Day 14, New Beginnings!

Today was day 2 of an organizing class I am taking. It was all about accessing the mess, wow, there was a lot to access too. I think for most artists it is a constant struggle to make art and keep things organized. I find that my house often resembles a war zone before I go to a trade show. There is so much to do and no time to clean up after myself! I am hoping to get things better organized so I can be more productive. I am looking forward to starting the new year organized. So that is a new beginning of sorts and then there is Bryce. Bryce is my new grandson that is not here yet but is arriving the day after Thanksgiving! Our youngest daughter Melissa, is ready to pop! I always paint my grandkids murals for their rooms and this time Melissa is doing frogs. Today I did some preliminary sketches and tomorrow I will paint the murals on masonite and Randy will cut them out. This way they can be moved or removed when they are ready to change them out. I can also give them to someone else. Here are my sketches for the newest baby's room. I will post the finished paintings hopefully tomorrow!

 Trying to decide if I want the eyes on the top of the antenna or on the head, what do you think?

These are all really rough sketches but they are my create everyday challenge for day 14. I am so thankful for new beginnings and new grand babies!

Day 13, daily practice starts with a good breakfast

I love to start my day with my sketchbook and breakfast. I often eat outside since we are blessed with beautiful weather most of the year. I always have my sketchbook laying close by so that I can grab it when the whim hits me. I have been painting my breakfast, which is none too exciting. To make it more interesting I have painted it in different angles, different fruit, colors. To help change it up I added my shadows first then did the painting over them. I know many watercolor artists that paint this way, I usually don't but thought it would be fun to try. It was a great study in values thats for sure! Here is my Cheerios breakfast

My initial sketch

Added the shadows

Now adding some color

More color and details

Done! But I missed the two Cheerios on the top of the banana on the left!

Why don't you try this next time you paint in your sketchbook, it works in most paintings!

Day 12- Wonderful Watercolors are blooming in my Garden

Fall just screams out yellows and oranges and the cooler weather reminds us summer is over. During the heat of those long summer days my nasturtiums struggled along, blooming but not happy. Reminds me of myself sometimes, struggling to bloom when the heat is on! I could tell they were struggling, I nursed them through those hottest days to find them going crazy in this cooler weather? While other things are getting ready to go to sleep my Nasturtiums got a second wind and are blooming up a storm. I know once the frost hits they might be gone but for now I am loving the blooms which add so much color to salads, pasta and paintings! What is blooming in your garden right now? Thankful for Flowers

Original, signed Watercolor Available 

9"x7" so it will fit into an 8"x10" frame with mat.

Nasturtiums in Fall  $55

Day 10 & 11- Veterans Day, a tribute

I am doing both day 10 and 11 together, I was out of town and having fun! Today is Veterans Day, a day to honor all the veterans that fought to keep us free and safe. We are fortunate enough to live close to the Riverside National Cemetery where my father in law is buried.

 Sadly we lost him suddenly last year. He was so proud to be a marine and to have served his country. He was in WWII and Korea and left after 25 years of service.

My husband and his dad

I am working on a fiber piece that will have him in it and today I wanted to do a rubbing of his grave marker. It is my creative thing for today and I was amazed when we arrived at the cemetery to see all the flags and people. It made me cry, so sad to think that all these people, these brave soldiers are gone now. I will be excited to use this rubbing in my newest art quilt!

Day 9- Presents all around!

It's day 9 of the create everyday challenge and I am still going strong! As things turned out it was a day full of presents, presents for me, presents for my mom (it's her Birthday today) and a present for a friend! I love presents and we had decided to do retro birthday gifts for our next birthdays, I got mine today! Jean Nate, two CD's full of the the billboard top songs for the year, the Godfather movie, all stuff from when I was Sixteen! So much fun, and I just happened to have gotten her a book signed by Susan Branch since she was unable to go with me. Today we all had gifts to open, my mom enjoying all the cards and gifts sent her way, me and my retro birthday gifts and Dawns surprise book. 

So for my create challenge I took some of the brown craft wrapping paper that came as protective wrapping on some glassware and repurposed it to be wrapping paper for Dawns book. 

I am on an olive kick right now so I grabbed my Coptic markers and started by drawing some leaves and stems onto the paper.

Just laying out the basic shape and design, I started with an olive green pen.

Then added more color and olives.

Adding different greens to the leaves and more floating olives this time.

After getting all my colors layered in and I was happy with it I added white highlights with my favorite white Sakura pen. The paper was a bit crinkly from being used as protective wrap, I liked that fact and decided to make that more noticeable by distressing it with some distressing inks.

After the inks had dried it was time to wrap her book!

Almost done! Time for the bow!

All done and ready to surprise her with! notice how I used a plastic covered mat to work on to protect my table surface, the ink pens did bleed through so be careful! I still have 3 sheets of brown paper left. Anyone interested?

Thankful for friends and gifts!

Day 8- Thankful for fabric and art quilts! My Create today

Well, its day 8 and I am working on finishing up the hanging sleeve and label for one of my art quilts that I will be delivering Saturday for a show.  It is always those last little details, although important, that I seem to push off til the 11th hour. I can remember sewing a dress in Jr high class in Home Ec and not hemming it until the day we had to do our fashion show! Uggg, habits die hard.

"Old World Tiles" Done with pastels, painted wonder under, thread, netting , paint and ink.

Close up

A Gardener's Life is done in upholstery fabrics, hand painted fabrics, thread painting and appliqué.


I hope you get a chance to come down to the show and see all the amazing quilts in this exhibit!!

Day 7, Thankful for my Christmas Cards!

Every year I paint my Christmas cards, it has become a tradition of sorts for me. I love doing something unique that no one else has and send out a card that I have painted and designed. Some years they are fine art paintings and some years they are whimsical but they are always done with love! It is like sending a little gift to each person I mail too. By creating my own card I am able to add some photos and a paragraph about our little yearly vacation. I think the biggest challenge every year is to be able to settle in on a design, paint it, get it edited and off to the printer early enough so I have to start early. Today is that day, the day I finished up my Christmas cards of 2013! I was able to get them off in time to use a 40% off coupon too! Yeahhh for me!! Here is my Day 6 create everyday challenge piece!

I went a bit whimsical this year, using collage and paints and stamps and papers even buttons!

Day 6 and its my Anniversary! Thankful for my husband!

Hi GF's, its the end of day 6 and I am getting ready to go to dinner with my best friend of 33 years today. I will share a little about our relationship you may not know! He married me with three young babies to care for and surrendered his bachelorhood to help heal and build a new family. When Jennifer was hurt he never missed spending a day with her in the hospital, no matter how many hours he had already worked. He has never said anything mean to me or made me feel like a bad person, I wish I could say the same. He has the patience of Job and is always kind. I know, its hard to believe that after 33 years he is still that same sweet guy I fell in love with! I am blessed beyond words. Today we will take Jennifer with us to celebrate our special day and spend some quiet time alone later!

Besides he's just so good looking too!

I wanted to share a gift with all of you today, an ornament I designed for your tree. It would be a great felt only project also but I used white cotton for the base. I hope you like it, it is my creative thing for today. I wanted to give it to you early so you have time to make it before your tree is up! Enjoy

Click here for the downloadable PDF file! A early Christmas Present for you on my Anniversary!

Day 5 & 6 of Create Everyday!

I treated myself to a day away from home and the studio, by myself. I went to Pasadena to a book signing for Susan Branch whom I love. She reminds me of me in many ways, homespun, artist, good marriage etc. it was great to have the time to do something totally selfish. I then contacted an old friend who met me for dinner and we had a great time catching up! It's nice how with some people the time away seems to disappear and there is no awkwardness at all!  Only time for a 5 minute sketch but it counts for day 5 and I will post day 6 later today! What are you working on today!?
Day 5- Grateful for friends, girlfriends to be exact!

Join me as I try to Post everyday in November

I signed up for a November challenge, to create something everyday. It doesn't have to be a painting, it could be a poem, a thought but you have to post something you create daily. So, I am already behind but I will jump in now. Better late than never. I picked the last of my persimmons off the tree before we left for Houston, taking many with us to snack on during our trip. When I returned home none of the kids had snagged the last few so I decided to do a small painting of them before I eat them! Will you join me in the fun of creating something and posting everyday in November? Check out all the details here, http://creativeeveryday.com/art-every-day-month and join me!

Day 4- Thankful for the Harvest!

My SAQA piece is coming up for auction!

My 12"x12" quilt was selected to be displayed in Houston this year again. It is going up for auction Monday, check it out here. http://www.saqa.com/memberArt.php?ID=2471

It is hand painted on hand painted fabrics with some collage, one of my vintage girls!

Old World look, new world materials

I love trying to create a faux look. I guess it stems back to my faux finishing days where I would paint things to look like other things. For example, marble on walls, windows on solid surfaces(tromp loie). Something that tricks the eye or makes you take a second look. I have been working on this art quilt that looks like some of the actual stove backdrops I used to paint onto marble. Then they were grouted to the wall behind the stove as a decorative accent piece. I thought that it would be challenging to try and recreate that look in fabric. To attempt to take something that is so hard and transform it into fabric which is so soft but keep that old world, tile look. This quilt was just accepted into its first show!  I had fun using many different mediums and techniques to get the look, I think it works! I will  be teaching a smaller version in July 2014 in Fallbrook, CA.

Wall quilt, done with inks, pastels, shiva paint sticks, paint, thread, wonder under, netting

close up!

Getting ready for Market

Hi Girlfriends, It's been a flurry of activity here with my fabrics arrival, designing new quilt patterns and a Christmas card class! I am wrapping it all up now and feel like I am trying to get another cold! Uggg, hate that! I love the excitement before the show, the energy at the show and the relief after the show! LOL. I wanted to share some of my pictures from class and some pictures of my new patterns and fabric.

My newest Fabric Line, Monster Trucks

My new little Monster bag

with a zipper mouth!

16" Monster Placemats for your Lil Monster!

Fabric, fabric, and more fabric

My attempt at a backpack, phew, glad thats over, no pattern, its for Blake

Tire tread straps

Then on Saturday I had my Christmas Card class. Everyone did an amazing job painting their cards to order in time for Christmas

Our lunch table, Penny's ready!

Christa waiting to eat!!

Randy poured us all almond champagne!

I am still working and will post more later, have a wonderful Sunday.

Taking a short break with a friend

I have been rushing trying to get everything finished before the deadline, when a friend called me to escape for 24 hours. It is just what I needed, some new surroundings to give me a fresh perspective and a bit of a break from the studio.  We actually headed towards L.A. and stayed at her families home. We ordered out, stayed up late playing games and watching movies, took care of dogs and laughed most of the night. As I sat outside during dusk with a glass of wine and my sketchbook, I was watching out for one of the elderly dogs in our care during our overnight excursion, Gumby. He was named Gumby because he no longer had any teeth, he was also deaf,blind and toothless. I watched him as he just seemed to make his way around the backyard, almost like doing laps, slowly, methodically. He was shaky but seemed to not be bothered by the other dogs or objects getting in his way. Dogs just deal with life quietly, accepting the inevitable.

When I sketch dogs or animals that are on the move I often will photograph with my phone along with watching them in person. This way I can freeze different positions, analyze movements and hopefully better capture the animal. I usually start my sketch with pencil and then once I am happy with my lines I can either start to paint at that point or use my pen and redefine the line and then paint. I do it different depending on how I feel, either works. Try both and see which way your prefer. Here is my first outline sketch, done while Gumby was doing his laps.

Gumby has cataracts so his eyes were not overly clear, I used artistic license to improve his eye. I wish it were as easy in real life.  

Here he is, the owners really loved the sketch, so I cut it out of my sketch book and gave it too them. A gift for the gift they gave to this little dog of much love, care and attention his last few years here.