Through the Rabbit Hole

I created an art journal spread over the weekend, inspired by a prompt on a Jane Davenport group on FB that I belong to. She has a month of challenges planned for April, all based on the theme of Alice in Wonderland. The prompt for April 1st is 'Through the Rabbit Hole.'

Through the Rabbit Hole - Art Chick Studio

I'm not sharing this in the FB group, simply because the group is meant for sharing things created with Jane's art supplies. I don't have many of her art supplies, so it wouldn't be right to share this in the group. But I love the Alice theme, so I'm just going to occasionally create in response to some of the prompts--for the fun of it. 

Almost all of this was created using Neocolor II crayons. I love how versatile they are and I think the pigment is great too. The only thing that isn't Neocolor is the paint used for the little glass bottle. The glass part was painted with Metallic Accents watercolors by Prima. Those are always fun to use because they have a lot of shimmer to them. You can almost see that in the photo. 

This art journal spread also seems timely, because it seems as though we've all fallen into some sort of rabbit hole of late. The world is a weird place right now, my friends. Fortunately, I can escape the madness of it through art.

Stay safe and well!

Mermaid Shimmer

I was in the mood to paint some Mermaids the other day. My granddaughter had just finished an underwater silhouette painting with a turtle and some other sea-life in it, so that must be what inspired me to create this.

Mermaid Shimmer - Art Chick Studio

A good portion of the background of this watercolor painting was created with Metallic Accents watercolors by Prima. I love those watercolors because they have a neat shimmer to them--as you'd expect from something metallic. I like the idea of having the background sparkle a bit, but that also makes it challenging to photograph it well. So, you can't see all of the background fish; and one of the darker fish is cut off too since I wasn't paying good enough attention as I snapped the pic. Oh well. The darker parts of the painting are all done with acrylics. 

I'm still not actually sure I'm finished with this. It looks unfinished to me. So for now, we'll call this a work in progress. I do like it so far, but sometimes I don't know exactly how I want to finish a painting. So I have to step away from it for awhile and then (hopefully) come back to it at a later time. Do you ever do that?

High School Art Throw Back Thursday

I've started moving my outdoor studio into a spare room in my house, since my outdoor studio is out of commission. My husband built that studio and I've always loved it, but I think the move indoors will be a good one. I'll have everything close by for whenever I want to get creative, and everything will be temperature controlled--unlike my outdoor studio, which only had A/C when I was out there using it. So, I ended up with lots of supplies getting ruined and thrown out. I'll still keep my stained glass supplies and some other odds and ends I don't use as much outside though, so the building will still get some use. I'm looking forward to getting a new indoor creative space though!

As I've been moving stuff inside, I look in wonder at all of the supplies and projects I've amassed over the years...all the way back to my high school art days. I have a small collection of projects from my high school Ceramics class, so I thought I'd share those as a Throwback Thursday post.

First up, a simple slab pot with a 2-color glaze. It's not very impressive, I grant you. But it's functional, and I like the colors. It's the perfect size for paintbrushes or pens.

High School Ceramics - Art Chick Studio