In Remembrance on Memorial Day

Before barbecues and parades ...
Before hitting the road to beaches and friends...
Give thanks to the men and women of our Armed Forces who are giving their lives...
And have given their lives ...
To protect us.

Legacy Box

This is a wooden box I painted over the last couple of days. While I was painting it, I kept thinking about the girl thinking about her past (hence the image transfer on the opposite corner. I am going back and forth about adding the actual lettering to say Legacy or Legacies ... or leaving it plain. I kind of want whoever sees it to not be lead by any words that I happen to put on there....does that make any sense?

Thank you Sharon for releasing all this for me ... I am finally able to pull whats floating around in my head onto what I'm holding in my hands.

Find A Face Exercise

Another exercise from Sharon Tomlinson, finding a face from watercolor. I purposely didn't look at the videos or the work of too many others ... trying not to be influenced by anyone elses' style.

I suck at profiles, but when I did the background...that is just what I saw. The watercolors I used were Grumbacher and Twinkling H2O's. I thought about adding line work - but for right now I'm going to let it sit somewwere and see if anything else pops out at me.

Painted Tin_Progressing

Well, I added a bit more shading and finally found something nice to put on the other side of the tin. I don't know if I will add much more, since the tin isn't that large ... but I do know I still need something...

A Season Of Artful Orange ...Concluded

Well, I'm done with this one - and I like how it turned out. I painted this on a canvas sheet - I buy the pads from my local tole shop. I don't know if I'll frame it or adhere it to something else ... but for now it's hanging above my paint table.

Millande's exercise pushed me out of my comfort tone, using the oranges ... and it also prodded me to play with the different complexion tones and shapes of faces.

There are wonderful mixed media groups out there right now. Some of the classes are free and some you pay for. I encourage all of you to dip your toes in the water and have some fun.

Right now I'm waiting for Sharon's next class to start up. I'm also doing a journal class on Jan Fox's site - which starts today. It's a 4 week class.

Speaking of Jan - I watched a video of hers this morning - making your own alcohol inks!!! For a frugal gal like myself, this was right up my alley!!! And these pens are always laying around and they dry out before I use them.....so why not make some inexpensive alcohol ink? I know I'll use it more so than I do a Sharpie.

A Season Of Artful Orange ...

... is the challenge going on at Milliande's Art Community for Women.

I took the challenge - because orange is NOT a color I am fond of. I generally reach for blues and greens ... purples and deep reds. Never pastels and NEVER bright colors like neon anything or orange.

I just tried to go with the flow today ... enjoy my Mother's Day and see what I could come up with.

Here's where I stopped for today:

Painted Tin _ Still In Progress

Here is where I am so far:



I'm going to stop and putz around with the background some more...then return to the face.

Painted Tin In Progress

I found this cool tin in my hoard of surfaces today. I'm determined to paint as many of my surfaces as I can this summer ... and so far so good. This tin is a nice size, and came already basecoated - so all I did was a little sponging to start off.



I used a chalk pencil to sketch a face ... and decided to use the background (without the sponging) as a basecoat for her face.



I'll be working on her this weekend and posting my progress.

Stay tuned.