Progress on the painting from the previous post.

Did I ever tell you I love patchwork? Crazy quilts, the quilts of Gee's Bend., Denise Schmidt quilts. I don't quilt. I hope to learn one day. For now I play with paper quilts.

Happy Memorial Day to all who celebrate. We are going strawberry picking and to a picnic. I am heading to a flea market. We are eating lots of watermelon, making fresh lemonade and wearing flip flops. I love this unofficial start to summer! 

Works in progress

 Sketchbook page, watercolor and pencil

Do you ever have so many ideas that you wish you could connect a printer to your brain? I do. It isn't always that way and I guess it occurs in a creative high. I watched this 20 minute video on fostering creativity from
Maegan Beishline she talks about managing your creative cycle. The highs and lows we all go through and ways to keep the lows from going so low. She is super sweet!

A painting I am working on based on the above sketchbook page. I am not sure where I am going to go with it.

Another painting in progress. Changing a bit.

Trying to take my 3D paper flower wreaths into a 2D collage. Also, some cut paper collages in progress.

The 2D flowers up close.

Letting the light shine through.

My Creative Space

I am joining in the fun over on kootoyoo
with my creative space. Here is my beginnings of my acrylic painting. It feels a bit unsettling to share this and I debated over it. But here it is. It was a great way to end the day yesterday. I relaxed, played, and was free with the paint. I can't wait to go back to work on it!

I hope you will consider joining in the fun of My Creative Space and check out all of the links of all of the other creative spaces.

xo,
dana

Stretching

All of my supplies I need to start stretching the canvas and painting have arrived!
My husband is going to pick up my easel from my parents house this weekend. I may just end up using a table top one. It may be easier. Today I asked my mom for some of my first acrylic paintings from high school. They were pretty neat to see after all of these years. I will share them soon.





Before the storm I borrowed a few books from the library on painting. I have been practicing techniques in my art book. I will share those soon too.


I am really, really loving the art created by Line Juhl Hansen. I love her blog and her new site. Her studio and home were recently featured on Decor8. Truly lovely and inspiring!! Here is the link to the Decor8 piece. Please check it out and tell me how much you would love to create in that space??

And talented artist Louise Gale is having a solo show that opens tonight in NYC at the Klimat showing her new art series, Grey life or Green life? Check this blog post to read more and see her video she made while creating one of her favorite pieces from the show! It is a great video and a great piece of art.

Sketchbook

I have been working with my inspiration boards and also a big, beautiful flowers of the world book and creating sketches. I have also done some paintings but I am still waiting... waiting to do one I really LOVE and want to share up close. I really like the looseness of the sketches but it seems when I go for the painting the looseness gets lost in translation. We took down our tree and put away all of the Christmas decorations. It feels good to get a fresh start.

Swimming in a sea of flowers

I have a large custom order I have been working on. Two 30" wreaths. Flowers, flowers everywhere. This has been a learning process for sure. Ups and downs to it which I won't go into here. I think they will come out very pretty and festive and I hope the customer is pleased. I just wanted to say "hi" and I hope you are having a great weekend.

Some fun things we did/are doing this weekend:
*Took the kids to a puppet show. Based on the book Caps for Sale. They loved it!

*Making/eating gucamole, wish I was going to have a margarita with it. :)

*I don't have a love for cooking/baking but I do enjoy doing it with the kids. We make a pizza and calzone at least once a week. After I broke our cheap pizza wheel I just ordered this one.
It is supposed to be wonderful.

*And I ordered The Artists Guide. Since it is due in a few days and there is no way I will be done.

* Also, I read this post on treasuring by Jessica Gonacha Swift. Here is a bit about it:
Spring is a collaborative project that has a single, overarching theme: inspiration. Through videos, blog posts, and the website itself, Spring is opening an insightful dialogue that focuses on helping you design a life you love.
Here is the link if you want to read more.

This week flew by. I have been mostly using all of my creative energy to make a Thomas the Tank Engine Halloween costume for my son. I will post a pic when it is done. I have started an inspiration board with a Winter theme. The above pics are from the start of it. The paper cutting is fun. My lines aren't so smooth but it is ridiculously tiny. I have lost some of the pine needles in the process. I am getting very excited for the winter and the approaching holidays. My kids are getting a tiny bit older and we are looking forward to sleigh riding, ice skating, cookie baking and gift giving.

I had hoped to have a Fall color story to show but I just haven't done it. I do have to say that the fall weather has been so great here in NY. We have been going to the playground every day (except the past two days). The trees and mountains are just seeming to be so much more vibrant to me this year. Just beautiful. We have been raking up leaves and my kids have been jumping in big piles and having a blast. So I hope to have a beautiful color story to reflect all of the natural beauty I am surrounded with. So grateful for it all!!

I hope you are having a joyful and creative weekend wherever you are!

Please bear with me while I try things out. I am playing. Playing with fabrics, paint, paper, stitching. I have playing with the blog. Trying to learn. I haven't had much time devoted to this playing. Sometimes I get frustrated because I feel like I want/need more time and I don't have it. Sometimes I feel lonely. Not lonely for other people. I am surrounded by someone all the time. What I am missing some days is me. So I won't dwell on it. I will take it day by day. I stopped by my local library yesterday, they have a gallery space. I picked up an application. Am I ready for an exhibit? Not even close. But I will be someday.
I made the above box frame per instructions on Maya's blog. Here is the post. Mine isn't as large. I only had a cereal box to use. I want to try and make more out of larger boxes. The art from school has been piling up. I love the way the pumpkin looks with the brown of the box. Thanks Maya for this great project.

I hope this week has been a great one for you.

Working on this

Worked a little on my painting. The small scrap on top is just the piece I practiced on before starting.

Some things

Today my husband took my son out, my daughter took a nap for 2 hrs and I did this. Organized my paper. I have been cleaning, storing, rearranging things around here the past couple of days. It feels so good to get rid of things that are no longer right for you. I started an inspiration board as well. Clearing space for new things to arrive.
On another note. If you aren't already familiar with Marisa from Creative Thursday you need to run there right now! ( And then come back here of course :) ) She is a very talented artist who is teaching an e-course that starts this September and I REALLY want to sign up so I hope the money fairy shows up and I can. :) She has wonderful podcasts and a great blog. She is super kind and very supportive. So I may just take the plunge and sign up.
And this little quote I found on a walk through my village a few weeks back when they were having an art exhibit in some store fronts. Love it! I hope you are all having a great weekend!

Working on this week..

This week I am working on a new wreath in fall colors for a friend who has a birthday coming up. I am trying something new with my flowers. I made some templates and traced them onto watercolor paper and painted them in. I also did some book page flowers as well. I am thinking of doing some kraft paper flowers as well. The bottom pic has a small painting I am working on that I was going to give as well. I would love to see what you are working on. Leave a comment with a link if you are working on anything this week.