Making Changes to an Old Iris Painting

People had told me that the background on this little eight by ten inch acrylic painting was too dark and stormy, lately I'd begun to agree with them and had decided to try and do something about it.

I wasn't quite sure if I should be changing this painting or not so I decided to take it slowly and start on just one side to that I could compare the results better and decide which style I really liked.

I didn't have any black or brown to paint in for the soil so I mixed red, green and a bit of purple to come up with a close substitute.

I'm told that it's now a brighter, happier painting and I may test that theory by putting it on some merchandise on Zazzle. I'll start by making myself some note cards to write my family and friends to show them what I've been working on lately.

Holiday Greetings and Projects

Hi There!

Happy Holidays! There isn't much gardening going on here these days except for a celery plant I'm growing form the end of a grocery store bunch. (I cut about 2 inches off the bottom of the plant and put it in about an inch of water until it sends out roots and then plant it in soil)

As you can see, this one is doing pretty good. I've been clipping some of the bigger stalks on this from time to time which are still pretty small and using them in various recipes. The small, young and tender bits add more flavor than the large grocery store stalks and of course you can't beat it for freshness.

The only painting that I'm doing these days is a few more dala horse ornaments to put on our Christmas tree.

I'm afraid to get involved in a big painting or anything until all of our company has come and gone for the season.

I'm hoping that things are going well for you and that you'll keep checking the blog to see what sorts of projects are next. 

It's likely to be a long, cold winter and we'll have to try to stay busy and make the best of it both for ourselves and for those around us.

Chase those blues away and paint yourself Happy,

Julia  

A Post about Posts

We continue to work on the wheelchair ramp by bringing in one post at a time and painting it.

There's no plan to what I'm painting of them. I'm just more or less playing around with random colors and patterns. It's a good way to relax and unwind.

I love to look out the window and see the bright colors against the snow.

It's quite a sight, isn't it?

Painted Sunflower Hat

The finished hat

I had a couple of straw hats left from projects after the summer's tea parties so I thought I'd use them up in a fun way instead of just packing them away.

One of these will be a Christmas present for a friend inspired by some of the posts on my ramp here.

It will be wearable art that will also look great just hanging on a wall.

It seems to be coming along pretty well and I'm considering doing something a little fun and silly for the centers of the flowers with novelty yarns and buttons to give it a lot of texture, What do you think?

All that's left to do now is add some green ribbon for a hatband that will end on each side of the flower in a bunch of ribbon loops that will be the leaves for the sunflower.

THE HARD PART:

The most challenging and time consuming part of this project has been working the paint into the weave of the straw. You can avoid that problem by using spray paint. My aim here was to use up the stuff I had on hand and of course I didn't have any.

THE BEST THING:

So far the best thing about this project is that I was able to use up a lot of the odd buttons from my button box in a fun and creative way.

The Scrapbook Wall

As I sort through things around here and organize my work space I decided to use this 4 ft. wide wall to display some of my newspaper interviews and things so that when people come they can see the sorts of things I do and I don't have to explain much. It's easy and they can look if they want to without interrupting my work with a lot of questions.

Have I mentioned that I hate giving interviews? I actually turned one newspaper away years ago.

It's the way things get edited that bothers me. Things are often spun to fit the publishers agenda.

The important thing I learned as I began to round things up is that it's been about 8 years since I've been in print.

Much of that is because I've tried to focus on having my designs on products on both Zazzle and Café Press to try to generate some income around here.

That has not taken off as I'd hoped so I'm about ready to shift my focus and dive back into painting again...really painting, no goal other than to enjoy the process and see where it takes me.

I'm ready for the adventure ahead and a bit nervous about it at the same time. I'll keep you posted as I go.

Happy Painting,
Julia

Morning Coffee and Thoughts for the Day

Good Morning my Friends,

I wish you could join me at the table for coffee today as I watch a busy assortment of birds and a squirrel just outside my window. No luck so far trying to get some photos but it doesn't keep me from trying.

As I do this I'm cleaning off the table and trying to find ways and places to put the things that I use everyday so they're out of the way but still easy to get to...always a challenge, isn't it.

My first project today will be to paint a post and a picture frame in the style of my "world chair" from the 1990's. The frame is on an old newspaper clipping of an interview I did may years ago and of course the post is part of my outdoor art gallery on my wheelchair ramp.

Well, I've enjoyed our visit and I'll get back to you soon,

Julia

The First Snowfall of the Season

I shot the photo of the cardinal sitting here at the table this morning. I really like having the table in a lighter and brighter location and it makes birdwatching a lot easier as well.

I'm actually sitting here as I write this now. As soon as I finish the blog and design a few more things on Zazzle, I'll get back to a bit of painting so it's been a busy little table ever since I moved it in here.

Settling in for the Winter

The weather forecast is for snow by the weekend so it's really time to shift things around to create the pleasantest and brightest place to paint for the winter.

Before, with table in the dining room

In a tiny house like ours that means that I drag the dining room table and chairs

 over in front of the dining room windows. The other advantage to doing this is being able to keep the electric tea kettle on it and perhaps even a plant or two.

That should make sitting there even more fun.

I plan to continue painting the spindles for the wheelchair ramp over the winter. (one at a time and brought into the house)

I'm most excited about working on some regular paintings both old and new. Of course as always there are bills so for that I will continue to design products with some of my artwork on them on Zazzle and hope for some sales.

In the meantime we're repainting the living room wall and getting that furniture moved.

There's one more Christmas Ornament to paint and then it's back to my plan. Have a great winter.

Julia

 

Back in the garden again

It was sunny with a light breeze and a bit warmer than it has been lately so it was a real pleasure to roll out past my brightly painted ramp and take a look around.

The first thing I did was to collect more seed from the orange cosmos in the front of the yard. What's lovely is that parts of this years plants are still blooming including one tiny flower that seeded itself into the driveway.

While outdoors we couldn't resist grilling some lunch. Today it was pork chops,

seasoned potato planks and cinnamon apples.

We don't do a lot of yard clean up or raking leaves because we're certified wildlife habitat here.

All the better for extra time to have a cup of coffee, do some birdwatching and take in the view.

Painting, Passion and Inspiration

This canvas panel has been painted so many ways over the last few years that I made this last try before abandoning the effort and throwing it in the trash.

 Next I began just applying paint to some blank canvases with pallet knives. Relaxing and just painting without trying to paint a picture or anything.

 The results weren't much better but it's giving me a chance to reflect on the half century I've spent painting and think about whether or not I want to continue.

It feels good to be painting again but the fire and the passion have gone out of it...at least for now.

Painting with Fall Leaves

Todays project is to design some products for fall. I'm hoping that the painting I'm working on would look nice on table linens and as a background on Thanksgiving cards. I started by painting a softly blended background in fall colors.

Next I gathered leaves from around the yard and applied paint to the back of those so I could stamp leaf shapes over the top of the background.

 There's still a lot of work to be done but I wanted you to see how it's going so far.

Here's a close up view of the project so far.

I finished with the painting just in time as most of the leaves are to dry and brittle to work with now.

The first of my projects with this design on Zazzle were paper plates, napkins and placemats with a bit of Thanksgiving text on them.

I'm headed back to work now to see what else I can do with it.