Going Overboard - Again!

I think it must be a sickness. I get what I think is a really good idea and I go overboard and make lots of - whatever!

quilled house plant ornaments

I have had a request for some of these from the woman in charge of the gift shop at the Creston Museum so maybe I haven't made too many - lol. I have enjoyed making these except for the bumble bees. For some reason they seemed to be harder to make than any of the other designs.

As the weather improves, my thoughts are turning more to my garden and bedding plants than to art. I plan to slow down a bit and get back to basics so I am just going to focus on drawing for a while.

I picked up a fun book at a artist's book sale; Draw Medieval Fantasies by Damon J Reinagle. I think they should have added the word Cartoons but the drawings are fun and way outside my norm. I will work on these mostly when I go to the Art Club's painting days.

And finally, I have decided what to do with this painting.

NOTHING!!!

I had a number of people respond to my call for help. The majority of the comments were to leave the painting alone because  - they liked it! A few artist friends made some very good suggestions and I tried them out on some mylar laid over the original. I also turned the painting sideways and studied it for a while. Nothing seemed to work and the more I looked at the piece the more I liked it as is. Now I have to come up with a title - sigh!

Thanks to all of you who helped with my decision - I really appreciate your comments and hope you will keep it up!

Help!

I am in a quandary. Since I started doing abstracts I have found that I have no sense of whether my paintings are good or not. I need HELP!

I finished this painting last night and, although I like the colours, I am not sure about the composition. Should I sign it or just paint over the thing? I would really appreciate your opinions.

12 x 16 acrylic

Maybe it is time to put the acrylics away and go back to something I am more comfortable doing - landscapes in watercolour!

I hope you will let me know what you think about this one.

Thanks for visiting!

Just Playing Around

The other day on a FB quilling group I belong to, someone asked 'what do you do with your quilled projects?'

I make mine to keep my hands busy and, of course, to sell. I have found that my ornaments and cards sell pretty well but the question got me thinking. What else can I make that might sell too?

I decided to scale down a few of my regular ornaments and make 'ornaments for houseplants'. So far I have one pattern for a hummingbird, two patterns for butterflies and one for dragonflies. They are made with 1/8" paper and sealed with a heavy coat of gloss medium. The wire is threaded through before sealing so it is pretty sturdy.

I find I have to pick unnatural colours so that the ornaments show up against the green of the plants. I mean really,  a mauve and pink hummingbird? Any way, I think they are cute and that they will make a nice addition to any houseplant or artificial arrangement. I hope others think the same - lol

Here is a comparison photo of the dragonflies although I really should have  a coin in the picture to give a really good idea of sizes. I will be making more of these designs and I think I will have to come up with a bee pattern too!

I enjoy reading your comments so please leave one! Thanks for visiting.

Back in the Studio!

I took a few days off after the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge but it wasn't long before I was back in my studio. I figured I wouldn't want to do any more abstracts for a while but there was a canvas just sitting there crying out for some paint - what could I do?

#1097 - Day and Night - acrylic on 20 x 24 gallery wrap canvas

I really thought that after doing 30 abstracts for the challenge that I would have a better handle on how to do them. I have watched numerous videos - they make it look so easy - but I am still struggling. What really gets me is that in all the videos they say they don't use anything but water to thin and blend their paints. At any rate, this is my latest painting - let me know what you think.

I have also been doing a bit of quilling for a change of pace; nothing exciting or complicated, just for fun!

quilled paper lighthouse ornament

quilled paper fish ornament

Thanks for stopping by to visit; it is always great to hear from you!

30 Paintings - Finale

The last week of the challenge I found myself slowing down with not much interest in painting. So what did I do last night? Painted, of course!

#1096 - Butterfly and flowers - 9 x 12 acrylic on watercolour paper

The background for this was more experimenting while I tried different techniques to make lines and runs with materials I have on hand. That wasn't very successful but I did like the colours so - I added a few things.

But, to get to the focus of this post. Here is the collage of my 30 paintings:

collage 2018

I had a bit of trouble with my collage this year. For some reason my computer wouldn't connect to the PicMonkey program I have used in the past so I used Canva, but I am not as familiar with that program and I had some problems. I tried putting my paintings in order but I kept bumping photos out of place. I am lucky I didn't end up with a bunch of duplicates.

As always it was a delight to see what other artists in the challenge did as the month passed. Our final job is to add our collages to Leslie's blog  -  take some time to check it out!

Thanks you for joining me on my challenge journey - I hope you enjoyed it!

30 Paintings - Day 30!

Ta da!! I am DONE - in more ways than one too. The last 7 days of the challenge have been really tough for me as I lost some enthusiasm for doing these abstracts. I kept trying new methods and different products trying to create some different looks. I was not always successful although I was able to 'rescue' most of my efforts. But, the problems were frustrating and that was rather draining.

Here is my final piece:

#1095 - Soft and Hard - 5.5 x 8 acrylic on watercolour paper

The title for this comes from the soft and hard colours and lines of the painting. I was trying to find a method of drawing lines and scribbles similar to those I have seen in Youtube videos. Unfortunately, I don't have the same supplies. I am still trying to find something I do have that will work but - - gee, I guess I might have to buy more stuff - sigh!

We are finished our 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge hosted by Leslie Saeta
see more here  Leslie normally holds two of these challenges every year and the next one will probably be in September. If you think you would like to give it a try, start following her blog to get the heads up.

There is one more chore to do and then we will all be done!. Tune in tomorrow for the collage of the month's work - making that is a challenge too!

Thanks for visiting - please let me know what you think!

30 Paintings - Day 29

Today and tomorrow and THAT IS IT!!!

I have enjoyed trying abstracts for the last 28 days but admit to being about finished with the whole everyday thing. Today's painting was actually done a few days ago and is another one that gave me trouble with a title.

#1094 - Every Which Way - 5.5 x 8 acrylic on watercolour paper

When I looked at the painting all I noticed was that the paint seem to go in every direction, so 'Every Which Way' became the title. I started this with some blobs of different colours then used a piece of mat board as a scrapper to pull the paint down the page. I finished off with some palette knife work and called it 'done'!

Check out some more of the art for this challenge on Leslie's Blog

It is great to hear from you so please leave a comment.