Wednesday, March 28, 2012

WIP — Tulips

This is a 12" x 12" canvas I'm currently working on. I did the grey background on Sunday then came back to it yesterday after work and did what you see here.

032712 Tulips WIP sm

This is still a WIP (work in progress), but I'm very happy with it so far. It will probably be a birthday present for my sister since her birthday is coming up and she loves tulips.

This is almost entirely cheap craft acrylics I picked up either at Michael's or Walmart. I used a white Sharpie poster paint pen for the white outlines around the leaves and some detail work in the flowers. It was the first time I've used it and I'm pretty sure I love it! I used the medium tip, but it's pretty fine. I also picked up the fine tip, but I haven't opened that one yet. Gotta love new art supplies!

This is what I used for inspiration.

032712 Tulips-inspiration

It's from the cover of a free magazine I picked up at the grocery store. The bright colors against the simple and neutral background caught my eye.

What work in progress do you have going? I'd love to see, so please share your links in the comments.

Monday, March 26, 2012

One Week

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you're probably wondering what in the heck happened to my "6 'til 40" list. If you're new here, that was a list I put together of the things I wanted to do in the 6 months leading up to my 40th birthday. Well, my birthday is a week away, so I thought I'd finally bring you up to date on what's been going on these last few months.



I did cross a few of the things off the list, like go through a corn maze. I also redesigned my blog business cards and gave this site a minor face lift (very minor, more like housekeeping, really). I took my camera with me on a walk and I hosted a tea party. But that's about it. There are approximately 15 things I never did and some are really simple, like going to the cupcake bakery or getting a massage. Nope, still haven't done that and I'd really like a massage right about now, believe me.

Many of the "usual" things kept me from doing the rest of the activities on my list, mainly running out of time, or simply forgetting. But let's face it. Not having time is an excuse, plain and simple. I've chosen to spend my time doing other things. And I'm OK with that. Over the last six months, things have changed and my priorities changed, as they often do. Shortly after making the list, an opportunity came up to attend an art workshop. Going to an art retreat or workshop was on my list, but not the public one. It was the one buried deep in me that I hadn't verbalized to anyone but myself. I just didn't think it would happen for me; it was just a remote dream. Just goes to show that I need to dream BIG and out LOUD, and sometimes the universe will listen - and I will take action!

I missed the first opportunity for the workshop because it sold out in hours, but the hosts, Donna Downey and Christy Tomlinson opened up a second session for Inspired: Soulful Artist. Since I'd emailed and asked to be put on a waiting list, I was given the opportunity to sign up before the second session was made public. I signed up immediately.

That was the first step down the new direction things took for me, a direction away from some of the things on my original 6 'til 40 list. A week or so after I signed up for the Inspired event, I discovered the Bloom True e-course which I've already written a bit about. This was the next step.

canvas1-finished

Slowly, making art became my focus, my new source of happiness, rediscovering the joy I've always had in making art. In some ways, I no longer needed the original list because I was filling the months leading up to my birthday with things I loved doing. The Bloom True class started February 6 and the artist in me truly did bloom as a result. It lit a fire. The Inspired event, from March 1 through 4, kept the fire burning bright.

Soulful Artist Workshop - My table - the BEST table - love these women!!


Meeting 23 other women that shared my love of making art was incredible.

Me with Christy 
Me with Donna


When you're surrounded by people that speak the same language you do, a language you don't get to use much in your day to day life, it's incredible. I met women I hope to be friends with for a very long time. I learned many things about making different kinds of art, but the biggest takeaway was the community.



It's these things that have made the 6 months leading up to the big 4-0 a real joy, and isn't that what my whole "6 'til 40"was about - making time for things I want to do? Oh, I did the CRAP out of that, let me tell you.

I still want to do all of the things on my list. I have the name of a photographer I want to contact about taking pictures of Dwight and me. I'm still determined to hit the local bakeries, still interested in going to the museums in Chicago, the ones I haven't been to since childhood. But I'm OK with all of the blank check boxes on my list, because in the last 6 months, I feel like I've found ME. And I can't WAIT to see what she does in the NEXT six months.

Bring it!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Blooming True – And falling in love with painting


This is a cross-post from my main blog, Something Shiny with an update. That is, the finished painting. I am head over heels in love with it.

canvas 2 finished

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Original Post

9-bloomtrue-wk4-b

The last five weeks have passed in a flash. A paint-, joy-, and discovery-filled flash. Five weeks ago, I started the Bloom True e-course hosted by Flora Bowley and Beth Nicholls. Flora is a fine artist and instructor and Beth is the woman behind Do What You Love for Life. They teamed up to create the most inspiring and information-packed e-course I've ever taken. I'm certainly no expert and haven't taken nearly the number of courses others have, but I think I can safely say that Flora's course is leaps and bounds above many others.

Flora's generosity in teaching is incredible. She's supportive, joyful, shares her process with grace and whole-heartedness that just makes me want to be a better person, as well as a better painter. She focuses on everything positive, giving us exercises to build our creative courage, banish our negative self talk and inner critics, and just BE. In the moment. Inspired. Intuitive. Bold. Brave.

I learned about Flora's course through Beth's site, watching the informational video as soon as it hit my in-box. I was mesmerized, enthralled. And then the words, "Be Brave" painted on Flora's studio wall flashed on the screen, and I knew. I knew I HAD to take this class. You see, sometime late last fall, I decided that "Be Brave" was going to be my mantra for the new year. And then quickly re-decided that it would be my motto starting right then. Those words just came to me, tapped me quietly on the shoulder, whispered in my ear. I had to obey them.

I immediately signed up for the class. This was November 30, 2011. I told my husband that he didn't need to get me anything for Christmas. I just bought my gift. And what a gift it has been. There is SO much more I need and want to learn, and this course has set me down a path that has made me incredibly happy. I'll be painting and just start smiling.

I never thought I would be a painter. I avoided painting classes in high school even though I loved taking art classes and went out of my way to take as many as I could. Painting was so daunting to me. I was much more comfortable with drawing or using other media. Now, I'm in love with it. I want to paint all the time!

One of the other women taking the Bloom True course had a slide show of a painting in progress on her blog. I loved the idea so much that I created one as well. This painting process involves lots of layers, and I also rotated the canvas MANY times as I went through the layers. I've oriented them all the same way for this slide show so you can see the evolution. This painting is not finished. I need at least one more layer, but I wanted to share this with you in the mean time.


The quality isn't the greatest, but you can see all of these images in my flickr set. I've got three canvases going for the class; this is just one.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Blooming True — And Falling in Love with Painting

9-bloomtrue-wk4-b

The last five weeks have passed in a flash. A paint-, joy-, and discovery-filled flash. Five weeks ago, I started the Bloom True e-course hosted by Flora Bowley and Beth Nicholls. Flora is a fine artist and instructor and Beth is the woman behind Do What You Love for Life. They teamed up to create the most inspiring and information-packed e-course I've ever taken. I'm certainly no expert and haven't taken nearly the number of courses others have, but I think I can safely say that Flora's course is leaps and bounds above many others.

Flora's generosity in teaching is incredible. She's supportive, joyful, shares her process with grace and whole-heartedness that just makes me want to be a better person, as well as a better painter. She focuses on everything positive, giving us exercises to build our creative courage, banish our negative self talk and inner critics, and just BE. In the moment. Inspired. Intuitive. Bold. Brave.

I learned about Flora's course through Beth's site, watching the informational video as soon as it hit my in-box. I was mesmerized, enthralled. And then the words, "Be Brave" painted on Flora's studio wall flashed on the screen, and I knew. I knew I HAD to take this class. You see, sometime late last fall, I decided that "Be Brave" was going to be my mantra for the new year. And then quickly re-decided that it would be my motto starting right then. Those words just came to me, tapped me quietly on the shoulder, whispered in my ear. I had to obey them.

I immediately signed up for the class. This was November 30, 2011. I told my husband that he didn't need to get me anything for Christmas. I just bought my gift. And what a gift it has been. There is SO much more I need and want to learn, and this course has set me down a path that has made me incredibly happy. I'll be painting and just start smiling.

I never thought I would be a painter. I avoided painting classes in high school even though I loved taking art classes and went out of my way to take as many as I could. Painting was so daunting to me. I was much more comfortable with drawing or using other media. Now, I'm in love with it. I want to paint all the time!

One of the other women taking the Bloom True course had a slide show of a painting in progress on her blog. I loved the idea so much that I created one as well. This painting process involves lots of layers, and I also rotated the canvas MANY times as I went through the layers. I've oriented them all the same way for this slide show so you can see the evolution. This painting is not finished. I need at least one more layer, but I wanted to share this with you in the mean time.


The quality isn't the greatest, but you can see all of these images in my flickr set. I've got three canvases going for the class; this is just one.

Evolution of a Face

One of the things I've heard from multiple artists is to use any leftover paint from one project and just slap it on a blank canvas, avoiding waste and getting a jumps start on your next canvas. This painting started out as one of those leftover paint canvases.

I don't have any photos of the origins of this painting, but it started out with some light blue, smears of bright yellow-green, various black swirly marks and random other bits of color. At that point, I kind of saw a face in the marks and quickly painted the outline and the hair line. I had leftover fluid acrylics in violet and turquoise, so those were added and I decided to run them with a couple spritz of water.

Which brings us here:
12x12face-1

I added some shading on her neck, roughed in her features, and darkened the area behind her head on the right. I showed this to my husband, and he thought she looked a bit like Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas, so the next day, when I came back to the painting, I decided to give her bright orange hair.

12x12face-2

I didn't like the placement of her nose, so I covered over the mark I'd made. I worked on her eyes and added various layers of red, orange, yellow and some magenta to her hair. I also swirled some violet in there as well. I took a spray bottle top, pushed it into her hair to pick up paint, and made the circle marks you see in the corners.

I was really liking where she was going, but went out of town for a few days so she sat about a week at this stage. When I got back from my trip (an art workshop I'll write about later), I was itching to paint again, so on Monday night, I decided to finish her up or at least come close.

12x12face-3

I worked on defining her eyes, adding lots of shading to her face to bring out the features, added to her hair and decided to go with swirls. Lots of layering, little touches here and there and I decided to call her finished. I'm thrilled with how she turned out. It's my favorite painting to date. I just keep staring at her, hardly believing that *I* made her.
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