What's Goin' On in Art Class...

 SO I'll share a couple of pieces from BEFORE Christmas when I just couldn't seem to get myself to the blogger dashboard.  These are the kiddos mythological creature portraits- it was their "open choice" project and my only specifications was that the had to design some kind of border and have their art extend beyond said border.  Other than that, all choices were theirs; media, colors, all of it!

 Leila's mermaid reminds me of the "falling Ladies" Andrea Thompson used to do......

and I love her border!

And I love the wayColson used her clouds to create a border for her dragon.

LOVE my students!

Where I live, the kids have pretty short vacations in exchange for having one week off every six weeks.  So come January 3, we were back in the swing of things and art class started up once more!  I was ready, cause' I miss my little guys when I don't see them! 
Here are some snaps of what we've been up to the last couple of weeks...

 

Here is Nick's finished painting- Leila's will be finished tomorrow.....and then we're moving onto Super Self-Portrait Hero Comic Panels.  Can't WAIT!

 

That's all for now,
xxoo
Stephanie

Doing the Catch up thing...yet AGAIN!

It seems like most of my posts of late have been appologies for not blogging as regularly as usual.  And I think next December, I'll just wish everyone a happy holiday and any posts I do will just be bonus posts......
I am finally back in the swing of things~ all of my kids are back in school (the oldest went back to college yesterday), and my art classes, Farmer's Market and painting have all been added back into my schedule.  I've also been doing a LOT of self promoting on Etsy, but blogging is really important to me too, so- Baby I'm BACK!

Here's the latest in my pansy paintings

 I love the "hearts" that the shadows create when it's on the diagonal........

Just a little more touchup and then I'll list it on Etsy....

Also, I'm really excited to announce an upcoming blog party for the big reveal of our traveling art books!  Click HERE to see my page with all the art I created for the other books and try to stop by this weekend to see all the gorgeous art that my friends created in my book-
 I can't wait to share this treasure!

I promise I'll be back soon to share recent art class stuff and of course my traveling art journal.

For now, xxoo

Stephanie

More Pansies....

Here I am the second week in a row with more pansies to share.  I have two more mini canvases sketched out and ready paint and then I think I'll have them out of my system!  Maybe.  I will be starting on Christmas presents next week, so I'll definitely have something different to share then ;)
For now; here's my new pansy painting; so new, it doesn't even have a title yet!  I say it's finished, but I see spots here and there that I might be tweaking- no promises.

This is a 4"x 4"  "block" canvas (meaning it's 1" deep)

 right now, the only tweaking I want to do is to make the veins a little more delicate

And here's one I showed last week, I did a little more, but it still needs 

touch ups here and there- it's close tho!

I'm sharing this with Paint Party Friday- my favorite weekly blog party- always so much beauty to see there!  Holpe to see YOU there!

Happy Friday,

xx

Stephanie

Two and Three Fourths of a New Series......

Who hoo!  I seem to have finally gotten it all together!  I've been juggling baking and making jams to sell at our local farmer's market (plus my cards ;)) twice a week with teaching and finally, FINALLY, regular painting!  All added together, it almost equals a "real" job, and one that allows me to stay at home to be available to kids and hubby!  It's been really hard, but I think I've found a rhythm that I can do it all! 

Last week I started a new series of mini paintings- I wanted to have a different price point for my original paintings.  Right now, they're featuring pansies- yep, once again, I'm on a flower kick!
These are sweet little 4"x4"x1" deep canvases (these images are almost actual size!) and I've been listing them on Etsy as fast as I can paint them!  They'll be coming in as cards too as soon as I take the time to put some together- maybe even today!

For now, here's "Copperfield"- For more info, I have it listed HERE in my Etsy shop.

 Where I live, we plant pansies in the fall and every time we have warm weather, they will bloom.  I swear there are about a million varieties of pansies, but this series- Skyline Copperfield is my favorite!

Another Copperfield pansy- the title of this one is "Enchanted"- for more info, click HERE 

I like this one on the diagonal, like this:

Lastly, my current WIP- it's almost done, just needs a bit more tweaking here and there 

and a signature and it too too will find a place on Etsy!

That's all for now, for the first time in a very long time, I actually feel like I have time to participate in Paint Party Friday- there are always close to 100 links to visit, but today, I think I can do it!  Hope to see you there!
Happy Friday
xx
Stephanie

Finished (mostly) with the Living Room and Dining Room!

So here it is- first the dining room- remember it was turquoise before (which my hubby recently informed me is a color he HATES!) so we kept the stripes and changed the color....

 I've had these little lamps for almost 10 years, and I've always loved the color of the (now falling apart ;)) shades so I used them as inspiration for the color....

And I'd hoped that I could make the living room (which I just repainted 2 years ago) work for a while longer, but it clashed horribly.  So I used the DR art for inspiration for the LR and we found a warm magenta/burgundy colro called Cherokee Brick- it has a lot more purple in it than shows in the pictures and I AM thrilled with the two rooms now!  Christmas has come early!

I think it's pretty funny how red this is here!

Oh well, at least you have an idea of what it looks like ;)

Cheers,

Stephanie

3 Posts in one- Playing catch up (once again ;))

Hello, hello, HELLO again!  I'm so sorry I've been MIA for so long- both from posting here as well as visiting everyone's blogs!  I've missed you all so much and will be by soon- I PROMISE!
For now, here's three posts in one as a catch up...
When last I posted, I was working on a pencil portrait, and it's since been finished and delivered.
Here's "Annie"

I really was pleased with how this sweet girl turned out.  For anyone who's interested in commissioning a portrait, I'll have time to accept a couple more before Christmas- email me for details and prices.....

And of course, art class has been on going- we're two weeks into our current session and I had them do a Thanksgiving poster, filling the paper with a gratitude list and accompanying illustrations. 

 As always, they amazed me!

My own personal grattitude list this year included, my beautiful family, my home and garden, and my wonderful friends both in person and in bloglandia- I am SO very grateful for you all!  

Even tho I haven't been around much, you are often in my thoughts...

Lastly, we always host Thanksgiving dinner, and I always use it as a motivation to freshen up the house with paint

 and such.  I'd been planning on touching up my turquoise stripes, when my hubby told me that he HATES turquoise, and could I please change the color!  This is after 5 years of living with it and him never saying a word!  I agreed to change the color, if we could keep the stripes (which I LOVE ;)) 

And here's a "before" picture:

And here's a teaser for an after...

I'm really happy with the end result, which I'll share soon.  Along with our newly painted living room which did NOT work with the dining room!  We're actually in the midst of finishing up on that today!

So for now, I'm off for a much belated visit to all my bloggity friends, then it's on to painting (walls today- and canvases next week ;)) and making more jams for the market......

because, I'm still oh so busy these days!

xx

Stephanie

Maggie's Journal Spread- DONE!

First, to all those affected by Sandy whether through worrying about loved ones or being personally affected- you're in my thoughts and prayers.  What a terrible, terrible storm!

I finished my spread for Maggie's journal yesterday, now all I need to do is a tag and then it's on it's way HOME to her!  Yep, mine was the last entry in her book!

 I've never done a mermaid before, or rather, I've never finished one!  I've started them before and they've morphed into other things....so I really had fun with her.  In the nature of Halloween, 

I felt compelled to give her a mask!

 Today will be quite busy around here, I have the market this afternoon, so lots of baking in preparation, plus I need to finish my portrait and then of course, it's Halloween.  My daughter's having a party, so I need to get ready for that too!

Happy Halloween!

xx

Stephanie