I Must Have Flowers, Always and Always

 

It's a busy week here for me following a busy last two months.  We finally got to go to our trip through Holland and Belgium and managed not to get Covid.  I only took about 300 tulip pictures and 200+ canal views.  I didn't want to forget a thing.  It was a fabulous trip.  On the heels of that trip, we came back to celebrate Sammi's birthday and prepare for guests in late May.  In between,  I fit in a ton of art, getting prints made, my StencilGirl blog post, lots of housecleaning (aka decluttering), and some sniffles that may or may not have been Covid.  Five negative tests but I had all the symptoms. Then, the moment came.....

Because we're going to the chapel
And we're gonna to get married...

 

Now I'm even in a bigger flower mood!!!

    

 

 

 

I am exploring many different flowers with different points of view all this year. Today I am on the ®StencilGirl blog with a different take on florals (and some abstracts) done with alcohol inks and gesso on an interesting substrate.  There is a video that should give you all you need to know.  I will want to explore this further.  

I have a five day long sale going on right now in my store.  Your code for it is JUNESALE (highly original, I know), but if you've already signed up for  my newsletter, you've had a different code mailed to you.  There is a new and now tab on the front page for new prints, but the entire site is on sale.  Quantities are limited so take an early gander if you're intrigued.  

Stay cool this summer.  I'll be back before you know it!!!!

xoxo,

Nancy

Merry Everything!

I spent last night reworking and updating my website a bit so thought I would take the three hour late night drive to update my blog and fill in the blanks since I last wrote. Healthwise, it’s been a long road back, but at least I’m on a straight stretch of road and not taking detours. I feel mostly good but every now and again I hit a wall and need to take a breather. Creatively speaking, I’ve been in a burst most of the year. But even that has worn me out at times. The first half of the year was almost exclusively Citra artwork as mentioned in the last blog post. The cherry on top was the filming of my first online class in March for StencilGirl’s new class platform. Citra Solv Art debuted in August and has been well received. I am posting bonus material for those taking the online class and for those who have taken my in person class, Transformations. Message me if you are interested in knowing more about it.

Madcap

Imperfection

October also saw the release of my first club stencil kit for StencilGirl. For those that don’t know, StencilGirl has a monthly subscription service that I’ve participated in since its inception. It was fun to design for it and then even more fun to see them in use by others.  The best part is that if you join you can always order past month's stencils. 

Into the Woods

                              

                                   Umbrella

                                       

Alcohol ink work has dominated the second half of my year. It started with my incarceration at St Luke’s. I had no idea said incarceration would occur so I was unprepared and my anxiety went through the roof. It didn’t help that we were all wheeled into the hallway for a tornado warning during my first few hours there. My husband saved the day and brought the only art supplies I had packed. A new series was born that week. I’ve had two small batch sales and I am so grateful for all the support for this new direction. I was even more grateful that my work caught the eye of Dick Blick and I had a featured demo there in November.  Into the Woods and Umbrella are fall additions to the series. The rest are not up in my gallery (updating over the Christmas holiday) nor Etsy yet but if you follow me on Facebook and Instagram, you’ve probably kept up. The next pop up sale will be the first week in February. Newsletter recipients will get sneak peeks and other perks. Sign up here.

In between paintings, I’ve become obsessed with making ornaments so much so that I’m adding them as a class opportunity next year. I’ve got some special tips, tricks, and tools to share with everyone. I’ve had a blast and there are several time lapses and lots of photos sprinkled on my social media to show my enthusiasm. This is my new favorite done on a navy glass ornament. True confession:  my favorites come in and out of focus because they all have different vibes.

I’m sure there will be many more to come as I explore the possibilities. I’ve been very blessed to have sold quite a few from Instagram and local queries and I love sending them out into the world. The most interesting commission so far has been the order of a blue and a pink to become baby reveals for  the grandparents on Christmas Day. 

For those interested in non-art sightings, here are the boys dressed to the nines for the holiday season.  Angus is on agility hiatus until January 5th.  I've been told they're crowd pleasers when they run.  

            

and the best for last..... DPT White Coated daughter.  I also call my dear husband and her #myeverything. She's about to finish her first of three clinicals in Knoxville.  Next up in January she heads to Virginia Beach and finally to Annapolis for the summer.  Then it's time to graduate and take her boards.  She's my inspiration. 

If you've stuck around this long, I'll let you know I've already picked my word of the year for 2019.  It's actually two words and it's very important to have both.  "Live inspired" will be the focus next year.  It's one thing to inspire.  It's another to model living inspired.  The components are mind, body and soul.  Stay tuned.  My teaching schedule will be evolving so stay tuned for that as well. 

I wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season and to look upon the new year with expectation. 

Play all the Time

Alcohol Ink

My book, Texture Effects for Rubber Stamping, is now thirteen years old this week.  In the art/craft word it would be considered a dinosaur.  We'll take that one step farther and say that I am a dinosaur, too.  I've been traveling, teaching and reinventing myself for over twenty years.  It's hard to believe it's been that long, but it becomes easier when you are contacted by the teen-age daughter of one of your early students.  Molly  found the book in her mother's craft room and proceeded to work through it, but had some questions.  Some of the inks used in it are now gone, but she had scavenged the net to find some. My favorite King James glossy paper was what brought her to me.  I answered her question about what could be substituted and she asked about ten more.  She was totally enthralled with cardmaking and was a little miffed when I said I didn't do it as regularly as I used to.  I enjoyed the back and forth, but especially liked her probing questions because they got me thinking.  She'd mentioned her favorite techniques in the book and what a variety of effects she found she could get and some other interesting discoveries. She said she thought it was still very relevant.  Well, she actually said "on trend,"but I paraphrased that because I've never thought of my art as being trendy.  

I haven't heard from Molly lately, but our conversations got me thinking about how many of those old techniques I'm still using today with different media and different substrates.Whether it's ink or paint application oddities, substrate choice oddities,  or my infatuation with exploiting negative space, I still use over seventy-five per cent of the book's techniques day in and day out.  And yes, I've added quite a few more in the last seventeen years.  I dole them out liberally when I teach, which is not as often as before because of the whole dinosaur thing mentioned above.

CitraSolv & India Ink

What has changed is that I am finally taking my own advice.  During the heyday of my book, I signed quite a few copies.  I signed "Play all the time" on every one of them because I felt the most freedom when I just sat down and played, rather than looking for that "second coming" outcome.  That's how I approached my art for a long time until deadlines started dictating my pace and other commitments came my way.  My studio time became more purposeful and less about the journey.  Beginning last fall I made a concerted effort to leave time to explore new techniques/mediums, immerse in past favorites, and to just "be" in my studio and I'm a lot happier with my output.  I don't blog as frequently but I do a ton of social media uploading, especially on Instagram @nancycurryart.  It's a great world to step into if you haven't.  No politics, opinions, hoopla....just a moment in time photos or videos.  I do use the My Story a lot to show techniques in real time.  I cross post some to both my Facebook accounts so don't think you won't see the art there, too, but I'm consistent with Instagram.  It also take me a while to get my new art on my gallery.  I am doing so many pieces that are color or media studies that I get backlogged really fast.

Alcohol Ink & Oil Marbling

 

White latex & acrylic pour

I don't know what the next twelve months will hold for me, but I'm sure it will be a combination of new and old.  I'm still fascinated by the unpredictability of acrylic pouring and all the different ways to do it.  It does take a lot of space and time so I doubt I will do it day in and day out, but it will be interspersed with my other offerings. 


I am hoping soon to add resin coatings to my repertoire. That involves a learning curve for technique and safety so we'll see how long it takes this dino. 


I'll continue to work with CitraSolv and varying my choice of media. I love the intuitive challenge that these paper provide.  It's also been my most popular class for the last four years running.  I've got to keep my skill set up.  The piece below I did this summer for a blog entry for Rubbermoon.  I had a blast melding old and new techniques on the one piece.  And yes, the whimsy.  I'm all about the whimsy. 

I hope this catches everyone up on what's going on in my world.  If you're new to my art and want to see where everything is, go here.  All my links are there to social media, Etsy, StencilGirl and Rubbermoon.  Thanks for stopping by. 

 

CitraSolv & White Ink

Jingle all the Way

Well,  it's the wee hours of Christmas Eve day if you celebrate.  It's December 24 if you don't (just sit back and enjoy all the hubbub of last minute frenetic activity if you don't.)  I've been with family for a couple of weeks and there's nothing that means more to me.  Jim finally joined Sammi and I over the weekend at my sister's so except for the dogs (who are at the spa - our politically correct terminology) we are able to see everyone.  The recent snowfalls made it a little difficult to move Sam out of her current college, but were beautiful to see in the woods that dominate the Pennsylvania landscape.  We are happy to see her move forward to our alma mater, Gettysburg College in January.  She will continue preparation for getting her Doctorate in Physical Therapy there and we will get to have a lot of Pizza House, our favorite spot.

Knowing that I was coming east for the rest of the month, I did work on this project in my own humble studio before I left.  I've just been stitching since I've been here so that is a nice break from what I usually do. I decided I wanted a little celebration that could sit in an easel in my new sunroom.  Once I knew size it was easy to figure out what I wanted to use.

To begin, I took a 4" x 4" Dick Blick canvasboard and painted it with two light coats of Golden Fluid Acrylic Titan Buff.

I then used the new Red Rubber Pallete from Rubbermoon.  This is a very firm piece of backed rubber that can be used with many different mediums.  I chose Golden acrylics in Titan Buff, Silver,  and Bronze to mix in a thick layer on the palette.  To create an interesting pattern, I took one of the Catalyst Silicone Blades, and ran it through the paint, before grabbing a 2" x 2" piece of Stampbord ( a small clayboard piece by Ampersand).  I then gently pressed the front of the white Stampbord into the paint and pulled straight up.  It pulled a texture from the blade and allowed for some peaking of the paint as well.  This was set aside to dry.

While my piece of Stampbord was drying, I repeatedly stamped the jingle x 3 stamp with StazOn onto a scrap of white art tissue paper.  I tore it haphazardly and then affixed it to the canvas with Golden matte medium. 

While the other two pieces were drying, I stamped the Christmas Tree in a Pot stamp onto another scrap of tissue paper.  I then trimmed it and mounted with matte medium it in the center of the now dried, painted Stampbord. 

Once mounted and dried, I added color with Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Inks in rust, espresso, and bottle with a liner brush as well as a dollop of white gesso for the star on top of the tree. 

Before mounting the Stampbord, I cut a 2 3/8" x 2 3/8" piece of spruce colored cardstock to act as a mount.  I then mounted both with Scoretape. Once mounted, I wanted a tiny bit more texture so I added small dots of Golden bronze with a toothpick. 

I hope you enjoyed this little project.  As many of you are starting to tell, I love to work small.  

Enjoy this wonderful time of the year no matter what or how you celebrate. Thanks for following me on my journey this year!  Stay tuned for 2014....................

Caprice

I had a wonderful weekend in Shawnee, KS at Stamper's Ink.  It hasn't been often in my sixteen years of travel that I've felt totally comfortable on my first visit to the store, but that was certainly the case there.  I had a wonderful turnout for a Friday afternoon demo and three full classes.  In this day and age of less disposable income, it was so nice that people came out to my classes and to support the store.

It was also the perfect weekend as my stamp line was introduced at the demo and in all my classes.  It was so fun watching everyone enjoy the words.  I posted a lot of their art on my Nancy Curry Art page on facebook.  There work was quite good and as always, unique, since my favorite classes are outcomes that are different every time.  Oh, and stop by and LIKE my page to stay on top of the latest meanderings.

So now that I have decompressed somewhat and unpacked mostly from the trip, I have to admit that I had to play today with some Citra Solv and National Geographics.  I've been fascinated with the ink manipulation process for awhile, but never made time to explore.  Well, today I did and I was very pleased with the results.  I'll share a few next time!