Mix it Monthly August

A new theme was set up for this month in "Mix it Monthly at Conny's blog.

And I instantly grabbed the idea, the colours are a bit out of my range in the combination, you know I'm rather subduing things in my art very often, but I love a challenge and Conny is putting things together in agreat way to get the muse smack fat kisses on you! :D Thank you for that!!!

Here come a few photos that show what I have done:

I think I am finished with her...

Hope you enjoyed and have a look at the awesome art that you find on Mix it Monthly. You can add more than once to each theme, so I might get more ideas ;-).

For now be well and enjoy ART!

Ilona 

A very busy week full of art

First of all I want to thank you for visiting and I hope I did get around to everyone who commented on my post at least! I've been so busy making art and tried to get around to people but at some point I kind of lost count. If anybody has advice for me as to how it is most easy to get through it on the PPF page, you are welcome to give me advice! The group has grown so much I can hardly get around to all the people!!!

I'm participating in a second round of Face in the World (FitW II) with Ayala Art on Facebook. (Earlier Face in the World posts). We are working in groups of three sending a postcard-sized start to the next in line. I'm in two groups and I have worked on two pieces from group members and my own starts of course.
I guess you would like to see a little of the work I've been doing? ;-)
Here are the starts I've worked on: group 6 (Ayala Art and Sandra Sherman). Sandra sent the outline of the face and I added a little colour to it, collaged a part of an earlier painting I had started. I added some water colour and acrylic to the background and highlighted with some gold circles.

And group 8 (Malissa Pribe and Ayala Art), for this face I found a picture of a boy that I liked very much to use as inspiration for the start that Ayala had made. I used pastels, acrylic and charcoal.

It is a lot of fun to do these collaborations! It can be scary to work on some body else's work of art, but it is so enjoyable too, to be part of an artwork that travels across the globe!

Also I've been working on a few small linol cuts cutting and printing with acrylics on all kinds of paper, post cards...I just love the expressiveness of the cuts!

Here is a collection of my prints:

Now back to work!

Sharing this with the artists on

PAINT PARTY FRIDAY!

Thank you Kristin and Eva for hosting the show!

Paper art - collaged - repurposed - reused

First I want to thank all the kind people, who left a comment on last PPF's blogpost. The encouragement that I received was overwhelming and it tells me that I found a good place to share my art. Thank You!

For this week I have collected some of the pieces I have worked on with paper glue and colours. But first I want to share my start for an exquisite corpse I have done a few months ago. I hope I will see it return back to me soon!

I collaged a statue of Gorm the Old, who was king of Denmark around 930-40. And tried to continue the color for the face I let grow out of the picture. To add to the unnatural look I gave it red eyes and lips, which create a great contrast to the cool colors in the rest of the piece.

Below was meant to be a start to "Face in the World II"

But before I knew of it the face was there, though I only intended to make a hint for the participants to paint a face.

Below is the new start I did for Face in the World II. I collaged a piece of crepe de chine-silk onto an already painted cardboard and added more pastel and acrylic. I love it!!! 

I did a few recycling pieces. The two to the left are water colours I made about two years ago. I added some lines of pastel chalk and acrylic to loosen up the impression.

The other two are pieces done out of advertisement mail. I collaged and painted over them, which was quite funny.

The last piece I want to share today is a canvas I want to take to the exhibition.

I started painting it all black inspired by a quote, saying that every painting should start with a layer of black... I don't really remember it completely, sorry!

When the paint was dry I collaged bits of paintings and drawings I had made earlier, to cover the whole canvas.

I covered the paper with a layer of decoupage-varnish.

following a piece of paper I had painted with blue ecoline. The contrast is awesome!

Below I added one of my favorite golden acrylics.

I then added white acrylic, pastels and collaged a face on top of it all. Painted it with black and white and added lines with charcoal. The blue spots are again ecoline.

I'm quite fond of the result. It is hanging on my living room wall at the moment.

The size is: 40x40 cm or 15 3/4 square inches.

Sharing this with the fabulous artists on Paint Party Friday

and

Paper Saturdays

If you not already do it go and visit these places and artists.

Ilona 

Mix it Monthly - July Theme

Beach - inspired colors and themes:

blue - violet - sand

birds

wood

and a favorite song- "You can go your own way..."

Here is my entry so far (work in progress???)

I painted this bird on a piece of left over wood (2x4,5x30 cm) with my dry pastels and some water. I quite like the effect, but am not sure if it is finished... :-)
The photos are not the best, sorry for that, but the size and form makes it a bit difficult to take good photos.

Thank you Conny for the Mix it Monthly challenge! I think you really have some great and inspirational ideas for us to play with!

I'm looking forward to new challenges! 

Exhibition

Strange how things happen sometimes. When I learned about my father in laws passing last week I also got an e-mail from a cultural centre in Flensburg where I have asked about the possibilities of making exhibitions for me and fellow artist. So now I am preparing for a new era in my life as an artist.

 -And the doubtful questions creep through my mind: Am I an artist? Is my work worth looking at for anyone but you and me, dear blogger friends?

It will be the first time ever that I have the possibility to show my art for a public audience with the possibility to sell my art. 

In this blog post I have collected some of the pieces I have chosen for the exhibition, though I'm not quite sure. They show a small range of the techniques and expressions I have been working with during the last two years, they can be divided into four themes: 

collage and graphics:

Mixed media/Stillife:

Mixed media/portraits:

Abstracts:

I don't know exactly how much space there will be for me. I need to visit the place and take a look at the rooms and maybe I will do the show with a fellow artist. It is rather scary to think about and there are so many things I don't know that I think it would be good not to be alone with this!!! 

Please let me know what you think about the choices I have made until now (it may change still and I would like to produce something fresh for the show also).

I'll link this to PPF on friday, check out the artists getting together every friday!

No art this week...

I thought I would make something nice to post for this friday, but life changed and art was not part of the time I had these past days.
My father in law died on monday.
Hope to be around again soon and wish you all good health and love around you

Ilona

Places around me

One of my favorite places is the West coast of Germany. I took a photo some years ago on a trip to a tiny "island" called Hamburger Hallig. There is a nice restaurant in the one and only house there and it is a great place to visit any time of the year. During the summer they used to have theme evenings with special food, in between you can go swimming in the Wadden sea, if there is water that is. 

The tide is shifting every six hours, meaning that the water goes six hours and returns six hours. Twice a day there is maximum water and twice a day there is no water at all, so you can walk from the main land to the closest islands or at some places from island to island on the sea ground. You need a guide to walk with, because there are "rivers" you have to pass and they fill up more quickly and can hinder your passing. In the picture the water is very low almost "Ebbe" (ebb or low tide).

The foto below shows a tower for TV and mobile radiance (I don't know if that is the correct word to use in English). It sits on the highest point in the area. From where the photo is taken you cannot even see there is an ascending slope. It is 43.4 m high. :-)

The other photo I want to share with you is from a little harbor taken in the evening a few days ago. 

I had a picnic with my daughter there and it was a wonderful, windy and amazing experience.

Ayala Art is collecting views on the neighborhoods of her blogger friends, hop over and have a look at peoples places here.