Weekly Challenge at Inspiration Avenue, "Masquerade"

For the weekly challenge at Inspiration Avenue, Shel chose the theme to be "At the Masquerade Ball".  I've found myself drawn to harlequin references lately- as a teen they used to be one of my favorite things to paint- in fact I collected  Sylvestri dolls to use as references and sold my paintings of them to friends!  Anyway, I had fun going down memory lane with this- be warned, you may see more soon!:

 I've painted it on canvas paper and mounted it onto a book cover to be used in one of my journals.  I want to do a few more touch ups on her face but mostly I like the painterly quality of this and am happy with it.  I'm also linking this to Paint Party Friday a place filled with wonderful art and artists- go check them out!  Also don't forget to stop by Inspiration Avenue to see who else is at the Masquerade Ball........

Happy Friday!
Stephanie

A bit more in the way of spooks......

As my kids get older, they get less interested in decorating for holidays and this makes me a little sad.  I mean, I really enjoy the decorations, but half the fun is their enjoyment.....anyway, this year, no one wanted to help or suggest ideas for what to do out side, so, I didn't do as much as usual but I did do my own thing.  One of my Paint Party Friday friends was doing paintings inspired by sugar skulls which in turn inspired me......

 BOO!

Of course, my son now tells me he hates the painted skulls, but oh well, he shoulda helped when he coulda......
In the meantime; Happy Halloween (a few days early!)
Stephanie

Weekly Challenge- "On the Wings of Inspiration"

In honor of our now 500+ followers; my team and I are having a blog party!  I've been with Inspiration Avenue just over two years now, and I've loved every minute of it!  I initially joined because I wanted to be on an Etsy team that would help me stretch and grow creatively and inspire me to create regularly- I'd just started painting again the year before.....so where I'd been painting only flowers, I found the inspiration to stretch my imagination and from that; to GROW.....

So as far as where I get inspiration from, I'd have to say from my team Inspiration Avenue and all the lovely people I've met through them- what an amazing experience this has been!  I am so very proud to be part of this incredible group!

What inspires you?  There's still time to write a post about it and submit a link on our challenge post to be eligible for one of our wonderful giveaways........you have until noon Sunday!

Getting close to spooky time.......

I just wanted to pop my head in real quick and share a little of the Halloween decorating I've been doing this week......I'm just going to share a little of the inside, 'cause we're still working on the outside stuff; but you can at least get an idea of where I'm going with this.....
 So, come on in- welcome to my home!

 You might recognize this framed painting as one of my art projects for littles- this is my son Garrett's  from when he was in  first grade- still one of my favorite Halloween decorations!

 My mantel festooned with Halloween pictures, and assorted Halloween miscellanea

 sideboard looking out into the garden- sorry it's so dark- but at least you can see my forest of sunflowers

before you go, would you like a cup of coffee (or tea if you prefer ;)) 

I can even offer a pumpkin-white chocolate scone- mmm. 

I was inspired to make scones by Elizabeth on her tea for Tuesday post....

and SO glad I did! 

 Oh and the cup is my favorite mug- decorated with a print of my Emmie's work- the quote is from Michelangelo and goes, "Lord grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish"

So happy Thursday, I need to get back to prepping for today's art class and finish my project for decorating the outside of the house...
More later,
Stephanie

Off To Meet The Wizard.......

I'm a long time fan of the Wizard of Oz and so, I was SO excited when I came up with this project!  I based it on when Glinda warns the Wicked Witch of the West that someone could drop a house on her too......I thought it was great all around- they could do a little life drawing- the shoes, imagination drawing-the houses and color theory- create a family of colors and repeat them throughout the design.....

see, there IS a method to my madness ;)

After practicing drawing shoes in their sketchbooks, it was time to draw them on their final papers....

then they drew nd painted their houses on a separate paper to be collaged over the shoes.....

 wrote out the words with oil pastel and painted a water color resist......

 and this is what they ended up looking like!

aren't they the funnest?
If you'd like to see some of our other projects; here's the link to my ArtSonia Gallery
That's all for now, believe it or not, I actually have time to paint this morning, so I'm off to sling some paint.....I'll be back some with a little of my Halloween home effects ;)
TTFN,
Stephanie

Weekly Challenge at Inspiration Avenue: "Fear"

The theme this week at Inspiration Avenue is "Fear" and truth be told, I'm scared of a LOT of things....but I wanted to keep this basic and throw a little whimsey in there.  So I decided not to do spiders or the dark (yep, I'm a little scared of the dark) or any of the other things I'm afraid of and play with my fear of birds.  Mostly I LOVE birds, at least the ones at my feeder.  The ones I don't like are the ones that attack you sometimes; like hawks or falcons.  SO, that's what I played with- here's my take on "Fear"

Also, I wanted to start something for the October journal of the Traveling Sketchbooks; even tho I don't have the journal with me, I feel like working on it, so I'm doing it tip in style!  I'm not done with her yet, but I feel like I'm headed in the right direction for my October entry with the Sistahs....
I'm also linking with Paint Party Friday - check them and Inspiration Avenue out if you get a chance; there's always tons of beautiful art at both places to admire!  There where I'll be hanging out the next few days!  
Happy Friday!
Stephanie 

Art me in the Garden; or Rather, the Atlanta Botanical Garden.....

 Last week, my friend Nancy and I went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens- really we went just to see the gardens with the first touches of Autumn color.  We were pleasantly surprised to find a wonderful exhibit of scarecrows placed throughout the gardens.  This one was at the door, and yes, that's me in the reflection....

Gotta love Black Jack Sparrow or should that be Black Jack SpareCROW?  Sorry, couldn't resist ;)

 

The rose garden is is an incredible formal garden.....

 

The fountain at the center of the the Parterre Rose garden- flaunting a Chihuly sculpture, so incredible!

 This was my favorite of the scarecrows, I love how her dress was made with magnolia leaves and leftover hydrangea blooms

I find it so amazing that you can catch glimpses of the Atlanta skyline throughout the garden....

 These little scare monsters were SO much fun- I LOVE the colors!

 Asters, so very purply-bluish-purple......I think I NEED some

 Lucky her dress is so pretty, not sure about the face...

This guy was really neat also, I wish he had a yellow brick road alongside him...

That's about all for now, I need to get going on my painting for Inspiration Avenue's weekly challenge, else I won't have anything to share there OR at Paint Party Friday....see y'all later!
Stephanie

A Lil' More Halloween with my Art Kids.......

We finished week 2 of  our Halloween projects, and the kids did great work as always!  Here are our Halloween Totem Poles!  The only guidelines I gave them were to create a stack of three Jack o' Lanterns topped with a spooky figure of their own choosing, color them carefully with oil pastels and and paint in a background- again in whatever color they chose.  

Some of the jacks were colored realistically and 

others were multi colored......

A tricky totem topped with a Mummy

 

 and Witches that fly.....

 I loved the background colors they chose- so vibrant!

For any of you who like The Wizard of Oz we'll be dropping some houses on witches next week.......so be sure to check back in!

TTFN,Stephanie

OnceUponATime.....

I had the good fortune to stumble onto this project with the awesome Amy, called "OnceUponATime" basically a never ending story.  And as luck would have it, I was writer number 2- so for the first part of the story click HERE and then read on to hear my part of it.....

So now that the horse knew he wanted to be friends with the girl, he couldn't find her anywhere.  He thought he'd first try looking for her in the  village of the valley 

which was also cool or just plain odd or to be truthful, 

both odd and weird which as far as I'm concerned, equals coolness to the nth degree!!!  

Anyway, as he was walking along, he passed a rainbow of houses, 

and lollipop trees transplanted from the magical Lollipop Forest.....

and in the distance, he spied a scrap of blue; maybe a blue scarf? ......could it be her?

  It was her- she was hanging out in a mini lollipop forest! And she had loosened her scarf to wave it in the wind- to get his attention- and her hair....it wasn't nappy at all!  It had grown back from where the horse had eaten it and now it was all pretty and red!  

Then he heard her calling in the distance... "Catch me if you can....."

So he followed her along the star strewn path

and

leapt  from day to night

because that starry, starry path led to the place where night meets day

but it was OK, 'cause he could just glimpse the blue scarf, 

so  

he knew he was getting close......

 he was running so fast, he barely had a chance to see the houses he was passing. 

But a few things caught his attention....

one house was full of butterflies- so full- they'd lifted the roof right off with 

their hopes for freedom!

 at another house, he noticed a man of questionable origins....

but alas, he had no time to stop for inquiries.....

because he was getting close- he could just see her scarf in the distance

as she flew away on the wings of a moth.....he was getting  so close, he just knew it....

end section 2

I'm also linking this with Paint Party Friday so I can be early for once ;D

Not to be overly melodramatic,but I thought I'd share the meaning of some of my symbolism  I used- 

26 years ago (this past Monday), my brother passed away- 

so the 26 butterflies represent him and his freedom from being a quadriplegic....and even though the horse was Amy's idea, I feel like my brother has followed; watched over me all these years; 

so he's kind of the horse too.....

You are Invited.....

My Etsy team, Inspiration Avenue, is having a blog party to celebrate our 500+ followers and you are invited!!!

  Every few days, we'll be announcing a new giveaway for challenge players to win- and mine is first of many- we'll be announcing several giveaways each week!!!

Because our team is all about inspiration and being creative, I thought what better prize than a blank journal!

So I'm offering this Moleskine journal that I altered with collaged prints, ribbons and torn papers.....

 It's SO easy to enter for this and other giveaways!

Just grab our blog party badge and display it on your blog.

with this link;

http://inspiration-avenue-team.blogspot.com/p/on-wings-of-inspiration-blog-party.html

and

Enter the "On Wings of Inspiration" challenge posted on 

October 16th

All you have to do to enter the challenge is create a piece of artwork , blog about it and leave us a comment on our Challenge post with a link to your creation- easy peasy!

We would love to see  how Inspiration Avenue has inspired you these past years and months and how you can inspire us.  You have free reign of your imagination and creativity - let those wings soar!