I wanted part of them hand-drawn, so I left room to doodle or paint on each one! It was a fun little project that got me excited about designing and drawing on a smaller scale. I may have to make some artist trading cards soon!

The official site address doesn't work just yet, but it should be up and running by next week! Thanks for the support, lovely followers!

Heartsy Artsy

Another page of randomness. I don't know why I'm stuck on these "starbursts," maybe exhaustion or lack of imagination, but I'm enjoying filling them with tangles. I wish I felt that I had a true vision with my artwork, but lately I've just been... playing. But that's a good thing, too, right!?

How To: Here, I used a big, checkerboard-pattern stamp to make a background. I stamped over a heart-shaped Post-It note. I dabbed pink and white paint around the heart shape and used a small paintbrush to pull the paint away from the heart. When I took the heart off, some paint had bled through around the edges, so I let it dry then cleaned it up by painting over it with some white acrilyc paint. It didn't cover it completely, but it was white enough to tangle on. Then I tangled away!

You can find some of my favorite zentangle patterns on my Pinterest board here and, on my mommy blog, I give a little tutorial on how to do this swirly pattern, here.

 Also, this weekend, Auntie Bee (her site here) took us to a great Burlington gallery where she showed and sold some of her artwork! E loved it, especially the poetry reading and the kids' art corner. The other girls were making leaf art and leaf creatures, so E made her own. Note the eyes over the leaves... melt my heart!

South End Art Hop Recap - Ellen Goodrich

To finish up our series, we were completely taken with these beautiful masterpieces of light and glass by Ellen Goodrich! See more of her work on her Pinterest board (here).

Thanks for following our recap this week!

South End Art Hop

We had a fantastic Saturday at Burlington's South End Art Hop! We had a toddler in tow, so we only made 4 "hops" to local studios, but we got to see some incredible artwork! Stay tuned this week as I highlight some fantastic Vermont artists and other incredible local resources! Yeah!

Here's a little recap of our day! Check out more of our photos on Instagram! User: UrMomIsStrange, or in our KASVT Gallery!