Dream On 2012

There were so many possibilities with this palette and challenge from CSI case file #31, and although I've been overseas and to NZ and had pics that would match it, when I saw the word "holiday" I just thought about the place I would love to go some day, so that's what I scrapped. I robbed the pics off the internet and used the frames from one of the CSICo-ordinates packs and the bits from this Co-ordinates pack.

There is also a subliminal Australia shaped piece with the lime green with the let's go sitting where it is. I'm unclear myself if the "DreamOn" is encouraging tense, or more like "whatever".

These colours were really bright, but I found the blue soaked them up somewhat.

Dream On 2012

My life as an artist

Before my scrapping life, I was a part time artist. I painted! I was a typical artist; self critical with alot of my work ending up in the bin rather than a frame. But I haven't painted now for a few years. Scrapbooking has become my artist outlet.
I've decided to look back... at the artwork I produced... back to my early teens and onwards. I've kept most of my "approved" work (or mum has it) in portfolios or framed. After my first job came to an end I was unemployed for a little bit between jobs, and during that time I joined the local art society and went out on paint days with them to various local properties, and entered my work in shows. I wasn't very successful; my art really didn't fit in with the traditionalists.
When I've looked back in the past I've thought it was all trash or junk, and nearly tossed it out. But when I look back now, I think it was quite good for the age I was, and lack of formal training, and its all part of my journey.
The surprising bit is that when I look at my old pieces, I can remember where I was when I sketched or painted it, what medium I used, and what I was trying to achieve. It's really quite weird. I've only been through one portfolio so far. I even found some paintings in behind the main ones that I haven't seen since I painted them!

1985 'Little Chief' - I was about 15 or 16 when I painted this. I considered it (at that time) the best horse painting I'd ever done, and alot of later paintings went in the bin because they were not as 'good' as this one.

1986 circa 'Adamshurst' I sketched this and pened it with a black fine liner over a few days. Mum used to work here as a cleaner when it was an aged day care facility. It was a spooky house with alot of atmosphere. It still had its grand driveway.

1988 circa 'In A Monastery Garden'. Mum used to make me play this piece over and over again on the piano (her favourite) and as I result I hated it for years. I'm not sure of the date on this one. It may be earlier. It was painted on watercolour board (new innovation at the time) with poster paints. The birds represent love, peace and happiness. The cat is the serpent! I used to love doing fine detail.

1988 'in Yabby Country' I was rather shocked to find a series of cartoons I created about staff members in my first job - at a surveyors office. The guys would go out overnight to exotic places like Koetong and Benalla and come back with stories of water rats (which I thought was a myth until I saw one recently!), electric eels, giant yabbies, problems on the job related to weather, and other tales. I created a number of these, though never done anything like that since.

1989 'Tale of the White Tiger' alot of my early artwork was based on stories I made up. I used to use Mum's old typewriter and type story after story (uusually uncompleted!) I started typing on Mum's typewriter when I was about 8 years old. This was based on one of those stories.

1988 circa this one could be earlier. We used to go to friends at the base of Mt Buffalo National park who had a cattle farm. This was their amazing old shed, under huge trees near their house. It always seemed to be holding itself up somehow. I took a photo and then sketched and painted this from the photo.

1992 circa. This was during that period where I was unemployed - out on an arist society art day. I think it was Wednesdays. This was at farm near Lake Hume, Albury. I loved the old ?shearing sheds in the background. This was done with Acrylics - never really took to them.

Different 2012

For CSI Case File # 29 : I loved the colours and pic of this case file, but had no idea how it was all going to come together. I twisted strips of paper that I had glimmermisted different colours on each side inspired by the straws in the challenge pic. I made the yellow background with glimmermist, and the pink/white background with paint scraped and a bit of shadow misting on top.

I really love trying out new things on my pages and things I come up with myself. If I ask 'I wonder if I can do that..?" then I'll usually give it a go and see!
The corrugated card reminded me of the old tin rooves of sheds out in the paddocks, and I used the butterflies to show how I felt. I was really happy with the white background, which just seemed to come together on its own. I dragged paint across the white cardstock with a piece of credit card sized card. I know there's not alot of work in this layout, but I felt mojoless at the time, so I'm quite happy with it now.

This pic of me is an older one. When I'm really sad or down I take a series of pics with forced smiles, and then later, for scrapping, I can use these pics on layouts, so it kind of makes a good thing come out of a bad one. I can't explain it any better than that, but its really hard to get those smiling pics - I usually get two out of a series of like 15 shots.

Different 2012






got this at CSI for the twisted paper on this layout!