Three New Paintings!

Hi there!  I've been a busy little bee lately!  Recently I took part in a challenge to paint 30 paintings in 30 days.  This one above was the very first one that I painted for the challenge.  Not bad #1, not bad!  It's on a 8" x 10"x 1/2" canvas. I love Koi and waterlilies so I figured why not paint both!

This is the second one, "I AM here".  This one was much easier than the first one.  It seemed to flow out fairly easily and tell me exactly what it wanted.  I love when that happens!  It's also on 8" x 10" x 1/2" canvas.

close up of "I AM here"

"Island Of Dreams" was the third painting that I did.  Don't you want to take a boat out on that water and just float?  This one was done on 11" x 14" canvas board. 

 I like how the first three paintings all have water and seem to go together.  I think it was a great way to start off the challenge!  

Just for fun here's a photo of "Island Of Dreams" while it was still in progress.  This can almost be a finished painting itself!

So there's the first 3 out of 30!  I only have 27 more to show you!  ;-)  

They're all done now so if you can't wait you can see them all on my Facebook Art Page or Instagram 

Thanks for visiting!  See you soon!

New Mini Abstract Painting

Hi there!

I have so much art to show you, tons to catch up on, but I'll start off small.

This is a sweet mini painting I just did this week.  It's on a 5x5 inch gallery-wrapped canvas.  

I'm running low on my blank canvas stash, but in cleaning my studio recently, I noticed that I have many old pieces that I never finished for various reasons... so I decided to either finish them or completely paint over them and start again.  This is one of the starting over pieces.  I originally did an experimental collage on it that wasn't turning out how I wanted, and I didn't know how to finish it, so it sat unfinished for over a year.  The great thing about using these unfinished canvases is that they already have a great texture to them!  I added to the texture of this by gluing a few more bits of paper down, then painted over most of it with colors that called to me.  I finished it off by drawing and writing on it with a water-soluble pencil, then sealed the whole thing.

It felt good to get one of these unfinished paintings out of a drawer, and give it a new life ... ready to be seen and hung on someones wall!  Now I'm moving on to another unfinished one that's been calling my name!

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... 

"Waterlily" Texture Painting

Hi!  Since I keep disappearing from these parts and have tons to catch up on, I'll just jump right in...

I'm going to start sharing some of my art that you haven't seen  yet out there in Blogland.  This piece was finished last May and I'm completely in love with it!  So much so in fact that it's recently sparked a whole waterlily/lotus series that I'll share with you later.















I started by printing out one of my photos in black and white onto paper, sealing it, and gluing it down onto a canvas.  I then used heavy gel medium to create texture, and painted over it all when it was dry.















Love that texture!















To finish it off I gold-leafed, antiqued, and sealed the sides.

The photo that inspired this piece was one that I  took many years ago, of a waterlily in a koi pond in my parents backyard.  I always knew I wanted to do something with it.  I'm so glad I did!  Ah... so pretty!  (Can I say that about my own art?  hee hee).















I have greeting cards available of this painting, and will get some prints made of it also.  If you're interested just let me know!

So what have you been up to out there in Artsy Blogland?  I'd love to know, it's been too long!

Painting Freely

Hi there!

I'm so excited!  I got to paint some more after my last post!!  Yahoo!!

I soooo needed to get back into my studio and get paint on my hands.  I was on the computer for a while that day and kept coming across artists whose work was deliciously sloppy and free.  I was so inspired (and a bit jealous).  I wanted to do that too. 

in progress

 Finally I went into my studio and grabbed a canvas that I had painted black for another project years ago.  I grabbed 3 paints, squeezed one onto the canvas and used my hands to smear it around, then did the same with the other 2 colors.  Then I grabbed white paint and used it to draw a branch with my fingers.  

Yes, I finger painted!!

 That was the only way for me to completely connect with, and release, everything that had built up in me from not painting... I had to really go for it, let go of perfectionism, and let loose!

I had to be free!

And boy was it exactly what I needed.  I had a blast!  I smeared, smooshed, splashed and literally threw paint around.   

 I used the end of a paint brush to draw into the wet paint (that was the only time I used a brush on this!) When it dried I used vine charcoal to loosely draw the branch and write "be free" then sprayed it with a sealer.

Ahh... much better now.

So what about you?  What do you really want to be doing right now?  Then why are you on the computer?  Turn it off and go get your hands dirty!!  Paint, write, whatever... just let loose, have fun, and be free!!