Art and Life

No pictures to post tonight...I am working on 5 small ones all at the same time, but tonight life needs to be tended to...I must compose a letter to our son who is making many, many, MANY bad choices...so if you read this and you are a praying person, please lift him up. So, here I am, in my easy chair with my lap top - "Under the Tuscan Sky" is on - I love this movie and I have watched it so many times that is won't be a distraction while I write.....well, not much of a distraction....mmmmm, ok, here's a comercial - no distraction here!!! Not sure that's what the advertisers had in mind though!

The Fruit of the Spirit is - Faithfulness

Another one in the "Fruit of the Spirit" series...Home is the best living illustration of constant love and faithfulness that I know of - thus a little treehouse for ... butterflies? Fairies? Birds? Or perhaps a highly imaginative symbol of your own home?!

I didn't start out painting a night-time scene...but with the deep blue and the circular strokes I used to put in some white, the background sort of shaped up like a moonlit night...I did an antique glaze over this one, too, still didn't like it, and realized that a guardian angel would fit in nicely behind the tree. I used a light wash for the wings. Her hair was black, but my little girl thought it looked too mean, so I added white streaks which my little girl really liked, and she really liked that it made the angel look holy and fierce.

I just noticed...the leaves are sort of heart shaped too! That will tie in nicely with the hearts in the robin picture for patience!

Patience is complete!!

Here is the final rendition of Mrs. Robin and the Fruit of the Spirit of "Patience". I think I will do a "mini tutorial" on the process of how I did this piece, and incorporate all the good feedback and help I got from feedback to help others through this...maybe after the holiday weekend!!

I got out some of my mixed media pieces I did last year (on discarded flooring tiles) and I can really see how I have grown...I can barely believe it myself!!! And tonight, in the midst of getting ready for the Artfest in Weatherford tomorrow (oops, I mean later this morning - Yikes!!!) I worked on these older pieces, giving them a little more "mix" - and viola - I have four more pieces to take with me!!!

heARTfilled blessings!

Patience revised - "Please be patient" - LOL

you can go to my flicker page here to review the suggestions I received on what might help my piece (shown again on the left). The piece on the right is how it looks after some more revising...what do you think now? It is amazing to see the difference in viewing them side by side!

The Fruit of the Spirit is - Patience

I would like some feedback on this piece - it is the mixed media piece that I needed that feather stamp for...

Maybe it is just because it isn't a face - I just am not satisfied with it, but can't put my proverbial finger on the reason why it doesn't seem right...

What do you think?

How many times do you have to try???????

Here is the answer; 30!!! But then you end up using one of the first four that you did! That is how many times I stamped this little feather stamp before I got one or two that I thought would work for the current mixed media piece...and I had to resort to doing that because the stamp just didn't like the texture on the canvas and REFUSED to imprint any semblance to a feather! Here are some of my other tries....




They are a little messy in places, but I think I can salvage a few more for other projects!!

Another input into the Fruit of the Spirit series

This one is self-control. She started out with a white dress, but with her auburn hair it just didn't look right. Also, she has gold metallic highlights around her halo and the collar of her dress. All of these paintings are on 5" x 5" gallery wrapped canvasses. I am hoping they work together as an entire installation when I am finished. Actually, I only have two more to go, and finishing touches on the rest!

Kindness - love showing itself sensitive to others

Just a little something for mother's day - another finished piece for my Fruit of the Spirit series...

My Big Find of the Weekend!!!!!

Here is just one picture of the wonderful book I discovered - and immediately bought! - this past weekend...an illuminated work of the entire book of Psalms from before 1910...almost 100 years old!! Honestly, I could have shown you any page in the book and it would have been wonderful! I am looking forward to using this for some of my daily quiet times, reading through it one Psalm at a time, being inspired every second!!!!

A wonderful post on copyright issues!

Oh, I have been swamped with homeschool activities and all the general "well" check-ups for my 8 year old these last couple of days, but I wanted to share with you this great post on copyright issues and art...it is just good information for EVERYONE to know!!! It is at http://lisacole690.blogspot.com/2009/05/copyright-stuff-or-much-ado-about.html - copy and past into your browser, or just click on the title of this post and that will take you right to it. Lisa has a great blog, too.

I can't wait to get to my scanner so I can show you all the great finds from the weekend - a trip to the local Half-Price Bookstore to find sheet music to use in mixed media resulted in "THE JACKPOT"! I'll show you soon!

heARTfilled blessings!

Butterfly peace!

Next installment in "The Fruit of the Spirit" (not necessarily in order!!)

The inspiration came from an old devotional in which the author was developing the list of the fruits of the Holy Spirit as different characteristics/facets of love (since the word "fruit" is used in its singular sense!)

Thus, peace is what you call love when it is at rest...I love the word play here and in all of the remaining fruit!

heARTfilled blessings!

The Fruit of the Spirit is - Love

Here she is, finished! Let me know what you think! She is the first in a series of 9, based on the Fruit of the Spirit...not every "fruit" is represented by an angel....hmmmm, maybe that is what I will do next!

Art and Life

It has taken me some time to decide how I wanted to organize my "blog world". Questions about what to post, how to be relevant and yet true to myself, should I keep it study oriented (I REALLY LOVE the study of the Bible), and even the question of "do I want to blog?" have meandered through my mind as I have dug deep into my creative side this year! Somehow, this week, it finally "clicked" on how to do it - before I was compartmentalizing each aspect of my life - now, somehow, I have integrated my life and my artsy side...thus the title!

I really enjoyed my online faces class that I took with Paulette Insall! Tonight I finished the first canvas of a little series I am doing on the fruits of the Spirit...if I can ever get my computer to upload the sketch, you can see that first, then after the painting dries I'll show that to you, too!!

Hey, I did it! The sketch got a little wet somehow - so there is some smeary shading on the chin...but no big deal...see you tomorrow!