COLLABORATIVE ART WITH GINNY MARKLEY

Hi All;

A few months ago I posted about how my dear art pal, Ginny Markley, took a half-finished piece of my art and made a stunning finished masterpiece with it.  We had traded each other a partially done piece of art for the other to finish and return.  Here's the link to that post:

Ginny Markley & Joanna Grant Collaborative Art - Part I

Anyway, it's taken me this long to get time to do a blog post on Ginny's piece she sent for me to work on.

Here is what it looked like when I got it.  It's about 8" X 10".  Ginny used gelli prints and assorted collage elements to get the piece to this point.

I sat for quite a while trying to figure out what to do with this piece.  There's more pressure on you than you'd think when it's somebody else's work and you don't want to mess it up with a wrong step.  I finally just decided to dive in and not worry about that. 

I started with a bit of doodling and then used a scrap of corrugated cardboard and white acrylic paint to  make the marks you see on the left side of the piece.

Next, I added some of my gelli print flower cutouts to her dress to jazz it up a bit and legs to the little character on the right.

Then, I continued to work on the little character on the right, building up its outfit.  I also added some black outlining to her dress to make it stand out a bit more and some highlighting of the gelli print flowers.

After that, I added some doodling and a funky little collage element for her hair.  Some gold metallic acrylic paint went into the background near her right hand.  Her bracelet got a facelift too.

Then, I stenciled some hearts in purple and red Silks (shimmery acrylics).  They  "hang" from some recycled scrapbooking sticker doodads. 

Next, I added some funky flowers to the lower left, using reclaimed scrapbooking doodads and some checkerboard paper for the stems.  She also got a groovy necklace (more reclaimed scrapbooking supplies).  

Lastly, I added a funky border to the top of the piece, along with some collage elements on the left (blue and white squares).  The quote was the very last thing to be added.

This was a very fun project to do with Ginny, even though it took me a few months to actually complete it.  I'm glad she was so patient with me.  If you'd like to see more of Ginny's wonderful work, you can find her blog here.

Playing With Paint - Ginny Markley

I hope you enjoyed seeing the process this collaborative piece went through from start to finish.

Cheers, my friends!
Joanna

LIMITED EDITION ART PRINTS now in stock!

"Honor"  (Namaste - I honor the light in you)

Etsy Listing - "Honor"

Hello friends;

I thought I'd share with you some of my recent listings in my Etsy store of a new line of limited edition art magnets I have had made.

These are all reproductions of my original mixed media work.  Each magnet is about 4" X 5.5" and has a semi-glossy professional finish to it.

They make great gift ideas (easily mail one in a standard No. 10 envelope).  You can jazz up your kitchen appliances or those boring office filing cabinets too!

More designs to come so stay tuned.

Thanks for looking!

"Enjoy The Journey"

Etsy Listing = "Enjoy The Journey" 

"Sing Your Song"

Etsy Listing - "Sing Your Song"

FINALLY - Great Canadian Art Journal Project Is Done !!!

Hello everyone!

Well, it's almost a year after its launch, but we have finally finished our Great Canadian Travelling Art Journal Project and I have to say it has turned out most spectacularly!!

Starting in February, 2013, this little handmade art journal (6" X 6") made the rounds to 14 different Canadian mixed media artists from coast to coast, who each created a page (or more).

The journal was made by me from recycled greeting cards.  If you missed the post last year on that, here is the link so you can see how I created it, as well as the "before" shots of the pages of the journal prior to our artists getting their hands on 'em.

Making of the Art Journal

I am so pleased to now be able to share with you the finished pages of the whole journal.

Page 1 By Kimberly Ans

Page 2 By Karen Dearborn

Page 3 By Sandy Sommerfeld

Page 6 By Nancy Allingham

Tag Inserts By Nancy Allingham

Page 7 By Linda Kittmer

Page 8 By Becky Uren

Page 9 By Erin Fish

Page 10 By Kim Beinschroth

Page 11 By Norina Morris

Accordian Book Insert By Norina Morris

Page 12 By Jane Super

Page 13 By Lori Bradford

Page 14 By Nancy Morin

Back Cover By Jenny Sept

I want to personally thank the wonderful artists who took part in this project.  They are:

Jenny Sept
Erin Fish
Jane Super
Nancy Morin
Becky Uren
Nancy Allingham
Karen Dearborn
Linda Kittmer
Kim Beinschroth
Lori Bradford
Kimberly Ans
Norina Morris
Sandy Sommerfeld

Now that the journal is done, the group has agreed to auction it off for charity.  I will be listing the journal shortly on either Ebay or Etsy and proceeds raised from the sale of it will benefit the SPCA.  If this project and charity resonate with you, please bid on the journal to help our cause.

Thank you so much!
Joanna

Art Journal - Video Flip Through 1

Happy New Year, my dear friends!  I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and that you are rarin' to go again in 2014 with lots of arty projects.

I have been lax in posting to my blog the last couple of months because of other commitments but I am back now and will do my best to share what I'm up to on a regular basis.  I so appreciate you checking in from time to time to see what I'm doing.

I decided to share my first ever video that I made a few months ago.  It's pretty rough but I decided I would share it anyway.  Part of being an artist is learning new things and working through the learning curve to improve your craft.  My video recording certainly needs some work but because I am asked so often to share more of what I do and how I do it, I figured even in this amateurish state, you might enjoy the video.

In this video I do a quick flip through of one of my art journals and talk a bit about the pages and how they came to be.  I can't tell you how many people have said, "Wow, I'd love to take a walk through your art journals one day."  Well, be careful what you wish for.  Ha, ha!

See you again soon, my dear friends!

Joanna

Guest Blog Post - "How To" Mini Art Journal With Old Office Supplies

Art Journal Made With Recycled Office Supplies

Hi everyone!

I thought you might like to see a recent guest post I did over on the "12 Months In View" website.  The theme was gratitude and thanksgiving, and I made a small art journal with recycled office supplies.

You can find the link here:

How To Make A Mini Art Journal With Recycled Office Supplies

And here are a few photos from the post, just to pique your curiosity.

Thanks for looking and happy art-ing!

Joanna

Mixed Media Greeting Cards - Part 2

Following up to my post from last week (October 10, if you didn't catch it), here are a few more of my handmade greeting cards.

I hope you enjoy them!

Cheers!
Joanna

Mixed Media Greeting Cards - Part 1

I've been making handmade greeting cards for about 20 years, the last 15 of which mostly focusing on mixed media.  I love making them and hope that the giving of a real card that you can hold in your hand has not become a lost art.  You wonder sometimes, with e-cards becoming so popular, as well as how easy it is to send a sentiment by Facebook, Twitter, or phone.

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you a few of my handmade cards.  I use all sorts of things to make them including:

• prints of my own work;
• vintage images;
• reclaimed scrapbooking materials
• old wallpaper, dictionary and book pages;
• paint, markers, dyes and inks;
• recycled office supplies;
• dimensional paint and glitter;
• maps, sheet music, etc;
• stamped images

and almost anything else I lay my hands on.

Here are a few samples.  I'll post more next week.

Cheers, my friends!
Joanna

New Art In The "Gelli Kids" Series

SOLD!  Thank you, Barb!!!


That should read $69.95US for BOTH pieces, and with free shipping to the U.S. and Canada.  The quote is a favourite from Robin Williams.

New Original Art Available

Just listed in my Etsy store is this 8" X 10" original mixed media piece on canvasboard.  The flowers are three dimensional and it is much brighter and more vivid than the photo shows.

Free shipping to the US and Canada.

UPDATE Great Canadian Travelling Art Journal Challenge

Greetings fellow art journalers!  I thought you would enjoy an interim update on the Great Canadian Travelling Art Journal project that we started back in February.  If you missed that post, click HERE.  You can see what it looked like in its "before" state.

As a reminder to you of how the project got started, I took a few Christmas cards and recycled them into a little art journal that measures about 6" X 6" and has 16 pages in it.  Each artist is doing one page in the journal as it travels across Canada and back.

We've now had half a dozen different artists take a turn at creating a truly unique page in the journal and I must say, we have some phenomenally talented people taking part.   Here are some of the artist's work (each artist is noted below their photos).

Rebecca Uren

Kimberly Ans

Close Up - Kimberly Ans

Close Up - Kimberly Ans

Jane Super
"We are all like the bright moon, we all have our darker side."   Kahlil Gibran

Nancy Allingham

Nancy Allingham

This little journal is going to be a really special, one of a kind treasure when it is done.  I can't wait to see it all finished.  It has one more stop in British Columbia before it heads to New Brunswick and then back across Canada home again.  Stay tuned.  I'll have more updates as our featured artists finish their pages.

Thanks for watching!

Joanna