Mixed-Media Map Art

Friday Favorite: Carrie Wagner

08/01/2014

If you are looking for the PanPastel StencilGirl Blog Hop, please keep scrolling down!

This Friday’s featured artist is Carrie Wagner of SepiaLepus Illustrations!
I love the combination of detail and whimsy in these maps!

SepiaLepus started in Carrie’s tiny apartment in Long Beach, California.

Since then, she’s moved and settled in Providence Rhode Island and is out most weekends selling her work at Indie Arts and Crafts shows around New England and New York.

She’s even working on her own children's book which will be out for sale sometime soon!

Find more of Carrie's lovely art in her Etsy at https://www.etsy.com/shop/SepiaLepus.

And connect with her on Facebook at here.

TGIF!

Mary

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PanPastel & StencilGirl

07/27/2014

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Welcome to first day of the PanPastel & StencilGirl Blog Hop!

For this blog hop, StencilGirl Creative Team members are showcasing gorgeous PanPastels and stencils!
And Mary Beth Shaw is hopping along with us!! Yay!

You're on the right track if you just arrived from Mary Beth's blog.
If not, no worries! You can just follow the list below and start back at the beginning.

I had lots of fun using PanPastels and Maria McGuire's Doodle It Dahlia stencil to create this art journal spread:

I began by tracing the Doodle It Dahlia stencil and portions of the stencil with my micron pens, overlapping the tracings to create movement and unity. I intentionally traced only the outline of the stencil in the lower, right corner...this would become my focal point.

Then I filled in that outline with PanPastel and a Sofft Art Sponge.
Next, I placed my Doodle It Dahlia back on my page with blue painter's tape and spread a layer of molding paste (about the height of the stencil) across the stencil with my palette knife. I carefully removed the stencil and cleaned it with a baby wipe.

After allowing the molding paste the dry overnight, I placed the stencil back on the page again, and applied more PanPastel onto the molding paste shapes with my Sofft Art Sponge:

Lastly, I used a Sofft Art Sponge to add PanPastel to the entire background:

Below is a detail of the surface created with molding paste and PanPastels:

Before you leave, be sure to enter the StencilGirl GIVEAWAY!!

What do you have to do to enter? Just leave a comment below!

You can also leave comments on all of the individual posts this week on all the blogs from our team members for another chance to win! GIVEAWAY closes Sunday, August 3rd @ 11:59PM Central Time.
The more blogs you comment on in the blog hop, the more chances you have of winning!
(One comment per post please.)

Today's Blog Hop Order
StencilGirl Talk
Mary Beth Shaw
Mary C. Nasser – you are here!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!
I'd love for you to follow my blog on Feedblitz, bloglovin' or NetworkedBlogs!

Good luck winning!

Mary

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DIY Studio Shelf!

07/25/2014

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If you are looking for the Traci Bautista StencilGirl Blog Hop, please keep scrolling down!

We interrupt this Friday's favorite map artist to bring you a special mini-blog hop between Judi Kauffman and me!
I met Judi Kauffman through the StencilGirl Walnut Hollow Blog Hop. I'd reached out to Judi, sending her an email thanking her for choosing to use my map stencil in her project for that hop. We began corresponding and found we had a lot in common: a passion for teaching, love of dogs, StencilGirl stencils and Walnut Hollow, and even the colors teal and turquoise! So we had fun setting up a brand new challenge for the two of us: to use StencilGirl stencils I'd designed, Walnut Hollow products, Shimmer Sheetz, and the color teal, turquoise or light turquoise! We had no idea what the other would make!

For my project, I chose to work with my Map and Compass stencils, Walnut Hollow’s Rustic Wood Ledge and Shimmer Sheetz in Turquoise Gemstone.

I began by staining the entire wood ledge with Minwax Water-Based Wood Stain in Antique Jade.
Then I used a Colour Shaper to add Matisse Background Colors in Whisper Green, Gum Tree Green and Turquoise to the large interior portion of the ledge.

I layered and blended the Matisse Background Colors, but did not mix these completely:

Then I placed my map stencil against the surface I had just painted. I love that StencilGirl stencils are flexible, allowing me to press this against the interior portion that I wanted to stencil! Using the same Matisse Background colors I used to paint the background, I pounced these through the Map stencil with a cosmetic sponge.

I moved the stencil about, holding it in place with my left hand and I applied paint through portions of the stencil.
I pounced the lighter colors onto the darker, and darker onto lighter to give the patterns more contrast.

Lastly, I used a Tsukineko Jumbo Dauber to apply Teal Blue StazOn ink through my Compass stencil onto the Turquoise Gemstone Shimmer Sheetz. I placed the entire Shimmer Sheetz onto double sided adhesive, then cut around the shapes of the stenciled compasses.

Because the adhesive is double sided, I could then peel off the backing and press the individual compasses onto the surface I had painted:

I've turned this ledge on its side and can't wait to use it as a shelf in my studio!

It's the perfect size for lots of my art supplies!
Below are two details:

Be sure to check out Judi Kauffman's lovely mini crate tutorial and two bonus projects with instructions on the Walnut Hollow Blog, too!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and happy creating!

Mary

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Friday Favorite: Masako Kubo

07/18/2014

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If you are looking for the Traci Bautista StencilGirl Blog Hop, please keep scrolling down!

This Friday’s featured artist is Masako Kubo and her lovely map illustrations!
I love the combination of both whimsy and details in her maps!

Italy

Her maps are well thought out, meticulously executed and wonderfully imaginative all at once!

Cruise Map

Kamakura, Japan

Paris Gourmet Map

Read more about Yanko Tihov, her artwork and her process on her website at www.masakokubo.co.uk.

TGIF!

Mary

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StencilGirl Artist Traci Bautista Blog Hop!

07/13/2014

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Welcome to the StencilGirl Blog Hop featuring NEW StencilGirl Artist Traci Bautista!

For this blog hop, StencilGirl Creative Team members are showcasing Traci’s FIVE new stencils!
And Traci Bautista and Mary Beth Shaw are hopping along with us!! Yay!

You're on the right track if you just arrived from Leslie Tucker Jenison's blog.
If not, no worries! You can just follow the list below and start back at the beginning.

I had tons of fun using Traci's new Floral 1 stencil to create this art journal spread:

I began with my wide flat Colour Shaper, Matisse background colors and a cosmetic sponge to apply layers of colors and flowers and leaves:

I also had lots of fun creating my own elements to collage into my pages by stenciling with acrylics on kraft paper (left) and onto a geologic map (right):

And I painted deli paper with acrylics and added Wendy Vecchi embossing paste in white through this stencil for elements to collage, too:

I cut and tore around the edges of these flowers and pasted them onto my pages with a glue stick.

I added more acrylic paint, Pitt Pens, Sakura Glaze Pens, washi tape, more maps, some circle stickers I'd painted, a bit of stenciling with Leaf Diamond and Bold Flowers, a Georgia O'Keeffe postage stamp and a lovely quote by Henri Matisse:

Below are a few details:

Before you leave, be sure to enter the StencilGirl GIVEAWAY!
TWO lucky winners will win a complete set of Traci's FIVE new stencil designs!

What do you have to do to enter? Just leave a comment below by Sunday, July 27th at 11:59PM Central Time.
The more blogs you comment on in the blog hop, the more chances you have of winning!

Giveaway will be open a full two weeks because Mary Beth has a webinar on July 24th and her guest will be Traci!

Blog Hop Order
StencilGirl Talk
Traci Bautisa
Mary Beth Shaw
Carolyn Dube
Jennifer Priest
Gwen Lafleur
Kirsten Reed
Leslie Tucker Jenison
Mary C. Nasser – you are here!
Julia Kellogg – go here next!
Maria McGuire

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!
I'd love for you to follow my blog on Feedblitz, bloglovin' or NetworkedBlogs!

Good luck winning!

Mary

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Friday Favorite: Jo Reimer

07/11/2014

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This Friday’s featured artist is Jo Reimer and her wonderful map paintings!

I love the way she experiments with her personal map collection to express ideas of travel, journeys, exploration and her own personal history. This was the first map work in her series:

Crossroads, acrylic and collage on paper, 22" x 17"

"Here I laid down strips of map to indicate a matrix of roads leading away from a city somewhere west, near the water," writes Jo.

She explains that one day she decided to shred an old map to see how she could use the strips creatively. "To me the strips of map are the roadway, the directions for how to get somewhere, the path I traveled, and because I make an effort to make art that refelcts my own life history and emotions it seemed appropriate to investigate where my map collection would take me on canvas and paper."

From Franklin to Oneida, acrylic and collage on paper, 22" x 17"

The painting From Franklin to Oneida "grew out of imagining the chaos of traveling through unfamiliar landscape, following a straight highway and suddenly coming upon a small town out in the middle of nowhere and wondering why people settled there in the first place."

Sea City, acrylic and collage on paper, 10" x 10"

"The design for Sea City came about from looking at an actual map of a coastal city and adding the main streets to the painting as strips of maps, though not cut from a map of this actual city."

Wetlands, acrylic and collage on board, 20" x 20"

"As I was painting Wetlands I imagined looking down on the landscape from above, seeing a small town nestled between the rivers and creeks that flow through a rather wet landscape. Homes and businesses were built above the flood plain but were controlled by the flow of water, while nearby the freeway soared above the landscape, bypassing the town altogether."

See even more Jo Reimers' series of map paintings on her art blog here!

TGIF!

Mary

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Drawing and Painting Studio

07/07/2014

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"Creativity is contagious. Pass it on." ~Albert Einstein

It's no secret that I'm passionate about art. Another passion of mine is sharing this love of art with others!
Earlier this summer, I had very talented and enthusiastic young artists in Drawing and Painting Studio at COCA (Center of Creative Arts)! Before we even met, I knew they shared this same passion because they'd signed up to draw and paint with me for one week from 9am to 3pm everyday!

We explored color theory and color schemes, set up a still-life together, created landscapes and portraits, worked with abstraction, from imagination, kept sketchbooks and learned about inspiring artists from art history! So grateful I got to work with Lauren again; she's an amazing teaching assistant! Students ranged in age from 12-16. And we celebrated our one week of drawing and painting with an Art Show culmination!

This was such a great way to start my summer!
I've been painting everyday all day since, too!

Have a terrific week!

Mary

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July StencilClub Inspiration

07/03/2014

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I'm back on the StencilGirl Talk Blog today to show you what I did with the amazing July 2014 StencilClub stencils designed by Mary Beth Shaw!

Here's a sneak peek:

Be sure to go to StencilGirl Talk to see all the details!

Hope you're having a wonderful week!

Mary

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Leftover Paint Art Journal Page!

06/30/2014

5 Comments

Just a quick tutorial to show what I created with leftover paint from making my Scribble Scratch Handwriting Notes project posted on StencilGirl Talk last week!

For that project, I made lots of monoprints with my Gelli Plate. After inking the plate each time, I cleaned the brayer off in my art journal by rolling the excess paint directly onto the pages...

When I removed Carolyn Dube's Scribble Scratch Handwriting stencil from the plate between prints, I placed the wet paint-covered stencil onto a page and closed my art journal all the way! I really liked these accidental results...all from cleaning my brayer and stencil between prints!

I grabbed my Typewriter stencil designed by Nathalie Kalbach and taped it with blue painter's tape onto one of the pages...

I pounced heavy-body white acrylic paint with a cosmetic sponge through the stencil...

Lastly, I pounced more white acrylic through parts of Daniella Woolf's Word Play stencil, rotating and moving the stencil about the page so it looked like the letters were flying off the typewriter!

I had fun combining texts without any of it being legible...leaving the focus on the lines, colors, texture and rhythm!
Have fun with your leftover paint, too, and have a great week!

Mary

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Friday Favorite: Yanko Tihov

06/27/2014

1 Comment

This Friday’s featured artist is Yahko Tihov and his Passport Maps.
I love that in Tihov's passport series, the colors and motifs correspond with each country’s passport!

In addition, Tihov has hand-painted the texts, seals and coats of arms which adorn the passport covers with real
24 carat gold!

Read more about Yanko Tihov and his artwork on his website at yankotihov.co.uk.

TGIF!

Mary

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About Me
I love creating mixed-media paintings layered with maps! This blog is a place for me to share my work and what inspires me. Read more here.

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