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

Silent Sunday- The 2012 Decatur Garden Tour

SO many inspiring gardens on this year's tour!  Enjoy my little recap of some of my favorite things I saw....see if you can spy some of my inspirations for future paintings.....

why anyone would need massage oil in a hot house is beyond me, but I liked the comp, so I'm sharing it.....

amazing pond

 

I loved this little planting beneath the windows....

I WANT a bench just like this!

PRETTY

 

I could totally paint this....

or THIS......

another cool bench

AMAZING fountain made from wine bottles and Chilhuly inspired sculptures

Another wonderful fountain made with reclaimed pots

garden sanctuary.....so wonderful!

Double Dipping Again.....

I PROMISE I'll do better next week, but this week I am once again double dipping with Paint Party Friday and Palette & Paint Thursday...yes, yes, I know it's no longer Thursday, but after painting most of yesterday, then teaching my class then falling into my family/mommy duties plus editing a bunch of Etsy stuff, there just wasn't any time left!
This is a WIP for a commission I'm working on, and to be truthful I almost didn't share it at all!  It's at that uncomfortable stage where probably only I can see where it's going and what it will be when complete!  But I need to get back on track with my blog stuff so here ya go...

 this is just the under painting and the colors will be quite different when I'm done, 

but it will give you an idea anyway.......

That's all for now- I have to get back to painting- this is due next Wednesday!  I'll be around to visit at PPF and P&PT- you should go too; there's always so much beauty to see there!

 And a little more- it's funny looking at it on the screen; to me, it doesn't look like I just put 3 more hours into it- but I did!  Now I'm off to enjoy everyone else's art!
Have a great day!
Stephanie