Tradition of the Madonna- on T Tuesday

My Black Madonna, watercolor- 2009,
above.

Black Madonna of Częstochowa

from Wikipedia, my model.

Virgin of Guadalupe,
Art journal page, watercolor & acrylic.

Mother of God in the Garden of Paradise, 
Sharpie marker in my art journal.

Art journal page from 9/4/13-Collage & watercolor...
"Painting is just another way of
keeping a diary."  -  Picasso

If only the calm serenity of the Madonna's

aspect could be transferred to us

during the hectic holiday season!

♥

Enjoy your tea, or coffee today...

Linking to Elizabeth's T Tuesday party.

Whatever your December activities,

I hope you will shine bright and steady

and enjoy your days!

  ♦ ♦ ♦

Tradition of the Madonna -- on T Tuesday

Madonna:

1.  A form of respectful address

2.  An Italian lady

3.  The Virgin Mary

(Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, 1977)

I find various styles of the portrayal of the Madonna to be an 

endlessly fascinating resource for my art journals, from Medieval

and folk art, to high Renaissance paintings.  It is a variation of

 using master art works for visual journal inspiration.

For December 2013, I will be revisiting some of my drawings

of the Madonna, and some angels too...

The word Madonna is from the old Italian

'ma donna', meaning my lady, according to 

Wikipedia. 

Art that has gone before is an endless

source of inspiration and learning...

Linking up with Bluebeard and Elizabeth

at Altered Book Lover for 

T Tuesday...

Using my red panda mug --
trying to talk about T Things on Tuesday,

and drinking coffee instead of tea!

Stop by again next week to see more

Traditions of the Madonna..

(NOT the pop singer!)

TECHNIQUES for Art Journaling-on T Tuesday

Techniques for Art Journal pages can include anything that fits on the page! Here are some ways that I create my pages.  

• Take Notes-  I like to write down excerpts of interesting historic facts, art history information, and descriptions of art styles or techniques.  Noting the author and source is important to me.  When I don't do it, it's frustrating later and I wish I had the information!  I like to add sketches to the page for clarity of information if possible.

• Doodle-  I can fill a lot of pages with doodles! geometric shapes, curlicues, eyes, mouths, faces, flowers...on and on.   I believe this is a quote from a podcast featuring Teesha Moore.   Which also brings me to the idea of-
• Fill your Journal up with what you did that day...notes, lists, what you did, what you noticed...it's amazing how it can bring back memories when you re-read it...moments frozen in time!

• Found Poetry- These are phrases and words that I found interesting, and wrote them surrounding the image of people. Use any book or magazine as your source, just combine words that you find that make an interesting combination. For me, they don't even have to 'make sense.' (frustratingly, this is one of the times I didn't note my source!)
• Respond to Someone Else's Art-This page is from the Scrappy Green Journal that Elizabeth made...and I embellished or drew on the pages that she had made.  I was reacting to someone else's images and layout, which is a really interesting challenge and helps you create things you might not normally have envisioned.

• Draw what's in front of you- Combined with scraps of decorative paper, and thoughts about the day, a sketch of your coffee or tea seems a comforting image to me.  I really don't remember what prompted the sketch of the scissors and the paintbrush...they were probably on the table when I sat down to draw!

• Use ideas from the Masters- This page was inspired by patterns in a Picasso painting and I wrote about what I was doing while I doodled. A very simple page, and fun to do.

I will do another post about 

Techniques for Art Journal Pages

next week.  I hope to see you then!

♥ ♥ ♥

Linking up with Bluebeard and Elizabeth for

T Tuesday.

Please visit Altered Book Lover to see what 

others are 'up to' in their studios!

Tuesday T: THINK

THINK.

Spread in the tall, skinny journal--

some opinions voiced on

National Public Radio... I often

hear things that inspire me

on their programming.

On the right, a sketch of

Salvadore Dali, from a photo

pinned on Pinterest.

I don't have a photo of 

tea or coffee today, but I am

still linking up with 

Bluebeard and Elizabeth at

Altered Book Lover.

How about we revisit some

coffee or tea-related 

art work instead?

collage in Green Scrappy journal

Bits and Pieces journal

Eco Green Smash journal

Managed to work in at least

one beverage container!

And I was wondering...

would the readers of this blog

like a series of posts

about Halloween-related projects

during the month of October?

I am thinking art and sewing.

Leave a comment and let me know...

T is for Tuesday; Q is for Quilt

I've been working on a quilt since last summer...

A gift for the newlyweds, which they'll be lucky to receive

by their first anniversary!

When I'm working on the quilt, I am careful to keep my

coffee cup (or any beverage) far away from the quilt!

The pattern is called Merry-Go-Round,

which I've completely hand-pieced, and

am also hand-quilting.

It has bright happy colors, and includes many fabrics 

from the bride's past:  vintage fabrics from the bride's

great-grandmothers' stashes, fabrics from clothes 

that I sewed for her when she was little, and many

fabrics from the numerous baby quilts I've made.

I set the quilting frame up in my parents' home, as 

they have a bit more room, and it gives me an excuse

to go visit them and quilt! It's been in the frame for

about a month now, and I think I should be able to

get it done by the October anniversary...I hope.

My quilting stitches aren't exactly perfect,
or even tiny, but I tell myself that it's
 part of the 'charm of hand-made.'

I do attempt to keep them uniform in size.

In the block above, the red gingham was a dress that

I made for my daughter when she was in grade school.

A couple of the fabrics are from my maternal grandmother's

scraps, and one is even from a guitar case that I 

made in high school.  Yes, a quilted fabric guitar case.

Weird, I know. But I liked it much better than the

black 'cardboard' ones that you buy.  (I used

pre-quilted fabric on part of that guitar case, wasn't up to

hand-quilting in high school! and no, I don't

 really play guitar any more)

The cable quilting designs are marked in pencil and

then stitched.  The triangle and rectangle shapes are

just 'eyeballed.'  So they aren't always perfect...

It's challenging to get your shoulders, arms and hands

to 'turn' in the right direction to follow the quilting design.

I find I have to pace myself so as not to get sore muscles.

Many quilters have their quilt tops machine-quilted these

days, but I really enjoy hand quilting.  I don't exactly know

how many hours I have in this quilt. At least 500 hours, 

at a guess.  If I kept an accurate track of how long it takes,

I might never make another!

Here's how I have my morning 'mocha' coffee...

to your coffee cup add 1 heaping teaspoon of cocoa powder,

a pinch of salt, a teaspoon of vanilla, sweetener to taste,

(I use any Stevia sweetener)

and a splash of fat-free milk.  Yum!

Visit Bluebeard and Elizabeth at

Altered Book Lover

to see what others are doing on Tuesday!

Perhaps they are having Tea on Tuesday,

instead of coffee, like me...

Coffee and Collage: T is for Tuesday

Sketches and collage in my

Green Eco Smash book:

A very plain mug - I think it was

a cream color - along with scissors

and a paint brush.

Stop by Elizabeth's blog

whose 'T is for Tuesday' challenge

I am linking  this week.

While most of the participants have shared photos

of their beverage container, I remembered this 

drawing (above) and decided to go with it.

The facing page of the spread, (above)

reveals a bit of a whine...

have you been subjected to video game

sounds in a waiting room?  I very nearly

asked the person to turn them off, but no one

else seemed to be bothered, so I just prayed

the offender would be called into the office 

quickly.  I really despise that 'plunking' sound

every time the screen is touched. I wrote my

reaction down on a scrap of paper, knowing

I would put it in an art journal. The 

Jerry Seinfeld quote just seemed to fit...

ACTING on ideas makes Art.

Don't think so much, just DO.

The pre-printed background in

the Eco Smash journal has this phrase

printed in white: "Ideas are a little like

Magic Beans; they can grow us skyward."

This spread features magic marker drawings

and lettering cut from posters I've done for

illustrated talks.  They seemed to have

 too much possibility to throw away.

'T' is for Tuesday,

'C' is for coffee and collage...

what letter are you working on today?