Me, Owww...

There are some times in your life where you just feel like being snarky.... but you still want to look cute doing it. Meow.

What Does A Deer Dream Of?

I had this idea to create a painting featuring a deer girl character and needed something to fill the open area over her shoulder. I put out a Facebook poll and got lots of fun answers like: clover, butterflies, romping in the sun, ancient elk, bejewling their antlers, several eating-the-flowers-in-my-garden references, and few deer-hunts-people suggestions, including a twist on the old "Hunters Stew"! But in the end, I decided that my cloven-hoofed girl was dreaming about a pair of pink Mary Jane pumps. Sometimes we want what we cannot have!

I began by creating a two-toned sky using a funky number stencil. I figured she'd be dreaming about numerous pairs of fun shoes.

I created the impression of flowers, grass (and clover) by using layers and layers and layers of all shades of green paint, applied with foam stamps from Claudine Hellmuth's Studio collection (my all-time favorites!).

Then I transferred my image onto the completed background. I confess that many times I'm still not brave enough to draw directly on the canvas. I don't want to mess it up! This method suits me just fine though, and now I have a template to create lots and lots of deer, dreaming of lots and lots of other stuff.

A layer of white insures that whatever cheap acrylics I paint over top will keep their color integrity without a lot of wrestling with tons and tons of layers.

The faces always intimidate me and I end up working on them somewhere in the middle of my painting process. She was the first girl I did in this style with her eyes closed and it really came out very dreamy looking. Hooray!

My favorite shoes are Mary Jane's and they make an interesting-looking illustration as well. Making them obnoxiously pink... well, I couldn't resist!

A few swirls of pink in the flowers to pull it all together and a few dots of white on her body to create more texture and the painting is complete. I'm totally in love with her. And hey... if I were a cloven-hoof girl, I'd be dreaming of high heel shoes too. And maybe a few bucks. Oh, deer!

Art To Die For...

This past weekend was the Zombie Walk in Asbury Park... which inspired me to break out of my cute girl mold and paint something creepy and gorey. Yay! I mean.... Grrrrrrrrr.

Asbury's annual event brings thousands of walking dead to the city by the sea, and this year there were more than ever! In fact, they won back their Guinness Book of World Records title with 9,592 walking dead!

There was no lack of inspiration for my own zombie girl. Yikes! These dead are pretty scary!

So for my creepy creation, I started with some coffee stained kraft paper as my base and loved the splotchy-ness of it so much, that I decided to keep that as the background. For the day of the event, Asbury Park becomes Zombie Park and so I had to incorporate that into my piece. And an underlay of some Frankenstein green was the perfect beginning.

Working from dark to light, I wanted to really make the girl and the words pop off the drab background. I think she's actually starting to glow!

One of my favorite parts of this piece is the legs in chains as the A in PARK. I'd love to say that I am just that creative and this was totally planned, but it was a happy accident. As I was placing my original sketches over the words, I realized that the girl's legs fell right where the A was. So I added the chains to complete the hint of the letter A. Love it when that happens!

I have to admit that adding the blood was super fun! I watered down the ugliest, darkest red paint I had, blobbed it on the canvas, and then tilted it slightly to make all the wonderful drips!

Channeling the perfect zombie patina was a challenge that I really enjoyed. A deep dark mossy green, lots of blues and teals, a little pistachio and a touch of gray. And the illusion was complete!

Thanks to "Zombie Park" I have a brand new piece of art... which will actually be for sale in a gallery in Asbury this month. But now that I'm finished I feel a little hungry. Hmmmm.... what do I want to eat? Oh, I know... More brains!

Patch It Up...

Not too long ago, I got Lilla Rogers' book I Just Like To Make Things. In it, she had a few creativity exercises, and I fell in love with this patchwork looking one! She had us pick several of our favorite colors and then fill in the squares with them. I was so ecstatic with the results, I wanted to use the idea in a real painting.

So I divided a 16"x20" wood panel into 4"x4" squares and went to town. I wanted to keep the colors a bit more muted, so that whatever (or whoever) I painted over top would stand out.

I used the same techniques from my last painting... only this time I used my dominant hand (Spoiler Alert! I actually liked the left handed one better!) But the very dry brush strokes and multiple layers still came through and I love all the scritchy-scratchy detail that produces.

I decided to make her dress black so that it would pop over the pastel background. It worked!

And I ended up giving her a black mouse-eared hat just to balance things out. Of course once I made the hat, it felt like too much black.... and so I emblazoned it with my own little pink mouseketeer logo to create some visual distraction.

Typically when I think I'm done, I'll prop my painting up on the living room couch — opposite where I sit to watch TV. I'll glance over at it every once in awhile to see what I like and what I don't. So after staring at it for hours, I went back and added some shadows, and lightened some areas too. It was still a little scary as the Recovering Perfectionist in me didn't want to mess it up.

But the longer I stared at it, the more I saw things I wanted to change. So if it's a choice between leaving it as is (and not being happy), or trying something else to improve it (even if I don't like it)... why not just continue to improve it? And even though she's done... I still see things I'm going to change... and I'm not scared to do it!

Talk about patching things up!

Fishing With Love...

When you are fishing with love... you can catch whatever you wish! And so catching a few hours of paint time this weekend was exactly what I was fishing for. After all, if I don't love myself enough to let myself play every once in awhile... who will? So I gave my permission!

I couldn't wait to get started! I had these oddly rectangular canvasses for awhile and wanted to do something interesting with them. A whimsical fisher-girl seemed like just the right subject for this substrate. I began with a bluish-greenish monochromatic palette and let it fade into the background, so the girl and fish would stand out!

I'm not sure why I made her eyes so big! They looked a little more proportional in the sketch... but I went with it... chalking it up to a bit of whimsy. Whimsy never hurt anyone!

The pops of color were exactly what I was looking for, and the fish turned out even sweeter than I thought he would. I must confess though... that I drew him on a separate piece of tracing paper until I liked him. This little goldfishie is the 3rd iteration of my original attempt, and a sweetly creative expression of exactly what I was fishing for (with love)! You see... I'm trying to discover my own personal style. And like any good fisherwoman...patience and perseverence is what I need!

Soul Inspiration...

There are so many different ways I love to go about making a new piece of art... but serendipity is one of my favorite creative "tools". In life, there seem to be so many unexpected things that pop up... needing more effort, requiring more resources, and expending more energy to complete... just to accomplish your original goal. But with art, I don't mind working with what I have and seeing where it takes me. It's an escape of sorts. And this escape took me to the circus!

My freeform background started with some collage elements, covering up with white paint... but letting a few of my favorite ephemera peek through. Top it off with an obnoxiously bright neon palette of yellow, pink and orange... and we're on our way. I had no idea where it would go, but the CIRCUS — a remnant of an old ticket — was begging to be turned into a striped tent. And so it began.

The little pierrot was actually from an alphabet book, and was in a garden of tomatoes. But I turned them into juggling and balancing balls to stick with the theme. In my dreams I actually thought of creating a balloon around SOUL InSPiraTioN text...

And a circus girl dressed like a bear was the perfect compliment to the entire piece. I gave her orange hair to pull the nice, bright orange through the scene visually... and then added some clouds as an afterthought. I loved how the neon colors peeked through the sky like an early evening sunset just beginning. I just chalk it all up to my soul's inspiration.

Having a Blast (Off)!

So, I'm having a blast with the lastest online workshop I'm taking! Appropriately named Paint Happy, Micki Wilde's tutorials have helped me fine tune my girls' faces, as well as think up new story lines and fun things to paint.

I started an idea journal as suggested and I just loving having all my thoughts in one place. If you are anything like me, prior to this you may have had 3 or 4 different journals, notebooks and pads with innumerable ideas written in them... and located in random spots around the house and studio!

One of the very first ideas I came up with was a Rocket Girl who had just landed on the Moon. I wrote it in my journal, but that simply wasn't enough. She kept tugging at me to bring her to life. And so, in-between housework, cooking, and errands, she appeared practically out of nowhere! I was so obsessed that I didn't even take the time to photograph my progress! More like possessed!

And I was very pleased with the results! After months of going crazy with colors and mark-making for my backgrounds — and the exciting anticipation of not knowing how my girls would end up — it was nice to actually think out a story line and a color palette ahead of time. I love that I enjoy both methods, and know which one suits my ever-changing moods. For now, I'm going minimal. And loving it!

Rocket Girl... over and out... (for now).

Prints Now Available...

Well, I finally photographed a bunch of my original whimsically weird art and had prints made, which are now available in a special section of my Etsy Shop! Seeing them all together was quite exciting and I plan to be painting more and more as the Fall season turns to Winter. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed painting them. Happy browsing!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Yup! Today is my 44th birthday. I certainly don't feel that age. I still wear Goody barrettes in my hair and shop in the Junior department. I still make rag dolls and sand castles. I even play with toys and sometimes with boys (if they're not too icky). So I'm definitely a kid at heart.

But another year under my belt... sheesh! Where does the time go? So much I'd like to do and so little time. Mom was right... it does go faster once you get older. I guess I'll just take life one day at a time until it adds up to 45.

So let's see what wonderfully creative things I can accomplish in this upcoming year. Let's see how many interesting adventures might come my way... and what marvelous opportunities are out there for me to discover. I can't wait!

Cheers!

Got To Get Back To The Land... And Set My Soul Free...

We are stardust... we are golden... we are billion year old carbon... and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden...

Moving from one dolly to another... I spent some time recently playing with an oversized 1ft. x 2ft. Suzi Blu-inspired Petite Doll on wood. I traced the outline with a woodburning tool (love the smell of burning wood!). Then I painted the entire piece with layers and layers of acrylic paints... created texture with stencils... Stickles for bling... rub-ons, fabric, buttons and such.

I really loved the larger format and definitely will create more like this in the future. After some other stuff that's in the works! You know me... something different all the time. Wheeeeeeeee.....