I know it has been a while since I last blogged, but what can I say, I have been busy loving my new grand-baby! I am trying to get back into the groove, so I’m working on my business plan for next year, setting goals, and determining things I will participate in. I found this great site http://sketchbookchallenge.blogspot.com/ , this site is the jumping off point for a group of artists initiating a sketchbook challenge for themselves and anyone else that wants to join in. You can follow along with select artists as they fill their sketchbooks based on a monthly theme that will be announced on the first of each month.
Sign Sketch in watercolor
Art Journal
Each month they will announce a new theme on the blog site above and throughout the month they will be showing you images from their sketchbooks and talking about the intention and inspiration behind them. Along the way they will be sharing tips, techniques and tutorials. I will be joining in and posting my sketchbook creations here on my blog spot. Sketchbooks, art journals, whatever you want to call them, are such a great way to put your creative thoughts and ideas down for future inspiration or just to have a place to try out new things, no rules or constraints. I have several sketchbooks and art journals that I have been working out of over the years. I must admit I have been known to sketch on graph paper, post it notes, envelopes that happen to be in front of me when I am on the phone, or whatever is available at the time. I am working on keeping a sketch book handy so that all my ideas, thoughts, etc. are in at least two or three places, instead of scattered everywhere. One of my goals for the coming new year is to be more creative, hopefully to do something creative everyday; my sketchbook-journal will enable me to carry that goal through the entire year. I would love anyone, that would like to free themselves up to becoming more creative, to join me. Here is a short video of my sketchbooks and the beginning of a new creative journey, come along with me through the year, there is no telling what we will discover.
Work is progressing on the Common Ground Painting. Working on this piece, allows me to move around the painting depending on what I feel like dabbling in on that particular day. If it feels like a sunflower day, I work on the sunflowers, a tomato day; then I’m knee deep in red; I never get tired of working on this piece, there are so many different components. There are some of my pieces like “Reaching for the Sun”, that have so many leaves, you think you will never finish them all. However, painting this piece, with the large flowers and vegetables, provides it’s own unique set of challenges. The vegetables in particular, being much larger than life, have expanses of the same color, the challenge is making them look three dimensional and not flat. At this point many of the items look very flat, the carrots, onions and tomatoes, for example. Those items only have their first coats, there is no depth or detail to them now. I will begin to add more detail, bringing them to life as the painting progresses. I have started working on some of the bell peppers and the large sunflowers, adding more detail and dimension to them, but I’m a long way from completing this journey, but the path is so much fun. Enjoy the progress, and I’ll get back to my journey.
The Funky Finds Experience this past weekend was definetly a different venue. Enjoyed meeting all the different creative people and seeing their wonderful creations. It is so inspiring to see so many folks using their gifts to create. Monday afternoon I took a few paintings and giclees over to the Buon Giorno Coffeehouse to hang on their Gallery Wall through November. Such a nice cozy venue. Drop by, have a cup of coffee and enjoy the artwork.
This Saturday is a really big day at the Common Grounds Community Garden in North Richland Hills. Together with the Home Depot Team and many volunteers, the garden build out will take place. The weather is suppose to be great and the excitement is rising! I am continuing to move forward on the Art piece for the garden. I did another sketch with some color added to get the composition and color combinations just right and then I started working on the hard board canvas. Although I will tweak it as I go, I am really loving the look so far. This is my first time painting on the hard board and let me just say, “I love it”. The smooth finish from the primer makes the surface excellent for the detail work I love to do. The paints flow so easily; I can’t say enough about this great surface to paint on. Here is the new sketch and the beginning work on the hard board.
Had a great time at the Grapevine Art Project Show, despite the rain and threat of a tornado! Not a big fan of tornado threats, that’s just not suppose to happen in October, but it did. After my anxiety attack subsided, we all were provided with a great opportunity to have some nice long conversations, when they shut us all in the area until the threat had passed. Thank you to all who came out on Friday evening despite the Rangers playing; WooHoo, World Series Bound, and those who braved the weather on Saturday. The Art of Gardening won Peoples Choice for Palette, many thanks to all who voted! Sunday, I painted at the Source for Fellowship Creative. What a wonderful time. I actually painted this piece on plywood and finished it in under 2 hours, not bad for someone who takes weeks and weeks on her paintings. Painted a lot looser and just had fun. There were three other artists painting at the same time, all were super talented and such an inspiration!
Things have really been busy this month, both on and off the canvas. I have been involved with the new NRH community garden, called Common Grounds. This garden will be a group effort between The City of North Richland Hills, Davis Memorial United Methodist Church and a very enthusiastic group of community volunteers. Our hope is to build a sense of community pride and to act as a center for educating and encouraging others to participate in gardening communities wherever they live. We promote organic growing and being good stewards of our earth. We will also encourage our gardeners to share a portion of their bounty with N.E.E.D. and The Community Enrichment Center. The process of building the beds, the garden center, and all the amenities will begin November 6th. Home Depot and Team Depot are major sponsors in this project, supplying materials and man power to make this garden a reality. I am so honored to have been asked to create an outdoor piece for the Common Grounds garden. Keep NRH Beautiful will sponsor the 3′ x4′ piece that I will design for the outside of the garden center. I’ll be posting progress on the garden and the art, as the project begins.
I am still working on my painting “The Art of Gardening” . I still have a ways to go, but it is getting there. This piece brings together many of the components that make our garden a work of art. A large portion of the piece is filled with the glorious Morning Glories that grow on our back fence. These flowers are so delicate and such a vibrant shade of blue, with just a touch of lavender. The morning blooms are really a site to see against their odd shaped leaves. This piece represents not only how lovely these flowers are, but the artistry with which they can totally take over an area. Even when you think you have tamed them, the vines can quickly become out of control. These beauties can put out runners 20 feet from the mother plant. My husband just sighs every time he goes into our side yard. I’m pretty sure, if it wasn’t for those glorious flowers, he would have pull them all up a long time ago. The always vibrant sunflowers and the hardy zinnias add splashes of color throughout our garden, just as they do on the canvas. Their yellows and oranges are spectacular. No garden is complete without a little recycled or renewed “garden art”. I have lots of this bits and pieces of “garden art”, throughout my yard. Glass bottles of different colors, old birdhouses in different shapes and sizes; each flower, plant, and object, all come together to create my garden masterpiece, both on and off the canvas. For more information on Morning Glories, check out the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_glory
There was a very nice turn out at the reception for the Art in the Garden show at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. There were over forty pieces of art on exhibit. Lots of food, wine and fine art. What a great opportunity to do some networking, meet some very talented artists and get some great feedback on my piece “Zebra Longwing and Penta”. Next up GAP Show in October.
I just delivered “Zebra Longwing and Penta” to the Art in the Garden Show at the Botanical Gardens in Fort Worth, hosted by the Fort Worth Garden Club. All Artwork was juried in and will be exhibited in the halls of the Garden Center. There will be over 30 different artists displaying oils, acrylics, watercolors, sculpture, photography and jewelry. Looking for something to do this weekend? What better way to spend your time than viewing some great art!
Friday Sept. 10th 12:00 – 7:00 pm
Saturday, Sept. 11th 8:00 am – 8:00 pm, with Gallery Night Reception from 5 until 8, there will be music, wine, food and the Peoples Choice Award will be announced.
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