I’m getting together again with my friend Sarah Matthews to quiet that annoying inner voice that sometimes says, “I can’t do it.” Come and join in on the discussion on Tuesday, May 4 at 12noon EDT (NYC time) and let’s tell that voice to shush it :) Register here to attend.
Episode 3: “I can’t do it.” Join us as we discuss that negative mindset that can really get in the way of creativity. In Episode 2 you may recall that we opened up boxes of supplies that we sent each other, with an assignment to use the supplies, no matter what that little voice has to say. In Episode 3 we will reveal our creations in this episode and talk about how sometimes you just have to dive in and try things. You never know what will come out of it and honestly, what is the worst that can happen? Let’s get ready to say “I can do that” instead!
ArtCollab is a monthly zoomcast with the two of us: Sarah Matthews and Nathalie Kalbach (and occasionally other special guests too). Each episode we get together, collaborate on all sorts of unique artsy projects, share our process and offer updates and sneak peeks along the way, and of course we chat about all stuff art-related (and topics that go way beyond that too). ArtCollab is a real life look into the process of creating, collaborating, and the ins and outs of living an artistic life that is touched by others.
New ArtCollab zoomcasts will be live and happen every first Tuesday of the month. Sign up for my newsletter HERE or Sarah’s newsletter HERE to get all the details for upcoming zoomcasts.
Join in for an entertaining and inspiring interlude into the world of two artists who are working together in conversation and practice!
A Look Back – This time I’m looking at some Spring DIY Ideas that are great ways to get creative and make a few lovely things for this time of year. A stenciled umbrella to help you chase away those springtime showers in style? Yes. A vertical garden using your favorite rubber stamps? You betcha. A paper wreath project that the whole family can make? Read on and enjoy!
A Look Back is a blog series to show you some projects and posts that you may have missed – sometimes going WAY back in the archive. I think it will be fun to revisit a few ideas that we haven’t seen for a while. I’m excited to see how a little look back might inspire something new in the future :)
Spring showers got you down? No problem – grab a boring old umbrella and give it a little style with stencils and spray paint. I loved decorating a simple white umbrella in colors and patterns that made me happy no matter what the weather. And bonus – this little compact white umbrella was great in the summer to keep the sun off on particularly hot days in the city. Check out the full tutorial here.
Every year the weather warms up and I long to be outside and to see flowers! And while those little plants are growing bigger, I love to have colorful pots adding pops here and there in the garden. I painted and used rubber stamps to make some simple terra cotta pots a lot more fun. Read the DIY steps here.
I’m a pattern junky as you know, so this DIY was a no-brainer. Tote bags get a ton of use so why shouldn’t they be just as cool as the rest of your stuff? I used rubber stamps and fabric ink to stamp my shopping bags with bold patterns. See my inspiration and step-by-step instructions here. And then take your lovely new bags and go support a small business in your hood!
What do you get when you combine plain fabric scarves with stencils and fabric markers? Beautiful watercolor-like patterns and a one-of-a-kind wardrobe staple. This is an easy project with just a few supplies. See the instructions here.
Here is a spring project that the whole family can do together. I used colorful paper and rubber stamps to make the “leaves” and then glued them to a cardboard ring that I cut from an old box. Read all about it here.
I hope this list of Spring DIY Ideas inspires you to try some new things and get creative. Here are some of the supplies I used:
Last two days of Nat and Sarah’s April ArtFoamies Challenge! Can you believe it? April flew by and now I have a nice bit of my vintage ledger filled with different ArtFoamies patterns. Today I’m recapping April 29 and 30 but I definitely recommend checking out all the action on instagram to see what Sarah and I and all who played along did with the challenge. Thank you for joining in!
April 29 – Lines – Definitely had to use my Central Ave Positive and Negative Stamp for this one and wanted to fill in and layer with my Broadway Fan Stamp …apparently this pattern was too hard for pre coffee stamping LOL – I had to pause several times to get my act together. Sometimes the simple patterns make your brain tangle ;)
And here is a look at April 29:
April 30 – Friendship – Woohoo right on time I got Sarah’s gorgeous Abstract Sunflower ArtFoamie – and you know we are not only friends because I love Sunflowers too :) I used my Love Story Foam Stamp which is a limited edition for Creative JumpStart 2021 with it. Check it out:
Another look at April 30:
My heart is full for having had such an awesome time with Sarah this month playing with our stamps together and seeing so many of you join us. Thank you Sarah for the fun …until next April LOL ;) Don’t miss Sarah and me for our next ArtCollab ZoomCast on May 4th where we talk about “I can’t do that” and show you what we did with the challenge we gave each other in the last episode.
Like what you see? Try it yourself – here are the supplies I used:
Join us tomorrow, Friday April 30th at 12noon EDT (NYC time) for the next LIVE Webinar episode of Spill your heART! Register here to attend. I’m super excited about this one as I think we all have different perspectives on Social Media and I know it will be very helpful to share more on this topic.
Episode 2: Social Media – Taming the Beast – Join artists Nat Kalbach, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, Iris Fritschi-Cussens, and Jimmy Leslie as they discuss the ups and downs, ins and outs, and the good, bad, and ugly of using social media as artists. We’ll talk about balancing privacy and sharing, potential benefits and downsides, and how participating can change your practice. Metrics, negative comments, and thoughts on how to get started will also be touched on. Let’s hear some professional perspective on taming the social media beast!
Spill your heART – Once a month, you can join me and a panel of professionals to hear them sharing their personal stories and experiences in the arts. From past-life professions to finding time for art to discovering your creative style, each month we’ll be covering topics to motivate and inspire you to create and do what moves you.
Day 27 – Tile – Blue tiles …they make me think of Lisboa and make me long for a nice long vacation there. I do miss traveling but until that works for me again… I will just live through my visual cues provided by my foam stamps that were often inspired by my travels. Here I used my Van Vorst pos neg set.
Here is a look:
April 28 – Abstract – I used the hexagon shape as a solid stamp and then added some Wabi Sabi on top with Neato and Far Out. I am a bit sad that this challenge is coming to an end – I haven’t really gotten to the end of making patterns… Oh well, I still have another million pages in my ledger to go and I’m working on some new designs so I think they will move in here with some patterns as well ;)
And a look at that page:
Follow along with the challenge on instagram and post your artwork too with the hashtag #artcollabChallengeAccepted
Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have an art journal page with a bonus mini page from Jordan Hill. She is using my Triple Play stamps and our theme: Another Door Opens – There is this saying, “when one door closes, another door opens” that basically is an optimistic way of looking at change in your life. Create an art journal page with this in mind, however you’d like to express it, however the idea inspires you to create!
Hello everyone! I’m super excited to be back with my project for April 2021; I had a lot of fun with this month’s products and theme, so I hope you all enjoy following the process as much as I enjoyed creating this page!
I decided to begin this month’s page with a piece of collage. When I create journal pages, I tend to end up with a lot of excess paint, either on my palette or my paintbrushes. In order to make sure none of this excess paint goes to waste, I use scraps of paper to clean it up.
In addition, I had been playing around with one of the stamps from the Triple Play Foam Stamp Set on another page in my journal. The excess from that page had ended up on this scrap of paper, so it seemed like the perfect start point! I tore off a chunk and glued it down. I also glued a coin envelope to the upper right hand corner of the page, as I felt that the idea of a pocket was in line with this month’s theme of “Another Door Opens”.
Next up, I used a second stamp from the Triple Play Foam Stamp Set along with some slightly watered down black acrylic paint to almost completely cover the lower right hand corner of my page. I made sure to overlap my background stamping with the collage piece in order to incorporate it into the page. I also used this same stamp in the upper left corner.
Since there was already some pink on my collage piece, I decided to push that a bit further and used a pink oil pastel to do a bit of mark-making in a few different places on my page.
I then incorporated a few more pieces of collage. A while back, I drew a bunch of windows with the intention of using them as collage material for my journals. I felt as though this tied into the April theme, so I glued one in. I also glued down a tiny found word clipping in the lower left hand corner of the page.
It was then time to start working on the focal point! As usual, I knew I wanted to incorporate a face, so I started things out by using some acrylic paint to block in the basic shapes. Then, using an indigo colored pencil, I started to sketch in the facial features.
When it comes to shading faces in my journals, I don’t always add shadows. Often it depends on the size of the face that I’m drawing. Because this particular face was on the larger side (and seemed a bit flat), I decided I did want to add shadows. I used a slightly darker color of paint than the base skin tone and started blocking in my shadows.
I don’t usually overthink it when it comes to adding shadows to my faces, but a good tip for knowing where to put them is to have an imaginary light source. For this particular face, my ‘light source’ was in the upper left, so I added shading to the right side of the face.
Next it was time to add the hair. Since the majority of the color that already existed in this page was pink, I decided to go with that as the hair color! I sketched out the basic shape of the hair with my colored pencil, before using acrylic paint to add the color.
I also used this same pink in the lips, cheeks and shoulders to warm up the skin tone and tie the face together with the hair.
It was then time for the finishing touches! I added a shirt, used some watered down black acrylic paint to flick some splatters across the page, and found a fortune from a fortune cookie laying on my desk that was perfectly in line with the theme!
As one last little bonus element for this page, I also slipped a card inside of the coin envelope I glued down in step one, and created a little mini page on top of it. To me, the idea of this hidden page is yet another nod to the theme of “Another Door Opens”.
I hope you enjoyed following this process and possibly try some of the ideas for yourself!
Thank you Jordan, I just love the intriguing backgound you created with the stamps and collage!
Give it a try: you can find all my Foam Stamps in my Online Shop and in addition to collage papers, here are some of the supplies Jordan used:
For more projects and ideas, check out Nat’s Creative Squad on Instagram too: Each week we post projects, ideas, and inspiration for mixed media art.
April 26 – Bird – Oh man …honestly not my favorite of all the prints- I was thinking the positive and negative Fairview Fan stamps that slightly look a bit like bird heads would be perfect for this in brown and red …kind of like red robin …but it really did not come out the way I wanted it to…the yellow “beak” printed with one of my rubber stamps made it slightly better but I would rather just put a bird on this one and move on ;)
And another look:
Follow along with the challenge on instagram and post your artwork too with the hashtag #artcollabChallengeAccepted
Day 24 – Castle – Another stamp from my Mini Motifs Stamp set inspired by our fireplaces. This one always reminds me of a little castle – maybe because it is part of our home. I thought the triangle stamp from the Triple Play set would make a nice addition to the pattern …if only I could have stamped more straight …boy oh boy ..but it is cool- I see this coming up in the future again.
Here is a look at April 24:
April 25 – Print – My MidCentury Squared Stamp is always reminding me of wallpaper from that time -so I wanted to play a bit with stamping layered on top in different directions and different colors. I really like this- I would take a printed wallpaper like this :)
And a looksie at April 25:
Follow along with the challenge on instagram and post your artwork too with the hashtag #artcollabChallengeAccepted
Last weekend we were able to visit a museum in the first time in over a year. The exhibition “People Come First – Alice Neel” was calling us and after the first hesitation of the thought to be in a closed area with other people I bought some timed tickets for 10am on a Sunday morning. Boy was that the best decision ever. Besides the fantastic exhibition, this was a once in a life time experience at the Met …we entered almost every gallery alone …it was amazing and after such a long time of no artstrolls, seeing art in person was exhilarating. But let’s check out the fantastic Alice Neel exhibition.
“Fish Market”, 1947
Alice Neel was born in 1920 and died in 1984. The earliest of hier paintings in the exhibition was from 1920 and the oldest one from 1984. Alice Neel saw herself as a collector of souls – painting pictures of people not portraits. She was a political painter in the choice of who she painted, what she painted and the way how she painted.
“Mercedes Arroyo”, 1952
Mercedes Arroyo was a social activist in East Harlem. Neel declared in 1950 – echoing Arroyo’s principles “East Harlem is like a battlefield of humanism, and I am on the side of the people here”
“Futility of Effort”, 1930
This abstract painting is one of two experiences: of the loss of Neel’s daughter to diphtheria and a newspaper article Neel wrote about a mother who lost her child when sie was ironing in the kitchen next door, when her child choked on the bars of her crib. Motherhood and the struggles tied to it is a reoccurring subject of Neels paintings.
“Rita and Hubert”, 1954. Hubert Satterfield, a writer and his girlfriend Rita (we do not know what she did).
“Peggy”, 1949
Peggy was a victim of domestic abuse and Neel chose to represent her with the bruises and abrasions left by her boyfriend’s recent assault.
“Dominican Boys on 108th Street”, 1955
While we know those are boys I find them so adult-ish in their gaze and demeanor.
“The Black Boys”, 1967
Neel made this painting of the two young boys Toby and Jeff Neal and I love how you can see the boredom but also discipline to sit this through in those boys. I loved reading an article on how one of the brothers has just seen the painting of him in the very first time after it was finished at the Met and the background story.
“Richard Gibbs” 1968
So vibrant – what is he thinking?
“David Bourdon and Gregory Battcock”, 1970
Bourdon was an editor at Life Magazine, Battcock was an art critic. What a weird juxtaposition of someone in a suit comfortably sitting in an armchair and the other person in his underwear, on an ottoman.
“Jackie Curtis as a Boy” 1972.
Jackie Curtis was a prominent figure in Manhattan’s Lower East side and became very well known when entering the orbit of Andy Warhol. This painting was painted two years later than the one below. This painting reveals the other side of Curtis and play with gender.
“Jackie Curtis and Ritta Redd”, 1970
I love the torn panty hose showing the big toe!
Here you get an idea how empty the galleries were. It was amazing.
“Andy Warhol”, 1970
Andy Warhol was shot in June 1968 and he had many operations to save his life. He is exposing himself to the viewer – his scars, his corset, his eyes are closed, the man who always looked. A very vulnerable painting of Warhol.
“Nancy and Olivia”, 1967 – drawing from art history the subject of mother and child.
“Madame Roulin and Her Baby”, 1888
“Thanksgiving” , 1965
A funny painting and one that Americans well know! Neel was very well versed in art history – the reference below shows the same kind of loose brushwork and food painted into abstraction
“Still Life with Rayfish” ca. 1924 by Chaim Soutine
I did not only love how Neel captured her subjects but also how much humor there was in her paintings.
“Self-Portrait”, 1980
One of her only true self portraits where she is a main subject. Provocative to paint herself nude as an older woman. Neel emphasizes her professional identity by showing the tools of her trade in this painting as well.
“Black Draftee (James Hunter)”, completed 1965
Neel met Hunter on the streets of NY – he came for two sittings. The story goes that he was never able to return as he was called to the Vietnam War. Neel decided the painting is finished. This painting was so touching – for me today it told a different story as well .. the many unfinished lifes of Black Men in America!
“Nazis Murder Jews”, 1936
“107th and Broadway”, 1976
This a view of Neel’s final apartment on the the Upper West Side.I love this – the light, the shadow of the other building, the hint of the bodega on the corner. After looking at all the gazes of people Alice Neel painted, this gave me a little breathing time …maybe she used this view to rest a bit too from all the soul collecting she did, it must have been at times really exhausting.
A great exhibition – and if you are in the area, I recommend coming right at opening time of the museum with an already purchased timed ticket (New Yorkers of course for free). It was a wonderful experience and I felt safe the entire time.
Oh Nat. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful experience. I did not know much about Alice Neel. Her painting style and how she captures so much expression and emotion is just incredible. I loved the article about Jeff Neal and how he finally got to see his portrait hanging in the museum. One of the other paintings that really stuck with me was “Black Draftee” (James Hunter). It does seem appropriate that Alice Neel considered it finished in this state. Your comment about the unfinished lives of black men in America is so spot on.
Thanks again for sharing. I always learn so much on your art strolls.
Good health to you…
What an amazing collection. Every person’s face tells a story ( most serious at that). I love the Black Boys…yes, the boredom and discipline you noted Nat.
I cannot thank you enough for sharing so many images along with your thoughts from this amazing exhibition. I had read about it somewhere else and do not think I would be able to come to see it in person. Thank you again!
Love the message of this art journal page. Striking w the imagery.
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