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!!!

What I'm Up To...

Hey there.  Just wanted to share a few things with you. 

 First, starting today I'm taking this online course Mondo Beyondo.  I'm so excited and unsure what to expect, but I've heard amazing things about it, so I decided it's time for me to take that next step and take the class.  It's about discovering your dreams and equipping yourself with the tools to go after them!  Sounds great, right?  They are having a 2 for 1 deal, so I got a friend to take it with me.  Are you ready, Manya, to dream big together?!  Yay!!  

If you want to learn more about the class click on the photo below.

Then this Thursday.... aahhh!!!!!  ehhem.... composing myself now .... this Thursday... just a few days away (yipee!) I'm taking a class from the one and only Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch who is an amazing encaustic (wax) artist.  She wrote one of my favorite art books, "Encaustic Workshop", and she's teaching at the Create Mixed Media Retreat in Costa Mesa this week.  The class I'm taking is called "Plastered in Wax".  We will learn how to use plaster as a base for encaustic work!  Woohoo!!  I'm so excited!  If any of you are local I think there's still room in the class and there's SO many other amazing classes by other amazing artist's too...jewelry, bookbinding, everything!  Wish I could take more.

And last but NOT least my friend Kristin over at Twinkle Twinkle will be hosting a wonderful free blog event called "The Summer of Color".  To quote Kristin "Think of it as a blog block party centered around the beautiful, bold and luscious colors of the rainbow. It's the stuff we arty people dream of." 

 Oooh yes!!  I can't wait!  It starts June 6th.  

For all the info click on the banner below.

So that's all for now.  Just wanted to share what I'll be up to.  Maybe I'll see you at one of these places?  Yes?

Oh, and I should finally be posting more art soon, it's been too long.  xoE

Sorry I keep re-posting this... I keep forgetting things!  Ooops!

Crumbled Rusty Garden Wall Painting

Here's another finished mixed media painting that I made as homework for the online Texture Town class.   Remember I mentioned the art vortex and getting paintings done in the last post?  This is another one that I worked on that day.  It is supposed to be a soft pretty crumbly wall, but I had to kick it up a notch with some rusty bits and faux rust paint so it felt more "me". 

I've been collecting rusty bits for years (sounds dirty, LOL!) and didn't know what exactly I was going to do with them....until now!!  I knew they would be worked into my art, but I hadn't really used them yet.

I'm so excited and I LOVE the way it turned out!  I told my husband that this painting has been in me for quite a while now, I guess I just needed this class and these techniques to bring it out!  Everything in it's own time, right?

This shot above shows my favorite part of the painting...it really does look old and decayed.

This is done on a 12x12 canvas with layers of Heavy Gel Medium, stencils, Golden's fluid acrylics, and of course... found rusty bits.

I hope you all are constantly learning more, and taking what you are learning and making it more "you"....you have to...no one else will!

Art Vortex and Shadow Shot Sunday

Thursday was the best day ever!  I got sucked into an art vortex and painted for hours, only stopping when necessary.  I was in that amazing place where time, hunger, and pain do not exist (though they certainly exist now).  I was in "the zone" that we artists strive for.  The one we create rituals to try be able to tap into it when we want, but so many times it eludes us, but not me...not Thursday.  Everything just flowed so wonderfully!  I was floating...and still am!

 I finished this painting, almost finished a second one and even worked on a small third one all that day.

 This is from Lesson 8 : 2D texture for my Texture Town class.  This class really is the best!  I can't believe how much I'm getting out of it!  I love it!! I know I keep saying it, but it's true!  If anyone is considering it, I highly recommend it!

 This was painted on a 12x12 canvas.  I glued down paper, fabric, netting, mesh, and ribbons with gel medium.  I then used the gel medium to create texture and stamped into it (in the center red square) and used stencils to add the raised dots.

I painted this to hang in the direction that is shown, but once it was done, I turned it clockwise one turn and liked it that way too.  So I posted both in the class forum to see what they thought and one of the teachers, Julie Prichard, suggested  turning it once more.  So I ended up posting it all four ways and asking the other students to vote.  Everyone liked it a different way!  I think it's a wonderful "problem" to have.  I've never experienced this before.  So I decided just to go with how I originally planned it, and whoever ends up buying it down the road can hang it however they want!

And here's my photo for Shadow Shot Sunday.  I thought this went well with the painting above with a bit of similar colors and pattern.  To join in the fun and see more shadows, pop on over to visit  Hey Harriet.

A Card with Class!

Hi!  I just wanted to share with you a card that I made the other day.  I just glued scraps of paper down then painted over them and doodled with a pen.  I also stamped the flower on a separate piece of paper,  doodled over the stamping, then added it to the collage.  Then I just spattered and swiped some matching paint on the envelope and Viola!  Done!

Also, I singed up for my 1st online art class and I'm so stinkin' excited about it!  It's being held by Julie Prichard of "The Land of Lost Luggage" and Chris Cozen who is a working artist for Golden (how cool is that?)  It's a mixed-media painting class is called "Texture Town" and it starts on the OCT. 12.  Seriously, a class all about textures?  How perfect is that for me?  I can't wait!!  The class is normally   $59, but they are giving an early bird rate until the Oct 11th of $49.  I'm not getting anything for sharing this with you, I just wanted to help spread the word because I know there's at least a few of you who might be interested and it might be fun to have some of my friends in it with me!! To learn more click here.   If you sign up, let me know and maybe I'll save you a seat next to me ; )