Finished painting: Life is short but wide

This is one of my favorite quotes from The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I was having trouble finishing this one, like the others, but finding the large circle template (have you noticed that I like circles?) and the metal half-key (it’s cut in half the long way!) seemed to help me finish this one up.

In progress: teal and burgundy 12x12 painting + 1

I’ll admit, this one I’m making for our home. I’ve loved the color burgundy for years. My décor is all about this color, but I have a color mistress. The deep beautiful teal. It began creeping in after our wedding in October and since, I’ve realized that I want both in our house. My main thought for colors are dark teal, cranberry/burgundy and then during the holidays I’ll bring in purples.

In progress: Yellow, orange and hot pink painting

I changed the colors of the circles on this one, and added dots at the top with a stencil and my new pouncer.

I’m liking this one a lot better and want to find some words to go with it.

In progress: Sweet bird

I feel like this one is very close to finished. It looks so different than the others I’ve done, but I have to accept that that’s ok and I don’t need it to look like the others. It could just be the way it is.

Finished painting -- Happy

I swear, going to a craft store fills me with all kinds of ideas. And the one closest to my house has remodeled and now has all kinds of scrapbooking goodies. I don’t scrapbook, but I use the stuff in my paintings. Like this one… if you’ll note, I didn’t know quite how to finish this one. But, once I found the metal compass and little spinning arrows, I know they were going to go on this one. Yes, the arrow actually moves…so it’s interactive! Lol

Finished painting -- Follow your true north

I swear, going to a craft store fills me with all kinds of ideas. And the one closest to my house has remodeled and now has all kinds of scrapbooking goodies. I don’t scrapbook, but I use the stuff in my paintings. Like this one… if you’ll note, I didn’t know quite how to finish this one. But, once I found the metal compass and little spinning arrows, I know they were going to go on this one. Yes, the arrow actually moves…so it’s interactive! Lol

Finished painting - Sky full of promise

Here’s the finished version of my little birdie friend sitting on a branch watching a summer storm come in. It still needs a few tweaks, but won't change much from this to when I scan it and post on etsy.

12x12 for sale

In Progress

I’d like to get into a habit of posting in-progress pictures, but sometimes pieces I’m creating move so quickly for me that I don’t stop to take photos of the painting as I work on it.

So, here are a few in progress paintings. These are almost finished but they are missing something that I haven’t quite put my finger on yet. Apologies for the iphone blurry pics!

Collaboration as a means to break open

My collaboration with my best friend last week opened up some of my resistance to finishing the paintings that were sitting not-quite-done on my studio table. Funny how just having fun with paint can remind me how much I love doing this and how I don’t have to look at a painting seriously, I can simply ‘keep going.’

As a result, I finished one painting this weekend, which I really like and I have a couple waiting to dry and then I’ll finish them up, too.

Yay for pushing through blocks to get to a painting that I truly enjoy.

12x12 Midnight Flutter

Collaborative artwork

Thursday last week, I kicked Ryan out of the house and told him to go do boy stuff (which meant he went to hang out with his buddies and caught the midnight showing of Man of Steel) so that my best friend and I could have some girly time.

contest, email blast...

Yesterday, I took a plunge in the direction I feel pulled to go.

I don’t only want to make art, I want that art on bags, change purses, calendars, tee-shirts, scarves, stickers, greeting cards, magnets, etc. In my limited understanding, to do so requires a publishing/licensing contract with a publishing company. And to get that, I need an agent.

New listings on etsy!

I added these large wood letters over the weekend. There's also a listing for custom-made letters, and individual letters that are already made.

Large wooden J 

Trip to Florida...

Whew. May was a whirlwind and I can't believe it's already June. Ryan and I were in Florida for the Memorial Day holiday and afterward.

It was lovely to relax and not worry about much of anything.