August is almost here, and for me,  August this year is quite special.  The Cultural Arts Council of Douglasville and Douglas County has invited me to be their August Pop Up Artist. This is the second time they've bestowed this honor on me; the first was in December of 2019.

 For the past few months I've been preparing sufficient inventory to fill the Pop Up space in the gallery with lots of hand painted and collaged goodies in the colorful style that characterizes my work. Leaving large paintings at home, this is an opportunity to feature all the small items I love to create -- my fun new jewelry line, art cards with easels, pocket sized collaged notebooks and other treasures perfect for gift giving and self pampering.With prices ranging from $5.00 to $75.00  there's something here to fit every budget. And after the stresses of the past year, what better way to celebrate re-emergence than with a fun purchase for yourself and/or loved ones?

So pop in to the Pop Up this August! You'll be able to see my work from August 2 - 31. If you visit between August 4 and August 25 you'll be able to take in the exhibition in the main gallery, "How I Got Over - A Lockdown Collection." It features works by artists Joseph McKinney, Akua Hardy, Tiffany Charesse, Ren Dillard, Crystal Jin Kim, and Sean Mulkey that express their feelings and experiences during the pandemic and lockdown. 

The Cultural Arts Council is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. The address is 8652 Campbellton St., Douglasville GA 30134. Parking is free. For more information call 770-949-2787. 

 

 

 

An Update on the Boho Series

Several weeks ago I posted some photos of a new mixed media collage series I was working on -- the Boho Series. (Boho is the current slang word for Bohemian.)

Since then I've added more pieces, and have tweaked some of the earlier pieces just a bit. The latter entailed adding some color accents to give the collection a more cohesive look. (It's possible to add more collage or line work or whatever as long as the piece is not yet varnished. Once it's varnished, you can't do anything further to it. It's DONE.)

Originally I was planning to offer these little gems for sale unmatted and unframed. But then I changed my mind and decided to mount them on 6x6 cradled wood panels that are two inches deep. This allows them to be displayed in multiple ways: hung on a wall in a number of different configurations, lined up across a mantel or shelf, or even stacked one atop the other like a set of building blocks. Rather than placing my signature on the front, I've signed them on the back so that each one can be turned in any direction desired for an ever-changing art display. Changing the orientation of one, some or all four produces a myriad of totally different looks.

Below are four pieces that are my personal favorites. Grouped together, they make a pretty striking statement. Their bold colors command attention and there's an abundance of things to look at in each one. This is not bland, wimpy, washed out art -- it's art for people who'd never, ever paint their walls "safe" beige.

I like these so much I'm seriously tempted to keep them, but that's not why I created them. Their purpose is to bring happiness to someone and brighten their home, not mine. So when the time comes I'll part with them -- but it will be reluctantly. :)

©2016 Lynn Edwards

©2016 Lynn Edwards

©2016 Lynn Edwards

©2016 Lynn Edwards

Oh, that bit about thinking ahead to the next project? What's next is creating much bigger works for this same series. I can hardly wait to get going!

Text and images ©2016 Lynn Edwards

Welcome, Paula Guhin -- Artist and Author Extraordinaire!

Today it's my great privilege to welcome guest blogger Paula Guhin, whose artwork and photography knocks me off my feet! Paula is not only remarkably talented with a brush and camera, she's a respected visual art educator as well as the author of six popular how-to art books: Image Art Workshop: Creative Ways to Embellish & Enhance Photographic Images; Painting with Mixed Media (with Geri Greenman); Creating Decorative Paper; The Complete Photo Guide to Creative Painting (with Geri Greenman); Glorious Glue!:Art with Adhesives and Adventures in Photo Artistry: Easy Activities for Anyone! All are available through Amazon.

Paula works in a wide variety of media. Below, she shares with us her process for creating the fascinating assemblage she has titled Time, Where Have You Gone? Be sure to visit Paula's blog, Mixed Media Manic, (links at right and below) to see more of her beautiful and amazing artwork! -- Lynn

 

Paula Guhin

"I'm a collage artist and painter who also adores assemblage. Here's how I begin the latter: I start with an idea, a theme. Then I gather materials to fit that concept, and a vessel of some type to contain it or to build upon. In Time, Where Have You Gone?, I used a tall wooden clock housing for structure. I always have acrylic paint and mediums, a small hand saw, and strong adhesive handy!

Found items suggesting a theme are arranged on and in a wooden clock housing.  ©2015 Paula Guhin

Two pair of thrift shop earrings reminded me of wings...time does fly! Dollar store Halloween stuff (like plaster headstones, etc.) fit right in with my thoughts of mortality as I worked on the piece. I often use doll parts, too, but I alter them (and I change most of the other materials as well).

TIP: As an assemblage is completed, the artist should feel free to add to or discard some of the collected materials. They don't ALL have to be included.

Time, Where Have You Gone? 13x5x3" mixed media assemblage on wood ©2015 Paula Guhin

I always finish the back of a free-standing piece, but of course some assemblages are meant to be wall-hung. This one took me well over a week, since each side had to dry before I continued. I finish artworks by checking all angles for contrast, variety, unity...you know, all that good stuff! (But just because this piece is formally balanced doesn't mean that all of them must be.)

The back and sides of the assemblage feature altered Halloween "tombstones" from a dollar store, earrings from a thrift shop, a clock face and other found objects.  ©2015 Paula Guhin

Now YOU try one (they're so fun!), and maybe see many more assemblages at http://mixedmediamanic.blogspot.com/

My thanks to Lynn for allowing me to guest here...she's a peach!"

Collaging Vintage Book Pages

 Very old book pages have always intrigued me. Something about their tea-colored appearance and quaint typography just draws me in. Sometimes margin notes written in a precise hand, or even a long-dead flower found pressed between the pages, offer tantalizing hints about the book's history.

Recently, I decided to use a page from a book published in the early 1800s as a support for a small collage. Don't worry, I did not destroy a precious relic : the sad old volume I used was already totally derelict when I acquired it. Its front cover was missing and its pages had long since separated from the spine. It was literally rescued from a conveyor belt that, in a few more seconds, would have dumped it into a commercial shredder. But tattered as it is, the old book still presents creative opportunities if not literary ones.

Just inside the missing cover is a page bearing the inscription "David Dunlop. 1856." Who was David Dunlop? How did he come to own this book? What was his interest in A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen? We'll never know the answers, but it's fun to look at his small yet elegant signature and speculate.

I wonder what he'd think about a page from his book becoming the basis for a modern piece of art:

"Holyrood" is a mixed media collage created on a page from 150 year old book. ©2015 Lynn Edwards

As you can see from the first photo the 1800s typography was teensy tiny. (How the heck did they ever manage to read it??) I wanted some of it to show through the artwork, so in places I used Gelli printed semi-transparent deli paper. It allows the type to peek through here and there, which gives the piece a sense of depth and mystery.

©2015 Lynn Edwards

The large typography you see in the piece came from books not quite as old as David Dunop's. I like to use typography in my art whenever possible; I think it makes the piece more interesting and gives viewers reasons to look more closely.

Although many old books have pages that are too frail to use as substrates, this page was surprisingly sturdy for its age. It bore up well under multiple layers of paper, paint, ink and adhesive when it was mounted on 140# watercolor paper. The only problem I encountered was a slight tendency toward wrinkling. To counteract it I made sure to let each layer dry completely before applying another layer.

When the collage was done, I sandwiched it between two pieces of freezer paper (waxy sides facing the art), piled a huge stack of heavy books on top, and let it sit for 24 hours. When I removed the books the collage remained perfectly flat. I then float mounted it onto a piece of foam board. After sealing Holyrood in a clear bag, it's now offered for sale through my Etsy shop, PlayingWithColors.

Had the page been more fragile, I could have gently brushed on a layer of clear matte acrylic medium or gel to reinforce it before collaging over it. If you're working with a book, try this on a page you don't intend to use.This lets you determine how it will behave and whether it will work for your project.

What was the oldest book you've ever used for making art? What has been your most exciting vintage book find to date? Answer one of these questions in the Comments section and you'll be entered in a drawing for a FREE art book from my personal collection. I'll announce the winner here on the blog next Friday, April 3. Good luck!

Text and images ©2015 Lynn Edwards

Making Art Pendants: The Slow Way and the Fast Way

The Slow Way:

For the past several weeks I've been creating art pendants. Each one is a miniature, original mixed media collage made with my own hand painted papers and an occasional altered "found" paper or two. I use Stampbord (clay coated hardboard by Ampersand) for the substrate and the finest quality silver plated bails. I cut my papers into teeny little pieces, arrange them in a pleasing composition, then tweezer them into place and glue them down. Multiple coats of clear acrylic sealer and acrylic varnish follow.

An Original Art Collection pendant     ©2014 Lynn Edwards

Another Original Art pendant on a black silk necklace cord.   ©2014 Lynn Edwards

They're insanely labor intensive to make but I love making them anyway. So far I've created about two dozen of them in three sizes: 1x1 inch, 1x2 inches and 1 1/4x2 1/4 inches. You can now find some of these for sale in my new Etsy shop: http://www.playingwithcolors.etsy.com.

If you don't have the patience for a project like this, don't worry. There is a much faster, easier way to make an art pendant. Like this one:

The easy way pendant. It features a reproduction of one of my paintings. ©2014 Lynn Edwards

Its creation was pure serendipity. I was discarding some obsolete business cards featuring a photo of one of my older paintings. Just as I was about to drop them into the recycling bin, a light bulb went off in my head. Why not put the colorful images on them to use? I grabbed a scissors and started cutting. Coincidentally, the image on the cards was perfectly proportioned for a 1x2" Stampbord. No size adjustments needed.

After painting the Stampbord, I used soft gel medium to adhere the image and let it dry. Then I sealed and varnished it, letting each coat dry between applications. After waiting 24 hours I glued on a bail. Shazam! A sweet little pendant that assembled in the blink of an eye, so to speak. Not counting drying time it came together faster than it usually takes me to pry open a jar of gel medium. Love that!

Look for some of these pendants appearing in my Etsy shop in June.

If you don't happen to have a preprinted image you can use, there are other options. You could use copies of your favorite photos, or copyright free images in the public domain. (A search for "public domain images" will turn up thousands of possibilities. Just be sure to abide by any use restrictions that are posted.)

No Stampbord on hand? No problem. You can use Scrabble tiles or pre-cut wooden blanks sold in arts and crafts stores. Anything compatible with whatever glue you'll be using to adhere your artwork and bail is a potential candidate. So go for it. It's easy! And fun!

Text, pendant designs and images ©2014 Lynn Edwards

Having Fun with Miniature Paintings

Several years ago I bought an assortment of small Stampbord pieces. The largest was 2x2 inches and the smallest was 1x1 inches. A third size included in this assortment was 1 inch x 2 inches.

Stampbord is made by Ampersand. It's basically a clay type surface over hardboard. Stampbord doesn't warp so it's great for mixed media techniques.

I've been using the two smaller sizes to make pendants for my new mosaic jewelry collection. But rather than using the 2x2" pieces for jewelry, I've been turning them into miniature paintings. Here's one that's still a work in progress:

A tiny abstract displayed on a miniature easel from Michaels

This painting was created first on acid free artists tissue paper, which I then cut out and adhered to the Stampbord with soft gel. Once the gel dried, I continued to tweak my Lilliputian creation using fluid acrylics and a 1/8 inch wide nylon brush until I was satisfied with it.

After I took this photo I decided to paint the border surrounding the artwork black. I really liked the blue border but it didn't completely cover the pencil marks at the edges where I had marked off the paper's dimensions. Carbon black, however, does a great job of covering up unwanted marks. So as of today the border is black!

I signed it on the back rather than the front. It was easier to place my signature on the back where there was more room. Tomorrow I'll seal it and varnish it and call it done.

Creating the art on a separate piece of paper first, then adhering it to the Stampbord, made the painting process easier. The Stampbord's clay surface grabs paint and makes blending fast-drying acrylics somewhat tricky. Working on a separate piece of paper eliminates that problem.

I've got plenty more 2x2 inch Stampbords to turn into into miniature paintings. They're so much fun to do; already I'm dreaming up ideas to try with them.

Miniature paintings make terrific gifts. People really seem to enjoy having an original piece of art that takes up hardly any room and brings a touch of color to a desk or table top. Their small size carries an equally small price tag (mine are $45 including the miniature easel) making this art readily accessible to everyone!

Text and image ©2014 Lynn Edwards

Six Essential Books for Collage and Mixed Media Artists

In yesterday's blog I mentioned collage artist and workshop instructor Jane Davies and how helpful I have found her books. This led to the idea that you might find a list of good books on collage and mixed media helpful. With so many titles out there, perhaps my list of favorites will help you make your choices. Here are six books I refer to time and again. They're in no particular order:

Collage Techniques: A Guide for Artists and Illustrators by Gerald Brommer
Acrylic Revolution: New Tricks and Techniques for Working with the World's Most Versatile Medium by Nancy Reyner
Surface Treatment Workshop by Darlene Olivia McElroy and Sandra Duran-Wilson
Image Transfer Workshop: Mixed Media Techniques for Successful Transfers by Darlene Olivia McElroy and Sandra Duran-Wilson
Collage Journeys: A Practical Guide to Creating Personal Artwork by Jane Davies
Creative Collage Techniques - Nita Leland and Virginia Lee Williams

The above titles aren't the only ones I'd recommend. In my next post I'll be listing several more. If you have additional suggestions, I'd love to hear from you.

©2014 Lynn Edwards

How to Use MDF for Painting, Mixed Media or Collage

As artists, we're always looking for good painting surfaces. Have you tried MDF yet?

The Pro's:

Medium Density Fiberboard, aka MDF, makes a fine substrate, or support, for painting as well as mixed media and collage. Its nice smooth surface lets you push paint around with ease. It also makes gluing down collage papers a snap because -- unlike canvas -- there's no "give" to it. Any air bubbles trapped beneath the paper disappear under the pressure of a brayer. Dimensional objects can be affixed securely to MDF with an appropriate adhesive.

MDF is wonderfully inexpensive. You can usually find 4x8 foot sheets of it at most home improvement centers for less than $25 each. Some also sell MDF half-panels, which are easier to handle and transport. If you've got access to a power saw you can cut it down to support-size pieces yourself, or you can pay the home improvement center to cut it up for you. Either way, one MDF panel can yield dozens of good supports for art making at very low cost.

The Cons:

MDF does have its drawbacks, though. For one thing, it's heavy. Small 8x8" pieces, such as those Corinthian II or Sojourn, shown below, were created on, weigh about 1.6 pounds apiece. That's considerably more than a cradled wood support the same size, and much, much more than a stretched canvas weighs. Its weight therefore makes MDF impractical for large works. The largest MDF panel I care to work on is 14x14".

Corinthian II, 8x8" mixed media and collage on MDF

Although MDF can be found in quarter-inch and half-inch thick sheets, which are lighter, the most commonly available MDF is closer to an inch thick. 

How to Hang It:

The bigger and heavier the MDF support, the more essential it will be to use a weight-appropriate hanging system. You simply cannot hang weighty MDF pieces with flimsy metal wall hooks. It's a safety issue. For a 14x14" piece of art I use two heavy duty wall hangers. Also, I wire the piece with heavy duty picture wire attached to heavy duty D-rings, which are screwed into the back, not nailed on.

MDF's other drawback is that the edges are not as smooth as its surface. If you want something that's nice and smooth all the way around, you'll have to do a little extra work. One solution is to don a mask and sand the edges. Even then you won't get the same smoothness as the surface, so you may want to take it a step further by applying wood filler to the edges, letting it dry thoroughly, then sanding again. Or, for a rustic look, you can skip the sanding and filling altogether and just paint the edges as they are. (Use an old, worn bristle brush for this.)  Another option --my preference -- is to collage painted paper onto the sides, as I've done with Sojourn, shown here:

Sojourn, 8x8" mixed media and collage on MDF

Strips of artist's tissue paper were glued to the sides to give Sojourn a finished, textural look. The tissue paper was gessoed, then painted, then cut into strips and adhered with soft gel medium.

How to Prep MDF:

Because MDF is a wood product, I always apply a couple coats of Golden's GAC 100 to its surface, back and sides before gessoing or doing anything else. GAC 100 is a sealer that keeps impurities in the wood from migrating up through the paint layers. It dries clear. Once the GAC is thoroughly dry, you're good to go for gessoing, painting, collaging or whatever.

Don't be tempted to skip the sealing part. Unsealed MDF is very susceptible to damage from water and other liquids. Sealing it helps protect it from moisture and allows you to use this sturdy, affordable substrate to create artwork that, given its heft, should endure for a very long time.

Questions? Comments? Just scroll down to share your views.

All text and images ©2013 Lynn Edwards   

Choosing Paint Colors for the Studio

The question of what color(s) to paint the walls in the studio had me collecting and comparing paint chips for weeks. My last two studios had white and off-white walls. Many artists say those colors, along with very pale gray, reflect light best and don't skew their color perception. So at first I decided to go that route and chose a clean, bright white for the walls and ceiling.

Big mistake. Once the white paint went on, the look was cold and clinical. It made the space feel as charming as the inside of a food freezer. This I couldn't live with. It was back to the color chips for another try.

Most of my work -- along with my personal taste -- runs to warm colors. I'm happiest when surrounded by sunny hues. Give me light and bright and I'm delirious with joy. (My idea of hell is being stuck in a room with beige or taupe walls and brown furniture. I find that to be very depressing.) Determined to inject warmth and color into my space, whose furnishings are mostly white, I settled on what I thought would be the perfect shade of pale golden yellow. I bought a sample bottle, painted a 2x3' piece of heavy white paper with it, and left the paper taped to the wall for a week to see how well I liked it. Then I bought a gallon and started painting.

Another oops. What had looked lovely on the color chip and the painted sample sheet looked perfectly awful on the wall. When my husband called it "D.O.T. yellow" he was absolutely right. It was the same color as yield signs and school buses. Much too intense, it bathed everything in a French's Mustard sort of glow. I couldn't live with this color, either, so it was back to the color chips yet again.

This time around, I lucked out and found the very shade of pale yellow I had always envisioned for my studio space: Gold Buttercup 310A-2, from Behr. I painted three of the walls with Gold Buttercup, and painted the gallery wall with Behr's Ivory Invitation 310A-1, a derivative of Gold Buttercup that's a value or so lighter. The ceiling was left bright white. Together these colors are just right for my purposes and psyche. Every time I walk into the studio now I feel uplifted.

I think the colors selected for an art studio will largely depend on the kind of art being made, and the interior lighting situation. If I were painting portraits or realistic subjects where paints must be mixed with dead-on color accuracy, I probably would have gone with white for the studio walls. But the abstract and mixed media pieces I create are more forgiving when it comes to such things, and the pale yellow I used doesn't seem to reflect back into the room in a problematic way. It's warm but unobtrusive, while Ivory Invitation provides an inviting yet neutral backdrop for work displayed on the gallery wall.

Why is it so hard to pick just the right colors? After all, it's not hard for me to choose or mix colors when painting a canvas. I think the difficulty in getting color for the walls right must be due to the scale involved and the many variables that affect color perception in the physical environment -- shifting shadows, the movement of the sun, and the gradual change from cooler light in the morning to warmer light in the afternoon. What you see on a color chip may not be what you get when you paint the walls due to the way humans perceive colors in our surroundings. As my experience shows, getting the wall color right can be a matter of trial and error. In this case, the third try was a charm. Anybody wanna buy a gallon of  "D.O.T. Yellow?"

My long-awaited Burridge workshop

Belfast, 12x12" acrylic on canvas

After years of waiting, I'm finally getting the chance to take a workshop from one of my all time favorite artists, Robert Burridge. It was largely due to Bob Burridge that I fell in love with abstract painting and the freedom of exploration that comes from painting with "no holds barred." Although my own style differs from his, my work and attitude have been greatly influenced by him. Belfast, shown here, is a painting I did a few years back, approaching its creation from the experimental viewpoint Bob advocates.

My reason for taking this workshop: I want to return to my "artistic roots" -- laying paint directly on the canvas. These last several years I've focused increasingly on mixed media collage. One day, it occurred to me that I might have forgotten how to "just paint." Slowly, over time, I had gravitated more and more toward using papers in place of paint. Hmmmmm. Might it be time for a tuneup in the creativity department?? When I learned of an upcoming Burridge workshop I signed up. Exactly what the doctor ordered for jump-starting my directional shift, and taught by the guy who got me hooked in the first place. Perfect!

Not that I don't love collage. I'm crazy about it. But increasingly I've found myself yearning for that incomparable sensation of splashing, smearing, stabbing or smooshing paint directly onto a canvas in spontaneous, even reckless, fashion. My collaged pieces, on the other hand, require a lot more forethought and planning. The whole process takes much longer. That is, if it's to be done right, i.e. with archival integrity in mind. There's the drying time between layers, the paper prep, the additional steps required to prepare the support, etc. etc. While the end result may appear wildly spontaneous, the process itself is pretty time consuming and labor-intensive. Collage is more of a carefully composed fugue than a jam session. Right now, I'm aching for some improv.

So my goal for Fall is recharging my painting batteries. Can't wait to see what happens next. Will keep you posted.

Using Old Books as Collage Material

The other day a heavy box arrived from my sweet and thoughtful sister-in-law. Imagine my delight when I discovered it contained a collection of extremely old books! They included vintage titles printed in Russian, German, French, and Latin, a richly illustrated book on the history of clothing design, an engineering manual written entirely in Chinese, a book of Arabic proverbs, even a hardcover catalog from France's 1889 Salon Illustre. (More on this last item in a future blog.) This gal's heart very nearly stopped when I saw what a treasure trove of collage materials the box held!

I love using vintage book pages in my mixed media collages. They have an irresistible visual appeal that draws viewers into the work. (Not to mention being a pleasure for the artist too.) I'm absolutely nuts for incorporating pages with foreign languages and symbols and vintage illustrations in my art. The challenge for me is finding sources for it. My sister-in-law knew this. She obtained these books for me through her city's library system which holds periodic book sales. I am giddy with gratitude!

Impressions of Summer

"Dragonfly" mixed media collage, 12x9"

Heat and bugs are the essence of summer in my state. I wanted to capture summer's fiery warmth with this mixed media collage while providing a nod to dragonflies, one of my favorite "bugs." There's a small water garden alongside my porch where these beautiful creatures congregate. It's great fun to watch them hover over the water, then zip off into the garden. My environment provides many little inspirations like this for my art. I find such moments to be some of the most rewarding when I'm looking for something to jump start a painting.