Watercolor Muse

Rookie Painter - December 2011 Challenge

2012-01-01T14:02:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

Yay! I was able to carve out some time to paint so I headed over to my favorite painting challenge "Rookie Painter" for inspiration. I really like this site because the subjects chosen for the paintings are great and the photos are well done.

Adobe Ladder

2011-04-03T14:38:00.000-07:00

Adobe Ladder

12x19

Pastel

Friday Night Pastel fun that was quick to setup and do. I love how satisfying it is to achieve good results with minimal amount of time (about 2hrs).

Music Girl

2011-04-03T14:23:00.000-07:00

Music Girl

9x12

Watercolor

Here's another example of where I get stuck naming my paintings, "Music Girl" hahaha, that name totally stinks but hey, I wanted to post it. So suggestions are welcomed :-) Thanks for looking!

Paint and Draw Together - Red Rose

2011-03-31T07:58:00.000-07:00

Red Rose
10x14
Watercolor

Paint and Draw Together is one of my favorite painting challenge site, the photo's for the challenge is always top notch and beautiful. I highly recommend joining along.

This month's really pushed my boundaries on painting lace, ugh! to many details! ugh! my inner immature painting child was whining about doing it because I was sure to mess it up. So I left it for last and struggled along and was ready to forget about posting it, till dear hubby walks in and says that looks great! (Love this guy!) so voila! here it is and Thanks for looking!

E1 Abstract - For Emily

2011-02-27T17:44:00.000-08:00

3.13.11- Updated E1 Abstract. I've been messing with this since I last posted it and have done a few revisions to it, seeing something I didnt like and tweaking it. Mainly softening the distracting center ball, lines leading off and toning down whites which I liked at first, but distracting later. I've also deepened the colors and added more darks. Sorry for all the varying lighting issues, I wanted to take this in natural lighting but time was limited on catching the best light. Thanks for looking!

"E1" Abstract

15x22

Watercolor

Items I traced on to paper

Hello!

Got up early on Saturday to prepare food for my granddaughter Emily's 1st birthday. At least that's what I intended to do... Get up early, prepare food, get ready for party, and maybe start a painting. Uh, it went more like start painting, keep painting, oh crap, I gotta stop painting, and on and on because I couldn't tear myself away from painting this. Eventually I did force myself to go make the food and get ready and finally leave the house for the party!

So the title of this painting is "E1" abstract for my granddaughter "Emily 1st" birthday. It started out with simple things I found around my desk. Traced around the items and painted with Aliz Crimson, Aureolin, Burnt Sienna & Black (pthalo green+aliz crimson)

Thanks for looking!

Aloha Orchid

2011-02-20T21:14:00.000-08:00

Aloha Orchid
15x22 (1/2 sheet)
Watercolor

Aloha! My sister-in-law Noreen, just came back from a 14 day cruise to Hawaii, Lucky girl! She has a zillion photo's to process but chose this lovely orchid for us to paint. I actually was surprised that Noreen brought this over because I thought she was coming over to finish up a Cala Lily painting we started at Birgit O'Conner's workshop a previous weekend (will be posting soon after I finish it!). I love surprises and this was fun to paint.

Giving my try at abstract

2011-02-01T07:31:00.001-08:00

Watercolor
9x12

Giving a try at abstract, dont know what the heck I'm doing but having fun with it.
Have a Great Day!

Happy Ewe

2011-02-01T07:14:00.000-08:00

Was searching through my pictures on my computer and found this delightful Ewe that I snapped in Avebury in England. It was a wonderful trip I hope to make again. Doesn't she look so cute smiling there!

3 servings of Veggies

2011-01-30T16:15:00.000-08:00

Three servings of Veggies
Pastel

Friday night Pastel class subject was a still life of vegetables. Jeff (teacher) has this setup before we get there to max out 2.5 hrs we are there. I like his teaching style because he gives us the lecture part up front that's interesting and very informative, all the while we are sketching our picture. After he gives his mini lecture he get's busy with own painting. Then walks around time to time to give tips and encouragement with ours. Usually, I get 3/4 finished then have to finish up at home. The drapery is so challenging in these still lifes, but I keep at it!
Have a great evening!

Buffy the Buffalo......

2011-01-24T20:59:00.000-08:00

Buffy the Buffalo
8x11
Watercolor

Gosh I suck at naming paintings but it makes me laugh how bad I am. Oh well, My talent lies elsewhere.... on to the next painting! Have a Great Evening.

Paint and Draw Together - Butterfly!

2011-01-23T18:32:00.000-08:00

Butterfly!
"7.25 x 15 "
Watercolor
(Photo, courtesy of Paint and Draw together blog")

"Paint and Draw Together blog" I love this blog! the photos they allow to paint are so wonderful!

I painted this on some watercolor paper that I had torn off a 1/2 sheet, so it's a odd size. I was going to use it for a long portrait of some kind of flower but found it fun to use it for the Butterfly.
I'm still debating if I want to add some wording on the left side, but I guess that I can do that in photoshop later.

Pastel Class.... it's a "couple's" thing

2011-01-23T18:06:00.000-08:00

Sheila's Ocean
19.5 x 12.75"
Pastels

Arnold's Ocean
19.5 x 12.75"
Pastels

Hello!

I'm taking a Friday night pastel class with Jeff Bramschreiber at the Triton Museum. It's a ten week class for all levels. It's been fun and I've gotten my husband Arnold to join me! (it's a couple thing..lol). Arnold's never done any type of art outside of drawing so this is new experience for him. And he's doing great!

What I discovered is that I love taking this class on Friday night because it moves the energy inside me to create over the weekend. I feel so free and unbounded. Usually I'm all worked up to create something that I wake up early on Saturday only to feel stressed about finding something to paint!
But the last two weekends, I've been less stressed since I've created something that didn't take any planning other than showing up :-) and just going for it. Fun!

This week's theme is on "Oceans"

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T14:54:00.000-08:00

Guitar
Watercolor 1/4 sheet

Guitars
Watercolor 1/4 sheet
Working on some guitar paintings for DOH (dear o'l husband" ) whose favorite thing to do is play guitar. So I thought I could make some paintings that I could print up on tshirts for him to wear.

Holiday Angel - WIP
Watercolor 1/4 sheet

Happy New Year to all! Wishing the very best for all of you!

Green Man - WIP Forever??

2010-12-19T12:38:00.000-08:00

Green Man, had a fun time "Starting" this painting in August, OMG, it's been that long, and it's been a long time since I've had time to paint. See it all began.... when I went to WORK, I received a offer to go back to work as project manager and it is wonderful, but now I have no real time to paint. :-( bummer.
It's still a wip, since I have more leaves to define and the top leaves need to be soften but hey! I wanted to post something. :-) The fun part of this painting was I basically threw the paint wet/wet on it and with a small sea sponge started pulling out the color for the eyes, nose, mouth and then let dry. Then I went in and started doing the negative/positive painting. It's got a bit to go before I'm done but so far I'm good about it.

Thanks for looking.
Have a Wonderful Christmas!

Rookie painter June Challenge

2010-07-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

Summer Cherries
9x12 Watercolor

For a fun monthly watercolor challenge try out Rookie Painter.
This was a fun painting to do and a good learning experience. I was having a hard time getting a really dark cherry red. I finally just dipped into my black and mixed it with Perylene Maroon and it worked. Yay!

Painting in the dark....

2010-07-11T13:31:00.000-07:00

Pastel
12x18

Hello! well I've been busy with all sorts of art stuff, but not a lot of watercolor. I've been exploring pastels, zentangles, photoshop and drawing. Since they weren't watercolor I wasn't planning to post, but what the heck, I decided to just go ahead and share what I've been up to.
:-)

Ok, I've never done pastels, and decided to give it a try. I did these two paintings in a Friday night pastel class at the Triton Museum with Jeff Bramschreiber. He's a great teacher and fantastic artist. He taught us different ways of using pastels like using watercolor, alcohol, etc, but my favorite class was painting a still life that he called "Painting pastels in the dark".

The first part of the class would be with the lights on and we would draw out the still life and block in some color, then he would dim the lights pretty low and we would get a totally new perspective and value scheme. It was crazy trying to see your colors in that lighting! but it makes you look at color value differently. When he turned up the lights, it's surprising to see what color choices went on the paper. The last part of the class we would be able to fine tune our paintings and add different colors. Fun!

The crow was painted in the "dark" and the gorilla was done using a photo that Jeff took at some zoo.

I'll post more on the Zentangles, when I get some pictures of my tangles.
Have a Great Day!

Brave Warrior

2010-06-16T10:47:00.000-07:00

Brave Warrior
5x7
Watercolor

Another small painting of a Brave Warrior, I gave this to my husband for Father's Day, he's a Great Father and a Warrior in my eyes.
Happy Father's Day's to all the men out there!

Inspired Masa Paper

2010-06-15T10:50:00.000-07:00

Great fun playing around with Masa paper. My artist sister Noreen, saw SrishtiArt's blog posting of working with Masa paper. This inspired her to order it and prepare some for us to try out.
I was surprise how vibrant the watercolor shows up on this, I only did 2 layers and got some very vibrant colors. It also stayed wet longer after applying paint and not much water is needed. I'm excited about doing some more stuff with this paper.

It's been awhile! and small paintings

2010-06-14T15:06:00.000-07:00

Hello! I know it's been awhile since I last posted, but glad to say that I've been able to paint in between all the on-goings. Most of these are small paintings which have been fun to do.

The Virtual pARTy - Derby Week challenge

2010-05-17T21:24:00.000-07:00

8x10
Watercolor

Another fun painting challenge site to try out "The Virtual pARTy".

Paint and Draw Together - Challenge 3 Tulip

2010-05-17T19:04:00.000-07:00

8x10
Watercolor

Paint and Draw Together has some nice photo's to paint for each month's challenge. This month's was a Tulip. Check them out and join in on the fun. :-)

Fioli House Magnolia

2010-05-17T18:56:00.001-07:00

8x10

Watercolor

The gardens at Fioli house are Blooming! I went a few weeks ago and took a ton of photo's and planning to again to get more pictures of the flowers that weren't in bloom yet.
If you've never heard of Fioli house and garden's check out their link. It's a Beautiful site and a great way to spend part of your day if you live around here.

Fioli House and Gardens
"Located 30 miles south of San Francisco, Filoli is an historic site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and one of the finest remaining country estates of the early 20th century."

Paint my Photo!

2010-05-16T09:49:00.000-07:00

Great idea! and Great site!

This is a great idea where photographer's and artist come together and art can happen.

read on...

Paint my Photo
http://paintmyphoto.ning.com/
What's the Idea?
"Very Simple, there are lots of great Photographers out there in internet land, and there are lots of Artists of all abilities who would like to paint from photographs. The problem is that Copyright law prevents this, although many photographers would love to inspire other Artists (Yes I do agree photography is an Art, I chose the terms 'Artists' and 'Photographers' for clarity). So-If you have posted photographs here, it is because you are happy to allow derivative works to be created. You still own the copyright of your photos of course. The Artist can, if the photographer has selected that option on joining, contact the Photographer to enable them to see the work. The Artist can sell their work as normal, if the photographer wants 'first refusal' on the Artwork, that should be by private arrangement and has nothing to do with 'Paint My Photo'. Artists can place links to where there work can be purchased. Photographers can place links to where other work and prints can be purchased. Anyone spamming and not following the spirit of the site will be warned and advised before any action taken.
****IMPORTANT!**** We are a site for natural media only, no digital artwork, thanks for sticking to this rule.
I hope this site proves useful, have Fun everyone!"

Angelic Beauty

2010-05-11T12:45:00.000-07:00

Angelic Beauty
22 x 30
Watercolor

Well, I finally got this one completed, about 98% done a few more tweaks and it'll be done. (I'm such a impatient person, I cant wait to post before it's completed) :-)

I drew this months ago, and wanted to have a stain glass window in the background but I didn't like what I came up with so I decide to go with a star background. There's still a few more things like the star's I want to go in and lighten and clean up and a couple more feathers to darken.

It was a very enjoyable piece for me. Enjoy!

Beloved Buddha

2010-05-04T14:32:00.000-07:00

Finally finished this larger watercolor of Beloved Buddha 16x20. I had started the drawing last year, got started painting it early this year and then I've been working on it on and off for the past couple of weeks, tweaking it, now that I've got a digital shot of it I notice some dark spots on the right hand side, that I dont see on the original, so I'll go back and see what's that all about.
Enjoy!

German Shepherd

2010-05-04T14:30:00.000-07:00

Wanted to try a quick and loose German Shepard painting in watercolor and this is what came out!

Acrylic fun

2010-05-04T14:14:00.000-07:00

Well I finally broke out the Acrylic's and materials that I had ordered last year and had sitting around in my closet. My sister in law Noreen, got me in the mood to try them out, talk about a crash course in Acrylics! we had a couple of Acrylic books Acrylic Revolution by Nancy Reyner and Rethinking Acrylic by Patti Brady that we bounced back and forth from till we got the jist of what to do first.
The prep time took the longest in because we prepped the canvas with 2 coats of GAC100 and then two coats of white gesso. I was using Fluid Acrylics and they are GREAT! they are very concentrated from the bottle, but you can dilute them with water or gesso. Towards the end I just squirted them on my canvas and painted the area I wanted with them.
We also had fun using Light Molding paste, very cool stuff for textures.
It was really fun using Acrylics and gave me a new perspective of using them.

Me-OM.... whimsical Cat Buddha

2010-04-26T14:11:00.000-07:00

Me-Ommmm....

Just something fun I came up with and had fun painting. Enjoy!

34/100 "Penny Experiment Art" - Feed the Hungry

2010-04-20T09:48:00.001-07:00

# 34/100 "Penny Experiment Art"

"This is my journey as I try to see if I’m correct by turning that “worthless” penny into $1,000,000 of food for local food banks." Jeffrey Strain
http://www.pennyexperiment.com/

A great project was sent to my attention called the "Penny Experiment" created by Jeffrey Strain. He found a penny on the ground and felt called to turn a "worthless" penny into a $1 million dollars for food for local food banks. One of his projects to create money is to ask Artists to create little works of art 3x5 to 6x8 to be sold , the profits would be used to buy food for food banks.
Check out the Penny Art Gallery and there might be still openings for Artist to participate, email Jeffrey and check the website for more information and Facebook "Penny Experiment"

I completed my artwork and have sent this statement with it. It's my hope that more people will join his facebook fan page to give "power" to Jeffrey as he completes this life giving project.

Inspiration/About Art:
My inspiration of this piece was that I wanted to give “Power” to the project because I believe in it and see great service in feeding the hungry. If all of us stepped into our “Power” and did something for Humanity, what would life be like today?

When thinking of ideas of what to do I saw an ad that showed a powerful gladiator who was ready to do battle, the energy he projected was intense and I liked the idea of using him as a symbol of power for the success of the project in reaching its goal.

Significance of the Number: 34

I received # 34 randomly but the Universe happily sends messages to our soul. This number describes where I’m at on my path and it’s a confirmation that things aren’t as random as we tend to believe.

Looking up the # 34 on the internet, it says “The number 34 bestows spiritual wisdom through careful observation of people and things, and worldly success by learning through experience.

Reduced to a single entity 7, (3+4=7) this vibrates to the planet Neptune. It represents spirituality, sensitivity, sympathy and mystery. 7 is the number of illusion and delusion, sometimes deception but also the number of healing and miracles, faith and dreams that do come true.

If you are influenced by the number 34, 25, or 7, you tend to have remarkable dreams. Secretly, you have an intense interest in esoteric mysteries, mythology, the unknown etc. Often, your mere presence has a soothing effect on a troubled person. The 7 vibration is associated with peculiar ideas about religion, a dislike of following the beaten path and a tendency to adopt political beliefs which are unique and somewhat non-orthodox.

Materials: Watercolor and Pencil on Watercolor paper

Size: 4x6

Kathleen Alexander Flower workshop

2010-04-08T10:50:00.000-07:00

Picture of our workshop space

Reference photo for painting

My painting in progress

Finish painting!

Such a wonderful time I had at Kathleen Alexander's flower watercolor workshop. She amazes me every time I see her work. Her keen eye for color and details blows me away she'll point out colors in a simple photograph and I'd have to look real hard, but I'd start to see what she's seeing and wow! I never saw that, so the biggest thing I take away each time from her workshops is to pay more attention and really look, look for the subtle colors and color mixtures and hues.

In this flower painting we did, she had us start out with a underpainting of colbalt blue and a little sap green for the shadows in the flower petals, then with a bright rose pink on top of that. The background we used Holbein shadow green to get that rich dark background, the leaves we used green gold and sap green. She showed us to soften the highlights in the background to give that fuzzy look and where hard and soft edges were. It was a great workshop and I highly recommend her as a teacher.

A place of my own - New Art Studio

2010-04-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

New paint job outside is next but it's comfy inside

Painting area, new Buddha that's a WIP and that ugly box on my desk, works great as a incline for painting. It was a box that some watercolor paper came in.

Office work area

New artwork, the large one is a Angel with a stained glass behind her, I'm still working on the stained glass portion because I don't like what I've drawn. I'm itching to start on to the Angel but "patience" I keep telling myself... the other painting is a flower painting I did at a recent workshop I took with Kathleen Alexander, it was a great workshop. I'll be posting more info on that workshop next.

Well I finally did it, I moved out to our "Shed" out back, it's actually a custom shed that we bought long ago for additional storage from The Shed Shop . (Check them out if your in need for additional living space or storage. )
The "shed" is now " My Art Studio" Yay! After getting it cleaned out, the paint touched up and moving my art desk out there, I can say I now have a place of my own. It's amazing how quiet it is out there and no distractions from the family. I can "zone" out for hours and just paint, what a amazing experience.

Fresh Start! Art show

2010-04-05T17:41:00.000-07:00

FRESH START!!

SCVWS Members' Spring Watermedia Show

March 1-28, 2010

Perfect Title for this posting, I'm off to a fresh start and no looking back!

I participated in the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor "Fresh Start!" spring show. My first ever! Here's a picture of my painting hanging on the gallery wall.
Yippee! the first of many milestones to come. :-)

And a Big Thank You to everyone for your supportive words and comments on my last blog posting. I've decided not to return to the class and move forward and keep a positive attitude. " A Fresh Start! " :-)

Still Life #6

2010-02-21T10:45:00.001-08:00

Still Life #6

Well, it took me a while to post this, because I got kinda "scolded" for not following the lesson plan, (not having my still life as the center of focus) and then used as the example of what you're not suppose to do! oh gosh was I embarrassed and felt shot down in flames. Fortunately I was not the only one who did this! there were other students who showed up with paintings that their still life was either implied or not the center of focus as well. So I felt better that I was not the only one confused about what the teacher wanted. Too bad I had to be the first one up to show my paintings! because I got the brunt of it, oh well, what doesn't kill me (or humilates me) will make me stronger.

Dragonfly WBO #5

2010-02-11T14:21:00.000-08:00

Hi There! Here's number five of my still life,..... huh?! where's the still life, I know, and it's "implied" there, really it is! see the blue angled line on the left, that's the small green vase and the burnt sienna line next to it, represents the red vase.

This piece was interesting while painting, it didn't turn out the way it was drawn out, I had alot more lines that was on the painting that didn't get painted once I got started. Good thing too, because it would have been to busy and cluttered.

I've been struggle with if I can get away with the implied part of it for the class and I think I can because I believe the purpose of the class is to unearth the artist you truly are and to help understand what type of art work you gravitate to creating. Also to unbound yourself and create your own designs and of course teach you design principals.
Well I hope it's ok, I'll let you know if I get dinged for it at class. :-) (I doubt it, since Mike is a really, really, nice teacher)

Mike Bailey's Watercolor Beyond the Obvious

2010-02-08T16:57:00.000-08:00

WBO #4
22x30
watercolor

WBO #3
22x30
watercolor

WBO #2
22x30
watercolor

WBO #1 - Stressed out!
22x30
watercolor

Original still life

Hello There!
I've been busy with a new class I started a couple of weeks ago called "Watercolor beyond the Obvious" taught by Mike Bailey.

Wow, this is a super class and beyond what I anticipated in learning. What I mean by that, not only am I learning design principal's, I am learning about ME, and my thought process, and self imposed boundries, and on and on... Whoa, I didnt think I was going on a adventure trip through "Sheila's Overactive Brain" land or the "Worry Wart" ferry ride but it's been a enlightening experience and I'm loving it.

The class is structured that you will setup a still life at home and each week you will learn a new design principal and then go paint that for the following week. Overall you will paint "a" still life twenty times, the same still life that you can't move, or change the perspective. The purpose of the one still life is that you'll be challenged to do it differently every week and you will start to develop your design knowledge. Sounds fun right!? it is, and Mike is a really, really great teacher.

The first week, I was so stressed out trying to figure out what still life I would want to paint 20 times, so I didnt get to paint it till Sunday, the day before class! I had so much energy built up that my first painting was YUCK! but I had to keep going because I needed to have two paintings for the class the next day. My second painting I did much better and it was more realistic, which I'm use to painting, so I was happy with it.

Last week I had to come up with something and the lecture was on "Line". I was trying to figure out what I would do and going through my sketch book. Mike is big on sketching and carrying your sketch book with you everywhere to capture those great ideas you have in random places. So I was sketching and thinking, sleeping and dreaming, eating and thinking, ugh! non-stop.
I finally settled on doing these two, one is based on a Mandala and the other one has a southwestern feel to it.

Anyway, I will be posting onward my next 16 paintings!

FTM Challenge 10 - Robert Henri

2010-01-24T15:01:00.000-08:00

Indian Girl
7x10
watercolor

I follow Michelle Burnett "Following the Masters" blog and this month's challenge is the works of Robert Henri. See his work here and if your inspired, join us at FTM blogsite. It's FUN!

Sax Player

2010-01-20T22:49:00.000-08:00

I deepened up the pants and added more color to his skin.

Sax Player
10x14
Watercolor

Took this picture last summer at a craft fair. I've been wanting to do a painting with a musician and the funny thing is that my hubby is a guitarist! I've got some ideas about what I want to paint and what compositions but I've got to get him to model for me, which shouldn't be to difficult, he likes being in front of a camera :-) He also has a few guitars I want to take pictures of and do some paintings for.
Last year we went to a guitar show in Marin, California and I was surprise to find a artist there with some of his paintings of guitars and I thought what a great venue to sell, maybe I'll have to do that. ;-)

3 dudes and a big ol' fish

2010-01-13T16:34:00.000-08:00

"3 dudes and a big ol fish"
5x7

I had fun painting this fishing picture for a birthday card for my bother-in-law Greg. He's a really great guy and I wanted to do something special for him.

Cuppa Joe x 2

2010-01-10T16:32:00.001-08:00

Cuppa Joe 1
7x10

Cuppa Joe 2

9x12

Original

Took this picture at breakfast the other day and had fun creating the two paintings. I don't know if I should paint in the "half and half" writing on the lid of the creamer, what do you think?

Opera's Orchid

2010-01-04T16:39:00.000-08:00

Opera's Orchid
9x12

I had a tube of Holbein Opera that I bought when I took Tom Lynch's workshop last year and I thought I'd give it a try on this orchid painting. At first I thought Yikes! this is very bright! but after it dried, I really liked it.
I wanted to get outside and shoot this in broad daylight, (but time got away from me) so it's shot in the late afternoon sunlight. I always wonder what the neighbors are thinking when I run out there with a painting and a camera and taking pictures.... they dont know I paint. Oh well, a little mystery is good!

DaVinci wash brush for free?

2010-01-03T19:23:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year!

What a DaVinci wash brush for free?

Finally able to look at my artist magazines, now that the holidays are over, and on the third page of one of my favorite magazines "Watercolor Artist", was this ad and coupon.
If you purchase a 3/4 wash brush for $19.95 and tax, you get a 1.5" wash brush for free!
So I'm going to give it a try and order it and I thought I would let my blog buddies know too!
Here's the link: http://www.gregdaniels.com/wash

WIP's slow but going....

2009-12-16T14:29:00.000-08:00

Brad's Angel
Watercolor, 22x30

Orchid
Watercolor - half sheet

Well, I've been slowly moving along on two paintings that have been on my desk, the Angel is relatively new, but the orchid was done earlier this year.
I started the Angel as a tribute to a Best Friend whom I' lost a month ago to an unexpected illness. Brad had asked me to paint him an Angel when he was alive and I never got to it before he left us.
So during my grief process, I started this for him. It interestingly the colors have come out very vibrant when I was in such a blue state, but I'm not surprised since he was a very bright soul. I still have more work to do on the feathers and defining the body.
The orchid was something that I started, but didn't like how it turned out, so I tossed it aside till I could be inspired to work on again. It's kinda fun to work on these "dud's" because I don't care if I mess them up, and I get to play with them.

Painting Waterlilies & Lilyponds Workshop results!

2009-12-07T11:01:00.000-08:00

Kathleen Alexander with the waterlily demo she painted with our class.

I spent a wonderful weekend learning to paint waterlilies and lilyponds with Artist/Teacher Kathleen Alexander .
I've always admired Kathleen's work since I found her on the web. I love the colors she use and the subjects she paints and wanted to learn from her.
I was so pleased with the whole experience and what she taught. She has a amazing eye for color, and showed us how to see deeper in the subject. I could see more details about the picture than before, my eyes became more colorized! Even after class when driving home, I could see more colors in the clouds, mountain ranges and sunsets, my brain was interpreting a deeper range. It was surprising to me but expanding and wonderful.
She likes to work with fresh squeeze paint and mixes up her mixes before painting and keeps a brush ready in the mix for each of the colors she's using at the time, usually two three are going. She likes to mix colors right on the paper versus mixing on a palette and applies rich colors right from the start instead of many glazes. Her darks are dark from the start. In her picture, the dark is a deep mix of indigo. She also softens alot of hard edges and blending with water.
It was a great class and if you want to see her work up close, she's part of the co-op gallery Viewpoints Gallery in Los Altos, CA.

And here's what I painted in class. I still have some softening to do with the highlights and some work on the lily pads, but overall, I'm very happy!

Mala Beads

2009-11-08T16:27:00.000-08:00

"Mala Beads (Rosary) for Meditation"
9x12 watercolor

DSDF Rooftop challenge

2009-10-27T21:04:00.000-07:00

DSDF Challenge Rooftops..... uuh, this is due tomorrow.. I started it this morning at 4am when I awoke and couldn't go back to sleep, and then rushed through it to complete it thinking I could swing it. But no way it's YUCK, so it's one of those pictures you shrink to hide all the imperfection and give to people you dont like, heehee! just kidding!
Update: Sheila"Forensics to Fine Art" kindly wrote it made her smile, so I'm going to send it to DSDF, Thanks Sheila for your positive attitude and kindness!

Water Spout

2009-10-27T20:52:00.000-07:00

I've finally got something posted!
Life has provided many distractions from painting... but I was able to do this, yeah! I photographed this spout in Germany.

Yumm! Chocolate Palette

2009-10-01T10:51:00.000-07:00

Mmm... saw this store as I was heading to my next gate change in Houston, Texas airport. I didn't have time to go in, only to take the shot. But Yumm! would have liked to see what they had to offer. What a great idea to paint a chocolate palette.

STROKE: Remember these three letters S.T.R.

2009-09-29T22:55:00.000-07:00

I just got done reading this from the Bluesman's blog, and it reminds me of the time my Mom had a stroke and it wasnt till hours later that we understood what was happening to her.

My Mom had come up around noon to have lunch with our family and we all noticed that she wasnt herself, but she said she just wasn't feeling good. So we continued through our lunch, but I was getting really concerned since it looked like once side of her face was lower and she was pretty much silent throughout the meal, we ended up eating and we all said to my father that he needs to take her to the hospital now and have her checked out.
She apparently had a stroke early in the morning and by the time my father got her to the hospital, she lost one side of her body. She never recovered the use of her one arm.
So, I'm posting this as well to spread the awareness about the symptoms and warnings signs of a Stroke.

STR + tongue

from theBluesman says...... by theBluesman

Blood Clots/Stroke - They Now Have a Fourth Indicator, the Tongue

STROKE: Remember these Three Letters....S.T.R.

My nurse friend sent this and encouraged me to post it and spread the word. This is just a social service, to spread the word around, or for that matter, these 3 words around.

If everyone can remember something this simple, we could save some folks. Seriously...just read the following short story:

Stroke Identification:

During a BBQ, a lady stumbled and took a little fall. She assured everyone that she was fine (They offered to call the paramedics). She said she had just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes.

They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food. While she appeared a bit shaken up, she went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening.

Her husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital. A short while later, she passed away. She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps the poor lady would still be around today. Some may not die and may end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead.

It only takes a minute to read this...

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.

Recognising a Stroke:

Thank God for the sense to remember the '3' steps, S.T.R. Read further & Learn this!

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke. Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:

S * Ask the individual to SMILE.

T * Ask the person to TALK

(and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE, coherently).

R* Ask the person to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

If the person has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call for the doctor immediately.

And now a new Sign of a Stroke -------- Stick out Your Tongue

Ask the person to 'stick' out his tongue... If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke.

A cardiologist says if everyone who gets to read this and inform others, you can bet that some lives may be saved. Remember these words, STR & the Tongue.

Self Portrait

2009-09-21T14:09:00.000-07:00

I decided to continue to work on this self portrait, since I wasn't liking the colors and I wanted to work more on the face. Sounds weird talking about me! I added more shading to the cheeks and lightened a few highlights and then I threw on some Holbien Peacock Blue.
This is Tom Lynch's shadow color that he likes to use, so I used it in my hair and in the background. I really like it!

I've finally accomplished a self portrait of myself. I wanted to do one for awhile but never got to it till now.

Me iron? the irony of that!

2009-08-24T17:04:00.000-07:00

Me Iron? I usually buy clothes, that never need to be iron, in fact cant remember the last time I turned a iron on. But I had heard about an easy way to flatten out your watercolors by ironing them, so I thought I would try it out on this new painting of an orchid.
I laid the painting face down on some viva paper towel on top of a piece of foam board and set that on the iron board. I then lightly sprayed the back of the painting, then laid down a cloth napkin, and ironed on a low heat.
It worked really well! I liked the fact I didn't have to wait all night, and find all sorts of heavy things to lay on it for weight to help press it out. So doing some ironing wasn't so bad.....

Yupo Stonehenge

2009-08-24T14:51:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick YUPO painting I did of Stonehenge, it was fun reminiscing about being there. Wish I could go back there right now. It was a great place to visit. I used Raw Sienna Burnt umber, Ultramarine Blue , Antwerp Blue, and Paynes grey.

A Big Brush and a Deadline

2009-08-12T09:56:00.000-07:00

I've been creatively challenged lately, trying to decide what's my style? what do I really want to paint? I'm still figuring that out but I had to do something, so I challenged myself to paint bigger, use a big brush and do it in 2hrs.
My self imposed time frame was because I have company coming over and to do this painting I had moved into the dining room table. So clean up time was in the morning. The deadline actually made me think quicker about what to do to get results.
So this painting is on a 1/2 sheet and I used a 2" brush and a 10 round for the finer details. I threw colbalt blue for the darker areas and then laid different mixtures of Quin gold/Burnt Umber/Perm Rose for skin tones, hair was done with Pth.Green/Aliz Crimson and some Ultra Marine, Background was done in U. Marine and Indigo and the robe is Prussian Blue with U. Marine as darks.
There's some tweaking I need to do but overall I felt it was a good way to move some creative energy!

Kitty Kat

2009-08-11T17:08:00.000-07:00

Working on Kitty, our 12 yr old cat, sad to say that she's known as "Kitty" and not by her given name "Angel". Why that is I'm not sure, but we've always just called her Kitty, maybe it's because she acts more like a Kitty than an Angel. (My husband seems to think so when she's banging on the door at 6am for food! and meowing "Fresh Kitty Food Now!")

All done at once!

2009-08-04T16:09:00.000-07:00

I've been busy with a few paintings and none of them were finished till now.

1) Persimmons on Yupo

2) 4th of July hulu dance - capture this cute girl at a 4th of July Chili cookoff dancing to Michael Jackson and hulu'ing.

3)Colorful elephants - Got this copyright/royality free photo from Wikipedia Common's. On the site there is a ton of reference photo's that the photographer gives full permission to use. (Not all are like that so check the photo details)

Yupo Cypress and Fantastic Lunch!

2009-07-27T16:36:00.000-07:00

I was very fortunate to be invited to my good friend and fabulous chef Janice's house today to paint and have lunch. She prepared us the most scruptious meal of Gazpacho soup, Shrimp salad and a Blackberry Sorbet, everything we ate, we wanted the recipe! it was so delicious and fresh.

Okay, sorry to get side track about the food, but it was soooooo delicious!

Here's my second try at Yupo and I decided to do a cypress on a rock cliff. I learned that having a small spray mister, helps move and mix the paint into cool designs, (cover any area's you don't want water on, because it'll move the paint)

The more you mess around with it after laying down the initial paint, the more chances of messing it up! It doesn't like control freak artists like me who want it perfect! so it's a good teacher on loosening up and letting it flow.
I went outside to take a picture of it hoping to get better shot.
Here's a close up of it, although the bottom is cut off.

Yippee! for Yupo

2009-07-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

This was my first attempt and experiment with Yupo paper and I have to say I'm Hooked!

My good friend Watercolor Wendy had did early experimentation with Yupo and it turned out really super, so I mentioned that I wanted to try it and she invited me over to try it out.

I was really lucky because before I even put paint to paper, Wendy gave me the run down on the paper and alot of good tips.
1. Since the material is like plastic, it doesn't absorb, it just sits on top. It felt alot like acrylics, where you pushed the paint around. If you use a juicy wash, it will move and move everywhere even where there isn't any water (unlike watercolor paper) So careful when picking up your paper if there is alot wet paint on it.
2. Thicker washes stuck better and you can get really darks fast, to get lights, i was easy to just lightly lift. Any mistakes are easy to correct, just wipe up, or soften with water and lift.
3. Dry time was pretty fast and faster with a hairdryer.
4. You can mix on the paper and it makes amazing swirls and textures. Also brush strokes are seen which gives it cool look.
5. Second washes need to be lightly applied or you will lift the bottom layer, so go dark first.
6. If planning to try it out, choose a simple shape to get the feel of it and have more success.

I'm sure there's more to be discovered, which is why I ordered a bunch of Yupo and cant wait for it to arrive.

Following the Masters Challenge

2009-07-14T16:10:00.000-07:00

Yeah! I've got my painting of Maxfield's Parrish "Stars" done for the Following the Master's Challenge #4. just in time!

Sitting Bull Done!

2009-07-07T09:23:00.001-07:00

I've finished up Sitting Bull for now, unless something else pulls me in and compels me to work on it. I darkened up the facial, shirt and lightened up some of the other highlights. I dont want to overwork it, which I feel that i've done already, so right now it's in the "No Touch" zone! only looky,lookey!

I've been taking small painting breaks to try to complete this and it's about done, I have some tweaking to do on the face and the fringe.

I haven't had much time for painting at all, since I've been coordinating my nephew's wedding that is happening this Sunday! Yikes! actually, I will be so relieved when it is done, since it has been a ongoing project that I've bee working on for the last six weeks.
Anyway... I was able to squeeze some painting time last night in and I've been wanting to do this painting of Sitting Bull, Lakota Sioux. I'm still working on it and hopefully I'll be able to get more time later to finish it.

Framed!

2009-07-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

So excited that I got some of my artwork professionally framed. I found a person who does it inexpensively and I'm thrilled with his work. I finally can hang some of my own work on the walls.
Yeah! ( the white cardboard are corner protectors I haven't taken off yet)

Asia

2009-07-02T17:07:00.000-07:00

This is my little niece Asia, she came over and happily posed for some shots in the front yard. She's a natural in front of the camera and super cute!
I've been discovering, I really like to paint people and their faces since it's so interesting to see a person's face come to life in the process and so satisfying when it's finished.

Bears One

2009-06-25T15:30:00.000-07:00

This is "Bears One" a Sioux Native American, that was shot as a black/white photo and I took creative license and added the colors. Although, I'm not sure if Bear One is male or female, I've choosen to paint it more "feminine" with the colors I've chosen.
I used Manganese Blue and Ultramarine blue for the scarf, for the face I used Q. rose+Gamboge+Burnt umber, with touches of Cobalt and Ultramarine blue for greying down. For the background, I used Alizarin Crimson and Phthalo green which gave me deep grape color.
The other thing that I wanted to share was that I had torn a full sheet into different sizes and it's been fun choosing what to paint on them.

Koi Harmony

2009-06-22T09:16:00.000-07:00

Felt inspired to throw some large puddles of paint down, so I cleared off the Dining room table and covered it with plastic and brought my painting stuff out there.
I tore a full sheet in half and mixed up some Perm Rose, Hansa Yellow and Phthalo Blue. I then used some plastic food wrap to throw in there. I started by placing the yellow on top, then the blue on the bottom, then the red in the middle. I let it move and liked it so I then placed the wrap down, I was thinking I was going to do a Angel or something fluid looking and ended up with with this fish shape.
I pouring some color under the wrap and squished it down and started looking at the rest of the painting. This type of painting is fairly quick since you are just throwing down color and placing the wrap or other materials down on it and then you have to wait for it to dry, usually a overnight or you can speed up the process and blow dry. I choose to let it dry overnight.
One thing I learned from previous pouring like this is to lay paper towels around the edges to pick up the excess paint, then it wont creep back into the painting and create blossoms.
Anyway, as I was looking at it I thought it would be cool to throw in the yin/yang symbol and so I broke out my sponge and removed paint in that shape. I also used the sponge to make the swirly movements in the water. I really like using the sponge in this way!
I added some Quin Gold and Payne Grey to darken some area's, I'm still tweaking it, and I haven't took it to the mirror yet, so there still work to be done.
It was really fun doing it.

Wedding Rose updated

2009-06-22T09:04:00.001-07:00

I'm thinking that this rose is done, although I'm living with it right now to see if anything else bugs me about it. I've found that it useful to look at it in a mirror to see flaws or area's that need correcting.
One artist I read somewhere, brings a mirror with him when he plein airs (he set it up besides him, slightly above and off to the side of him) and he says he refers to that mirror frequently as he paints. I might do that in my studio area, but I'd have to figure out how to hang it or maybe I'll just put one in the room so I dont have to run into the other room to see it.

Wedding Rose - WIP

2009-06-18T20:16:00.001-07:00

Work in progress Wedding Rose. Today my son got married and I started this rose for him and his new bride as a gift and for their wedding card. It's turning out way better than I expected! Must be all the good blessings of love I'm thinking for them as I paint.

Calla Lilies

2009-06-15T14:39:00.000-07:00

Calla Lilies are one of my favorite flowers and so easy to grow in the garden.

Canyon De Chelly

2009-06-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

Working on this shot of Canyon De Chelly, AZ that I took a few years ago on a tour with a guide Adam Teller of Antelope House Tours. He was wonderful and told us many stories about his people and the Canyon. I highly recommend him.

Colorful Window

2009-06-10T08:45:00.000-07:00

We'll I've finally got something posted. Yeah! I've been meaning to posted in the last couple of weeks, but life had other things planned for me. I didn't do much painting but I was able to work and finish this Colorful Window piece.
I took this window picture in one of the historical sites we visited in Germany a few years back. I would love to go back to Germany. The country and the people are wonderful. We found a great flight for $600 round trip in mid September. Couldn't resist that price to go to Germany!
It was tricky trying to take a picture of this to post on the blog, a close up shot didn't give the whole picture of what it was so I took a wider angle shot with my reference photos.
I did discover I like to look and take pictures of repeating patterns but having to paint them is a pain! Heehee! the things I discover about myself when painting. No More Circles!!!

Practice Buddha - Done

2009-05-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

I finished ( I think...) my practice Buddha and feel a lot wiser about the process. I'm glad I tried this before attempting the bigger one I sketched out. I'll probably do a few more like this but in different colors so I can play around and see what I like best.

Mini Portfolio

2009-05-13T17:22:00.000-07:00

Here's the mini portfolio I started to keep track of my paintings and colors I used to create.

Practice Buddha - WIP

2009-05-13T17:04:00.000-07:00

I'm working on this Buddha as a practice for a larger piece I'm planning to do for my son. This is on a 9x12 block and the larger piece will be on a 18x20 block.
I wanted to work out some colors and get into the flow for the larger piece. I'm glad I did, since I ran into some challenges like remember how much Quin Gold doesn't like to be disturbed once laid down on the paper. To overcome that, I've found to lay additional layers of the paint on dry and then spray with a fine mist pump and gently brush the areas and it smoothes out on it's own. And to remember to use a BIG brush, I had trouble just using the regular brushes on this piece which is weird, but I'm keeping that in mind when I tackle the big piece.
Also, I'm not sure I like the colors I chose so I'm going to work on that as well. Next to the painting is my little workout card that I'm using to work and record colors I chose for each painting. I then will put them in a album I'm using as a mini portfolio, which will help me keep track of what colors I use for each painting.

Smile it's good for you - done!

2009-05-11T21:33:00.000-07:00

It was great fun painting smiling Gino, a very pleasurable experiencing to having someone smiling back at you!

Smile! It's good for you! - WIP

2009-05-07T09:54:00.000-07:00

Here's my happy friend Gino after a good walk in the hills. He's always got a smile for you, especially after walks or if you have food!
Still a work in progress, but I love how Phthalo green and Aliz Crimson makes a great black. I mixed more of the green than red and I like the shadow cast it makes. More to come..... and
Smile it's good for you!

Mother's Day Dragon Fly

2009-05-06T15:49:00.000-07:00

Here's a special dragonfly I painted for my sweet Mother in law and my hubby's sister Charlene. I wanted to paint them something special because they are so special to us.
Happy Mother's Day Mom and Charlene!

Following the Masters #2 complete

2009-05-05T11:04:00.000-07:00

Yeah! I'm ready to submit my art to Michelle's Following the Masters challenge. I've had a lot of fun challenging myself and participating. It's enjoyable being part of a group activity and seeing the creative ways people are expressing their work. Thanks Michelle for setting this up and facilitating it!

Michelle Burnett's Following the Master's Challenge #2 WIP

2009-04-23T19:23:00.000-07:00

Okay here's what I have so far, I'm kinda liking it.... but need to tone the green down.... back to the easel!

Michelle Burnett's Following the Master's Challenge #2

2009-04-19T18:24:00.000-07:00

Michelle Burnett's Following the Master's Challenge #2

I couldn't resist and wanted to join in the fun after seeing Michelle Burnett's latest post on her blog "Following the Masters" A Monthly Painting Challenge.

This month's challenge is "Walking on the Beach" by Spanish Impressionist Painter Joquin Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923)

If you feel called, join in the fun!! Thanks Michelle for creating!

Healing Master WIP

2009-04-13T11:00:00.001-07:00

Gotten alittle bit further with it.

Healing Master

2009-04-13T10:51:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture I'm working on of Master Choa Kok Sui, he's the founder of Pranic Healing. I'm doing this picture for my Pranic Healing Teachers as a gift.

It's back.... Mystery Fuschia

2009-04-06T16:57:00.000-07:00

I've darkened up my darks on the Mystery Fuschia and it's looking good! Thought I would share.

Release and Create!

2009-04-06T12:56:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago, I took a weekend workshop called the Abundance course, which is Larry Crane's "Release Technique". It teaches you how to have abundance in every area of your life through a simple release technique.

I found out about this technique through a friend who has taken the "Sedona Method" course, which is based on the same principals. I went out and bought the Sedona Method book, used the technique to release on a issue I was having and had immediate relief! I was sold on it so I took the weekend workshop, which made it even more experiential and useful.

Why I bring this up? because I used the technique to release on creating my own art designs. I've been having a block on what to create and just going for it. So I released on it and this morning I created two designs that I'm looking forward to painting!
I recommend this process to anyone who is looking to achieve success in any area of their life.
Just check out the book in the store and try it right there on any issue and see if it helps you. It did for me.

Fuchsia's Mystery

2009-03-25T09:16:00.000-07:00

This was a fun fuchsia painting and named appropriately Fuchsia's Mystery since I couldn't remember the name of the flower without the help of the friends here on my blog. Thank You!

One of the things I actually had trouble with is trying to get the water blossom effect on the painting. It was really difficult! which is funny since when I started painting I was a master at creating them. Maybe it was because I was using 330lb paper? well anyway, I was able to create some but not easily.

I'm going to continue defining the leaves but wanted to do a posting since I've been away so long.

Dump Cake with a twist

2009-03-13T14:27:00.000-07:00

Dump Cake with a twist.
My sister Anna brought this cake to our February family birthdays and I've had dump cake before but this has a couple other ingredients that makes it delicious.
For those of you who wonder about the name, it's called dump cake because you dump all the ingredients in and then bake.

1 - 20 oz can of Apple Pie filling
1 - 20 oz can of Crushed Pineapple (undrained)
1 - Box of Yellow Cake Mix
1 - 7 oz bag shredded coconut
1 - 2 oz bag chopped pecan bits (optional, you can use any kind nuts)
1 - Cup of butter (melted)

Spread apple filling in the bottom of the 9x13 pan, next layer crushed pineapple, next spread dry cake mix over the fillings, next layer coconut and then nuts. Pour melted butter all over the top of this.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 min.

Yum!

Mystery Flower.......

2009-03-13T11:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know the name of this flower, it's one of my favorite flowers from childhood, but for the life of me right now I cant remember it's name! I thought I'd just go and google it but I dont know what to words to search for.... uh dangly pink flower.... so if any of your remember, I appreciate the help :-)
I'm still working on the values of the flowers and wondering about the background and how I should go at it. So I guess it's still a mystery flower......

Meditation Girl

2009-03-09T20:56:00.000-07:00

Ahh, the joy of meditation. I could use some of this reality right now, good thing painting is like a meditation to me.
This was a quick paint, I kinda wanted to try it loose and not so much attention to details. For some reason the pencil lines around the hands, I couldnt get erased, I must have pressed to hard.

Asian Goddess Quan Yin

2009-02-28T15:10:00.000-08:00

Pink Lotus

2009-02-24T15:31:00.000-08:00

Here's something I've been wanting to paint. Amazingly it didn't take long. Which is good since I'm a impatient kinda girl!

A What? ... Artisan Stimulus Package?

2009-02-16T19:46:00.001-08:00

What’s a Artisan Stimulus Package?

I landed on this site after reading Cindy Davis Art blog and she did a nice write up on the site which prompted me to sign up as a verifed member.

Artfire has a creative marketing campaign called “Artisan Stimulus Package”. Artfire is another Handmade Ecommerce site like Etsy but has more features for Artists to shop, sell, forge (trade) and interact. A nice comparison chart is on their signup page of how they compare to Etsy.

The special offer is you can get a Artfire verifed account for $7.00 a month for LIFE

(Regular Price $20.00) They are only offering this to 5000 accounts. Right now there are only $1,981 accounts left.

( Update! - Only 1,977 special accounts left to sign up for! When I started writing this blog, there were 1,981 special accounts left and now it’s dropped down 4 accounts in the short time I started to write this blog post. )

But I have questions…..

How they are going to bring in buyers?

They state that they have already locked in the back cover of “Craft” magazine for the next two years, purchased numerous display, broadcast and web ads, as well as over 75 million views of ArtFire ads on websites such as Facebook, Mother Jones!, Google, various blog sites, “green” webzines, arts & crafts webzines, and many other channels in the last 100 days. And will continue to buy advertising and increase that budget every month for you. Their site traffic has grown more than 3,000% because of this marketing.

And Why? No listing fees, final sale fees or renewing fees... what’s the catch?

Here’s what they say “There really is no catch. We used to sell on other ecommerce auction sites. It costs those companies about 2 cents per listing (in hardware and bandwidth); then they charge you 30 cents to a dollar in listing fees plus a commission. We just thought it was crazy to pay that much for such a simple thing.

Go ahead. List 500 items, list a thousand – sell a thousand, you still pay US $7.00 per month for life. Really. Since we don’t have a corporate jet or cool clubhouse headquarters, skyboxes or free meals in the company food court, we can afford to run the site while charging such a low fee. Heck we even buy our own coffee. In this economy, who would you rather do business with - people like you, living frugally to make things work or the big corporate types who think another “sales retreat” at a spa/golf course is critical to this quarter’s stock price?”

They want us to be Happy...

“It may sound odd, but we built this for you and we really just want you to be happy. We want you to sell, even if it is not with us. In fact, as a verified member you can link to your Etsy store on every item and we’ll even help you track the traffic.”

Art Supply Warehouse - Save on Shipping

2009-02-16T11:55:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to share this site since they have a great flat rate of shipping. Who wants to pay high shipping costs? especially when you can use that extra cash to buy more supplies :-)

ASW - Art Supply Warehouse
http://www.aswexpress.com/

"NEW FLAT RATE $5.95 SHIPPING CHARGE FOR ALL ORDERS SHIPPED STANDARD GROUND TO THE CONTIGUOUS 48 STATES. NO OVERSIZE CHARGES. NO TRUCK SURCHARGES. NO SURPRISES."
They have a expansive inventory of thousands of art supplies from respected names such as: Creative Mark, Charvin, LUKAS, Matisse Derivan, Chroma, Sennelier, Silverbrush, Liquitex, Derwent, Da Vinci, Golden, Old Holland, Winsor & Newton, and more!

Pears

2009-02-15T02:27:00.000-08:00

Finding a interesting subject to paint has been my challenge lately. I've been working on creating a reference catalog. But nothing inspired me! most of this week I was pretty busy but I wanted to paint something, finally decide I would just throw some color down and see if a image emerged and then I would do some negative painting and go from there.
After the paint dried, there wasn't a lot there... so I just decided to break out a book and do a exercise. The book I choose is "Watercolor for the first time" by Kory Fluckiger. This is a really good book with friendly exercises to start off with. For my painting I choose the pears.

Thanks Michelle Burnett! for the great site for Artists

2009-02-10T14:11:00.000-08:00

Found this site from visiting Michelle Burnett blog site. (Thanks Michelle!) It's called Etsy "Your place to buy and sell all things homemade" Michelle has a post up about purchasing a piece of art by Authur Simo, Arthur is an artist with autism. You can see and read his blog here.
http://simoartcorner.blogspot.com/

It was cool to find this site and see all the incredible arts and crafts, and the deals are unbelievable. I'll be doing my shopping here in the future. Of course I wondered about sales, does anything really get sold here? I couldn't see if things were actually being sold (although I haven't fully check out the site). But then I found this statistic report that Etsy puts out and WOW! nice to see that a whopping 683,369 items were sold and generating $9.9 million for the month of January. This is a smart move for Etsy to post these statistics and let everyone see how well this is going and the potential sales you can have here on their site. See a partial report below, you can see more on their site .

Now that I've seen the statistics and I like the site I've created a account and I'll be thinking of the things I can make and sell here. What a great resource! I'm going to tell my family and friends about it. http://www.etsy.com/

Etsy Statistics: January 2009 Weather Report


Story by winenutnyc Published on February 6, 2009 in Etsy News	Photo by barbraziemerphoto

Every year, January is an interesting month at Etsy: we know that sales will be down when compared to the prior month, December, but listings will go up, as folks re-stock their shops after the holiday season. We also pay very close attention to how sales change from week-to-week. As we approach Valentine’s Day we expect the last week of January to exceed the first.

We were pleased with January results: the numbers exceeded our expectations in these difficult economic times.

The stats:

$9.9 million of goods were sold; roughly 23% below December's sales figure (sales for the last full week of January represented a 9.3% increase above the first full week of January).
That represents 683,369 items sold for the month, a 16.2% decrease from December's stats.
1,203,417 million new items were listed in January, up from 1,098,644 items or 9.2% vs. December.
138,000 new members joined the Etsy community, 16.3% below December's record number of new members.
443,468,017 page views were recorded on the site, an 8.1% increase compared to December.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Etsy community in January!

Cool tool for scoring lines

2009-02-08T19:52:00.000-08:00

Oh and I found this tool in the scrapbook dept. it's a image transfer tool used for paper scoring, rub on's and dry embossing. I've been looking for a better tool to use than a palette knive when scoring lines in the paper (for leaves, petals, etc) I've always had a heck of time holding a palette knife in the right angles while scoring, I usually make a bad line and that really irrates me. I just tried this on my leaves and it worked great! They are pretty cheap too, I think I paid under $3.00 at Michaels Craft stores.

The Poppy Stranger - Progress

2009-02-08T19:22:00.000-08:00

Here's where I'm at to date with the Poppies. It's coming along... the one thing I've found out about this painting is that I should study poppies more. I kinda feel like I'm going through the dark, not much passion either, since I really don't know the poppy. No formal introduction, no small talk, no dance.. it's like painting some stranger. I like poppies, in fact I think they are very beautiful, but I have no relationship with them. How silly! but not really......... I'll have to make a date with some poppies.

Could have used a few more feet.........

2009-02-03T20:50:00.000-08:00

Could have used a few more feet to my height otherwise I wouldn't be standing on this chair to take these pictures of my art for this blog! Heehee! I just had to show you my fancy scanning technique I had to develop since the paper I was working on was bigger than my scanner.
Boy, would I love to get one of those A4 or X-large scanners but the cost is bucko $$$ so being a smart short person, I create my own way! Hey it works!

Red Poppies - work in progress

2009-02-03T20:42:00.000-08:00

This is another one of my pictures I'm working on from Jan's class, one of the five! It's red poppies that's coming along. Today, I ran around so I didn't get to paint much, but I did get some of the green stuff in. I still have to darken the reds and work the centers, and the more green!

Sea Angel Abstract

2009-02-02T22:05:00.001-08:00

Here's another painting that I have named Sea Angel for all the greens and teals of color. I did this in Jan Foss's watercolor workshop. Jan demonstrated how she did her moving water, rocks, and trees abstract art and it was my intention to do a moving river with rocks and trees, but when I removed the sarah wrap from my paper, the glorious Angel appeared and I knew that I wanted to keep it as an Angel.

Lake Tahoe and Workshop with Jan Foss

2009-02-02T06:03:00.000-08:00

Had a Great week painting 6 hours a day in a week long watercolor workshop with Jan Foss of Lake Tahoe. See her paintings on her website, http://www.watercolorsbyjanfoss.com/.
Every day we did a new project on either a 1/4 or 1/2 sheet of paper. I really enjoyed this process of using the sheets vs the blocks. I mainly paint on blocks of watercolor since it's seems easier and what I have a lot right now. Using the sheets gave me the feeling of more creative rights to what I could paint and the scale. Painting big seemed intimidating, but Jan made it feel so natural and fun.

Jan is a wonderful artist and teacher. I really love her techniques on achieving the soft edges and colors she uses. She really helped us all with composition, scale and technique. I also liked the way she setup her palette. I had just set my palette up and found that I didn't like the way I had placed my colors around it, because i kept having to unnaturally reach for yellow to mix with my blue and mixing my blue with my red for purple. So I've been using up the paints and when I've got most of them used up on the palette, I'm going to re-setup my palette the way she did. I'll do a separate blog on that.

This picture is done on a 1/4 sheet, so it's larger than my scanner. It's a snow scene of Lake Tahoe. I'm going to use it for next year's Christmas card. It was great learning how to paint snow on trees. Jan showed us a couple of version on how to achieve snow on the trees, shadows and composition.

Thank You Diana

2009-01-13T13:43:00.000-08:00

When my sister in law Diana was up here visiting over the holidays, we had planned to do some watercolor painting. She selected this Iris from a set of lessons I had taken from my w/c teacher Wendy , we ended up getting so busy that we weren't able to paint, but Diana had managed to draw out the Iris. The darn thing was itching to be painted (or was it me that just wanted to :-)
Anyway, here it is, and Thank You Diana!

What the Hell, you might as Well.......... YES!

2009-01-09T22:28:00.000-08:00

Excuse me!, but this caught my eye in Julia Cameron's "Walking in this World" The practical art of creativity book.

We had just finished seeing Jim Carrey's "YES MAN" movie, which was good, motivational and eye-opening to the wonderful possibilities of saying "YES". Liked it on many levels and recommend seeing it.

Decided to stop in the bookstore and I found this book. The first task is "What the Hell, You Might As Well", Huh? had to look it up and see what that meant. Basically, we sometimes get stuck and we just have to take/make some small creative movements to get the energy moving forward, seeing that we have choices and a new sense of direction.

So the task at hand is to write a list from 1-20 and list 20 small creative actions you could take. For example:
1. Paint the kitchen windowsill.
2. Hange lace on my bedroom door
3. Put the primrose into a good pot.

and etc. ...

Wow, seeing Yes Man first, getting all motivated, and now finding this book to help me get my energy moving. It's Great! Yes! yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,...
So tomorrow I'm going to work on my "What the Hell list"
oh yes.................

About Julia:
Julia Cameron is famous for her book "The Artist Way" She has a amazing
website and forum http://www.theartistsway.com

Rain Man.... part 2 hmmmm..............

2009-01-07T10:39:00.000-08:00

Okay, I woke up this morning and thought about how I could resolve the beard/hair on Rain man (hubby's) face. I'm still not satified with the outcome of this painting. I'm going to try scratching it with a razor to bring in some highlights of his beard. He really does have grey in it!
More to come.

Rain Man.... part 2

2009-01-05T19:57:00.000-08:00

I've gotten Rain Man as much done as I want to fiddle with it. I kept looking at it and fiddling and fiddling till I think that I'm fiddling with it to much! Maybe should have called it "Fiddle Man" !