New Painting- Purple Majesty

I *finally* finished my new painting, and THANK YOU Lisa for helping with the title!  I actually finished it last week, but wasn't one hundred percent convinced that I was done with it.  It took me a long time to learn that when I get to that point on a painting, the smartest thing to do is leave it alone for a while and look at it from time to time.  Sure, there are still places I'd like to work a little more, but it would lead to working on other areas and then OTHER areas and before you know it, it would be overworked!  For anyone interested in seeing more images, I also just listed it in my Etsy shop.  So, I'm happy with it where it is now and it's time to get working on a new one! 

Cheers,

Stephanie

What's UP in the Studio- More Progress on my new Iris painting....

Well I've been jammin' for about a month now, and making tarts and cheesecakes for each week at the Decatur Farmer's Market......and just this week, I finally feel like I've gotten it organized enough to work on my REAL work- my art, for more than a couple of hours each week!  You might be asking yourself why I'm working so hard on this if it's taking so much time away from my painting (I know my husband does all the time:)) well, it's a family business, and my family is really important to me......also, in the Summer with the kids home from school, I don't get much painting done anyway!
So, here is my new painting in it's current state:

Also for any of you that remember the Tulip painting I had in progress, well I sold it at our Home Show....I'd planned on doing a little more to it, so didn't take any photos of it at that point....

really. all I did was make the background a little whiter, and in all honesty, I can't remember what else I'd planned on doing to it- must not have been too important!

That's all for now- Cheers,

Stephanie

Weekly Challenge at Inspiration Avenue- "I've got the blues"

Good morning all- it was my turn to come up with this week's challenge for Inspiration Avenue and I chose "I've Got the Blues" for my theme. I liked all the possibilities that it suggested! Anyway, my plan or rather my highly ambitious plan :) was to do a new painting. Then I ended up buying 30 pounds of strawberries and 40 pounds of peaches to can for the farmer's market......between the canning and the fact that it was the last week of school with events for each child; I got one hour of painting done this week! SO, for my entry I'm using the reference for my painting- it's a picture of a German bearded iris that I took in my mother's garden.

And for those of you who are curious about my new painting, here's what I have so far:

Sorry for the poor quality of the image- my daughter borrowed my camera again and I have NO idea what she did to the light settings!  Anyway, I'm hoping to finish it this week and get on a more balanced schedule with painting and canning and having Summertime fun with the kids- I might even manage to have a relatively clean house throughout the process!

Cheers and to those of you who are Americans, have a great holiday weekend!

Stephanie

Interlude- Original Acrylic Painting featuring Peony and Iris

Good morning- I finished my new painting on Thursday and this is the first chance I've had to blog about it.  So here you go, it features the relationship between a Festiva Maxima peony and a budding Savannah Sunset iris with a dramatic play of shadows and light to make up the background.  For information and pictures, check it out at my Etsy shop.

Cheers,
Stephanie

what's UP in the studio- Altered Books and a New WIP...

Here are some of the altered books I finished for the show a couple of weeks ago.  I've managed to list most of them in my Etsy shop.....I'm slooowly getting back to a normal schedule!

I used my current favorite technique of tearing and collaging printed images from my paintings

And the quote I used reads; " 'Tis moonlight, summer moonlight all soft and still and fair, the solemn hour of midnight" by Emily Bronte.

again the collage technique; did I mention it's my current fave?  I also made a bookmark to go with......

I also enjoy doing pop-ups and here's a close up of the seed envelope opened....

For my new painting, that I'm sketching out today I chose to use this image of a peony and iris....

So that's about all that's going on with me.  Have a great day!

Cheers,

Stephanie

ART me in the Garden.........Inspirations for my New Painting

Even though I'm taking the week off from painting to recuperate from the show and to regroup; the garden keeps marching on!  This week, the stars are irises- they're not all in their full glory yet, but many have started their show.  This is a perfect time for me to take some pictures as references for my iris series- as of yet there is only one painting in the series and since it's focused down, I want to do one that includes more of the plant.

So here are some of the pictures I took this week in my garden and also my Mom's, Dad's and my brother's.

From my brother's garden- I'm not sure what this variety is, but I AM sure that I hope he's willing to share some!  LOVE the play of light on the petals.......yummy!

From my garden- the pink iris is waiting for her accompanying orange iris' to complete the symphony....

I love the Japanese irises- the way the light shines on them is so beautiful to me....

This is part of the garden I've been designing for my Dad- I love how the Peony is almost "serenading" the budding iris.  I'd probably use the composition of the first image with the detail from the second.  Don't you LOVE that shadow from the peony on the iris' leaves?

This is in my Mom's garden and I think I'm probably going to have to use BOTH images- the focused down one with it's play of light and shadows is calling to me.....

Of course there are other things going on in the gardens this week- here's a brief recap.....

Perle d'or Rose

                                                 Here is the side garden.......excuse the bag of potting soil that I didn't move before taking the picture!

Somehow, I haven't been able to get a good picture of the foxgloves or the clematis both of which are doing their thing- I keep trying every day though.....

Hope you have a chance to get to your garden this week!

Cheers,

Stephanie