Hibiscus on my walk...

This beautiful Hibiscus flower was lying on the ground and he looked very forlorn so I decided to pick him up and take him home and paint him.  I used the Hydrus Magenta and some sap green and blues.

I was just about to paint the background sparkly blue with my new Twinkling H20s but the ink I used for outline wasn't water resist so I decided not to try it this time. Next time.

We are heading up to Greenville for a couple of days for Baby Marc's birthday. Can't believe he is already two.

I just had to see what it looked like with a blue background. Not bad.

Journal Page in the big journal...

Well, I finally got back to my favorite big journal. I have been busy with the studio tour and the online class and all but I think I am longing for my journal entries. If you read any of this one you will see that our daughter, Macaulay, is pregnant again and due October 14. We are extremely excited but have been cautiously hopeful because she has had lots of trouble since baby Marc with numerous miscarriages. She and Daddy Marc are strong and know that whatever happens is in the Lord's hands. She is 15 weeks and so far so good.

Oh, also I wanted to say that I have no way to respond to some comments about the Color Drop class but I have gotten these two questions which I will answer now: All of the 7 video Lessons will be sent together so it is not a week by week thing. You get them all at once. Thanks, y'all!

Color Drop Flowers Growing Fast

The flowers are blooming all around me here in Jacksonville and these flowers really are growing fast. The Color Drop workshop starts May 16th but the supply video and the supply list are up at Creative Workshops.

I am starting to work on the Poppy class now.

Have a great day, bloggy buddies!

More happy flowers...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter Sunday. I have been busy filming the color drop watercolor class and I actually finished the filming this weekend. I had fun filming the flowers but I was having the right brain left brain switch conflict as I was painting. I can't talk and create but I did the best I could as my brain switched back and forth. I decided to put some stamps in the back of this one to distress it up a bit. The class will be available at Creative Workshops on May 16th!

Unfortunately, I could not include the Poppies in this watercolor class because the Poppies are another class in themselves. I will use some of the color drop techniques for the Poppy class and also the oriental brush. Not sure when I will have that one finished but hopefully not too long. Stay tuned.

Happy Poppies

Before going to bed I just had to paint some poppies. I have been working on my Color Drop Flower Class and it will be finished pretty soon. I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter.

The Home Tour

The Tour of Homes was so much fun! We had a total of about 1200 come through the Red Door Art Studio on Saturday and Sunday. The weather couldn't have been more perfect because it was calling for storms on Saturday but it was clear. 

I did make a video but I left my camera at home thinking I could edit the video on my laptop but I no firewire plug on my laptop. Maybe I can do that later. I wanted you to see the darling angel that I just couldn't live without for the front porch. She is fairly tall as you can see. And the pictures are a few of the ones I had framed for the Art house on the tour. These didn't sell but I did have one Poppy piece that sold. 

Now, my concentration will go to filming my Color Drop Flower class. If you don't see me with a blog update you will know where I am!

I've been extremely busy!

I have been asked to put some art in the art house for the home tour which is a house on the tour that is for sale and no furniture in it. There will be several artists displaying art work. At first I was told that I could put 6 pieces in. But in the last few days I was told that I have the whole 3rd floor! Yikes! So I have been creating some "She Art Girls".  Christy Tomlinson has a great workshop and if you have ever wanted to create a background--she's the one! I have had such fun creating these girls. I since I don't have to paint the face the pressure is off and it's a background free for all! Here they are.

                                    She is 8x24 and there is collaged Scripture around the sides.

Just one more below. You saw her a few posts back and she had another background but she just didn't look right. Everything was too busy so I added a blue background and she stands out better now. You can't really see them but she does have wings I cut from transparent film. The Scripture is about remembering to be kind to strangers because they just might be angels. That might be cheesy that I did her wings that way but I did it anyway. Couldn't resist. I will try to take a video of the studio tomorrow if I can. Whew!!!!!

Color Drop Flower Workshop

The class will be hosted by Creative Workhops . l will elaborate more at a later date. This might be my last post for the week since I will be getting everything ready for the hour tour this weekend. I will try to find time to video a little update tour of the studio before this weekend. Y'all have a great week!

He has made...

It's a strange thing for me as a calligrapher. Every piece I paint I look to see if any words can go on it.
Sometimes it works with words and usually if the painting is fairly simple and there is room I will add a Scripture or quote. I am planning a mini class on these color drop flowers. I will have a video up on Monday about it. I really would like it to start May 15th but it will probably be more like June 1st. But don't hold me to that. Who knows what life is going to through at you! But, God willing...June 1st. Oh, and here is another girl that recently had surgery.

She really does look better although I need to fix the glaze in her eyes. Maybe she is just thinking about something really hard. All my girls seem to be pondering something. The Scripture on her right is about being transformed so I am sure she is thinking about that and how her life has been transformed---and is continuing to transform. I think that I might be done now with the surgeries. I think I have actually run out of time before the tour next weekend. This week I will be cleaning the studio. Maybe I can do a little video tour update so you see see my pretty flowers out front.

Pears, Grapes and some Flowers...

I love to paint pears and I have always thought pears were very hard to paint. So I decided to try the pears with my color drop method and they were surprisingly easy to paint. Pears have a bumpy irregular shape so the dropping in of the color helps accentuate the irregularities of the pear. The watercolor does the work for you. I did go back after it was dry and glaze in the deeper shadows of the pear. I did very lightly outline a couple of them but I decided that sometimes the outline might not add anything. These were actually three different pears that I combined together in Photoshop. The shadow on the pear on the  right isn't correct. That bothers me. Ok, now for the grapes. Pretty good but actually I am not sure if the black line helps or hinders. I'll try some more.

These are some color drop flowers with a script stamp in the background. Fun!

More art surgery...

She is also resting quietly after her surgery. She said she was in no pain and that she really liked her new look. I like her better also. She got a completely new mouth too. I think I probably painted her over a year ago. It's nice to see that my face painting skills have improved. I am using Shiva on their faces. It blends really nicely. There are a few more that I am thinking about improving.

The surgery has begun...

She is recovering very nicely after her nose job. As I look at her before she was very sweet looking but I do feel better about her now that she doesn't have such a amateurish nose. It wasn't really that bad but I just needed to fix it. She has just matured a bit it looks like. And I tried to soften some of the hard marker edges she had on her. More surgery tomorrow.

Gerber Daisy-I think

This is one of those flowers that started out looking very sad before adding the black outline. It's amazing how the black outline can save it. I was looking at a gerber daisy in my coloring book. I am experimenting with different papers to see which disperses the color better and the hot press papers definitely don't do the trick. Strathmore 400 cold press does pretty well and that's really affordable.

A fun Saturday...

 We had a fabulous one day workshop at my studio with Eliza Holliday learning graphite techniques with different letterforms. Everyone is working so hard in the picture. Lori is down at the end creating something fabulous as always. Eliza is looking at the camera with a pretty smile and Rynda is on the left and Denice is on the right. We always have such a wonderful time when we get together and Eliza stoked the lettering fires within us and gave us some wonderful instruction and wowed us with some of her finished pieces... which are nothing short of genius.

Just look above at this wonderful piece that Eliza lettered on fabric. Although she said this piece is not finished, it looks pretty fabulous to me so far! And below is a little sample I did in the workshop. My right brain doesn't work too well in workshops setting  (I am too busy talking with my left brain) so the technique needs lots of work but I see great potential in this fun technique with the Neuland letterforms.
The word love is suppose to be there too but I couldn't figure out where to put it. Hopefully Lori will post some pictures of what she did because hers was really great.

Be simple...

After battling the large girls on the canvas I just decided I needed to paint something simple and childlike. I did drop in the color and even used some Hydrus colors that I have which I  love to use. There is something I really love about childlike art. Maybe it's the simplicity or the memories of childhood or the colors but whatever it is... I love it. After completing the girls on the canvases with hours and hours and layers and layers, sometimes it's really nice to just be simple and let little Mattie Lou artist come out sometimes.

Within the Stars

She was a long process in coming forth also. I don't want to say she was trouble but maybe it's just a matter of no paint no gain. I am beginning to think that this is just what I have to go through to paint these bigger pieces. I like her face but I really need to work on those arms just a little bit more before I seal her. This is why I don't do body parts but I an determined to stick with it. I might even do hands sometimes. ( I think I  hear my art devil laughing at me right now saying, "Hands? Sure you are...!") Do any of you have an art devil? He tries to tell you that everything you do is terrible. 
Her face and the face of the girl yesterday are painted with Shiva oil sticks. They never fail me when I need to add some blush to the cheeks.

I have one more of these canvases prepared and ready but I think I need a little rest. They wore me out!

She is holding the beginning of Psalm 91 within the heart. I am planning to put a few more phrases from that Psalm from the torn up Bible along the bottom. She has a heart with a handle on the back too! :)

Strangers and Angels

Well, I just can't tell you what trouble this girl was. Good trouble...but trouble all the same. This is an 8x24 canvas and it is my attempt to include the whole body. Usually my heads of girls are vastly too large for the shoulders and torso I have have included so I tried to make her the appropriate size which  is 8 heads high (some say seven). After I looked at her I really thought her head was too small although she was in proportion. So what to do? Collage a new head on... no, paint a new one... no, leave it as it is---no--so I decided to widen her head, neck and hair.  I think she is better now. I also had some wings on her which didn't work but you can see a faint image after I pulled them off. I added a little bit of Golden Interference Blue to her wings so in some angles you don't see them and from others you do. I am having difficulty with her arms so I will work on them a little more and as you see I decided not to try fingers this time. Well, I guess her heart just has a handle on the back! The Scripture on the bottom is:
Hebrews 13:2: "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." I printed it on tissue paper (yay!) so when you glue it on it disappers into the canvas. 
There is also Scripture around the sides.

Fixin' things...

Well, as you know the studio is on the tour of homes and I have been looking around at all the art sitting and hanging around and I have been noticing that some things just don't look that good at all. One such piece was this little coffee cup with the apple. That was when I was just learning to use acrylics way back when and well, it was pretty bad. So I decided that maybe I could spruce it up a bit with the new skills I have learned over the few years doing mixed media so I grundged it up and bit, tried to add some deeper shadows and of course the magic camouflager - the script stamp (my best friend!) It looks better now. The poppies weren't bad but I decided to add the script stamp to that one also and I do like it better now. I am also looking at the noses of my girls hanging around and all of them need a nose job. My plan is to help them out a little bit and hopefully I don't mess them up. There are about 4 of them that are scheduled for surgery soon. I will show you before and after if I complete this task.

Now, when you look below you will see a little "Mini Martha" made by a sweet blog friend, Katie Purcell. This is a stone and she is very heavy. This is just one of the wonderful things about a blog. You get to meet wonderful people who are just so sweet and giving and it makes you want to take a road trip and go meet them in person. Katie is one of those sweet people. So, here is the little mini me she sent me. She included all the things that I love: art,  the word hope, inspire, create and of course, Bucky. I had to take a close up so you all could see him. I think she captured him!
Thank you, Katie!

Angel Wings

I got this hankering yesterday that I wanted to use this panel I got on sale at Hobby Lobby because I liked the brass flower hangy thing. It said welcome--and something else I don't remember. So I scrounged up my little screw driver and successfully removed the hangy thing and started the piece. I was concerned that the collage paper edges lined her face too much so I decided to smooth it out with Wood Icing (my new favorite thing for texture.) It didn't smooth the face but added texture which actually I didn't mind after I finished painting the piece. But I did have a few minutes of angst over it. I liked the quote because I imagined our guardian angel's wings get stronger when our thorns and stings from life get too much for us.

More flowers...

I am enjoying painting these color drop flowers. It's very relaxing to paint them and even when they look pretty bad the black outline always helps. The leaves are really fun to paint too. I use a soft oriental brush. The weather here is just so beautiful. Bucky and I really should walk around and take some pictures of all these blooming flowers around the neighborhood. 

Maybe we will do that tomorrow. 

Yellow Color Drop

Spring is definitely here in Jacksonville and Chauncey and I have been planting flowers in the yard of the Red Door Art Studio.  I am enjoying seeing the flowers all planted although it was back breaking work. The studio is on the tour of homes here in the Riverside area of Jacksonville on April 16-17. They are featuring several bungalows.

 These flowers below look like some that I planted in the yard. You can see that the top image has the fine black outline and the bottom image is before image the. I was looking at that same coloring book as my inspiration for the flower shapes. 

I actually didn't mean to post this until tomorrow so make sure you scroll down for that post too.

Journal Page...

I wasn't going to let the tissue paper thing defeat me. I just can't put matte medium on the top of it. I am sure I could have sprayed it several times with a matte finish but I was too impatient to go out to the shed to do that.  So here is a recent page with some CalligraFUN letters, color drop flowers and versa doodles. Spring is making me want to paint flowers!

Color Drop Irises

These are more color drop flowers where I start with a basic shape with water (lightly tinted yellow so I can see it) and drop in the color. You are pretty much at the mercy of the watercolor but you can move it around to help form the shape. The green Iris did much better than the purple one. I added a thin black outline to further form the shape. For my inspiration I was looking at a black and white outline of Irises that I had in a Dover coloring book of flowers. It helped me with the shapes although the purple one really didn't want to cooperate quite as well. As you know purple and I don't really gee and haw too well.

Mixed Media Girls

This was a very unplanned mixed media piece today. I haven't done one of these in a long time since I have been mostly working in my journal. I started off with other plans for this 8 x 10 board. I had plans to print on some tissue paper and put it on this board but that was a bust (even after I spent a long time researching it on youtube) so I scrapped off the gunk left by the tissue paper and started this one. I couldn't let this poor little board end in a failure. I was going to put a quote but I couldn't find the one that I liked.  I think that they are sisters, maybe even twins. I have always secretly wished I had a twin.  I enjoyed painting them and bringing them to life.

...with abandon

Usually I show the two page spread of these large journals but this time the left page just wasn't up blog snuff so I just posted the right side. Sometimes I actually do create art with abandon and other times it's like pulling teeth. I wonder why that is? I have no idea. But the flowers are happy and this page came together with abandon. I lost a few teeth on the other side.

Uncommon Calligraphy

I recently ate at the most wonderful restaurant and there were interesting paintings and signs and all sorts of neat stuff on the walls and this quote was written on one of the walls. The place mat was white paper and I just happened to have a calligraphy marker in my pocketbook... so I held my breath and wrote it very quickly, trying to quell those screams in my head from the calligraphy police yelling,"YOU HAVE NO LINES, YOU HAVE NO LAYOUT, YOU WILL NEVER KEEP A CONSISTENT ANGLE!!! 

But the quote itself was just so good that I decided to post it. 

It really was a wonderful lunch. It was the first time in 7 months that I have eaten in a restaurant and not worried if everything was organic or not.

 I had Sweet Potato Cake! YUM!

 So far so good---no hives!

Celebrate

I was working with some borders and some CalligraFun letterforms in my journal. The girl is collaged on (you might remember her from a few weeks back). And I love using a pointed pen. All those wedding envelopes got me addicted again. Anyway, I should celebrate the little things I take for granted so often. Oh, I forgot one..Angel food cake from Whole Foods.
I will be gone for a few days but I will see you next week!