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!

From Start to Finish in an Instant ...

I wanted to share the evolution of my latest Northern Saw Whet Owl drawing, in instagram. My materials included, a vintage encyclopedia cover (shown above), vintage tacks and a yellow book page from of course a vintage cook book. It has been so long since I worked with colored pencils I didn’t realize how much I missed them until I started creating.

Step 1, rip apart the encyclopedia and cut it to size. A great way to get some anger out!

Step 2, roughly outline the owl image in colored pencil.

Step 3, start coloring, my favorite part!

Step 4, spray the drawing with a protective varnish, my least favorite part, yuck!

Step 5, cut, measure, glue, and decorate the yellow paper. Glue the image on top and add the tacks.

Step 6, color the largest book cover with pastels, colored pencil, acrylic paint, and once again go outside and spray with protective varnish.

Step 7 put it all together!

Step 8, take some fabulous photos. That unfortunately did not happen I was missing one important material the sun. Hopefully I will get this cute owl in my shop once the sun decides to make an appearance.

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!!!!

An Amazing Cause ...

In the beginning of February I had the privilege of being approached by Brooke Desserich, author and founder of The Cure Starts Now Foundation to donate a piece of art to their gala and silent auction in March.

I was flattered. This year the event has a jungle theme, so I decided to create a piece of art that would fit in with the event. I knew I wanted to paint birds, of course but I was uncertain what kind.

I decided to paint two Sun Conure Parrots, they are colorful, happy, cheerful birds and I thought they would be perfect for the event.

I hope my art helps this wonderful cause!

Have a beautiful Monday!

A Robin and a Cherry Blossom ...

I wanted to share another watercolor painting this morning. A robin sitting on a cherry blossom branch. Robin’s have the prettiest singing voices and other than their colorful chests are a little drab so I decided to dress him up a bit in this painting.

Teal, blue, purple, orange, burgundy, grey, brown, and I few other colors I am sure I am leaving out decorate his colorful feathers. He is sitting on a cherry blossom branch just starting to bloom.

The watercolor is attached to a piece of mdf that I first painted white. After the white dried I added the orange stripes and then stained the piece with a burnt umber acrylic paint. The watercolor is mounted to the mdf with glue and with beautiful vintage decorative nails I purchased on Etsy from, sweetcindylouwho.

Have a beautiful Sunday!!!

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.

My First Water Color ...

I completed my first water color painting this morning. Meet my Owl Family! They were inspired by an owl family at our local zoo. Our local zoo takes in injured birds that cannot be released back into the wild. They acquired a baby barn owl and placed him in with the two barn owls they already had so the older owls could take care of him, they are so sweet. Every time we go to the zoo they are huddled together.

I was a little nervous to try water colors. They are very different from acrylic. Acrylic is forgiving when you make a mistake, water color is not. I am happy with how the painting came out. I am going to make prints and cards featuring this colorful family this week. I am also hoping to finish a collage I started, list some new items in my Etsy shop and clean my studio. I am crossing my fingers I have enough time to finish my to do list!

Have a relaxing Sunday!

We have a Tree ...

I can’t believe its December. I wish we could magically gain an extra two weeks before Santa comes to visit. Yesterday I finished decorating and we bought our Christmas tree. Unfortunately when it comes to gifts we have a total of zero. Worse than that we haven’t even talked or decided what we are going to get anyone. Michael and I have definitely been procrastinating a little more than usual. I just can’t get into the Christmas spirit, I feel like the Grinch.

In other news I participated in a little vendor night at Abbey’s preschool last week. It was the first year for the event and it was a little slow but it was a lot of fun. The women in charge of the event and the vendors who participated are a really great group of women. Being a stay-at-home mom and also working from home limits the amount of time I get to socialize. I haven’t laughed that much it a while and it felt good to be around other women. Overall it was a great night I sold a painting, some cards, and ornaments and best of all had a lot of fun. I would definitely show my art again at Abbey’s school.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out my give-away take a peek here,http://blueeyeddragonfly.blogspot.com/2011/11/holiday-give-away.html . It ends on December, 8.Also I will be adding a few more cards, tags, and ornaments to my shop. They are great stocking stuffers and everything in my shop will be shipped next day unless it’s the weekend.

Have a great Monday!!!