Updates to "Sanctuary" and Thanks.....

Happy Wednesday- I hope you all are not getting tired of seeing the same painting again and again!  There are a couple reasons why it's taking me so long...One; It's a lot bigger than what I've been doing lately and it takes time to cover that much space!  Two; I try to alternate my "freer" paintings with more detailed ones (like this one;)) so I don't forget how to do either- I want both styles to be easily available to me ;)  and finally, Three; Now that my kids are out of school for Summer, my painting time is severely limited- that's just the way it is this time of year!
The reason I'm sharing what I did yesterday day is I want to thank you for the suggestions from yesterday- I love compliments just like anyone else, but when they've paired with constructive criticism, they are so very valuable to me!
As always; I enjoyed all the feedback I got, but the one that really hit home yesterday was Elizabeth's:
"I like the roses, and I like their color, but the clematis (is that what it is?) is too bright with the roses AND I thought it was a poinsettia. Of course, I'm no artist, so I don't want it to sound like I'm judging."

And the reason she nailed it, was it was making ME think of Poinsettias too- I just didn't realize it until reading her comment!  And while I like poinsettias, I don't want my Clematis to look like one!
So, here's where I got with the leaves yesterday-

 which was not too far because the kids got up earlier than I anticipated and then the rest of the day delved into taking the middle daughter for her learner's permit- me forgetting to turn the lights off and ending up with a dead battery in an unpleasant side of town (see, she's already learning- turn the lights off, or you cant go anywhere!;)) and then assorted Mommy/Wifely duties......

But, now that I know what I want to do to the Clematis- I found a great reference to follow and fix it:

I'll be using the one in the upper left corner, and maybe borrowing from the colors of the rose too- 

haven't decided yet......

That's all for today, I'll be checking in again for tomorrow for Palette &Paint Thursday- with more updates on this guy.....maybe even double dipping again for Paint Party Friday- just so ya'll don't get *too* bored with this painting ;)
 TTFN
xx
Stephanie

A Bit More on "Sanctuary"

Happy Tuesday all- I keep thinking it's Monday because of yesterday's holiday, but here we are on Tuesday!  Anyway, I managed to squeeze in an hour of painting on Friday and thought I'd share it with you all before I make any more changes.......oh, and I've decided to name it "Sanctuary"

I'm not crazy about the Clematis on the left- it's shape is too perfect or something. I'll be studying it while I'm working this morning...and the roses I DO like, but, I'm not sure their warm color doesn't clash to much with the rest of the painting!  I think for today, I'll mull these things over while I work more on the leaves and getting the rest of the under painting in.  I should have two or three hours to work before everyone else gets up and the noise level becomes to much for me to concentrate! 
Happy Tuesday!
xx
Stephanie

Silent Sunday- Spring Projects!

Now that the school year is over Art Classes are too- I'd like to share some highlights from our year in class....

"What Color is the Sky in YOUR World?"

"Up, up and AWAY"

"Trick or Treat!"

Pseudo Stained Glass Pets

Free Art- Tie Dye Bunny

Warm and Cool Color Autumn Poems

"Sky Watchers"

Christmas Doves with a Taste of Picasso and Klimt

Hearts!

"Bloom"

Pansy a la O'Keeffe

Foxy Beauty

"If Mothers were flowers, I'd Pick YOU"

I love seeing so many of our projects together like this- if you'd like to see all the projects for the year; check out my Artsonia Site!
Have a wonderful day and for those of you who are Americans, Happy Memorial Day!
xx
Stephanie

Palette and Paint Thursday- I made it!

Whew, this has been some kinda crazy two weeks month in my family!  Our oldest is graduating from high school tomorrow and the other two have had not only their regular exams but also their exit exams so it has been a whirlwind of activity around here!  BUT, I did manage to get a bit more painting done on my WIP.  And a snap of my palette so I could be part of Palette & Paint Thursday!  So, here is what I got done on my new painting..

  I will actually have some time to paint a little more today- I think I want to put the leaves aside for a bit and get the Clematis painted in because their color (magenta) will affect how the other colors read.  So, hopefully, I'll be able to post more tomorrow before all the business of the day sets in!

And here is my palette...

 I'm off to see what everyone else did for P&P- you should too, it's always such a beautiful collection!
Have a wonderful day!
Stephanie

A Little More Progress....

Here's a bit more on my new painting.....the way I paint this kind of piece is to layer in the colors from the back to the front and then tighten up their color relationships.  Being a huge fan of purple and chartreuse pairings; I've made this sculpture quite a lot more purple than the original photo which was more of a golden color.....and I plan to intensify the chartreuse of the leaves next.  We'll see, these "gambles" don't always work for me!

 

Anyway, that's where I am at this point...I hope to have time to do more tomorrow- I'd love to lay the leaves in next!
Happy Monday all!
Stephanie

Silent Sunday- Art me in the Garden

I'm once again not going to be completely silent- I have to explain 

so you'll catch the before and after- 

the "after" being my mother's day pressie; a new bridge.......

So here's the old bridge, which we liked well enough at first..but the longer we looked at it, 

the more it looked like a dock- which is not the effect we wanted at ALL!

So, here's the "before"

And here's the "after"

My sweet hubby rebuilt the old bridge using the old planks and cleverly
building a new base to support the arch.
The only question now, is what color to stain it?

OK, now I'll resume with being properly silent for my silent Sunday post......I promise ;)

New Work in Progress

It has been one crazy week, around here but I wanted to pop my head in for a moment just to say hello.  Remember the pictures from the Decatur Garden Tour I shared a while back?  Well, the only art I've had time to work on this week was sketching out a painting of one of my all time favorite gardens- Ryan Gainey.  We're lucky enough to have him right here in Decatur and he's always generous about sharing his space with the public.  Anyway, my new painting is from one of his vignettes.  Actually, probably my next one too- I LOVE his style!
 So here's what I have so far- you would not believe how it took to sketch out!

 And here's my reference:
If you look closely, you may notice that I made a few changes, I wanted more of the Clematis on the left showing and also, we'd just missed the roses blooming, so I changed the dead blooms to some of my Perle d'Or which I always enjoy painting :)
That's all for now, I'll try to get caught up on my blog visits tomorrow!
 I miss you guys!
xx
Stephanie

Silent Sunday- "If Mothers were Flowers, I'd Pick YOU"

This will be a "sorta" Silent Sunday post, so just bear with me!  We've been working on mother's day projects in art class and here's what we've been doing.....this project was inspired by Elizabeth of  

Altered Book Lover- LOTS of great ideas there, go check her out!

Students lettered and painted their borders with the words, "If Mothers were Flowers, I'd Pick YOU"

Then we talked about using the white of paper to create a tint

 For the inside of their borders, I cut two sheets for them to fill with flowers; one with pounded flowers, and the other drawn and painted flowers- next week, we'll choose our favorites 

of the two and that one will be mounted on their final papers.....

really, you have the flowers covered to pound them- but Colson agreed to do a "mock pounding"

pounding the flowers was a LOT of fun, and it had the added bonus of helping the kids really SEE the details of the flowers!

 

Flower Tower

next week they use paint and pencils to add details back into their prints

 And finish their other painting of flowers to end up with a really beautiful Mother's Day gift!

Happy Mother's Day!

x

Stephanie

Paint Party Friday- Thanks Eva and Kristin!!!

Happy Friday!  I am so excited to share that I was chosen to be the featured artist this week at Paint Party Friday!!  It's been such an amazing group of people full of of inspiration and fun and now they are featuring an artist each week- FUN! 

So, Thank you Eva and Kristin- you guys have made Fridays

 such a wonderful day to look forward to- thanks!!!

Anyway, after I finished the portrait I had just enough time to do final touch ups on my Angel in the Garden painting; now re-named as "Angel Amongst the Pansies"  I put this aside close to a month ago to do some work on my Inspiration Avenue Round Robin and then the portrait.  Anyway; here's how it turned out;

  I was glad to get it finished and listed in my Etsy Shop- one of my goals this month is to become an active Etsian once more!  So I've been "cleaning shop" and put all of my old note cards on clearance and upgraded to 5"x7" Strathmore Greeting cards. 

 I love these because they are bigger than my old cards and I can attach separate prints and sign and title them, which is something I've been wanting to do for awhile.  I also began sketching out a new painting from based on my photos from the garden tours from last week....I'll share more on that later!

For now, Happy Paint Party Friday!

xx

Stephanie

Finis!

YES, I finished my portrait and not only am I in time, but I also have something to post for P& P Thursday- ahead of time for once!!!
So here's my painting:

and here's my palette:

Now I'm going to use this palette to finish some touch ups on a couple other paintings which I'll be sharing for Paint Party Friday......trying to think ahead here- it's the only way I manage to keep up with my life!
Have a wonderful Hump Day!
xx
Stephanie

Portrait Progress!

So, I think I'm gonna make it to my finish line- if you read my last post; you'll know that I've been working on a "quickie" commission- due Wednesday (yep, tomorrow ;)).  And if you know me at all, then you also know that I'm not exactly the fastest painter!  But, I got a lot done on Friday and then more yesterday- between family obligations and the fact that my desk is in the middle of the house- also known as the "Chaos Zone" I don't usually paint on the weekends.  But I knew this when I accepted the job and I'm almost there!
Here's where it is as of yesterday afternoon....

So, I still have to paint in the reins and bit and then just over all tweaking.  I'll do another post with the final piece tomorrow.  For now, I'm gonna finish my coffee; visit a few blogs and then paint, paint, paint!
Have a wonderful day!
Stephanie