Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!

I have a couple of chores this week that will require me to think and make decisions

First, a friend and I have been asked to paint in a garden during Saturday's Garden Tour and they have suggested that we have some items on display for sale. What to paint? What to take for display and sale? How bad will the mosquitoes be? Why did I say I would do this? - lol!

Delphinium Delight - 8 x 10 mixed media

Foxglove Fantasy - 8 x 210 mixed media

I decided to make a few of my quilled/watercolour pieces featuring flowers and garden friends. These are small enough that I can keep the prices down and, hopefully they will sell. I will also take some of my houseplant ornaments, the quilled ones and those made with wire, glue and nail polish. I am hoping for warm weather so my Cool Ties will attract attention and, of course I will have some cards on display too. As for what to paint - I will just play that by ear.

My next chore is to decide what paintings to take for the Art in the Chamber display. Thanks to the efforts of our local Arts Council executive we once again have gallery space in the Creston Chamber of Commerce building.   Each show is for about 5 weeks and I think this one has about 6 artists exhibiting.  I plan on taking about 20 paintings with me - but which ones?

Another job for the next few days was given to me by a blogging friend.

Sheila Delgado nominated me for the Three Quotes in Three Days challenge. This is day one!

The rules are simple:
    Thank the person who nominates you
    Post one quote per day for 3 consecutive days
    Nominate three new bloggers each day

So here goes!

Thank you so much Sheila. This is quite a challenge for me as I don't think of quotes, never pay attention to who says what and find that very few 'sayings' stick in my head. However, over the years there have been a few things that have grabbed my attention enough to be remembered.  Here is one of them:

   Every man who has a dog to worship him, should have a cat to ignore him!

I looked this saying up on Google and couldn't find a definite author although some attribute it to Mark Twain. I first heard this many years ago from my brother, David and I never really thought about what it actually means. During my Google search there was a listing for a sermon that used this phrase to highlight the need for balance in your life and I thought it was very appropriate.

I will be sharing two more quotes in the next few days but I can only nominate people for today (many of my blogger friends have already been nominated by others- sigh)

I nominate - Cathy Hubman

                   Win Dinn

                   Kelly Warren

Now for the fun part! No decisions are need for this as it was just plain fun and it is over - lol. This past Saturday I did a Watercolour Painting Party for a group of 5 ladies, three of whom were returning participants. I love it when people enjoy something so much they come back again!

painters at work

happy painters and their finished art!

All in all, it was a good weekend and it looks like it will be a good week too. Ain't life grand?

Thinking Christmas

It has been almost a month since my last post and I have been focused on making some quilled paper ornaments that I hope will sell at the Wynndel Christmas Craft Fair on Dec. 2. I have managed to do one mixed media piece with quilling and watercolour...

#1059 - Strutting his Stuff! 5 x 7 matted to 8 x 10

... but the rest? See for yourselves.

Rufous Hummingbird with glitter - 1/4" paper

Calliope Hummingbirds with glitter - 1/4" paper

Fantasy Hummingbirds - 1/4" paper

Gold Snowflakes with glitter and faux gems - 1/8" paper

Gold and White Snowflakes with glitter and faux gems - 1/8" paper

Mauve Angel with faux gem - 1/8" paper

My Rainbow of Angels - 1/8" paper

Christmas Traditions Ornaments - 1/4" paper

Well, I may not be painting but I am having FUN!!!

30/30 January Challenge #28

After the detailed work with pen & ink in the last few paintings, I decided I needed to play!

#1005 - The Falling Leaves - 5 x 9 mixed media

I did a two paintings similar to this a few years ago and thought I would try it again. A pale blue-grey sky, a couple of layers of background and some simple trees decorated with some cut up quilling paper and it was done. The whole thing took about half an hour and that was because the layers had to dry. Fun and simple, just perfect for a busy day!

We have two days left in the challenge and I am definitely running out of steam. Besides, many of my seeds have sprouted and I am starting to think about transplanting and thinning - not painting.

Here is the link to Leslie's 30/30 page and, if you haven't already checked it out you should take a look and you will see some really neat art.

2016 January Challenge - the end!

To finish off the 30 Paintings in 30 Days most of us will do a collage of our work. It is a good way to see where you have been and what progress - if any - has been made.

January 2016 Collage

My plan for the challenge was to work primarily in acrylics with a few quilled pieces added for variety - mission accomplished. Over the month I revisited an number of subjects that I haven't done for a few years -  flowers and birds. I also reaffirmed my dislike of still-life paintings. One of the things I learned is that I can create a similar look with a brush that I create with the palette knife and it is easier - lol.

It has been great following the work of some of the other artists in the challenge and having them follow mine. The support and encouragement from such talented people is wonderful and so greatly appreciated.

I look forward to seeing more wonderful art from these new 'friends'. I want to thank Leslie Saeta for hosting these challenges that help to inspire us to greater  heights.

2016 Day 4

Today's painting was done with another page from my palette book.

Book Art #6 with Quilling

 I glued the page onto a 5 x 7 x 3/4" piece of plywood, then embellished it with some Quilling. It is a shame that quilling doesn't show to advantage in most photos because this looks much better in person. I started adding the quilling when this was vertical so that the printing made sense but decided it looked better horizontal. I had one problem - the page was not big enough to cover all of the edges of the wood block. Fortunately, I had some preglued veneer edging in natural wood which fit really well and looks great on the edges.

Here is the link once again to Leslie's blog so you can check out some of the other art in this 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge.
http://30paintingsin30days.weebly.com/blog

2016 Day 2

Am I every glad I did a bit of work last week when I had some time, because I certainly haven't had time to paint today! I spent most of the morning at the Creston Public Library setting up a new art display and then part of the afternoon my husband and I were down in the crawl space under the living room checking and fixing insulation. We are always trying hard to become more energy efficient.

At any rate, last week I spent some time in my studio cleaning up and  I found some interesting pages in an old book I have been using as a palette. I have never been one to let 'interesting' go to waste so...

Book Art #8 With Flowers

 I stuck a page from the book onto a white painted gallery wrap canvas, added some of my paper flowers and Quilling paper and voilà - a finished painting!

I hope that I get some time tomorrow and some inspiration so that I can really get into the spirit of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge.

Summer of Color #4

I made it! I really didn't think that I would be able to find the time this week to do a piece for the SOC #4 but I managed to find a few minutes here and there in the last two days and was able to complete a mixed media painting on a 7 x 14 gallery wrap canvas.

Red & Gold

The colors for this week were two reds and a metallic. The reds were no problem, of course, I used Cadmium Red Medium and Alizarin Crimson, standard colors in most painters' boxes. The metallic was a bit more challenging. I hunted through my stash of mixed media materials and came up with a few things that I thought would work together. The butterflies are from a gossamer thin napkin so I stuck them to a piece of gold paper and cut them out. The cross was a gift from a friend: it is made out of thin wood and I painted it with some gold gesso. I added some branches and leaves painted with the gold and voilà!

Here's another photo that makes the gold look a little more gold. As Kristin mentioned in our instructions part of the challenge would be to show the metallic quality of the art in a photo. I am not sure how well I accomplished this but I tried - lol.

If you want to check out some of the other art in this challenge, here is the link to Kristin's blog - http://www.twinkletwinklelikeastar.blogspot.ca/2015/06/the-summer-of-color-5-week-four.html

Summer of Color #3

My first reaction on learning this week's colors was 'How on earth will I do this'. I just couldn't get my head around 2 purples and a yellow; I felt that I had never worked in those colors before.

Anyway, I went off to my studio and started my assignment. I began working on a card because until the pieces are glued they are just a number of separate elements that can be used for other things if they don't work together.

I used one of my home-made stamps and my own painted papers for the flowers and the quilling. Okay, not bad, but I just wasn't satisfied!

I glanced at some reference photos that are lying on my table to be used in another painting and thought, "oh no, that will not look good in purples and yellow'. BUT I decided to try it anyway.

Sun Shadowed 5 x 7 unframed watercolor

All right that worked out okay, AND before I had worked 5 minutes I realized that I had painted this color combination before - more than once! The colors are, of course, compliments and so work together quite well.

I often work wet-in-wet and I wondered what would happen using that approach. Would I end up with a muddy gray mess?

Purple Mists

 As you can see, I added another shade of purple just to make a change. I wet the paper, threw on my three colors (in no particular pattern) and left it to dry. I really liked the end result - no gray mess - but added some misty trees to give it a more finished look.



So, there are my results for week #3 of the SOC. What will she have for us next week?

If you want to know more about this challenge go to http://www.twinkletwinklelikeastar.blogspot.ca/2015/06/the-summer-of-color-5-week-three.html

Summer of Color #1

After the "30 paintings in 30 days" challenge that I did in January I didn't expect to take on something similar but the "Summer of Color" sounds like fun, so here I go again!

For some reason, I thought I was registered but I never received my instructions so I guess I wasn't. Fortunately, I am on the SOC group page on Facebook and got a notice yesterday about posting our work so I was able to go the blog (below) and find out this week's orders.

The organizer of the Summer of Color is Kristin Van Valkenburgh and you can find out how the whole challenge thing works on her blog - http://www.twinkletwinklelikeastar.blogspot.com 

(I admit that I find the posting instructions for this challenge a bit confusing: you get the chance to win something if you do some other things but I don't know what those are or how to do them. It really doesn't matter as I am in it for the painting not for prizes, although I won't refuse if I should win) 

At any rate, this week's instructions were to create something using 2 blues and a green. As Faeries have been on my mind recently that is what I started with and here is where I ended up.

Magick Garden

Magick Garden is an 8 x 10 mixed media on a gallery wrap canvas. I used some painted paper towel to make the flowers, my own hand-made stamps, some sliver glitter glue, silver thread and finished the piece off with a pottery piece by a friend -  http://bluemoonpottery.blogspot.ca/

I look forward to participating in this challenge and, hopefully, next week I will get notification of the colors we are to use early enough to actually plan a painting - lol!

I Really Should be PAINTING!

Tourist season is fast approaching and I am going to be exhibiting my art in a couple of venues over the summer and early fall, so I should have some new work to show. Also, my home gallery is going to be part of a self-guided art tour and I should have some new art available at home too.

BUT, I am having too much fun playing with cards to want to paint.

I made a couple of birthday cards for two of the cat-lovers in my life: my friend Linda and my daughter, Susan.

 I did a few pen & ink drawings of cats, added some watercolor and then used paper flowers and quilling to finish. I made one extra and added one of my crocheted butterflies.

For something a little different, I made a card using designs from my "Decorative Papercutting" book and added some paper flowers that were brightened with some silver gel pen.

As I quite liked the cards with the cats, I looked through my sketches to see what I had that would work the same way. The sketches become pen & ink drawings that will be painted and incorporated into more cards.

Hopefully, some of these cards will sell and I won't feel too bad about not painting more. The creative urge can be satisfied many ways - painting is just one of those ways!

DAY 17 - Leftovers? Garbage?

During my first workshop with local artist Win Dinn (check out her blog here - http://windinnart.blogspot.ca/) I discovered that leftovers and garbage are really just supplies for more mixed media art.

Buttons and Butterflies

When I finished painting "Tulips" the other day, I had way too much paint left over. So, I took some leftover mat board and started applying some of the paint, blotting runs and overages with paper towel. I left the mat to dry and the paper towel in a loose bail on my table. Last night, I had a look at the painted mat thinking I would use it for a background for a new painting but it didn't 'speak' to me.

However, the paper towel (once I opened it up) really caught my fancy and I immediately stuck it on an 8 x 10 canvas using gloss medium and wrapping it around the edges for a finished look. Then I started cutting up the mat board using moon shapes - I have way too many of these so I see another project in the future.

Once my canvas was dry I began to add some of the moon shapes, some leftover buttons and some of my crocheted butterflies and, voilà a finished painting!

For more art check out http://lesliesaeta.blogspot.ca/ and then go and vote at - http://paintamasterpiece.blogspot.ca/

DAY 12 - A Play Day

Although I have been enjoying learning the Oriental Brush style of painting, it is a serious endeavour and I decided last night that I needed to play a bit.

A Valentine

I started with some bursts of colour with Alcohol Inks on a varnished 6 x 6 canvas. Then I looked through my stash of 'stuff' to find some things to add. I had no plan; I just picked things that I thought went with the background. First the transfer of some music from Dolly Parton's "I will always love you" and then every thing else just fell into place. The ribbon and the lace are only partly attached adding a flirty, swaying feel to the art. The red tones, the gold, the lace and the song made me think this would be a perfect gift for Valentine's Day.

If you need more art to brighten your day check out Leslie's blog to see many of the paintings from the artists participating in this 30 paintings in 30 days challenge - http://lesliesaeta.blogspot.ca/. Also, please go to Sea Dean's blog and vote for your favourite -http://paintamasterpiece.blogspot.ca/

Tomorrow I will probably go back to the more subtle painting style of the Orient but I have enjoyed this colourful play time.

DAY 9 - Not a Painting!

Our internet was down this morning, then we went over the mountain to visit a friend in Nelson so I am a little late getting this out.

Orange and Green Jar

My painting today is not a regular painting but a recycled glass jar painted with alcohol inks and decorated with painted metal leaves.

I bought myself some alcohol inks before Christmas and have been playing with them a bit. The colors are vibrant and very strong and will take some getting used to. I am not really keen on using them on glass but I like the way they behave on the metal. The metal is just cut up pop cans and I paint on the inside: the leaves are bendable but I am afraid the photo really doesn't do the whole thing justice.

I seem to be setting a number of goals for myself this winter (learn Oriental brush painting, Anime and Alcohol Inks): now all I need is time!

Don't forget to check out the collection of art at http://lesliesaeta.blogspot.ca/ and go to http://paintamasterpiece.blogspot.ca/ to vote for your favourite piece of art from those shared there. Remember, voters and artist could win a prize.

Day 6 - Experimenting!

Bamboo in White 5 x 7 acrylic

One of my goals this year is to work on Oriental style brush work. I do not plan to attempt working with inks in the traditional manner but I am going to play with other media.

Bamboo in White is acrylic on watercolor paper. The background was done sometime last year and has been hanging around waiting for inspiration to strike. Today was the day! I used white gesso thinned with water and tried the 3 load approach with thin, medium and thick paint. It took a fair bit of work and some adjustment to the method but I am reasonably happy with the results. Hmm, I wonder if I should call it "Ghost Bamboo".

To see the paintings of many of the other participants of the challenge go to - http://lesliesaeta.blogspot.ca/ and I hope you will also go to this blog http://paintamasterpiece.blogspot.ca/ to vote on 3 of your favorites. You can vote for 3 paintings each day and there will be prizes awarded to voters and to artists.

Paper Towels and Other Things

This afternoon I read a blog post by a Google+ friend Sheila Delgado - http://www.sheiladelgado.com/2014/11/paper-preparedness/ and it got me thinking about how I use paper towels.

I use paper towels to blot, lift, mop, dry brushes, wipe my palette, sometimes to create a textured look and a number of other things as well. I have a pile of half or quarter sheets ready by my hand whenever I paint. When painting in watercolour these used papers go right into the trash because the colours are usually washed out but when I paint in acrylics - WOW

A great range of colours: some soft but most bright enough to jump off the page.

Painted paper towel coated with gloss medium for strength and some 'flowers' made with medium coated paper towel. Lots of fun!

And, of course painted paper towel can be use in mixed media.

Circles - 6 x 12 mixed media

 Painted mat board, painted paper towel, painted cheesecloth and some "leather" on gallery wrap canvas

Paper Flowers in Purple - 7 x 9 mixed media

Paper towel flowers and leaves with coloured pipe cleaner on painted mat board

 I learned these uses of paper towel from a local artist Win Dinn (see more here - http://windinnart.blogspot.ca/). Win is an expert at trying different things to create interesting effects - like cheesecloth and dryer sheets!

painted cheesecloth and painted dryer sheets

One of these days I will get back to playing with my paper towels and mixed media - so much to do and so little time!

And one idea leads to another and another...

I took a card making class last winter at The Bamboo Room near Bonners Ferry, Idaho  -https://www.facebook.com/BambooRoomCrafts. Since then ideas have been knocking around in my head, just gelling and gathering strength.

 My first idea was to use a crocheted Christmas wreath as a frame. I added a photo of my granddaughter and  a couple of other things I had around. Not bad, BUT...

           I needed some designs, so I made some stamps, (these are just a sample)

            I painted and stamped some paper in sizes that would work for cards,

I crocheted more mini frames and then, flowers, leaves, stars, butterflies, hearts and a number of other things that came to mind.

 And then I put some of these things together in kits for other people to make cards or to use in scrapbooks and journals.

 In some cases, instead of the mini frames, I added an original pen & ink drawing on watercolour paper to be coloured or painted .

Although I hope that these items will sell (they are available from my Etsy shop -https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/MellowoodArtGallery?page=1 ) 
I enjoyed making them and will probably continue to design my own stamps and crochet patterns and to put together more kits.

So, as you can see, one idea led to another and another and another but it is okay because the joy is in the creating and ideas are always welcome!

Going Overboard

I have noticed in the last few years that I have a tendency to go overboard when I find something I like doing. I think it started with the purses I sew and paint.

Bell Flower purse

Daylily & Hummingbird

I really enjoyed coming up with new designs and figuring out what to paint. The first year I made them, the bags sold well, so I made more, and more, and... well, you get the picture.

I think I was alright for a few years, just doing my normal painting, in between housework and volunteering. Then I took a mixed media workshop with local artist Win Dinn http://windinnart.blogspot.ca and discovered a new toy.

Gauze Scarves

tar gel brooches

Once again I went overboard! I was having so much fun playing with color and shapes that I made so many of these items I might never sell them all. It is a good thing that I enjoy wearing them!

There may have been a few other things between then and now, but this winter I found a new creative outlet that has (almost) taken over my life. Crocheting! I learned to crochet when I was young and over the years have made a number of afghans - useful but time consuming. Just before Christmas I saw some crocheted ornaments and I thought "I can do that".


I found a number of patterns on line and started making things, then I adapted the patterns and made more, then I started making my own patterns. Before I knew it I had gone through 2 balls of crochet cotton and now I have enough ornaments to decorate a tree. I plan to sell them at this year's Wynndel Christmas fair.

I ran out of enough of the cotton to make another ornament so I made a few earrings - white, of course. My granddaughter commented that she wished they were in color and there I was, off on a new venture.

Not content with just earrings, I have started to make some pendants to match them. I have no idea if I will be able to sell these items but they are so much fun to make I just can't help myself. I continue to make up more patterns for the earrings and the pendants.

  
  Every time I come up with one of these 'crafty' ideas my husband suggests that I wait to see if they sell before I make too many. Unfortunately, once I get started I almost always end up going overboard because I am enjoying myself and that is what counts most!