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Alecia Miller Ethereal Mixed Media Art

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All posts tagged: "mixed media"

Home > Posts Tagged "mixed media"

    This one’s for the bees…

    16th March, 2018 / Art, Gardening, Mixed Media / No Comments

    As most of you know, a lot of my inspiration comes from nature and the garden. That is definitely true of a new small series I am working on related to pollinators.

    I have been fascinated by bees most of my life, despite have an allergic reaction to stings as a kid. I still remember one day when I was playing down by the creek behind my dad’s house and a huge bumblebee landed on my neck. This was when I was allergic and I pretty much froze in fear. As I sat there with this guy wandering around on my neck, it started to tickle. His little feet just pattering away and his fuzzy body just meandering around. I calmed down and just sat by the creek letting this bee walk all over and felt like we became friends. I’m sure in my child’s mind there was some story running around about the magical girl who could talk to bees, or some such thing.

    Skip to today, and our growing problem with the declining bee population. We have a Korean Bee tree in our back yard that has seen better days and will need to be replaced soon. I am hoping to get one more summer out of it, but those pesky lantern flies love it. It blooms at the end of the summer, giving the bees one last source for stocking up for the colder months. And boy do they! When you stand under the tree while it is in bloom, it sounds like you are next to a highway with all of the bees buzzing around!

      

    We also let our garlic chives go to full bloom at the end of the season, so we get a swarm of bees there as well. I think one day last fall I counted at least 10 different species of bees and pollinators hitting up the chive blossoms. And that has led me to my current small series of paintings for pollinators.

    My collage work for the early layers is pulled from an apartment gardening book from the early 70s; beautiful yellowed paper with a grainy, pulpy feel to it. 

    I have started building up the background layers, using light, earthy tones and pulling in some honeycomb. This piece will become my County Collector piece for the Chester County Studio Tour coming up on May 19th and 20th. As I continue to build up layers and work on the foreground details, the garlic chive blossoms with begin to take center stage. 

    I’ll be sharing the finished piece soon and will include it and others from the series in my April Newsletter. Be sure to sign up below to stay in the loop and get more details about the studio tour as we get closer to the event.

    StencilClub Voices for January

    1st February, 2018 / Art Journaling, Creativity, Mixed Media / No Comments

    As many of you know I use stencils in creating the layered backgrounds for my art work. I also use them quite a bit in my art journals and when I am teaching.

    While I make a lot of stencils on my own, StencilGirl is one of those sources for wonderful pre-made stencils that I just love! I am a member of their stencil club, which means I get a new pack of stencils from them every month. For January and February this year, I am a member of their StencilClub Voices team, which means I received the stencils early and got to play around with them and make sample projects before any one else. So exciting to get that sneak peak!

    January’s set was ‘Under Lock and Key’, designed by June Pfaff Daley.

    My first project was a page for my art journal. I have always loved keys and the idea of locking secrets away safely or finding the key that unlock some great treasure. For the journal page, I chose to go with this theme, and thought the treasure we need most right now is joy and happiness and keeping a bright attitude.
    aleciamiller.com
     
    They key tags were inspired by old fashioned hotel room keys with the big tassels that seem to suggest they are more important than just a simple key, so a bit of bling and sparkle was needed for these.
     
    You can check out the other projects from the Voices team on this blog post from StencilGirl Talk.
     
    I’ll be posting my projects for February soon, Make sure you are signed up for my newsletter below if you don’t want to miss it!

    Art Imitates Gardening

    22nd August, 2017 / Art, Creativity, Gardening, Zentangle / No Comments

    One of the questions artists frequently get asked is ‘where do you get your ideas?’ Inspiration can come from many, many sources. Things that we see, experiences that we go through, thoughts we remember at odd moments. Everything that has happened to us in our lives influence what we create and put back into the world.

    The painting I am sharing today has some pretty straight forward origins. In my Zentangle practice, I will switch back and forth between working on Zentangle tiles and working in my sketchbooks and journals. Some of the drawings are just for the meditative practice, and some call out to me to be turned into something else. This quick drawing in my sketchbook was one of the later.

    My mornings in the summer normally start with a quick trip out to the garden to say good morning to the bees and check for any new vegies that are ready to be harvested. The blooms always draw me in, this pumpkin blossom being no exception.

    I had a few new boards prepped for new paintings with some background colors blocked in. I had already been influenced by these trips to the garden and had a background in progress with shades of green and orange. With the 2 images above in mind “Abundance”, the final painting, started to emerge.

    The mandala of ‘Abundance’ captures the energy and potential of new growth, while the colors fading into the background reflect the peacefulness and serenity I feel sitting in the garden each morning, listening to the bees as they make their rounds.

     

    Coleman Artist Studios Open House

    1st November, 2016 / Art, Zentangle / No Comments

    Make sure you save some time on your schedule to come visit the studio on November 19th or 20th. With 12 artists onsite and welcoming you into their studios, you are sure to find something that intrigues you.

    artshowflyerfall2016

    Life Book 2016

    13th January, 2016 / Creativity / 2 Comments

    This year I have joined Life Book, which is an online art journaling course and community run by Tamara Laporte. If you have any interest in art journaling, I highly recommend it! Tamara has a great energy about her and mixes in self exploration with the art making process.

    Here is the first page of my book, from the first warm up lesson in the course.

    mixed media art journal page

    mixed media art journal page

    Are you doing anything new this year? Any online classes you’d like to recommend?

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Happy Earth Day!⁠ ⁠ 'Downstream' is a piece I Happy Earth Day!⁠
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'Downstream' is a piece I made a few years back, but feels right for sharing today. I started this piece after a walk by the little stream in the park behind our house. I just sat there, watching the teeny tiny fish darting and the leaves and debris floating on by. Every now and then, there would be a weird rainbow shimmer on the surface - some oil or solvent that had made its way into the water system. While the colors were beautiful, they also brought me back from the reverie of the water. They reminded me of the impact we have on the world around us, even just the unnoticed drips of oil from our cars as we drive along. Everything floats downstream.⁠
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#earthday #water #downstream #mixedmedia #mixedmediaart #mandala #aleciamillerart #chestercountyartist
Just added these little babies as a bonus to my Fl Just added these little babies as a bonus to my Flowers for Mother's Day sale over on my site. ⁠⁠
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We've been getting the garden ready and our seeds are all sprouting and growing - so inspiring! So I created this micro-mini buds collection to share with you. These are all just 3" and ready to bloom from the tiniest spaces.⁠⁠
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You can check out the full collection via the link in my bio. (Free shipping through April 18th)⁠⁠
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#springbuds #newgrowth #mothersday #flowersformom #seedstarting #aleciamillerart #mixedmedia #blueandgreen #tinyart⁠⁠
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The catalogs are here! One month to go til the Che The catalogs are here! One month to go til the Chester County Studio Tour!⁠⁠
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May 15th and 16th I'll be opening up my studio (along with 58 other studios in Chester County) for you to come visit. ⁠⁠
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We've got 5 studios open under one roof at stop #1 in Spring City, with 2 additional guests joining our locals. You can check them out here:⁠⁠
@erika_stearly ⁠⁠
@carol.angstadt ⁠⁠
@taylor.bielecki⁠⁠
@gojoart⁠⁠
@reidannemitchell⁠⁠
@kimhoechst⁠⁠
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And if you want to see me at work, be sure to drop by on Sunday when I'll be demoing my mixed media process.⁠⁠
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#chestercountystudiotour #openstudio #aleciamillerart #artiststudio #studiovisit #engagewiththearts
Man, these two took me on quite a journey.⁠ ⁠ Man, these two took me on quite a journey.⁠
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I mostly refer to the rabbits I paint as my bunnies, but when sharing this with one of my co-workers during a zoom call, she said 'Those aren't bunnies, those are Hares!' I guess while I see them all as bunnies, I forget that bunnies have this connotation of these timid, cute fluffy little things, which is not really how I see rabbits at all.⁠
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They are alert and fast and strong. If you've never had a pet rabbit, let me tell you when they kick, they KICK!⁠
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So these 2 started in my head as a mother and child, then morphed into a mated pair, then shifted to a couple of bucks, but always they were on the look out, keeping watch over each other, showing love through their strength.⁠
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Winter's Watch⁠
16"x20" on wood panel⁠
Now available⁠
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#rabbits #bunny #mixedmedia #newwork #aleciamillerart #springcolors #rabbitsofinstagram
If only it were actually this quick!⁠⁠ Here yo If only it were actually this quick!⁠⁠
Here you can see the process of some quick bunnies on paper. No collage or writing on these, but an intuitive approach after choosing a limited palette.⁠⁠
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I will often do this type of grouping to play with new color combinations or just to loosen up after a period of non-creative time.⁠⁠
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#timelapsepainting #fastbunnies #springbunnies #acrylicpainting #aleciamillerart #process #behindthescenes #inthestudio #springgreen⁠⁠
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Guess whose birthday it is today... That's right - Guess whose birthday it is today... That's right - its Rosie!⁠
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Happy Birthday to our own little April fool! ⁠
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Yes, this is one of her favorite spots to sit. Top of the stairs so she can see out the front door and keep tabs on the neighborhood. We don't call her Nosey Rosie for nuthin'!⁠
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#aprilfools #happybirthday #dogsofinstagram #noseyrosie
From completed background layer, to sketch, to fin From completed background layer, to sketch, to final painting.⁠⁠
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That sketch is where I really start to get excited about the piece - the full vision starts to materialize. I sketch with more water soluable media - stabilo pencils and neo-color crayons with a quick water wash. Just like the lettering, these will blend and mix with the paint as I finish out the detail work, keeping things loose and fresh.⁠⁠
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"As The Moon Rose" is my County Collector piece for this year's Chester County Studio Tour. Available May 15th at 10am. (more details on that to come later)⁠⁠
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#mixedmedia #workinprogress #moon #rabbits #aleciamillerart #chestercountyartist #chestercountystudiotour #countycollector #stabilo #neocolor #carand'arche
One last studio shot for you before I wrap up and One last studio shot for you before I wrap up and head out into this beautiful weather.

Part of shifting my studio space means downsizing and finding new homes for some of the studio furniture. These shelves are definitely not part of that! 
They are coming with me as a way to keep a bit of Spring City Mills in my studio space. When I looked at moving in here, they were still in the renovation process. These were the old stairs they were pulling out of the building. I asked them to save the piece for me, gave it a quick whitewash, and it became the perfect little display for small work.

Can’t leave that behind.

#repurposed #reminiscing #keepsakes #studiostories
These guys are all getting framed today and will t These guys are all getting framed today and will then be making their official debut in May at the Chester County Studio Tour. That will be my last big event in this studio space, I do hope you’ll come out!

This is my ‘when the rabbits would run’ series. All of these have free form prose written in the moon that always begins with “as the moon rose and as the moon set, that is when the rabbits would run...”

#rabbits #moonrise #moonset #twilight #mixedmedia #aleciamillerart #springbunnies
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