Heart as flat as a pancake

I am in an experimenting mode these days. I am making some hearts out of heavy upholstery fabric with batting sandwiched in between. Then I serge the edges. Boy I love that serger, it is so cool!

I end up with a wall hanging of fabric with a ribbon on the back for hanging. These hearts are 10" x 8 1/2 " and flat as a pancake. But they are stiff because I varnish both sides. Of course the front is painted. The fabric gives it an interesting texture.

The heart pictured here is called "Balloons"

I think balloons make people happy, don't you?

I am going to experiment a bit more with these type of hearts, maybe collage on them.

Some Days are Better than Others

This is a mixed media painting that I have used a print from an original painting and then added to it with collaged paper and acrylic paint.

At the time I painted the original, I was feeling pretty overwhelmed with trying to balance life, my family, keeping up the house, cooking the meals and my work. The paintings title is "Juggling Life, Some Days are Better Than Others".

You might notice that the girl in the painting is not really juggling anything and everything seems to be falling on her head! In fact, she looks like she is protecting her head.

I think we all have days like that. I would never trade them because it makes the 'better' days more sweeter. No matter how your juggling skills are, if you look for the blessings, they are there everyday and juggling life becomes a pretty good thing.

Winter Ewe

Gosh here it is Sunday night and the week has just flown by. It is snowing heavily tonight. One of those nights you like to just stay in and be cozy in the house. We have had an inversion for the past couple of weeks and everything was so grungy, the pollution was trapped in the valley here. It rained yesterday and then this morning and washed clean the air. Now we have white fluffy snowflakes!

Yesterday I got out my mom's serger and tried to learn how to use it. There were no needles so I thought I would just make a trip to the local fabric store, but they didnt' have any so I ended up traveling a distance to get some. By the time I got back home my time was spent for learning how to use it. Oh well, maybe tomorrow.

I entered the Nibblefest contest with a slightly grunged up heart. I added glitter too. It's called 'Winter Ewe'.

Welcome to our new President!

I worked all day on different things for ebay, plus I have a couple of commissions I am working on. I just don't have enough time in the day for what I want to get done. But the good thing is I really love what I am doing, making art.

I watched the inaguaration today, and like most people I was very excited to watch this historic event. I loved seeing how so many people came together in love and joy to celebrate our new president taking the oath of office. I have to admit that I didn't vote for him, but I support him as my president and I have much hope for a better America. President Obama, ewe are welcome here!

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

This is a painting I did a while back. It's a big watercolor painting and it's been hanging in a gallery for quite a while. The other day a lady came in and bought it! I used it for the image on my business cards. I am not usually attached to paintings too much, but this one I liked a lot and I felt a bit sad to see it go.

Do you ever have a hard time parting with your creations?

I was a different person then...

Speaking of my mother, this summer after she passed away, I did this painting of her from a picture of when she was 13 years old. I had a show coming up at a gallery last September and I painted it for that. I put a quote with it;

"I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then" Lewis Carroll

I liked that quote a lot. Who knows how our life will turn out at that age? My mom was very blessed and found a wonderful man to share her life with. They had such a happy marriage, and I think they brought out the best in each other.

So I painted this as tribute to my parents but especially to my dad and how his love made my mother so very happy. Thank you dad!

The reason behind my Heart paintings

I have been busy all week long making 'Fine H'arts'. You know, hearts made of canvas and painted in acrylics.

Here is the main reason I started making them...
This summer my mother passed away, and I inherited her Bernina sewing machine and her Babylock serger.

Being a full time artist, and not doing as much sewing as I used to when my kids were young; I decided I would use these gifts to create some of my art. My mother would have loved them.

It took a while for me to think up an idea. Of course hearts aren't a new concept, but they are pretty fun to make. My first hearts are around 10" x 7" but I am going to make bigger ones. So stay tuned. I hope they sell well, so I can keep making them. It takes a bit longer to make them and then paint them. They are really cute in person and they have a hanger so they can hang on the wall like a real piece of art - which they are!

Every Heart Sings

Today I have been pretty busy sewing canvas hearts and painting them. I listed one tonight on ebay

Check it out! I don't usually do this, but I started the auction at 99 cents. Sometime it brings more views and since this is a new type of item for me, I thought I would try it. Normally I would start this item at a minimum bid of $19.

I am quite pleased with the way the hearts are turning out. They are very folkarty looking and I give them an antique looking stain so they are bit grungy looking. They have a hanger on the back so it is ready to hang.

This one has a quote by Plato on it: "Every heart sings a song incomplete, until another heart whispers back"

Fine H'art

Well, here is that thing I told you I was working on.... A stuffed heart painting! This first one is a classic angel. I listed it on auction tonight. It was fun to make and I am going to make a bunch of them.

Lamb and Eggs

Today I had a busy day - not painting! I hate when that happens. So I only got one watercolor done, another sheep painting. It's called Lamb and Eggs. It will go on auction Saturday night on ebay. http://stores.ebay.com/Pure-Art-Studio

http://stores.ebay.com/Pure-Art-Studio

Ok, so I'm learning. I want to have a link to my ebay store so you can just click on it. We will know soon enought if it is working...or if you read this and you can click on it, there you go.... it works! Yeah!

I am in the process of working on something totally new for ebay. I am pretty excited about it. I hope it will be a fun thing that people will enjoy. It will be just in time for Valentines Day. Gee, the holidays are over and I am already thinking Valentines? What's up with that? I guess when you consider that ebay items have to ship and all, my mind just moved on to the next holiday, so people can have it delivered in plenty of time. Anyway, when I get this 'new' thing done I will post it here.

I am also working on a series of Alice in Wonderland paintings, and will post some of those on here too. I love Alice and her adventures, although I think some of it is a bit twisted.

Above is a painting I did yesterday with a quote on it. I like painting happy paintings!

New year!

Happy new year to all! Now that the holidays are over, I hope to get a lot of painting done and post some of my work on my blog. Today I put on ebay a watercolor of a little warbler.