CranberryCloud Laurel Martin

I recently joined the Melange Team on Etsy.  They're a great group of mixed media artists.  We swap information and chat about the ups and downs of being a mixed media artist on Etsy. 
Now, Thanks to Indira of DharmaKarmaArts, our Melange team has a new Youtube video!
Enjoy!

I'm just back from vacation and itching to make some art.  If only there weren't things like laundry to do!

I made this piece for Illustration Friday with watercolour, napkins, a stamp and GIMP.  It will soon be in my shop as a print or card.  I'm not sure which!

This week has been so busy that I didn't think I'd get to do an Illustration Friday, but I had an idea and then a quick watercolour and here it is!

This picture is very loosely based on something I saw when my dog was at the vets office having some surgery. (He's fine now) I was allowed to go into the back room where the animals were kept.  The doctor had rescued a parrot and this parrot loved the cats.  If it got into the room where the cats were kept it would open their cages.  She let me watch, as the parrot opened the door of a cat's cage with it's strong beak.  The cat was very alarmed and the bird squawked, "Nice Kitty!".  The vet quickly removed the bird, but apparently, if left to it's own devices, it liked to free the cats and if a cat remained cowering in its cage, the bird liked to cover it with a blanket, all the while squwaking, "Nice Kitty!"

Usually when I start something new I have an idea of what I want to do.  I started this piece because I wanted to try working on wood and I wanted to use this hammered gold Tremclad I found in the garage.  Soon after painting on the Tremclad, I found myself a very tacky plastic lace table runner at a thrift store. This stuff is perfect for painting techniques!  As you can see, I used it as a stamp.  Then I glazed in some color with thinned acrylics.  Now I need to decide what to do next.  I'm not sure where it's going but I'll let you know when it gets there!

I've been thinking lately about how math and art are both artificial languages.  This new page of my altered math book seemed to grow out of these thoughts.  Mathematinka is an example of artificial interlligence.  Needless to say, she's very good with numbers.

This may not be a book that everyone is drawn to, but I asure you that when I am done with it, even the worst math-phobe will love it. 

I was having fun experimenting with linocuts here and doing one on top of another.  I think that's all I can say.  Time to go and see what others have done.

Here I am at the second Artist Alley of 2010.  It was a beautiful day and if you've ever sold things outside, you'll know this is hugely important.  I think it was the only day this summer without humidity.  The bad news was that there was an Art in the Park event in another part of town so no doubt a lot of the art loving public went there. 

I set up my booth differently this time and I think it worked well.  At the last event I had my table in front, with me sitting at it and my art behind me.  I think people were afraid to go by me and look at the art.  I'm sooo scary.   Actually I can understand that if you are looking at art, you may not want to have to confront the artist.  You may hate their art and not want to have to talk to them.  So this time I sat in the corner and painted.  People didn't feel they had to talk to me and I did get a lot more traffic.  People also watched me paint which was a little unnerving but we were supposed to do demonstrations so I guess that fit the bill.

Sales were not great for anyone at the show but I did sell enough pony pendants to cover my costs.  Ingrid Schmelter has a great blog post about her experience at a show and her quote of the day was "If you can't wear it, or eat it, you can't sell it."  That certainly held true for me.  Hopefully next time, when there isn't another art event going on at the same time, we'll have better luck!  However, I must say that the experience gained at this low key event was priceless.

Painting while people watch is scary if you're not used to it.  I did this last Sunday as a demonstration during Artist Alley on Main St. Markham.  I'll have more about that later.    I was trying to be very loose and free like Charles Reid but I was too nervous to acheive that kind of look.   After a little while, I got used to it and people were very kind.

 Then a woman and her aged father came along.  They watched for awhile and then she told me that he had been a watercolor master in China.  I just about dropped my brush.  I assumed he must think I was dreadfull.  I mumbled something about just messing around with paint...hehe.   She frowned and then I noticed he was smiling away at my picture.  Not speaking any english, he had no idea what I was saying.  He was just enjoying watching me paint with no harsh judgement.  He nodded at me and I suddenly realized I was the harsh critic and my own worst enemy.  One of these days I'll learn to get rid of that nasty critic!