Paint, Projects & Play!

Hello weekend!  Fortunately, mine starts today.  After spending 2 hours pushing a lawn mower last night I've not exactly hit the floor running today.  Sleeping in was first order of the day and it felt good.  Not going to feel guilty.  I've got nothing but studio time and art on my plans this weekend.   I just finished up this collage in my art journal/sketch book which was really quite fun and refreshing to create.

A combination of magazine, paper, paint and doodles it was fun to not over think and play in my journal. Now laying on my studio table is a blank canvas.  I'm about to get underway on that plus I have a bit of a project I'd like to start.  That being my index card file.  Don't know if you have one but I use it to keep website info., account info., anything I may need to recall and have readily available.  Alphabetical to organize I believe it is calling out for some color, and clean up.  So a playful weekend is on my agenda.  Hope you are planning the same!

Linking to: Paint Party Friday

Hello Friday!

Today for Paint Party Friday I'm sharing a bit of new art. Still hooked on these playing cards as canvases.  (Thank you Stephanie Ackerman for this new addiction.)

 And even applied the lesson of  less is more sometimes.  Aka...knowing when to stop. :)

I have a lot of creative thoughts flowing right now.  Oh yes, its good to have that happening!  Can't move fast enough to get them out or done but I'm not complaining.

Hope everyone has a good creative weekend!

Collage play

I'm continuing to work on bringing new life to old pieces of my artwork.  This is a 5 x 7 wood board piece that previously had something way different on it. (Yes, flower oriented of course!) The sad truth is that it just didn't make the grade as artwork should go so I papered, drew, painted, and even used a flower stamp I made to make it  completely anew.
Hope you like her!

Today is just the beginning

Happy Paint Party Friday!

Woohoo!  Friday!  And this week finds me with today in the studio.  Every once in awhile I like to collage with images from magazines and play around with what I can create that way.  See more here. It  pushes me to create something funky and fun starting with cut out pieces and then expanded upon.

Collage on canvas with paint, markers & paper.

Because this makes me "work" at loosening up it usually takes me longer than anything else I do to finish.  This probably means I need to do more of this!
This weekend I plan on cracking open some brand new Twinkling H2O's and playing with watercolor.   Enjoy your fall weekend everyone!

See more great blogs here

The Holidays--

The Holidays are coming!  The Holidays are coming!  Oh my and a great big sigh!   Everywhere I'm
looking these days it is Halloween or Christmas or both out for display.  I'm just not ready to embrace this.  Just being honest.  But while I'm not ready to "go there" just yet I actually have made what I call Gifts from the Heart. 

Just getting started with these as they are more time consuming than one would think.  Paper, glue, and embellish.  Not hard just takes time.  And not just for Christmas either which makes them great.
Since my last post I also proceeded with making a few tags.

 

Haven't really done these before but they were fun to do.

Hope you have a creative weekend and join me over at

                                                    http://paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com

No, it's not really Fall

Yesterday 104, today the same? Oh, excuse me...only 102? I stand corrected.  And guess who didn't have the household air conditioner in working order for a full 24 hours during that ascend and sweltering 104. Yep, it was a timely mechanical failure that left us tossing and turning Thursday night to what seemed like a jet engine sound of fans in an attempt to sleep.  But by 5 last night we were back to "chill'n"!  So no I can't say as I feel like it is fall-----at all.
Last week I started a canvas by doing the background and while I did finish it, I haven't had time to scan and load it.  So here is one I recently completed.

"Angel in Progress"

 I'm hoping to have some time over this long weekend to complete some pieces.  Thinking of doing a booth in November and will need to ramp up my production if I do.  Besides it's too hot to do much of anything else!

Studio time today!

I'm having a great Saturday! (Hope you are too.)  It's great because so far I've slept in, checked in on some art blogs, and now in the studio for awhile this afternoon.  Doesn't get much better than that.
Today I'm going to be working on doing something with this canvas I've got prepped and ready to take on it's real purpose.

 In the meantime though, I've been seeing other artists share their entries submitted to the Lilla Rogers Global Talent Search     http://lillarogers.com/global-talent-search/schedule/      The competition had a large amount of submissions and a selection down to a remaining 50 was made earlier this month.
Nope, not a finalist but it was great to have the opportunity to enter.  If not familiar with the contest the submission had to be a playground theme.  Here was my entry-

Thanks for noticing, yes of course there is a big flower on the playground! Ha ha!  There is so much talent around that it can't be easy to pick a winner.  I think just entering makes of us winners!!

Doing Hard Things

A couple of months ago I created a little canvas (below) to put in with a gift to a friend who was beginning chemo.  It has the saying that my mother-in-law would say to my husband over the  years whenever hard things in life came about.  These words are repeated as needed still to this day whenever we need reminding.
Some have more or even harder things to overcome and deal with in our lives than others but we do all have hard things cross our paths.
Just remember....

Save me...I'm melting!

Whoa, it just couldn't be much hotter here in Texas right now. For me it is that time of year when I find myself sprinting from one air conditioned environment to another.  No lingering in the elements for me!  Those of you in the mountains states.... well...shame on you is all I have to say :)

So last Friday I participated in Paint Party Friday.  Not really being a social butterfly I found myself glad I had joined in.  (Thank you Eva and Kristin for doing these.)  There was a wonderful group of great and interesting artists participating.  Think I may have to become a regular.

So with the heat I spent a bit of extra time during the week in the studio.  I'm finishing this piece.  Actually it may be done and just drying right now but, I can't make my mind up on that just yet.

Its has the 3D element to it which I really like.  Having done this before I thought. Why haven't I done more of this?

This piece helped me re-group after working on a piece last weekend that has had to go into hiding in the "art protection program".  It's true fate is in the balance.  Enjoy a cool weekend!

Busy being Creative

I have started my 2nd art journal for the year this past week. Yeah!  Happiness! Having completed one it is so good to look back and see what good days and bad days (with my art) look like.  And I have a 3rd one going as well since the beginning of the year.  It's a bit bigger than I like and so I seem to go to less often.
Aside from the art journaling and sketching I've spent a bit of time in the studio cranking out a couple of  canvases, a clock (another post later), and today retreated back to a chunky wood piece. 

I was doing these all the time awhile back but hadn't done one in quite some time.  My husband was in his workshop so it made it easy to get one of these cut and I was off to create.
Meanwhile he created this fabulous piece for me!! :)

 He is so talented as a wood worker!  Building is one thing but, when he does art with wood he never fails to impress me.  He can "turn" beautiful bowls and boxes.  This however, is something totally different.  Inspired by my daughter in law and a creation similar she had done using utensils, he made quite a unique piece.
Of course I am his biggest fan!
So creativity has been busy in our household and hope you are finding some inspiration this summer as well.

Idle Hands

I mixed it up a bit this week. I grabbed a magazine and sat down in front of the tv. Not to read of course but to cut it up!  Unfortunately I had to lop this poor gals head off and with a bit of glue, paper and markers gave her a makeover.  (She is welcome!)

It was fun and put my idle hands to work.  Grabbed a few more images and will probably do a couple more "makeovers" before I'm through.  Silly is good right?!
This weekend I start my 2nd art journal of the year.  I've finished one completely and bought a new one to begin yesterday. Happiness!  Of course had to feed my addiction to pens and paint while I was purchasing so really excited to try the new ones out. Until next time....
Have a great week!

I have few excuses!

I don't know why I haven't posted for a few weeks, but I'm sure there is good reason!

1)  The maid never shows up.....leaving me to commit precious art time to other shall we say less desirable chores.
2)  That M-F, 8 to 5 nagging irritation that also grabs away precious creating time. What ever happened to women staying home while the men worked?  Apparently art supplies were not available leaving us idle and bored, precariously venturing into the M-F trap.  Shame on us!  If we'd only knew then what we know now!
3)  Then of course there has been the attendance to a Nascar Race, several movies probably, and even an evening of dancing.
So that pretty much explains it!
Nevertheless, I have stolen a few minutes to touch some paint, papers, and markers.

Hope you have a few minutes in your days to create too!

Inspiration block

I've been creating a lot of these over the past couple of months.  They make a quick canvas and provide that sense of completion at one setting! On this particular one I utilized modeling paste and pre-dried.
Hope you like it!

 

Dreaming

I do alot of this...dreaming that is.  I dream about what I would like to do with my life that I haven't, what I would like to be able to do for my family, what it would be like to rich.  (Tell me I'm not alone on this one!)  And well as you can see I just dream.  I dream of as much time as I want to do art also.  Dreaming for me just means I still have hopes and ambitions and imagination. Cause really, loose those and whats the point right?!
p.s.  I dream of doing something with the etsy account I created too!

Happy Mothers Day!

To all of us busy moms we need to just kick up our heels a bit!  Enjoy, relax and don't worry about everything we aren't going to get to that needs done.  Never enough hours or at least the energy to do everything!  So accept that, and have a Happy Mothers Day!

Doodle

Weekends are precious hours to me.  I never seem to get enough done when it comes to my "play" time and during the week I can't always find the time to hit the studio.  So I will pre-paint a canvas sheet so it will be ready for a doodle during the week.
Yes a doodle!  Canvas has always had more appeal to me than papers.   So the majority of what I  do takes place on canvas.  With the pre-painted canvas I can sit and doodle....my way of journaling.

Work in Progress

I've been working on getting this blog organized  and transitioned this weekend so itching to get my hands into the paint and glue!  Here is a recent canvas I've been working on.  Not quite finished but getting there.