Happy April!!!!

Happy April! I know I am a little late in saying that but life has been busy and I have not had a chance to pop in. I wanted to share a sneak peek at a new recycled material collage I started working on yesterday. No birds in this one unless you consider chicks and hens birds. I sat in the sun and drew a boot. Not overly exciting but the image of the finished piece of art in my head is unique and different so I can’t wait to finish this “Boot” art.

 

My husband has 3 pairs of work boots given to him from his father and well my husband is not a work boot kind of guy. Which was great for me I had my pick of 6 different models. I drew the boot on a brown paper bag with colored pencils.

I am helping put together an art show at Abbey’s preschool and one of the crafts we are going to have available for the children to do is to decorate a flower pot for their moms for Mother’s Day. I planted the Zinnia seeds last week and they are starting to peek through. Today the kiddies and I are going to start our flower and veggie seeds.

 

This was my birthday present, a little green house to start seeds in. It is so nice to have a place to put the seeds other than all over the kitchen and the dining room! We will take it down during the summer and put it back up next fall, to grow lettuce and other cool weather veggies. I know it doesn’t take much to make me happy!

Here is Isabel; I had to give her a bath yesterday. She once again found something she thought made her smell fabulous and made me cringe. I searched the yard for any casualties but I found nothing. I have no idea what she found to roll in, I hope whatever it was is gone.

 

I guess she is trying to rub off the shampoo smell!

Before I began my boot yesterday I sat on the porch and began a new acrylic painting. I didn’t get as far as I hoped. I really need to buy new paint. I am out of two primary colors and white. I hope the Easter Bunny brings me a basket of paint.

I am going to be listing a new piece of art in my Etsy shop today. Another butterfly collage. It has been to long since I have listed anything new, I really need to make time to create more!

A Great Horned Owl and some fun Vintage Goodies …

Before I started painting my owl I decided I was going to do something I rarely do and paint this beautiful bird his actual color. I almost never do that and usually the only time I do is when the colors of the subject are loud and vibrant, like a butterfly or the Sun Conure Parrots.

Each time I work with watercolors I learn something new. I have been struggling with the fact that watercolors are not as naturally bold and dramatic as acrylics. the paint colors are softer and I have been trying to manipulate the medium to work with my style. I especially enjoy working with browns, grays, and yellows. I love how warm they are and how in this particular piece they give the owl a glow.

Other than the watercolor paper and paint the entire piece was made up of vintage materials. The book cover was rescued from the “Free” box at the library and the paper came out of an old set of encyclopedias my in-laws gave to me and the thread and furniture nails came from a cute shop on Etsy.

I wanted to share a few new vintage goodies I purchased on Etsy, first my furniture nails and the adorable box they came in. I have used the nails on several pieces, including the Great Horned Owl collage and the Robin on the Cherry Blossom Branch painting. I can’t get over how cute the box is! I not only purchased the nails but some vintage thread and a fun glass daffodil container from, sweetcindylouwho .

Today I received my newest purchase, colorful tacks from a fabulous vintage shop called, cheryl12108 . I love the yellow and green they are going to be perfect for my upcoming creations.

Happy Leap Day!!!!

Watercolor Collage-Orange-tip Butterfly Resting on a Magenta Zinnia

Hi, it has been quite awhile since I have posted anything new here on my blog! Life is finally starting to get back to normal, whatever normal is. This was the first week since the beginning of the new year that I was actually able to create a couple of days.

I have been experimenting quite a bit with watercolors and have finished several pieces. I love working with a new medium. It is fun challenging myself and working through new ideas.

The art I am sharing today is a watercolor collage. In the center of the art is a circular piece of watercolor paper featuring an orange-tip butterfly sitting on a magenta zinnia. A vintage book cover is the base of the art collage. I cut vintage book pages into a petal pattern and created a frame to go around the watercolor. Vintage purple thread was attached to the collage for easy hanging.

Rainbow Rooster in Florescent Pink Vintage Frame ...

Cheery, colorful, bright, vibrant, and glittery are a few adjectives Noah came up with to describe my latest creation. My newest piece of art is made up of recycled and vintage materials. The frame and sequences I purchased at a flea market, one of the books I used was purchased at the Salvation Army, the other was a book our local library was giving away, and the thread was part of a purchase from a vintage shop on Etsy.

Before I started creating the art piece I dyed some of the book pages. I mixed a little acrylic paint with water and hung the wet sheets from the laundry line to dry. After the pages were dry I sewed together the light teal sky and drew the fabulous flowers with a black marker.

The cheery rooster was created with vintage book pages, recycled card stock, pastels, colored pencil, and pen.

All the different parts of the collage have been sewed with vintage thread and glittery sequence.

The pretty vintage frame was originally painted gold. I repainted with a fun florescent pink.



I love creating collages, there are so many possibilities.




Here are the beautiful flowers and colors that inspired this rainbow colored piece of art.

Sunflowers ...

Zinnias and Black Eyed Suzannes ...

Coneflowers ...

Morning Glories ...

Impatiens ...

and Cosmos ...

The Perfect Pair ...

My latest recycled collage, “The perfect Pair” was inspired by the beautiful coneflowers in my yard and the vibrant Goldfinches that play among them.

I used a variety of recycled and vintage items when creating this piece of art, including a brown paper bag, vintage book pages, old thread, a recycled cereal box, sequins, vintage beads, fishing line, nails, magazine pages, and an old IKEA frame. The coneflower, Goldfinch, sky, hill and frame were all colored and created with colored pencils and pastels.

Have a great Wednesday!

Pretty Peacocks ...

Lately I have been creating pieces of art featuring birds. I love painting and drawling vibrant and colorful roosters and owls. Both birds are full of so much personality and I have endless ideas when it comes to creating these feathered friends. On New Year’s Eve we took a trip to a local zoo. They had beautiful

White Swans,

Black Swans,





and Elegant Peacocks.






I have wanted to do some pieces featuring peacocks and this week I finally finished my first three drawings. All three colored pencil and pastel pieces were created on vintage music pages from a hymn book I found at the Salvation Army.





I have a number of ideas for each image. The first project I am working on is a series of multimedia collages mostly made up of recycled materials.






This is the first collage I have created. The peacock image was printed on a recycled brown paper bag. Other materials use in the collage include a recycled cereal box, ticking, vintage book pages, vintage sequins, a doily my mother-in-law was giving away, more recycled brown paper bag, vintage beads and thread that was my great-grandmothers. I also used colored pencil and pastel, gold glitter paint and left over coffee to stain the doily. I am hoping to finish the other two collages this weekend.

I hope your weekend is full of LOVE!