The First Questions

When I was a little girl the first questions anyone ever asked me seemed to be like the same thing, they were:

What do you want to be when you grow up?

and

Who do you want to do when you grow up?

My answer was that I wanted to be a dixie cup which at that time was a brand name paper product  that most people had in their homes that was decorated with artwork. In my little brain I wanted to brighten things up and make people happy whether I was the bathroom cup to make them feel better when they were sick or the party cup to help them celebrate all of their special occasions.

For me it was a happy dream that nearly came true. I was told that the company that makes those doesn't accept outside artists but I was able to find another company that put my designs on hundreds of different products in my 50's. I've been at it for years now and love it as much as I ever have. 

These days I go back and forth between serious painting, "playing" with design ideas and drawing exercises. Anything that looks like it would work goes to merchandise and a lot of the rest of it  simply decorated my outgoing mail. The beautiful thing about it is that no matter how things work out they make some one happy and that is, all in all, what I've wanted all along. 

"Playing" with lettering ideas. This gave me a chance to try out a kit of "how to" cards and send a nice letter out at the same time.

This is just a little drawing exercise I made from an old  card. I put it on a new card and set it up for a friend and myself to practice drawing on.

"Playing" with photos and drawing on outgoing mail.

Lilac Paintings

 

After

Before

After

Before

Lilacs and Memories

 

This painting won't exist for long, so I thought I'd give you a look at it before it goes. 

I had very nearly considered the painting finished at this point and painted it into some sort of Farmhouse or camping background. I have a lot of fond memories of this old coffeepot and I want a reminder as I get older and things begin to slip away.

This is the last photo of it. Through various moves and things over the years some of the parts have gone missing so lately it's been a watering can and a vase out in the garden. There I's usually filled with lilacs, sunflowers, lilies or Iris.

Since there were lilacs in the photo I thought they should be in the painting too.

I had made one attempt before this but felt that the scale was wrong so I will include photos of that as well and let you decide what was the best approach. 

While I was thinking about this painting I thought I'd use it to decorate some of my outgoing mail and got a bit of practice painting leaves and flowers at the same time.

Projects from the Scrap Heap

 I'm cleaning up my studio area so that I can get a fresh start at the new year. The question becomes "what do I do with the odds and ends that I don't want to toss?"

The small painting had been used for a floormat design and some others. the horse pattern was left from another project. I was considering combining them to create a unicorn painting to be used on children's merchandise.

I hated to work over that painting so i found the start of another one to paint over. I tried tracing the drawing over it but it didn't turn out so I painted white over the center before I tried again

Now I'm deciding how I want to paint it.

So far it's a mess but I think it's got potential. The great thing about these scrap projects is that you can unleash your creativity without worrying how much it's going to cost you.

 

To make this project fast and easy I decided to paint the unicorn white and hide it behind bushes to save myself the trouble of drawing the rest of the body then all I had to do is paint in a sky,

After that it was just a matter of adding some flowers and painting the mane.

A few more leaves and a bit of outlining finished the look that I was going for.

So far It's being used on Birthday and Get Well cards for little girls. I'm looking forward to find other ways and places to use it.

It sure beats having thrown it out. Don't you think so?

After all you never know where your best ideas will come from.

Changes To The Stargazer Lily Painting

This is the current look of the painting after the knife work.

This was the previous look. The sky had no texture and the color was too cool.

These photos show various stages of re working the sky with lighter, brighter colors reflecting the colors of the flowers. it is adding a lot of energy and life to the painting.

Now, of course I've decided that I want to change the painting again I'm sure that you're sure I've lost my mind but I was loving the look of the lilies up against the grass so much that I decided to pull the viewer back into the yard and work plants over where the sky had been.

I think I'm really going to like it when I get finished with it. What do you think?

I'm much happier with the painting now. It seems to make the flowers stand up better against the background and give the composition a nice contrast and balance.

Teaching Myself Something New - Sailboat Painting From A Book

 As I struggled along with the water lily paintings it occurred to me that I could really use some help so I purchased a book from the Walter Foster Artist in Training program called "You Can Paint Like The Masters" Splatter, splash, and swirl your way through history's greatest art movements - step by easy step! by Amy Runyen and the creative team at Walter Foster.

This Sailboat was the first painting in the section called "Paint Like an Impressionist"

I of course put my own spin on things and added some of my own touches but I highly recommend this book. the instructions were so fast and easy that I started the painting one day and finished it the next.

A energetic and healthy person could probably finish it in just one session.

Still Playing in the Water Lilies

 This canvas has been in the works for several years now but it wasn't until a couple of months ago that I decided to turn it into a water lily painting.

The main problem with this is that I've only seen real ones a few times and never from very close up.

I've tried to remember but it's too many decades ago so I looked at books and videos with varying results.

Yet I kept painting...

This painting was a long process but I really enjoyed it.  So far this is the most heavily textured pieces I've ever done and was quite a challenge.

It never quite turned out the way that I wanted it to but really gave me s chance to try a lot of new things. and the best thing about it is that it gives me something bright and cheerful to look at through the winter.

Winter Lettuce

 

As I checked the tank on the planter this morning i was surprised to see it full of roots! This top picture was taken after I had cut about 2 inches off of the roots so they would stop wandering places that they weren't supposed to go.

Here you can see how lush and long the roots had grown before I trimmed them.

The lettuce just keeps coming. it's at the point now where it needs t o be used or clipped back every day to keep it out of the lights and as you can imagine, I'm VERY happy about that.