Time for a Stroll Through the Hood . Strolls through my hood get me out of my studio, they help me unstuck and often I get inspired by what I see and to get new ideas to create something. It is part of my philosophy about Artful Adventures in Mixed Media – which is the subject of my book. Here are some photos that I gathered in the last couple weeks.
Love the fall – we did a lot of bicycle rides the last couple weeks – the views from Liberty State Park never cease to amaze me.
Secret Beach is open again – it is closed as a bird sanctuary during the summer months.
When you drive through this you really forget you are in a city :)
Little carving on the way that made me smile.
A lot of horseshoe crabs again-this one is so light – I wonder if the dark color comes when they are out of the water longer?
From the pier in front of Liberty Train Station – the pier is still damaged from Hurricane Sandy.
And after a day in the studio another beautiful view in this glowing light.
There are also a ton of Monarchs flying around in the park right now – it is amazing. They are so beautiful.
Lucky us: my friends and I got a seat in the busy path on the way home – never a dull moment in the path ;)
And the last night warm enough to have a spontaneous stoop hangout with our friends -It is a typical thing to do in the neighborhood – I love this so much. I know many people think that cities are super anonymous but we are living in a really fun area and we are super lucky that a lot of our friends live in walking distance.
An art installation in front of City Hall for the Jersey City Art and Studio tour, which sadly I had to miss this year because I went to the U.K to teach.
And watching beautiful sunsets with unreal clouds on our decks. What a great inspiring month it was – I hope yours was amazing as well!
“Chase your stars fool, life is short” – I toned down this very bright red, orange and yellow acrylicpaint-ed background with some gesso and added some stenciling in yellow on top using my Batik Stencil.
I adhered a magazine image and painted over it with acrylic paints and Neopastels. I love how soft those Neopastels are and how beautifully they can be blended.
Here is a supply list with most of the materials I used to create this page:
This is part #3 of our road trip through mostly the South West of the U.S driving about 2,300 Miles which called Tour of the American Ancients because we visited many historical sites. Now this part is leading through some newer …not so ancient sights, but it was still super fun. I am sharing some highlights,You can find Part #1 here. And Part #2 here.
Coming from Petrified Forrest National Park we drove to Sedona where we stayed two days in a beautiful airBnB.
The Chapel of the Holy Cross is one of the most beautiful modern chapels I have ever seen. It was completed in 1956.
On the way up to the chapel in the garden – Love this!
We continued our ride often times on the old Route 66
I am loving those old motel signs and of course the Roadkill cafe always makes me laugh with their slogan “you kill it, we grill it”
We took a little detour to this ghost town …well…is it still a ghost town if 10 people seem to live there?…and
how often do they get their mail? I know, I know but these are the questions that run through your mind when you see this.
As we were on our way to Joshua Tree National Park we decided to stop at Roy’s cafe again – we were there 10 years ago and this abandoned motel with the gas station in the middle of nowhere is just too cool.
The old lobby is still intact, preserved….
Played a lot with my camera – and really love this shot.
We stayed in a nice cottage near Joshua Tree National Park – we had a good time sitting in these chairs outside, until one morning a Tarantula Hawk came flying by like on a mission and I knew this bugger was dangerous and then I looked it up and got even more scared about it. It has the second most painful sting in the world …ahhh- no thank you.
Loved hiking around in Joshua Tree NP although everything screamed “yow , I survived here and that means I am able to kill you if you are not careful and watch your step”
An abandoned car in the park
And then the trip was almost over
And we finished in Santa Monica, had a nice last dinner together and then my husband dropped me off for my workshops in West Village. It was an amazing trip – so inspiring, relaxing, educational and beautiful. I am still processing a lot of the things I saw there and I cannot wait to turn it into my artwork. I hope you enjoyed the little trip :) Thank you for joining me!
So glad you were able to cover so much of the Southwest (my neck of the woods) in one trip! And you shared it so beautifully. I’m looking forward to new stamps and stencils from inspiration gained on this trip (hint hint ;) ). You remind me that I must visit Chaco…I will put it on the calendar NOW! We are fortunate to have history of the Ancients all around us here in Arizona…even in the Phoenix area. I am constantly inspired by the beauty. Btw…I have your husband’s hat, but in turquoise.Thank you again for sharing. Come back when you can stay awhile (and when it is cooler!)
Janet – it was so amazing- you live in an amazing area! Chaco Canyon was just mind blowing! HA- I think I would like my husband’s hat in Turquoise- my favorite color. Thank you so much for joining me :) Have a a wonderful weekend!
Happy Tuesday my friends from the Creative Squad! Today we have an art journal spread from our new member Shilpa Nagaonkar, using my Mesa Verde stencil and my Park Blvd foam stamp. Shilpa is working with our theme: Colors Are My Friends – Let’s kick off the new Creative Squad with a celebration of color! What are your favorite, go-to signature hues? Let’s go bold and bright this month and use color to ring in a new season of inspiring projects!
Hello Everyone, super excited to share my first post on Nathalie’s N*studio blog :) As you are aware, the Creative squad is using the theme “Colors are my Friends” this month. Ahh… colours are inspiration to me…especially bright ones! Orange, yellow, pink and red are my favourites … so I chose them for today’s journal. I get a lot of inspiration from our home garden too. Winter has just begun in India and beautifully colored flowers are blooming in our garden. .. here comes my garden theme journal spread with lots of colors.
I started by applying modelling paste through the Mesa Verde Stencil. I let it dry completely.
I used Twinkling H2O watercolors here, in greens.
When the green colors were dried, I outlined the stencil design using a gelli roll pen.
On another paper, I stamped designs with Nat’s Park Blvd foam stamp using acrylic paints in yellow, pink, orange, and red.
I cut them out to use them as flowers. I applied silver glitter paint in the middle of all my flowers.
I arranged them all with diecut leaves on the pages. Lastly I colored the leaves with watercolors and created splatters with black ink.
Thank you Shilpa for this beautiful homage to your garden and your favorite colors! Shilpa used the following supplies (some are affiliate links):
Play along with us too: I love to see how you interpret our monthly themes. Email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share your projects in my next “n*Spiration From Around the Globe“.
Also, please drop by and join me for a Facebook Live Kaffeeklatsch tomorrow afternoon. I’ll be chatting about Inktober and playing with ink throughout the month of October, I’ll recap my workshop retreat in the UK, and I’ll tell you about some fun adventures I had with graffiti in Birmingham, England. Come say Hi and join in on the chat!
I love how this page turned out – it was a demo page for a workshop and there were different areas of color and stamping and I thought I will tie it all together buy using the same colors and embracing the chaos :)
Last weekend my friend Birgit Koopsen and I taught our 3Day Color Crush Retreat for Art Workshops in Coventry in the U.K.
We had a wonderful group of 34 super talented and sweet ladies creating an art journal from scratch.
Birgit and I both love color but we both have a different style and we set the mood by putting a lot of colorful stuff out.
we started with some color theory and color exercises and some ink drawings and stamping.
so many happy faces – it was such a great group.
Look at all those colors!
Aren’t those gorgeous? The second day we did a lot of gelli printing techniques
Now if you do not call this a yummie color crush!
And we even had a short session for making your own foam stamps outside- the weather was great…who says it is always raining in the U.K?
And a lot of the new Art Foamies were used as well
And of course there was a ton of opportunity to buy some stuff …always love seeing the ArtFoamies, most were gone after 3 days.
It was wonderful to see Tali, Tsila, Iris and Hedi from Israel again -it is so many years ago that I met them when teaching in Tel Aviv. Thanks for coming all the way to the UK to join us.
The third day we started the day off binding the book and adding the covers. I don’t think Hazel and Shirley were really as scared as they look like in the photo when Birgit explained how to add the covers- LOL
After having the book all together we got a treat.
The food for the event was plenty some and so good and on top of that Sue, B, Leroy, Debbie and Pam made all of us feel really pampered during the whole retreat.
And then it was all about finishing up some pages and showing how we layer on top of our backgrounds
And…seeing a lot of the ladies with my book “Artful Adventures in Mixed Media” made me super duper extra happy. I know I am a dork but it really does!
Since I came home this week I feel so energized and inspired- it was such a wonderful retreat. Thank you so much to all of the wonderful students who joined us, for Sue for inviting us and to her and her staff for taking great care of us and to my wonderful friend, partner in crime and very tall co-teacher Birgit! It was amazing.
If you weren’t able to join but would like to take a workshop with me check out my In-Person Classes. I will be teaching at the Queens Ink in Maryland and at Runaway Art and Craft Studio on November 4-5 and December 2 -3 in Oregon. And if you are interested in taking a workshop with me and Birgit – we are coming back to Syracuse July 20-22, 2018 for a three day fun retreat – so safe the date.
Hello and welcome to Nice to Meet You! Today I’d like to introduce to you the very talented Maura Hibbitts! From time to time I learn about some amazing artists out there who are working with my stamps and stencils and are creating some fun and exciting projects. It’s always inspiring to see what others do with my designs. Sometimes they even introduce me to a new way of seeing the pattern or a new technique to try on my own. That’s what I’d like to share with you today. Let’s meet Maura!
Please introduce yourself to our readers and tell us where you live:
Hi, I’m Maura Hibbitts. I love to work in mixed media and play with color! I especially like to use my imagination when creating my art, and am often inspired by books I’ve read or places I’ve traveled. I live with my family in upstate New York in a small rural village on the border of the Adirondack Park. I am blessed with a beautiful view of the mountains outside of my studio area (a corner of our living room).
How do you make time to be creative?
The short answer is, I retired from many years of teaching science, LOL! The longer answer is, I have always tried to live a creative life. I would bring art and creative projects into my science classes at work. When my sons were growing up, my creative time was late in the evenings when I stamped out cards, sketched, colored, embroidered, and worked on scrapbooks. It was important to me, so I found the time for it.
Now, I usually go to exercise classes in the morning and work on my art in the afternoons.
What are some of your favorite n*Studio stamps / stencils?
Elephant SetBatik BIG StampsBatik MINI StampsBatik StencilStroll Through the Hood #1Stroll Through the Hood #2Brownstone Stamp
How do you love to use them?
I find myself reaching for Nathalie’s stamps and stencils most often when I am working in my art journals or creating an altered piece. I also like to use a lot of them for mark making when I am creating a layered piece.
What is your favorite medium to work in?
Hands down, acrylic paints! A few years ago, I had never used acrylics, then signed up to take some classes with Nat, where she opened the world of possibilities that acrylics offer. I learned so much in her classes and have been working in this medium ever since.
What inspires you to be creative?
I draw my inspiration from the world around me – colors, shapes, designs and ideas from nature as well as the human world. I often will take photos of details, like an interesting door, or a pattern in the water, and use these to jumpstart my art. I love to read, and books often inspire me to use my imagination. I am a lifelong learner, and I get a lot of inspiration from classes I take and the amazing teachers out there, both in person and online, like Creative Jumpstart each January.
Do you have a favorite artist?
I like a lot of artists, from old Masters to contemporary, and I truly admire so many mixed media artists today, but don’t really have one favorite. Rather, I have a favorite painting – Fumee d’Ambre Gris (Smoke of Ambergris) by John Singer Sargent. This painting just seems to speak to my spirit, and I love to view it at the Clark Art Institute.
How did you get into art-making?
I set a goal for when I retired from teaching, and that was to develop my art and the right side of my brain. I had taught classes at my local scrapbook store which got me started working with different product lines and challenging myself to see what I could create with them. I wanted the challenge of working with a design team, and I can proudly say I now work with three, and I think really pushed my art-making forward.
In three words, how does art-making make you feel?
Joyous, Fulfilled, Balanced
Thank you Maura for sharing your art and story with us! Stay tuned for more Nice to Meet You! posts to learn about other artists :)
Comments (2)
JoAnn
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What a wonderful Stroll Through the Hood – loved it all.
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nathalie-kalbach
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thanks for joining JoAnn- have a wonderful weekend!
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