Illustration Friday...Theater

Who hasn't had to don a silly costume and recite lines?

Something new...

Ah yes, I am at it again. Gave myself a little project; paint three small connected paintings. Got them almost done...but trip, trip, trip at the finish line...

Anyway, what tripped me us was some idea swimming around in my head...and I just started painting away at some larger 36x36 " painting.

I've done the basic "thing" before, but I am trying it with different colors... We'll see if I finish this one. :) The colors are nicer in real life and a bit of the all around border is cut off.

I photoshoped the leaves in, they aren't painted in yet, and I might not...we'll see....

Creating a piece of art is such fun!!!!!!

Fraktur III incomplete...so far

Once again I gave myself a little project; to paint up three little flowers. Two down and one to go almost at the finish line and...

Blam! The gesso is flying, staple guns going off, canvas's all over the dining room and I am painting up a storm of larger pictures!

I really don't know what it is with me that makes it so difficult to stay on task...

Well, I am still going to complete this last little flower today,(if it kills me :O) here it is so far... I primed the little canvas with black, chalk in the design and painted over in multiple layers...I touch up the black outline between the colors after I am done with the flower itself. You know, I really like this type of look, (fraktur) done in watercolors best.

I got a few comments on working with acrylics...honestly, I don't know if they are harder to work with than other mediums. It's been all I have used (besides watercolors and pastels) since they are affordable and require less drying time between layers... What do you all think? Do you like them? What do you prefer?

I would love to learn how to use oils...

Little Fraktur flower painting II

This is the second little flower.

I tried to correct my misspellings of Fraktur...if you find any more Please let me know!

The flower left is the original, the one to the right is the altered version. When I first drew and painted these, I had done them in watercolors...they were so delicate and soft. This attribute is lost when I try to paint them onto the canvas in acrylics. Hmm, maybe I should do these all in watercolors.

Hope you all have a wonderful new week...

The first of three new little paintings...

I love the "fraktur" look. You know, those beautiful flowers and animals etc that accompany those old drawn and colored works done in the 17 and 1800's. I read this book called; This Teaching I Present, by Hershey, and drew up quite a few of each. I use them periodically for other works, including portions of this blog.

ANYWAY...I am doing a series of little paintings of fraktur flowers...what fun! The one above is the original, the one to the right is the painting scanned and maniupulated with PhotoDraw with accented edges...I like them both.

I'm sure into orange, green and blue lately, huh?

Illustration Friday: Impossible

In order to obtain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd.

This weeks Illustration Friday offered this quote. I had already created this fellow, only he was walking on the beach carrying a bull rake, obviously going quahogging. When I got the Illustration Friday theme in my e-mail, I thought, what could be more appropriate then this fellow with a rather less than fabulous exterior, giving thought to attempting the absurd? Perhaps he is a man with a tremendously strong sense of self esteem.

Portugal...The Azores

My mother came to visit me over the Easter holiday. We took out an old photo album of pictures from a 2004 trip

to the Azores, Portugal. This is where my mother grew up and immigrated at 18. I can't believe

it has been almost five years since that

trip. Here are some of my favorites.

Sing a song of sixpence...

I was thinking about nursery rhymes and all the little images that pop into your head as you hear the words...

"four and twenty black birds baked in a pie!!!" Yuck!

Except, at the end, the birds began to sing! Hooray!

Illustration Friday ...Fleeting

This weeks theme is fleeting. I thought of a few things...but all of them made me sad.

When this popped into my head it gave me a laugh...

We all need that!

Easter Joy!

To my dear readers,

I realize that not all of you that read this blog are celebrating Easter, and peace to you!

However, this is a particularly special holiday for me. I have such wonderful memories of Easter, waking up with a basket of goodies by the bed, a special outfit for church, and the beautiful flowers; tulips, and little grape hyacinths blooming all around.

I can remember going to church, and coming home later to play with my toys. We went a few times to an Easter egg hunt held at a local school and my memories are vague yet I remember the fun of searching!

Now that I am older, the concept of Easter is one of joy and thankfulness, less of candy and new clothes... (ok, ok...excepting any type of chocolate goodie!)

But, as spring celebrates new birth for the earth with all those glorious blooms rising out of a "dead" garden, I see Easter as a celebration of new birth for my soul...

So here is my Easter egg, to the earth. Such a beautiful planet, such a wonderful piece of art given to all of us, I believe, by God to remind us that He is the consummate artist!

A very tiny painting.

I was rummaging around the attic, where I threw all my art stuff a while ago. I found this tiny little canvas, it is 3"x 3". I thought that since I had such fun painting yesterday's little canvas, I would paint up this one too.

I am really enjoying painting over a very dark background.

In this case I painted the entire canvas black, including the sides, and then layered color on top.

It is actually a bit brighter in person. My scanner made it appear much darker.

A little painting

I painted this yesterday, instead of working on the pattern...LOL I mean, why break from my usual pattern of doing things?!

1. Make a plan.

2. Get completely distracted by something else...

3. Forget original idea...

4. Do something totally different!

Oh, well...

Creating a repeating pattern...

I love the idea of creating a repeating pattern on a stamp. I visited a blog archive at Design*Sponge and learned how to do this. She gives a beautiful example with terrific photos (she is quite talented!).

It is really quite fun and the resulting image matches up on all sides so you can just stamp away or...

You can create a full sized design to fill an entire sheet (8x10) of paper, and match up several sheets to perhaps line a book shelf or cover a larger object. I am going to take my uncolored fraktur design from Feb. and create a repeating pattern.

Well, that's the plan...today is going to be so busy and there are about 6 baskets of laundry to put away! :)

Illustration Friday

My first attempt at Illustration Friday...Talisman In Irish tradition the Shamrock or Three-leaf Clover represents the Holy Trinity: one leaf for the Father, one for the Son and one for the Holy Spirit. When a Shamrock is found with the fourth leaf, it represents God's Grace.
Well now, that's a talisman for me...grace...I need all I can get!!!

Happy Birthday to you ....

Today is my second son, Erik's, birthday! He is away at college and I miss him! So here is a great big kiss and hug from your Mommy to you! And

Happy 20th birthday!

Where did the time go?

Baby, Baby, Baby...blue!!!!

I am babysitting a rather comical large grey African parrot. His owners spend some of the winter in Argentina. (lucky duckies)

He is amazingly talented in language. He sings, whistles and talks all day. His name is Baby, and periodically during the day he will "shout" out, "Baby, Baby, Baby blue!!!!" He imitates phones, and voices like you can not believe. He can sound like an older man, a woman a dog or a cat! Anyway, he has me so busy I am really behind in everything...housework, housework and mostly housework. Painting...No way, Jose'! Yesterday, I sat near him and painted the little sun from yesterday's post. He crept down the cage and tried to take my paintbrush etc. And because I was ignoring him he tore paper from the bottom of the cage and threw it at me...the floor was littered with these tiny scraps of paper. :O

Oh Mister Sun Sun, Mister Golden Sun...

Please shine down on me...

It is a glorious sunny day...about 67! I am so happy!! Going to test ride a motorcycle today with my husband...glad it's sunny!

Last of the ocean themed drawings

Just another little one at the beach...trying not to feed the seagulls.

I think I will start playing around with flowers and birds, all things spring...

I am just thinking a lot about spring. I cleaned out my side garden yesterday...all these beautiful green spikes were sprouting up all over the place. The birds were singing away and the garden soil smelled wonderful!

I have been babysitting a large grey African parrot. He is a lot of work but so much fun! He is singing and talking his head off as I am typing this. His owners winter in Argentina.

I hope April is a month of answered prayer and new adventures!