Seashell...Sheshell...Sheasell...

Several years ago we were practically given a trip to Florida.  In the midst of a LOOONNNNGGG Colorado winter, a surprise trip to the beach is delightful!  We loved every single second!  I sketched this as a thank-you to our hosts.

Dino Business Card?

So, not long ago my hubby was wondering if I could design something unique for him for his business cards.  He does Home Improvements, and he loves dinosaurs...so this is what I came up with.  What's funnier than a dinosaur missing the nail and hitting his...thumb...?  Dinos do have thumbs, don't they? 

My hubby quickly lost interest in new business cards.  WHAT'S UP WITH THAT??

From the Archives

Believe it or not I found inspiration for this painting in the Burger King Drive-Thru.  There I sat, waiting in line for my Fake-Food-In-A-Bag, and looking out my window there was this bedraggled little bush in a scantily covered rock bed.  Not pretty.

But the color contrast was very appealing!  I might be the only person that has taken a picture out my car window behind the Burger King.

Of course, I tweaked it for the painting!

TRUTH

 

"See how great a love 

the Father has bestowed on us, 

that we would be called 

children of God;

and such we are!"

1 John 3:1

What else have I been working on?

 

Amazing how the lighting in a room can totally throw off how a picture of a painting looks!  The coloring in this pic is a little off...and the ones following are equally tweaked!  Oh well, you can see what's kept me busy for the last week.  These signs are all hanging in the foyer of our church, hopefully helping to "direct traffic"!

See what I mean about the coloring being totally off??  The signs are neither black nor blue, but somewhere in between!  I guess you'll just have to visit Woodland Park Community Church and see these in person!!

I also got to help a team of people hanging a large group of photographs, with two decorative signs, all to make a statement of who we want to be as a church.  There are many people that we rub shoulders with every day who need help, and we want to be the hands that God uses.

WHERE'D THE TIME GO???

 

Funny, how I decided to start this blog in an effort to force myself to draw or paint EVERY DAY.  Who knew that I'd end up being so busy that I wouldn't have time to blog?  It's TEMPORARY!  I'll finish these projects, and then have to discipline myself to sit down with a pencil or paintbrush again.

Until then, I'm sketching, and painting, and coloring with markers, and trying to design....stained glass windows.  Actually, they'll be paintings that RESEMBLE stained glass windows.  No glass involved.  The pics above show you what I've come up with so far.  They'll probably all be tweaked again before actually going on the canvas.  I need to come up with 4 more designs in the next couple of weeks, and after that I can begin actually painting.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Time for Purple

This is what happens when you buy a spiffy purple pen!  It's such a fantastic color!  The day I bought the purple pen, I also bought a truly beautiful blue pen.  Not your normal blue, though.  Really funky and unique.  Here's the problem.  The store where I bought the  pens allows their customers to TEST the pens.  They have little tablets of paper all along the pen shelves.  And this is wonderful!  I love testing pens!  Problem is, evidently I purchased a funky blue pen that had been tested within an inch of it's life.  And that's about how much ink I got out of it before it went dry.  An inch.

Sigh.

Oh well, the purple pen seems to be full of life (or ink), and I'm thoroughly enjoying it!  (p.s.  I also bought some fantastic paper the day I bought the pens.  But did I draw this on the fantastic paper?  No!  I drew it in the icky Moleskine Knock-off!  Evidently I don't learn easily.)

Final Step!

IT'S DONE!!!

And I love it!  This was great fun, but not without it's hiccups.  Originally, after doing the moon face, I painted purple fairies with a star-shaped glow around them.  You need fairies in an enchanted forest, don't you?  Well, I was REALLY unsure of them.  Then my hubby came home and said, "are you finished with those fairies?"  Uh-Oh.  That's a leading question, if I've ever heard one!  When I told him that I thought they needed some serious tweaking, he said, "oh good, because they look like little purple demons"!  AAAAIIIIGGGHHHH!!!!

So, the little purple demons got painted over and I went instead with a full night-sky, complete with whirls and swirls. Soooo much better!

I  hope the ballerinas love it as much as I do!

First Step

Remember the two canvases that had the circus tent on them?  It's time to recycle!  These canvases are the backdrop for a small ballet, and this year I'm told they're dancing in an Enchanted Forest.  So, the canvases got painted black, and now I'm working on a night sky to go behind the forest.  Surely an Enchanted Forest needs a smiling moon?!

I'll post another pic when the whole thing is done.  Lovin' how fun this is!

Loving Camp Elim

Last August I painted a set of canvases for Camp Elim, a kids Bible Camp up the road from town.  I love it there!  I spent one week there every summer for most of my growing up years.  Then I worked there for three full summers, attempting to run their dining room staff.  Truly character forming years (for those of you who remember her, I love Granny Nelson with all my heart!)!

A few years ago they built a brand new chapel on their grounds.  Talk about filling a great need!  It's a fantastic building, and it gets used not only by kids all summer long, but also by guest groups that rent the facilities.  Because of those guest groups, the camp director talked to me about their "silent witness"...that need to speak truth without moving your mouth or making a sound.

That's an open invitation for artwork, if you ask me!

This is one of six canvases that I painted for them, and of those six this is my favorite.  It hangs in the foyer of the chapel for all the world to see.  Sort of makes me goose-bumpy all over!

Here I am finishing up the lettering.....

Temporary Art

Pay no attention to that goofy looking person on the left.  I painted these canvases for a small ballet troupe to dance around.  Their theme had something to do with a circus, so they requested a giant circus tent.  It was great fun!

That was last year.  These canvases are now back in my garage, painted all black, waiting for the next layer.  This year they're doing an enchanted forest (they provide the trees, I provide the background).  I'll take pics when I'm done so you can see.  I'm not totally sure yet what I'll paint....