My art pouch...

So when it comes to storage for almost anything, plastic is not an option for me.  I love handmade, fabric, wood or something vintage.  Below you can see my art pouch that I made to hold an assortment of art supplies.  I can dump it all in and I just love rummaging around for things.  I keep some charcoal pencils and things that get dusty and chalky contained in vintage metal pencil cases found while thrifting.  My pouch is broken in well now and it's soft and slouchy and I love it.  All vintage fabrics, of course.  

 I have one extra one I created in my shop right now.  If there's interest I may make more + I've experimented with flat pencil cases and different sizes.

There's just something about handmade and vintage that speaks to me. It feels more special and has more meaning.   

 Plus it's a one of a kind item.

Let me know what you think.  My girls are already requesting some handmade pouches for their makeup and friends for presents.  Great idea, girls!

Watercolored teacup...

Sharing an entry in my artist journal.  Today it's watercolored teacups.  I started by sketching first with pencil then using my Lamy Safari fountain pen...ink is not waterproof.  

 Great practice and I love that the blue ink bled a little.  Reminds me of that beautiful blue China.

 Closeup of the beautiful way watercolor has a mind of it's own.

 Detail of notepad with shadows.

 I used my Sketch 3 method for this journal entry.  That means that I simply did 3 different types of sketches.  I did the main tea cup with notepad, the blue teacup and the more detailed pattern.  I find that when I take the extra effort to sketch something three different ways, I get more and more practice.

And......#practiceisart.  You can find more of my #mishsketch3 entries on my Instagram account, MishWooderson.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Plein Air Painting and John Muir...

I'm so inspired by our beautiful country.  Landscapes are definitely my favorite thing to draw and paint, whether it be from a photograph, a vintage postcard, a book...but especially right from nature itself.  Today I have a mixed media spread from a small artist journal, featuring a landscape inspired by this postcard below. 

 This was my set up of supplies.  I'm painting inside because it's still fairly cold for outdoor painting for me.

 Some of my colors inspired by a small travel palette from Green Earth and Blue Berry.

 My finished painting.

 I found this wonderful quote from John Muir to add at the end.

 Although this painting was done outside, I went out later and did a watercolor sketch from my vehicle.  Sketching outside just brings all the senses alive.  It's really the best way to capture the true essence of a landscape.

 That brings me to Plein Air painting.  It means paint outside, simply.  And John Muir?  You've probably read a lot of his nature inspired quotes.  He was a conservationist and a leading role in why we get to visit beautiful places that we call call National Parks.

I'd love for you to watch this video about John Muir's role in the history plein air painting.  It's fascinating to me and I've watched it several times.  If you have an interest to paint landscapes, especially from the great outdoors, this is a must see short documentary.  It's from the great people of Plein Air Magazine and the Paint Outside website.  It's called Outside The Lines and direct link is HERE. I hope you enjoy.....and let me know what you think.

Vintage postcard inspired watercolored flowers...

The past two weeks I've been enjoying Jeanne Oliver's classed called Reflections: Paint Your Story.  Today's art session was inspired by a video Jeanne posted about abstract flowers.  I used the vintage postcard shown below for my inspiration.  

 The sketchbook I'm using is a Dylusions small journal with a snippet of vintage ledger pasted on.  The papers aren't high quality watercolor paper but perfect for some sketching with paints.

 I used Pan Pastels to add the blue and yellow shading in the background.

 I'm loving the look of scribbly drawn lines with watercolor added.  Graphite will always be a favorite medium of mine.

 Soft and airy, such a good sketch for staying loose.

 A good day to make art.

Thanks for joining me today.

New aprons just listed....

JUST LISTED....a fun new batch of embellished, vintage aprons have just been added to my online shop.  If you've been following my blog, you may remember my recipe box project a few posts down.  These darling aprons would be a fun gift to go along with the recipe boxes, especially for a bridal shower or wedding gift...a graduation gift....or someone who just purchased a new house.  If you're the artsy type, these would be fun art aprons to wear while painting.  You can find them HERE.  

Floral Journaling Pages....from Jeanne Oliver class

Gosh, just when I got back to posting regularly on my blog, I have Blogger issues.  I'm back and today I'm excited to share some current artwork with you.  I'm taking the latest Jeanne Oliver class called Reflections: Paint Your Story and it's a good one.  You can find Jeanne's site here...amazing classes by her and other artists. 

This was my work in progress yesterday.  There's something about a beautiful mess of art supplies, don't you think? This journaling entry was all about trying to create pages about me but it turned into a wonderful tribute to my mother.  

 The beautiful verse on this vintage postcard that belonged to my great great grandmother is a special wish for my mother. It sparked ideas for the rest of my spread and I ended up sketching and watercoloring more hand drawn flowers.

 Just loosely drawn flowers over the gesso covered surface.  Photocopies of the photos were used for ephemera.

 This is a copy of the back of the vintage postcard.  Miss Cora Beams was my great great grandmother.

 Jean emphasizes mark making in this journaling class. Here I used lines that imitate the gingham pattern on my mother's dress.  I filled in the loosely drawn squares with gesso.

 Here I used scrapbook paper and extend some hand drawn leaves.  That faint glimpse of the photo has three little girls in an old horse and buggy.  Some distant relatives and I love their little bonnets.

 More mark marking, a strip of scrapbook paper and some vintage fabric in the corner.

 The full, finished spread here.  Such a fun day of creating art.  This will be lovely to look at each time I reach for my artist journal.

Thanks for visiting today and I'll see ya soon.

So I got a Traveler's Notebook...

Last year I got me a leather Traveler's Notebook.  A fun leather cover with calendars and notebooks to tuck inside a fun binding system.

Along with my calendar, I had a handy sketchbook nearby at all times.  I made myself a small, tool wrap and kept it all nearby so I could sketch when the desire arose.

Quick sketches added with just a touch of watercolor.

Value sketches with simple pencil hatching. These country prairie scenes are some of my favorites.

Found objects from the garden and yard, a little fun lettering.  A new orange Lamy pen.

Blue ink sketch with non-waterproof ink.  Just add water to the outlines for instant shading.

Pen and ink sketch from a Pinterest photo.

Another fun way to add daily art to my life.  Remember, practice is art.

Today I'm setting up a still life of my first oil painting.  It's a new journey for me and I'm excited and intimidated at the same time.  And just like that I have my One Little Word for the year.....journey.

Watercolored bouquet...

I did this watercolor of a bouquet of flowers picked from my gardens around Memorial Day.  I always love to have fresh flowers sitting around and if they come from my gardens, that makes me even happier. 

I take lots of photos of my flowers, knowing that I they make great pieces of art to frame or stick in a clipboard.  I had the idea that I'd like to paint many of the photos too so I'm glad I snapped lots...especially when there is not a flower to be seen in my gardens right about now.

I sketched out my photo first in pencil.  I will always have a love of drawing.

Then I just filled in colors kind of like a coloring book.

I love doing color studies to match colors to my photos too.  I'm much better at doing that with watercolors than other paint mediums.

I'm now inspired to create a little stash of flower photos to practice my watercolors on.  

Thanks for the inspiring words on my art journey recap thus far. It's fun to visit all of my projects again.