"Counting the Blessings"

So here I am finally posting an update on the pages I did in Tammy's Round Robin book for our Inspiration Avenue art exchange.  I finished these on Friday but never got around to posting until now....

So, I added a little more flesh-i-ness to her skin tone and made the moon more orange-y

 ......and added the quote.

To finish it up, I folded my painting and glued it in to be a pop up.  I know I hinted that I'd do a tut for this, but my way is so fly by night, I think it would be impossible to follow!  Basically I get a "dummy sheet" of paper and practice laying it out until the measurements fit appropriately...very scientific, huh?  However, Robert Sabuda's website has a TON of great ideas that you can use or just take inspiration from and make your own!

Have a great day!

Stephanie

P&P Thursday- NOT an Octopus!

Happy Palette & Paint Thursday (a wee bit early;))  I'm way behind this week, in terms of making art, but here I am at last with a WIP for Tammy's wonderful book!  Because these books are open to interpretation and have no theme it can be a little challenging to come up with an idea for them!  I originally wanted to do something featuring an octopus, but it just didn't work out this week.  Never fear, there will probably be an octopus in one of the upcoming books, because I did a LOT of research and came up with a LOT of ideas...Just nothing that felt right for this book.

BUT, what to do with this book?  

I felt like I was out of ideas and really, have I ever HAD a good idea and for that matter; why the HELL did I ever decide to be an artist......was getting ready to really wallow in self pity and then, BAM, it came to me!  Because I had been thinking of octopi and them having 8 legs and that led me to thinking of numbers and them my weirdo little brain started thinking about how much I like stars.......well, what if I did a night sky with numbers instead of stars and so I started sketching and here's what I came up with.

Have you ever heard Einstein on the Beach- very cool modern opera...

anyway, that was playing in my head while painting this.....

 

 My plan is to make it a little less monochromatic and then I have to paint the background pages with a quote- something about counting blessings....it will be attached in pop up format and I might, might do a tutorial since every time I do pop ups, people ask!

 And here is my extremely monochromatic palette- I assure you it will have more color tomorrow!

 

For now, try to stop by Tracey Potter's blog to see last week's P&P entries!

Have a great day!

Stephanie

Semi-Silent-Sunday.....Redusing, Reusing and Recycling....In the GARDEN!

Happy Earth Day!  I wanted to share some more pictures of my garden 

showcasing some of my up cycled garden art.....ENJOY!

found this cool little bottle in my attic....as the six children of the original owners lived in the attic, I'm sure this has stories to tell!  But for now, it has been re purposed as a vase.  I HATE Bourbon!

Fallen branches?  My favorite FREE garden borders enrich the soil as they decompose!

Old birdbath now won't hold water....but it WILL hold a flower pot and very prettily too!

My arbor I designed around these beautiful windows....I have more windows waiting in the shed to become a pergola

overview of the arbor

bottle tree fashioned form an antique coat rack and assorted wine bottles- I DO love that shade of blue!

found Adirondack chair housing my favorite rose; Jude the Obscure, Anemones and Irises

Jude the Obscure- I LOVE this rose as much for it's name as for it's beauty!

I LOVE finding broken pots on the side of the road and burying them to disguise their flaws......FREE and beautiful!

one of my favorite flower pots that didn't survive the freezes we had a couple years ago- now on active duty as a border

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!

Killing Two Birds with One Stone.....

Happy Friday!  It has been one crazy hectic week around here with the end result being that i just didn't get much done painting wise.  SO, I'm double dipping this week with a combo post for Palette & Paint Thursday AND Paint Party Friday....I did take these pictures yesterday but spent half the day at vet with an injured Peri and the other half prepping for my art class!
Anyway, I almost finished my garden angel...

I want to do a little more distressing on the face and maybe a bit more with the pansies....

but for the most part, it is finis!

Here's my palette too- I love mixing the pansy colors!  Like Easter Eggs in acrylic :)

That's all for now, I'm off to visit the other artists at both parties- click the links above and join me!

x

Stephanie

Art Class- Enter the SQUIDS!

A few years ago, my son, Garrett won a series of squid hats at Six Flags and they are now mounted on each of his headboard posts- FUN!  Anyway, he loves peeking in art class and visiting from time to time.  Last week, he surprised them with his squids, which of course they had to try on and KEEP on for the remainder of of our class.  So the end result was some pretty fun and funny snaps from class...while they were drawing a foxglove from the garden.

To begin our Mother's Day project; we started with blind contour sketches in their art journals, 

then regular contour drawings- 

And then once they were confident that they had mastered 

this incredibly difficult subject; it was time to draw it again- large!

 Once they finished their drawings, we cut tracing paper for them to make a copy.  

We'll end up with two very beautiful finished pieces- one with my color specifications 

and one with their own!

Tomorrow when it's time for class, we'll transfer the tracings and then begin adding color...can't wait!

Have a wonderful day! 

Stephanie

Almost done with Kim's book...

This time of year, all I really want to do is play in the garden.  Except when I have a really inspiring project to work on!  So, here are the finished pages in Kim's round robin book.  I just did a little more tightening on the lady and painted in the flying bird.  All that's left to do is write a note to Miss Kim about what I did and why and then the book will be on it's way to Maggie.  I think I have Tammy's book next and I'm super excited to start playing in hers this week!

 Anyway, here's what Kim's book ended up looking like:

Because the book is hand bound, I had to stay away from the seams 

to avoid my paint bleeding onto other peoples pages.....

 And here's the bird flying on to the next Round Robin destination...

 Silly me, I glazed this before erasing my sketch marks, 

so now they will be remaining with the painting- oops!

That's all for now.  I'll be around to visit all my Bloggity friends and try to get caught up before going back to the garden.  It's hard tho', because the flowers, they are a'calling....
TTFN,
Stephanie

Silent Sunday- A Tale of Two Teens on their way to the Prom.....

 Isn't she beautiful?

 

 

I'll be back tomorrow with art updates!  Have a marvelous Sunday!

Palette & Paint Thursday!

Whew, I can't believe I've been away from my blog
for almost two weeks!
I think I'm in withdrawal....I took pictures for today's post on
Tuesday thinking I'd be ahead of the game for once for Palette and Paint Thursday,

but today, when I went to upload them; guess what?  they were missing!  

But I thought, no problem, I'll get use my file recovery program and get them back!
Well, my recovery program is apparently no longer free,
and me being the cheapster that I am, I decided to fudge it a bit.  

Since I still have the "color tester" from when I was painting in my background 

and I let the palette I used the other day dry so I can re-use it...

I took new snaps to share and so, here we go!

This is the tester/palette combo that I used to create the background.  

I did have snaps of just the background, but alas, those are gone too...

The project I'm working on this week is my pages for my Inspiration Avenue friend Kim's book.  We just started a round robin...and I loved the idea of her cover- she did a play on the words "Round Robin" and the way we all inspire one another- this group is a collection of past and present IA members- and I think it will be such a wonderful commemoration for me of the time I was part of that team!

 

Anyway, I took inspiration from her theme and  this is what I have so far:

 The palette is of the colors I used for the background.  I added the woman holding the bird yesterday 

and though I could have taken pictures of that palette, I didn't because 

I knew I already had pictures from Tuesday....which of course, I didn't!  Ah well, hindsight!

I cut the middle page down so you could see parts of the composition at all times no matter what page you were on of my spread.....this page will have a bird flying off into the horizon and a letter to Kim explaining my thoughts and inspirations behind these paintings.....

So, go visit the gallery of my fellow P&P-ers at Tracey Potter's Blog , BE INSPIRED and I'll see ya'll tomorrow at Paint Party Friday!

xx

Stephanie

Art me in the Garden, Fools!

Happy April Fool's Day.  I think the biggest prank to date is the one Mother Nature has been playing for the last month!  Everything in my garden is at least a month ahead- we haven't even had out last freeze date yet.  But I'm fairly certain that we won't be seeing any more freezes for a few months!
The first happy surprise I got today is my Jackmanni Clematis- the first bloom is just beginning to open...

 the last of my pansies- soon to be replaced with Impatiens

my bottle tree with my Lady Banks Rose

 Columbines with White Foxgloves

 my anniversary rose- it's been blooming for the last week!

Peri doing what cats do best

my laughing frog fountain- I know he's silly, but he always makes me smile

I hope you enjoyed strolling through my garden with me- see ya'll soon!

x

Stephanie