1st Day of School

So today Kelly Rae Robert's e-course begins and I'm super excited. It couldn't have come at a better time for me, and I can't wait to meet everyone in "school" and learn all that way cool info!

So I'm off to class right now, and hopefully if I get up enough drive, I'll head into the studio to paint.

It's a little hard this weekend, as it's so completely nice outside, that all I want to do is play around, enjoy the warm weather, and swim in the creek in our backyard.

Anne Boleyn (The Most Happy)

I made this one last night. It's 18x24 and is the 4th wife in my series of the six wives of Henry the Eighth.

There are tons of layers and textures in this piece which may be hard to see, but I tried a cool thing with gesso, which I've seen others do.

When I put the gesso down, instead of just spreading it on like normal, I made some areas super thick, some where very thin, and some areas I made patterns with the palette knife, which made a really cool crackle looking effect.

I really had a ton of fun with this piece, and these kind are my most favorite to do, because I totally get into the groove, and just have so much fun putting layer after layer of paint down, and trying all kinds of techniques and textures.

You really can't ruin it, and there isn't much pressure to get many details right, not like if I was painting a portrait or something, you know? They way I look at it is, if it doesn't look right, add more paint! It's always worked for me.

Anyway, just in case you are curious, the collage elements used were, Anne's portrait, her signature, her badge, her motto (The Most Happy), and a love letter written to her from Henry (oddly enough none of Anne's responses have survived, but there are quite of few of Henry's).

To be honest, I'm going to be sad when this series is over. I'll have to think of a new theme to do with this style.

Oh, I need to add a side note. I'm coming to realize my brand new computer has terrible color management, and when I look at photos of my work, it looks awful. Really washed out and greyish, etc. So I often will alter the colors to make them look more like the original painting. However, since everyone's monitors are different, I've no idea what you folks in cyber land see. So, if the colors you are seeing are really crazy bright, or dull, I'm sorry. The real painting, I promise, is very vibrant.

Okay, I'm done.

Stay tuned for Jane Seymour!

All Clean!!

Showing off CLEAN studio pics. :) I redid the whole thing yesterday mainly by converting the closet into an extension of the room. Taking off the closet doors helped wonders! This photo is shot from the back corner looking towards the entrance.


Taken from inside the closet. My room appears so big now! :) In reality it's pretty darn small, hence the reason, I moved into the closet.


Again this is taken from the closet, looking at my sitting area, which frankly I do not use often enough. Usually when I'm in the room, I'm painting, so not much sitting going one. Though it is nice to know it's there, just in case. :) Also, you may not be able to see it that well, but the space inside the window seat is painted hot pink!


Another view of my painting desk, and my regular desk looking out the window. I LOVE my overflowing bookshelves on either side of the wood desk. At one point I aspired to be a writer. And this is where I was supposed to be writing. :)


Finally a pic of my new and improved closet. I now have a place to store all those canvases and a put that black shelf thing in there, that hold all my misc art supplies, that were crowding my desk. It's great to have because it's out of the way, but easy enough to get to when I need them. Sorry about the shadows though. :O



This is a shot just outside of my window. Love this view! You can't see it in the picture, but the hill goes all the way down to our creek. I shot this looking to slightly to the left, but if you look straight on, you can see down the creek further, and the land across the creek. No one can build on it, so we will always have a beautiful view!!

Cleaning up the Mess

My "Art Day" turned into clean the art studio day. I haven't exactly accomplished a whole lot, except to take everything from my closet and throw it on the floor thinking I was "reorganizing" it's contents, only to realize in my over-enthusiastic cleaning frenzy I have thrown away all the boxes, from whence the contents came, and now have no where to put anything, thus creating a much larger mess than before.

On the bright side, I found my official membership to the A-Team fan club certificate! Which I'm totally going to hang up. As soon as I find my walls again.

Lady With The Blue Dress On

Hello everyone! Here is some new art for you!

This piece is another 8x10 mixed media collage, with the image by Itkupilli. Like I had to even say that right? I think we all know how much I love love love her images!!

Anyway, she is up for grabs should anyone be interested. I will be posting her on Etsy this week.

And speaking of Etsy, I'm getting the hang of this store thing now, so I'm gradually filling it up. Come on by and see what' s new.

I'll be adding more tonight, including the batch of necklaces I made, and finally art prints!!! I'm beyond excited about being able to offer those, as I'm finally getting my printer/paper situation sorted out.

In other news, I'll be taking my first art workshop this weekend with Kelly Kilmer! I've been wanting to take a class from her for awhile now, so I'm pretty excited to get this special opportunity. I can't wait! If you don't know her awesome, fabulous journal work, check her out. You won't be sorry. I promise.

Two For Tea

So this is a Mothers Day present I made for my mother in law. It's 8x10 and on canvas.

She really likes chickens, and I just couldn't resist making this for her once I saw this image, which btw is from Itkupilli.

These guys are so cute, I may use them in another collage. As of now they are available in prints and necklaces!

And speaking of necklaces, I've been busy. I've got about 25 in the works right now. They are all dried, and ready to be assembled.

They will be photographed on Tuesday, and hopefully I will have them up in the Etsy store within the week. Lots of new images, so be sure to stop by and check them out!

I Have Necklaces!!

I'm so excited! I finally have some necklaces!!!

There was a lot of trial and error involved in getting these suckers right, but I finally found the secret.

I don't know what I was doing wrong, but every glue I tried made my images run and fade. Not only that but it would not stick to the glass.

I even bought that fancy Microglaze that is supposed to fading and running, and it did nothing for me.

I was so bummed, because it seemed that all over the web and Etsy everyone was making these fabulous necklaces with no troubles, and here I was struggling, and trying a zillion different products with no luck.

Well finally I found the trick. 5 minute Epoxy! That stuff rocks. It dries right away, doesn't run nor does it fade. Believe me I was shocked too, but I'm super happy it works.

So anyway, here are a few to look at. I will be making a lot more this week with new images. They are so much fun! And, they will be for sale on Etsy tomorrow should you want to get your hot little hands on some. :)

You Can Fly When You Want To

New art! I gave this to my mom for Mothers Day.


This one is 24x24. A new size for me, and I love it. I don't know why but I really like working on squares. The only problem is they aren't a good size when you are trying to make greeting cards and postcards out of them. Oh well, you do what you gotta do.

I've been planning this collage for a few months, but wouldn't you know at the last minute, I changed a major component and basically had to start over. So in the end I was rushed to get to it done, but I'm so glad I made the change, because it is 100 times better this way.

I used a bunch of techniques here, including a new tissue paper one I read about to give the background more texture. It's the wrinkly bits you see. I also drew, cut out, and painted the butterfly on Bristol paper and then glued it to the background.

I usually prefer using this technique as opposed to painting directly on the canvas. That way I can build up the backgrounds as much as I like, and not have to try to paint over it. I feel you get a cleaner more vibrant look when it is painted separately on paper. And for this piece I really wanted the butterfly to stand out.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with how this one came out, and I'm thinking I'll have to do more like this.

And for those of you who pay attention to the sidebar widgets, you will notice some new decorations there. Yep it's official. Finally! I have a functional Etsy store, where you can buy original artwork, prints, postcards, necklaces etc. Now before you rush over there, please note, that I'm still setting everything up, so right now there are only a few items listed, but each day I will add more and more.

My first priority is getting all the originals posted. Right now the 5x7's are done, but the bigger ones will take a bit more research into shipping prices. Anyway they are all for sale, and I hope you visit soon! Need to make room for the new stuff!

Dancing In the Trees

More new art! This collage is 8x10, and the image is from Itkupilli. I just love her pictures!!

I had a breakthrough with this piece because, I think I finally have come to terms with using purple. I love the color but we have been enemies in art for a long time. However, with this picture I did not struggle with the color like I usually do, and it was awesome!

It might help too, that I finally found a shade of purple that I like from Liquitex. Man I've gone through so many tubes of that darn color only to be disappointed with the results after it dries. Thankfully that all seems to be in the past.

Now, about the name. I was originally going to call this piece "Birdhouse in your Soul", partly because I was listening to the song when I made this, but also because looking at the finished product now, it looks to me like she's in a tree, which is a birds house. I don't know where the soul fits in, but it's a cool title anyway.

So, long story longer, I didn't use that title because I have another painting in the works that will have it. So I chose dancing in the trees because in the image the lady seems to be dancing, and like I said, it looks as if she is inside a tree on the branches or something.

Don't see it?


Ok Moving on. :)

Things are bit busy for me right now. I'm learning tons of new things trying to make a business, and name for myself in the art world, and it's taking a lot of time. I haven't spent as much time creating as I would have liked, but hope that will change soon.

I am however in the process of making necklaces!! I'm using glass tiles, but I'm having a horrible time getting glue to stick. Not sure what I'm doing wrong here, but as soon as I figure it out, I will have them for sale, so keep your eyeballs peeling for some really cool and colorful necklaces on Etsy!

And speaking of Etsy, I haven't finished it yet, but finally I will be making a site, and selling originals, postcards, prints and necklaces!! I cannot wait, but again it all takes time to list and put everything together. Sometimes I can be so impatient. :)


That's all for now!

My new postcards are here! My new postcards are here!!!

Ha! I can't resist stealing that line from "The Jerk", but it's exactly how I felt when I saw the package on my deck this morning.

So here they are! Since I didn't know how they would turn out, I only ordered 5 different kinds. I tried to pick ones that would capture the different styles of my work, but it's not an easy decision to make! Now I wish I had all the others, because they look so cool.

I'm really loving these guys! The quality is excellent. I can't believe how perfect the colors are, and the image is so crisp. I know it's hard to see from the photo, but they really are great quality.

I ordered them from Vistaprints in case anyone needs to order some of their own. They were highly recommended by other artists, and I'm glad I listened! Also they have fabulous sales. The only bummer is, the lowest quantity is 100. Which is another reason I only ordered 5 different images. I now have 500 postcards to get rid of!

Which brings me to my next topic. I will be selling them for a dollar apiece or you can buy the set of 5 for 4 dollars. The cards measure about 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 and the back has a greyed out image of my Dreamy collage, plus lines to write the recipients address on, and a little stamp box. Keep the card for yourself or send it to others! It really is a win win situation no?

If these end up selling, I'll definitely start adding more images to the bunch. And until I get them on the website, and in my Etsy store, if anyone is really interested in buying them right this minute, just email me and we will work something out.