Inspiration from the Past

This morning I had all kinds of thoughts to write about in my blog, and now here I am and my mind is blank! Oh well. I have learned that when this happens you just start typing and then go back and edit the real dumb stuff.



I have been pursuing a new twist with my online work. I mentioned previously that I was making puffy paper ornaments. I have to admit that the concept is not my own. My mom and her dear friend Mary (hi Mary!) used to make puffy paper ornaments years ago and sell them at home boutiques. When my mom passed away a year and a half ago I inherited a lot of her creative things, like a box of puffy paper ornaments. Lets see... I am going to grab one and see if she dated them... yup, 1996! I have updated my puffy ornaments in the way I make them, they are a bit different from those original ones my mom and Mary made. And I plasticized them! (my super secret for long lasting paper ornaments).Back then they recycled paper grocery bags and let the natural color of the bag be a big part of the design. Oh and guess what they called themselves, BAG LADIES!



As I mentioned, I don't use paper bags, or glue them together with glue, but the original inspiration came from those cute Bag Ladies. Thanks mom! ( I know she would be thrilled to know I am making puffy paper ornaments). Thanks to Mary too. I posted a picture of my latest batch of ornmaments. A couple are on ebay and the rest will be tomorrow. This week I will get some on etsy too.

Where Does the Time Go?

This past week has been a busy one. Last night was gallery stroll in Salt Lake, and it seems that it takes the whole week to prepare for it. As president of Local Colors of Utah gallery, I had to prepare an agenda for our artists meeting on Tuesday, and then all day Wednesday I spent rehanging the gallery. But my time wasn't all absorbed by the gallery.

I started making painted ornaments for ebay. Surprisingly every one of them is selling! Tis the season, I suppose! I quite enjoy making them. Pictured here are two that are currently on auction, 'Peace Be With Ewe' and 'Don't You Tell a Single Soul...'

On Thursday night, I received a belated birthday present from my sister, who is the bestest sister in the whole wide world! She had bought Manheim Steamroller tickets for both of us! The concert was wonderful as usual. We have gone for several years now. One thing we missed though was Chip Davis, who had surgery on his neck and didn't perform :-(

However there was a special surprise treat. At the beginning of the concert, they showed a video of Chip explaining why he is no longer performing. All of a sudden the clip froze, like a malfunction of the projector, something quite unusual in a professional performance. Then, someone walks out on stage in a white parka - with the hood up over his head. Guess who? It was Chip! (We knew it was him because he had on his white nikes (or whatever brand he wears - we weren't quite close enought to see). He has a place up in Park City and was here so thought he'd drop in. He still didn't perform in the concert, but for the encore he came out and performed one number with the other musicians. Pretty cool. Amazing music and truly inspiring.

What's not to love about Christmas music. Thanks to my sister Debbie, I love you!

Oh one more thing about gallery stroll, at our gallery we hosted a fund raising benefit for Operation Smile. We had a silent auction in two parts; some of the auctions ended that night, and then the rest will still be on for three more weeks. If you live in Salt Lake City, stop by and support a wonderful organization.

Ian Ramsay Workshop -Beautiful!

Last Friday and Saturday I took a workshop with the Utah Watercolor Society. The guest artist was Ian Ramsay, a truly fabulous watercolor artist. I learned so much from him! In the workshop we all painted the same subject matter which Ian provided and went step by step with him as he would do a demo and then we would go and paint on our painting. Interestingly enough no one's painting looked alike. I feel like no matter how long you have been painting there is always something new to learn. I think one of Ian's techniques that he has mastered is the control of color. His work is so delicate and I found for myself too much color can spoil that delicate effect. He mixes a lot of his color directly on the paper, and let me tell you, if you are not careful, you can end up with mud! But the real magic of Ian's paintings come at the very end when he adds such detail that it takes a very nice painting to something really special!
The painting I posted here is one that we bought for my darlin' Mr. Joe. He has long admired Ian's work, and it was because of Joe that I even took this workshop. He gave it to my for my birthday present this year. Mr. Joe is the best! So what can I say, I need to go paint now after being very inspired by a great workshop and instructor.
For more information on Ian, contact me.

The Holidays are Upon Us

Do you decorate for the Holidays? Do you put your decorations up right as soon as it is politically correct? Or do you have holiday decorations year round? I am one that generally likes to get my decorations up early. Mainly because the holiday comes only once a year and I like to celebrate it to the fullest extent. Also it often takes a lot of time to put them up and I just can't see doing that for only a week before the holiday.

Currently I have some Halloween items on ebay and etsy. But what is cool is having my

'Witch is In' print featured on American Holiday Artist. Go visit that blog to see some other wonderful holiday artwork. Just click on the link on my blog here. It may just inspire you to get decorating if you haven't already!

I love mixed media and crackle!

Tonight I did a little watercolor of a diva. What got me started on this was an old cosmetology textbook from the 60's. At least that's what I assume, judging by the hair-do's. Do people still say hair do? Anyway, I thought it would be fun to collage one of the pages from the book to mat board. Then I put crackle on it and glazes of paint. Then I collaged the little watercolor paintng to it. It makes a fun background for the painting, don't you think? It's on ebay this week.

Nibblefest Contest time again!

It's time for another Nibblefest. This month the theme is Halloween and I did a little portrait of Edgar Allen Poe with a little bit of the Tell Tale Heart story written behind him. What would Halloween be without a scary story from Poe? This auction is on ebay and all Nibblefest auctions start at 99 cents. Search NFAC for other contest entries. Heres the link to my auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/PURE-ART-NFAC-POE-HALLOWEEN-WATERCOLOR-PAINTING-AHA_W0QQitemZ230390634664QQcmdZViewItemQQptZArt_Paintings?hash=item35a45a18a8

Another Alice painting

This is my painting that was accepted into the Utah Watercolor Fall Show. With the theme being 'inspired by a book', I just had to do an Alice painting from Through the Looking Glass. Tweedledum and Tweedledee seemed prime candidates so they got in it too.

It was fun to see the watercolor show, it was really interesting to see what books were depicted. There was a wonderful abstract, inspired by the book 'Home Improvement'. I am sure that looking at the painting was a lot more fun than reading the book.

I felt compelled to do my own frame for this painting, I wanted to collage some of the verse from the book on it. I looked all over to find a perfect frame, it didn't have to be new, as I was going to collage and paint it the way I wanted. After looking around for several days through frame shops and thrift stores, guess where I found the perfect frame? In my basement! It was a very old solid wood one that I inherited from my mom. I don't know were she got it from. It was just what I wanted, what I had envisioned it to look like. I know my mom would be very pleased that I used it for this purpose. She was one of my greatest fans (you know how moms are!).

I think I spent as much time re-finishing the frame as I did painting the painting. It was fun to do, I think I am a crackle addict! (not crack, mind you, crackle!)

Finished... I think!

Here's a commission I have been working on. I think it's finished, but I will know for sure in the morning. After looking at it all day you think you're finally done and then if you get away from it for a while, you see things that need fix'in. I really hope it's done though. It has been a big project, the size is 36"x 48". It just barely fits in my car.

It doesn't have a title yet... maybe tomorrow it will. Right now all I can think of is 'Koi'. Not very creative or original. :-)

Watercolor Workshop

This week I am taking a workshop sponsored by the Utah Watercolor Society. The guest artist is Joyce Washor from New York. She does lovely miniature still life watercolors. The size of her paintings are about 3" x 4" and are just wonderful. You might think that painting that small would be easy to do, but it suprisingly has it's challenges. Anyone who does watercolors knows that it is often easy to over work a painting. A successful painting has a fresh look with glowing colors. Well needless to say I found myself overworking my little painting and on that small piece of watercolor paper, any mistake is much more obvious and harder to correct. I posted one of the exercises, it's of onions and grapes. It's not my best work, but at least you can see what we are doing.

It is a great workshop, and I am learning a lot. I especially like the palettes that Joyce is using of complimentary colors of red and green, blue and orange, and purple and yellow. On each palette there is 7 ranges of the primary color and its' complimentary color. We then made a color chart for each palettes and then on the chart blended the colors. It's hard to explain so I included a picture of the blue/orange palette. Anyway, this has been a great exercise for me. By using a limited palette like this you are able to create a painting where the colors harmonize with each other.

I have to thank Joyce, this has been a wonderful workshop! Plus it has been a wonderful time socializing with my talented artist friends.

I am buying things made in the US!

Recently a friend brought to my attention that they are buying products that are made only in the USA. Meaning that they read the packaging on toothpaste, food, etc to see where it is made at. I decided to do that too.

Another friend just sent me an email with info about McDonalds buying their beef out of the states. I am including it here. It's kind of lengthy, sorry! but good to know.

"This will keep us from ever stopping there again, even for a drink. The original message is from the Texas Cattle Feeders Association. American cattle producers are very passionate about this.McDonald's claims that there is not enough beef in the USA to support their restaurants.Well, we know that is not so. Our opinion is they are looking to save money at our expense. The sad thing of it is that the people of the USA are the ones who made McDonald's successful in the first place, but we are not good enough to provide beef.We personally are no longer eating at McDonald's, which I am sure does not make an impact, but if we pass this around maybe there will be an impact felt.All Americans that sell cows at a livestock auction barn had to sign a paper stating that we do NOT EVER feed our cows any part of another cow. South Americans are not required to do this as of yet.McDonald's has announced that they are going to start importing much of their beef from South America . The problem is that South Americans aren't under the same regulations as American beef producers, and the regulations they have are loosely controlled.They can spray numerous pesticides on their pastures that have been banned here at home because of residues found in the beef. They can also use various hormones and growth regulators that we can't. The American public needs to be aware of this problem and that they may be putting themselves at risk from now on by eating at good old McDonald's..American ranchers raise the highest quality beef in the world and this is what Americans deserve to eat. Not beef from countries where quality is loosely controlled. Therefore, I am proposing a boycott of McDonald's until they see the light.=0AI'm sorry but everything is not always about the bottom line, and when it comes to jeopardizing my family's health, that is where I draw the line.I am sending this note to about thirty people. If each of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers!I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you? Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on..David W. Forrest, Ph.D ., PAS, Dipl.ACAP Department of Animal ScienceTexas A&M UniversityPhone (979) 845-3560Fax (979) 862-33992471 TAMU College Station , TX 77843-2471

Inspired by a Book - UWS Fall Show

I often turn to a well loved book or author for inspiration for a painting. I was one of those teenagers that would stay up reading into the wee hours of the morning with a flashlight and the sheet over my head. I love how the magic of words can transport you to places in your imagination that were previously unknown. The last thing I do at night is try to keep my eyes open long enough to read at least a page or two of a good book.

In October the Utah Watercolor Society will host it's annual fall show. This year unlike previous years, it had a specific theme, 'Inspired by a Book'. I chose for my book Lewis Carroll's 'Through the Looking Glass'. Are you surprised? If you know me probably not. I chose to illustrate Alice's meeting with the strange and chubby Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

The opening reception will be in October. I was quite surprised (and pleased) to have a cropped version of my painting featured on the exhibition's post card!

Annabelle Lee is featured on American Holiday Artist Blog!

It's always nice to be featured on someone else blog other than your own. My Annabelle Lee is currently featured, and a few days ago I posted her here on this blog. So rather than post the same picture, I am putting the verse that is part of the piece.

American Holiday Artist blog is a great place to go if you are looking for original artwork with the season's theme. Not long til Halloween! I love Halloween, maybe because my birthday is in October...

Making the Best of It

The internet is really quite a phenomenon to artists. In the past when the economy took a nose dive, artists and galleries really struggled to survive. But today, with the internet and the self representing artist, one can survive. It's still a bit tough, but not nearly as hard as if you had to depend on only galleries and art festivals to sell your art.

It's sad news when a good gallery closes. One that I was in (note 'was') just closed a couple of weeks ago. Although I still have two other galleries and one boutique representing me, I now have a bunch of paintings on hand. I have recently stocked my other venues with newer work. The poor darlings from the closed gallery need a home! (not my home, it's already crowded with art work).

My online sales have been mostly devoted to small quick pieces that sell at small quick prices. But I have decided to offer some of my gallery pieces online. I will now feature some of them in my ebay store. The painting posted on this blog is one that I just recently listed there. (Please note I will accept reasonable offers). It's titled Doggy Day Dreams. It actually won Best of Show in the Intermountain Society of Artists summer show. Why don't I keep it? Well, yes, I love it but... if I kept every painting that I loved I would have no room whatsoever in my house. And besides an artist has to make a living don't-cha-know. So keep an eye out on my ebay. Check out etsy as well, right now it's a bit quiet there, but I am gearing up to go gangbusters for holiday sales.

Oh and one more thing... American Holiday Artist has one of my small ebay pieces featured on their blog - check it out: http://suzanneurbandesigns.typepad.com/aha/

Louisa May Alcott Poem

Tonight my little painting is based on a poem by Louisa May Alcott called 'Our Little Ghost'. I did this one in watercolor and then aged it with a crackle finish. I decided I don't do watercolor enough! Then I mixed it up with mixed media, collaging the verse on a distressed background and putting it in a black frame with sanded edges. It really is quite a little gem! It's number 2 of a series for Halloween called 'Haunted Ladies'. It is on auction at ebay.

Commissions

Having just worked on two commissions, I realize that they are very nice to have in this particular economy. Last week I sent off a spinning wheel to Alaska. Not a painting of a spinning wheel but a real spinning wheel. I have a very nice customer that has bought quite a few sheep paintings from me. So she wanted some on her spinning wheel that she takes to workshops. It was a lovely machine, small and compact to handle traveling. Almost made me want to take up spinning! Since some of you have asked about my commissions, I am posting a picture of it, painted with my signature folk art sheep.

Something New

I have been bad and have not posted on my blog for a month - yikes! It's been a very busy time, I had an art festival that I was in and finished two commissions, as well as painted things for the gallery I am in. But now it's time to turn my nose toward the internet and focus on my sales there.

Last Friday night I went to an opening of one of my most favorite artists, James C. Christensen. He is a marvelous fantasy artist. Check out his art: http://www.greenwichworkshop.com/studio/studio_artist.asp?artistid=16 I had intended to only stay a few minutes at the reception but it was so fun to listen to him talk about his art. I ended up buying his book, Men and Angels, and he signed it for me! A couple of months ago I had checked out Men and Angels from the library and renewed it twice. I guess I can return now that I have my own. What I love about this book is whenever I need a little inspiration to paint, I just look at this book and I can't wait to get painting.

Tonight I listed a new painting on ebay, it's titled Annabelle Lee, based on Poe's poem by the same name. Tis the Halloween season and I was thinking of ghosts and things like that and this is what I came up with. I took just a couple of lines from the poem and collaged it on the painting. This painting is listed and will be available til September 30th.

Cart Before the Horse Has a Cool Giveaway!

If you love darling handmade dolls, then you will want to enter Jo of Cart Before the Horse's giveway. She is celebrating her 200 post on her blog. Here is her blog address: http://thecartbeforethehorse.blogspot.com/2009/08/200-posts-and-giveaway-or-two.html

One Down One to Go... and a great use for plastic bags!

I have been working on a commission for a lady that has mini donkeys. They are so cute! I think they have the sweetest faces.
The past couple of weeks I have been dog sitting, first for my dad and his australian shepherd, Abby, and then for my daughter and her two chihuahuas, Bonita and Bella. I took my art supplies so I could work. But it's not the same as working at home with all your artsy stuff at your fingertips.
I am working on a second commission of a very large painting of Koi (36 x 48). This one is not going to be so realistic as the donkeys. I am using a bit of collage in it. Anyhoo, not being home with my 'stuff', I found there were some things I needed but didn't have. Part of my collage technique is to have very accurate shapes to draw on the paper I want to collage. For instance,
One of the koi is going to be collaged on. Normally I take tracing paper and trace the koi shape off the painting, then I use graphite paper and retrace the shape onto the patterned paper I want to use. Well.... guess what I DIDN'T have with me? Tracing paper!
So being the artist that I am... I thought and thought about what I could use for a substitute. My first experiment was to take a piece of type paper and totally soak it, so it was somewhat transparent, stick it on the painting and trace my fish. Then I got the blow dryer out and dried it. It worked good enough, but was a long process with the wetting the paper and drying it for this impatient artist. So then I had this really good idea! I got a white plastic bag (this one happened to be from Wallymart) and cut it in half and used the blank side like tracing paper. It worked just perfect and was more transparent than the wet typing paper. Hooray! I didn't have to go home to get the tracing paper. (Yes I am sure you are thinking why didn't I just run to the store, but like most artists and supplies, I have a hoard of tracing paper and couldn't bring myself to buy more!)

A Fairy is on my Sheep!

I feel like I have been MIA on my blog, facebook and online groups lately. I am working on two commissions right now. Yesterday I took some time to paint a little painting for ebay called 'When a Fairy Rides a Sheep'.

The Truth Please!

I am planning and painting a bunch of new paintings and here is the study for a larger one that I will be doing. It's called 'Tell the Truth'. Mark Twain said "If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything".

This little gem is up for auction on ebay. I will be putting prints of it on etsy tomorrow.