Flower paintings

Hi there!

I know in my last post I said that I would share more from the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge, but I wanted to share these with you first. This pretty little (5" x 5") piece was a commissioned by one of my good friends ( a brilliant wedding photog) as a gift for another friend of hers. What a special gift, right? 

She told me her friend loves these colors and Chrysanthemums, then we figured out what size to make it. I loved doing this and I think it turned out great! If it wasn't for this commission I might not have ever made a painting that was mostly yellow, green. and white, but I'm sure I will again! And my friend and I decided this was a win-win situation. She didn't have to stress about the perfect gift, she just gave me me the specifics and I took care of the rest.. and then I get paid instead of some store where she'd buy something she wasn't sure about. Total win all around! :-) Yay for smart friends! 

This fun collage above is how I started the mixed media painting. I love doing fun backgrounds, even if you hardly see it when it's done. The photo below is how it looked in phase two as I was starting to paint in the flower. I really like how you can still see the book page through the flower. Maybe I'll do another piece and let it show through more like this.

Now I just want to share one more painted flower with you. I did this over another piece that never felt quite right, so it has great texture from the layers underneath. Taking the old and making it new again can be so rewarding. This one sold on Facebook. It's only 4" x 4" and it's called "Rebirth".

Thanks for stopping by! Have a creative day :-)

xoE

I'm back... again?!

Hi there!

I've been trying to work on a longer post but I'm a bit rusty so I figured I'd just get a quick one up to get me back into Blogland in the meantime.  

We had a wonderful and very busy summer where we were gone a lot.  It didn't leave me with much time for art, but I took TONS of photos and gathered heaps of inspiration! 

Now that school has started up again and things are getting back to "normal" (is it ever really normal?") I've finally started to get some paint on my hands again.  Yay!  Paint just makes everything better doesn't it?  I know I'm not alone in this!  The above photo is a tiny part of a huge waterlily painting that I've been working on. 

 I have a lot of catching up to do with you all and I'll share more later, but for now the studio is calling so it's time to go get messy... 

Be Daring Journal Pages

...and now for something a bit different than you usually see from me.  What?  Is there actually a person...err...bird....err... woman who's very fond of birds, in some art of mine?  You betcha.

I started this art journal spread several years ago, but it never felt finished, so I doodled on it a bit more.  Still not done.  I added the words "Be daring.  Be unique.  Just be you".

It still wasn't quite done.

Finally I gave in to the idea that was wanting to be manifest every time I'd look at her... she wanted a feathered collar so very badly but I kept ignoring her thinking ... yeah right... but finally after hearing her plea with me over the past few years (!!) I gave in. 

 And she was right.  It was just what she needed to complete her statement.

I admire her style... her confidence... her passion.

Her bird

She's definitely daring and unique.

She's not afraid of being herself.  Not afraid of what others might think.

I want to be just like her when I grow up ;-)

Green With Plaster

 Hi there.  I'm a bit late with this, but here is my entry to the Summer of Color for green week.  I've been so inspired by the techniques that I'm learning in the "Plaster Studio Workshop" online class, so I had to finally squeeze in some time for a little plaster play.  This piece is not quite done (I think), but I'm liking how it looks so far.  I think I want to mount it on something but I'm not quite sure how or what yet.  I'll let you know when I do.

detail shots

Ooh, I love this cracked plaster technique!  So much fun!!   

I also wanted to let you know that it will continue to be quiet around here for at least another week, so I'll try to get caught up with you after that.  Hopefully I can then participate more with the "Summer of  Color" fun.

Thanks for being patient with me. 

 I hope you're all having fun and making wonderful messes with paint!  xoE

Hand-Painted Music Cabinet

Here's the cabinet that I showed you last week that I was working on in this post here.  I finished and delivered it Friday, along with another small one that I'll show you later.  

That means I still have a large armoire to finish by the beginning of next week, for the same client but a different house.  It'll be WAY different than this.  The armoire is going to be in cream with accents of turquoise and brown possibly with a bird sitting on a branch.  So if I'm not visiting your blogs as much right now I apologize... tight deadlines!  

This photo above shows the third step in the process.  First was prepping and painting it dark green (thank you Hubby for that part!)  Second step was cutting the stencils and applying a raised texture through the stencils.  Third step is to glue on crinkled tissue paper to give it a leather look.  

Fourth step, paint the tissue and raised stencil areas green.  Fifth step, add gold leaf accents.  Sixth step, antique with a raw umber glaze, and last step is to seal it.

I didn't get the best photos of it because I finished it 7:00 at night and dragged it outside quickly to get photos before the  sun went down.

Oh yeah, actually it's not quite finished!  The client wants me to add a touch of gold to the raised stencil areas so they pop out more. The study that it goes in is dark so you don't notice the details as much.  I'll show photos of that when it's DONE done, but that'll be a while from now.

So now I'm off to go make a blue card of some sort for the Summer Of Color!

Oh, and because I apparently think I don't have enough on my plate right now (LOL!)  I'm taking a fantastic online class that just started yesterday called Plaster Studio Workshop!  Which is taught by Stephanie Lee and Judy Wise... the authors of my new favorite book "Plaster Studio".  Oh my goodness... if you can't take the class (registration closes on the 15th I think) then you have to at least get this book!  WOW!!  It's right up my alley.  Woohooooo!!!