Frida and Sanctuary.....

Yesterday, I got my mini Frida painting finished, photographed and photoed for my Etsy shop.

Plus one other paiting that I finished a while ago.  It's been hanging on my wall for a couple months- sometimes I need to live with my "babies" awhile before I can part with them!

Here's Frida:

For more pictures of her, check her out in my Etsy shop!

And some of you might remember when I started painting 

Sanctuary from my pictures of our local garden tour.....

And for more pictures, it's also now in my Etsy shop!

Both will soon be available as cards too.......

I'll be back soon (maybe even later today- MAYBE ;)) with new projects from art class and SOON current pics of the garden dressed up for Halloween.

Til then...

xx

Stephanie

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

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

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

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!!!

Paint Party Friday- May 20,2011

It's Paint Party Friday again and I'm so happy to say I'm almost done with my rose!  It's getting to that point where I'm REALLY ready to move on to something new, but I know myself, and I know if I don't finish it before starting something else, it will stay unfinished!
So, here it is:

Really I just want to do a little tightening here and there and touch up the yellows on the petal- it doesn't quite GLOW like I want it to......all in good time :)

I included this image just because I thought the reflection was kind of cool....
I hope you all have a wonderful Friday and be sure to stop by Paint Party Friday to see what everyone else has been up to- I'm always amazed and inspired by all the incredible work there!
Stephanie

Sisterhood of the Traveling Sketch Books- May

Hopefully, this will end up being my Paint Party Friday post, but with Blogger being down for so long, their weekly check in isn't up yet.....
Anyway, this week I started working on the first traveling sketchbook I've received- Jennifer Pride's.  This one was a struggle for me, I'm not sure why, but it was!  It went from being one thing to another and finally, I gave up sketching and just started painting with gesso, water color and acrylics.  I was trying to do a take on Botticelli's dancing ladies in La Primavera but I kept having trouble with the spirals and how to have the design transition for me- this is a real learning process for me, which funnily enough, allowed me to just play and be loose.

I'm loving the white ladies especially because I was able to stay loose instead of over worrying the proportions

This is also my entry for this week's challenge at Inspiration Avenue- where the theme is Signs and Symbols which I mixed into my background imagery.

I wanted to have a suggestion of a Maypole.....lots of words and color

I painted the figures with gesso and once the whole spread had been painted, I spritzed it all with water....sometimes I like that effect in water color paintings, but not so much here (remember a learning experience:))  anyway, I will be going back over the white- just a little 'cause I really like the way the watercolor bled through the gesso.

Oh and in case anyone's wondering, here's what I got done on my rose this week- just a little more detail:

That's about it for me this week, we've been wrapping up the end of the school year, and things have been crazy hectic in my family!

Have a great weekend!
Stephanie
Be sure to stop by my Etsy shop to check out my BOGO sale!

Paint Party Friday- May 6

Hooray- it's Friday and you know what that means- time for Paint Party Friday!  I know I said a few posts ago that I was going to work on a tulip next, but this rose got in my head and just would NOT leave!  So here is my current WIP- it's from a picture I took last year of Perle D'or, the rose on my mailbox.  This rose gives and gives and gives!  It is always the first to bloom and as long as I remove the spent flowers, it keeps blooming until the first freeze, usually in November!  I LOVE it!

The only drawback is that it isn't an especially good cut flower, as the blooms only last a couple of days.  BUT, just look at the shape of those petals! 

 And here is the reference I'm using: 

 Be sure to pop over to Paint Party Friday- there's always so much beautiful work to see!
Happy PPF,
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