Etherial

Ethereal: extremely delicate and light in a way that seems too perfect for this world.

"Ethereal"

Acrylic

Original available here for $35

15"x7" on wood leftover from a friend's woodworking project.

Prints available on request.

(Printed image may be slightly cropped for printing purposes.)

My original paintings are available in my online gallery.

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

  I welcome commissions.

Please click the links below to share my blog.

Grandson with Rainbrella - Rebooted - Part 2

Happy to report that I've had a crazy bug free day...so far. But my precious chicken, Phyllis, did go a tad crazy. We had our grill out in the middle of our deck because Dave and the little guy grilled steaks last night. (Not me, of course. I had mushrooms.) Phyllis had what she thought was a great idea and jumped right in the grill. I'm sure it looked like a lovely perch and all, but the girl and I need to have a serious talk about what constitutes a good idea and what does not.

Here's the completed "Grandson with Rainbrella " (rebooted). Below are the final few stages before I finished. It was just as much fun to paint this time as it was before!

"Grandson with Rainbrella"

After the background was pretty much finished
I sketched out the boy and his "rainbrella" and began painting.

I filled in the rest of him.

I added details to his clothing, hair, and the "rainbrella".

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

Grandson with Rainbrella - Rebooted - Part 1

Apparently I need to work some bugs out of my system. Yesterday with my bee passenger, whom I really didn't have a problem with aside from the potential stinging. And then today with a most unwelcome passenger on my person...my body...my hair and then neck, to be precise. I was in the kitchen loading the dishwasher when I felt something. It could have been a bit of hair tickling my neck, but no, I only have longish hair in the front. I reached up to the back of my head, gently touched my hair, and felt the broad smoothness that could only be a big cockroach. It, in response, ran down my neck and then flew to the ground as I frantically swatted and said a few very rude things. <shudder> I'd like a bug-free day tomorrow, thank you very much.

And now on to my painting. If you think the beginning of this painting looks familiar, you're absolutely right! I painted a version of it a couple of months ago. And now I'm painting another version of it for a different family member of this precious little guy. I love that they both wanted one!

So lovely revisiting this image. And this time I get to share my painting steps. Funny thing, I'm painting it in a different order than I did the first time.

I started with the background...
sky, fence, greenery.

I roughed in the shape of the tree with the
leftover paint on my palette. I added some
tree shapes further back and some darker
elements in the front.

I added clouds, gave the tree more appropriate
colors, and added some texture and detail
go the greenery.

I added more foliage elements.

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!

Mr. Monkey - Part 2

I love critters and I'm now a fan of this guy, too! His lovely people take him everywhere they go and he checks out the scenes, meets the people, talks with children, and is totally a lifelong learner and educator. What an honor to paint this!

"Mr. Monkey"

I started adding fur.

I sketched out his face and fingers and I changed the angle of his arm.

I gave him a few highlights because, well, every
monkey needs highlights, right?
I think he's adorable!
Keep your eye out for this fella on TV.
He's gonna be a star!

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!

Mr. Monkey - Part 1

I received the most awesome request the other day. A lovely person wanted me to paint a puppet. A monkey puppet. A fabulously funny, crazy friendly, spectacularly awesome, world traveling monkey! What fun!

I forgot to take more photos of my first stages. Here's the
first one I took. I started with woods at the bottom, a city scene in
the middle, and clouds at the top.

I wanted my clouds to be a little less cartoonish.

After looking at a bunch of Mr. Monkey photos on his Instagram
page I borrowed parts of three photos to create his head,
shoulders, arm, and hand.

I added more details to the buildings.

I painted in Mr. Monkey's shape so I could layer colors on top.

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!

Dream Sky High

I was commissioned to create a painting for a little boy's room. His lovely mom wanted it to feature an airplane and for it to be colorful. I was super excited to get started! And as I was painting it I thought of my own guys when they were little bitty boys themselves. I thought of my pure love for them as I painted the hearts. I thought of their amazing personalities as I painted sparkles. And I thought of just how funny they were as I painted swirls. And you know what? My love for them now is just as pure yet so, so much stronger. Their personalities are so their own filled with their own passions and creative drives. And, gosh, my kids still make me laugh each and every day.

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!

Grandson with Rainbrella

Note: I changed the title of this piece because I'd forgotten the cutest name for an umbrella that this child had come up with. Love!

Previous title was "Sun Shower"

...or, rather, grandson shower.

A dear friend sent me a photo of his adorable grandson standing in the yard holding an umbrella and asked if I'd be willing to paint it. What an honor it is to be trusted with friends' precious memories!

Painting this reminded me of standing in my own yard growing up (partly because this friend of mine happens to live in the house I grew up in, though this image is not at that particular house). I'd throw my umbrella to the roof, climb the loquat tree in the front corner of the house, get on the roof, open that umbrella, and jump off. Over and over and over again. I very clearly remember thinking that the umbrella in no way slowed my eight foot descent.

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!

Summertime Dreams

I'm taking a brief pause from my tree paintings to visit the beach. I love the beach. It's not all the fun in the sun that I adore. It's the smells, the wind, the humidity, the myriad of creatures that make their lives there, and the people who call beach towns their home. All of them rugged and delicate in their own beautiful ways.

So if I were at the beach right now, this would be my view from my spot on a blanket, sitting under a big umbrella, with a tall glass of iced herbal tree, and my watercolors at play.

Summertime dreams...

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!

Our Amazing Coffee Community

This morning I opened the dishwasher and made a gruesome discovery.

Yes, Dave's French press had broken sometime during the night. Knowing that this tragedy simply couldn't go unmarked, I sketched out a quick tombstone and took a photo to comemerate the sad occasion. I then posted the photo on facebook. I expected a "like" or two, but the outpouring of support left me in awe of just how amazing the coffee community is.

Dave was offered condolences, he was provided with suggestions for a new one, and someone was even willing to give him a spare they had. But what truly touched my heart is that a lovely neighbor offered to loan us theirs right away so Dave could deal with what truly was an emergency situation.

Somehow Dave managed to gather his wits about him and get himself to the coffee shop this morning and then go to the store to purchase a better, more amazing and awesome French press. And while the French press he'd so loved just yesterday lay broken and discarded in the trash can, he made the most amazing cup of coffee ever.


R.I.P. old French press...you were loved.

And this is how I "broke" the news to Dave about his beloved French press.

Am I an awesome wife or what?!?!

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!

Summer Love

Tonight we say good-bye to yet another fabulous summer.  Did we travel?  Nope.  Did we do anything deliciously over-the-top?  Not at all.  Did we enjoy pretty much every moment of it?  You bet. 

We had a delightful summer of just doing our own thing on our own time table.  Our house was overrun with teenage boys and one particularly lovely girlfriend.  I painted and wrote with absolute abandon every day.  Dave took his photography to an all new amazing level.  And he and I even self-published a book of his photos and our haiku poetry.  You can look at it in its entirety here.

This summer rocked! 


...and now the kids and I go back to school and Dave gets to blissfully have the whole house all to himself.  If you don't count the two dogs, two cats, and four chickens, that is....

The miniature easel is included with the purchase of this miniature painting.

 

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!

Channeling George Jetson

I'm super uptight about looking at my phone while I'm supposed to be doing something else.  I'd never look at it while driving.  Never!  I can just barely look at it while I'm walking.  And "barely" is an exaggeration.  But for some reason today at the gym I absentmindedly stepped onto a treadmill while looking at my phone.  I started the treadmill moving while looking at my phone.  I set the speed to the level that I usually set the incline.  While looking at my phone.

And I almost wiped out like George Jetson...while looking at my phone.

Check!  Lesson learned.

Click here to purchase this painting.

Practically Scared of my own Shadow

I scare easily.  My whole family knows.  They used to follow me around and try to scare me all the time.  It was awful...I got all twitchy and stuff.  Anyway, they've stopped...at least for now.  But it turns out I don't even need my family to scare me.  I don't even need other people at all.  Turns out I just need my own goofy self.

So, here's what happened.  This morning I was going to run our little robot vacuum cleaner so it could do a mediocre job of vacuuming while I was gone.  I found a couple of kitten rattle ball toys on the floor, so I put them on the stool in the bathroom to keep them out of the way, and shut the door.  "Click" the vacuum started, and I left.

Well, eight hours or so later I got home.  I decided to do a little bit of way neglected laundry.  I got a bin, went into the bathroom to check for dirty towels, found one on the stool, picked it up, something rattled.  "A FREAKIN' RATTLESNAKE'S IN HERE!!!!" I thought.  I jumped. I shrieked.  I saw the two little rattle balls.  I felt silly.

Sigh...Halloween came a day early for this wimpy girl (who happens to have slightly cleaner floors now).

Click here to purchase this painting.

Our Castle is Almost Complete

We're just four tiles away from having the kitchen/office/laundry room floor from being completed.  Not counting grout and sealing, and moving everything back in from the back yard and carport, of course.  I've been in charge of cementing and placing the tiles.  Dave's been in charge of doing all the cuts that are needed.

And, of course, Dave has come up with the word that totally defines our D.I.Y. project.

"roughstamation"

Yup, that's when you make a rough estimation of all the laying out and cutting.  And, I must say, it looks awesome!

Click here to purchase this painting/gift card.

Thanks for "liking" my blog posts!!