Amaze . . . and onward

OK . . . once again I am running behind in posting, but I do have some photos to show you!

Amaze - January 5th

after struggling the past 2 years in school, it looks like the little guy is doing much better now.  His Progress Report came home today and it was amazing! (Horrible that I've got that shadow in there. Will try to avoid that next time!)


Animal - January 6th

it was a bitter cold day so I guess none of the critters wanted to come out today.  I waited all day keeping my eye out for a squirrel or two, but none ever showed.  When I knew I only had about 20 minutes of sunlight left, I took a snap of this owl who sits in my garden bed.

Aqua - January 7th

The coloring just wasn't working out for me on this one.  This gem is a really pretty aqua in person that is.  I must of taken 20 shots with different backdrops and lighting and just could get the coloring like it should be.

Architecture - January 8th

This is the celing of the church we attend.  The minute I entered this church some 8 years ago, I thought it was fascinating!  It's a very modern church . . . for a Catholic church that is.  This photo was taken with my Blackberry.

Arranged - January 9th

Thought that dinner arranged nicely in my bowl fit perfectly for this theme.

Art - January 10th

Here's a painting that I did back in 2006 and one of my faves.  It sits above the fireplace in the family room.

Hope you enjoyed your visit.  Can't wait to see more of what you all have come up with too!

Until next time,

~Connie

Welcoming Love

I tried to dress up my blog for Valentines but was having a problem with Photobucket or Blogger . . . not sure which one . . . so I figured I'd just post these pictures of some of the decorations I have in my home instead.

I made the wreath a couple of years ago and the banner is hanging in my studio . . .

Happy Valentines Everyone and Have a Wonderful Day!

A "happy" accident

I was able to play with paint today . . . unlike the other day, I wasn't planning on it, but was able to get a couple of hours time by myself.

I started with a 12" x 12" sheet of linen acrylic paper and just started using up the paint that was stored in my palette from last week's painting session.  I started light with the yellows and then added brown to the edge and spritzed alcohol here and there to "move" the paint.  Then I used green paint over a stencil and had to let it dry for a bit.  I scraped in some white lines with an old credit card and also scraped off the edges to get other areas of white. Finally, I took a charcoal pencil and traced some of the lines from the stencil.  Here's what I got:

After dinner, I decided that I would try to work some more on this.  At one point I put some leaf green paint and Jacquard Lumiere in pearl white on my palette paper and took the brayer to it and put that on the painting as well.  Then I decided that I wanted to stamp some leaf images with the pearl white paint, but it didn't show up very well on the painting.  Instead, out of frustration, I started stamping the pallette and it looked so cool that I took a picture of that instead.  Here's what my "happy" accident looks like:

I'm gonna let this dry and tomorrow will see about adhering it with gel medium to the painting as another layer and continue working on it.  Hopefully, I'll have something more and interesting to show you again tomorrow.

Until then . . . enjoy!

A different take

on the body theme for me today.  I started the day off all excited  because I'd have more time to myself today and would be able to paint.  I got my morning paper after dropping the little guy off at school and decided that I'd have my oatmeal and read the paper before heading into my "studio" to paint.

That's when things started going wrong.  I was reaching to the top shelf to get the measuring cup when it slipped out of my hand and hit the bottom shelf that housed my everday dishes.  CRASH!  . . . shattered pieces of two dinner plates were all over the place.  Klutzy me!  I figured it was just that I'd had too much coffee and needed something more in my stomach . . . but I couldn't make my breakfast until I cleaned up all the mess.

After cleaning it up and having a full stomach, I was finally ready to get on with my day.  I decided that I should go to the mall real quick and pick out some new dinnerware since having only 2 dinner plates in a family of 4 was not going to cut it.  I spent my morning going from store to store . . . Kohl's . . . Carsons . . . Bed, Bath & Beyond . . . Target . . . Kmart . . . and finally back to Carsons again to check out the opened box of dinnerware that I liked to see if it was intacted.  I managed to get a good deal on the set of 6 place settings that also included certain serving dishes, salt and pepper shakers and a cream and sugar bowl.   The sign said it was $49.99, but when the girl rang it up the total was $41.00!  Even better!  I was in the car and on my way home when I realized that once again I was starving . . . it was lunch time.  When I finally did get home and lugged that heavy box in from the garage, I was exhausted! . . . 11:30 am and I was feeling so tired.

So I made and ate my lunch and started to unpack the box.  Since I had to clean all of these new dishes, I had to first clean the dirty ones that I had left from breakfast so I started washing, rinsing and drying . . . . and washing, rinsing and drying . . . and here's what my new place settings look like . . .

I really love the basketweave design so I can dress them up with napkins, glassware and place mats in any color and/or design that I like.  After all that washing, rinsing and drying . . . it was time to pick up the little one from school and yet again . . . I was feeling tired!  But the bitter cold winter air woke me up temporarily when going out to pick him up.

I did manage to do some sketching earlier this evening . . . although I really would have liked to get out the paint.  I was looking through the book The Creative Artist A Fine Artist's Guide to Expanding Your Creativity by Nita Leland and love the exercises she's got throughout the book.  It just gets the mind going . . . anyway . . .  here's one of my sketch pages . . .

Kind of sums up my day perfectly.  I just wish I didn't feel so tired all the time!

Until next time . . . Happy Creating!

Taking in the sites

January18th
Originally uploaded by MrsC_64
I have been creating these past couple of days, just not posting like I should. We went to the Art Institute on Monday. Hubby and I had a great time, but the little guy got tired and bored pretty quickly. Can't wait to be able to go back again!

I have been working on a new scrapbook kit and I hope to be done with it tomorrow.

Until next time . . .

Ups and downs . . .

The past few weeks have been pretty crazy around here! First, I sent away for a trial copy of Adobe CS4 and installed it on my computer. I was so happy and giddy with all the new features and that Illustrator was right at my finger tips now. That lasted a whole 2 days before things started going really wrong with my computer . . . the third day after I installed the programs, my computer wouldn't start without going through this whole deal about repairing and restoring my system. When it finally did get it back up and running . . . CS4 and all of the programs were gone! I tried to reinstall and could not get any the components installed again so I finally gave up and did a clean up of all the programs.

I'm still awaiting to hear back from Adobe on this matter. I'm very disappointed and disheartened by this whole experience! I can't believe with my new souped-up computer that I could have so many problems with installing software. I've never had anything like this happen to me in all the years I've been using a computer. I've heard all the horrors stories, but this is the first time, I've ever had to completely uninstalled a program because of what it was doing to my computer. It's down right depressing to think that I might not be able to use the programs I've been dreaming of having for such a long time now. I'm hoping there's a fix out there somewhere!

On the bright side, I got a new phone . . . it's this awesome Blackberry Tour! This is the nicest phone I've ever had and it has so many cool features too. It's a PDA and a phone all in one!

I love my new phone!

Then, the very same day I got my new phone, I also learned some more disheartening news . . . we needed a new furnace. So $4400 and 2 days later . . . we now have a new furnace.

After all these ups and downs, I decided that I needed a break so I took a drive down to the lake. I remember going there just to sit and watch the waves crash against the rocks and to admire the skyline. Since I don't live that close to the lake anymore, it was a bit of a long drive, but still a nice change of pace. Although it was a pretty cold day and the winds were really strong . . . all in all, I enjoyed the fresh air and brisk walk. At the very least, I was able to clear my head!

I'm hoping this is the last of these ups and downs for a little while and that hopefully, I'll be able to get back to creating something . . . or better yet, finishing all these other projects I've got going on over here.

Hope to be back soon with some better news!

Scatter-brained, easily bored or just busy?

I can't decide which I am. I've been so busy lately that I just don't know where it all starts or ends anymore. I've got several projects going on and only 1 has been completed . . . and that was the last one I started! That being said . . . I got my SNL 53 kit done this AM. I have so many more ideas in the folder yet I decided and settled on these papers and elements:

This was a really fun kit to make and as I said . . . there are many more ideas swirling around in my head, but I really want to continue on with the other projects I've got going as well.

As I mentioned, I feel so scatter-brained . . . it all started when I realized that Michael's doesn't sell the Jacquard fabric paints I wanted to continue on with the art quilt project and had to find a day to go out to Dick Blick. Seems they're the only local store that sells them and I didn't want to have to wait if I ordered them online. Anyway, when I got to the Dick Blick store . . . my mind started racing! With all those art materials, and books and canvas, I just couldn't help but feel the urge to paint, Paint, PAINT!

So instead of continuing with my already "in progress" art quilt and when I came across a roadside vendor who had these lovely sunflowers, I just had to stop and get some. As soon I was at home arranging the flowers, I was setting up a photo shoot and took tons of pictures. I then began sketching in the sketchbook and getting more ideas down. I was really surprised at the sketch I did . . . considering I hadn't done any real sketching for quite some time now. I came up with this . . .

From there I decided to pull out some water color paper and blocked in some color and still, my art quilt was hanging on the design wall just waiting to see what should be done next. But instead, I continued with the sunflowers and blocked-in some color on a 9 X 12 sheet of water color paper and not sure how it was coming out, I decided to get some input and suggestions from the people over at Wet Canvas. We decided that the background was too busy and the coloring of the background just wasn't quite right.

So I was at it again! This time, I went bigger and decided to sketch on an 18 X 24 sheet of water color paper and blocked in the color and here's where I stand . . .

That's how my past 2 weeks or so have gone and I have only 1 real thing to show for it. So now I have to decide whether to continue on with this sunflower project or jump back into the art quilt project. Then again . . . there's my digital scrapbook layouts that I've been neglecting . . . and those weeds accumulating in the garden . . . not to mention all the housework that's been on the back burner too!

Oh well, it will all get done sooner or later.

Trying an Art Quilt

OK . . . so I finally decided to try my hand at an art quilt. I saw the premier issue of Art Quilting Studio magazine on the news stand and have been inspired. Although I still get Quilting Arts magazine every other month and keep telling myself to try some of the techniques . . . I finally started. So far, I did a preliminary sketch in PS and here's what I've come up with . . .

After deciding on a finished size of approximately 40" X 55" and doing the sketch I was pleased with the general idea of where I wanted to go with this. Next, I painted the world on a smaller piece of fabric and figured I could applique it in position at a later time and here's what it looks like . . .

Next, I decided that I should start on the angel and made her wings using water soluble stabilizer and layers of tulle with glitter, snips of fabric and angeline fibers sandwiched in between. After that, I painted her face and body parts on a piece of fabric that would serve as the main background. I figure I could applique her dress on after the background has been decided on. I think the angel's face and wings look great so far . . .

So now I think I have to decide on what to do about the main background and am thinking that I would start with a deep blue at the top and make a gradation into light blue and then to gold at the very bottom. I'm still pondering that idea for now though. I have picked out some fabric for the column piece and should start working on that soon as well.

All in all, I like the way it's coming along and hopefully will seen some real results soon. I'll write again of my progress as soon as I can and have more pictures to show.

Until then . . .

A New Day

I told myself last night that I would try to write here everyday so that I can get my thoughts down and get myself more organized. (I really need to straighten up my "studio" space yet again.) I came across this acrylic work that's in one of the many piles of books, papers, etc. on top of the table in there . . .

Again, I just started to play with the paint . . . here I used cream, light "sky" blue and chocolate as my base colors and just mixed variations from there. I tore pieces of sheet music and scrapbook paper and other textured papers and adhered them with gel medium. To create the first layer of texture I applied saran wrap to wet paint and let it set up. I also used a rubber stamp and even outlined some of those images with pen and pencil. Finally, I added some sand for additonal texture and because the colors reminded me of the beach. Here's a picture of the detail of the lower left hand corner. I just love the texture here!

This was painted on gesso primed 140 lb. watercolor paper and measures 12 X 17 1/2 inches. Again, the pictures don't see to be that great here, but in person, I really like the colors and textures I created.

My First Post

I just signed up for this today and want to see how it works.

I'm hoping to post some of my art work and get my thoughts about it written down so that I'll able to look back at what I did and how I accomplished it. It seems that the art I create and like is when I don't have a plan at all and just pick two or three colors of acrylic paint and start to play. That's how this painting came to be . . .

The picture looks washed out because of the glare at the top created by the gel medium used to adhere the sheet music. (Photography's not my thing really) It was painted on gesso primed 140 lb. watercolor paper and measures 12 X 17 1/2. My favorite part, of course, is the pear which you can see in detail here . . .

I really love the colors here . . . the blues, lime and yellows are one of my favorite combinations of colors of late. Crackling medium is something that I like to use to create texture on an otherwise flat surface and for backgrounds.