HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Not exactly a turkey with all the trimmings!  I drew this last night.  I love the circles in the burger patty.  Do you suppose the fast food places make ANY money on Thanksgiving?  Are they even open?  I guess I'm a purist, but I can't fathom eating a burger instead of turkey!

Happy Thanksgiving, my friends!  May you revel in God's kindness to you!

Flowers in Glass

Shame on me!!!  I found the reference pic for this painting in a magazine, which probably isn't the most ethical thing to do.  I tweaked it significantly, which speaks grace all over me.

The water bothers me.  The glass vase bothers me.  But I love the flower!!  And I love the background!

This is currently hanging in a friend's home, which is delightful.

A Day at the Beach

Living in  Colorado, beaches are a mite rare.

However, we do have a fantastic combination of sand, and dunes, and snow-capped mountains in the background!  A few years ago we went camping at the Great Sand Dunes, where we played in the sand, mucked about in the water (from the snow melt coming down from the nearby mountains), and generally had a great time.  That's where I got the reference pic for this painting.

I think we need to go back!

The Process

I thought I'd show you the process!!  It was great fun.  I started with a black canvas and just went to work.  The colors really pop against the black, don't they?  This is sort of backwards painting, because I painted all the light spots, and left the black canvas to show through on the dark spots.  My friend Lois taught me how to do it.  Thanks Lo!

Here's the finished product:

This is a commissioned piece, which means it leaves my house on Tuesday.  I may have to paint another one just to keep!

(the previous post was practice for this one.  You notice I HAD to get more blue sky in it.  After all, that's one of the things I love about  Colorado.  The skies are almost NEVER gray!)

Playing Around

So today, while I was waiting for some paint to dry, I decided NOT to live the cliche!  I was NOT going to give in to boredom!  So I got out another canvas and decided to play around.  And this was the result!  I love, love, love it!  Who knew a painting doesn't need a ton of planning, and preliminary sketches, and another photo shoot, and more sketches, and then some color sketches .... JUST PAINT ALREADY!!

From the Archives

I painted this almost a year ago, mostly just to play with some canvas sheets that I found in a pile of old art supplies.  I called it "I Will Fear No Evil."

Sometimes God asks us to do things that we find daunting, even frightening.  Perhaps impossible.  Maybe horrifying.  Somewhere, on the other side of that mess of brambles and thorns, there's something delightful.  Hope.  Peace.  Eternity.  It suddenly makes the mess of brambles bearable.

Psalm 121

This is really the best way to spend a Bronco's football game.  A little bit of lulling noise in the background, a few disrespectful comments from my hubby, and doodling away.  A lovely Sunday afternoon!

The whole psalm makes for great reading:

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;

From where shall my help come?

My help comes from the Lord,

Who made heaven and earth.

He will not allow your foot to slip;

He who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, He who keeps Israel

Will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper;

The Lord is your shade on your right hand.

The sun will not smite you by day,

Nor the moon by night.

The Lord will protect you from all evil;

He will keep your soul.

The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in

From this time forth and forever.

THE LORD WILL KEEP YOUR SOUL!  Good news.

What Have I Been Working On?

This is the initial sketch for a  painting I've been asked to do.  Imagine a brilliant blue sky, empty black aspen branches, and brilliant yellow leaves with a touch of red.  Today's the day I get to go buy the canvas, and then I get to start painting on Monday!

These two are rough sketches for a different client.  He wants images for his church that depict our reaching out to the world, our worship of God, and our service to others.  I'm still doing a lot of prep work on this project, which is why you don't see an image yet for our service to others!

Other Blogs

My friend Kelley has a blog.  It's delightful.  Simple, yet profound.  She weaves words together beautifully.  Just brief thoughts, with meaning that sticks with you for days.

Just today she used THIS DRAWING to illustrate her point.  And I feel well loved!  Go check it out...she's definitely worth the time. 

http://kelleyjleigh.wordpress.com/

SOLD!

Can you hear me taking a deep breath?  The month of October was consumed by all the preparations for the art sale, and now IT'S DONE.  And I'm sitting here believing that I have nothing to do (of course, that's not true....I'll move on to the rest of my life in just a little bit!).

The sale went far beyond all my expectations.  I've been thinking and thinking, trying to come up with the words to describe it, and so far, all I have is a list of how I FELT as the day progressed:

stunned

amazed

really honored

goose-bumpy

nervous

delighted

giddy

speechless

thankful

small

speechless again

very small

child-like

Thank you, everyone who clearly loves me.  You surprised me over and over again.  And God grew bigger.

Also, there's a story linked to the sale of this pencil sketch.  I have to ask the purchaser if we can share it.  I'll let you know.

FOR SALE!!

Yes, this original ink drawing is for sale!!!  Not long ago I told you about an art sale that I'm having with my artist friend Kristen Simons.  I SO, SO wish I had an image on my computer of her work to show you.  Instead you'll have to visit her etsy shop at www.etsy.com/shop/kristensimons to see her work.  OR, better yet, you can come to our sale!

This saturday (the 22nd), from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., 744 Blue Spruce Street in Woodland Park.

Lots of cool fine art prints, some nicely framed originals (like the one above), and a whole boat-load of greeting cards.  Oh!  And cookies!

On a side note, I called this drawing "Eight".  It seemed fitting, somehow.  I think it's one of my favorite ink drawings to date!

From the Archives

I painted this years ago...maybe 2003?  It's a quirky painting made up of an odd combination of ink (the black) and watercolor, with a small bit of cutting and pasting added in for good measure.  The biggest of the white spots were made using bubble wrap....although it's been awhile, and I'm not sure I remember all the details! Strange, but true!

It was really meant to be a fun project, and I don't know that I ever intended for it to hang on a wall.  But my mother seemed to love it, so it's now framed and hanging in her living room.   Mothers make for great cheer-leaders!!

Pikes Peak!

This was commissioned by a friend a really long time ago.  It took awhile to find the right reference picture...which is funny, considering I look at this mountain every single day!  Once we agreed on the pic, I fell off the ladder!  So this job was delayed repeatedly.

But now it's done!  We took it to the framer yesterday, and within the week it should be ready to hang on the wall.  To quote my sister-in-law, closure is good!

God, the Multiplier

I painted this for a friend a year ago.  She gave me the quote but gave me freedom over the image.  I wanted to paint the idea of God multiplying our small obediences.  My first thought was to paint a purple thistle.  You get just ONE of those that goes to seed, and the following year you'll have a yard-full!  And the thistle itself is pretty beautiful...all rich purple.  I even went for a drive and got a bunch of reference photos.

But as I was standing in front of my easel, I discovered that I couldn't bring myself to paint a weed for this friend!!  So I went hunting for a different idea, and landed on scrub oak instead.  They're magnificent in the fall, and they really can take over a hillside.

One step of obedience to God, and He goes to work and multiplies it.  I love the thought.