LOOKY! LOOKY!

This is what happens when you begin an ink drawing with a blue pen.  And the blue pen runs out of ink!!  AAAIIIGGGHHH!!  So, I finished it in black ink, and told myself it was time to visit the art supply store!  Such a shame!  (hahahah)

And THIS is what I got:

Whoo Hoo!!!  New Paper!!  And New Pens!!   Archival, waterproof ink....acid free paper....aaahhhhh.  Just makes me happy all over!

Spider Plant

Every once in awhile I have this overwhelming urge to try something different.  Which is where this piece came from.  I'd been doing watercolors almost exclusively and was BORED!  Time to play with some pastels!

So, I pulled out some craft paper...I have this huge roll of it on a metal rack, complete with cutting edge, that belonged to my grandfather.  It's not meant for fine art.  Really.  But I was just playing around, and it provided an interesting background color.  I think I like it.  Except the paper is all roughed up and pilling in spots, so it's not even close to frame-worthy!  If I want to pursue using pastels, I'll have to buy some real paper and ditch grandpa's big  brown roll!

Radish & Onion Mix

For those of you who know my hubby and I well, you know that we don't eat onions.  EVER.  Can I say that any louder?  WE DON'T EAT ONIONS!!  They give my hubby migraines, and I've gotten used to never having them in the house.

So you can imagine his consternation when I came home from the grocery store with a big ol' bundle of spring onions!  And radishes to boot (they're almost as taboo)!

"But Sweetie", I said, "they'll make a FANTASTIC PAINTING!"  And they did!  I have to admit to you that this whole pile of veggies went in the trash as soon as I was done painting them.  Sorry.

My favorite part is the reflection on the knife blade.  I think that was another happy accident.  The strings on the onions and radishes got masked first with masking fluid, that's how they stayed white.  This painting is hanging in my sister's kitchen.

On a side note, this post probably makes my North Carolina cousin Dave cringe.  He writes the blog "Another Day in Paradise with Dave and Lisa" in my sidebar, and there are frequent references to onions.  Sorry Dave.

Carie's Screen Door

Who knew a screen door could be considered a canvas?  I have a delightful friend who had this OOOOLLLD screen door that she was reclaiming, and she decided that she wanted something painted on it.  Was I interested?

WAS I INTERESTED?!  ARE YOU KIDDING?!  Of COURSE I was interested!

House paint would never last on a door that gets a lot of traffic (and trust me....this lady's house gets a LOT of traffic!), so I used this paint called "One Shot".  It's TOUGH.  It hardens like fingernail polish.  FAST.  So I had to work quickly, or it got sticky and was impossible to move.

Just looking at it makes me happy.  What a fantastic job this was!

AAAHHHH.....Spring!

 

SPRING IS HERE!  Well, according to the calendar, it is.  And it doesn't really matter what the weather is doing...in years past we've had blizzards on the first day of spring.  Just seeing the words on March 20th that say "Spring Begins" fills me with joy.  Even though the ground will be rock hard for at LEAST another month, I have hope!

This is a tiny watercolor I painted about a year and a half ago.  Wobbly poppy stems make me happy, for some reason.

"Bounty"

I painted this about a year ago.  I always struggle with knowing how much of the reference pic to include in a painting.  There was the person's body in the background, along with some other "clutter", and I didn't like any of it!  So I "wung it"....surely that's a real phrase in the English language?  Love the basket and the glove.

My dad built a frame for this and it's hanging in my dining room.

Finished!

I'm done!  I pondered filling the background with...something...but then decided that it would compete with the wire cage, so I left it.  The guy's belt is cracking me up.  Along with his torn tail covering.  Perhaps he thinks he's a tough guy?

In Process

After doing pages and pages of inked drawings on tiny paper in a cheap Moleskine knock-off, I'm trying to be brave.  This is much nicer paper, so smooth, so stiff.  And it's much bigger (I think it's 12" x 12"?).  And because it's nicer and bigger, for some reason it seems more important.  And for some reason it will be a huge let-down if I choke!

I'm combining two reference pics here.  I was in NC last year and took this pic off of my cousin's deck.  They're delightful blue-birds.  I'm probably not even half way done.  There's still a background to add.  I'll post another pic when I'm done.

On a side note, for all of you out there that bother to read my meanderings: thank you.  Really, thank you.  It's been a little surprising the interest you all show, and your comments are always surprising and so kind to me.  THANK YOU.

What makes a Weed a Weed?

Somewhere along the line someone decided that a dandelion was a weed.  Maybe because they're so prolific?  Although Johnny-Jump-Ups spread just as easily, and I don't think anyone has placed them in the lawn-pest catagory.  I think perhaps the dandelion is getting a bad rap.  When you get down close and really look at them, they're quite stunning!  And a broad field full of them, all in bloom, is truly beautiful.

These are an odd orange variety that I ran across last summer.  Of course, you can't tell that in a blue ink drawing!  Someday I may be brave enough to try to ink some dandelions going to seed.  Now THAT would be a challenge!

Spring Cleaning

It's only spring in my head.  So no REAL spring cleaning yet.  There's still plenty of OOOOLLLDDD snow in the yard, and the dogs do a remarkable job of finding the mud and tracking it in.  So I sweep on  paper instead.

"I AM the True Vine"

The last one in the set!  This whole set was an amazing confidence booster for me.  I really didn't believe I could do it.  And sometimes I'm still stunned that I did!  I know this is a little out of context, but I love this verse in 2 Corinthians:

"Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God."

That's my ability to paint, all wrapped up in one sentence.

"I AM the Door"

 

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this one!  It was not without it's serious angst, though!  I think I painted it....hated it....and painted it all over again.  The lighting on the spruce tree was a beautiful surprise to me.  I was trying to put in some definition, but standing so close to the canvas, using not much color variation.... I really had no idea how it was turning out!  It wasn't until I was finished and standing way back that I realized that I really liked it!

My favorite part of this?  The shadows across the snow.  I love it when God enables me to copy Him.  It's a specific kindness from Him to me.

"I AM the Light of the World"

 

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't seem to get a straight  picture of this one!  The lettering really is level, honest.

I love this one.  I'm still not sure how I got that jagged edge on the leaf, and I have no idea how I mixed the background color!  Again, the kindness of my creative God!

"I AM the Resurrection and the Life"

 

I was thinking of the Hayman Fire when I painted this one.  It was a ginormous fire that blew through just north of town several years ago.  Even now, the hills are scarred and generally grey.  Every spring, though, there's fresh growth.  It's a stunning reminder of how God brings life out of death.

" I AM the Good Shepherd"

This is my least favorite of the whole set, but I've heard from people that it's their favorite!  Go figure!  I won't tell you what I hate about it, in case you're one of those who like.  No need to rain on your parade!

"I AM the Way and the Truth and the Life"

 

I love that I don't know where this path goes.  I think the painting needed to express that...that we need to rest in the fact that our Savior is trustworthy.  We don't have to know all the details of tomorrow.  Really, we don't.  He is TRUSTWORTHY.

"I AM the Bread of Life"

 

In 2008 I did a set of canvases for our church based on the "I AM" statements that Jesus made.  They all have an aspen tree theme (fitting for the mountains of Colorado).  I used a spray gun and my hubby's air compressor to paint them.  The lettering was done by hand.  The canvases cover some sort of sound-absorbing panels that are on the sanctuary walls, so they have to be changed out in between Sundays, which means that I painted these in a week.  At the time, the gym at the church wasn't used very much, so I spread out in there with lots of tarps.  I had help with the lettering, or I wouldn't have gotten them done!

Funny story:  the spray gun that I use has a tiny filter in it, about the size of the end of your pinky.  When I switch colors I have to wash out the whole she-bang.  There was one time when I wasn't careful enough, and the filter went wooshing down the drain!  Aaaiiiggh!!  There was a man who I hardly knew in the church that day (he has since become our youth pastor!), who went to great lengths trying to find my filter in the pipes under the sink, but to no avail.  I ended up going to our local auto parts store to buy a new spray gun.  It came with TWO filters, so now I have two complete guns, which makes switching colors a whole lot easier!

When we took the canvases down early in 2010, I rolled them and stored them, thinking we could re-use them at a later date.  The problem is, in order to keep costs down, I use house paint, which is not very flexible.  When I went back to look at them a few months ago, the paint was completely cracked.  So these canvases have gone to the DUMP!

There were 7 total, so I'll post them for the next 7 days.  This one was one of my favorites.

BRAND NEW!

I  just finished this guy.  I decided that he needed herringbone socks and a checkered apron.  Actually, I did the checkerboard, and decided after the fact that it looked like an apron.  "Happy  Accident!"  I got the reference pic while visiting Indonesia.  Who knew you had to travel half way around the world to get a good reference shot of a rooster?

Spring Fever

It's been DELIGHTFULLY WARM for several days now.  And the trees are beginning to smell wonderful (not from flowers, just from warm bark).  And the birds have been singing.  And there are pools of water all over from the melting snow.  And it's all giving me spring fever.

Here's the problem.  It's only March, which is generally the snowiest month for Colorado!  The birds will go back into hiding.  All those puddles of water will turn into sheets of ice.  The thermometer will go back to living below 10 degrees.  And I'm going to have to figure out how to hang on for AT LEAST two more months!

Ah well.  Spring WILL come.  God promised.  I drew this last year while I was waiting.  I can wait again.

Last Night's Doodle

It dawned on me that some people find this freaky.  My hubby is one of them.  I showed this to him when I finished it and he looked at me strangely and shook his head.  I don't think I can explain how enjoyable it is!   The others go pretty quickly, but this one took well over an hour.  Sort of wondering about adding color...