Pink Bird Studio

Februllage Update

This year I went all in on the Februllage challenge on Instagram - wow what fun!  even though I am not one to follow prompts, I did each one.

I started out in a small journal - the first prompt was Butterflies:

Day two was Text - I didn’t feel like I’d hit my stride yet, and I wasn’t really feeling the small journal.

Day 3’s prompt was Triangle.  I expanded into a 10” square kraft journal - phew!  Room to play.  Now we’re getting somewhere.

The next day was Joy.  I made this page based on that platitude “choose joy”.  This woman is choosing which smile to paste on since that seems to be important to people - (although with a mask on, no one can tell if I’m smiling or not - just saying).

Next up was Windows (as in the eyes are...)

Then we had Jungle.  

At this point I’ve lost track of which day was which so - in no particular order...

Street.

Bug

Leaves

Aeroplane 

 

Thread - yes I stitched!

Sea - (anyone else reminded of The Lion King?).

Spooky

Zebra - by far my most popular piece for this challenge!

Feather

Canary (did you know the Goldfinch is also known as a wild canary? - I didn’t, but now we both do).

Prison

Chair

Paint

Ideal - I really struggled with this one so I just made something pretty.

This one was Shout - I’ve always found seagulls to be a bit shouty.  I still like them though.

Then things got a little crazy... Meet Disco.  I can’t even tell you how long I spent gluing all these silver dots.  Sure I have silver paint and silver paint pens, but this is a collage challenge!

The next prompt was Book.  So instead of making a collage featuring books, I made a book of collages.  Actually it’s an 8-page zine format.  For the collages I did a mash-up on each page of more than one prompt from the challenge. Here it is before it gets folded up.

Left page - spooky / window

Right page - Ocean, aeroplane, triangle

Left page - shout, thread

Right page - Bug, Rose (Wait you say - I didn’t see any roses!  Some of these prompts are later)

Left page (which is really back cover when folded) - Zebra, Jungle

Right page (which is really front cover when folded) - Spooky, Butterfly

Left page - Leaves, Text

Right page - Feather, House

This one was Teacup (once you’ve put a creepy doll in a window you want to keep doing it).

This was Close - can you believe people used to pack in like sardines just over a year ago at sporting events and concerts etc.?! these two are floating above the crowd in their bubble.

More craziness ensued for the prompt Hair.  Gluing paper hair is very time-consuming, but also quite rewarding. 

Next was Rose.

And the last prompt was House.  I thought about doing something 3D but went with an Alice theme.

Last but not least - quite a lot of the artists who participated in the challenge made a special thank you collage to post on March 1 to thank the hosts.  Here’s mine:

So thank you for joining me today on this look back to the Februllage challenge - it was a blast and I saw so many amazing art pieces.  

Stay safe out there!  

Happy New Year

Well, it’s been a long time since I made a “regular” post here.  I am posting daily on Instagram though, so feel free to find me over there any time!

Here are some mixed media squares.  

And some small 10” square paintings.

And a few art journal pages...

That’s enough for one day - I’ll post more catch up shots in the next few weeks.  Happy New Year, and thanks for your visit!  

Week in Review

As I mentioned last week, Monday was a holiday and I managed to finish a couple of paintings.

This first one is called Jardin Moderne.  It’s 24” square

 

The next one is called Rearview Mirror.  It’s 30” square

I carried on with my daily square collages:

I worked on a small journal.

And I did some doodling on chipboard.  I have some grey tone mixed media paper and I may do some more of these “on purpose” because I really like the black on grey.  I did some more gelli prints on black and the doodles are sitting on one of my latest papers.

Thanks so much for joining me today.  I hope you have a great week, and stay safe.  

Week in Review

Well, it’s been an exciting week.  ICAD wrapped up, I had four paintings accepted for a show at the Federation Gallery in Vancouver (3 will be in the gallery and online, and 1 will be online only), and I found out that one of my collages was accepted for an upcoming book on collage.  Wow!

let’s start with the end of 2020 ICAD.

 

That was a wrap for this year.  I made my “heading” card at the end this year:

This is what they look like all in one place (61 + 9 bonus cards).

I decided to keep the momentum going - I’m going to make a square collage each day of August.  Here are the first two.

Speaking of collage - I finished up the challenge of tiny collages with five final entries - each around 2” square:

I also said goodbye to my latest submission to The Sketchbook Project.  My favourite contribution so far (this is number 11 for me).

Front cover:

Inside front cover:

Final spreads:

And inside back cover:

That’s a wrap.  I have a couple more things that I’ve done today but I will keep them for next week.  I’m a day late posting this.  It’s a civic holiday here so my days are all mixed up.  Thanks so much for joining me today - stay safe!

Final Catch-up post - 2 more weeks in review

Phew!  I am going to try to keep up better in the future.  This catching up has been a lot of work!

Let’s start off with the last two weeks of the Index Card A Day Challenge (aka ICAD):

18 is probably one of my favourites.  I love the background, but mostly I like the woman looking out over the building - kind of like we are all doing at the moment as we start to venture out a bit more, which is why I thought the capture “inching forward” went well with the card.

And here’s another COVID-type card.  Don’t you think a fashionable space helmet would be a great idea right about now?

This one has a subtitle: sometimes Mr. Peanut forgets how recognizable he is.  I crack myself up.  

Yes, I did cut out images from stamps...

The birds in the next two cards almost hit the recycling bin.  You see they were originally from pairs of birds, and so their tales were obscured by their mates.  As I went to toss them in the paper recycling I stopped and thought - what if I just replaced their tails!?

And finally, we reach today’s card, 28.  We’re almost 1/2 way through ICAD already!

Now it’s time to catch up on the 100 day project, which will wrap up in a couple of weeks.

Other things I’ve been doing:

A bunch of tiny (2” or under) collages for an online challenge:

Some random postcards:

And last but not least, a journal page.

Thank you so much for joining me today while I got caught up.  Hopefully as of next week we’ll go back to weekly posts that will be a bit less daunting!

Stay safe.  

Catching up - x Weeks in Review

Well, I didn’t realize I was this far behind!  The last “week in review post I made was on May 3, and here it is June 7.  I don’t want to make one giant post, so I think I’ll try to do a couple of weeks at a time until I’m caught up.  I’m participating in the 100 day project, and now the Index Card a Day Challenge has started, so I’m making at least two pieces a day.  Add painting and journalling and you can imagine that catching up is going to be a big job.  So let’s get started:

Here are a couple of weeks of the 100-day project, starting where we left off:

Now I’ll fill in some of the other activities from the same period.

Lots of mixed media / collage happening here.  Some are postcards, one was  birthday card and some are just for fun.

A little abstract of Venice for a local art contest.

And some art journalling.  I’m working on a new journal that includes a lot of interactive pages.  This is the opening page, that invites you to “come in”...

And when you open the “doors”, you find this lovely.

Last, but not least, an altered index card as an ICAD warm-up.

Thanks so much for joining me today.  I hope you are staying safe as the world adjusts to our “new normal”.  Take care! 

Week in Review

This week I continued on with the 100 day project - hard to believe we’ve reached day 27 already.

I finished the watercolour paper journal:

I think this next one is my favourite page in the whole book.

The last page includes a pocket.  Why I don’t know.  To carry reference photos, brushes, pencils?  In my case no surprise I’ve added a big bingo card!

Here is the page with the empty pocket:

The bingo card:

All tucked in:

I also made a zine!  I haven’t seen or heard of zines in ages - remember when they were big?  One of my online friends made one and I thought it would be fun to make one too.  I used the one-page format, and I started with a gelli printed sheet.  The only problem was when I went to copy it, I realized the piece of paper I used was too big, so some of it got cut off.  However, because it is quite abstract and has a pretty unified colour scheme it still worked.

Here it is folded up before being decorated:

Here it is when decorated unfolded:

The back and front covers, respectively:

 

And the inside pages:

If you are interested in making one of these they’re really easy, quick and fun.  Look up “one page zine” and you’ll find the instructions.

Thanks so much for joining me today.  Please stay safe.  See you next week.

Week in Review

This week was busy.

First off, I completed (and sold) a new painting.  The fourth in my Moderna series.  24” x 30” on canvas (and framed). 

I also found out one of my paintings was accepted into a show in Vancouver - this one’s on paper and only 5” x 7”.  The show will go live online soon, and then it will be the first in-person show whenever the gallery re-opens.

Next, here are the latest in the 100 day project.

I’m having a lot of fun with these - this week we’ve got to #20, or 20% finished the project which wraps up about half way through June.  I have confirmed with Tammy Garcia of Daisy Yellow that ICAD is happening again in 2020 so we’ll see how this overlap works out!

I did some more work in the sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project:

 

And my longish watercolour paper journal (which of course I am using acrylics on).

Last but not least I’ve started a one-page zine (made from a single sheet of paper).  I haven’t made one of these for ages but I saw someone making them on Instagram and thought I should get in on the fun.  

 

I’m starting out with a gelli printed page.

 

Thanks so much for joining me today.  Stay safe and well, and if you can, stay home.

See you next week.

Week in Review

This week I’m doing things in a different order - I’m publishing my week in review  before my Sunday Postcard Art piece, because I haven’t made one yet.  

I’ll start with this week’s pieces for the 100 day project.

 

I’m really enjoying this series.  

Next are some journal pages:

In this page you can see the window I added using a recycled window envelope.

And this page is the flip side (as you can see I wasn’t quite finished with this side when I took the first picture).

And the last page in this journal...

I didn’t do anything with the Sketchbook Project this week.

I did complete quite a few small paintings though.

These three are all on paper.

And this one is a 12” square on cradle board.

A also made a few random mixed media pieces, most on recycled box panels.

I’ve signed up for I Hanna’s DIY postcard swap  which I’ve participated in quite a few times over the years.  Always a fun event, and nice to see it continuing in these crazy times.  Some of these cards may be in my outgoing swap cards.

Thanks so much for joining me today.  I hope you’ll come back later to see my piece for Sunday Postcard Art’s theme of Theatre.  

Stay safe, and if you can, please stay home.

Week in Review

It seems like I made a lot of art this week, given a couple extra days off.  Let’s see shall we?

I decided to participate in The 100 Day Project  this year.  Apparently it’s in its 7th year.  I was on the fence until I thought about some lovely flat watercolour cards I have had for years and never used.  I believed the box had 100 cards in it, and even though I knew where they were.  When both those things turned out to be true, I decided it was meant to be.

Although the box has been opened, it’s still quite full.  I am not sure I’ve used any of them, but if I get to the high 90s and run out I can cut some nice paper to size and carry on.  Here they are:

The project started on April 7, so today I’m on day 6.  Here is Day 1.

Day 2:

Day 3:

Day 4:

 

Day 5:

Day 6:

Day 4 is my favourite this week!

I did one more spread for the Sketchbook Project - starting in on the second half already and not due until August (hopefully they are re-opened by August at the Brooklyn Art Library).  I’m continuing on my COVID theme.  Do you remember when phones had cords?!

i also did a complete ‘mini journal’ that a friend sent me last week!  It’s not that small dimension-wise, but it only has a few spreads.

Front cover:

And the rest of the individual pages:

I’ve grouped them in pairs as they appear in the book as spreads.

My friend designed these with a simple binding of washi tape and old papers, so I let those dictate the colour scheme for each spread.

And as you can see although the colours are fairly neutral, I can never quite resist a pop of colour.

Close to the end, more colour is creeping in.  :)

 

And the back cover.  Wasn’t that a fun little project?!

I also made some mixed media pieces on recycled materials.

And did another spread in one of my journals I’ve been working on for awhile.

 

That’s it for this week.  I’ve also been working on a large painting and a small painting that have both been on the go for quite some time.  Maybe with another 2 days off they’ll be done by next weekend!  We shall see.

Thanks so much for joining me this week.  I hope you are keeping safe and staying home if you’re able.  Take good care.