Savannah - Bonaventure Cemetery Statues

From our visit to Savannah last weekend we had so many beautiful photographs I wanted to share, especially the statues of the wonderful and historic Bonaventure Cemetery.  So, I spent some time cleaning some of them up and wanted to post just a few of the gorgeous statues and memorials throughout the cemetery.  

Bonaventure Cemetery is one thing you don't want to miss when you visit Savannah!!  These lovelies are definite inspiration for future artwork.

Also in Savannah I found some beautiful antique cabinet card photos from the late 1800's and early 1900's.  I use copies of them in my collage art so I've decided to add digital downloads of them on my Etsy shop, Jypsy Studio, for $1.50.  Please visit if that's is something you can use in your artwork.  (Link below.)

As always, thanks for stopping by and I love to hear your comments!
Jan

Jypsy Studio on Etsy

Link to download photograph. There are many more in the shop, but this is one of my favorites!

Are these guys precious or what!!

Savannah Beauty

Wormsloe Historic Park's Oak lined drive. One of the most photographed sites in the south. 

I took a quick trip up to Savannah, Georgia, last weekend.  It is a beautiful little city to visit if you've never had the chance.  Gorgeous homes surrounding lushly planted squares.  Oddly enough, it has some of the most beautiful cemeteries I've ever seen, coupled with some ghost tours and makes for an interesting evening.  Though I took over 250 photos, I'll only share a few of the best here.  I believe I may have to paint some of these!  

Hope you enjoy!

Bonaventure Cemetery

Colonial Cemetery lost markers.

Gorgeous gardens....as you would expect. 

And unbelievable historic homes.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Jan

My Etsy shop-Jypsy Studio

Update on Col. Walter F. Layer

I promised an update on finding Col. Walter F. Layer's headstone at Arlington Cemetery when I got back.  I wanted to pay my respects to him and all our service members over the July 4th weekend.  

I visited Arlington Cemetery early on Saturday morning, July 5th.   I'm sorry to say that I could not get up to the actual stone.  In most areas they have it chained off so people can't go wandering around trampling all over the graves.  Understandable.  I did pass by his section though, let him know I stopped by and, while there, watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

I've posted a few pics for your enjoyment. JFK, Confederate Memorial, Lee's former residence, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and a few great shots of the 622 acres. It's a beautiful place, free to get in and less than $2/hr to park.  Full of tons of history of our country and I highly recommend a visit if you can.   

JFK Gravesite...you could not speak in that area. 

Robert E Lee's Residence up until 1861 I believe. 

View of Washington from Lee's residence.

Changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. 

Tomb of the unknown solder from a different angle.

Generic shot of the cemetery. 

Confederate Memorial

Again I say, thank you Col. Layer for your service to this country. 

As always, thank you for stopping by!
Jan

Joy of Collage with Lynn Whipple: Lesson 4: Final touches.

This little devil refuses to smile for family photos. 

Lesson 4 of Lynn's class was on final touches to your art. More words, or collage possibly and adding little touches such as all the dots or drawing in missing hands or feet. This really makes it all come together.

It's sort of like Forest Gump's box of chocolates....you never really know what you're gonna get until it magically appears.   These are wacky, fun, irreverent at times and downright silly...but what a fun class.  I wish I could show you all the other ladies' work.  You'll just have to take the class to find out.

The little dotted lines though.....one of those tracing wheels you use for sewing rolled in paint. Genius!!

Yes he did......

Don't we all??  

Fuzzy doesn't really know what she is yet. She's not quite done. Teddy bear body and chicken legs? Hmmm.

I have a few more to do before we start on the next project, so hopefully can post those in a day or two. 

As always, thanks for stopping by! Please let me know if there is anything you'd like to learn and I always appreciate comments. 

Jan

Jypsy Studio on Etsy

Joy of Collage with Lynn Whipple: Lesson #3 Smudges and Text

This is a great class and the interaction on the "class blog" is great between all the students. Good learning, lots of shared ideas, support and advice.  This includes the instructor!  Lynn is terrific and very engaged with the participants.

Bunny hop still a work in progress, but love her ears!

So, lesson 1...first collage layer.  Lesson 2, paint with off white paint negative space to create new shapes.  Lesson 3, smudge the edges of the new shapes and some of the underlying collage shapes with graphite and add text as it inspires you. (This is where I fall down.)  Sometimes I just stare at an image and nothing creative, witty or interesting comes to mind.  Then sometimes it does.  

So here are the updated photos after smudging and stamping some wacky text.  Final lesson for this round is Monday.  I think they need a little more "ooomph", but am sure that's coming in the final touches.   

She needs some feet...and not sure what to do about the extra hand???

I love this one...two-lips...tee hee hee. 

A teddy bear tail and some more color, definitely. 

Arms and legs to come....what makes YOU feel like a new woman?

So, that's it for today....final lesson on Monday and will post photos as soon as I can.

As always, thanks for stopping by and if you get a chance please visit my Etsy shop. Link below.

Thanks again!
Jan
Jypsy Studio shop on Etsy

"Joy of Collage" class with Lynn Whipple: Lesson 2

Lesson 2 posted at midnight last night and I've already watched it and completed it.  It was great fun.  I must say the first lesson's technique really freed you up to play. We were SUPPOSED to do only ONE canvas.  I ended up doing both of my canvases and FIVE more in my art journal.  I was covered in gloss medium.  It appeared from the class blog I was not the only one who could not stop. 

As a refresher....here is where Lesson 1 ended.  Collage layer with photo focal point.

Layer 1-collage with image.

Lesson 2 was about aging the collage with a raw umber acrylic wash to pull it together a bit and dull the white parts down a bit.  This is what a few of mine looked like after the wash.  Doesn't look like much yet. 

Layer 2 - Raw Umber wash. 

Then the hard part, painting over it all with flat off white paint and creating a new shape.  Scary, but after the first couple it wasn't so bad.  I practiced on the ones in my art journal first.  I need to make the bodies a little bigger and use a little less of the white paint, but other than that...they make me giggle. Love the tulips (maybe I'll name it "two-lips"...LOL) and the bunny!!

Layer 3-cutting out new shapes with paint. 

Can't wait for Friday for the next step!   Is it "fine art"....well, that's up for interpretation.  But it's playful, fun and makes me laugh.  Enjoy the journey!

As always, thanks for stopping by.

Jan
Jypsy Studio

Online Art Classes

I am taking my first online PAID class.  I resisted for a long time because I always thought it best to take these types of "hands-on" classes in person.  But, seldom are they in your town and so that can get pretty expensive.  Then I reminded myself that I watch endless "how to" videos on YouTube...so why not.   So, this is my trial and I will let you know how it goes. 

The class is Lynn Whipple's "Joy of Collage" through Carla Sonheim.  It is 6 video lessons over a two week period.  The first video was only about 10 minutes long.  However, the plus side is that Lynn is interactive on the class blog, you can ask her questions and you can post photos of your work and get feedback from her and the other participants.  And, we have forever access to the videos if we ever want to re-watch them.  There are about 150 of us in the class I think. 

We are learning her style of collage utilizing vintage photos.  The photo below is of some of my cabinet cards.  I did not use originals for this as I have in some of my other work.  The size was wrong so I made enlarged color copies at Staples to use. (Which means I can reuse these as I wish.)

Vintage Cabinet Card Photos

The big question with any class you take like this (to me) is always....how do I incorporate this technique, or look, that made me take the class but make it look all my own?  I don't want someone to look at my work and think "Oh, that's a Lynn Whipple style."(Not that they would.)  And I'm sure she doesn't either.  Maybe that's a question I'll pose to the group. 

The first video was very good and full of good tips and permission to play.  Lynn is fun, witty, silly and bubbly, and her work is so cute with a very quirky sense of humor.  If you don't know her, just look her up on Pinterest. Her blog link is listed down on the right under "Favorite Blogs" and here is her website. Lynn Whipple

The photo below is of my two canvases after the first layer.  We get the second class on Wednesday for next steps.  I don't wait well! 

First Layer of Collage

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Jan

Jypsy Studio

Creating Art at the Speed of Life-Lesson 9: First Impression(ism)

Lesson 9: First Impression(ism).  A take on Monet's technique of using little dots of paint to build up texture, shading and color.  I like the way she turned out, but it took me FOREVER to get it to where I thought I looked like I wanted using the eraser of a pencil for the dots. 

I can do better but this was a very interesting new technique to learn...no real painting involved.  Love the big circles with the black ink for the hair though.  As with most impressionistic paintings, looks better if you stand back a bit. :)

So, almost 1/3 of the way through the book, learning a lot and it gives me a goal.  These are easily done in one day.  

I am going to start incorporating some of these new skills into my work on Etsy so keep an eye out. 

Here is the link. Jypsy Studio-Jan Partain

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Creating Art at the Speed of Life: Lesson 8: Texture via Transfer Rubbings

Lesson 8 today was on doing a rubbing of a textured item and transferring it to your journal.  I love this technique because with a piece of paper and a pencil you can pick up an interesting texture any time you're out and about.

Vintage tin ceiling tile texture. 

I have a vintage ceiling tile hanging in my foyer so that was the easiest thing to take a rubbing from.  It's big so I only got a small piece and it's not very detailed, but I like the technique just the same.  

The shading is all done with watercolors and water soluble graphite pencils. A little black and white paint as an added detail always adds a nice pop!  

So, a nice tool to add to the technique arsenal. Soon some of these techniques will make it into my Etsy pieces.  

Here's the link if you'd like to stop by. Jypsy Studio

As always, thanks for stopping by.