Chunky Botanicals

Every year Art Unraveled takes place in Phoenix. It's a week long adventure of artist workshops, artistic experimentation and being in the company of like minded souls.

Last year I decided to focus on drawing and visual journaling workshops.

 The first workshop was "10 Objects, 10 Ways," with artist Jane LaFazio. I did the each exercise twice. Above are the 10 objects on two facing journal pages.

 Then I did each object larger, on a page of its' own.

 "Learning to See" with artist Lisa Cheney-Jorgensen came next. Drawing often sends me in a panic. Remnants of my college drawing days.

 I had a blast.

It was great to get out the watercolors again. That was an art school class I enjoyed and did well in.

Every year there is often a technique exchange by students who attended AU the previous year.

This year we worked on chunky pages, 4" x 4" art works.

The specimens.

Orange Bells-a hummingbird favorite.

Tipu tree leaves. This was one of the techniques from the workshop where we painted the background rather than the object. Salt was added to the drying paint creating the mottled texture.

Palo Verde tree bloom. Reminds me of a hibiscus flower but having the flower almost up my nose, this was what I saw.

 

 Desert marigold. All the drawings were done using pencil, ink pen, watercolor and water soluable marker.

My pages were mailed out last week. The arrival of the package of eveyone's pages will be one fun mail day.

Marissa