goats eat hay

2012-02-13T20:05:00.000-08:00

TADA!

For those of you who have followed this blog for a while; you may recognize this painting that I started far too long ago but did not finish. Here it is...Finished!

Do you think it looks like the photo that I painted from?

For those who haven't watched this blog so long, this is where I left off. Unfortunately what happened is I got stuck (this happens to me sometimes). I had come to the point of putting in the fine details and was afraid that I would ruin the painting! So I put it down for a "little" while along with it's accompanying paintings. (This is one of a set.) The other day I finally reached the decision to either finish it, ruin it, or take a chance on making a mistake and fix it... And here I have the final product!
Did I learn my lesson about putting things down? Probably not! I'm just happy it's finished!
Jocie, you'll need to send me your physical address now! This one will be dry in a week or so.

Rose et Lis: The Studio in Photos

2012-01-20T12:50:00.000-08:00

I just discovered this blog, I highly recommend visiting it for some eye candy!
Rose et Lis: The Studio in Photos http://allthingspaintandplasters.blogspot.com/

Match books

2011-12-19T21:20:00.000-08:00

On another note; Many people have been fascinated by advertisements on matchbooks since their conception. My mother for one gathered quite a collection, which I now have. I love looking through them. The colors, designs inspire me.
Here's my nod to one of the more modern design. It's acrylic on wood about 2"X3". I plan on making a series of differing ones; just cuz!

Christmas

2011-12-19T19:49:00.000-08:00

I've made two stuffed animals for my grandchildren for Christmas.
Hope you like their story.

2011-12-19T19:45:00.000-08:00

I'm going to make a cute black bunny for my granddaughter
with nice big ears to listen to all her stories.

2011-12-19T19:40:00.000-08:00

Now I have to decide how to place her legs.

2011-12-19T19:32:00.000-08:00

Paws are stuffed and I'm putting her together.

2011-12-19T19:30:00.001-08:00

She's close but not there yet. I've placed a large bell inside for extra fun.

2011-12-19T19:29:00.000-08:00

Here she is finished at last.

2011-12-19T19:14:00.000-08:00

Iwanted to make a tiger type stuffed animal for my grandson forChristmas, but I didn't want to use a conventional pattern. I wantedit to look different from other toys and I think the only way to dothat is to make your own pattern. Besides, I feel that making yourown pattern makes the toy more real. Here's the preliminary drawingfor the pattern for the head. Hope you enjoy this series of posts.

2011-12-19T19:11:00.000-08:00

The first cuts.

2011-12-19T19:09:00.000-08:00

Working on his face. I think he's going to be cute.

2011-12-19T19:08:00.000-08:00

I added some stripes to his back, "arms" and tail.

2011-12-19T19:05:00.000-08:00

Here he is waiting for his tummy to be stuffed. If you look just above his upper hind foot you'll see the twin of the large bell that I put in the end of his tail! Gotta love it!

2011-12-19T15:56:00.000-08:00

Here they are together again. I'm happy with the way they turned out. I just hope the kiddos are happy with their presents! Merry Christmas!

Automata

2011-07-20T22:03:00.000-07:00

I have always been fascinated with mechanical clocks.

You know; the kind that have small men, women, and lions that come out of doors and ring bells and such. I am also fascinated with wooden toys that move. I have had ideas of things to make that move for many years but didn't know how to make the movement. Now that I have a really good reason for making toys that move, (a wonderful grandson and granddaughter) I have done some research on the subject. Unfortunately, I still don't have a good understanding but I came up with an idea for a very simple one. The idea came to me to make a tiger because tigers have a special place in our family. I made the tiger into a bookend so that it could serve more than one purpose. Here's the initial drawings I did of the "Grognard Tiger" (Grognard is old soldier);

I made the tiger into four parts. The front, the back, the tail and the ears. Here you see the front outlined.

2011-07-20T21:56:00.000-07:00

Cutting it out of wood.

Here's the front cut out.

2011-07-20T21:52:00.000-07:00

All of the parts painted with gesso.

Preliminary paint on the front and the back of the tiger.

Getting it together.

2011-07-20T21:42:00.000-07:00

Painting on the stripes using my original drawing as a guide.

2011-07-20T21:37:00.000-07:00

Waiting for the paint to dry. One of the hardest things for me. It's very simple mechanisms are inside and working now. There's a few things I've learned that I will do differently next time. If you want to know, email me. I still haven't attached the tiger to it's base and side so that it can be a bookend. That's next after the paint dries...

Grognard Tiger

2011-07-20T21:26:00.000-07:00

Now, watch his tail very closely.

His tail moves when you pull his ears. Not a good idea with a real tiger I'm afraid!

I'm very happy with the way Grognard Tiger turned out. He is exactly as I pictured him.

2011-06-19T15:55:00.000-07:00

Say hello to my little friend George! You can visit him any time at the Norton Simon where he grants audiences most days!

2011-06-19T15:51:00.001-07:00

2011-06-19T15:50:00.001-07:00

This is just the bathroom!

2011-06-19T15:49:00.001-07:00

Cotton Candy!

2011-06-19T15:48:00.000-07:00

I thought it looked like another planet here!

2011-06-19T15:46:00.000-07:00

2011-06-19T15:44:00.000-07:00

I thought the one peeking out in the center looked particularly cute!

2011-06-19T15:43:00.000-07:00

We took a trip to the Norton Simon so I thought I'd share some of my pictures with you. We had a lovely time!

2011-06-11T21:07:00.000-07:00

Here's an illustration from a children's book I worked on. Unfortunately, it wasn't published, but that doesn't mean I don't like the illustration! Motto for the day: Don't give up!

2011-01-01T15:43:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of the final painting. I hope you like it. I had a lot of fun painting it, mixed with a little frustration since I'm not at all proficient at painting with acrylics. Merry Christmas Finn.

2011-01-01T15:12:00.000-08:00

Here's another pic. of the monkey. I haven't finished the eyes yet as you can see. Don't you think all paintings of monkeys should have on cute little jackets? Or is that humanizing too much? I find real spider monkeys quite mean actually. I had a friend who had one. That thing would bite HARD!

2011-01-01T15:05:00.000-08:00

Here's a detail of the face while I was working on it. I have the monkey holding an orange in salute to team Orange (oh, hi Noel).

2011-01-01T15:01:00.000-08:00

Lately one of the people who has inspired me is Graham Rust of "The Painted House" fame. I especially loved one of the monkeys he made, so I decided to paint my own rendition. Here is one of the first pictures that I took of the painting. I used acrylics this time, one of my first attempts of the medium so please be forgiving since I'm still learning to use it. I'm also using student grade acrylics. I've learned my lesson, it's artist grade from now on. I think I want to try the new wet acrylics too. As you can see I've got a good portion of the painting begun in this pic. :)

Happy Ho Ho New Year, etc...

2011-01-01T14:45:00.000-08:00

I am still without computer but I'm not letting that stop me! Here is a picture of one of the Christmas presents I made this year.

Hello friend

2010-12-04T15:13:00.000-08:00

I still haven't gotten my computer problem solved but I have a new project going. I have a few pictures taken but since I'm on my friend's computer I don't know how to hook my camera up to it. So bear with me, I'll get back with you as soon as I've got it figured out! I hope you're getting close to ready for Christmas! Yeah, I know, good luck with that!

Here's the scoop

2010-10-20T19:55:00.000-07:00

I am having computer problems, or should I say problem. -My computer is dead! If it doesn't rain, it pours, so, bear with me...I'll be back as soon as I can.

Crewelwork Project

2010-08-21T14:42:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I ramble into a second hand store just to “look” I find things that are more than just items that once belonged to someone else. The item can be an incredible source of inspiration yet, the inspiration can have multiple aspects. On one aspect, I have my original idea of how I want to use the item. On another aspect if I find imperfections on the item I have further challenges to inspiration. (Most of the time the items for sale have some sort of “imperfection”.) These imperfections can be a source of incredible creativity. Sometimes those "imperfections" call for more creativity than others! Fortunately this project didn't call for a lot of that kind of creativity!

2010-08-21T14:39:00.000-07:00

The last time I went to a second hand store, I found this crewelwork drapery. The crewelwork is incredibly beautiful, but there was only one side of a drape. Yet I couldn't put it down. I decided I would do something with it no matter what, a tablecloth or curtains went through my mind.
Once I got the drapery home I decided it was just too beautiful to make a tablecloth and risk getting it stained. As you can probably tell it's a huge piece of fabric so I decided to split it in half and make it into curtains for my bedroom.

2010-08-21T14:31:00.000-07:00

Since I have a lot of pinks and reds in my bedroom I decided to emphasize the pink and red in the fabric by putting a border of those colors on the edges of the pieces I cut. I gotta say, it took me a long time to get the courage up to cut the fabric. Fabric doesn't always cut straight, it moves around. Cutting straight pieces, (unless I can tear it on the grain,) has always been a mystery to me. So, I laid out the fabric and measured it three times, pined it, left it overnight so that I could think about any mistakes I might be making. I came back the next day, measured three more times, sewed two zigzag lines, one on either side of the middle so that the fabric wouldn't fray, eyed it and measured again then finally cut it on baited breath!

2010-08-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

After I had cut the crewelwork the rest of the project was easy. I had already bought fabric to match the red and darker pink in the crewelwork. I made a 1” ruffled border out of the darker red,

and a 3” straight border out of the pink ( I tore the fabric on the grain for both colors, no more worrying about straight).

2010-08-21T14:16:00.000-07:00

Next I sewed the borders on the cut edges of the crewelwork,

2010-08-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

hung it up and I'm done!

Just for Finn

2010-07-27T13:37:00.000-07:00

Here's my latest project I just finished. It's a wooden puzzle I made for my grandson Finn. The two sharks separate at the mouth! The name of the piece is "shark finn". My son took this picture with his cell phone! Isn't it a great picture?!

That birthday present

2010-07-27T13:28:00.000-07:00

While I'm waiting to get another camera, I remembered that I did take a picture of that birthday present I told you I was making. Here it is. It's in pastels with silver stylus "scribbling". You can't tell in the photo, but those scribblings actually say things! Hope you like it.

A Blind Eye

2010-06-23T13:19:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything lately. Bad news. My camera appears as though it is broken. Any photo I take is very dark both on the viewfinder and the computer as well. It is a major setback for me and I am very discouraged. I'm still working, but I can't document it.

2010-04-13T15:58:00.000-07:00

I'm going to take a short break working on my portrait for the time being. I have to finish a birthday present. I'm hoping it turns out ok. If it does I'll show it to you. In the meantime I thought you might like to see a picture I took of a properly pruned (at least I think so!) kuquat tree. You know, I saw kumauats in the grocery store at $3.25 a pound! Wow!

2010-04-13T15:49:00.000-07:00

Hi, I hope you're doing well. The last time we talked I was still working on the background.

Here it is finished. I completed all the "grass" and added some sand on the edge of the water in the background. The sky has not turned out the exact color I wanted. Remember I wanted some yellow to show through to make it look as though it is a very sunny day. It's ok though, I'm happy with it.

2010-03-21T20:41:00.000-07:00

If you look closely in the background of this picture you will see that I have added some sand at the banks of the water. Closer to the forefront you will see that I am adding the second coat of green to the grass.

2010-03-21T20:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, so better late than never! Sorry I took so long. I've got another job now so I have less time to paint, and I've been stuck too. Don't give up on me. I don't! My process may be slow but I'm stubborn. Like a bull dog. I just don't quit. If I quit I'm quitting on myself and I just don't do that.

I've come to the point in this painting where I am working on the second coat of paint. I'm painting from the back of the painting forward. The changes are very subtle. I've repainted the sky in this shot. (Hopefully the sky still looks as though it's a sunny day.)

2010-01-28T19:55:00.000-08:00

I love greens! Here's a pot of greens from our garden I cooked for dinner the other night. The red that you see is red Kale. (We had an unusually warm winter this year and our garden didn't freeze.) And, yes the iron skillet pictured is huge!! It's the biggest one I've ever seen. I love it! As for the projects I'm working on, I'm a little stuck. Every once in a while I get stuck on a project. Most of the time it's because I don't feel confident enough in my ability to get the effect that I want. Sooner or later I pick it up again and finsh the project. I'm going to work on the projects this weekend though whether I feel stuck or not. If I'm lucky I'll get far enough on one of them to post it. Have a great weekend. I'm hoping mine doesn't dissapear again!

Back to my projects

2010-01-19T21:10:00.000-08:00

I like to keep several projects going so that I don't get impatient waiting for paint to dry. Long drying time is one drawback of oils. It can take several days depending on the color. However

I feel like the wait is worth it. Since it takes so long to dry my mistakes are fixable because they are still wet! In other words I can still manipulate the paint because it hasn't dried. (Remember, I told you the reason I quit painting with water color because I found myself holding my breath for fear I would make a mistake?) Here I'm showing you the first coat of paint on the second portrait. Was that confusing enough? ;)

2010-01-19T20:56:00.000-08:00

While waiting for paint to dry on another painting I decided to go back to this first portrait. Basically all I had done to it so far is put on the first coat of paint. I was really anxious to start on the skin of this painting so I added the second coat of skin color. While the second coat was still wet I put in some shading on the face and legs. As far as I'm concerned skin color has such delicate shading that the only way to get it right is to work it while the paint is wet. I think trying to add shading after it dries looks forced, it doesn't have the delicacy that true skin color has.

2010-01-19T20:52:00.000-08:00

Here is the portrait after I used burnt sienna as the outline, painting on top of the erasable red colored pencil.

2010-01-19T20:44:00.000-08:00

Here is the last of the set of three portraits. Since she is the only girl, I decided to put her in a square board instead of rectangular. This is the portrait in red erasable colored pencil.

Other people's art projects

2010-01-18T12:01:00.000-08:00

We went to the Pamona Swap meet and Car show yesterday. It was a beautiful day, a little chilly, but the rain held off until after the show. I had a great time. Studebakers have always been my favorites.

2010-01-18T11:51:00.000-08:00

The first coat

2010-01-15T21:57:00.000-08:00

Here is the first coat of paint on this painting. I made the sky yellow because I am hoping if I paint the final blue coat thin enough the yellow will show through and appear as a very bright sunny day. The other colors are just a suggestion of the final color. I have decided to keep the chair white for now. Of course the painting looks very flat and dull. There are no details and no shading or shadows. These will come last in the painting. They are the things that bring a painting to life. It is the shadows that makes objects take their place in the light. It makes the plates "sit" on the table, it makes the person seem to be sitting above the ground "below" them.

2010-01-15T21:49:00.000-08:00

While I waited for the first coat of paint on my other painting to dry, I painted the outline of this painting with burnt sienna.

A Fresh Start

2010-01-10T20:44:00.000-08:00

So, I got this really sweet Christmas post card from my niece with a picture of her three cuties on it. I loved the photos so I asked if I could paint them (I've painted a few portraits in the past and I wanted to try them again). After I got her go ahead, I began by putting the post card under a transparent plastic grid.

2010-01-10T20:09:00.000-08:00

Please be aware that all drawings and paintings on this blog are copyrighted. Please don't copy.

I copied the images from the smaller squares of the transparent grid overlaying my origional post card to the larger squares of my graph paper. After I had drawn the initial portraits I did a little work on some of the positioning. Then I turned the graph paper over to the back and lightly colored the area I wanted to duplicate on my board with erasable colored pencil. Next I turned the drawing back to the front and positioned it on the board I will be using for my painting. When I had the portrait where I wanted I went over my drawing lines once more, depositing some of the colored pencil I had colored on the back onto the board, kind of like homemade carbon paper.

2010-01-10T20:01:00.000-08:00

I decided this little guy should be sitting in an easy chair. I had my preliminary drawing (from my colored paper on the back of my graph paper) on a board I had painted with gesso (I had also sanded the gesso so that the surface would be smooth). I used my erasable colored pencil once more to make the drawing a little more clear.

2010-01-10T19:38:00.000-08:00

Here's what I've got so far. Since I'm going to paint with oil, I've used raw sienna to paint the basic outline. I use burnt sienna as an outline because it still shows up a little when I've painted my first coat, but not on my second. I use two coats to make the colors richer. At least that's what my sweet teacher Winnie taught me...
In my preliminary drawing I had sat my portrait subject outside in a chair I thought would be appropriate for out doors. The chair will be one of those white plastic chairs. I haven't decided yet about whether or not I will keep the chair white. I had a little difficulty making it look as though my subject was actually sitting in my chair, but in the end I think I succeded.

2010-01-02T22:21:00.000-08:00

Back to art

My new year's resolution is to spend more time creating art. Today I painted some projects with gesso to prepare them for painting.

Inspiration

2010-01-02T21:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I checked out the movie "Julie and Julia" from one of those Red Box things (don't you just love gadgets and technology? I'm facinated by it). I was so inspired by all the wonderful cooking that I made sour dough bread toast with bruchetta.

I added some fresh cooked spinach for good measure.

2010-01-01T12:48:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

This is what I did with the mirror "arms" of the old dresser I placed under my desk in my art room (see photo in previous post). I turned it upside down, attached it above my kitchen window and used it to hang curtains.

Since the "arms" already had the dowel attached, I hung my curtains from the dowel. I think the origional purpose of the dowel was to hang hand towels from since the dresser was for a dry sink. The mirror was origionally in the area where my curtains are hung now.

2009-12-30T23:12:00.000-08:00

I thought you might like to see my artsy fartsy room. This is where all my art happens. Unless I'm someplace else! My sweet heart made this wonderful desk for me. It has square metal tubing for the legs. I put small bells in one of the legs before he welded it just for fun. Now it jingles when it's moved!

Next I took an old dresser,
removed the mirror arms and set it underneath the table so that I could have some drawers.

On top of my table you'll see some projects I'm getting ready to start.

Oh, and that's a picture of my sweet grandson to the left.

2009-12-30T22:53:00.000-08:00

I've had a great day today making Joke and drinking sarsaparilla tea. The Joke turned out great. It's an oriental form of Turkey broth soup. It's easy to make, just takes awhile and it's delicious.

2009-12-30T22:46:00.000-08:00

Here's another origional watercolor painting I did.

I don't do very many watercolors now because I realized I was holding my breath. Watercolor is very unforgiving and I was afraid of making a mistake!

2009-12-27T22:49:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of an origional watercolor I did. I was inspired by a victorian wall paper border.

2009-12-27T22:38:00.001-08:00

I've been interested in art as long as I can remember, but I didn't become decent at making art until I was in my twenties. This photo shows a wooden standing "puzzle" acrobats that I made. They connect at the nose! To the right of the acrobats is a basket I made. I wove my initials into the basket to prove that I had made the basket. (I'd had nay sayers among my friends with previous baskets.) The basket is made of natural and black raffia on willow.

Hi 2 U 2

2009-12-26T15:03:00.000-08:00

Here's a photo of one of my many gorgeous neices. If you would like to see more photos like this one you can visit my fabulous x sister in-law, who still, by the way, adores me, you can click here.