When the Cat's Away.....

What's a girl to do when her better half is hiding away with his buddies wayyyyy up north in an ice fishing shack for the weekend?  Well, it didn't take me long to figure out that this little mouse would spend the weekend playing while the cat's away.

For many people I suppose that would probably mean a few days of partying, shopping or heaven knows what shocking activities.  For me it just meant stocking up on a few quick fix meals at the grocery store (chicken wings of course), creating a mini-studio in front of the fireplace and setting Pandora to playing endlessly (with time out for the Downton Abbey finale. (sniff).

A few hours painting in the studio on Saturday morning with the talented and inspiring Saturday morning group primed the creative pump.  Then I hunkered down for the duration armed with  watercolors, old paintings to cut up for jewelry and a whole bucketful of Sharpie markers for making coffee cup studies for the next Saturday class.  In this class, we've set ourselves an assignment to pick a common household object and draw it, paint it (or Sharpie it) every day for a month.  That's not as easy as you'd think.  It's a great discipline if you have difficulty getting to your art table as often as you'd like and it's surprising how many of them are actually quite nice.

All in all, I think this art glut weekend is just about as close as one gets on this earth to Heaven, Nirvana and Valhalla all rolled up into one.  I actually think I've quenched my creative thirst for a while and I'm looking forward to rejoining society.  I might just pull the car out of the garage and drive my weekend's projects up to the gallery and see what comes of it.

Happy creating, all!

The Saturday painters, minus two.  These ladies are amazing.  I have to work twice as hard just to stay ahead of them.  They're great and they keep me on my toes.

In case you've been thinking of throwing away those 'old dog' watercolors, hold on!  Look what fun things you can make from old paintings.  Some of these will become jewelry.  Others will be added to journals or who knows what else?

I love these watercolor paper necklaces.  They're so light to wear and they're sealed with a resin and/or polymer coating to make them tough.  Mixed with just the right beads and chains, they're lots of fun.

  

I must have a bit of Spring fever.  It was so fun cutting up old paintings and assembling them into these  layered flower shapes.  I'm not yet sure what they'll become when they 'grow up' but it will be fun to experiment with them.