AEDM - Jane

She never looked nice.

She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice;

it was supposed to make you feel something."

                                    - Rainbow Rowell

Love that quote - what a great sentiment!  It has been quite the mucky week with torrents of rain and wet leaves getting tracked in multiple times a day.  As yucky as that has been at least it is better than the predicted low of 24 on Sunday morning.  

Check out the other work daily on Art Every Day Month (AEDM)!

Linking to Art Journal Every Day,

Paint Party Friday, and

Show your Face

AEDM - Life is. . .

Life is about change

Sometimes it is painful

Sometimes it is beautiful

But most of the time - it is both.

So I took my cut up flower painting and made a book using this tutorial.  I even got out my trusty Scor-Pal for old times' sake.  No worries if you don't have one - just use a scoring blade on your paper cutter.  Makes me want to get out and use my papercrafting tools again. . . 

Check out the other work daily on Art Every Day Month (AEDM)!

AEDM - Doctor's orders

Linking to Art Journal Every Day,

Paint Party Friday,

Show your Face and

AEDM - Day 6

Check out the other work daily on Art Every Day Month (AEDM)!

AEDM - Lisa Congdon inspired

This page was inspired from an exercise in the Lisa Congdon class - More Sketchbook Explorations.  I love watching her draw - she makes it look so easy - then you try and the easy part turns out to not be that easy after all.

Check out the other work daily on Art Every Day Month (AEDM)!

Art Every Day Month -

Hey - I've missed you - life has been challenging lately and my creative side took a big hit. 

I'm hoping that taking part in the Art Every Day Month challenge will help get things moving - at least I painted today which is more than I can say for the past two months!  Anything is a move in the right direction! 

My flowers are all cut up for the next step in their transformation.

Check out the other work daily on Art Every Day Month (AEDM)!

Linking to Illustration Friday - BOUQUET,

Paint Party Friday and

Art Journal Every Day

Powder vs. freckles

She was realizing that the powder she used attempting to hide her freckles was more distracting than the freckles themselves. 

Linking to Art Journal Every Day,

Paint Party Friday and

Show Your Face

Hee Haw!

(This girl looks like a Hee-Haw Honey to me)

I was born in Illinois and we moved to Kentucky when I was eight. My mom and dad never listened to country music and I still don't although my dad and younger son have moseyed over that direction a few times.  One television staple though was watching Hee Haw!  Yesterday, an ad came on for a Time Life collection of Hee Haw episodes and I found myself singing along to the goofy skits.  I hadn't thought of that show in decades but I remembered the silly songs from my childhood with no problem.  Now if only I could remember the important things. . .

Linking to Sunday Sketches and

Creative Every Day

Insect tragedies. . .

It has been nearly a month since I've last posted - summer is really busy and my free time is nearly  nonexistent.  Not sure what prompted that weird bug to be the item that breaks my slump - go figure!

How has summer been treating you?

Linking to Sunday Sketches, 

Art Journal Every Day and

Creative Every Day

A question for you regarding Andrew Wyeth. . .

So yesterday I was out and about with Connor (18) and he took a quick peek into the current issue of MAD magazine while we were waiting to check out of the grocery.  He laughs at a political cartoon of Chris Christie saying, "Isn't this funny? - it is referencing Christina's World."  He saw my confused face and said - "You do know about Christina's World don't you?" and quickly googles a picture of it.  When I saw the artist was Andrew Wyeth I said, "Oh, he's the guy who painted lots and lots of portraits of the neighbor lady and nobody knew anything about it." (See Helga Pictures)  At that point it was Connor's turn to look confused.

The big scandal regarding the 247 Helga paintings hit when I was not much older than Connor is now and is the immediate reference my brain goes to when it hears the name Andrew Wyeth.  I knew that he had a history as a painter but I was a kid and we didn't have Google then so Helga is the only reference I have for him.  Connor says that my not knowing about Christina's World is on the same level as if someone didn't know about American Gothic.  So tell me - is it true that I've been living under a rock??  It's okay - I can take it. . .

BTW - this girl is for the Summer of Color Challenge 3 (two purples and one yellow),

Linking to Paint Party Friday,

Art It Friday - Show your Face, and

Art Journal Every Day

More veg. . .

Finally took some time last night and this morning to paint up some more veg for the Delicious Food class being taught by the amazing Tracey Fletcher King.  I'm pretty pleased with all of them - took me forever though and loads of layers to paint these critters.  Tracey makes things looks easy that are not!!

There are crazy storms that have been blowing through these parts the past several days - the grass is really tall but when it is about time for Caleb to mow it starts raining again.  Good grief.

Linking to Sunday Sketches and

Creative Every Day

A plethora of pink

I'm not a huge fan of pink - in fact I often make fun of my friend Kim's love of that hue - but it is time for the Summer of Color Challenge and this week's palette consists of two pinks coupled with an orange.  This is exactly why I love this challenge - I'd never paint a picture like this if it weren't for the daunting task of using these colors together and frankly I kinda like it in all its glorious rosy hue - Go figure!  Thanks Kristin for making me stretch from my comfort zone! 

Linking to Paint Party Friday,

Art Journal Every Day and 

Art It Friday - Show Your Face

The BEST tomato I've ever drawn. . .

YUP - This is the BEST tomato I've ever drawn - also, it is the only tomato that I have ever drawn so it wins by default but seriously now - isn't it amazing??!!  I've been a huge fan of Tracey Fletcher King for ever so long and when I found out she was hosting a class on Community Thrive called "Delicious Paint with Tracey" I jumped for the opportunity to watch her paint and learn some of her amazing secrets..  

Tracey's work abounds with luscious color and she is super FUNNY to boot so you can thank me later for pushing you her way (unless, like me, you've been enjoying her posts for years).  

I own very few pieces of original art but I am proud to say I own a painting that Tracey did of my mug for her Cuppa with Friends project.  It lives in my kitchen and makes me smile everyday!

Linking to Creative Every Day

Big Hair Tale

In The Year in Janie's Diary our heroine is valiantly trying to look older and more attractive by, among other things, ratting her hair out to gargantuan proportions.  No wonder most girls needed an entire evening to wash and style their hair - can you imagine how much time it would take to wash out all that hairspray?

I haven't used much hairspray in the past decade or so but I will admit that in 8th grade I had some of the best feathered hair around - my technique was to curl and arrange the hair precisely where I wanted it to lay, hold it in place with clips, spray the whole mess into submission and then remove the clips once the hairspray had dried.  Worked like a charm until the wind blew or the rain fell.  LOL   What extremes did you go to for the perfect coiffure? 

Linking to Art Journal Every Day,

Paint Party Friday and

Art It Friday - Show Your Face

Sewer Flower

Good advice from the flora. . .

Linking to Sunday Sketches and

Creative Every Day

Mixed Baggage

It has been an exciting, busy week - our oldest graduated from high school, we attended two graduation parties, enjoyed hosting family in from Seattle and seeing other family that was in town as well.  The days flew by in a blur but were so enjoyable - still trying to recover. . .

Linking to Paint Party Friday,

Art It Friday - Show Your Face, and

Art Journal Every Day

Bad advice. . .

The fortune cookie bolstered her courage to try a new cut and color with her hair - she learned the hard way not to take advice from a cookie!

Linking to Sunday Sketches and

Creative Every Day

working on my own grass

Our oldest graduates from high school a week from today - where did the time go??  I'm not going to say it seems like yesterday that we brought him home but I will admit that the years have certainly gone more quickly than I expected.  In the meantime, I'm in a frenzy of activity to prepare for family arriving and graduation parties to commence. 

This girl looks calm and contented and that's what I am going to aim for during this busy time. 

Linking to Paint Party Friday,

Art It Friday - Show Your Face, and

Art Journal Every Day

traces of the applied arts

"she was pretty but her skin betrayed traces of the applied arts"

Well, time is marching on and I'm not getting any younger - LOL!  The old dark circles have been creeping up so I've been watching some makeup videos and there are way too many choices these days!  Who knew that I should be applying foundation with a brush and not with a sponge?  This is what I ordered - IT Bye Bye Under Eye Concealer.  I'm hoping for the best - what products are your favorites? 

Linking to Sunday Sketches and

Creative Every Day

Wallpaper girl

Recently I noticed that my backgrounds are very bland - a bright pop of color or an occasional flirt with texture.  Today I decided to let the background do the talking.  What I love is how the girl looks like she was drawn on white paper, cut out and glued on the page but in reality she was drawn first and the "wallpaper" was painted around her.  It was really fun to paint these loose flowers.  Gonna have to try that again!

Linking to Paint Party Friday,

Art Journal Every Day and

Art it Friday - Show your Face

buy me this

The weather was gorgeous this weekend!!  Way too pretty to be inside drawing so all I have to show is a quick flower doodle on a prepainted ATC card.  How was it outdoors by you??

Linking to Sunday Sketches and

Creative Every Day

The Huns have taken over. . .

Have you used gouache much?  I see amazing work done with it but my limited exposure hadn't impressed me much.  However, a great deal on a Turner Acryl Gouache Set (V17678) from Jerry's Artarama caught my eye so I took a chance. 

In all reality it was the set of 120 mixing cards that intrigued me the most - loved the idea of having an easy reference for color mixing.  I'm so happy with this purchase - love the creamy consistency of the paint and how matte and opaque the paint is - completely covers pencil marks like a charm! 

The fabulous blue hair is courtesy of Ultramarine Blue Color Burst by Ken Oliver.  There are more colors coming soon - can't wait to play with them!

Linking to Paint Party Friday, 

Art It Friday - Show Your Face and

Art Journal Every Day

Absent-minded girl

I don't know if I'm as absent-minded as I am easily distracted.  Maybe they are the same thing - what do you think?

Linking to Sunday Sketches and

Creative Every Day

The Vixen

This girl looks like the tricksy type - you might not give her much credit with that edgy look but she is deep and smart - so look out!  LOL

She started out a bit more demure (as far as a girl with blue face paint can be demure) but before I knew it she had put on more and more makeup. . . girls these days! 

Linking to Paint Party Friday,

Art it Friday - Show Your Face and

Art Journal Every Day

Toast girl. . .

I must be peculiar - can't think of the last time I had toast - it isn't that I don't like it - just don't ever think to make it.  However, when we visited friends in England several years ago they totally lived up to the stereotypical idea of toast eating people.

Are you "toast-er"??

Linking to Sunday Sketches and

Creative Every Day

Grimy Girl

We just got back from vacation in the Great Smokey Mountains and had a great time.  Picked up a few goodies while we were gone and one of my favorites was a new book to steal quotes out of - 1939's Building Good Health.   

Health books weren't nearly that good when I was in school.  Quirky touches in this tome include handwritten notes by the original owner and her name written several times throughout - I imagine she did most of that when she wasn't paying attention in class... 

Linking to Paint Party Friday and

Art Journal Every Day

Our son, Caleb (aged 13), likes to play with my kneaded eraser - I never know what shape I am going to find it in - I love the alien.  Last night we were watching Survivor and this gem slipped out of him - "If I was Bill Gates I'd spend all my money on obstacle courses."

Kids - gotta love them!