A season of gratitude

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. We spent the day together packing the upstairs of our house  since we are moving around New Year's. It's the only time we really had to make a concerted effort to get things packed. So we popped the turkey in early, along with the stuffing. At 4 PM we sat down to a simple dinner of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing and a fresh spinach salad.

I didn't get much done this week in terms of painting as we are also leaving on vacation Tuesday (planned long before the house move). So here is my work in progress. I painted it from a photo reference I found on Google Images. It still has a long ways to go with the leaves and background - but it's getting there.

I'm so thankful for the instructors that teach me art - - - and I also appreciate those in class with me for all their encouragement and comments. I'm also thankful for people who stop by to see the blog and give me feedback on my work. THANK YOU.

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Paint Party Friday / Friday Sketches!

Thanks for stopping by.

Purple Diversity

Here is what I've been up  to this week! I've been so busy with my sick husband, working full-time and packing to move, I painted away my stress every night...

The first thing I did was to paint some purple Gerber daisies for a friend for Christmas. I found a great steal at Michael's on wooden frames last night so that will work perfectly!

Still in the purple mood, I painted some Saskatoon berries using a very watery technique. I really like how they turned out.

Continuing with my purple theme, I did a few scenes on postcard size watercolor paper:

It's amazing to see all the purple in our surroundings. I hadn't given it much thought until I went through this week's work. Purple x 4. 

So on Thursday night I painted something blue. Enjoy! Thanks for stopping by!

Linking to Paint Party Friday hosted by the lovely Kristin and Eva.

A Special Gift for Someone

I thought I would share this fun idea for those of you who work/live in a cubicle environment... It's always fun to exchange gifts with your cube-mates - but no one wants or can always spend a lot of money. You can make something like this for about $3 if you already have a hole punch, ribbon and some photo paper. These are also fun for teens for their rooms.

So to make this fun little art hanging gift for someone's cube:

1. Get some hints from their cube about what they like (dogs, horses, travel,etc.)

2.  Find 5-6 (or you can use more like I did here) great photos you already have taken in your inventory. Or how about your art? Scan it in, and use Photo Shop or  Picasa to edit.

3.  Crop your photos so they're about the size of a playing card showing your subject (or the size you want to use - just don't make them too big - not sure they would hang right)

4. Print your photos on photo paper

5. Use a corner rounder to make nice even corners 

6. Punch a hole (I used a grommet tool from my sewing kit) in the top corners of each card 

7. Take enough  3/8 inch of a color-coordinating ribbon to leave 6-8 inches on each end and lace through the cards with most of the ribbon on the backside. Tie a double knot in each end so the cards won't fall off. Use thumbtacks to push into the cubicle wall - or if there are hooks you can tie the ends into loops and hang on the hooks.

Cute! Hope you enjoy making a few of these! Thanks for stopping by!

Creative Inklings

It's late Sunday night. Everyone's gone to bed. I hear the house noises - the fridge is running and a clock is ticking. The dishwasher's timer just kicked in and water runs in to clean the dishes.

It is this time -well past 10:00 PM that I love. The quiet. The creative comes out to play. The later it is, the better I like it to play with my watercolors, inks, pens, and pencils. It's me-time. 

I've been playing with some inks and decided to create some abstract, mixed media pieces for my Society6 shop. You can find my art prints, totes, clocks, and throw pillows there. A great place to shop for holiday gifts this season.

Here are some of my late night inklings. I like to completely wet a piece of watercolor paper and take Dylusions Ink Sprays and spray a bit of color here and there and just let it run and do it's own thing. Sometimes I'll take a stencil and spray over it and then turn it upside down on another paper and get the "negative" or reverse image. You can have so much fun with these inks. I often will take other paint (usually watercolor or watercolor pencils) and add to mix - and maybe add some washi tape or other mixed media collage elements.

Cloud Burst

Aqua Flow

Dancing the Blues

Architecturally Speaking

The other thing I will do is create a large mixed media sheet and then scan it in, crop pieces out of it that are interesting and create them into their own abstract images.

Mixed Mania

Joy

Ice Cream ABCs

Paris Ozone

I hope you are having a creative day! Catch me next time when I will be doing some abstract watercolor flowers.

Thanks for stopping by! Please leave a comment.

Doodle Time

I've been doodling my entire life. I have some exceptional doodle art from when I was very young.
What I love about doodling is how freeing of the mind and reality it is. I use it quite often in stuffy, boring meetings at work where people are just talking to hear themselves talk. I always keep my handy 8x10 quadrangle-ruled book with me "just in case". If something works out, I copy it on watercolor paper, use my pigment ink pens and watercolor pencils or paint to add some life to it.

Here are some of my doodles from this week:

Since taking Dion Dior's watercolor courses, I've discovered how much I love seeing birds in my art.

 Here we are, under the sea - couldn't resist adding a jelly fish. Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils done in a Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook.

Another sea shore inspiration - sometimes B&W is all it needs.

Inspiration from Dion's class in the water soluble series - feathers! They are so much fun to create and add texture. Derwent Inktense Watercolor Pencils on Pentalic Field Book Paper (140 lb).

A double bloom in ink and Sennelier watercolors on Stillman & Birn Zeta paper.

I've been experimenting with scanning in my paintings vs. photographing them. I seem to be getting a better quality product in the end. This weekend will be spent trying to figure out which printer and what paper will be best for producing prints. I'll share my findings next week!

Thanks for visiting - Happy Weekend!
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