Making Marks with Pauline Agnew

Mixed media on acid free paper.

This weekend I participated in Pauline’s OPENSTUDIO taster class. A sample of her “Draw and Paint what you Love” course. The event took place both on her website seedbedstudio, and on Facebook over two days. Pauline provided fantastic videos, both for instruction and for inspiration.

Pauline Agnew is an artist with a Degree in Fine Art, a Masters in Multimedia, and lots of experience in teaching art from Primary to University levels. Her work has been seen in public and private galleries, and she had an artists residency in The Irish Museum of Modern Art and was chosen as an artist in residence also for Cork City’s year as European capital of culture in 2005.

Seeds of Inspiration

Quick sketch

I found this class by accident, and I am so glad I did! I was visiting Lucy Chen’s website late at night, watching her self-portrait video. Thank You Lucy! Lucy works in oils, and she has only been an artist since 2011. Before that she worked in finance! Her work is really amazing and I hope you will take a look! I was so inspired to start this class, I had to wet my brush and spread some paint before going to bed. So I did this quick sketch. Horrible I admit. But I felt better having moved some color around.

First layers

The next two days, I painted. Making marks as Pauline suggested. I painted with a twig, swizzle stick, a couple of nail heads, a toothbrush, foam rubber, and a few brushes. I used acrylics, Inktense watercolor pencils, and pens.

Ideas Germinate

Not only is Pauline a wonderful instructor, but she was also immensely supportive of our efforts. The conversations and feedback from the other participants was such a blessing to take part in! When I started, I had no intentions of painting a particular, anything. I was not thinking about a finished landscape, or portrait. For a while in the middle of the process, I was pretty sure I was not going to have a piece worth showing. But I kept on. Added more bits here and there. When I flipped the paper around to see if I had something to build on, I saw a neck, and a bit of a head wrap.

I really am so pleased with this. It was a surprise. I think that is why I like it so much, I wasn’t trying to paint her. I was just painting. I spoke with a couple of the artists in class, and they suggest that I leave her faceless. I can almost see her features, but they have not quite revealed themselves to me. So for now, this is how she will stay. Let me know what you think!

I feel this is one of the best paintings I have ever done. I am so thankful I found this introduction. Thank You Pauline for an enlightening weekend!

Mixed media on acid free paper. 9 x 12

Spoonflower Fashion Fabric Contest

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This week yellow got in my head, and refused to leave. I started painting, with lilies and dahlias as my reference. After painting true flowers, I started to play, and these loose scribbles are what emerged. For this challenge, I wanted something bold, and bright with a hint of island. Clean and modern, feminine but not frilly. I can see this as a great silk scarf, worn with a sleek white suit or a body hugging knit dress.

Voting for this contest is open from August 15th – 20th. Spoonflower has changed their procedure, and it is super easy to vote now. There is just one page, and it takes just a few seconds to scroll through. You can only vote once, but you can share the link with…everyone. I really do appreciate your votes. And I would love to hear what you think about this one!

Spoonflower fashion contest yellow hello

Product mock ups.

Thanks to all of you who take the time to vote!

Colorful Quest

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“This post is part of the Exploration Party – a celebration of our inner explorers, led by Tara Swiger of Explore You. You can find other tales of adventure from artists, crafters, writers and biz smarties – and share your own story – right here.”

Tara’s hope is that this party will do two things:

Remind you that you already are an explorer. You know how to find the answers to your questions.
Inspire you to explore deeper, by seeing how other creatives are doing it.

I mentioned in my earlier post, that I have done a lot of research on how to be a better blogger. I know for a fact that qualifies me as an explorer. I am a blogger. For a year I put off doing a website because I could not even fathom writing a blog. I know this endeavor does not quite put me in league with Magellan. These waters have been well mapped and are traveled regularly.

This is all brand spankin’ new to me though! I have a clear destination in mind. But I have no idea of what I may encounter along the way. Scary? Yeah. Stressful? Oh yeah! Worth it? Hell yeah!

But I need a little break from all the blog business. I have a few art projects coming up. A couple of submissions and a bit of design work. And while I am mulling over some ideas, I have also been playing a lot with color.

I have been exploring how colors work together, as I experiment with palettes to use. It is always so interesting to me, how colors can change dramatically depending on their adjacent colors. It is so much fun, to see how changing the proportion of colors in a palette, essentially creates a new palette. Duh, right.

One of my favorite sites to visit for color inspiration is Design Seeds.You can search by theme – spring, summer, vintage, vacation, etc. You can even find a color by using the value tool. This site is really fun, with great photos to get your creative powers pumping. Thank you Jessica!

Courtesy of Design Seeds, Click on the image to visit the site.

Take a look at this Design Seeds color palette. It’s warm and sunny right? The yellows and orange dominate the cooler tones. Now what if you take the silver, brown and green as your main colors, and use just a hint of the yellow and orange?

Now imagine the green is the dominate color. Followed by the grey, and the lightest yellow. The colors are all light and bright, pretty much the same value right. They would need a strong color to make really them pop.

Let’s look at these swatches. The first one is part of a fabric collection I designed last year. The kiwi is bold and playful. The large deep blue dots tone it down just a bit, but it is still fun, lighthearted. We can use this simple layout to see the different moods colors can create.

Polka dot pattern in Kiwi

Using the Design seeds Palette for inspiration, we can create swatches that are warm and sunny, cool and crisp, or deep and rich. See how the different proportions change the feeling of each one?

sunny yellow palette How does this make you feel?

Cool dot chick What does this bring to mind?

Green dot chick Or this?

This is completely different, but the colors all come from the same palette.

brown chick dot

The peach swatch screams sunny vacation. Drinks poolside with friends. The silver, hmm… office cubicle. This color combo is more serious right? The green makes me think of … chicken enchiladas Suizas! Green chili, cheese and tortillas. Mmmm. Comfort food. Warm and just a tad spicy. OK, well now that we are on the subject of food. This last swatch resembles a chunk of dark chocolate. With nuts and marshmallows. Rich and satisfying to be sure, but a little goes a long way.

I hope I have sparked some ideas for you. Maybe you will explore new color options for your next project, and be surprised by the result. I would love to hear your feelings on color, and how you use it. Why you choose the colors you do. Favorite colors, not-so favorite colors. Favorite color combinations.

Join Tara’s Exploration Party! Share your story with us, and enjoy the great tales of exploration that others are sharing.