Artist Trading Cards

Maple Leaf Print ATCs

Canada and Mexico were our topic for cards. I made some but didn't get to the trades. Of course, I hope someone will want them when I do get to the next trade. 

I've begun getting ready for October trades, both of which feature Halloween and Day of the Dead. These two seem to get the most enthusiastic participation and most creative cards each year. Just this evening I was walking the neighborhood taking photos of boles that will become creatures to frighten unsuspecting children. I must admit the photos were so much fun to take, even one conversation with a neighbor working late in her yard. Expect finished cards here beginning next week!

 I wonder just what these two photos may become.

Halloween can be so much fun. I'm not really into the fright of it but do love passing out candy and looking at the children who come to the door. 

I also remember some childhood exploits!

Artist Trading Cards for Fall

Prints of oak leaves cut out and collaged onto an older print
L. pinoak, R. probably burr oak
Phillip Hoyle 2018

My thoughts have turned toward fall. The end of summer and early fall I gather leaves for printing. The days are shortening. In Colorado aspen leaves at high elevations are showing off their gold. Here in town trees are tired of the near drought summer. 

Pinoak print collaged onto another print
Phillip Hoyle 2018

The seasons do change. I find myself thinking of new ideas and having more energy to work since the evenings are cooler. I've been writing and was pleased when I quit re-writing my current projects and put them aside to age. So here I am going crazy with leaf prints in ATCs and other larger prints. I like when I get artistically productive. It's like fall is my spring. 

I've begun more ATCs related to leaves. Some are turning out very nice. I especially like when I use good quality print paper. Then the technique is most satisfying. 

Nothing like a falling leaf for fall.
Phillip Hoyle, 2018

Artist Trading Cards Galore

Leaf prints came about in my effort to clean up my studio.
I couldn't just throw the pressed leaves in the trash. These
prints resulted and many more similar ones, most of which
I traded with other artists. Perhaps I was longing for
spring that we have actually been enjoying since then.

     After a several month's long delinquency I am returning to this art blog. I have no real understanding how I got lost in the cyber world, but I may pretend it was something more sophisticated than plain old being old! 
     Ever since I got back from my Christmas trip to Missouri I have been unable to get into this blog and seemingly too confused to figure it out. My work on another blog helped me see the light yesterday, so here I am. I'll not post everything I've done in the four-month absence, but I have had good art fun! Hope you, too, have been having a good time. 

Sorry for the angle, but these were made at a workshop.

Figures suggested by Bubble Prints. Lots of bubble print U-tube instructions

A set of Trading Cards from the latest workshop and swap. Another
artist tore things out of magazines for me to work into collages.
Great fun challenges.

Take time to do some artwork or to visit a gallery or museum.
Get together with other artists. I do it several times a month.

It's good to be back online with this blog. 

Leaf Prints

Leaf print on monoprint by Phillip Hoyle 2017

Between writing paragraphs and stories I am still finding my way to my basement studio to experiment with printing. I use leaves I pressed last autumn and finally have made quite a few prints. But for me the approach is still experimental and I'm contented with the artistic play. Comparing my prints with those showing up in books in the subject, I am learning, getting the feel of it. I realize I may ruin quite a few leaves before I am satisfied with the basic technique! But that medium is very costly to the leaves. 

Oak leaves last longer for experimenting. So do cottonwood leaves. But the elm leaves are less hardy. The oak leaf on the print shown above is ten inches in length and, to my way of thinking, a beautiful specimen. The largest of the elm leaves below is eight inches long! I found it in our neighbor's yard, the product of a huge American elm tree. I'm enjoying the leaves and the process.

Elm leaf prints on paper by Phillip Hoyle, 2017

Art Wars

Leaf prints on Thai paper. Phillip Hoyle 2017

I haven't felt so artistically challenged for years, and it's my own fault. But I don't play a blame game in my retired life. I had the opportunity to sign up for a writing class, one on the short memoir, one that promised to get at what was hanging me up in my writing. I signed up and am now on the final sprint to get the rough draft done. It's due on Saturday morning. 

The feeling of war comes from trying to balance my need to do visual arts as well as written, to keep up my blog postings as well as write paragraphs, to solve placement on paper as well as craft  well-proportioned paragraphs. I'm not bragging, just explaining why the art prints shown here are in process. My paragraphs are as well. I have to grin and bear it and ask you to do the same. Perhaps in a couple of weeks one of these prints will show up in final form. I hope so. 

Oak leaf print. Phillip Hoyle 2017

Found Objects

Leaf Print ATCs by Phillip Hoyle
Each card 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"

I found some objects, namely leaves and some paper I had saved for the occasion of making Artist Trading Cards to this theme. The paper I saved when we dismantled the ATC booth at Denver County Fair in August. The table covering had marks from watercolor pens, pencils, blotches of paint, notes people had written for fun (?), an odd assortment of designs, scratches, scrapes, and colors that I knew I should save. Then a month later, this topic was chosen for a theme. 

I printed leaves on the paper, then used a very fine pen to clarify some edges and add a few details that didn't want to print. I did even more by saving the leaves I printed and use them as collage details for more cards. It was an enjoyable project and I learned a lot about the techniques and accidents of plant prints I tried to make the most of my accidents. Besides that, I enjoyed our trade last Thursday evening at Jerry Simpson's studio. 

Denver, 2015