8 Degrees of Inspiration- a Traveling Art Book

Here are the details of my Star Book I've made for my Round Robin with Inspiration Avenue...
 For those of you who don't know; it all began with me cutting up this painting:

29 Faces- an homage to Klimt

Front Cover

Back Cover

Tags & Post Card with instructions

Side View of Book Held Open

Top View- the inside seams will be bound to complete the star shape

Back inside cover- hopefully, my friends will write notes here ;)

Front inside cover with pockets for tags and postcard

So, hopefully this gives you an idea of how my little book looks!  I'll be posting my entries into other folks books once the mailing rotation begins- which should be this week!  Can't wait!
TTFN,
Stephanie

I'm Baaccck- for Paint Party Friday!!!

I really missed being part of Paint Party Friday last week, but I also really needed a break and knew that while I might be able to post, I surely would not be able to visit all the folks attending the party!  Anyway, here I am rejuvenated and ready to Party!
It's been a really busy week for me- I spent most of my art time getting my book ready for my new Round Robin with my Inspiration Avenue sisters.....this included making the book and creating a sign in page plus (for me) a back page where I hope everyone will sign year book style!  You can find more pictures of my book HERE.  The cool thing about star books, is you can tie them open so all the inside pages (which are connected accordion style) can be displayed at once.  This shot just shows the inside covers I made...NOT tied, but you can see the ribbons ;)

For the front inside cover, I made two pockets with more pieces from my 29 Faces painting and then made tags for each of the ladies to sign in, I also made a postcard with a basic write up of my theme- "8 Degrees of Inspiration" which is a play on 6 Degrees of Separation...

Postcard & Tags laid out together

I also got some work done on my series of small canvases.  These are 6" x 6" and 1" deep-

 I LOVE working with them!

 For my garden angel, I did some more shading on the face and added another pansy....

I'm really happy with this painting so far!

For this one, I didn't like how it was mostly Christmas colors so I added some blues, purples and golds to update the palette- it's pretty much done except for some touch up work on the sides.

Hopefully, I'll be able to list these in my Etsy shop by the beginning of next week.  

I'll be asking $69.00 for them, so if you're interested, let me know and I'll hold one for you!

For now, try to get over to Paint Party Friday- LOTS of beauty to see there!

Palette & Paint Thursday

It's Palette and Paint Thursday and you know what that means- time to share my palette and a WIP.  Here is a continuation of the painting I shared last week inspired by my garden.

 

And here's my palette....

I also used this same palette to to a bit more work with another WIP and I've spent most of the week working on my new Traveling Sketchbook, both of which I'll share tomorrow for PPF.  In the meantime, try to visit Tracey Potter's blog to see last weeks entries for P&P Thursday- she does a beautiful job presenting them!
Have a wonderful day!
Stephanie

Tag I'm IT (and so are YOU ;))

I don't usually do these things, but since my friend Tracey Fletcher King tagged me and I really like her, I'm going along with it!  The rules are simple;

1. You must post the rules 

2. Answer 11 questions the tagger posted for you 

3. Create 11 questions to ask the people you tag 

4. tag 11 people 

5.let them know you've tagged them

 and since I haven't shared pictures of my garden lately, I'm going to share some that I took last week.... 

So, I've posted The Rules and now I have to answer Tracey's questions.  Now for those of you who don't know Tracey, she's incredibly creative and funny and has really given me a hard act to follow!  But here goes:

1. How would you rate your breakdancing ability.... 1 being a demented spider and 10 being a drunken sailor? Once a spaz, always a spaz- but since I can, on occasion do a decent moonwalk, I'll give myself a 3
2. What is the worst book you have ever read??? Well it wasn't badly written, but Harvest Home still gives me nightmares 20+ years after reading it! I don't even like thinking about that book!
3. George Clooney or Brad Pitt??? Tough one, but, since I couldn't possibly desert Johnny Depp- I'll say neither :D
4. Do you prefer Chocolate Eggs or Bunnies???... chocolate bunnies that is... I mean of course you would eat chocolate eggs rather than a real bunny.... or at least I hope you would....I like to torture Chocolate bunnies as I eat them, removing various body parts- gosh, I sound a little sick- don't I?
5. What is your guilty TV watching pleasure??? Buffy the Vampire Slayer (ducking and running ;))
6. If you could change your name, what would it be??? I like my name, but when I was a little girl, I always wanted to be a "Kelley"
7. What is the worst.... and I am talking the absolute worst present you have ever received???? Once I got a Steam Cleaner for Mother's Day- which I really needed but still, it was Mother's Day for crying out loud!
8. What song do you sing at the top of your lungs when no one is listening??? I sing whenever the mood strikes me, to my offspring's utter mortification!
9. Mummy/Mommy issues or Daddy issues???? Mommy, but not too many ;)
10. How good are you at parking a car.... 1 being you could reverse park blindfolded in the world's smallest parking spot and 10 being any car in a three spot radius is in danger of being bumped???? I'm roughly a 5- I'm pretty good at parking as long as it's on the right side- don't ask; I think it must have to do with being a leftie!
11. The perpetual catered function dining question.... Chicken or Fish?? Ooooh, that's difficult- I usually go for chicken, but I'm on a Salmon kick right now- I have Salmon Nicoise every day lunch- so I'll say fish :D

OK, so those are my answers and now comes the hard part- writing questions! 

1. What are 2 names you are called that are not your real name???

2. What was the last thing you thought about before going to sleep last night??

3.  What is your biggest pet peeve?????

4. Would you rather have the power to be invisible or the power to read minds??????

5. Are you a leftie or a rightie?

6.  Do you ever dance even if there's no music playing?

7. What would you choose to eat for your last meal????

8. Do you collect anything? If so, what??

(I'm stealing from Tracey here, 'cause I thought it was a good question:  

9. What is the worst.... and I am talking the absolute worst present you have ever received????

10. Are you a Night Owl or Early Bird?

11. Do you sleep with your closet doors open or closed?

And now for the part I really don't enjoy!  Tagging people!  Those of you who I'm about to choose please forgive me (except for Tracey F. since she's the one who started it ;))

1 Tracey Fletcher King!

2. Maggie of the Magpie's Nest

3.Tracey Potter

4.Andrea of Falling Ladies

5. Regina of Southern Ooaks

6.Priti Lisa of Priti Studio

7.Jaime of Artsy Fartsy Me

8. Felicia of Another Bright Idea

9.Netty of Netty's Craftings

10.Valerie of Bastelmania

11.Angelia of Angelia's Art Journals

And anyone else, feel free to answer any of the questions- I'd love to know more about you all, especially since I went to the trouble of doing this :D seriously, it was fun and I would like to hear from ya'll!

TTFN,

Stephanie

29 Faces TO 8 Degrees of Inspiration....

Remember this?

Well, I have to admit, that once I was finished with it, or at least as finished as I could ever be (!) I really didn't like it so much as a canvas!  BUT, I have a new round robin starting next week with a lot of my old Inspiration Avenue sisters- 8 of us to be exact!  So I've been thinking and thinking of a theme for my book...I knew I wanted it to have something to do with Inspiration since that's so much of what this group is about and as artists inspiration is important too....so I decided to call my book "8 Degrees of Inspiration".  I also knew that I wanted to do mine as a star book so I could have everyone's art displayed at the same time. So I ordered my paper and cut it down to size.  At that point, I just needed a cover to put it all together.....and THEN, I caught myself looking at my 29 Faces canvas and BAM it hit me- one of my major sources of Inspiration is Gustav Klimt.....I knew the canvas would be perfect....SO after recycling covers off an unloved, much abused book and managing only a couple burns from the glue gun....I now have two covers!  Plus a lot of scraps...hmm, maybe I'll use some of them for sign in tags?   I"ll definitely use them for something!

 So there you have it, the beginning of my new round robin.  I am not going to link this with Paint Party Friday because I had such a hard time visiting everyone last week.  Instead, this week, I"ll see if I can manage to catch up on my bloggity visits- I am waaaay behind!
x
Stephanie

Palette & Paint Thursday- New WIP

Here we are again with Palette and Paint Thursday hosted by the Amazing Tracey Potter!  I'm working on another of my small 6" x 6" canvases again featuring my garden.  This is based on a series of pictures I took of a broken sculpture set amongst my pansies.  I like two different versions of of the pansies, so I included both here.
Here's what I have so far:

And my palette....

And so you can get an idea of where I'm going with it....

 I used this face and the pansy on the right...

 

and

these two pansies on the left.  I LOVE pansies, don't you?

That's all for now, try to stop by Tracey's blog to last week's entries for P&P- it's a wonderful collection as always!
x
Stephanie

New Projects with my Students....

So, this is how my project "It's Positively Negative" turned out.  You may remember that the object of this lesson was to study Negative Space, or the space found around objects......in this case; everything that is not white.
Can you believe the girl who did it is only in third grade?  This is why I like semi-private classes!  The older kids inspire the younger ones and everyone works to surpass their best!

Here's one from a fifth grader....

And my second grader who missed a class and had to rush a bit to catch up- it still turned out great!

We did these by coloring pre-drawn sketches on canvas paper with oil pastels and then adding linseed oil to blend them.  For our next project; I let them choose any subject they wanted and render it with a palette of crushed oil pastels and linseed oil......when we use the oil pastels this way on canvas paper, they become translucent- VERY cool technique!

bird at sunset....

unicorn with blues, metallic gold and neutrals

 

instead of water, we used odor free mineral spirits

a combo of "catch up time" and "free art"

 Where I once had "mini-projects" to fill the gaps between our main work, I now have good paper prepped for the kids to work on ongoing "free art" so there's always something for them to work on 

without waiting for everyone to finish!

and just because it's "free art", doesn't mean it's not of excellent quality!

 

So, there's your update on what going on in art class!  To see all of our projects, click HERE

Have a wonderful day!

Stephanie

Dancing Praying Mantis!

So I've had a kind of "off" week with the kid's having a teacher's workday on Monday and then planning for Caroline's birthday....I showed my new botanical painting yesterday, but I didn't show my little commission I've been working on.  You might have guessed from my title that it features a Dancing Praying Mantis!
It's for a logo of an Etsy artist, I thought it was such a cool project, I wanted to share it!
So on Tuesday, I did two sketches:

 and she chose the second one!  Here's how it looks right now.  I still need to add a background and do a little touch up and then I"ll be done.  It's been a looong time since I do any illustrations and I must say, I've forgotten how much fun it is!

Even though I'm extremely late for the party; I'm linking this with Paint Party Friday.  Go check it out- SO very much beauty to see there!
TTFN,
Stephanie

Palette & Paint Thursday!

Happy Thursday- here's where I'm at with my new little painting- I got a LOT done yesterday so now all I have left to do is touch ups and tweaking here and there.  

I wish I'd taken a picture yesterday because I liked her face better then and I'd know what direction to go in to get it back to that point. 

I'll get there, it just might take a little time:)

 

 And here's my palette- looks rather like a Christmas palette; doesn't it?

I'm off to a really busy day- it's my daughter's 18th birthday and we're having the whole family over, so I have to get cooking plus I have my students coming for a class this afternoon and a commission that I'm working on needs to have some paint thrown at it!  Whew- I got a little tired just listing it all!

Be sure to stop by Tracey Potter's blog and see the other WIP's and their palettes- it's always a beautiful collection to behold!

Have a wonderful day,

Stephanie

Silent Sunday- Transforming Oil Pastel into Paint

A few snaps of my young students using crumbled oil pastels mixed with linseed oil on canvas paper.....

GREAT fun!

Have a wonderful day!

Stephanie

WOW- 52 Weeks of Paint Party Friday!

And I am SO proud to say that I was there for the very first one and have participated almost every week since!  This is such a wonderful thing that Kristin and Eva do each week; give all us artists a chance to connect and enjoy one anothers work.  Thank you Kristin and Eva- you guys are amazing!
I've been working on putting together a collection of small affordable paintings and that's what I have to share today.
First my "Fleur de Lis" (at least I think that's what I'm calling it ;))

 this is for the most part done- I just want to do little touch ups here and there.  I really liked the effect of composing it on the  diagonal- good thing too, 'cause sketching it out kicked my butt!  I can't tell you how many times I had to erase everything and start over...but I do really like the effect! 

 Oh and just FYI; this is 6" x 6" on a 1" deep canvas; so it has a really nice impact on the wall!  I'll be asking $65.00 for each of these little guys!

I thought yesterday's "sneak peek" with Mojo looking in the window was fun.....

that's how she tells me shes ready to entre.  Nope, this kitten is NOT spoiled at all- I promise!

Ya'll have a wonderful day- and try to get around to visit Paint Party Friday-

 SO much beauty and friendship to find there!

x

Stephanie

Palette & Paint Thursday

Wow, I bet you didn't expect to see two posts from me in one day!  But here I am again!  I'm doing a series of small paintings for our upcoming Spring Home Show.  And this is the second one I've started. You'll see the first one tomorrow at PPF....Anyway, I've been wanting to paint this for a couple years now.  I took this picture at the Atlanta Flower Show a while back

Obviously, this is still very much in the rough stages- I just wanted to share where I'm at right now!

and of course, I must share my palette...

Be sure to stop by Tracey Potter's blog to see the other pretty palettes in this fun weekly blog party!

That's all for today (I promise ;))

Stephanie

A Touch of Springtime....

 I wanted to share some garden pictures for Silent Sunday, but I had to charge my camera battery and by the time it was ready, the weather had changed from warm and "Springy" to cold and blustery!  The next day it was rainy and then it was cloudy, but today; dawned beautiful and sunny and here I am, finally able to share some early signs of springtime.....

 from the "bridge" of my dry creek...

 this is an old fashioned double white azalea with a green throat- I'd love to find more....

 From the other side of the "creek"- I just expanded this bed; the irises were taking over!

 Columbine, Foxglove and of course, Irises!

 From inside my arbor, you can see Clematis, Butterfly Bushes and Various Roses climbing to the top-

 I can't WAIT!

Irises, Daisies and a Purple Smoke Tree at the edge of my dry creek....

And of course, my neighbors probably think I'm nuts at this time of year, because I must go wander the garden at least two or three times a day just in case anything has changed!  Of course it hasn't, but that doesn't stop e from looking!

Hope your weather is as gorgeous as mine is here!

Have a beautiful day!

x

Stephanie