New Artwork FINALLY!!

My Photos got a little out of order here, but hopefully you'll be able to figure it all out! I've been having fun.

This is my first page in my new "Gut Art" book. I am taking a class from Mystele called Gut Art and this page came from our first lesson, viewing some artwork, and then taking what we saw and turning it into our own art. We first make the background on the page using collage, then layers of paint and pencil, etc. After the background is done, we study it, and see what we can see appear to us. The first then I saw in my background was the BIG eye....so, I went with that and sketched a face. I tried to use some of the abstract style of the artist we were studying and incorporate that into my painting. I don't think I am too crazy about her, but do like what I ended up with. Mystele calls this "pulled art". Letting yourself go and using your intuition to paint. This is terribly hard for me, as I've always been such a "controlled" artist and creating with such abandonment is not easy. She is trying to teach us to find out our own style, our own creative niche. I love her artwork, and she is a wonderful teacher...she really connects with her words.

This is the back cover of my Gut Art book. We used cardboard and covered it with collage and the layered paint over that.

This is the front cover. After collaging and painting it, I put the heart in the center...writing "art pulled from the heart". The word Embrace is collaged below.....embrace your own style. I hope and pray that I can do this.

My book is filled with wonderful papers to work on. Watercolor paper, cardstock, handmade papers, paper bags, old cardboard ....some small and some large....It should be a lot of fun to fill up with art.

This is a project that really isn't finished yet. On a piece of masonite, I collaged 2" squares in various background papers. Then I used a charcoal pencil to shade around and between each square. A thank you to Carol Wingert for the inspiring idea on her blog awhile back.

I've glued many things that I like, and also some old keepsakes I had. See the black and white peace sign? It was a button that I bought way back in the 60's in Haitt Ashbury, in San Francisco in my hippie days....LOL!!! There is a little lock and the key that goes with it. A wooden nickle from a trip to the Black Hills in South Dakota many moons ago. I say that it isn't finished yet because I will keep adding some treasures to it as I find them.

My hubby built the frame for me and it is a deep frame. I crackled it but it didn't get the deeper cracks like I had hoped it would, but it will work. The deep frame allows me to set some little nick knacks on it if I want to . I have it hanging on the wall right next to my computer. Sorry for the glare from my flash.....ooops!!!!