Sometimes Love is Messy

Sometimes love is messy. 

That's part of its charm, right?

I adore using small canvases as my pallets when I paint. They get all lumpy, bumpy, fabulous and then I paint something on top of all that "mess". With this canvas the word "love" was there for quite a while. I'd used my pallet to make sure my India ink was flowing from my brush and had written with it. So when I decided to turn the pallet into a painting, the word "love" and all that "messiness" spoke to me.

"Sometimes Love is Messy"

All works are copyrighted and all rights are reserved by the artist.

My original paintings are available in my online gallery.

Prints of many of my paintings are available in my Etsy shop. 

Let me know if you're interested in prints of my paintings.

  I welcome commissions.

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I'd love to hear from you...feel free to leave me a comment.

Messy is my Middle Name

Yesterday my little guy donned his elf hat again. We hung out with my dad, visited my mom in the hospital, and even made an attempt to eat at a Chinese restaurant. We and everyone else in South Austin. Anyway, I've gotten so accustomed to my little guy wearing his elf outfit that it struck me as unexpected that we were getting looks. One guy even snapped, pointed, and have a double thumbs up. 

Me: "He must think I'm cute."

Little guy: "Not likely, mom."

Hey...it could happen. 

I picked up an apron for practically nothing a few weeks ago. Since I'm about to start a year long art class I figured an apron would the perfect addition to my supplies. I considered just letting it get paint on it naturally, but what would be the fun in that?!?! 

Brand spankin' new apron!

I used diluted acrylic craft paint.

More paint...fun with splatters!

Ready to rock those canvases!

Click here to view my gallery.

Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

Please click the links below to share my blog.

I'd love to hear from you...feel free to leave me a comment.

Moon Gaze - Part 3

I woke up the little guy this morning at the time he said he'd be getting up.


Me: "It's 7:00. I have to leave and I want to be sure you'll get up."

Little guy: "OK, mom." He leaned over and did something on his phone.

Me: "So are you getting up?"

Little guy: "It's a process mom."


"Process" clearly means several encounters with a snooze button. And so I left, hoping that he'd get up in time to get to school before the bell rang.


I'm having surgery tomorrow morning so I'll miss blogging and posting my art for the first time in over four years. I plan to be back up and running really soon.

Happily, I finished this bag for my big guy's girlfriend. Here it is shot from all sides.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Moon Gaze - Part 2

Something happened last night that makes me feel like we're doing something right. And it fits so well into this canvas bag painting I'm doing of a woman who is so at peace with her world. Last night I remembered that we needed to put our big trash bin out to the curb for this morning's garbage pick up. Dave went out to do it and came in and said, "We have no trash."

We looked in our kitchen trash can and it was not even half full. So no trash to the curb for us this week. Makes me happy.


And I continued working on this wonderful canvas bag project.

I painted the handles and much of the background blue.

I'm getting more bleeding. I'll fix that later.

I dripped on the flower...it's OK, I've already decided that I like it.

Here's the back of the bag. The back seriously
needs to have more going on. Must think of something.

I painted the first layer on the petals.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Moon Gaze - Part 1

My little guy had an a couple of his old friends (from way back in kindergarten) spend the night last night. I was telling one of them about my upcoming surgery and he said, "You'll be able to hula-hoop again!" I was pleasantly stunned. He was right! I had to quit hula-hooping when I got a blood clot four years ago, but now that the root cause of all of that will be gone, well, hula-hooping here I come!  It's the little things....


My big guy's girlfriend dropped off a canvas bag and a lovely request (I LOVE requests!). This morning I started on her bag.

I started by sketching out her idea.
This is the front.

This is the back.

I used watered down acrylics to add color.

Here's the beginnings of the moon.

Here's the back of the bag.

I'm excited to see how this bag turns out!

 Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Back to School Backpack - Part 2

So my big guy moved out of the house. My little guy moved into my big guy's room. And now my yet-to-be-painted-on canvases and sold paintings have a room of their own! And you know what? Their bed is made. Their desk is dusted. Their carpet is vacuumed. Easiest kids ever! Though I still most definitely prefer my guys.

I finished my backpack! Here are a couple of shots of the finished backpack and below are the last few painting stages.

"Back to School Backpack"

And it's functional and pretty!

I outlined all of the flowers and leaves with black
and I added some details to the petals.

A view of the other side.

I added some white...you know, for fun!

A view of the other side.

And with the leftover paint I created this!
Not sure what it will eventually become,
but it will most certainly be fun!

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

I'm running a big sale on my paintings through the end of August. Almost everything in my gallery is 60% off. I'm only keeping my most current work (paintings on page 1) at the listed prices. If there's something you'd like, please let me know by message or comment so I can manually adjust the price. Thanks!!! http://www.dailypaintworks.com/artists/kali-parsons-3935/artwork

Back to School Backpack - Part 1

Today all the public school teachers in town got back to work. That includes me. So wonderful seeing everyone and it got me back in the fun school mode. I've been taking an online art class and one of the assignments was to paint a pillow cover, but I decided to be a rebel and paint a backpack instead. I'd had this very boring beige canvas backpack forever. While it was utilitarian and all, it was so darn boring I never actually left the house with it. That's a lie. I did take it to the gym once. So I grabbed that backpack and started the process of turning it into something magical that I would both love and use.

This is the backpack. I meant to take a picture before I started
painting, but I forgot. I put some sheets in a trash bag and then stuffed the
bag in the backpack so the paint wouldn't run from one side to the other.

I chose a few colors of paint. The red, pink, yellow, and blue
are to make flowers. The green is for leaves. The paints
are watered down quite a bit to a milk consistency.

I started by painting basic flower shapes all over.

My cat, Pug, was a great support.

I took the stuffing out and hung it on my clothesline to dry.

I love how the colors run together and the fun drips.

Next I'll be adding black outlines and features as well as white accents. Can't wait to put it to use! This will DEFINITELY make it out of the house.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

I'm running a big sale on my paintings through the end of August. Almost everything in my gallery is 60% off. I'm only keeping my most current work (paintings on page 1) at the listed prices. If there's something you'd like, please let me know by message or comment so I can manually adjust the price. Thanks!!! http://www.dailypaintworks.com/artists/kali-parsons-3935/artwork

With her Best Friend

I took my dog, Hazel, out for a long walk this morning. She gets beside-herself excited when any of us get the leash out. And she loves absolutely every single thing about going walking.

Except...bicycles that zoom by and scare her, some birds that sound really scary and weird, and cars that loudly vroom overhead when we're under a bridge.

Except for all of that Hazel loves absolutely every single thing about walking.


I finished working on this painting this afternoon. Here's the final version and the last few steps that lead up to the end. And I only have a few photos from the tail end because I was so into it that I forgot to take pictures during the majority of the process. Oops!

"With her Best Friend"

You can see that I've added tons of details...all over!

I adorned her hair with flowers and a feather
and added details to her dress.

I think she's done. Just need to paint the
edges of the canvas black.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

With her Best Friend

After over four years of painting each and every day on our kitchen table or some other flat surface (not counting our hallway walls, that is), I finally splurged and got myself and easel! I feel like I'm a grown up artist now! I got it all set up right by our floor-to-ceiling windows last night, put a blank canvas in it, and went to bed. Then first thing after I ate breakfast and walked the dog, I started painting. What a nice thing it is to stand while I paint. And an incredible thing to have our kitchen table back!

While I was painting my big guy came in the room and said, "You need to move all your art stuff over by the easel." I have two shelves and an antique desk devoted to my art. So while Dave and my little guy were gone, my big guy and I moved all the furniture around in the living room. And it's fabulous! I love my wonderful big guy!

The painting I'm working on is inspired by Marie Laurencin. I think this may be the last one in the class I'm taking. I'll definitely revisit her style, I love it!

After painting the canvas gray, I sketched out a woman and a dog.

I began adding some color to her flesh, dress, and background. 

I added more details and began working on a fan.

I began working on her face, added a scarf, and continued working on the dog.

I'm excited to work on it more tomorrow!

 Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Painted Warrior on a Tricycle - Part 2

I finished working on this amazing girl. I love her! She is so utterly and completely confident in her level of awesomeness. I don't remember riding a tricycle as a kid, but I absolutely remember riding a Big Wheel. Best riding toy ever. Nothing quite as sweet as yanking on that brake and spinning out. Big Wheel Bliss!

The Finished Painting

But before I got there I worked through the phases below.

I painted over her face and continued working on the tricycle.

I got her face to a place I liked, emphasized the edges of the figure,
and completed working on the tricycle. All I had left to do was
add some grass growing in the cracks and paint the edges of the canvas black.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Whimsical Roots

I did this interpretation of a tree with henna on my forearm. I particularly like the roots, all full of whimsy and personality, not unlike my genetic roots. Have you met my delightful family?

And now that you've seen my forearm, can you tell I've been working out? Nope? Oh, well. I have, ya know. Know how I can tell? When I'm at the gym I have to wait at the top of the stairs while the big muscle bound guys make their way up. I can't possibly fit on the stairway as they come up...I'm sure it's because I've bulked up so much from all those reps. Yup, it's me not them. 

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Today's Henna

I'm learning...and possibly even improving.

That's all I can ask, right?

I noticed last night that my previous henna had completely vanished. So of course it was time for another. Of course!

Here's how I think I'm learning and improving.

1. I'm learning that the further away from my hands, the longer the henna seems to last. All that handwashing takes its toll.

2. I'm squeezing the henna bag more gently and evenly. Makes my lines more smooth. I think. I hope. And I don't have a hand cramp. Yup, last time I had a hand cramp that lasted the entire evening.

3. Perfection is the furthest thing from my mind. Happily I don't even know what that word means.

Anyway, this is super fun! Join me sometime!!

And, just a reminder, my forearm is decidedly not for sale, I find I need it,

but if you'd like to check out some of my purchasable art...

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Fair Weather

Conversation as we were walking to the car in the grocery story parking lot. The little guy was pushing the cart as he always insists upon doing.


Me: "I never pushed a grocery cart until I moved out of my parents' house."

Little guy: "Mom, you know you live with a bunch of control freaks."

Me: "We're going to put gas in the car next. Are you going to insist on filling it?"

Little guy: "No way."


Fair weather control freak....

 Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Lit Up

Year after year we've put lights up on the outside of our house for the holiday season...sometimes a big display of lights and sometimes small.  But for some reason, last year Dave and I never got around to it at all.  Now it wouldn't have been any big deal except for that our house is on a corner and all three of the other corners were lit up.  We felt the friendly pressure, though not enough to actually do anything about it. And one night we came home and our house had lights!  One of our delightful neighbors had decorated one of our bushes.

So what did I do today? Well, I ran out front and wrapped one of our trees in the very same lights that my neighbor had given us last year.

Feeling quite festive and accomplished...and sparkly.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Fruit Loops

Yes, in a moment of weakness I bought them for my little guy.  Here's the deal.  If you come with me on a shopping trip, I'm gonna let you buy something totally void of nutrition.


Me:  "You like that?  Aren't those for little kids?"

Little guy:  "Pretty much all the good cereal is made for little kids."

Me:  "What about the cereal that dad and I eat."

Little guy:  "That's bird food."

Me:  "So, what's in Fruit Loops?"

Little guy:  "Wheat and sugar...and deliciousness."


Well, I can't beat that last ingredient.


And the Fruit Loops were tossed into the cart.  Shopping trip partner is officially paid in full.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!