some zends and Challenge#84

The challenge this week to do a blind string I'm sure had some of us having a few goes before we did a string suitable enough to tangle! My contribution looks a bit like something underwater I reckon!!



My first attempt at an irregular zendala. I will probably colour it as its asking me to!




This is a bit bigger, and quite regular. I wanted to get some 3D effects going here.





Eat your art out exhibition

A local artist is working to bring tourists to our town. His strategy is to bring food and art together, he calls this 'Eat your art out'. He invited me to be the first to exhibit in a local cafe called "The French Pear". I felt quite privileged as its the best cafe of all! It has a massively long white wall, and a shorter white wall. Plus a back room!!

Down the long wall I have my watercolour paintings...

At the end my largest piece I call "Birds of every other colour". Named after a combined exhibition of art teacher's work 'Every other colour'

Here it is before being framed.
In the centre of the wall my "Big Birds",



To the right of this I have  small pictures from my very first exhibition..naive landscapes and flowers.
Here are some samples

On either side of Big Birds are my two favourites - "Rainbow Birds" and "The Plowman"....



On the short wall are my black and white zentangle works, most of which have already been on the blog of course! 

Then around the corner in the private room are my coloured zendalas...

On the counter I have a stack of cards with prints of the paintings on the front.

Most cafes and restaurants in Drouin now will have an art display, running for two  months. I think it should be a great attraction for tourists as well as for the locals.

Now back to create some zentangle challenges!!

challenge#82

This week's challenge is to create a zentangle using the tangle "braid". I thought I would do a variety of them and filled the spaces with "Rick's paradox". It seemed to be missing something so I coloured it with Prismacolours Verithin pencils. It looked happier then.

A recent simple zendala.

challenge#80

This week Laura has challenged us to create a monotangle of Mi2.  I have been using this tangle a bit so was really pleased to do this challenge!!  I had previously completed this challenge in colour wash, so will post that one again, as I think its better than the black and white one.

A few more colour washes!!

I found these which I had done when away in WA. You'll be tired of seeing them!! warned you they're addictive. Plus a little bookmark I did exploring pink and brown.

The large squiggles in the corners are from my new tangle Camelia,

Another new tangle I have yet to post here Diamond Flowers.

instructions for colour wash

Today I had my tangle ladies for our usual fortnightly afternoon fun together. We haven't met for quite a while as I was in WA and then it was 2 weeks school holidays. They showed me what they had been up to in the meantime. I asked their permission to show their work .



A zendala by Saeko Butler



Helen is really into quirky pictures, they are so cute.

Work on canvas by Roberta Adams (Bertie)

I commended her on designing a tangle!! Instructions to follow soon.

After our 'show and tell' I showed them how to do colour wash. In case some don't know the joys of that technique yet, I have some pictures to assist you here

Any water soluble marker should work.

You will also need a perspex or plastic sheet, a spray bottle for water and a rag to wipe clean the plastic.
I use watercolour paper or /and tiles.

Wipe the marker over the plastic sheet

Spray with water, two or three quick sqirts

Press paper onto wet area

Carefully lift off. They do look better when dry.

On the right is the first "Print", on the left another print over the same area.

Afterwards you can stamp then tangle

Shading with coloured pencil

A holiday class who had lots of fun!

Stamping added

Warning! This can be addictive. Practice will perfect your technique too. Enjoy!

brilliant bookmarks

As you know I am rather addicted to colour wash at the moment. Well I had an experiment with using inks this week. Yay! They are soooooo bright! I may have used too much ink, but its a start. Once dry I then stamped them at the ends, followed by stencil letters which I tangled, then shaded in a purple and brown. I placed a little message on the back too. Wacha reckon?

METHOD

On an A4 sheet of perspex I place 3-4 drops of ink in two colours, swirl them around a little, then lightly spray with water. For these bookmarks I used 300gsm watercolour paper which I pressed onto the ink, then carefully lift off and let dry. The white dots are using a gel pen. Have a go, its great fun. Let me know if you need pictures to show the method!!