Kicking ideas around

Over the last week or so I've done a lot of tulip drawing and watercolors but they've all been in the bodies of letters and on envelopes so I haven't stopped to photograph them along the way.

Rather than focusing on art projects lately I've been taking some time to catch up with friends and family and take care of my health issues.

When I start a new series of paintings I should be working with a fresh perspective and a burst of energy that I haven't had in quite a while.

I'm as anxious about where it will take me as you are.

Thanks for your interest, I'll keep you posted.

Mustang, something new for me

Someone I care about really likes mustangs so I'm attempting to learn to draw and paint them as a surprise.

I'm off to an awkward start, I'm not quite happy with the pose  but I based it on clip art we found on the internet. I tried several different pencils in both regular and watercolor. I wasn't quite happy with with the rough texture on the body so I washed it over with a light mix of watercolor paints.

Clearly it's a project that will take a while to learn. if nothing else I'm hoping the effort will be appreciated.

Either way it stretched me out of my comfort zone and that's always a good thing. 

Tulips in the Mail

I started on the envelope with watercolor and colored  pencil working from an old photo from my garden.

I decorated the card with the photo, a used postage stamp with one of my paintings on it, and a small drawing.

I did a lot more flowers around the inside but since I did them around the letter I'd written that I didn't take pictures of it.

People are amazed that I'll put so much into a letter but it gives me a lot of  time to really relax and explore my drawing and painting techniques without worrying about results.

In that way it's a gift to both of us.

Latest Photos From the Bird Cam

We never get a full photo of the cardinal because the bird feeder that has the built in camera is a small one.

We are considering either purchasing a larger commercial unit or building something ourselves but this will need to do in the meantime.

This is been one of the best pictures so far and one of the species that we've seen the least of this season.

You have to wonder what this guy is thinking. He certainly looks like he's got something to say. Don't you?

Wildflowers and Carnations in Watercolor, Pencil and Ink

Here I started with watercolor and then added detail with colored pencils

This time I started bu drawing it in ink. 

Next I added colored pencil over it.

This carnation started with watercolor and then finished with some detail in colored pencil.

Here's a little overview of the project so far.

Drawing and Painting Cut Flowers

Painting Cut Flowers in Acrylics

I received this bouquet from my mother and as there is a nice variety of flowers in it I've been pulling it apart starting with the shortest lived flowers.

The next step will be to put them to work and get the most use out of them that I can.

I picked a flower and held it up to an old painting as I began to paint it into this 
canvas that had seemed all too purple to me over the last few years.

I didn't want to get too carried away so I just painted 2 flowers and thought I'd live with it w while before I decide what to do next.

Paints, knife work and color

I've been "playing with this canvas for a while. Adding bits of paint with my fingers and I drag them lovingly across and enjoy the texture and the subtle changes to the feel of the piece as I work. It's somehow comforting and relaxing all at once.

I spent most of the day and evening with it and am not quite sure where it's going but I took photos at the end of the day. First with a flash and then without to mark my progress.

There will be many changes with it in the yours but I look forward to every moment. Art is much more than most people realize.It sometimes has a life of it's own.

Getting a Slow Start to the New Year

I'll bet you're wondering why there hasn't been a new post here in a while. The best explanation is that after putting the Christmas decorations away I decided to make a few more dala horse ornaments for next year and got caught up in designing, carving and painting more horses. You can read more about that on my dala horse blog or going to my zazzle stores to see how many of them became product designs.

There was a recovery period after working on the horses. Both because of a slip with my carving knife and increasing arthritis. I'm sure age and injuries slow a lot of us down these days. Thank goodness we all do our best to cope with everything and keep doing the things that are important to us.

If and when my hands recover enough I'll get back to drawing and painting again. In the mean time I've been putting some of my older work on products on zazzle. There are ways to minimize the amount of typing you need to do so you can continue to use your creativity in other ways.

What are some of the ways that you express your creativity?

Holiday Art and Crafts in the Studio

Looking around my place over the Christmas season you can sure see that I've been busy. I designed, carved and painted all of the Dala Horses. Here are a few of the hundreds I've made in the last few years.

The Christmas Stockings were made almost 20 years ago. I started by designing and sewing a patchwork fabric that I cut into the stocking shapes. before assembling the stockings I quilted the patchwork areas and did some embroidery. 

After getting them put together the finishing touches were to add the fabric yo yo's and buttons.

They're a great way to display and enjoy all of your favorite buttons or award pins and be able to enjoy them and at the end of the season you know that they're all stored safely.

Here I'd sewed the valances and trimmed the lamp shades. I'd also designed those thermal mugs with some of my artwork on them.

The tiny tree show's off some small wooden dala horse ornaments that I had designed, carved and painted. 

I used a kit to make the paper chains because my arthritis makes it hard for me to cut out all of the paper strips to make them with.

I've been making paper chains every year since I was a very little girl and it's still one of my favorite parts of holiday decorating.

It's not fancy here but it feels like a hug.

May Your Holidays Be Filled With All Of The Things That Make You Happy,
Julia 

Bird Cam Photos

The bird feeder that we bought with the built in camera is quite small so about the only nice photos we've gotten are of the chickadees.

I'm not quite sure what this was, no real way to tell except that it was larger and quite dark.

Here's the keeper of the feeder.

Believe it or not this is all we get of the cardinals.

Next season we'll be looking for a larger feeder or some way to adapt the camera so that it can get full shots of the bigger birds,

We have several species of woodpeckers that I'd love to be able to show you.

Interesting Experiments with Drawings and Paintings

It all started with this drawing from 1996. I'd never been too happy with it and it wasn't aging too well so I figured that I might as well play with it a bit.

I couldn't find my watercolors so I gabbed my acrylic paints and began adding those.

I found the early results promising so I continued adding other paints.

Looking back I think I should have stayed with the blue background.

I'm not quite sure why I went with the dark background except that I didn't like how the purple looked next to the blue.

I got carried away adding leaves and blades of grass which tilted the balance too far to the green.

I added more flowers to try to balance the colors a bit better.

I'm not sure how successful the finished painting was but I felt it was a useful exercise and it may work out yet. I plan to try it on a few products on Zazzle to see what it looks like in different shapes and sizes to see what happens.

Wish Me Luck