My New Friend, Magdalene

I have a wonderful new friend. Please read the post below from September 25, and tomorrow I will post pictures because we got to meet today. Magdalene now lives just outside of Jacksonville! Amazing--God is awesome.
http://marthalever.blogspot.com/2008/09/great-story.html

Here are the pictures..

Make sure you click on the picture for a close up.

Here, in Magdalene's day timer, is where my "Trust" card has been all these years. Not a coincidence---for some reason God wanted us to be friends. I believe it!

Magdalene's beautiful art!

Here we are standing on the front porch of my studio. Magdalene is holding the card.

Poppies---AGAIN...Michelle Brown Online class

This Poppy above has a beeswax coating overlay. It really gives it a neat effect. It deepens the colors and makes it look almost like an oil painting. The one below does not have the coating.

Thursday Stuff

I just put the beeswax over my girl and the charcoal pencil that I used smeared---yikes!  I almost ruined her face because the charcoal pencil I used to outline colored the beeswax and well, you can imagine. It was fairly scrape-able though. Lori, I am still the queen of scrape! (Little calligraphic inside joke there)  So---learn something new every day. But the area where I had the birds looks really  great because I had not used the pencil there. Next time I won't use the pencil, although it gives a great smudged outline--- but I didn't want it smudged that much. Maybe I can fix it with workable fixative first. I'll have to play with it and see. The beeswax deepens and makes the colors richer. It's fun---and it's aroma therapy.  Art therapy + aroma therapy= HEAVEN!

Scroll down to see the girl---before I smudged her face!

...a little birdie told me...

I might put a layer of beeswax coating over her---haven't decided yet.  

Painted Her Hair!

The little easel is by Daler Rowney and you can slant it is at different angles. It is a great little thing. I have one more lesson to go on my Paulette Insall Portrait Online class and I have really enjoyed it. I am also doing an online with Michelle Brown. Her watercolors are great so I am hoping I can loosen up and do more expressive painting like she does. I will post some of my progress.

Don't forget to scroll down and see my Zigg marker Scripture. It really doesn't show that well in the picture so do a close up and you can see all the shading. It was fun. Love those *ZIGGS.

ZIGG MARKER--- GOOD SCRIPTURE

I love Zig markers ---and I love this Scripture. It is so true....

Tuesday's Favorite Things

Well, it finally uploaded so here are the favorite things for today. I do wish I could choose the freeze shot--it's always quite unflattering...

Gwen Weaver Workshop

This is Italic Pointed pen that I did in the Gwen Weaver workshop.

This is the bent nib lettering I did on Canson paper with White Luma

Rynda, Lori, Gwen and me

Me drooling over the letterforms.

Gwen and me

ROSES

I started painting these Roses in Ted Head's watercolor class last weekend and finished it up at my studio this week. I thought that these Roses were hard to paint but if you break it down and go petal by petal then it gets easier. I usually paint a bit more abstract but it's good to paint as close to the subject as possible sometimes. It is 11x 14 size.

Favorite things for today

Well, I got it to work!  It was having trouble uploading at first. It takes a long time to upload. But anyway maybe I will do a "Favorite Things" segment or "What I'm Working on Now'" segment sometimes---or "Whatever Segment".

Here is Lori's blog and Etsy shop. She creates fabulous stuff. We are good buddies.

I will probably post one more thing tomorrow then I'm off to Orlando to hone my calligraphy skills. I need to do more of that.  It is a dying art and we don't want the computer to kill it completely off although it is doing a good job. (I like the computer though) There's room in this world for both.

LISTEN TO THE WHISPER OF THE SPIRIT

This girl is painted on paste paper with my original calligraphy. It is backed on paintable card board backing then glued to a Windsor and Newton canvas panel. You can't really see it but it does have some dimension.  She is 1o x 10 size. Her face was painted with Shiva oil sticks. Maybe I will put her on Etsy. I think she is differentfrom other "faces" on Etsy since it does have my original calligraphy. Other "faces" on Etsy do not have the lettering. Maybe that will be my niche. Hope no one will think I copied them because I didn't.

HERE I AM!

This is a trial run. I had to call Apple Care to find out how to do this. So here I am! 

QUEEN ESTHER

We just finished the book of Ester in church today and as usual, I was doodling in my Bible. I listen much better that way. This is Queen Esther just before she went into the King Ahasuerus' presence to ask him to have mercy on her people, the Jews. This was very risky to come into his presence uninvited. She could have easily been killed. This is what my mind's eye sees that she might have looked like just before she entered the king's palace. She must have been very beautiful---and brave because she said, "...and if I perish, I perish." And as the story goes---she lived-- and her people were saved.

LOOK AT MY "LULETTE" !!!

Oh my goodness, just how precious is this? It's my studio with Bucky out front! I commissioned Jenn at noodleandlou studio on Etsy to make this for me. Please go to her shop and see the darling things she paints and she creates these precious "Lulettes". If you can, leave her a comment on her blog that you saw this Lulette she made for me. She is a sweet person and I really enjoyed working with her. She lives in Naperville, IL, but the funny thing is---she grew up just two blocks from this studio. She probably walked past it as a little girl! Small world for sure! This is a little treasure and it will have a very special spot at The Red Door Studio!

BACK TO BASICS--Drawing class today at my studio

It's good for me to always get back to basics and just draw. It has been the thing that has given me to confidence to draw other things---like my portraits. Stephanie is such a good teacher and we have a good time at my studio all sitting around quietly drawing our still life and listening to our quiet music. It is relaxing--although putting that first mark on a clean white sheet of paper still brings some trepidation. But as I have read in different articles, most artists have a hard time staring down the blank white sheet of paper. It's amazing how most of the time the muse kicks in and it starts to flow.  This drawing is called "Tea Time."

COOL ARTSY KEDS!

How cool is this?!  They are Keds that I created in Zazzle from my art.

I love Keds and wear them all the time so these will be fun to wear. Only one problem, they were quite pricey.  But art work can be pricy at times, right? Anyway, I couldn't resist.

THREE SUNFLOWERS

I moved out of my comfort "Poppy Zone" tonight and painted some watercolor sunflowers. I used some black sumi waterproof ink to lightly outline the shapes. I painted it on 300lb arches and it wasn't even a scrap. I am getting very brave. I went through all my papers today at my studio and I convinced myself that I have plenty of paper--no need to use scraps. So the moto for today is...just get you paper out and go for it. It's just paper. (How many times have we heard that??)

POPPY TIME--- AGAIN

HI Y'all--

it is nice to get back to my watercolors---and i promise, i just painted this. i know it looks like the others but i will try and do something about that. maybe i will try another color for the poppy. i think i will try an orange one with more browns in the background and it will look like fall. i might do that tomorrow. i painted this in my home studio. it's actually a closet--- it's a big closet but i can't do much in it but watercolor and calligraphy. i am glad i have my red door studio. i grew up in GA and when my mother passed away i bought the house i grew up in from the estate. seven years later it was just too hard to keep up being 6 hours away so about a year ago i sold it to my nephew. it is a beautiful georigan brick house and he is fixing it all up and a new generation will live in it. very bittersweet for sure. all that being said--(too much information--i know)--i bought this 1922 bungalow for my studio. it's just around the corner from me and it is a dream come true. i love going there every day. bucky loves it too---he is on the porch in the picture. so , there a bit of history behind me and the red door art studio. my good friend, rynda is teaching a beginning callligraphy class there now. we really have fun. we have a great little art community here.

SHE LISTENS

As you can see the first picture is the  "in process" and the second is the finished piece. She is painted on paste paper. In the first image you can see the paste paper beneath her hair with was very nice---but she needed hair so I had to cover that up. I did the lettering in gouache.  The image is 12 x 12. The quote is mine.

ANGEL STRANGER

 I like better this one much better than the last post. Her face is Shiva oils which really makes a nice smooth face. That works better for me than acrylics although I am anxious to see how Paulette Insall does hers on my online class with her today. Hers are wonderful and she is such a sweet person. If you have any desire to learn to paint faces I highly recommend her online faces class. 

I don't know what I will do with these faces. I will just keep painting them and see where it goes. I have had the hankering to paint some more Poppies. I am having Poppy withdrawal.

TWO FRIENDS

I just got finished painting this. I have been working on it of and on all day. I am still here at my studio at 10:20 pm but my husband is here watching the Gators--Go Gators!!  Our son is in laws school at UF and my husband went to law school there also. SO, that being said, that's why I am still here working. I thought I would go ahead and post it since I won't get to post tomorrow.

Their faces were difficult to paint. I think it was because there were two of them and I tried to get them to look at each other---well---close enough.  I also had to sweep over the whole thing with a light wash so their faces wouldn't stand out so much. They looked like a cartoon Disney character.  They still do kinda---I don't want that. HMMMM...maybe I will do an encaustic beeswax overlay next time for that really weathered look. I act like I know how to do that.

 

FACES HOMEWORK--CON'T

Here are two friends---with great stylish hair--being blown in the autumn wind. I have painted a background and I might paint these two friends on the background today. I will post it if I do. I really don't know where these paintings will go. I am not sure if I can put them up for sale because they are similar to Paulette Insall's. I love hers but I don't want to infringe upon her look. Mine would be different but conceptually the same. I am hoping I can come up with a new concept for these faces that is just my own. There are SO many of these little portrait faces all over Etsy. Actually, they are pretty good sellers. I don't know yet. I will just keep painting them for now and see what happens. Paulette Insalls are great. I am thinking that I will letter directly on the canvas or transfer more of my calligraphy in the background. Then it would be different somewhat. I enjoy painting them so I guess it's about the journey and not the journey's end.

PRACTICE DAY

Ok, just to show you that I do practice my lettering. It has been a hard practice day--nibs won't work, gouache blobing, letterforms not up to par.  What's the answer?---more practice!  That's the only way. Even after studying and practicing the "art" of calligraphy for 28 years, it still isn't easy sometimes and is still quite frustrating at times. There are several different styles that I use for my "go to" letters and even the "go to's" weren't working so well. Then I picked up my Parallel Pen and ahhhhhhh....I love that pen. I don't use it that much because I feel like I am cheating. Calligraphers have to suffer!!!!!

 So--I'm off to practice more.

Also, scroll down and see my homework portraits.

HOMEWORK FOR "ALL ABOUT FACES" CLASS

I have completed lesson one of Paulette Insall's online faces class. I needed to do some homework because the class members post their work on Flickr. Here are my two faces so far. I love drawing faces. It's really amazing how no two faces turn out alike although I am using the same formula. It's fun.

PENSIVE WIND

This piece is painted on a piece of paste paper that I messed up. You never know how semingly gone wrong paste paper can relive. The face is Shiva oils (which I love and I love the smell) and I had a bit a trouble drawing the face. If you mess up the features you can not erase. This is a bad thing---but I really like the smoothness of the oil sticks. I need to figure out a way. I guess I could look at Kelly Rae's book again but I think I won't. I will figure it out myself this time. There is certainly a solution. I love drawing these faces and I need to keep drawing until I feel like I have a style and a look of my own. Then I will post them of Etsy--maybe.

Listen to the WIND

This is painted on 8x8 canvas board. I did not use Kelly Rae's book because I am trying to move away from that look. Her book is, "Taking Flight." She has some very good techniques in her book but I need to go on and find my own way now. I didn't use any papers at all for the background. I used just acrylic paint and painted patterns in different colors and kept layering and building up colors and textures. It was really very colorful and nice. I should have taken a picture of it before I painted over it with the angel. In the background you will see a little of my stamp from my letterforms that I had made. It is the Scripture in Hebrews about angels. I love that Scripture and will probably do more angels with that theme. It says. "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers but thereby some have entertained angels unawares." I also like the Wind to be blowing. I capitalize Wind because in all of these portraits, the Wind has Biblical significance for me in each piece. There is Scripture all in the background of these pieces.

I also found a way with the overlay brush to make the gold in the original piece glow. Check it out. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCv_h8hmpDqKftGPoul-H0p9PE_IXDGpplg_QsoeeF06i7GEEHYV8Kwx8pWTg5o8GWks2-goxIzYFpdsP0VYjrBF1OOTXz0cwdSu0ndGAaUfvuHQYGn70aOGN9evs-aLj3GrHe7eHJnmk/s1600-h/entertainangels.jpg

CANVAS PAINTING FROM ONLINE CLASS WITH PAULETTE INSALL

This is the final painting for the online class I have been doing with Paulette Insall. I am now doing her "Painting Faces" class. I enjoy these online lessons with her. I love to learn about how to do various backgrounds and I will hopefully be able to incorporate all of this into some new pieces.

ANGELS UNAWARES

I started this painting on Thursday of last week and it;s actually painted on cardboard. But with gesso, you can just about paint on anything and it will be ok. This is a collaged background with stamps and acrylic paint. Many of the stamped images in the background are a new stamp that I have just had made of my calligraphy. You can see it faintly in her wings and all around. The Scripture is from Hebrews but it is small at the top right and hard to read. It says, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers for thereby we have entertained angels unawares." I just love this Scripture.

Again, all these paintings were inspired by the book, "Taking Flight" by Kelly Rae Roberts but I am not referring to the book anymore and hopefully moving toward my own look with these paintings. My faces are very different from hers but the overall look is similar. I highly recommend the book if you want to learn to do some really great collages and portraits faces.

ENTERTAIN ANGELS

I just finished this and it is still wet with varnish. My original calligraphy is in the background on the right and metallic flecks of gold are blowing. The photo doesn't pick that up very well but in person it really pops and it's very cool! There are other flecks blowing around too but you can't see them on the photo.

I started this collage last night and worked on it all morning. So I guess one of these takes about 5 or 6 hours to do. But it is fun and I definitely breath easier when her face emerges. I never know what she will look like. This angel looks a bit sad but I am sure some angels are looking at us and they probably are a bit sad sometimes. I tried to "Happy" her up but she just didn't want to.

I will be out of town until Sunday so I won't get to post anything until Monday--or if I am really productive after my trip, Sunday. I have tons of stuff---I can always pull from the stash of artwork. Actually I do like to do that from time to time and give some of these pieces a new life.

All of these portraits paintings that I do are inspired by KellyRae Robert's book, "Taking Flight."

ORGANIC DIMENSIONS BACKGROUNDS--Online class with Paulette Insall

This is week # 3 of my online class with Paulette Insall. We have added layers and layers of acrylic and various stamps etc. It has been lots of fun and I am looking forward to the last class next week. Then next week I start her other online class "Painting Faces." It will be great to see how she does it---hers are beautiful and I am looking forward to that!

Next week she might have us put a focal point object on our pieces but these are just backgrounds we are creating.

CALLIGRAPHY!!

I wrote this calligraphy today for the picture below but it just didn't look right on the piece below any way that I tried it.   I hated to waste it today since it was a creation for today-- so here it is. Just so if anyone is looking at this blog they will know that I am a calligrapher, first---then a painter, etc, next.  I love the art of calligraphy and no matter how far I stray into other areas of art and mediums, I will always come back to my first love--LETTERS!!

And...it's on paste paper from my stash, scanned and put together by the magic of Photoshop. The letters were written in black.

LISTEN TO THE WIND

My art buddy, Lori, came over today and we created a college. I actually started this one yesterday and finished it today. Lori's collage was absolute adorable. She will post is on her blog tomorrow so be sure to check it out. Check it out today too because she really has a cute handmade book up right now.  I hope she will do more of these collages.

This piece, above, has a collage in the background that I had done( posted a week or so ago) and I started by pasting that whole sheet of paper on the canvas. Then I started adding layers of paint and rubbing off layers so the backgound would show through. I actually wanted more of the Scripture to show through but anyway, it's there. The Wind is a Biblical concept representing the Spirit. If you look closely in her hair, there is something there. These faces are really fun to paint.  I am enjoying painting them.

FRIENDS-FINAL

Here is the final piece. I like the colors although if I was to critique it with a fine tooth comb--it might be a bit busy and I probably should have made the flower smaller and the faces bigger. But it works ok for me. I used the Shiva oil sticks for the faces and I love the texture and the look although the faces were a little small to use your finger to smear it.

I really love doing these collages. It really is fun.

STAMP SHELF--I MADE IT ALL BY MYSELF!

I was just so proud of myself I had to post it. Of course these are only a fraction of all the rubber stamps I have but these are the background ones.  I cut the wood with my miter cutting thing and glued them in the back side of the frame and painted it black. I put a little nail to secure it. I don't know how secure it is but for now---it's up there!  Yea, Me!

And check out the cute light switch. I bought it from Etsy.

"FRIENDS"--8x8 on Poplar Wood

I have always wanted to do a progression of a piece. So here is the first scan. I really could have scanned much earlier in the collage process but I really didn't think of it until now.  This is a piece that will say, "Friendship is a flower that blooms in all seasons."  I think that it is coming along pretty good so far. Just to figure out where and how big to put the heads was a challenge. Thank goodness for tracing paper. If it works it will be a sweet piece---but that's a big IF. I really should do the quote in my calligraphic lettering---after all I AM a calligrapher---remember??!  Sometimes I forget too. But as for the lettering-we will see.  Tomorrow I will post the final---that is if it isn't too bad. 

Ok---even if it's bad I will post it.  I learn by my mistakes.   That is, if I am still conscious after I have beaten myself to a pulp.

NEW TOYS!!

Have you heard of the saying, "He who dies with the most toys wins?"  Well, except for the dying part, (don't like that part) I could surely win that one. Here are some new toys I have been unpacking from my Chicago trip.  I went to Pearls and to Ulrich and had to send it all home because it wouldn't go in my suitcase.  This is only just the half of it.  I have paper and little calendars with great images and Golden paints and other stuff. But I already put those things away.  The paint brushes are Windsor Newton One Stroke brushes that I had been looking all over for; the Shive oil sticks are for painting faces (yeah, right,we'll see how that goes!)) and the Dymo label maker will keep me organized (yeah, right).  The Color book by Betty Edwards  will clear up all those color issues that I have, hopefully.  I am taking an online class from Paulette Insall and she highly recommends this book.  So today I will be organizing and hopefully will create something.  I really want to use the oil sticks as shown step by step in my new favorite book Taking Flight by Kelly Rae Roberts.  I wrote a review for her on Amazon.  As you see,  I am putting in hyperlinks just like Donna Downey and Claudine Hellmuth does.  I'm coming up in the blogger world!  Also, I sent in a piece to Donna Downey for a challenge request through her blogsite to do a piece with our circle punches and if she picks it then she will put it in her October newsletter. Oh. please pick me!  That would be great exposure Anyway, I will post it after the results.  I thought it was cute anyway!

NEW NEW ACEOs ON ETSY

Here are two new ACEOs. I tried to make them a bit more colorful for fall. We will see if they sell.  They are ACEO size--2.50 x 3.50.

DRAWING FACES--THEN AND NOW

The one thing that I have always wanted to do is draw faces. As a child I drew and drew and never never liked any of them.  I even beat myself up way back then!  So 48 years later I have decided to give it a try. I think I was about 7 or 8 when I drew that first picture and I think it was a self portrait. I remember hating it---but Mama saved it so here it is. I have other things also that maybe one day I might post. They are very funny.  I always wanted to be an artist---always.  The second picture was drawn  looking at a picture of a little girl who was probably about 5 and when I drew her she aged about 10 years. I tried to keep her young but as I fiddled with her she just kept aging. So I just decided to put some lipstick on her.  I will work on it more---her eyes might be a bit big and mouth isn't quite right but anyway---I'll keep trying.

GREAT STORY

I wanted to relate this story because it is just so great. Last night about 10:00 I received an email through my ETSY shop from a wonderful lady who had this story to tell me. Several years ago in 2003 while she was living in Albany, GA, she was having some terrible troubles in her life.  She was very upset and discouraged and really didn't know what to do. During those times she was at WalMart one day buying bread and as she reached for the bread this little card was right where her hand was! She read the Scripture on the card and knew that it was just for her. She said instantly her countenance changed and she knew that God had heard her prayer. And isn't God clever, leaving it in the "Bread" isle! But the rest of the story is that she has had that card in her day timer for all these years and she just happened upon my Etsy site and saw this print I had for sale. What are the odds of that!? I don't think this little card is even printed any more---and this one was in Albany, GA! Anyway, that was a great blessing for me because sometimes we just don't know when God is using us but it sure it nice sometimes when He lets us know. This is a very small business card size card called a "Pass It On" card that was printed from Universal Designs Inc.

NEVER ENOUGH SHOES

This one took me about 3 hours but I enjoyed every minute of it---I guess because you really can't mess up-- everything is fixable---and if worse comes to worse--GESSO!  I tried to do an encaustic overlay but I didn't like the way it dulled it out and added a film. Encaustic overlay is bees wax melted and brushed on which is a very ancient way of preserving art used back in the Greek and Roman era and even as far back as the Egyptians. I melted some in a tin with my dryer but I really didn't know what I was doing. I will read up on it because it does add a very neat dimensional overlay but I didn't think that was needed here. But boy did it smell good!  

ORGANIZING AND A LITTLE PAINTING

I didn't paint a collage face today (but the day is still young!).... although I have to watch Dancing With the Stars tonight so my painting for today day is probably over. This is watercolor and I sold one similar on Etsy so I decided to paint another and post it.  I also have been organizing my studio. I made a paint brush holder out of PVC and put it right in front of me. Things are constantly moving around my painting area. Here is a picture.

"SHE DREAMS"

This collage is on 1" Poplar board 8x8. I wanted to paint on wood and in my new favorite little collage book, "Taking Flight..." the author uses wood sometimes. She says that Poplar is the best and it's very inexpensive. The very nice fellow at Lowes cut them all for me. These are all collaged first with paper without too much thinking then layers are added. The mission for me here is to try and create intutively without over thinking (I still overthink it but it's getting better.) I know that this is a far cry from the Art of Classical Calligraphy that I was trained in but I always go back to it. It is my first love and I actually practice quite alot----- but nothing blogworthy recently.

The "Day" in the piece holds very special Biblical meaning for me but it can really be any day in the future that you are looking forward to and dreaming of---getting married, having children, or grandchildren, when you feel better, when you are rich----whatever!