Toddler art takeover

The best way to know my kiddos are feeling better is when the oldest asks, " Mom, can we make acrylic skins?" For those of you who have never made them, Jane Davies does a great tutorial here! 

I toyed with the idea of working on the dining table, but I kinda like the idea of the kids creating in my studio. While it is really easy to fit one of them in there, but it can get kinda tricky with all three. I had two blank canvases that I adhered pieces of wax paper to (wax paper was the substrate for the skins. Note: see update at end of post before trying this yourself!) using artist tape and a third to a basic drawing board. The kids picked green and blue for their first colors, and then I let them go at it!!

A good 20-30 minutes of work time is usually all they need! I've found that limiting their color palette greatly increases the kids happiness with the final product!

I'm planning on doing some live Periscope video tutorials this weekend talking about ways to make art with your kids. My handle is @rachelloewens if you want to join in on the conversation!!

Urgent update!! Do NOT use wax paper for a substrate when making a skin. They won't come off!! Agh!! I haven't told my daughter this devastating news because I am pretty sure there will be tears. Think I will go back to using sheet protectors or my gelli plate because they are a safe bet. Much apologies to anyone who tried this with the wax paper!!

In the kitchen: comfort food for crummy colds

The Lowens Haus got hit with a round of colds this week. The drippy nose, constant cough sometimes accompanied by a fever, up several times during the night kind of colds. Bleh. 

I'm sure it won't come as a big shock that I haven't been painting much. I just don't work very well when I'm sleep deprived. There would have been a time where seeing my unfinished work just sitting there would have left me restless, but I've started to enjoy just going into my studio to look at my work, the tubes of paint lying where I left them last and my houseplants bathed in nice northern light.

The weather is just cool enough that a bowl of warm soup still sounds like the best thing after a day of using copious amounts of hand sanitizer.  For this meal I made 

Curried Lentil Soup by the Nourished Kitchen (skip the pre-soak and cook lentils in soup)

Balsamic Maple Roasted Brussels Sprouts (hold the bacon to make this meal vegan)

with roasted craisins and sunflower seeds to top it off.

I had originally planned on recording on Periscope for my first time on Saturday but think that will be just too much for me. Fingers crossed that everyone gets better this weekend!!

If you want to go ahead and follow me in anticipation of my fist broadcast my handle is @rachelloewens. 

Hope you all have a great weekend!

In my studio: ink experiments

Last Friday night I was hanging out with my husband when an idea hit me. What would happen if I used a spray bottle on an ink drawing? 

The black ink I draw with would do absolutely nothing because it becomes permanent so quickly, but I had no clue what would happen with my new blue-green ink. 

Well, the result (I thought) was kind of amazing. The amount of bleed was definitely impacted by how close the water bottle was to the paper and the angle that I held the sketchbook. Having watercolor pencils nearby, I added some washes of blue to create depth. 

The next morning I taped down some paper that I thought was watercolor paper (but now am pretty sure isn't) and played around with washes, drips and spraying. The result was nice but different from what I achieved on the watercolor paper. 

This time around I made sure to use the same sketchbook paper from the first time. I had my camera set up to record and take close ups afterwards so you could get a better idea of what I was up to. 

Kinda cool, right? Now I should warn you that I have not made any type of multi-media video since like the fourth grade. Seriously. Fourth grade. I'm not sure which is more shocking, that I was able to figure out how to use an app to add text to my video or that my kids were quiet while I shot it! 

Stay tuned to see where these experiments lead, or if I ever attempt to record again! :-)

In my studio: ten minutes at a time

As a wife and momma, I sometimes long for extended times to spend working in my studio. As Herman Melville wrote in a letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne, " I am so pulled hither and thither by circumstances. The calm, the coolness, the silent grass-growing mood in which a man ought always compose, --that, I fear, can seldom be mine."

This notion that I had to have at least three hours to work if I was going really make art was all fine and dandy when I was young and had fewer responsibilities. Now, that just isn't going to cut it. I would never make anything if that was still a requirement for art making.

Ten to twenty minute spurts are how I seem to best operate now. Washing machine cycle is almost over... Run!! I can glue down those collage pieces before it is finished! 

The kids are about to wake from their naps. Can I get those canvases primed in time? Yes!

Sketching while simmering soup for dinner? Of course!!

The couple of pieces I am currently working on have been made in short increments of time. 

(Still in the beginning phase)

Here's to making it work while still getting on with life's work!!

Surviving #snomahog

Snomahog? Yes, snomahog! The Mayor of Omaha accidentally dubbed our most recent blizzard after some sort of snow/ city in Nebraska/ porcine creature. Really. I'm not clever enough to make this sort of thing up!

Anyway, my kiddos informed me last week that they were done with snow. All being to young for school, the prospect of a snow day held little appeal. That is until I mentioned that Daddy would stay home all day, that they could stay in their jammies and could pick out new art supplies at Dick Blick to keep them busy during our confinement. Instant attitude improvement!

Now while my kiddos were super pumped about their creative enterprises, I was not so excited. You may recall that I am working on this massive garter stitch blanket and should, therefore, be thrilled at the prospect of being snowed in with knitting to be done. However, I accidentally spilled hot sugar (like 300 F hot sugar) down my hand. I'm not really in any pain, but the bandages make knitting super awkward! 

I am still able to draw so I've been making some patterns on tissue paper for future collages and been playing around  with two-tone pen and ink designs in my sketchbook, too. 

Hope all of you that were snowed in, too had as much fun as we did!!