my artwork – Josyan McGregor

everyday inspiration, just a thought, my artwork, my design style, my thoughts, stuff from my life

Dream a little dream of… an art studio

April 10, 2017April 10, 2017 Josyan McGregor

One day (soon I hope) I would love to have a my own space to create, paint and hang out (close friends would have an open invitation to share and play with me too). Right now my space is located in my bedroom. It’s nothing fancy but suits my need for now. I have a large bedroom so it’s not that bad but *sigh* I (and always have) longed for my own and “real” studio and yes, with an sink!

In the meantime, get my fill of inspiration and great ideas from Houzz. I have had my account for many years now and love hoarding away images in my Ideabooks. These images make me smile, dream and hope.

Here’s my curated “Studios” Ideabook. If you aren’t already on www.houzz.com, you should be. It’s wonderful.

Studios

Colors I Love, my artwork, my design style, stuff from my life

Gouache & Acrylic (matte and metallics)

March 17, 2017March 17, 2017 Josyan McGregor

Today I decided to experiment with my paints and wanted to see how the high pigment but matte quality of gouache and the equally unique pigments in my metallic paints would play against each other.

I really like the result. I used a high quality archival Touch marker to outline my forms.

I feel as though I may have been channeling Klimt.

IMG_20170317_142205 IMG_20170317_143257 IMG_20170317_143306

my artwork, Portfolio, texture is my obsession

It’s all about texture and layers

January 29, 2017January 29, 2017 Josyan McGregor

An exploration in intuitive painting, texture, collage and various media have led me to this recent piece.

The contrasting textures I achieved in the base layer were created by working with molding paste then adding multiple layers of acrylic paint colours. The handmade paper collage sits well on top of this highly textured background.

The use of marker (black and coloured) as well as white pen allows the flower and vase to rise to the surface. I also love the delicate shake-y illustrative quality of the white outline.

More exploration in this style is the plan. Thanks for reading this.

Crochet, Fibre Art, my artwork, my design style, Portfolio, texture is my obsession

Textured Winter Flower Bandana

January 23, 2017January 23, 2017 Josyan McGregor

My experimentation with this super bulky waffley stitch is a success!

Behold my super cute Winter Flower Bandana!

Best of all, most of my friends who think that they don’t suit hats were super amazed that it looked so great on them too. Happiness overload 🙂

Let me know if this a of interest to you and we can certainly customise it to your taste.

Here’s a picture of me modeling it.

Fibre Art, Handmade with You in Mind, my artwork, online shopping, stuff from my life

Behold my own FB Page & Shop!

January 17, 2017June 21, 2019 Josyan McGregor

Well, I’ve done it! My very own Facebook Page.

After managing other Pages for many years, I finally have one of my very own to keep an eye on.

It’s very new and very empty right now but trust me, over the next few weeks that will change. I intend to give my personal Facebook profile a break from the artsy posts and use this as the centre of my creative pull.

I hope you will join me here @handmadeinmind and see what I am making, crafting and experimenting with. As my Page indicates “Handmade in Mind” is aimed at providing handmade and one of a kind crochet pieces for those who are not interested in wearing what everybody else is wearing and aren’t afraid to make a bold style statement.

Now if you want something quick and already made, you can purchase one of the items from the Hand Made in Mind Shop (more details about that in the next paragraph).

About the Shop! The Shop will mainly focus on my one of kind crochet items – my explorations. There will usually only be one of these items available. Those designs can also serve as the basis of a collaboration with a client too.

As I sharpen my photography skills over the coming weeks, more of my designs will appear in the Shop.

My art pieces will not appear in the Shop but rather will remain as a separate post with the option for more information, purchasing details or for commissions. I’m not married to that decision but as with all things, change and evolution is inevitable.

Thanks in advance and I hope to interact with you and, of course, answer any of your questions here; on my Facebook Page.

Thanks a bunch!

Colors I Love, line art, my artwork, Portfolio

Flowers and Metal

January 13, 2017January 17, 2017 Josyan McGregor

This is a piece I completed this week. I used metallic acrylic paints and I accentuated the colour blocks with ink linework.

I did not use a canvas but rather a sheet from a mixed-media paper block from Papier Canal Papers (a machine-made paper company located in Montreal) which I purchased from DeSerres a few weeks ago.

The unusual format of the paper block was what I was attracted to first and then to its one rough edge. It’s unframed right now but that could change over the next few weeks.

Colors I Love, line art, my artwork, stuff from my life

Leaves & Flowers, mixed media on handmade paper

January 4, 2017January 4, 2017 Josyan McGregor

This is a piece I worked on during the last week of 2016. I used a sheet of paper I had tucked away for over 10 years. It’s truly a one of a kind.

I loved working on this paper and started searching online for more. To my dismay, there nothing really like this anymore.

All is not lost! I have discovered a new interest in this process and plan to continue my mixed media exploration on quality handmade paper.

I am lucky and live in the Montreal area and found Papiers Canal Papers on Saint-Patrick Street in Montreal. They make a variety of machine made paper which is fabricated from fibres left from clothing industry offcuts, white tee-shirts, blue denim and flax straw from farmers.

My next projects will be using this type of paper. More to come!