I'm still here!

Sorry I've been MIA for so long.....it's been a roller coaster ride of a life the last several weeks!  I find it really hard to strike a balance between being personal on my blog and not getting too personal, so I didn't want to write about this until I knew what I was dealing with.  To make a long story short; two and a half weeks ago, I found a (painful) lump in one of my breasts and went to the doctor who sent me for a mammogram and sonograms which led to a visit with a surgeon who ordered a biopsy- last week was a whirlwind of in and out of various doctor's offices and the word "cancer" was thrown into more conversations than I like to think about.  Anyway, I didn't want ya'll to have to play the waiting game with me, so I'm writing this now too say that the results came back negative.  We will have to deal with the lump which turned out to be a chronic/acute abscess, but that's nothing compared to what it could have been! 
I think of my friends in blogland as real friends- almost to the level of family, so it seemed important to share this with you even tho' it has nothing to do with art or any of the various ways of creating it.  And I would have shared this earlier, but I just couldn't think of a way to write about it without voicing the many fears I was experiencing while I was going through it.

 I will leave you with a peek into my garden as it was last week - my refuge for when I was trying to stay positive and not be scared and also manage to keep all these worries from my children- one more level of the roller coaster, I expect.
xo
Stephanie

Weekly Challenge at Inspiration Avenue- "So Romantic"

Here is the piece I did for this week's challenge at Inspiration Avenue- the theme was "So Romantic" and it's the painting I've been showing in progress the last few days.
Here she is, completed:

"Through the Eyes of a Peacock"

I just listed her in my Etsy shop- for more images and info, click HERE.

I also finished this painting I'd put aside for a while.  It's been staring at me accusingly so I finally finished it!

"Embracing the Possibilities"

And for more info on this one, you may click HERE
That's it for me!  Be sure to stop by Inspiration Avenue to see what everyone else came up with this week.
Cheers,
Stephanie

Paint Party Friday- June 17

It's Friday and you KNOW what that means- time for Pint Party Friday!
I showed my WIP yesterday and it's still not quite done but it's getting there.....I want to change the peacock feathers a little and then I think it will be where I want it.

Be sure to check out what everyone else has been up to at Paint Party Friday.
Have a great day!
Stephanie

What's Up in the Studio?

I think I'm just about over the exhaustion left over from Summer camp extravaganza- it amazing how things that wouldn't give me a pause 15 years ago, now wipe my 43 year old butt out!  Could it be that I'm getting old?  Nah, I'll just mark it down to just a wee bit of overextending myself.  'Cause I'm definitely not going to slow down any time soon!
For this week, I'm doing two kinds of painting.  One; I'm working on a new canvas for Inspiration Avenue's weekly challenge and two; I'm painting my daughter Caroline's room while she's in California visiting our beloved Sidney!
Caroline's room started out as a deep purply-blue and she and her artsy friends took upon themselves to embellish the wall with whatever whim the muse called upon.  As an artist, I gave her the green light- I ALWAYS encourage creativity (or almost always- I DO draw the line at teen age paint wars in the house ;)) ......the end result very cool, but it went a little overboard to the point that she had trouble sleeping in such a vibrant room and here we are now, trying to "vanilla it down" a bit.
I took some close ups of the paintings by Caroline & Friends:

 Here is her room at the almost halfway point- I'm just shoving everything to one side and painting......then I'll shove it all to the other side and finish it up!

 This is the side I did yesterday- her plan is to use the cream colored wall for her collaborative painting and leave the other walls in their assorted shades of russet.....I still have some touch ups to do but this'll at least give you an idea......

For the other painting that I'm doing this week, I doing a new canvas inspired by the theme "So Romantic".  This is the first painting I've ever done without sketching at all first- I usually work things out in my sketchbook and then transfer it all to canvas.  This time, I wanted to just jump right in and let the muse offer guidance wherever she might!  I have a couple references that I'm using as guidelines- peacock feather (which mine will NOT be in the traditional colors ;)) and one of a face to reference the shadows I'm going for.....so here she is:

I'm hoping to finish her this morning and have her ready for PPF tomorrow.  Wish me luck!
TTFN,
Stephanie

Art Camp!

Whew, I've had a fun but exhausting week doing an art camp.  We did 20 hours of art- and they did some amazing work!  I wanted to do projects based on the theme of summer but somehow it morphed more into a theme of art history mixed with summer.  I'm not going to share ALL the projects here, because we did SO many- but here are a few of my favorites.....

"Great art picks up where nature ends" Marc Chagall

This one was based on Chagall and his style of using all sides of the paper- my little six year old students were asked to include a self portrait with something they love,  a house, tree and some flowers- they turned out GREAT!

We studied warm and cool colors and then they drew and painted two sunflower still lifes.....

Sunflowers like Van Gogh

Sunflowers in warm colors

Sunflowers in cool colors

Fishy Color Wheel

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Color Wheel of Loooove

 I always focus on some element of color theory, so it seemed like a good time to do color wheels, talking about primary, secondary and tertiary colors......

This was my favorite project of the week.  In researching for lesson ideas, I kept stumbling across story quilts in the style of Faith Ringold.  BUT, I didn't like any of the ones I saw that were done by kids in the same age group as my guys, so I made up my own based on "Artist Speak".  We talked about what artists do and made a list of words-some theirs and some mine- here's what they came up with.   

Another favorite- just a simple tracing of their hands with a lifted finger to provide a resting spot for a butterfly.....some careful coloring and creative drawing and voila! another masterpiece!

Weekly Challenge at Inspiration Avenue: "Bake"

Sorry I've been missing in action all week- I've been teaching an art camp and haven't time or energy for blogging or to visit any of my bloggy friends!

Lucky for me, this week's challenge at Inspiration Avenue was "bake"

 and one of my little projects was for us make an edible color wheel- it doesn't seem to matter how old or young the students are- they all LOVE this!

We use food coloring and white frosting and mix each color talking about primary, secondary and tertiary colors as we go- GREAT fun, and yummy too!

Sorry I don't have more pictures, (I wanted one with everyone) but the kiddies were too impatient to devour their color wheel for me to get any more than I did!

Be sure to pop over to Inspiration Avenue this Sunday to see what everyone else came up with.....Or ever better submit something of your own- just get it in by 12:00 on Sunday for it to be posted with everyone else's creations!

Have a great day!

Stephanie
P.S. If you want to make one of these color wheels, I do NOT recommend bargain food coloring like I used here- the colors are so much purer with McCormick or something comparable.

Weekly Challenge at Inspiration Avenue: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"

For those of you who've seen the stages of this since it's beginning might notice a lot of changes- in the flowers, her pose, dragonfly tattoo, etc....it's taken me a while to get there, but I think she's close to being done.  I just want to fade out that tattoo a bit and maybe play a little more with the flowers......it's getting close to that point where I need to leave it lest I run the risk of overworking and ruining it!

 I know the flowers were more "rainbow-ish" before and thus more fitting for this week's challenge of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", but I just had to change them.  I think this piece still works for the challenge because there is a rainbow of colors in here, even if they're not in rainbow format.....btw the way I must say thank you to Lisa DiNunzio for the idea of a dragonfly tatt- I think it's the perfect finishing touch, even though it's still too dark- I LOVE it!
Be sure to pop over to Inspiration Avenue to see what everyone else has come up with for this week- there's certain to be a fabulous array of beauty there in a rainbow of colors!
Have a brilliantly colorful day!
Stephanie