Printmaking Spree

Sometimes a girl just has to break out the gelli plate and play.

I have had a bit of a print making spree lately and have been working with a limited palette each time and trying to do as many different things as can in each session.

It is so much fun and so relaxing and I love the results.

I have been working in long strips that I then fold into pages and will eventually bind them together into an art journal, very much inspired by Teesha Moores Amazing 16 page journals. At the moment though I am really enjoying working in the loose leaf format.  Thanks to my friend Maisy for giving me the idea.

I have found it easy to grab a few supplies and a few pages and take them with me when I need to wait at places, with the backgrounds already done I often find something inspiring to start me off or I just find a background that suits my purpose.

Printmaking in the ART BOX at Wooli

I am offering another free workshop at Wooli on Saturday afternoon,

in the Art Box.

We will be getting all painty making trifold prints.

So dont wear your good clothes.

We will be creating monoprints  on a gelatin plate using child safe acrylic paints 

and layering different colours on top of each other

 to create colourful and unique pieces. 

The gelatin plate lends itself to creative experimentation and play

and along the way we will be learning about 

positive and negative prints as well as ghost prints.

The space inside the box is set up perfectly for a friendly little group 

and  it is situated right on the river at Wooli at the skate park.

We start at 3:30 and I would love to see you there.

Asha's art workshop

I have a special little friend,

 I have known her since she was a baby,

 in fact I could of quite happily brought her home and kept her,

 I still could. 

Her name is Asha 

and she wanted to do some art with me,
she wanted to do printmaking and book making,

and she wanted to share it with her friends, 

so she gathered a group 

and we enjoyed a weekend of printmaking and book making 

and they all worked really hard 

and went home with something beautiful  and unique,

something they made with their own hands.

I have youth art classes running at the moment doing printmaking, stamp making and bookmaking. We make art and have fun at the Grafton Art Club on Wednesday afternoons. I still have a couple of places available, contact me at rivergirlart@bigpond.com if you would like more information.

Art Journaling when you are sick.

I am usually a pretty healthy and busy woman but have recently been sick for a couple of months, once I watched all the documentaries and art videos and music videos on my lap top in my endless days of being in bed I was bored and I needed to journal.

I was limited in what I could do though and lacking inspiration.

I didn't want to have paints and water jars in my bed 

and I didn't want to have to keep getting out of bed to clean things.

But I did want to exercise my little creativity I still had, 

art heals and it always makes me feel better.

So endless hours of worrying about the bush fires ravaging NSW and  looking at facebook turned up some words and quotes I wanted to play with and my waste paint journal has lots of yummy pages prepped and ready for the next step.

With just some paint pens, gel pens and markers I could write on my pages and I had all of these words so I didn't even have to think too much about things. Just play with freedom and it made me happy and distracted me. 

Some of my pages in this journal have had opening pages added and when I found a theme running through the words inspiring me I grouped them all together under post cards and opening pages.

I have so appreciated being able to just play, appreciated my already prepped pages, my lap top connecting me to the world and  the moments when I was up to sitting.

Art really is a healer.

Working with Little People

I just love sharing my passion with kids.

I love sending them off with something special, something unique, something they have created.

I love their joy and smiles.

I love their freedom and abandon 

I love their trust and openness 

and I love it extra when they bring their mum who is an incredibly talented photographer. Thank you so much  for these gorgeous images Toni Hutchison 

Botanic Prints with the Gelli Plate

We have had a mild winter and I was noticing lots of luscious weeds growing with lovely veining so I did as any paint splattered girl would do, I picked some and took them inside to play with. The sample above is a ruby dock weed and I just adore how it came out. 

Next I decided we would play with botanic printing in my class at the Grafton Art Club 

and we produced some really beautiful delicate prints using the leaves as stamps

I also ended up with some stunning embellishments like this one.

As I was selecting a colour to paint my house at the same time I ended up with a heap of little paint sample cards, just perfect for printing onto.

We experimented with leaves and these are poinciana seed pods, I have plans for some sturdy flowers and grass seed heads though as they come into season.

Youth Art Classes with Louise Kirby ~ River Girl Art

I am a local artist offering my unique and fun art classes to Clarence Valley youth starting term 4 this year.

Making art is fun and relaxing and in a life where we can so often get it wrong, there are no wrongs in my art classes, just wonderful experiments we can learn from. 

I am offering a colourful,

 creative and nurturing space for kids from 7 up. 

 Classes will be limited to only 10 students so everyone will get lots of personal attention.

The materials we use we will play with, but they will learn as much from the art materials themselves as they will from me. 

I am aiming for your children to find success and pleasure in our art time and at the end of our 8 week terms they will have gained  new skills and ideas and come home with something uniquely their own.

Next term we will be focusing on printmaking, stamp making and book making and you can have a peek at me working with another young artist on my facebook page River Girl Art in the Art with Kids folder, these are the classes we will be doing this term. Please like my page to keep in touch with what I am doing and where I am.  I offer many different classes in different places locally and afar.

Classes will be held at the Grafton Art Club between 3:30 pm and 4:45 pm on Wednesday afternoons.
Dates for the next term are October 9^th and 6^th, November 6^th, 13^th, 20^th and 27^th and December 4^th and 11^th as I have prior teaching commitments in the Blue Mountains for the last couple of weeks in October.  

Cost for the full term is $150 per student this will cover all of your materials and hall fees, there is an additional cost for annual art club membership of $10.

I am also offering an earlier class for homeschooled children between 1 and 2:30 at the Grafton Art Club.

 If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me
email rivergirlart@bigpond.com
or message me on my River Girl Art facebook page.

Goddess Journals

I have been making little journals

repurposing old book pages,

pamphlets, maps and

and all sorts of beautiful things to inspire others.

 They are all slightly different with a variety of techniques used

in beautiful colours.

I have  used inks, dyes, stamps,

stencils, gesso , inktense watercolor pencils and acrylic paints.

and my imagination

 leaving plenty of open space for journaling

including some of my original art

(these are from a day playing with a printing press)

 

because these little Goddess journals 

were made with love and intention

for some of my friends.