Saturday, February 25, 2012

Trying to Gain Momentum


Birds are getting started. I need to grab some stronger colors from my paint bucket to get these to the next stage. Orchids are all almost gone. I think these yellow birds will be chaneling lesser goldfinches or warblers. The blue one might become a bluebird. I have one big one with no color yet that is saying "mockingbird".
That would be a tribute to a friend that is no longer with us. I have always loved them, but now whenever I hear one, I think of her.
 Last Thursday was ditch day at our work. We were wined and dinned! It was such a nice day and we were in the perfect spot to enjoy it. I did around 5 little sketches while we were out.


 The food was so amazing!! I think I can say that I am finally not full anymore. We saw the movie "Pina" after lunch. What an amazing thing to experience. It brought out a lot of emotions in me. I feel Pina's pain as an artist and I felt special to see her through her dancer's eyes.
 View from the wall by the ocean: butterfly beach.
 The Biltmore as seen from across the street. I finished it later with gesso and Copic markers.

 Yes, I visited the Burger Bus again :) So hard to resist when it sets up a couple blocks from work. Good thing that it only parks there once a month.

I leave you with the painted unicorn my soon-to-be-4 year old daughter painted at Knit Fit today. I was so impressed with her work! WOW!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

3 Day Weekend YAY!


 Got some beautiful Phaleonopsis Orchids to lighten my mood to happy inspiration. I even got in a quick sketch. Orchids are so alien looking when you really study them. It was real nice to fit in some art time/space last night and the sketch warmed me up for the Valley Sketcher's meet-up today. I really need to get to work on these birds ASAP. I am hoping over the next two days I can pull it together.
 The Sketch meet-up at Mission Santa Inez was a lot of fun! It was very overcast when we got there at 10 and pretty darn chilly. The way the morning sun was coming through the fog on the hills in the distance was so wonderful. We all debated on how one might capture that look. We ended by pulling out cameras. Mary Beth was the only one who executed it I think. The sketching was good fun! Towards the end a wedding was setting up and a Mariachi Band started to warm up there instruments nearby. We thought it was a loud sterio at first, but we finally pulled our heads up from our sketching to take a look.
 I tried to get a photo, but it did not come out. I sure wished I could watch them perform so I could get a sketch. The sun did come out to warm us up a bit. We left right before the cold winds picked up to meet at Valley Books. It was so nice that so many of us could hang out at the book store share. What a great start to the weekend!!


These are the Mariachis all hiding behinde my Dad's truck and below is my camera attempt at capturing the morning effects. Next step is to clean the house a bit and hang out with my daughter, then on Monday I hope to devote 3-4 hours to the studio. Wish me luck!!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Happy Valentine's


I sure hope everyone had a fun Valentine's Day! I know I had fun making Valentine cards. My daughter and me made 22 heart envelope Valentines. After she went to bed I started work on mine for work and family.

I had a bit of extra pink paint :)  I made 20 for work and 6 larger ones for the family. I kept trying to plan what I was going to do, but in the end they just happened.

I used my newly carved heat stamps to finish off the tiny ones, then used some white paint and black markers for the rest. I ran out of time to do anything with the backs, so you can see the Lucky Charms box I used (my fave).



And my nail stickies are still going strong! I have another set to try next (if these ever wear out). Now its time to start thinking about March and St Patty's Day! I am excited to have a sketch day this Sat too!

Friday, February 10, 2012

A Few Finished Projects


"Love Bird" all finished and ready for the Art Clinic's "Love is Not Math" jurried show that opens tomorrow at the Art Clinic then moving to Valley Books.  I also finished another heart stamp. I love how the veins and arteries came out.

 Had a lot of fun with this quick sketch of one of my favorite "places" to eat lunch: the Burger Bus" in Santa Barbara. This time they had changed their location schedule and I had to hunt it down. That was kinda fun, though it took a bit more of my lunch than I wanted. I've got 4 more paper mache birds to paint and hope to make another batch of paper clay tags/ornaments soon. I do need to fit in sleep somewhere so fitting it all in will take longer than you'd think ;)

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Almost Done with Paper Project



After painting and cutting all that paper, I finally find time to spray paint some extra little bits of detail. I often have people ask me about the papers in my hand made journals, so I decided to make a bunch of this paper and sell it in packages in my Etsy Shop. It was fun to make. I have never done this in a large quantity before. I will start packaging them up soon.


 I will be posting some photos of how the packets come together. I hope people will like them as much as I do. It would be really cool if people bought them and then sent me pictures of what they made!
 It was my Mom's birthday last week and I somewhere found time to make her a little gifttie. I like to make these little diorama-like things with my daughter in them for her. I love making them and they always seem to turn out pretty neat.
 The sunsets and mornings have been so very beautiful lately. Here was a quick snapshot out my car's front window on the way to work.