reluctant sainthood

Painting can be hard work sometimes.  I have done this small portrait in watercolor and I cannot leave it alone.  I keep working into it, loosing what ever freshness it had, but  I so want to develop this into something more.  It isn’t often I get an idea for a painting and I really would like to have it come to fruition.  I envision it full of imagery, detail and gold leaf.  I wanted to get this study  right but I think I will have to do another study for further improvement.  I still see so much wrong with this one but it has been manipulated enough.

This woman is my grandmother holding her fifth child who died in infancy.  I think the picture was taken with her knowledge that her baby was not healthy.  The story is so sad, I cried twice while painting this 7″x10″ watercolor.  I have turned them into a madonna and child complete with an icon halo that so often appears upon those we love who have died.  Most of these adored (at least in my family, I am sure), would not want to be on a pedestal, but there they sit in perceived perfection through my lifetime and, if I have done my story-telling well, maybe through my children’s.  ( I should think some of it got through to them!) I really didn’t know this grandmother well, (she was in her 70′s when I was born) and I have to wonder if she would be flattered or think it was foolishness that I use her image so often and freely.  I rather believe she would think I should be better off cleaning my house!

painting for rest and relaxation

The busy-ness of Christmas is over (for the most part) and after napping yesterday, I played with a watercolor paint brush my husband gave me for Christmas.  I could have bought a dress for what he paid for this brush but so far I love it!  It holds a lot of paint and still gives a fine line.  A painting teacher once told me to buy the best supplies you can, they make a difference in how good your painting will be.  I do believe she was right and I am not sending my brush back, but I sure could use some new clothes!

Here is a watercolor (8″x8″) I painted last night.  I purposefully skewed the perspective for interest but I’m thinking I should have skewed it more!  Now to see if, with time, my new brush will make me a better painter!

and here is my brush!

Merry Christmas and May God Bless Us, Every One!

Do you wonder why the partridge was in the pear tree?  I think it was because he felt a certain kinship with the pear seeing as they are both pear shaped!

Making Merry Miscellany

I do declare, this may be the longest I have neglected my little blog here.  It is December and same excuse as in previous years.  I have two offspring whose birthdays are in December and that along with duties and prep for that birthday we celebrate in less than a week now, have kept me out of the studio creating…  If truth be told, I have done lots of little, relatively creative stuff like getting my husband to cut, drill and sand segments of yardsticks (I painted them all red because I didn’t have 27 vintage yardsticks) to make these yardstick stars  (based on these vintage stars) with my kids at church.

I’ve been painting super heros for a young boy’s room.  (no picture to show of that…)

I stitched up one Christmas card to send to a college friend of my husband’s (she sends the most wonderful hand cut cards each year with the stipulation she gets a handmade card back.  I don’t want to be crossed off her list!)  I love getting Christmas cards but when you don’t send them out, you don’t get many in return.  Anyone else notice that?  Cards have been low on my priority list for the last few Christmases, maybe if I start in August next year (and sell a painting to pay for postage!) I can send out the 60 to 70 cards to people who should be getting them.

And… I was so excited to find these little celebrating snowmen based on a picture in a Martha Stewart Living magazine from several years ago.  These guys have been hiding out in my attic despite all my best efforts to find them (or urging my husband to find them…) for the last 3 or 4 years!  They were made from covering styrofoam balls with paper clay and painting them iridescent white.  I put them on a painted wooden block and if the wind doesn’t blow much, they stand upright looking like Macy’s Parade Floats!  Love them!

Sorry for the blurry photos, but they are my specialty.  I hope your merry making thus far has actually been merry!

paper snow

I had  a lot of fun yesterday creating paper snowflakes with 6 of my most creative friends!  Wouldn’t these look fabulous dangling from fresh greenery?  It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

If you want to make snowflakes, google paper snowflakes and search images.  There are several bloggers out there who have instructions.  If you can’t find one, let me know.  I’ll show you how!