Being Thankful

Today I had a wonderful thanksgiving with my family - just me, the kids, my mom, sister, her boyfriend and her kids. So nice to have a stress-free thanksgiving with people you know love you and you love in return.
My daughter and I made a thanksgiving tree and hung "leaves" of thanks on it with tinsel. On the leaves we drew or wrote things we were thankful for. It's something that I'm thinking we'll keep up for awhile because my daughter really enjoyed adding more things to be thankful for on it. I have to say that I took the idea from a good friend of mine since she did this at home. - so, thank you Sandra.

Faux Encaustic

Today I learned a faux encaustic technique. Encaustic is an art technique using beeswax mixed with damar resin and pigment, or at least that's one recipe. I love the look of real encaustic but it is expensive and toxic, so I'll stick with the faux. I can't do all the cool things that I could do with real encaustic, but it was still fun to try. Anyway, this was my mini creation, just something small to test out the technique. I found a piece of cardboard that I painted and used as a background for the piece. Sadly, today was also the last day of art class for the year. Cheryl mentioned the possibility of doing an open studio series so that we can just hang out and get advise as we need it, but also have a space to create, which I know I could use.

Serenity

Once I posted the picture, I realized I didn't like it and added more paint.



Thought I'd share my tiny corner in my house where I make my mess. I've really got to figure out a way to organize it better. This is also my sewing table which makes it even worse.

Three Little Birds

I finished this painting today and chose the theme
Because I like Bob Marley
Because I needed some positive inspiration
Because this song has been in my head all week...
And just in case you don't know the words:

Three Little Birds
"Don't worry about a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right.
Singin': "Don't worry about a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right!"

Rise up this mornin',
Smiled with the risin' sun,
Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin' sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin', ("This is my message to you-ou-ou:")

Singin': "Don't worry 'bout a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right."
Singin': "Don't worry (don't worry) 'bout a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right!"

Rise up this mornin',
Smiled with the risin' sun,
Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin' sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin', "This is my message to you-ou-ou:"
...

You ge the picture.

More than Green Eggs and Ham

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

Dr.Seuss was a genius!

The Joys and Sorrows of a New Car

So, I got a new car last weekend and I am totally in love with it. It's a Mazda 5, which is what I fondly refer to as a Micro Minivan. It's about the size of my old Toyota Matrix, but the back doors slide open like a van and it has a 3rd row seat the folds flat. The gas mileage is awesome, I've been averaging close to 30mpg. Needless to say, since it is small and not heavy like my old van, it has some pick up and I don't tend to notice that I'm speeding, so I've already managed to get pulled over by the police. I was on my way to the DMV to renew my license and then planned on going to the bank to finalize the sales paperwork on the car when I was caught speeding. Luckily the cop was really kind and didn't give me a speeding ticket. Unfortunately, my license had been expired for a few months, so he gave me a ticket for the expired license. I was so close to the DMV office, that I could see them - I could've walked there in less than 5 minutes. Anyway, now I have a court date for next month and hopefully the DA will be kind enough to dismiss the ticket. The vultures have already come out in droves, though. I've already managed to get a ton of solicitations from lawyers. The two below are only a small sampling of what I've gotten.

Frustration has set in. This is the third time I've gone over this painting with white. I just don't know what direction I want to take it. I keep mixing dark tones and just don't like the feeling it evokes after painting it. So, once again, another coat of white.

Art Class - Creating Depth

So, I started my second set of art classes and this past week was learning about creating depth. Our teacher has a ton of magazine pics and photocopies for us to go through for ideas and inspiration or just to copy - I chose a grove of trees. I liked the picture because of the light that was coming in from behind the trees. I chose to do it in shades of blue and kept it simple. It's funny, when I finished it, I didn't care for it much and didn't think it looked right, but after it dried and I had time to contemplate it, I have to say, it turned out ok. I had tons of leftover paint and since I hate to just throw it away, I grabbed another canvas and painted over a picture that I had painted that I didn't care for anyway.

trees (depth study)


leftover paint