Live Life in Full Bloom

Live your life in full bloom, my friends.

"Live Life in Full Bloom"

7"x5"

Prints available on request.

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

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.

Let your Joy Burst Forth

"Let your joy burst forth like flowers in the spring."

- unknown author

"Let your Joy Burst Forth"

This is how it may look framed.

30"x22.5" on acid free paper, deckle edged, unframed

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.

And then There's Joy

After feeling more focused and serious with my art yesterday, it was so much fun to release my inner child and go all in with whimsy today.

"And then There's Joy"

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.  

This painting is part of a year-long online art class (instructor Wyanne Thompson).

Overflowing with Happiness

Here's the fourth in my series of sweet little potted plants. Love creating these!

This painting is part of a year-long online art class (instructor Martha Lever).

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.

Filled with Joy

Here's the third in my series of sweet little potted plants. So much fun!

This painting is part of a year-long online art class (instructor Martha Lever).

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.

Embracing the Sunshine

Here's the second in my series of sweet little potted plants. These are pure bliss to create.

This painting is part of a year-long online art class (instructor Martha Lever).

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.

Blissful Blue

When I first started painting in 2011 I fell in love with watercolor and ink. I'd endlessly draw pictures with ink and then color them in with watercolor, pretty much creating my own coloring books. And sometimes I'd get a wild hair and do the watercolor first and then the ink. Such fun! I switched to mostly acrylic and mixed media about a year ago and have loved where it's taken me, too.

Last weekend I went down memory lane. I pulled out all of my old paintings (the ones that I hadn't given away or sold), took photos of them, and began posting them on facebook offering them for $2 or under. Spring cleaning!!! (Here's the link if you're interested in seeing them and possibly purchasing.) Seeing them reignited my love of watercolor and ink...so when the year long class I've been taking introduced the new lesson on Monday and it was a watercolor and ink project...well, AWESOME!

Here's the first of several I painted. More to come.


This painting is part of a year-long online art class (instructor Martha Lever).

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.

Surrounded by Flowers - Part 2

I had a "chat" with Amazon yesterday do to a minor issue with an order I'd received. Throughout the rather stilted, yet effective, conversation I was totally convinced that I was communicating with a robot. Here's part of our conversation.


Me: "Thank you! I appreciate it! Have a great evening!"

Amazon (robot?): "You are very welcome! :) Was I able to properly assist you?"

Me: "Absolutely!"

Me: "Are you a robot? :-)"

Amazon (robot?): "Haha. I am not Kali, I am a real person :)"

Me: "Well, you'd make a darn good robot. Thanks again!"

Amazon (robot?): "Haha. Thank you very much, I guess. Perfect! Have a great rest of your day! :) Please click on "End Chat" located on the upper right corner of the chat window to close the chat."

Me: "OK, bye."


I'm still not convinced that they were a real person. Robots know how to lie, right?


And I finished "Surrounded by Flowers". I'm so happy to be painting again! Here's the finished painting and below are a few of the final stages.

"Surrounded by Flowers"

I went even darker on the edges...
and I didn't really like it.

I added leaves...
and I didn't really like that either.

I went for a happy green/black medium and
that worked for me. I also added a bit of
detail to the centers of the flowers.

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!

Surrounded by Flowers - Part 1

I'm dipping my toes fingers back into painting after slightly over a full week's break. I feel a little like I'm starting over as a beginner...so of course I'm starting with what has always been my "go to" subject matter over the past four plus years...FLOWERS! And happily for me, I've been given a few "speedy recovery" bouquets since my surgery.


Me: "Oh, thank you so much, they're beautiful!!!" And then I'd get my phone out and photograph them from all angles for future reference.


This particular painting is inspired by a lovely bouquet that my big guy and his girlfriend gave me when I got home from the hospital. Love, love, love!!!

I've had this canvas laying around from a previous project
when I just used the left over paint to create a background
for a future painting. Well, today that day came!

I used watered down black to lay out where I wanted
the flowers to be positioned.

And of course I got excited when I started using
color and completely forgot to take photos
of the different stages. Sigh....

I added green to the background.

So much fun painting again!!! Excited to see where this one takes me 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!

Daisies - Part 2

I got my hair cut today. My long bangs are no longer so long. My hope is that I will now be able to see my creepy family when they sneak up on me and try to scare me...which happens a lot! I told my little guy about how proud I was of my new scare proof haircut.


Little guy: "That's not gonna help, mom."


Well, maybe. I'm sure I won't have to wait long to find out, knowing my guys.


And here's my finished daisies painting. I think daisies spread happiness wherever they go!

"Daisies"

I added color to the flowers and stems.

I added another layer to the background,
worked on the water in the vase,
and added another white layer to the flowers.
I also changed the height of the vase and
lowered its base.

You can see a bit of a splatter in the previous
stage. Rather than cover it up I decided to add more
splatters! I also began adding some gray to the
petals to give them more definition.

I've been incredibly inspired by a class taught by Pauline Agnew. I encourage you to check it 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!

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

Daisies - Part 1

Yesterday at the chiropractor the doctor, who was working on both me and my little guy, said, "You guys are shaped the same." And today at the optometrist the doctor said, "You guys have practically the same prescription." I found myself smiling at the alikeness the two of us have. Not sure if my little guy was as thrilled. He was probably thinking, "Thanks for the slight scoliosis and near sightedness, mom."

A friend of mine posted some daisies on her Facebook page and they were so beautiful that I asked her to send me more photos. And she did! Here's the first of what I hope to be a daisy series. Daisies are such happy flowers...I love them!

Here's the start of this painting.

I painted the basic colors of the background.

I roughed in the basic shapes of the flowers
and the vase.

I began adding in reflections on the glass
and the basic shapes of the flowers.

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

Little Blue

If this painting looks familiar, there's a really good reason why.

When the rains caused flooding in Texas recently, a sweet little guy lost everything in his room when the water took over his house. One of those things was one of my paintings. So this is my redo. Little Blue is back and ready to sing!

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!

Blissful Creation

This painting marks the completion of a fourth year of creating a painting every single day. That's 1,461 paintings in 1,461 days! Whew! Thank you to everyone who has joined me on an incredible journey that has changed my life for the better in so, so many ways!

And as I enter my fifth year as an artist I'm going to make some changes. In the year ahead I want to focus on improving and trying new things. I want to take more art classes, I want to spread beyond paints to other media, I want to take on more commissions, I want to create videos, and so many more things. My blog and Facebook/Daily Paintworks/Twitter/Google+/Pinterest postings will change. I'll still be posting on my blog daily, but I won't be pushing to complete a painting of the day. I'll be taking on bigger and more detailed work that will likely take me more than a day to complete. (This has actually been the case for a while and I have been making myself a tad crazy...in a good way...creating extra paintings so I could still maintain my painting a day pace as the big painting I worked on took multiple days). So I'm going to give myself the wiggle room deadline wise and take you along with me through the process of creating my paintings. I'll continue to post my completed paintings as I have in the past.

This makes me feel both excited and vulnerable. Now everyone will know that all of my paintings go through an "ugly" phase (or phases, more accurately) before I consider them done. And actually, I never do consider them finished, but they all do come to a reasonable place to stop. I'm super excited to share this process!

So thank you for joining me on my fifth year of blissful creating!

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!

Pigtails and Puddles 2

...because one is never enough when your subject is this darn cute.

This little one's boots remind of my own little ones and their boots...cowboy boots, that is. Both of my kids LOVED their cowboy boots. And I encouraged them to wear them as often as possible. Yes, they were a fabulous fashion statement. Yes, they were simply adorable in them. But the best thing? They slowed my kids down. They ran more slowly, they climbed more slowly, and they jumped off of high objects more slowly.

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!

Puddles and Pigtails 1

This was a commissioned piece and I was so honored to be asked paint it!

I just adore this kiddo! She's trudging through a puddle with such awesome determination...I love it! Puddles are utterly and completely irresistible. And, gosh, don't even get me started with pigtails and galoshes.

A painting filled with some of my favorite things...love!


And even better, I got to paint two versions of it because sometimes one is simply not enough! I'll post the second one tomorrow.

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!

It's Hip to be Square

With family in town I've loaded up my phone with tons of adorable photos...which has prompted my phone to nag me about the lack of space. So I started going through my oldest pictures and came across a photo I'd taken some time back of three sweet little flowers. I remember being so taken by their nifty squarish petals. How cool of Mother Nature to prove that it's hip to be square.

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!

Sweet Inspiration

I've been actively weaning my kids of the "mom will prepare all of my snacks and meals" problem they both seem to have.


Kid: "Mom, I'm hungry."

Me: "Nope."

Kid: "Mom, will you make me a...."

Me: "Nope."

Kid: "Mom, do we have any dessert?"

Me: "Nope."


And the next thing I know my little guy baking a cake, icing it, and declaring it his dad's birthday cake (a day late, but way ahead of any plans I had hatched).


Nice to know this particular problem has a cure!

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!

Worth Stopping For

I was just looking out my window and a fella was riding his bike by one of my neighbor's houses. He stopped his bike, got off, walked to one of their lovely rose bushes, and took a deep sniff.

He has the right idea, my friends.


Oh, and much gratitude to my neighbors for creating such beauty!

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!

Three

We've lived in our house since '91 and my kids have both lived here since the day they were born (home births, ya know). And even though my little guy has lived in our house for over sixteen years, he learned something new about it the other day.

I was walking around the house turning on the external lights and I flipped the middle of three switches in our kitchen. My kiddo was standing right there.

Little guy: "That switch turns on our carport light?!?!?!"

Me: "Yes, you didn't know that?"

Little guy: "I knew about the outside switch, but not about this one."

Me: "What did you think this switch was for?"

Little guy: "I had no idea."

I love that! May my little guy be a lifelong learner making many more fabulous new discoveries along the way.

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!