HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Only the Angels Could Sound Sweeter

She is 16 x 20 and is a companion to The Sight of Stars. I wish I could get a better photograph. I have this fancy camera and still I don't really get good pictures sometimes. I really need to take a photography class, just so I will at least get the lighting right.

I am also thinking of some New year's resolutions. But I have a hard time sticking to them. Let's see....think of others before myself, read and study my Bible more, try not to think nasty and judmental thoughts. Ok, that should hold me for the first few minutes of 2009!

But thank you, Lord, for your forgiveness, mercy and grace!!!!! :)

More Tulips

Well, hummmm..maybe it's better, maybe it's not---read below the post first---above is the updated inked Tulip. 
Ok, well, so I don't have my Tulip book yet and as Julie said yesterday, they are harder to paint than you would think. Tulips have pedals that are virtually nonexistent here in this painting. I probably could have done that with ink so I will do that and post it later today. When all else fails---INK! They are simple lookin'--hard paintin'--I guess until you know what your're doing. I love Tulips so we will see where the Tulip journey takes me. I want to also do some more acrylic painting of still life in the New Year. Maybe I will take another class at the ______ Gallery here in Jacksonville. I am a glutton for punishment! Nuff said. :)

TULIPS!

Can you believe it---they are not Poppies! They are vey similar though. I bought a second- hand Tulip book and when it comes I will study the Tulip and it's structure; where and how the stem grows and how it opens, then hopefully.... I will be more able to "acurately paint them abstractedly." That's a BIG "hopefully". I still love my Poppies--always. This one is only about 5x8 from my small pad.

REJOICE IN THE LORD!

Circa 2007.

Glory to God In the Highest

MERRY CHRISTMAS--WISHING YOU JOY!!!

Let's see, I think I painted this around 2001.

Macaulay and Bucky

I just thought this was cute. I took it on Thanksgiving. Macaulay was Bucky's first mama until we inherited him. You see, Bucky is quite persnickety when it come to other dogs invading his space so we gladly took him of her hands when she married Marc. Bucky and Marc's dog, Dixie, had issues. But all is well now. More vintage Christmas cards tomorrow.

MAY THE JOY OF THE SEASON BE YOURS

This is the paste paper I did about a week ago. Found a good calligraphic use for it!

FOR UNTO US AND CHILD IS BORN

PRESENTING...JANE LOWRY JONES---my grand-niece--4 years old.

Have a "Fruity" Christmas

My desire is to still create something everyday until Christmas for the blog but I have family coming into town today for a few days(little ones!) as well as our son and various other activities that will surely interfere with my ability to create an art piece a day. So I have decided to try and post some images from Christmases past on my less creative days.

Here is one from several years ago. I love drawing these chunky letterforms I should use them more often. I do hope you enjoy the vintage Christmas images.

Poppies on Paste Paper

These Poppies on paste paper that was in my stash just waiting for something. It is really an interesting piece of paster paper so please do a close up. This is acrylic and I must say I felt like I was out of practice and kept reverting back to watercolor techniques. That's ok if you are using acrylics as watercolor but in this case that was not by plan. I will adhere it to an 11 x 14 Ampersand board and maybe put it into the ReddiArts Show in March.

I'm in the Museum!!! :)

Oh, did I not tell you---my Poppies are now in the British Museum!!!

Just kidding of course. Here is the site where you can put your pieces in the museum too.

My blogger friend Julie had this on her site and I just had to do it. Thank's Julie!!!

Just a Little Piece of Wood

I wanted to try the Golden Absorbent Grounds again (makes any surface a watercolor surface) so I put a couple of coats on this little piece of wood (2.75x 5.50) I got from Michael's. It worked really nicely although the texture from the wood absorbs the colors and makes some slight absorbent runs but nothing earth shattering. So the answer to that would probably be sanding just a bit just before I painted to make a smoother surface. It's really cute. I like it. Maybe I will make some more. Just love those Poppies--as as you see I haven't beaten my Poppy addiction yet. I did paint a few Irises but I am not sure they are blog- worthy yet. I will have to practice up some more.

Hope everyone is having a joyful and blessed season so far!! I love you all and so enjoy reading your comments and looking at your blogs. You are all so talented in your own ways. xoxo

YA GOTTA DRAW!!!

This is from our drawing class. Today I did the one with the sheep (that was a challenge!) and I did the plant and the book last time.

This is what I think about drawing, and for me, it has made all the difference in my art progress: drawing is essential if you want to be a better painter! Not that I am that good at it or anything but if you want to have more successful paintings, do mixed media or even draw the darling little curtains in the Christmas village, you need to have at least some drawing experience. We, in our drawing class, call it-"standing in the fire" because when you are drawing something that is feeling especially difficult there is a strong tendency to not push through and quit because the drawing is too hard--- but you must stick with it and see it through. It's the "staying in the fire that moves you forward." And when you have done that you just might be pleased with what you have drawn---and you don't even smell like smoke!! (Can anyone tell me what THAT great story comes from???)

Anyway, that just my advice for the day for what it's worth.

I hope you all will try to make a Christmas Village with Claudine Hellmuth. I found the tea lights at Walgreens and I just can't tell you how cute it is with the tea lights flickering!! I have all her paints and supplies and they are great.

Claudine Hellmuth Christmas Village

Here is my cut and paste project today from Claudine Hellmuth . It turned out really cute but I can't say that I really enjoyed making it. I have never been a good measurer, cutter or paster. Even as a child. Maybe that is why I am not so good at making books although I love to make them. This is my theory on that, for me at least--- precise measuring must take a switch from the right brain to the left brain---back and forth and I don't do well switching I don't think. I get a headache when I have to measure things while reading instructions (ugh!!!)---and actually my left brain is pretty non-existent anyway! I was bound and determined to make it though. And I need to find the little battery powered tea lights. Then I think it really will be cute. So, for today, my left brain had a go of it!

The background is paste paper I did the other day on cradled 12 x 12 Ampersand panels.

Oh, and by the way, I have been tagged a couple of times and I have not been able to continue the tag but I do SO appreciate the tags from a couple of you wonderful and talented people. I'll try better next time--if there is a next time! :)

Update! I just checked Michelle Brown site and guess what I saw---check it out!!!!

Poppies in the Green Field

This is one of the last lessons in the Michelle Brown watercolor class. I will miss her wonderful accent and her quirky and endearing personality. In these lessons you can tell that nothing is scripted. She just goes for it with her painting examples and all turn out extremely beautiful. And she is a bit unorganized which only adds to the fun.

The background of this one is the Saran wrap technique which gives an interesting effect. It is one of my favorites techniques to do. This painting is 11 x 14. The Poppies are piling up! I have a true Poppy field right here in my studio!

Paste Paper

I guess I am in a gold and crimson mood today with the paste paper. The swirl is a Tim Holtz mask which I think will be fun to have and use. This paper is much brighter in person. It was late in the day so I guess my light wasn't as good but hopefully I will fine a use for these but for now they will go into the huge backgrond stash. It is three different cuts from the same piece. I did do somt other backgrounds but I thought this one was the best.

THE SIGHT OF STARS

This piece is 16 x 20 and she is part of a series that I am starting to gather for my upcoming show at ReddiArts, our arts supply store that has a gallery. I am very excited about doing this because it is great exposure.

She had a very bad hair day so a head band had to be painted. I just couldn't get her hair to work. So when all else fails---put a headband I guess. She is collaged and painted and stamps and other stuff were added. I started her several days ago and finished her up late this afternoon. I painted the sides of the canvas brown.

I have digitally (in Photoshop) put the quote in for layout purposes to see how it will look. I do this alot. After thinking about this quote though, I don't think I will use it because it was by Vincent Van Gogh and I don'tthink he was a particularly religious man. For me, I do know many things that are certain (the whole Bible!) so I have decided to pick another quote. Don't know what it will be yet but the layout should look like this when finished.

Tomorrow I will be doing paste paper with the calligraphy students at my studio. I will blog some of my papers if they turn out. I like to paint faces on the paste paper. It makes the faces much smoother.

Little Baby Boy--Ready for Christmas

Here's our little grandson getting ready for his first Christmas--it will be and warm and snuggly one this year!

THE CLOUD THAT DARKENS

Remember the canvas that I dreamed of?  Well, I decided to put this great quote on it.  It actually looks pretty cool in person. The lettering is a variation of drawn Lombardic Versals 

and I colored it in with a Micron Pen 005 in size the make sure I kept good thicks and thins. It was very fun and relaxing after I had penciled in the letterforms and I really didn't know for sure how it would look until it was inked in. 

BUCKY POSIN' WITH THE POPPIES

Bucky loves the Poppies too! He told me he wanted to pose with the Poppies. (If you look closely you will see his treat right there is front of him with the strict command from me to "leave it"!) I think he jumped the gun and ate about 4 or 5 treats before we got the shot.

This is what I call my "Poppy Minima" series. I really like the one on the canvas with the black sides. It's so much fun when you create something that excites you. (It's the "good high" from the art drug!) Actually this was an experimental canvas that actually worked. It was just a regular gessoed canvas with Golden Absorbent Ground brushed on in two coats which makes any surface into a watercolor surface. It worked pretty well actually. The Aquaboard surface (Ampersand) is similar to this surface. But I actually liked it so I didn't waste my money. I hate wasting money on art stuff. ARGGG!!! Here's one thing that I wasted money on--Golden Garnet Gel. It just looks like dirty gritty sand--I thought it was going to be wonderful Garnet specks on the surface---wrong! Anyway--don't waste your money---but if anyone can tell me how they have successfully used Garnet Gel I would be art-ternally grateful! That's a word I just made up---I make up words sometimes. :)

I want to thank Fannie, another fellow artist blogger, who encouraged me to keep up with the Poppy painting until I have painted every last petal and there is not more in me. So encouraging---- and also there is Lori at Elvie Studio, who is a dear dear art buddy who encourages me almost every day either in person or on one or our wonderful phone marathons! She is a great artist---check her out.

AND--of course all the other frequent encouragers, Tess, Brenda, Magdalene, Sherry, Katy, Julie, Kim, Diane, Jane Farr(couldn't get a link to come up), Carol, Jennifer Kathrine. Oh, I hope I haven't left anyone out. And I hope I got all the hyperlinks right. These are wonderful artists who encourage me frequently and even daily on my blog and I know that I am not good at returning the encouragement like I should---0h tisk tisk me! But I appreciate you all so much and everyone is so very talented and gifted in their art form. oxoxox

The Girl in the Straw Hat

Ok, well, I did some digging and it's better not to put acrylic products over even water soluble oils. My fellow artist blogger friend, Sherry, told me this also. Although the research I did said that it might be ok but it is not time tested. I will probably print this girl and put her up on Etsy. I used molding paste for her hat, a technique I saw from another fellow artist blogger friend, Brenda. The hat looks pretty cool in person. She is 12 x 24. This was good for me to try this large piece so i I know I can do it and hopefully I can make more of these girls in this size.

THINK ON THESE THINGS

All of these girls are drawn in pencil but I like to pump them up in Photoshop and turn them to grayscale.

This is a great Scripture---it is so true! (of course--all of it is true!)

Good News and a Question

PENSIVE GIRL

I still will paint Poppies but I will do some blogging of some of my girls--my other addiction du jour. I like to draw my girls when I am sitting down watching TV. I have lots of girls so I will blog a few of them. I might even paint some of them. I want my girls to have a sweet look and most of them come out that way but sometimes a girl will be very persive and you just can't bring her (draw her) into a different mood. All the girls have different personalities and when I draw the eyes they come alive. I really want to draw girls that are more fanciful and doll-like but for some reason that is harder for me. I am intrigued with Suziblu so if anyone has taken a class from her and how she draws her faces--please let me know what you thought of it. I know that most people seem to love her and I don't want to miss out if it's something really great.

POPPIES AND FRIENDS IN A POT

Oh, I am SO trying to move from my Poppy comfort zone (my daughter even said that I need to move out of that zone just a bit). So my first attempt is to put the Poppies in a pot. The blue flowers I think are suppose to be Hyacinths and I used a mask for them.  This is 11x14 size that I painted on a watercolor block. I love the blocks---then you never have to stretch paper--I DO NOT stretch!  Too lazy and impatient for that.  I also painted some Tulips last night but I am not sure if they are bloggable or not. I thought Tulips would be easy and similar to Poppies and they are, kinda, but I need to practice more of them. Maybe I will blog them tomorrow---I will have to think about that. This painting doesn't have alot of the Michelle Brown techniques in it and it is not splishy splash enough but I'm moving out a bit.

ZACH--Future Lawyer, Musician---Artist

Zach (son extraordinaire) was taking a break from studying for law exams and wanted to paint. Of course I can help with that!  He likes abstracts and I like this very clean minimal look of this painting. It is painted on 16 x 16 Poplar wood and is painted black on the sides. Very sharp. We put a sawtooth hanger on the back and he can hang it when he gets back to school in his house. It was a good diversion from the law.

PRACTICE POPPIES

I have been practicing. I am not sure what happened to the Lavender ones because they are a bit cloudy. I am thinking that the Cobalt Violet wasn't completely transparent. One thing you need to know about working with watercolors this way is that they really need to be transparent. Then the underneath layers will show through. You need to check each color you use over a painted ink or black acrylic strip and see if any watercolor remains over the black strip. This is good to know! Michelle Brown has certain colors that we are working with now which are transparent. She uses Windsor Newton and I use M. Graham so I had to check the M. Graham colors. Most are the same in transparent qualities.

I have this "need" to paint and create stuff. Remember Tom Cruise in "Top Gun"--- the need for speed?--well I have the "need" to create art. (I know---that was a poor comparison). It's like a drug to me---sometimes it's a good high and sometimes it's a not so good high. Not that I know about drugs because I have never taken any. I guess that's why art is my drug of choice--good or---not so good!

Blue Poppies

I am not wild about these Blue Poppies. I am trying to move out of the "Red Poppy box. It's fun to paint the red ones and the backgrounds are really fun. We have learned lifting, negative painting, glazing, texturizing with fingers and other objects, and some other things too. Fun!

Michelle Brown Class Poppies 2

We really do have so much to be thankful for! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! God is good!

Here is another watercolor Poppy picture using all those great techniques for lots of layers. I am loving these backgrounds. Hopefully I can move into another flower but for now, it's POPPIES!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

This is an oldie but a goodie. I probably did this 10 years ago but it was just after I had taken the year long intensive calligraphy class with Reggel Ezell so if you look at the calligraphy--it's not bad. It's actually about 14 x 14 so it is rather large. It's nicer in person because there is 24 carat gold dots all through it. But anyway, I love the Psalm. Tomorrow I will get back to the Poppies. I hope everyone has a blessed day!

Hope you enjoy our little vlog--Zach was at home still asleep!

Michelle Brown Class Poppies

I am working more on the backgrounds. She shows us some really great techniques for backgrounds!  I am loving her class. I will post another one tomorrow with these neat backgrounds for the Poppies.

MAKE A WISH

This is painted on 11x 14 Ampersand Artist Panel for Oil and Acrylics.

I want to fine more of these surfaces. It is a very nice board with 1 1/2 inch sides. Really nice surface for the acrylics. I actually I had on my gloves and put the paint on with my fingers to get texture. Then I just started adding stuff---punchanella, stamps, stencils, more paint. I painted the girl on 140 lb watercolor paper with acrylic and pasted her on. Her dress is collaged with tissue paper. I tried to darken around the edges so she wouldn't look so much like she was collaged on. I think it is ok--you can't really tell unless you really look up close. Then I held my breath and wrote the lettering with white gouache with a nib. It worked great. I will spray it with varnish to adhere everything. I like her freckles.

More Hobby Lobby Poppies 8x8

This panel board is really neat. The wood sides are stained and it has nice hooks already on the back ready to hang. This one was 50% off and very cheap. I couldn't have bought a blank canvas for what I paid for it. I will be on the look out for more of these. You can collage or paint over the image on the front. Actually the girl a couple of days back on Nov 11 was painted on one of these also but I used oils and acrylics for her.

Poppies--White Background

These two pictures are different even though they look the same. I am still playing with Michelle Brown's online class and am constantly amazed with her techniques. Here are two more pictures of my beloved Poppies!

Another Background

It's just a background that I really like taken from techniques from the Paulette Insall Organic Dimensions online class. I like the nice colors and I did hand letter the top in gouache. I don't have a plan for it yet.  I just lettered the top to see how the gouache would do on the acrylic---and it does great. You can't letter gouache (opaque watercolor) over watercolor though. It will spread. Not good for lettering!

A "DREAMED UP" BACKGROUND

Sometimes I dream about art; what I will do the next day, what will I paint or letter. There is a piece of scrapbook paper that I love that I am dying to find out how they gave it the distressed look. So I dreamed about how I would do this and this is what I created from what I dreamed. Sounds crazy, doesn't it?---but I actually dreamed about how to do it. Even in our dreams we can be creative! (...hope you don't think it was a nightmare!) It looks pretty much like the paper. This is on a 9x 12 stretched canvas. I don't know what I will do with it so I will just let it sit for a while until---maybe I dream about what to do with it!

Hobby Lobby Poppies

I bought this canvas at Hobby Lobby because of the checkered border. I collaged and added paint over the existing image and painted the poppies in acrylic. This one is 12 x 12.

She Loves Poppies

This one was very hard to paint. I painted her face in oils and it was such a struggle. I admit I had to smooth her out a bit (ok, a lot) in Photoshop. I do like oils although I sure don't have the hang of it yet. I will try some more portraits in oil ---maybe--- after I unwind from this one. The Poppies are in acrylic as well as her green dress. The background is collaged and she is painted on an 8x10 x2 panel board that I bought from Hobby Lobby on half price and collaged over the image on the front.

Calligraphy Class at the Red Door Studio

This is the first graduating class of the first calligraphy class at the Red Door Studio. Rynda, my art buddy, taught the beginners class and they all did so well! We are so proud of them.

Here are their final project pieces.

ANN HERBERT

BETTY LOU HYATT

CINDY ZEIGLER