I'm Baaack!

I can't believe it's been almost three weeks since my last post!  But, I was so busy with painting everyone's rooms and moving furniture from one room to the next plus all the MAJOR chaos that went with it...

I just haven't had a chance to paint (except for walls ;)) much less post about it!  

But, today, I was able to get back on the painting wagon.  I have three canvases that I've been wanting to finish or do a little more work on and even though

 I have ideas for new pieces, I'm making myself get these done first.  

That's one reason why multiple projects don't really work so well for me- it feels like nothing gets done!

For today- I pulled out the previously named "Soul Music" and got the finishing touches done (yay me!)

Here is "A Little Night Music"- for more pictures, she's in my Etsy shop HERE

And here is what she looked like before....

You can see that the cello was once blue (which I liked, but not with the background) I also changed the shadow on her face and added more "hair" flowing into the trees- also, no more stars...

I like them in the photo, but in real life, they somehow detracted from the over all effect.

I'm so happy to be in time for Paint Party Friday this week- I've really missed visiting the artists!
Have a great day!
Stephanie

Summer of Color~ Wild 'N Reckless Sherbet

My entry for this week's Summer of Color challenge and in Kat's book for our Inspiration Avenue Round Robin......  Inspired by Wild 'N Reckless Sherbet; an ice cream so full of fabulous colors of neon pinks, purples, blues and greens

 (it looks like it might be almost toxic to eat but SO much fun to admire the vibrant colors anyway)! 

So ya'll saw the background on Friday with the mandala and here it is all put together!

 with the left page turned to make for easier reading- yes, I almost missed the word "all" but was forced to creative measures because I'd already glued the page in...... 

 and the mandala with the strips of ribbon in place......the leaves and lime-y ribbon match better in real life

I'll be in and out this week, have a massive painting project going on- everyone in our house is doing a room swap- he oldest is leaving soon for college, and all the bedrooms are changing because of it....in the meantime, go see what everyone else did to be "wild and reckless" over at Summer of Color!

ttfn'

Stephanie

On my way to the party.....

Better late than never at all!  I almost decided to skip this week's Paint Party Friday because I just have a WIP to share.  It's for next week's color challenge at Summer of Color, it's also something you guys have seen in a wide assortment of colors because I have changed it many times! 

This is going to be my entry for Kat's round robin book in my Inspiration Avenue group of traveling art books.  I have decided that I want to be part of one of these groups at ALL times- it really forces me to stretch and grow and work outside my own personal comfort zone.  Anyway.  that said, here are my plans for finishing this.
1.There will be a strip of ribbon glued to hide the gap between papers on the right hand side
2. The mandala will be attached- I think "floating" style
3. I found a GREAT Degas quote that will go on the left side page
And I *think* I want to have some writing going around the mandala....I think!
And here are some of the previous stages of my mandala.....there were more, but I didn't bother taking pictures!

 For now, I'm off to Paint Party Friday to visit al the other artists- you should come too!
xx
Stephanie

Summer of Color- Pink Lemonade

Happy Monday- I'm actually submitting my entry for the Summer of Color early (at least, early for me;)) this week!  It's another "do ahead" page for the traveling sketchbooks- possibly my January entry for Nicola since she's in Australia and it's summer for her that month!  Anyway, I created a landscape of sorts out of zinnias with a strawberry sunrise-ish sky with one of my joie de vivre figures- the prompt this week was strawberry lemonade, so I thought it would be a fun take on the theme!

Try to get by the Summer of Color, last week we had almost 100 entries for this fun challenge, or better yet, enter one your self- you have till Sunday to get it in!
xx
Stephanie

Paint Party Friday & Summer of Color

Yay it's Friday and I have a painting to share for Paint Party Friday and well as an entry for the Summer of Color.  I started this painting about this time last year and while I mostly liked it, I wasn't happy with her expression- she looked angry where I wanted her to have an air of contemplation about her.  

So when I saw that this week's ice cream color challenge was Baseball Nut (a flavor I've never heard of BTW;)) and the colors were raspberry, vanilla and cashews, I thought this would be a perfect time to finish her plus use her as an entry for the Summer of Colors!

I added more shadows to her face and changed her mouth and eyes a little.....

 and here she is from before.....

 I might do a little more tweaking or maybe I won't....I kind of think she's finished now- what do you think?

I'm off to visit my friends at the parties now- won't you join me?

TTFN

Stephanie

My Goddesses are on their way.....

I finished Lisa Wright's round robin rt journal yesterday and it is now on it's way to Maggie for her to add her art to.  I am so LOVING being part of these traveling art projects, it's like Christmas each month!

  I agonized over finding just the right words to add- I looked at Goddess and Solstice prayers, June poem, dance poems but nothing seemed right.  Then I remembered words by Madeline L'Engle, one of my favorite childhood authors and they say everything I wanted to convey here.....

 Here's how Lisa's pages ended up looking:

Here it is closed:

and opened to reveal the entire spread:

I've been adding the pages as I get them done to their own page,
 if you'd like to see them all together, click HERE
See ya'll tomorrow for Paint Party Friday AND Sumer of Colors!
xx
Stephanie

Solstice Dance

WOW, I LOVED camp last week, it was so much fun to have the house full of littles and all that creativity surging through the house!  BUT, I guess I'm starting to get old 'cause it wiped me out!  It took most of the weekend for me to recover my energy and here I am again!
Yesterday, I finished the Goddess painting for Lisa Wright's book and I realized that when I finish her pages (I still want to add a quote/prayer) and mail it to Miss Maggie of The Fanciful Magpie, we'll be more than halfway done with our round robin- SO exciting!
So here's what it ended up looking like:

I also took several close ups that I will use for my "Cards of Whimsy" in my Etsy shop.  I hope that doesn't seem tacky, I enjoyed doing this painting so much, I want it in my shop too!

And some of you might remember my mandala that I'd planned on accompanying the solstice painting.....it's finished too, but silly me, I made it too big!  That's OK though, while I was finishing it (before I realized it wouldn't work for Lisa), I kept thinking how perfect it would have been for Kat who 

LOVES mandalas- so, now it's for her book, which is sitting on my desk patiently waiting for attention!

 

That's all for now, I need to finish Lisa's page, so I can get it in the mail by (or before ;)) Friday and then I need to focus on an entry for the Summer of Color- 

I missed last week and want to make sure I'm set for this one!

xx

Stephanie