I needed two birthday cards — quick! — so I decided to try an idea I’d recently seen on YouTube. (Unfortunately, I can’t find the link to give credit to the original post.) This smart person used her printed deli paper stash to make greeting cards. Read the rest of this entry
This project was the epitome of crapsmanship — working, reworking, and reworking until I get something pleasing. My original intent was to do something abstract in black, white and gold. Strangely enough, I started with a baby blue background on an 18X24 canvas. I had read that starting with an unexpected color can add interest. The picture below isn’t my canvas, but it does show you the color I began with.
Full disclosure: Neither of these bottles are my work; I saw them at a gift shop in Baton Rouge (The Keeping Room on Perkins next to Trader Joe’s). But aren’t they a cute and easy idea for a gift? A bottle of champagne or prosecco, a little paint, perhaps some string and a charm, ten minutes (maybe), a gift bag, and a card. Voila! A perfect celebratory present for someone you love.
My girlfriends and I got together in the studio last week to make sunflower pix. It always amazes me how many different iterations of a theme we can create. Here are a few samples of our work, in various degrees of completion.
Dan the Man and I have had three of our granddaughters visiting this week. Boy, are we tired! For fun mornings, we’ve been to the studio at least once a day, and I’ve been doing little lessons on artists and art techniques. Here’s my photo-documentation. Read the rest of this entry
On this Memorial Day, I’m sharing three patriotic pieces I’ve made for my house. I’ll display them from today until July 4. Read the rest of this entry
Sometimes, you crap something up so irretrievably, you’ve just got to start over.
The pic below was my beginning. The more I added embellishments, the crappier it got.
I just didn’t like it. So out came the black gesso. I painted the canvas completely and then added colored marks with stencils and acrylic paint.
Using a palette knife, I added white flower petals and green leaves. I painted on stems and some centers to the flowers. Once I was happy with the look, I placed the picture in a white frame with a white mat. Now it looks cheerful and spring-y, and I’m happy I didn’t settle on the crap I first started with!
My BFF has recently moved around the corner from me. There’s a certain symmetry to this move, since she lived just around the corner from my childhood home when she moved there with her family when we were eight. (We are exceedingly far from eight now!) Read the rest of this entry
A few friends and I got together to try some negative painting. We made colorful backgrounds and then painted around the images we wanted to create. Here are a few of our attempts, some finished, some in process. The best picture is the last one, and, no, that’s not apple juice!
