Tag Archive for ‘painting’ at Inspiration Junkie robayre.com

Tag Archive for 'painting'

Inspiration: Artist Michelle Armas

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on April 24, 2013

. 1 Comment

For the life of me I can not remember what led me to Atlanta artist Michelle Armas’ work. It was just the other day, but yeah, poof, it’s already gone. I think maybe on pinterest? Anyway, I first saw a piece of her artwork which led me to her bigcartel site, and there I found a little bio where she shared a link to her blog and WHOOSH, I fell down the inspirational rabbit hole.

Remember the other day when I said I needed to loosen up? Yeah, well, this is the kind of thing I’m talking about. I’m enamored with Michelle’s work. I want all my walls covered in her work. It’s all about the looseness and the colors for me. In my own artwork I have a certain confidence in regard to composition, but in regard to color I just don’t feel in control. I know when I see good color (combinations), but I feel like I can’t pull them out of my own head. I have this habit of finding great color here and there and then using that as inspiration for my own work. Example, I loved this design piece by andrea daquino and used it as color inspiration for the necklace on the right I made. My hang ups on color might stem from a lack of confidence and jealousy somehow. As I was saying when other people use certain colors I see this magic happen, but if I had created something using those same colors previously I wouldn’t give me the same feeling. Is that weird? It’s kind of like perfume. I could smell a scent on someone and LOVE it, but if I had that same perfume and wore it, it wouldn’t have the same magic.

Well, just looking through her blog I came upon this post. First, she shares a picture with a color chart underneath and says she is painting that color story. Then she posts about a room she is in love with and when I click the link it takes me to her pinterest and more specifically a board called “Color inspiration”. Weeeee, I’m not the only one who needs to outsource her color inspiration.

Michelle Armas blog
Michelle Armas Etsy
facebook

Inspiration: Poured Paint and Marbling

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robayre

on July 5, 2012

in Cool Links, General Update and My Artwork

. 1 Comment

In February of this year I bookmarked a post on Poppytalk about New York artist Holton Rower, who makes big art installations made from poured paint. Last week Booooooom posted about him as well and reminded me of his work.

Work by Holton Rower

Both links feature a really cool video of his work being produced.

Then, last week I came upon this post at Anthology Magazine about artist Pernille Snedker Hansen of Snedker°Studio who creates these beautiful marbled wood floors. What caught my eye though, were the preliminary “sketches” she creates to work up to the wood floor panels, seen below.

The wood panels and sketches are done in a combination of suminagashi as well as western marbling techniques, where pigments are floated on the surface of water. There is another great video here of her working as well.

work by Pernille Snedker Hansen

I did some paper marbling for a book arts class I took in college, but after seeing these images I REALLY want to do it again.

At any rate, I was really inspired by the super thin lines of concentric circles as well as the color combinations of both Rower and Hansen’s works. I’m finally, finally, finally at a place this year where I am not overwhelmed with other work and can create some artwork that I want to do, just for fun. Right now that means getting back to my third Artomat series I started earlier this year. I just finished creating three pieces that were inspired by these artists to add to my series. Since my paintings are just that, I wanted to add that they are painted in the style of poured paint and marbling, and not actually poured paint or marbling. I don’t think I will be creating any more in this style, but it was fun to get out that inspiration.

and just a reminder, these are actual miniature canvases that I built that will be sold in Artomat machines. You can click on any of the pictures in this post to take you to the original sources.

Middle of June

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robayre

on June 14, 2012

in General Update and life

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Building up to the Barn Sale in May I was so busy building inventory for the show. I started keeping a list of the all the things I couldn’t wait to do once the show was over. Immediately following the show and before I had time to finish unpacking from the show, Bishop disappeared. We are like a pair of deflated balloons, Matt and I. When we aren’t at work, or searching for him, we are drained and numbing ourselves. Me on the couch watching netflix and snacking and Matt at his computer playing video games. Needless to say, I feel like nothing has been accomplished since he’s been gone. Remember all the inventory I said I’d add to my etsy shop? Yeah, right. I feel like I’ve done absolutely nothing, I know it’s not true but it feels that way. I try to stay positive and not let myself go there, but it’s harder and harder after 3.5 weeks.

To prove to myself that I’m not a complete slug I’m listing some of the things that I HAVE done recently:

I realized too late that June 9th was International Yarn Bombing day. I’ve been wanting to create a tree cozy for a while so I just worked on it earlier this week. Better late than never. I still need to figure out where to put it. There is a fine line of the type of folks who would appreciate or tolerate something like this. I don’t want my work to be cut down immediately.
-The wifi on my iphone (glorified ipod touch, because it doesn’t have service) died, so I had no way to post to instagram. Gasp! I know! Fortunately after multiple trips to the nearest Apple Store, and one trip to the AT&T store I was finally able to get a replacement and continue with my 365 instagram project.

My sisters and I planted our garden

-I FINALLY made the pillow cases I promised Tom years ago.
-I had a handful of meetings that pushed me out of my comfort zone (I’m such a shy/anxious/nervous type person) one of the meetings was with a repeat customer to drop off an order.

-I’ve been working on a large order for a customer that will be selling my jewelry in her store in Australia. How exciting is that?
-I got to speak with and meet with some good friends that I hadn’t spoken with for a while (Bethany, and also Jenny and Gail)
-I had a mini “vacation” with 3 days off of work (not nearly enough!)

-Went to Flora, IL for the Wells Family Reunion. My sister was helping organize the reunion and saw the idea for a family tree on pinterest. I helped her by painting the tree, and then you can see the finished product next to it. Everyone at the reunion left a leaf, using their thumbprint, and then signed their name over it.

-Another idea that my sister and I had for the reunion was a photobooth. My sister found the company and for every picture, there were two prints, one for an album, and one to take home. Everyone had a good time taking pictures with their family members and going back for silly pictures with props.

We bought a hammock for our backyard. This is a fitting puzzle piece in the image of what home ownership means to me. Yep, lazily rocking in a hammock in my own back yard.

Oh yeah, and the lovely Rosa Murillo sent me one of these Robyn Necklaces that she named after me!

Found Art Tuesday February 2012

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robayre

on February 14, 2012

in Found Art, Fun, General Update, My Artwork and Projects

. 1 Comment

As I mentioned last week, Found Art Tuesday is getting a revival. Rosa has declared the second Tuesday of each month to be Found Art Tuesday, and here I am on St. Valentine’s Day to present you with my first Found Art Tuesday in an eternity.

The front

and the back

Since I’ve been in Artomat mode, painting my mini canvases I thought I’d like to make a little painting for this Valentine’s Day Found Art Tuesday.

It took me a long time to think of where I should leave it. I wanted to get my mom a treat for Valentine’s Day, and I know she loves the cheese popcorn from the local candy store, The Confectionary. Then it hit me. What’s a better place to leave some love themed art, on Valentine’s Day, than in a candy store. Also fitting, as I am a candy addict. Once I decided, then I was nervous and worried about how I would leave it. It’s one thing to quickly ditch it somewhere, and another entirely to stick around and take photos.

Naturally, after we were already on our way I realized I forgot to bring my nice camera with me, so all my pictures are from my cruddy camera phone. The picture on the left above is taken from the Confectionary’s website.

I would have loved to leave the art taped to my favorite jar of candy, but when we got in there the employees were remarking how it was the first time it had slowed down all day, so their attention was entirely on us. Instead I realized they had a bulletin board, so I had Matt pay for the popcorn while I hung my artwork on the board.

It was such a relief to let it go and get out of there. I know Rosa feels like a super slueth or Ninja, but when I leave artwork behind I feel like a criminal. “they’re gonna catch me, they’re gonna catch me” like I could be taken away in cuffs and locked up forever.

Afterwards, since it was Valentine’s Day, Matt and I went to the new Aspen Leaf Yogurt. I’ve been wanting to go to one of these new yogurt type places for a long time, and lo and behold, we suddenly have one in town. I have a feeling that it will be my go-to place during the dog days of summer.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone. Now I’m off to check and see what Rosa, and others might have contributed. I’d love to hear if you played too.

Chugging along on my latest artomat series

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robayre

on February 5, 2012

in Artomat, General Update, My Artwork and Projects

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I mentioned before, how I was inspired to start a new Artomat series in a new style. I decided, instead of practicing and perfecting it before beginning, that I would just start playing on real canvases.

Well, the new style I’m trying to move towards for this series is just really loose and more painterly. I want to use lots of color, but also that they shouldn’t be mixed thoroughly and should be streaky. More expressive and abstract. I’m having to jump some hurdles with this.

I always remember my friend Bri sharing advice from a teacher of hers that you should NEVER use paint straight out of a tube, you should always mix your own colors. It’s great advice that I agree with, but normally my method for painting has always been to mix colors on my palette so that they are very consistent, no streaks. The same with watercolor. Even when I was trying to loosen up, I realized putting paint on my palette and mixing minimally caused the color to be too uniform by the time I spread it on my canvas. So, I jumped this hurdle and have started just applying paint straight to the canvas and not using a palette at all. No mixing colors, until I’m already painting. It’s new to me and kind of cool. I like to work super fast, and going for this painterly approach is causing me to speed up even more. Granted, my canvas is the size of my palm. I’m sure it would be very different if I was painting a huge, or even average sized canvas.

I’m not exactly sure where this will take me, but I’m having fun playing.

Painting of Nikki

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robayre

on April 5, 2011

in General Update, life and My Artwork

. 9 Comments

A long time ago my friend Nikki asked me to make a painting for her. It’s been so long so I can’t remember the details, but it was either for a painting of just her, or a painting of she and Tom (her husband). I was so honored, but as I thought about it more, I got really stressed. Whenever I make something upon request I get really anxious, stressed that I’m going to ruin it, and that the person will be dissatisfied with the final outcome. Finally, I told her thanks for thinking of me so highly, but I’m not really a portrait artist and I had to decline her offer.

Nikki was one of those people who was always so supportive of her friends and family in their creative areas. It really meant a lot to me that she thought that I’d be able to tackle something like that.

Once she passed away, one of the things that I kept thinking about was how I needed to do that painting now. I had to do something to honor her and I wanted to give it to her mom to let her know how much Nikki meant to me. I knew exactly what picture it would be based off of too.

Back in the day of our first camera phones, we were at Michael’s and Nikki picked up one of those small decorative twig-wreaths that people place around the base of candles or on table center pieces. It had white “berries” and she put it on her head like some fairy princess and proceeded to take a picture of herself. I asked her if she wanted me to snap it for her and she said she got it. You can see the composition of her shot cut the picture off in such an interesting way. I loved that picture. On a side note, she LOVED photography as well as film-making, and had a flickr here, but was often intimidated about sharing her pictures there. Years ago I asked her for a copy of that picture, and I think she only had a download of it from her old Textamerica moblog site, so it’s super tiny.

That’s all I had to go off of. Like I said before, I’m no representative portrait artist, but it came out decent. I cried near the end when I realized it would come out okay, and that I felt it actually looked like her and that it would be good enough to present to her mother. I changed the wreath to a kind-of-halo. Nikki loved sparkly things, so I gave all the white orbs a silvery shimmer.

This week I’m going to pack it up and send it to her mom. I hope she likes it.

Day 16 – painting

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robayre

on February 17, 2011

in General Update, My Artwork and Projects

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Day 16 Thing-a-Day

I’ve been eying these deep square wooden cradle boards from Michaels. They are unprimed and the kind of beautiful thing that you buy and just fondle and never want to make a mark on it, for fear of ruining it’s potential. You could use them for painting, or encaustic or flip it backwards and create a shadowbox from it. Well, yesterday I found this 50% off (yes, that’s FIFTY PERCENT) coupon online. It’s good through Saturday. Please, click it and print one out for yourself. I was like Robyn-Hood of Michaels and handed out a couple of them to random strangers in the store. Anyway, I finally bought one of the cradle boards and started a painting I’ve had in mind for a while.

It’s only 8″ squared, but this is still huge compared to how big I usually paint (thank you business card sized artomat canvas paintings).

If it’s not obvious, this is a work in progress shot. I haven’t destroyed it yet, but there is still plenty of time for that :O

Documenting the fall

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robayre

on November 2, 2010

in etsy, General Update, lists and My Artwork

. 1 Comment

In the last week Matt and I have been doing some rearranging. We moved our “living room” which was previously in the finished basement, up to the actual living room area. The office, which was previously in the “living room” is now in the finished basement. Matt’s brother and sister-in-law were so kind to give us their 61″ HDTV and there was no way we were carrying that down the stairs, so instead we just did a switch-a-roo. The reason they gave us their amazing HDTV was because they decided to upgrade to a 3D-HDTV! and it is amazing! I’ve never been too keen for 3D movies, but they had us watch a 3D Imax movie about the bottom of the ocean and it was the first time ever where I felt like things were actually coming out of the screen at me.

Then this weekend we carved pumpkins with our friends Tom and Nikki. It’s something we do every year. I only have Matt and my pumpkins pictured here because the full group shot is on my other camera and I left that in my best friend’s car. My pumpkin is on the left. Usually I always carve the same pumpkin ever year, but this year I was inspired by this link from Martha Stewart via The Dainty Squid.

Last week this painting arrived in the mail. It was actually a painting I made and sent out for a top secret project. I loved the finished product so much, and I was so afraid that it would end up getting lost or tossed and just unappreciated, so I was thrilled to have it back in my possession. It’s based on a collage that I shared earlier this year.

And lastly, today I made this Etsy treasury.

Please click on over and view it. I love all the pieces I featured and think they deserve some attention :)

Blades of Grass No. 7

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robayre

on October 18, 2010

in etsy, General Update, My Artwork and shop update

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I just added this new painting to my Etsy shop, AND I listed it for a mere $30 because I really hope that it finds a loving home soon. Scoop it up while you can.

I made this piece in the same style as the larger piece (No. 4) for my sister. I really liked that piece so much that I had to make another to put in my shop. This piece is smaller, but much bolder in color and has a red edge all around it.

Here is a progress picture, mostly because I loved the color palette.The piece uses my favorite color combinations, red and green, without being Christmasy. I love the energy that these complementary colors create.

The piece is a petite 3.875″ x 4.875″ and if you click on the link to the shop listing, you can see it in size relation to a pencil.

Painting In Progress – and some other stuff

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robayre

on October 12, 2010

in Cool Links, General Update and My Artwork

. 2 Comments

I’m working on a new painting. I’m at that point where I have a few more ideas, but I’m afraid to continue for fear of ruining it. One thing I was going to do was a semi transparent layer of white over the clouds. The other thing was to give the blades of grass a border shadow so that it makes them pop out more against the background. I think this picture deceivingly makes the grass look like it stands out more than they actually do in most light.

While I’m posting, I might as well share a couple other inspiring items.

The evening of the hot air balloon flight my brother had a bonfire and it made me think of floating paper lanterns that I’ve seen online before. Now I want to make some myself. They are so beautiful, but don’t you think that is a little scary to send a paper and fire “package” up into the sky? I wouldn’t want to be responsible for some forest fire. Smokey taught me well. There was a girl at the bonfire that said they made paper lanterns in elementary school and if one started on fire it would just burn up but be put out before it would land. I guess it makes sense. I’ve witnessed dozens and dozens of bonfires, and they are on the ground and you see embers constantly fly off, but never have I seen another fire started somewhere else. There are several tutorials online, and they all seem to use flame retardant papers or spray.

Check out this article on Design Sponge about hosting your own “design swap”. I thought that was a great idea, as I’ve been recently wanting to get rid of the extra stuff that I don’t need. I filled up a couple garbage bags full of clothes and shoes, but there were plenty of things in there that were still in great shape. But, the thing I liked about the article is the idea to swap not just clothes but home items like home decor or kitchen items as well.

Inspiration Junkie robayre.com