Paint Party Friday- June 3

YAY!  It's Paint Party Friday again and I've started a new painting that I can share with you!  I actually enjoy sharing WIP's because they look so different on the monitor.  And here, I must say, that I was pretty happy with this yesterday but now that it's up on said monitor, not so much....it's also for Inspiration Avenue's challenge- "Over the Rainbow"

 

and I've tentatively named this, "Off to Meet the Wizard"....I'm sorely tempted to paint a tiny emerald palace in the distance and make that swathe of empty lime green meadow (which I quite liked yesterday and HATE today....) into a field of poppies.....I'll not be changing my ladies dress and tho' you can't tell here, she's in the act of putting on a necklace.
I've wanted to do a painting of a woman putting on a necklace ever since I got this book:
"Kissing Games of the World" by Sandi Kahn Shelton- the cover has this image on it:

which I've been wanting to to use in a painting ever since.  However, bowing to copyright laws and a lack of ideas, I never did anything with it until now....(by the way, I can't really recommend this book, I started it but never finished it- got bored about halfway through ;))
What pulled this together is the fact that I've been rather down recently and kind of hiding in my own skin.....so I needed to paint it and hopefully lose this "Don't LOOK at me feeling"...that I sometimes get- anyone else ever feel that way?
Anyway, it's been very therapeutic for me and now that it's up on the blog, I know more where it needs to go:

• Obviously, she needs hands, hair and a necklace ;)
• the path blends too much into the flowers- needs more definition
• her skin tone still isn't where I want it
• the arch isn't quite right
• sky needs to be touched up- especially the bits coming from behind the arch
• to add an emerald palace or not?

And PLEASE feel free to add suggestions- I'm am completely open to constructive crittisism!

That's what I've got for Paint Party Friday this week- be sure to check it out; last week we had more than 60 artists participate!
I'm off to the party, see you there!
Stephanie

FOLLOWUP:  Here it is after I worked on it today...added the poppies and changed the hair- may or may not have the necklace- and I think NO on the castle.  Thanks for all the great suggestions!

I'm still wanting to do more on the garden and touch upsin general.....but pretty happy with it over all.
XO
Stephanie

Weekly Challenge at Inspiration Avenue: "Green and Purple"

Here is my weekly entry for the challenge at Inspiration Avenue- "Green and Purple".  This is my (mostly) finished page for Kim Mailhot's sketchbook, featuring the month of June.  When I think of June, I think of warm Summer nights and beautiful gardens in full bloom lit with moonlight and fireflies and sometimes candles- maybe even a lantern?....so that's the direction I went in with this...

I trimmed out the existing page to create a profile and added an extension to the other side repeating the lines of the profile to create a sort of triptych effect opening to:

 the painting I shared for Paint Party Friday....there will be some journaling in the blank space on the left- I might also use the space to describe the techniques and all- to be able to do something extra on the back page which is stamped in the same way the borders are with prints of flowers and leaves from the garden.

 I had the HARDEST time finding the right words to go with this...finally I stumbled across this quote by Anthony J. Angelo who I'll give credit to somewhere in this ;)

And for those of you who weren't around on Friday, here's the painting before I glued it into the pages- several people noticed the edge of a face and wondered about it- now you know WHY it's there!
That's it for me- be sure to check out everyone's art at Inspiration Avenue- it's a gorgeous collection as always!
Toodles,
Stephanie

Paint Party Friday- May 27

Whew, I really feel like I'm late for the party, but I'm here at last!  For this week, I'm sharing part of my spread for Kim Maillot's sketchbook for the month of May for our traveling sketchbooks. 

Some of you might notice that the colors are primarily purple and green- there's a reason for that!  The weekly challenge at Inspiration Avenue is based on that color combo....I should know, since it was my turn to set the challenge, lol!  I'll be posting the spread in it's entirety in the next day.....for now, this painting had a mind of it's own from the start.  I knew that it was going to be these colors, but that's the only thing that has stayed since I started it.  First of all, I started with a lavender sky- and lots of clouds.....the woman was in a kind of frolicky ballet pose- she was meant to be one of my Joie de Vivre figures....but, the muse said uh, uh!  It needs to be night with the suggestion of trees and the lady NEEDS a lantern....so there there you go!  I might do a little more, or I might call it done- it's at the point where I'm pretty happy with it and I always worry about overworking at this point!
Be sure to stop by Paint Party Friday to see what everyone else has been up to this week!
Cheers,
Stephanie

Been Busy with a Little Bit o' Mojo......

So today is Friday, which usually means that this post would be based on the work I've been doing this week.....BUT, in a moment of weakness LAST Friday, I gave in to my children's begging to adopt a new kitten.  Enter Mojo, a little 6 week old scrap who spent the majority of the week missing her mommy and getting used to us and our other cats.  SO, I got very little done this week that wasn't kitten related!  However, I WILL be posting something for Paint Party Friday- it'll just be a little later than usual today!

So, I'll be back in a bit for PPF, until then, have a great Friday!
Stephanie

My BOGO Sale is over, BUT my Spring Cleaning Sale has only begun.....

Hello my bloggity friends!  I just want to give y'all the heads up that while my BOGO sale ended on Friday, many of my paintings are now in my Spring Cleaning section and marked down to 40% off!  You can check them out HERE!

Also, I finished the rose painting and it's now in my Etsy as well- that link is HERE.

"A Tale of Two Roses"

And I also decided to list my Chartreuse zinnia- sometimes I like to live with my paintings for a while before selling them!  That link is HERE.

"Zinnia in Chartreuse"

That's all for now, have a GREAT Sunday!
Stephanie

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

Weekly Challenge at Inspiration Avenue: "Tropical"

This week's challenge at Inspiration Avenue is "Tropical" and since I don't have anything new along those lines to show, I'm going to share a picture of cat Spiderman that I took while we were living in the Virgin Islands.  This was the view from our balcony- and yes, it was a WONDERFUL place to live!

This picture inspired my very first (tho' not very good ;)) altered book

 Funny looking at old work, I see all kinds of mistakes- this one was never finished and I was so excited about starting my first altered book, I didn't do a very good job of prepping it.  My son saw it was a painting of HIS cat and claimed it for his wall.....and it's been there ever since. 
Be sure to stop by Inspiration Avenue- there are sure to be tons of tropical beauties to admire.  And, hey; if you have time, submit one of your own!
Cheers,
Stephanie