"PEACEFUL LANDSCAPE"

This is an oil painting I did today from Tom Brown's workbook. He is a great painter and I tried very hard to follow all of his instructions. Oils are not easy for me. I don't have the technique down because the under layers would squish through and make mud----arggggg---mud!!!!  But I will not give up.  Maybe I like acrylic better but I will give oils a good try.

 

"SUNFLOWERS"

This is the acrylic painting from my second series of acrylic painting classes. I don't think I should put in the first painting. I do think I have improved but I had trouble mixing the right colors. I need lots of practice on that. This was fun but hard. It's very hard to paint still life. But I will keep painting. Calligraphy is my passion but I need to expand a bit. We will see where this goes.

"CREATIVE WORKS"

Ok, well, this first one looks better in person. I am trying to just write---no lining the page, no figuring anything out just writing intuitively. That is hard for me but I have to do it to free myself from the "box" I tend to stay in. I am also trying to convince myself that I am creative and I CAN CREATE ART!

The second one looks better

here than in person and the third one just looks ok either place. On the third one I used hand cut square stamps.

I finished my acrylic painting class today. Maybe I will post my final painting----maybe---it's not that good---but maybe it will look better on the web than in person. 

"THE PURPOSE OF ART"

This is a little mini mono print. It is about 3 "x3"

I had two other pictures I planned to put in today at the studoi but I forgot and now I am no0t at that computer. I will do it tomorrow.

"THE LORD BLESS YOU"

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY

The layout and the lettering on this was borrowed from the layout of Suzanne Moore's beautiful piece in the St. John's Bible. I did the lettering and the background of course---and I love these caps. I need to practice using these letterforms in more pieces.
For the background I layed down inks and placed Saran Wrap on the wet ink and let it dry. This technique makes great backgrounds. Then I put the letters on the piece in PhotoShop. I had previously scanned my lettering. I use this combininb technique quite a lot.

"BELIEVE YOU ARE CREATIVE"

Did this today too. I wrote the quote. 

It says,

"Believe you are creative! You can create with no fear because you can create from within, reflecting the Divine Nature given to you from the God of Heaven"

"SENDING LIGHT"

I thought I had already posted this but I didn't see it so here it is again.

"EPIGNOSIS"

I find that I don't get an opportunity to paint (or post) everyday but I am trying!

This is a very large piece I did for our son, Zach. It is about 36'' by 48". It's the largest canvas I have ever done. It took about 4 hours and it started out bad but was salvaged in the end. It says "Epignosis" which is a Greek Biblical term for full knowledge or "super" knowledge. (Yes, God wants us to have super knowledge of His Word!

The lettering doesn't show up very well in the photograph and this

painting looks much better in real life. It is my attempt to do an abstract ---something more fitting for a 25 year old law student's living quarters than watercolor flowers.

"LONELY PEAR"

He does look rather lonely doesn't he? He is watercolor on Canson paper. I love pears but they are actually hard to paint. 

"JOY AND TORMENT"

This actually is very true for me. I am off to my acrylics class and I feel like sometimes the color works and sometimes it doesn't---joy and torment for sure. I am striving to learn to paint with acrylics then with oils. This is watercolor.

"FLOWERS IN A VASE"

This is a watercolor that I did by watching a YouTube clip of the artist. I fell in love with the flowers and worked as she worked. I painted many of them. I also bought her DVD.

"THREE POTS"

These pots are painted on canvas with watercolor. Canvas really doesn't like watercolor at all but it actually turned out ok. The cool background really wasn't suppose to look like this but since the watercolor wouldn't stick to the canvas--it did this. Pretty cool!

Here are three pots in watered down acrylics. I love painting pots with a watercolor effect. I have pots everywhere but I must move on. I guess they are easy to paint. This is an 8 x 10.

Actually the background was to be solid blue but the watercolor effect puddled up on the canvas so I just left it. It left a neat watery effect.

"MR. PEPPER"

Hello, Mr. Green Pepper. You were rather difficult to paint but you turned out ok. This is acrylic on canvas.

This is one of my first paintings with acrylic. I put the pepper on my table and painted. I got a ways to go but he's not to. I  could work on the shadow a bit though. Shadows and values are hard for me---but I'm learning.

"THE HOUSE ACROSS THE STREET"

I just felt like painting the house across the street. This is acrylic on canvas. I guess I should go over there and give it to her as a gift. Wonder if she will like it?

SUN SPLASH!

This is a mono print that I did in Charleston, SC, several years ago. Although it is not a recent creation, I think it is one of my favorites. I will add a few of my favorites before I start with a creation a day. Sometimes I might be successful in every day creating---and sometimes not. That's the nature of creating--sometimes the muse comes---and sometimes not.

Note.: I may speak of "the muse" but I am really only referring to that creative inspiration that sometimes comes---or not. I don't really believe in muses. :)

THE CROSS

This piece was done with a credit card and acrylic. It didn't start out as a cross but it just happened. Just as the image below, this image is also a poster in Christian book stores around the country.

This piece, just like the others posted today were not actually done today---as I plan to do (hopefully) with this blog. I just wanted to post a few of my favorites. I will post a few more of my favorites then I will start to try attempting an art piece a day.

I WILL SING TO THE LORD

Here is another one of my favorites. It is in Christian bookstores around the country with a company called Universal Designs.

I love this fun kind of lettering. I learned it from Suzy Ratto herself. She has a great little instruction book showing how to do this. It is called Layered Brush Lettering and it is done with "Zig" marker. Such fun! I also have taught this type of lettering in workshops. Lots of scrapbookers like to take this class---although I haven't done one in a while.