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?

Odds and Ends

I haven't been doing much art lately as I have been too busy with yard work and getting my flowers planted. Today was the first time in over 2 weeks that I picked up a brush and, of course, I painted another scene of the Creston Valley.

Cloudy Skies over the Valley - 7 x 10 watercolour

I haven't been completely without art in the last few weeks; I have done a few bits of quilling in my spare time. And, I gave a small Quilling Party on the weekend.

Mini hummer and flower with buds

an ATC with the mini quilling

more mini humming birds and a Canadian dollar coin (loony)

These mini quilling pieces were done with 1/16" paper strips and were VERY difficult to do! I started making them because my blogging friend Nelvia McGrath - Nelvia's Blog  - suggested swapping ATCs. I have a few ATCs made but thought the one I chose for the swap needed a bit extra to make it more interesting - thus the quilling. Then a friend asked me to make her one so I did a few more but I was more than happy to get back to normal sizes for the Quilling Party.

my quilled card

I always forget how long it takes beginners to get their fingers working when learning how to quill with 1/8" paper strips; maybe next time I will start them with the 1/4" paper. At any rate, we all managed to complete a card during the party and the ladies were so interested that they plan to come for regular lessons to learn more. Unfortunately, I was so busy I forgot to take photos of their cards - sigh, when will I learn to have the camera in the room with me!

I have a number of projects in mind for the next while and, hopefully, I will have the time and the energy to do them. Then I will share.

Thanks for stopping by! Please leave a comment as  I would love to hear from you!

All Ready for Planting!

It is always a chore but I finally have my garden and my pots ready for planting.

waiting for the annuals

most of my pots all ready for plants

in the greenhouse

more in the greenhouse

I think I will have enough plants!

So everything is ready and I hope to start planting tomorrow even though there is still snow on the mountains. Our weather has been pretty good and the forecast is for more of the same so I am going ahead in spite of local lore saying we should wait. I have some arthritis in my hands and I can only work for less than an hour so it will take a while to get the job done and by the time I am finished the snow will be gone  - I hope!.

With all the garden work, I haven't done much art in the last few weeks but I did manage to do a bit of quilling. I am continuing to work with the alphabet and have completed the B, C, D, and R. The R was done for my sister who wanted the B and R for a wedding gift.

For the D, I was thinking about something boys might like, hence the dark background and the skull. I have to come up with more parent friendly images, like soccer balls and trucks - lol.

A few weeks ago, a local artist friend had a give-away on her blog. Win Dinn is a fabulous mixed media artist with a passion for colour. She is well know in our area for her unusual style and fun filled workshops. At any rate, back to the give-away - I won! I almost never win anything and I was thrilled to get one of Win's recent pieces.

The New Hood by Win Dinn, 2018

Win's 'wonky houses' will join two other paintings by her that I am lucky enough to own.

Thanks for stopping by! I love to hear from you so please leave a comment.

Liberate Your Art Finale

 What a wonderful variety of art there is in the world! And, through the LYA Postcard Swap I get to see pieces from artists all over the world.

Each participant in the swap sends out 5 postcards and 6 return stamps so that when the final mail comes in we have all received 6 cards.  Many of us share photos of the cards on the Group FB page and it is so interesting to see how everyone showcases the cards.

My first card was from Sherry Harmes in Alaska. While some artists will add an interesting  quote , this year Sherry  added two: "Sometime you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory" - Dr. Suess; and "There are always flowers for those who want to see them" - Henry Matisse. Because of the flowers I displayed Sherry's card with the flowers, dragonflies and butterflies that I made with wire, glue and nail polish.

Next was this lovely view of the night sky which is part of a painting by Beverly Leeck from Edmonton Alberta, Canada. I thought the card went well with my pen & ink fridge magnet.

The message on this lovely pastel painting is "you will find it" - a very hopeful phrase and one that resonates with me. This is from Kate McGee of Corvallis, Oregon and I displayed it with my arrangement of dried grasses.

This super painting of the red barn surrounded by fields seemed to fit in well with one of my quilled paper roosters. I don't know anything about the medium used or about the artist as the only information was an email address for Lorraine Rush and the message "You are Loved".

My fifth card is a mixed media piece called "Susie" and the message on the back is "May we all speak our minds". Again, I know nothing about the artist - not even a name. The email address on the card was hard to read and the note I sent came back as undeliverable - sigh!

The six card is a wonderful photo manipulation by Kat and her message is "Creativity take courage" by Henri Matisse

These 6 paintings are on the cards I sent out this year, They are all watercolour and are based on scenes around where I live. So far I have only heard from two of the people who received my cards and I am somewhat disappointed. Did my cards get lost in the mail? Were they damaged so badly people were unable to read them?  Who knows?

This is my second year of participating in the LYA Postcard Swap organized by Kat Sloma. Although I have enjoyed seeing all the different art, my disappointment is making me hesitate about participating again next year - we will see.

I hope you will take the time to pop over to Kat's Blog where, over the next few days, you will find links to many of the blogs written by the artists involved in the LYA swap. You will also find a video of around 70 of the cards that were sent out and all of the stats about the participants.

On Edge!

No, that is not a statement of my mental state. It is a comment about my latest quilling projects.

Last week my good friend Carrie gave me a bunch of quilling supplies that she is no longer able to use due to arthritis and other hand problems. As well as regular paper strips there were a whole bunch of 1/4" and 1/8" On Edge strips and a fringing tool.

A few months ago I ordered some On Edge strips from Little Circles but I haven't had time to work with them until recently. Getting more strips from Carrie made me itching to give them a try.

My first project was a Thank You card for my friend. I watched a few Youtube videos to get some ideas on how to use the strips. For the letter the glue was applied freehand and then the On Edge paper was added. The rest of the work was done adding the glue to the formed paper. The little flowers were made with the fringing tool and the big one with a crimping tool.

You know me - once I start something I just keep on going - lol.

I plan on doing a bunch of decorated letters  and I figure that by the time I am through the alphabet I should be pretty good at both the decorating and the letters. I don't know if these will sell but I plan to mount them 'shadow box' style with matting. This one with the matting will fit a 7 x 9 frame.

One last thing - a local artist friend is having a give-away on her blog. Win Dinn does some really cool stuff with mixed media and it is worth having a look, even if that media is not your style. -Win Dinn Art

Thanks so much for stopping by and I would love to see your thoughts on today's post.

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!