What to do during a blizzard.

Well, okay, so it wasn't exactly a blizzard, but we got almost a foot of snow, and at times it came down sideways, and at times I couldn't see the houses across the street. Close enough.

I had several things to get done, but since laundry means I'm in the studio, laundry it was!! And yes, I've been busily making art for the past 2 days. Here's some of what I'm working on right now.

Here's my desk - there's this tiny little area that isn't covered with stuff, and that's where I've been working - LOL!!

I made some ATC's with things that my friend Mary gave me for my birthday and things that I had set aside for making ATC's. You can see some of the components sitting on my desk. Here are three ATC's that I've made today - two are complete and one still has more work to be done.

Here are close ups of the ATC's that are done:

And I bought these little canvases, about 4 inches square, to make a triptych. I know how I want them to end up (which is unusual for me when I first start painting), and I'm excited to see how they turn out. I'm planning many, many layers for these, so I'll keep you posted on how they look as I go along. Here are the second and third layers (after a base coat of gesso to give a little finish and a little texture to the canvases.)

Katie Kendrick had us using deli paper to wipe our brushes off when I went to Valley Ridge Art Studio for her wonderful class. She then had us use the painted abstract deli paper in our projects, if we chose. Well, they were so cool, I have been looking for deli paper (hard to find except at Sam's or other warehouse stores I guess) until I had an AH HA moment and went down to the kitchen at school and asked. I got some neat baking parchment which is really quite transparent, and a lovely golden color, and BIG (sheet pan sized). Look how it's coming out already - and yes, there is a plan for this in the painting project. So far, this is just my brush wipes and the extra glaze from the 3rd layer. I think it's pretty cool.

Last summer I went on the "Art Snake" around Manistee & Onekama. One of the artists is a friend, and she had out these wonderful abstracts which got me thinking about doing a study of texture. So, I took canvas panels with me to Blue Lake and did a couple of panels as texture studies while I was there. I like them, and haven't decided if I want to continue and pursue more kinds of texture studies or if this is it.

Last but not least, I wanted to show you the clock in my studio. OF COURSE I made it -- again, I wanted to see if I could do it, and I wanted to try out some layering techniques.

So, I did many layers, (the writing says "time flies") and tried some glazing techniques and some dry brush techniques, and of course stamped the numbers. It's done on a deep canvas, and Mike helped me to do the clock works, but I did most of it myself - he just fixed what didn't work after I had put it together!! LOL!!

Well, it's stopped snowing and I need to go to Kmart & the grocery store, because they are predicting more snow (geesh) all week. Yes, I'm going to "lay in supplies."