Something Different for Me

Today I wanted to try something different. I've been checking out the sites for the teachers who will be involved in Willowing's next class "Life Book".  It will be a year long class and there will be 15 different teachers. It's going to be an awesome class that's for sure!

One of the teachers, Juliette Crane, features these darling little owls on her website and I thought I'd give one a try. I think it is good to work on lots of different subjects and I have been wanting to try an animal or a bird.

I had some pages in my journal that had been started with some acrylics and pieces from an old book. So I just added to and created her with more acrylics, my rubber band brayer, a Pitt pen and a 9xxb pencil. I finished her in Photoshop Elements adding eyelashes and a tree.

Has Autumn come to stay?

It has finally cooled down a bit in our part of the world.

Autumn and Spring are my favorite seasons and probably the favorites of many if not most people. It seems like the world slows down a bit. The trees sway gently in the breeze casting shadows on my walls in late afternoon. I just love it and it always seems to turn into winter too soon.

I'm going to enjoy every minute!

Raising Ovarian Cancer Awareness

It has been six years ago this month that our mom passed away from Ovarian Cancer. 

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. Teal is the ovarian cancer color.

My sister gifted her sisters (5 of us), to have a "Teal Pedicure" this month. A certain percentage of the "Teal Pedicures" will go to cancer research for Ovarian Cancer. Talk to your manicurist and see if they will get involved. For details visit www.tealtoes.org. Their mission is to raise awareness of Ovarian Cancer.

September 11, 2001

Memories of that very sad time:  A friend called us early in the morning and told us to turn on the TV. Like everyone else in America we watched in horror. It was such a sad day. My dad passed away in November of that year and the last six weeks before his death, he watched the news all day long. Those terrible moments over and over. So sad...

Let us never forget what this country and our freedom means to us. Never take it for granted.

Yay! I fixed one of my problems!

I got rid of the huge space between my teacher's websites. That was really easy! I just compared the HTML code on two of the buttons and made some changes.

Blogger Frustrations for the Newbie!

I sure wish I knew html code. Maybe that will be a future project =)

I wanted to add links to my teacher's websites on my blog and finally discovered how to do it, but I don't like the way they line up - why there is such a big space in between a couple of them.

I also don't like my profile story taking up so much room, but I don't know how to fix that either!!!

It makes me feel kind of like the girl in this piece that I did for my Digital Dreams class.

Black and White Challenge

Yesterday morning I decided to take Tam's challenge over at Willowing and Friends. It was to do a piece with just the following colors: Black, grey, white, titanium buff (which I forgot!), salmon/skin tone (but not on the face), and a touch of pink. That was it.

I've always wanted to try charcoal and thought this would be the perfect medium and so I created this little girl. Charcoal was really fun. I used my fingers and a blending stump to blend. The pink and salmon colors were Pitt Pastel pencils by Faber-Castell. They work just like the charcoal.

FEARLESS™ Painting Last Class

Working with this piece was not as freeing as working on the cardboard. When I got my supplies together and put that huge 18x24 pad up on my easel, it kind of freaked me out. So much white!

I put on my music and gave it a go. I must admit I got a bit more picky with this one and so it was not as relaxing as the first two BIG paintings. It was a good exercise though. Now I hope to add some background and try to finish her neck. That may be impossible! I should have painted it in before adding all that hair, but I didn't sketch her before I started, just painted her right onto the paper.

Total Alignment, Fearless Painting

So, I have some wonderful art teachers on the internet who share with us info about other artists. This past week, I learned about Connie over at Dirty Footprints Studio. She has a free class called "Total Alignment" the following is taken from her site, "a free online workshop that is designed to align your body-mind-heart with your creative source.  Through FEARLESS™ Painting and basic yoga goodness we mindfully begin to clear our path to creative source and listen to our innate wisdom. This workshop is intended for everyone of all skill levels, abilities, and backgrounds--from the full time professional Artist that is feeling stuck and in need of a boost of inner inspiration to the fresh newbie just starting out on their Artist journey eager to learn--and of course, every blessed soul in between! 


I LOVE this workshop! I think it's just what I needed to get me going again. In the workshop, she encourages us to paint BIG and for me that was a real challenge as most of my pieces are small. The first two pieces I did for the workshop were 9x12. I thought that was pretty good for me, but after class 3, I knew I could get so much more out of it if I would listen up and paint BIG. So I used what I had, a carton from file cabinets I bought at Ikea. She also has us standing up to paint, something I've never done. I had a little tabletop easel and that worked just fine.

The first class was on opening the heart center. For painting, our instructions for this workshop are: 1. scribble, 2. draw lines with direction and intention, 3. draw shapes and 4. Paint like a 5 year old.

This is a mother quail trying to help her baby to learn to open her heart and fly free.

The second class was on Balance. I started off with the scribbles on each side and ended up with trees and a house. This is where I decided that next class I would try and paint bigger, use my easel and stand.

The third class was on Energizing and man, she knows how to get you going. This piece is a bit wild, but I like her and she is now hanging in our bedroom.

This next photo is just to show you a comparison of my usual size of painting.

Today, the class I took was on Total Self Expression. I loved this class!

This week I will finish the last class, but this is a workshop that I will come back to again and again to get unstuck, revitalized,  rejuvenated... Thank you, Connie!

First Day of Kindergarten

Well, it's been a good two weeks since I've done any art. I just had a hard time getting into anything. The other night I did a sketch and then took it into Photoshop Elements. . The bird in the corner is a "brush" that I made from one of my paintings. I've used it on a couple of other digital pieces, "Man in the Moon" and "Lady In the Sun". The bubble wrap "brush" was given to me by one of my classmates in my Digital Dreams class.


I had a bit of trouble with her mouth and had to redo her teeth, but I think they came out ok. Anyway, she's all ready for her first day of school.

Digital Art! Love it!!!

Well, I've always been a computer nerd of sorts, love computers since I was selling them way back in 1984 when the first Macintosh computer was born. I've always loved working with graphics, doing newsletters, cards, brochures, etc. and when Tam over at Willowing announced a Digital Art class, I signed up right away. The name of the class is "Digital Dreams".  I absolutely loved that class. Here are some of the pieces that I have created with my computer. Some of them are "mixed media" in the sense that they contain my original hand made art and some of them were created solely on the computer.

These first two were from Lesson One. The first one was an introduction to different tools in the software. I have created all of these using Photoshop Elements 9 on my Apple Computer. The second one has one of my "hand made" pieces incorporated into it. The little chicken was made with the help of my daughter, Tammy and the "butterfly brushes" were made from a piece of my art.

The next three pieces were from Week 2, working with more tools and incorporating our own "hand made" art.

Then came Week Three where we started drawing on the computer.

And FInally Week Four where we drew a girl on the computer. What a fun class!!!

Our Final Week Five and Finished Project

Well, that's it for this weekend. Had a lot of catching up to do.  See you soon!

Roses on My Table

One of my friends at Little Glimpses, Laurie, told me about this site. It is run by Cristina Zinnia Galliher. I haven't had that much time to learn more about her site, but know that she is also a very caring and talented mixed media artist. I watched one of her videos, "Art Journal with Zinnia" and I couldn't wait to try her technique. I created this girl on the cardboard backing of my watercolor tablet and used oil pastels. I'd never used them before and like them very much.

Well, I'm just about caught up with what's been going on in my life as far as my art classes are concerned. One more post and that should do it.

Hands and Heart

From Willowing's Class, I believe it was that class, I learned about Monica at Hands and Heart. She is an amazing artist, singer, musician, you name it! I've joined 12 of her groups and have taken two of her classes. She paints the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen. She lives in Mexico City. These pieces were inspired by her groups and classes. I'm still working on one of the classes, it had 30 videos!

I made these ATCs from one of her classes.

The ATC below was from a video on her website about making an ATC with Cracked Glass using UTEE. I used a photo of my Grandparents.

The pieces below are from her other videos and classes that I have taken.

This piece reminds me of my cousin, Jordan. It was inspired by Monica's video "Winter" It is acrylic paint and Modeling Paste. 

I call this next piece "Twisted Sister" as her neck is totally unrealistic, I'm still learning...

This is my first real watercolor piece. I am learning how to work with watercolor in Monica's "Inspire Me Workshop Mixed Media Class"

Strathmore Art Journal Workshop

This summer, I took some free workshops offered by Strathmore Artist Papers. They make wonderful art journals and the classes were another great experience. I created a few pages and then got involved in another project. Sometimes I have too many things going on!

The first two pieces were made with previous drawings (paintings) and other pieces of collage. These classes all help when having a rough time trying to create something different.

For the piece below, I made a tiny rubber stamp for the leaves on the tree. The teenager on the left represents my oldest Granddaughter and the painting (sketch) on the right was done from a photo of my Daughter on her 40th Birthday. The words in the second paragraph were taken from a picture that our Daughter gave us when she moved away from home.

Art Heart & Healing

Through my travels, I learned about a free class being offered by Tam over at Willowing, "Art Heart & Healing".  It was a wonderful class and I met some more friends and found another great teacher. I've enjoyed my art so much. Going to be 69 this coming month and just wish I had started this journey many years ago. But there's no time like the present, right? I made my journal out of an old Address Book that I bought at a Thrift Store. I can't believe someone gave it away with all their phone numbers in it, but it has made a great altered book for journaling.

This piece was done in a little cloth covered journal that I had and never used. It works great for my art too.

With a large family like mine, I have lots of people to send cards to and have been making my own for years with PrintShop and more recently with a Cuttlebug machine and rubber stamps, etc. Now I can use all of these pieces that I have created. So I needed a logo for the back of my cards and I did a sketch from the same picture in the journal above. That was fun and makes my cards a little more personal.

My Niece, Christmas Gifts and My Granddaughter

I decided to try and paint my Niece from a picture my sister sent to me. I painted her on one of those disposable coasters.

It was getting close to Christmas and I used those coasters to make a Christmas Gift for my brothers and sisters. I took a picture of my Mom and Dad when they were very young and painted them into Angels. Now we all have them to put on our trees at Christmas.

I painted a picture of my middle Granddaughter taken by me when she was visiting my Mom shortly before she passed away. I loved being able to paint these four pictures.