a painting experiment

Hi there!  I'm back from my workshop and had a great time.  My creative spirit just loves that kind of environment.  Not to mention, it was a wonderful location!

Mixed Media, 6"x6"

I wanted to share with you an experiment I just finished - well, I think it's finished.  I can't decide if I want to add more to it or not!  But this is on Ampersand's Claybord, and it's the first time I've played with it.  So I bought a few little boards to play with - this one is 6x6.  I really loved being able to scratch into the surface - it felt a bit like my surface designs on my claywork that I do.  In this piece, I used acrylic paints, alcohol inks, a stamp that Laura gave me with permanent sepia ink, pan pastels, oil pastel, stabilo pencil, and white sharpie poster paint pen.  Then I used one of my clay tools to scratch through the layers to reveal the white underneath.  It was so much fun to do!  I totally lost track of time and I just LOVE it when that happens in the studio.  The little flowers I painted are actual wildflowers that grow here at the beach where I live.  I guess technically, they are weeds, but we all love them and people mow their yards around them, so as to preserve them.


I hope to do some more experimenting this week - so much fun!!


Hope all of you had a fabulous weekend!
~Kelly

The Bascom

Main building of the Bascom

Now that Blogger is back up and running, I am able to post about this awesome facility I'm at for this workshop!  This is my first time here and it's so great to be here, and I'm loving this location.  Everyone is so open and friendly - everyone at the Bascom and everyone in the town too.  I'd love to come back sometime with the family for a vacation, but beware of the windy roads!  You gotta be on your game to drive these roads and I'm glad that I didn't have to do it at night. 

The sign by the road

So here's the entrance to the Bascom.  A rock formation serves as their sign and then you have to cross this amazing bridge.   Barry Gregg is teaching this workshop and check out this youtube video he made about his work and his inspiration.  It's so awesome.

The entrance to the Bascom

So this kind of thing is always so fun.  So much energy in the class and everyone is just interested in creating, and supporting each other.  I just love it.


Here's a pic of the first little birdie I made for our totem.  Everyone made birds, so that was right up my alley! :)  We did make some more pieces, but I didn't get photos.  Time ran out - time just flies by when you are in these classes!

Bird for my totem sculpture

More to come later :)
~Kelly

Workshop at the Bascom

I'm so excited! Tomorrow, I'm starting a 2 day workshop at the Bascom -(http://www.thebascom.org/) with Barry Gregg for clay sculpture. There's always something to learn, ya know? So I'm doing all this on my phone, since there's no wifi in the hotel room (boo!), but I should be able to post some pics at least tomorrow. This little town looks so awesome and I can't wait to see more of it tomorrow. The drive here was so fanastic- lots of great curvy mountain roads - so beautiful! Talk to you soon! Kelly

I'm doing a Guest Post today!

Today, I'm over at ElizabethGLZ doing a guest post for her big blogging anniversary.  I'm so honored to be doing this for her and so happy that she has had a positive blogging experience!!  If you have a moment, head over to her space and check out her work.  She is a mixed media and ceramic artist from Puerto Rico and I just love her creations!

Today's blog post is about Finding Connections.  This photo is from one of her original paintings :)


Hope everyone had a great weekend..
~Kelly

What does this Mean?

I have to share something with you all.  I'm not entirely sure what it means, and I'm still thinking about it, trying to figure it out.


As many of you know, my mother passed away 2 years ago, and it totally devastated me.  She was not only my mother, but my best friend and my clay partner, too.  We did shows and workshops together, shared a kiln and glazes, and we could bounce creative ideas and goals off each other any hour of the day.

So imagine my surprise the other day, when I was flipping through a recent issue of Ceramics Monthly (all you clay heads know what I'm talking about), and I saw an ad for Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.  My mother and I had taken a sculpture workshop there, probably 4 or 5 years ago, and just had a ball.  Anyway, in this ad, they had a picture of my mother's hands and the sculpture she was working on.  I knew instantly that was my mother's hands and I recognized the sculpture too.  There was no doubt in my mind.  And do you guys know what a Ceiva Picture Frame is??  It's one of those digital frames where the photos rotate each day - well, on the same day I found the ad, photos from that workshop were on the Ceiva, and I was able to double check the ad with the photos on the Ceiva.  Yep, those were my mom's hands.  Kinda cool, but it kinda made my heart clench too.  What did this mean?  Was my mom telling me to get back in the studio and quit faffing around??  What do you guys make of this??  I need some female insight to help me figure this one out!!

And by the way, if you've never heard of the Arrowmont school, you should totally check it out.  Awesome, awesome place that has lots of workshops and I'd love to go back.  It's in Tennessee, for anybody close by... And if you decide to go, let me know, I'd enjoy taking another workshop there.  Those guys are great!

Hope everyone had a great Easter!
~Kelly

Sunday Journal Page

Hello there!
I wanted to share a journal page with you this morning!  I've been slowly taking the Alisa Burke's class Sketchbook Delight, and I am having fun!  I'm trying out some new materials like the Micron Pens, and I broke out my watercolors, which I haven't used since college.  I wanted to take this class because I feel like I often get caught up in making my sketches so precise and I've decided that is just not the way I want to sketch (at least not everything!).  I want to capture the things that inspire me, without having to spend three days on a pencil sketch.  I need to loosen up and be a little more free, so that was my reason for taking the class - and I'm so glad I did!


This page came about after I took a walk around my little beach community the other day, and I plucked some dollar weed off the side of the road.  I love their shape and they look so much like nasturtium leaves! (I hope I spelled that correctly!)  They just looked like they'd be fun to draw, and so they were.


Hope you guys have had a great weekend so far.  I've had a good weekend, but it's been a little crazy with a sick dog and a nutty 2 yr old running around :)
~Kelly

Blogging Block Continues...

 I don't know what has come over me!  I'm hoping that it's pregnancy hormones (I'm now 22 weeks!) but I am just crazy these days.   I fluctuate from being on a total high and feeling so, so happy, to feeling like a slug and unmotivated... Hmmmm... this is rather unusual for me, so that's why I think it must be a little pregnancy-induced madness.   My poor husband - I feel kind of bad for him.  I think he must not know what to expect each day!


I read a blog on Sunday, though,  entitled "Lately, I've been _______" that really spoke to me.  It made it me get off the computer and head for the art journal.  I felt the need to get some things off my chest and didn't want to spend too much time doodling, sketching and making things pretty.  So I just took a page that already had some color on it and started on it.   Here's a peek at what the final product was...

 Anyway, hope all of you are doing great and having a wonderful, creative week!  I'm heading out to the studio now to get in some work while the kiddo naps on this rainy day...

~Kelly