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Hot Off the Easel!
Idea Spark-lers
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Hey there!

How are you?  I've had quite the busy week!

I've met with the Traverse City Michael's Store managers and have set the first 6 week schedule of Grumbacher Acrylic classes.
I'm teaching Monday nights from 6:30 to 8:30 and Thursday's from 11AM to 1PM through September. We'll see how that goes and adjust accordingly.
Interested?  Click here to see the sample paintings.

Oh... and happy first Birthday, nephew Liam! Yay you!
Hot Off the Easel!...
bouquet on grass
Bouquet on Grass
6 x 6
acrylic collage

Here's another new collage. I'm working on a lot of these floral collages for my show at Flint Street Gallery in September. (Inside Little Monsters in Lake Orion, MI)

I used a "Food and Drink" magazine for some of the papers... Can you spy the onion ring flowers? :) Read more about this one, HERE.
Idea Spark-lers
Are you in need of some painting ideas to get you going? Well, you've come to the right place!

Using CitraSolve and National Geographics to make very cool paper!

National Geographic Collage Paper

...And here's another gem that I learned from Bob Burridge. Using old National Geographic Magazines and concentrated CitraSolv to make the most amazing collage papers. Summer is the right time to do this...it's a rather stinky and messy process.

So go outside! Take the national Geographic and your bottle of concentrated CitraSolv (you can find this at most health food stores) and some large trash bags or newspapers. When you open the container of CitraSolve, put just a slit in the protective covering on the opening of the new bottle... then you can control how fast the stuff comes out.

Paper SampleNow go through your National Geographic and Rip out the thick paper ads and the inserts, etc. Lay the mag on a flattened trash bag and start sprinkling the CitraSolv onto the pretty pictures... You want it pretty saturated, but not drowning... enough so that when you flip the pages and press down, some of the cleaner will squish out of the edges of the book. Keep flipping through and sprinkling the CitraSolv until you've gone through the whole book. The colorful photos are the ones that will have the 'best' results... but try it anywhere...we're experimenting here!

You've come to the back of the magazine... Press down gently and make sure there's enough of the solution on the pages so it's oozing out the edges... But don't squish all the solvent out...it needs to do it's thing. Wrap the saturated magazine in the trash bag and wait about 20 to 30 minutes.

Unwrap the book and start pulling apart the pages, revealing the most amazing papers. (If the ink isn't dissolved yet...wrap it back up and wait a bit longer)  The solvent 'melts' the NG inks and melds together and when you pull apart the pages, makes an inkblot sort of pattern.

Pull apart and rip out the pages... laying them Paper Samplegently 'best face up' to dry. Sometimes that's the hardest part... deciding which side is better! Depending on the weather of the day... It will take quite a while for the individual pages to dry. I leave them out longer rather than shorter, since they do have quite an aroma until they are completely dried.

Here's more information about this fun (but admittedly stinky) process...

Beam Me Up Scotty
7 x 5
Acrylic on Collage Paper


Beam me Up Scotty




I've used some of the National Geographic paper as a background for this painting. I glue the paper onto heavy watercolor paper and then paint on top of it.








Interested in this painting?  Click Here!


If you think any of your friends might be interested, please feel free to forward this email.

Have a Great Week!
Lauren