Art, Inspire

May Flowers

I have always enjoyed flowers.  My mother always had big beds of flowers and now my husband keeps me in paradise, as he likes to say, by planting lots of beautiful flowers in our yard.

As an artist I have enjoyed painting flowers and I am drawn to a loose style.  I also love to decorate my home with my art as well as other peoples art.  I recently discovered C Brooke Ring’s art on Pinterest.  At the time she had many paintings for sale and I bought this one for my family room:

!brookepainting

Here is a time lapsed picture of her painting “my painting”. I love seeing all the layers and details as they are added.

Recently Brooke has offered painting classes.  They are about two hours and you can paint along with her.  They are a Zoom class so you can ask questions during the class.  Once the class is over she posts them on YouTube. If you are having trouble keeping up you can go back and paint and pause at your own pace.

You can find the classes here: https://cbrookering.com/collections/workshops

paintingclasses

I took the two flower classes and I am thinking about taking the other two.  I also have a feeling that she will be posting more in the future,

The first flower class I had sign up for was after the Zoom class went live so I just painted it using YouTube.  I thought I would show you how it went for me.

This is how my under painting looked after the first hour of class.

!c1underpainting

After the second hour of class this is how my painting looked:

!C12

The next day I went back and worked a little more:

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I set it on the mantle in our family room and kept looking at it.  So I made a few adjustments.  I would still like to keep working on it, maybe even paint it again.

!c14

The second class I was able to do it through Zoom.  So here is my painting after the first day of class:

!C21

The next day I made some adjustments.  I would like to do a little more with it as well.  I think adding a few more layers makes a difference.  Also taking a break and just looking at it helps.  It is not so much about making my painting look like Brooke’s, but it is about me being happy with what I am doing and finding my own style in the process.

!c22

Please note these classes are for your own practice and enjoyment, and are not to be recreated for sale or distribution.

Brooke is a very generous artist and offers many tutorials and videos on her YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIJI_65DmDZPXWEwWp05IrQ

I do not work very much with tube acrylics, but I enjoyed the classes and learned a lot.  I encourage you to check out her classes. They  are a lot of fun.

Hugs,

Jane

Ps.  Here is another picture of my painting on my mantle.  Notice the same picture in front of it. I got it from Bethany Joy.  I definitely like happy colors.

!finished

Art, Inspire

Busy Hands – Happy Heart

In the evenings I like to sit with my husband and watch a little TV. Probably like most creatives it is hard to just sit there, so I need something to do with my hands.  I wanted to find something that would keep my hands busy but not over stimulate my brain and keep me from being able to sleep.

I admire Michele Palmer’s art work and am friends with her on Facebook.  She was advertising a punch needle class that she was teaching in Mumford, NY.  I immediately loved the projects because she took her designs and use of color and turned them into punch needle designs.   I convinced my husband that this would be a perfect birthday gift for me and how far could Mumford, NY be from Harrisburg, PA, anyway?

projects

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Art, Inspire

Pictures to Draw From…

Not too long ago we talked about keeping a sketchbook  which is an invaluable tool for an artist to keep quick sketches of ideas, resources, and to just practice.  Another thing that I do is keep a photo reference file.  I tear out pictures from magazines, and sales catalogues that inspire me.  I organize them into folders so they are easy for me to find when inspiration strikes.

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Art, DIY, Inspire

Creative Flower Challenge

I always enjoy spending time with creative friends.  These times usually involve food and catching up with what’s going on in our lives.  Some of the things I really about being with my creative friends is sharing ideas and creative brainstorming.  My creative friends help fill my well when it is dry, they encourage, and they get/keep me excited about my art.  Sometimes we have so many ideas I think my head will explode…and I love it!

The other day I was with my creative friend Glenda Payne and she suggested each of us do a large floral canvas.  One thing lead to another and we decided to do 10 floral canvases and hold each other accountable.

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Art, Inspire

Merry Christmas 2017

Well it is hard to believe Christmas is almost here again.  Normally I would be giving you a tour of my house, but I realize that my home doesn’t look much different than other years.

Yes, every year I try to bring out different trees and decorate them a little differently,  but I find I keep going back to my favorite things.  So I thought I would give you a little peak into my home, a couple of new things (or at least arranged differently) and those favorites.

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Inspire

Favorite Hostess Gifts

During the holidays there are lots of little parties and events that we get invited to where we would like to take a little gift to the hostess.  To be prepared I like to keep a few of my favorite things on hand so that I am ready when I need a little gift.  These can also work great for those little gifts you need for teachers, co-workers, and personal service providers, i.e., mailman, hairdresser, or massage therapist.

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Art, Inspire

Living with Art – Painting on Fabric

This week for our living with art class we painted on fabric (find out more here about living with art).  As we have been doing the projects I tried to find things that my students can use.  For the fabric painting I found this messenger bag from Darice.  I thought it would be great for them to carry their art journal and painting supplies in along with the paper mache pencil case.

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Art, Designing, Inspire

Living with Art – Painting Paper Mache

For our third week of living with art we painted paper mache.  Our first project was a pencil box for them to keep their pencils and other small supplies in.  I let them paint whatever they would like using DecoArt Americana acrylics.

Our class is 2 hours and they had a half an hour left so I gave them a second project – a small paper Mache jewelry box.

Continue reading “Living with Art – Painting Paper Mache”

Art, Inspire

“Living with Art” Classes

This summer I offered to have some art classes with some young ladies 8-9 years old.  They all love art and love to create.  Since they are younger, I did not want to weigh them down with drawing or painting classes.  I wanted for them to just enjoy “art”, but I also wanted them to see how art is a part of everyday life.

So each week we will be doing art on a different surface and using different products.

The different surfaces we will be painting/creating on are:

  • paper
  • glass
  • canvas
  • wood
  • fabric
  • shrink dinks (plastic)
  • paper Mache
  • food

And in the process we will be using these mediums:

  • watercolors
  • colored pencils
  • craft acrylics
  • tube acrylics
  • glass paints
  • fabric paints
  • food dyes

And we will be making things that we live with, use and give as gifts.

Each week we will be doing a different project and I will be sharing with you what we are doing.  I would love for you to be following along and creating with us and/or teaching someone else the joy of creating.

When I teach kids I have three rules:

  • There are no rules – you can paint anything you want
  • It is OK to copy –  and learn from others
  • Everyone’s work is good

I love teaching kids. They are always so happy with what they do, so each week they will be painting their own designs.  I might give some suggestions but find that they have great ideas themselves.

I know not all of us feel that confident so I will also be creating some step by step projects throughout the summer that relate to the projects we are doing and I will do them as separate posts.

I do have another class of older student that I taught drawing and painting to last year.  They will be doing the same projects, but I might be giving them a few extra things.

In this class I want my students to just enjoy creating.  I hope that they will be able to see art in the things around them. But most of all I hope to give them a foundation and confidence to enjoy art for the rest of their lives.

I hope you will join us for this artful journey this summer.

Happy Creating,

Jane

 

 

 

 

Art, DIY, Inspire

Froggy Pins Fun-raiser

“Isn’t it funny how you can start something and it just keeps growing.  That is what happened for me with these frog pins.

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One year my chapter was having a pin exchange and I came up with the idea to make these frog pins.  I called them my Jump 4 Joy frogs, because my frogs were so happy that they wanted to jump for joy. As I thought about them I thought it would be fun to give them names.  Fun names like “Cute Carol”, “Awesome Al”, “Sweet Sarah”, etc.  Every one loved them and selected them because of their names. Continue reading “Froggy Pins Fun-raiser”