Star Light, Star Bright by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

Leada Wood, Watercolor, Mixed Media, Collage

"Star Light, Star Bright" by Leada Wood ©2016

Do you remember looking at the starry sky on a summers night and saying the little poem "Star Light, star bright, the first star I see tonight, I wish I may I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight." It's funny when I am painting a title just pops into my head or sometimes during the drawing stage. They just seem to come out of the blue and remind me of different times throughout my life. That's why I always say " Art takes you places."

I have been working on this series of bird paintings for a show that the Caboose Watercolor Society is having at Howard College. The exhibition opened on April 1st and will run until May 4th. The reception will be April 12th from 5:00 to 6:30, be sure to drop by and see the show.

The birds are collaged from hand painted papers that I create with Gelli prints and then paint on top of the prints. It gives a whole different look to a painting. The process is a bit long but I enjoy it...I hope you do too!

"We lose ourselves in the things we love...we find ourselves there too."

Wish Upon A Star, by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

Leada Wood, Watercolor, Mixed Media, Collage

"Wish Upon A Star" by Leada Wood ©2016

I always loved Disney and can remember watching it on Sunday evenings when growing up. I think he was influential in my creative development. I was always an imaginative and curious child asking questions and wanting to know why. 

"Wish Upon A Star" is collage on cradle board. I hand paint most of the paper I use in collage. These papers began as Gelli prints that I embellished before they began their life as collage. A long process that is quite entailed to be sure...but it is all about the process...right?

The song Wish Upon a star was written for Disney by Leigh Harline for the movie Pinocchio and was sung by Jiminy Cricket. It has since become the representative song of the Walt Disney Company.

When you wish upon a star

Makes  no difference who you are

Anything your heart desires 

Will come to you

If your heart is in your dream

No request is too extreme

When you wish upon a star

As dreamers do

Fate is kind

She brings to those who love

The sweet fulfillment of 

Their secret longing

Like a bolt out of the blue

Fate steps in and sees you through

When you wish upon a star

Your dreams come true

When your heart is in your dream 

No request is too extreme

When you wish upon a star

Your dreams will come true

Oh those were simpler times full of imagination! Thanks for stopping by!

IHanna's Spring Post Card Swap by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

 

 

 

Heart Of Gold ©Leada Wood 2015


I am participating in IHanna's Spring Post Card Exchange. Artists around the world are creating post cards right now to exchange with one another. This is my second time to exchange. It is such a pleasure to make the cards but even more pleasant to receive them. During the winter exchange I was the recipient of 10 beautiful little gems. I felt so honored to receive them.

 

Kokopeli  ©Leada Wood 2015

 

Kokopeli is a Native American symbol for fertility and represents the Spirit of music. I used a Gelli print and painted negatively around the little deity.  You see I am finding ways to use my Gelli prints! I collaged Gelli prints onto all my postcards for a starting point. 

 

 

 

 

Dream Big ©Leada Wood 2015


I have more post cards to share with you but my wireless is really slow tonight so I am just posting a trio.  It's getting late... time to relax and rest after a good day in the studio. Thanks for stopping by!


 

 

 

#leadawoodart #mixedmedia #watercolor

Leada  Wood

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More Gelli Prints by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

 

I was honored to do a Demo on Gelli Printing for the Big Spring Art Association this past Tuesday evening. I thought I would share some of my finished prints with you. It is such a fun process and the prints can be used in so many ways. You also can print on various surfaces and obtain excellent results.

 

Of course my studio is usually a wreck during the printing process! When I print it is usually a days work and I have piles of Prints. I then separate them into three piles... a more to go pile, an almost there pile and that's a wrap pile and sometimes one or two find their way into the trash pile. I find adding lots of layers usually makes the most interesting papers

 

I use my hand made stamps for the images or sometimes I paint over the Gelli Print and of course they are always great for collage. Making stamps is another thing that is fun to do. There are all kinds of ways to make stamps but that is another post.

This little elephant was made into a card...waiting for the right person to send it to. I love to get real mail, don't you? Especially cards handmade with love!

 

A little birdie told me to make another card. I sometimes add little embellishments along with the Gellies.

You never know how your Gellies will turn out. This one has a little metallic paint on it as well. I enjoy using bight color combinations. That's the way I roll.

Even when you use similar stamps and colors no two Gellies will ever be the same. That is one of the fascinating things about Gelli Printing...each print is unique and cannot be duplicated exactly.

I love the rich colors and interesting textures you can create. It's so much fun...kind of like making mud pies when I was a kid.

 

Bee kind to one another and have a wonderful, relaxing weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

More Gelli Fun, By Leada Wood, Texas Artist

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This fun little lady is part of a page in my art journal. I wanted to show you some of the things you can do with Gelli Prints. Her dress is a small portion of a page of one of my prints. You could also use prints for collage papers or cards.

This is another Gelli print. Gelli printing is like mono printing without the press. It is not as complicated...but I suppose you could get complicated with the process if you wanted to. That is the fun of it...whatever floats your boat!

Another art journal cover. I have given many of these away as gifts to my art friends through the years. I hope they enjoy having them half as much as I did making them.

This art journal has been to many workshops and is full now.  I used a few pieces of my printed papers and then painted a geisha, collaged her dress and fan and painted the symbols for happiness on it.

I think this is the first art journal I made...it has seen many workshops too. It came about as I used a baby wipe to clean my stamps. I liked it so much I glued it to my journal cover...thus began the process of decorating my journal covers and I have continued over the years. I have a special travel journal that I take on trips and it comes in handy when Boot Man and I reminisce.

These are only a tiny portion of what you can do with Gelli prints. There are no bounds to where your imagination can take you. Thanks for stopping by!

Winter Postcard Swap by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

There is still time to sign up for IHannas postcard swap. You have until November 26th to join in on the fun! I made mine standard postcard size 4x6. I have enjoyed working small so much I am continuing to paint daily Minis.

For these I used my Gelli to make mono prints on all of the cards and used them for the springboard to  contine with the layering. I used watercolor paper and acrylic paints along with stencils, water soluble crayons, glitter pens, colored pens and markers. The sky is the limit!