Forest Lake Acrylic Painting

I've done this little section of the lake in oils, watercolor and colored pencil so of course I needed to try it in acrylics as well. The gals in the painting group I go to suggested I stop here as I was beginning to worry about overworking things. This one is 11 x 14 inches and will be going to the sale at the Senior Center in October. I may start another smaller (8 x 10") and "play" with the idea a bit more. It will be fun showing some of the small paintings at that sale, even more fun to sell a few so that I can move on to other projects. Wish me Luck!

Light Dancing

Light filters through the trees...
the shadows paint moving pictures on the side of my house.
I put my brushes away and enjoy the moment.

Lakeside Park...and a pencil

As you can tell from some of the older posts, I've been working on this drawing quite a while. The problem of course with that is the fact that the sky and water are always changing and it makes it a challenge to capture any of it as it appeared at the time. What you can see is that I enjoyed it, the live music and the farmers market. (cooking up some new potatoes as I write this) I think the drawing has improved but I'll be checking some of those old posts myself just to make sure. Well, the tomatoes were good too and I couldn't resist the 2.00 jar of pickles from one of the vendors ( I snacked on quite a few of those too) Well, time to get back to work around here. Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did and come back often.

Another Favorite Project

Often when people give me craft supplies I'll lay a few of them out on the scanner to arrange some art to use as a "Thank You " card. It seems to make everyone happy and I have a lot of fun doing it.

childrens books

The weather cooled off nicely and it was kind of funny when I went outside today to find the rabbit sitting by my favorite chair, a couple of birds sitting in the fence as I passed through the gate and a toad waiting by the campfire ring. I suppose a lot of people wouldn't notice or care but it seemed a bit magical to me in a crazy Disney cartoon sort of way...to bad the critters couldn't help me get that campfire lit ;-)

Getting Started on an Idea

As I was looking through some garden catalogs I began to imagine a garden based on an arbor and a bench I found in them. The backgrounds gave me some basic ideas of how I wanted them arranged and what should be added to pull them together so I took it slow. Making my first attempts at the arbor in watercolors. I am not pleased with the results but willing to share them here to remind people that not all your efforts will turn out the way you want them to but each time we reach out and try something a bit new or out of our comfort zone we grow and what it does for our spirit and our mood is far more important than what happens on the paper or canvas. I'm more comfortable working in acrylics so that's where I'll make my next attempt to pull this all together. I'll post results as soon as I have any. Keep painting, drawing, sewing or doing anything and everything that takes your mind off your troubles and have some fun with the bits and scraps that life throws your way. We'll all be better for it.

Afghan shot in the garden

Both Sides Now

This bag, like all of them I make is reversible and being a bit prejudiced in my own favor as well as lacking a sense of what is, and isn't in style I like both sides and depending on what I'm hauling will probably switch back and forth between the two. It's much larger than most of them I make at nearly 2 ft tall and 20 inches wide but that's so I can carry paintings, a quilt or my larger crochet projects in it.
Everything about it makes it my new favorite. Thanks Chris!

Return of the Bag lady

In the days I've been away from the blog I've been combining some more great fabric from my sister Christine with a few things around here into a tote bag large enough to transport paintings or quilts in style. I haven't quite finished it but will post the pictures as soon as I do. I'm also putting the last row on a crochet coverlet thanks to yarn from my friend Karen. Thanks everyone!!! The "lap robe" will be donated to either the Veteran's Home or a shelter in the next few days. I'll enclose a picture of that as well. I'm still waiting on better weather to do some easel painting outdoors but there are plenty of other things to keep me busy until then. If you don't create anything else, make some fun moments for yourself and others.

A new spin on things

My new paintbox was a makeup box or something that a friend sent but it's just the right size for the outdoor acrylics that I use on my birdhouses. The boring landscape card was the result of experimenting with a number of novelty brushes to see what shapes and textures I could get from them. Next week I'll sit down with some actual landscape photos to work from and see how that works out.

Birthday Greetings

I made a birthday card today using a photo of one of my watercolors on the cover and pencil drawings on both the inside of the card and on the outside of the envelope. I think it all came together nicely, don't you?