Recalibrating

I've had some interesting things in my life lately that, well, most definitely weren't on my list of expected events. I've found myself recalibrating just as my GPS would recalculate were I to suddenly go off route, adjusting by making a new path. One tiny interesting thing happened today involving the painting below. I'd had it on top of the shoe rack in our bedroom for a couple of weeks, always intending to get to the "hanging up" part. This morning it fell forward (not for the first time) and toppled to the floor. I committed right then and there that I'd wire it and hang it on the bedroom wall by the end of the day. Well I just picked it up, took it to the table to start the wiring process, and I noticed a tear in the canvas. Not much of a tear...just an inch or so...but a tear none-the-less. It bothered me at first. A LOT. And just a few seconds later it didn't. Not even a little bit. Painting route recalibrated.

P.S. Let me know if you'd like to have this slightly ripped painting...cheap. Really, the tear just adds character!

"Recalibrating"

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. 

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Blind Spots

"Every age has its massive blind spots.
We might not see them but our children will."

-Bono

"Blind Spots"

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.

Please click the links below to share my blog.

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

She Shines

I was commissioned to create a caricature of an amazing woman I know. Seriously, there's nothing about her that isn't amazing and I was super honored to take on this project. What fun!

"She Shines"

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

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"We are More Alike than Different" Part 3

The past month has been filled with large and small gatherings of people I love and adore, wonderful friends and family of all ethnicities, religions, sexual orientation, gender, age. And absolutely none of that is a barrier in any way, shape, or form for how much love I have for them. We are so very much more alike than we are different.  All of us.


I finished this painting...when I gaze at it I'm filled with sadness, love, and hope.

"We are More Alike than Different"

I gave her cheeks and lips color and
a light reflection in her eyes. 

I used ink to line her eyes and eyebrows
and her pupils. Her sadness and despair
are so clearly worn on her face.

I used graphite to fill in her head covering
to make sure that I definitely wanted to
do that rather than hair. I did.

I painted a layer of brown
on the head covering.

I painted a layer of yellow
on the head covering.

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

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"We are More Alike than Different" Part 2

No worries, no spoiler alerts needed.

Yes, I saw the new Star Wars movie this morning with my little guy and two of his buds (They've been best friends for over 12 year now...I love that!). I was doing fine through all the previews and then the "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away..." part started scrolling. Well, that was just the first time I teared up. I have so many fond memories of Star Wars from my childhood and I simply cannot help being a mush. Waiting in long lines to see the movies, mad dashes to purchase newly released action figures, recreating scenes from the movies and making up new ones of our own. I think I'll have to pull the box of action figures out of the closet and give them all a big hug today. Even Darth Vader. After all, he likely needs the biggest hug of all.


I also continued working on this painting. I love when a painting takes over and tells me what direction it wants to take.

I highlighted her forehead, nose, and chin.
I also whitened her eyes outside of her irises.

I painted another layer of a darker shade.

I painted the background to define her hair...
which made me quite certain that my painting
wants it to be a head covering rather than hair.

I painted an even darker layer.

And gave her eyes some color.

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

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"We are More Alike than Different" Part 1

As I was walking this morning I thought to myself, "The streets are looking pretty dingy, it's time for the street sweeper to show up." Two hours later, there it was!

I need to come up with something really awesome for my newfound magical powers.


I started a new painting as part of the class I've been taking. I'm continuing to work on lovely darker skin tones. My goal is to portray someone who is perhaps Asian or Middle Eastern.

I sketched the face.

I erased the extra pencil marks
and gave her hair...or perhaps
a head covering. I'll decide later.

I painted the first layer of color on her face.

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

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"Beauty" Part 3

Sometimes my real world fuses with my dream world.

Case in point...last night I had a dream that I was in a hotel and the folks staying in the room next to us were very upset because we were making so, so much noise. And for some reason the way their irritation was conveyed is that there were holes in the walls and they'd stick their fingers through them and waggle admonishments our way. Well, I woke up to discover that Dave, our little guy, and two of his friends were watching a movie at super loud volume. I got up, skipped admonishing them, closed our bedroom door, and went right back to sleep. Weirdness....


I finished working on this little painting.

"Beauty"

I gave her a neck and shoulder, and worked
on some details of her face.

I painted her hair and gave her some highlights.

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"Beauty" Part 2

I recently had a childhood memory revisit the front of my consciousness. One of my family members, who shall remain unnamed, told me, "I'm going to call the police on you."

Well, when I was a kid, perhaps nine or ten years old, I was pulling the cute little twins who lived down the street around in a wagon. I was going up a hill, began turning around to go back down, and the wagon tipped over and spilled the kiddos out. "I'm going to call the police on you!" yelled one of them.

Did I laugh it off? Nope. I ran home, got in our dirty clothes hamper in the hallway, closed the door, and stayed there for many hours. I was not willing to go to jail for my crime.

Luckily I'm getting better about reacting to these words. This time I only briefly considered crawling into our laundry hamper.


I continued working on this painting.

I began adding some darker color to her face.

I gave her brown eyes and com color
on her lips and cheeks.

I added highlights to her eyes, nose, and mouth.

Click here to view my gallery.

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

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"Beauty" Part 1

I've got a big forehead...a fivehead is much more accurate. I was at a wonderful party last night and was caught on film a few times. I think I looked fine, don't get me wrong, but I was reminded of the acreage between my eyebrows and my hairline. So this morning, against my better judgment and all of the failures in my past, I trimmed my hair to give myself bangs. Gotta cover up all that area somehow, right? And for the first time ever I think I actually did a pretty good job. Time will tell. And if it turns out buggy, my lovely hair stylist is used to doing repair work on my botched efforts.


I started a new painting as part of a class I'm taking. Just like my previous few blogs, I'm working on skin tones. This will be a woman with dark skin. I'm super excited as I think that's the most lovely skin there is.

I sketched the face.

I erased most of the extra pencil marks.

I started with a yellowish layer and
then some highlights on top of that.

I went over the darker, more shadowed
parts with another layer. There are
many, many layers to come.

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

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A Handful of Daisies

In the car today...a delightful one-sided conversation.

"Do you know how to get people to smell your farts?

Say, 'Do you smell popcorn?'

That's all it takes...and they won't be smelling popcorn."

My little guy. Gotta love him!


Here's my version of a whimsical girl with some stars as supporting characters.

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

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Supporting Characters

How do I know that David and I are perfect for each other?


Appliance repair guy commenting on our fridge's coils: "Your bottom looks good."

David and me: "Thank you."


Oy, you can't take us anywhere...even our own kitchen.



Today I worked on some "supporting characters" for my future whimsical paintings (as part of this class).

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Legs and Bodies

I recently bought a crimper for my paint tubes. Confession...I'm obsessed! All of our toothpaste tubes are delightfully crimped and I'm on a quest for more things. I'm finding myself considering raiding my friends' bathrooms and maybe even trying it on my hair. Seriously, it's so cool!


Tonight I worked on body shapes and legs for the class I'm taking. Pretty soon I'll be putting all this practice into a painting! Yay!

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

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Scents and Tastes

I went shoe shopping yesterday. I had become increasingly concerned about how big my feet looked in my running shoes. I mean, really...they were at least an inch bigger than my little casual canvas sneakers. Why, I have no idea. But as someone whose feet grew half a size with each kiddo, I kid you not, I admit to having some minor concerns about it. (Let me say right here that my kiddos were absolutely, positively worth the elongation of my tootsies.)

Well, I discovered that if you go to the walking shoes section rather than the running shoes section the shoes are dramatically smaller. And, hey, I'm no runner, I AM a walker.

Oh, and side note, there are a remarkable number of shoe shoppers that talk to themselves while they're trying on shoes. I thought that was really nifty.


I continued working on features of whimsical faces for the class I'm taking. Tonight I worked on mouths and noses.

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

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The Eyes Have It

I'm working on creating some whimsical faces for a class I'm taking. Tonight I worked on eyes as my focus.


Dave: "Why are you making aliens."

Me: "I'm not, I'm making whimsical faces."

Little guy: "That's such a weird word."


I take that as a big thumbs up from the family!

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

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Feeling a Tiny Tad Frida

I've got an egg dilemma. Today I discovered that Phyllis had laid an egg way, WAY, up under our deck. I can see it. But I can't get it. We've had a bit of an egg shortage lately and I'm wondering if there are other eggs under there. And I must admit that I'm a bit terrified about the smell these potential eggs might create after a bunch of 90+ degree Texas days. I need fall weather and a long stick STAT!


As part of my art class we did a super quick study on creating faces. Here's mine. Below it are a couple of stages.

"Feeling a Tiny Tad Frida"

I sketched the face with a pencil.

I used white acrylic to go over my sketch.
The graphite blended with the paint. On my
finished painting I used a bit of black acrylic
as well to get the darks.

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

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Watercolor and Graphite, Van Gogh Style

Dave just came home and told me about the best conversation ever!


Pug (our old orange tabby) : "Meow."

Dave: "Meow."

Pug: "Meow."

Dave: "Meow."

Pug: "Meow."

Dave: "Meow."

Pug: "Meow."

Dave: "Meow."

Pug: "Meow."

I love them both so much!

I did another small practice piece for this class I'm taking. This one is using watercolor and graphite, hopefully in the style of Van Gogh. So much fun!

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

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What...no Orange?

Kids come up with all kinds of excuses to get out of doing what we ask them to do. Here's the latest from my little guy.


Me: "Come over, please. There are people that want to say, "hello." (I was at a party across the street.)

Little guy: "But Orange is the New Black."

Me: "Pause it."


And he did come over and hang out for a bit. Yay! Wonder if he'll notice when I use the same OITNB excuse all this week as I dive into some binge watching, myself....

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Who's a Big Chicken?

So the other night I felt like a big chicken.

The little guy and I were at the gym and he really, really wanted me to work on my vertical jump. Well, I'm barely five feet tall and my legs were not gifted with length...so when he put the platform in front of me and said, "Jump!" Well...I couldn't. Every fiber of my being said, "Nope!"

There was simply no forcing me to do it. And then right after I felt like a big chicken I remembered that chickens are AWESOME. So I decided to feel awesome instead.

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In Flight

I had the close encounter with a mosquito today. It was in the school's bathroom flying around. As soon as I did my business and flushed I tried to get that mosquito. Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Miss...miss...miss...miss.

I gave up and left. And then I had to explain to the woman in the workroom outside of the bathroom that I was not, in fact, applauding for myself for a job well done.

I think she believed me. Maybe.


This painting is another in the style of Marie Laurencin that I've worked on as part of a class I'm taking. 

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!

Revealed

We made the decision to have our chickens live free range in our back yard. We love it. They love it. The cats love it. And even our dog loves it. Seriously, there's nothing quite as adorable as looking out your back door and seeing six chickens standing over a peacefully sleeping cat. 

But one interesting thing about having free range chickens in the back yard is that in the process of all the hunting, pecking, and scratching they do in what used to be our lawn, they have excavated years and years of buried kid toys. They've dug up matchbox cars, playset tools, parts of balls, and tons of scraps of unidentified material. They've even found toy soldiers (my kids never had those, so these must be from previous families' kids). They're digging up stuff that's been buried up to 25 years ago or more!

And what have I done with these treasures? Well, I've rather unceremoniously tossed them in our trash.

This painting is another in the style of Marie Laurencin that I've worked on as part of a class I'm taking. Such fun!

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!