Cleaning The Clutter Of My Life......Plus Some Art Card Designs

 Before I get to the clutter part of my life, I did make a couple of new art cards a while back.  The "Butterfly Garden" card above was created from the original painting below (with Chris's help cropping and sizing everything).  I'm very happy with the way this one turned out.

Chris had to do a bit more work on the "Bearded Iris Garden" card because the original painting below was a big square and he was trying to change the shape while keeping as much of the main subject as possible.  I would love to get these art cards (including all that I did before this) photographed and onto ETSY but I just don't think that is going to happen at this point.  Seems like too much to get done for now and this kind of thing can wait until the upcoming months.

With just over 2 months until we leave West Point, I have some clutter and garbage to remove from my life.  For me, the worst possible thing would be to not bother with it now and have the movers pack all my trash, with me having to throw it all away when I get to Orlando.  I'm trying to avoid that so I've been working in my messy studio above to go through everything, recycle what I can, throw away what I don't need and just organize what I'm taking with me to make it easier to pack.  I tackled the messiest part of the room this week, the area to the left of my desk that is actually not in this photo.  It is all clean, organized and ready to go....I was able to get rid of a ton of junk from this area.  Going through everything I found things I hadn't seen in years, things I wondered why I didn't throw away long ago and many items that gave me the "so that is where it has been all this time" moment.

Dudley of course kept me company through the whole thing and I think was standing there in awe of my finally having done the stuff I should have done a long time ago.  He by the way offered no help with this task what so ever but did stop long enough to pose for the camera.

Butterfly & African Violets Painting Pattern Packet

I'm happy to announce the creation of my very first painting pattern packet, Butterfly & African Violets. It was a project that took many many weeks and like most other things in life, turned out to be more of a challenge then I expected. I'm so pleased with the results though and I hope this tutorial will be the first of many to come.

This pattern packet is dedicated to a wonderful blog reader of mine who is also a budding artist. She gave me the idea and motivation to come out with my first painting packet as well as being the inspiration for the subject matter itself. Thank you La Rae from PA!!!

This pattern packet teaches you everything you need to know to create the Butterfy & African Violets you see pictured. The painting was done on a 6" x 8" gallery canvas but the pattern included can be inlarged if you wish to paint it on a different surface.

The tutorial comes with 18 full color photos as well as 17 instructional pages that can be printed out if you wish. It is available in two forms....an e-mailed PDF file or a CD-ROM, whichever you prefer.

For more information or to order, click on the widget in the top left hand column of my blog and it will take you directly to the website page it is listed on. I hope anyone who purchases this packet will show me the results of their work as I would love to feature their artistic creations on my blog.

Butterfly And African Violets Painting Inspirations

Just yesterday I finished my Butterfly & African Violets painting. This piece was painted with acrylic paint on an ornate vintage ceiling tin.

Lots of my favorite color in this one......PURPLE!

The inspiration for this acrylic painting came from the 4 lovely African Violets I purchased a couple of weeks ago at one of my favorite nurseries. They always have a beautiful selection there, not just African Violets but just about everything. I'll be purchasing the Geraniums for my garden from them later this month and lots of Impatiens from them in the month of May.

Some of the inspirational African Violets in their new home by my Orchids and Maidenhair Fern.

My only delemma was which color plant to use in my ceiling tin painting. I finally settled on the purple and white ones though.......

This piece will be coming to my website and ETSY site www.artfulcreations.etsy.com soon. Enjoy the spring weather and try to look around for something that can inspire you everyday.

Everything Is Coming Up Butterflies

On the weekend I was painting butterflies.....as you can probably guess, I'm longing for spring here and my painting projects were a wonderful way to take me out of the cold and get me thinking warm thoughts.

I've been painting in miniature again, more sand dollar pendants!!!

I actually really love to alternate painting on canvas or tin or whatever larger surface I'm working on at the moment, with painting in miniature such as eggs or pendants.

Someone recently asked me why I switch back and forth between projects and more specifically, different sizes of projects, rather then just say....finishing my Hydrangea Wreath canvas painting and then moving onto something else.

I love to alternate between painting projects because I feel it really gives my mind a change, a rest, a much needed break from things. It keeps me "fresh" on whatever larger project I'm working on at the moment...which right now is my canvas wreath. I guess I would say it allows me to step back and give myself much needed perspective on what I'm doing. This also gives me a mental break from constantly thinking about the same thing and I think, lets me step back and look objectively at my work and see what needs to be done next.

So this weekend I did a bit of both....some canvas painting and work on a few new butterfly miniatures. My dog groomer has suggested that I paint some cat/dog art pendants to sell in his shop so keep an eye out for those in the future. Today however, I'm off to paint some bugs in miniature!

Tea & Roses Gothic Vintage Ceiling Tin

I just finished a new ceiling tin the other day, "Tea & Roses" done on a beautiful old gothic ceiling tin. I have found a few of these beauties and I snatched them right up when I saw them. I'm always keeping my eye out for new tins that will be a beautiful canvas to a new painting. This particular tin is 13 3/4" x 9 1/2".

The tin itself was in beautiful condition and all I had to do before I started painting, was apply a layer of acrylic gesso.

This one called out to me to have a teacup design painted on it so that is exactly what I went for. Each ceiling tin I come across is so different in style, design and architectual interest that no matter what I think I plan on doing, I do let the tin design dictate to me how I should proceed.

Sometimes I change my plans before I even start to paint, as I sit and think about the tin more and more. Other times I change directions while I'm painting or atleast, keep my options open to add something later if I need too. The cup is rimmed in gold and I decided I wanted some sweet little washy roses on the the cup along with some gold accent dots, to create a nice elegant teacup. Underneath the cup, resting on the table, is a piece of vintage lace.

I really wanted a butterfly to rest on the rim of the cup also....maybe the tea drinker is outside, having a tea party and this little butterfly happened to come along....who knows.

Of course framing the piece and adding to what makes this tin special, are the cascading roses, leaves and vines coming from the top and the sides.

In the end, I hope it is a piece that a tea lover as well as a lover of roses will appreciate. I will soon be listing this piece to my ETSY shop and also my website: http://www.artfulcreations.etsy.com/ .

Butterfly And Pink Rose Original Acrylic On Canvas

I'm back from vacation and I feel very inspired and excited to start painting again. Sometimes a short break is all I need to recharge the creative batteries. I finished this Butterfly and Pink Rose painting before vacation and just put the final touches on it yesterday and was able to officially call it "completed". This is 8 x 10 acrylic on canvas board and comes with the stand shown.

To me, the best thing about this rose is that it is not currently being munched on by Japanese Beetles, like my own roses are at this very moment. Here in NY, this has been a wicked year for those blasted bugs, I have never seen it so bad before. I'm looking forward to the arrival of August as the beetles will be gone then.

A close up of the butterfly and some of the rose detailing.

Currently this is available on my ETSY site: http://www.artfulcreations.etsy.com/ and will soon be coming to my website. In my next post I'll be showing some outrageously small miniatures. I've been working with a worldwide miniatures club doing lots of custom work and I have to say, it has created some new challenges as well as fun painting experiences for me.

Until next time, stay cool and enjoy summer and stay away from the beetles.

And The Winner Is

After reaching for the kitchen mixing bowl this evening, I have a winner. CONGRATULATIONS to Melissa Michaels of The Inspired Room - http://www.theinspiredroom.wordpress.com/ . You have just won my Goose Egg Floral Butterfly Pendant. Please get in touch with me Melissa and let me have your mailing address so I can get this right out to you.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the latest giveaway, we had a great turnout. I will most likely be hosting another in February to celebrate the opening of my Cafe Press Shop. I've been making lots of products from my watercolors and I'm in the process of getting that shop open and ready for business. More on that next year.

And The Winner Is

My husband Chris just picked the winning entry from our mixing bowl. The winner is Maggie aka Garden Girl from http://www.lavenderdaze.blogspot.com/ . Please contact me Maggie so that I can get your full name and address to ship your little butterfly off to you this week.

I'll be having another giveaway in the month of December, everyone is welcome to enter, just keep checking back throughout the month. I'm not sure what it will be yet but perhaps another piece of egg art. You'll have to stay tuned for that part. Thanks to everyone who entered.

Bangle Tiger

I've just shipped out a special custom order, bangle tiger mailbox this week. I was contacted by this customer a few months ago as she wanted to discusss a special design that would coordinate with the inside of her house.

She forwarded samples of her wallpaper with the lily and butterfly design that you see in the top photo. The wallpaper has a very contemporary look and so to keep that theme, I matched the flowers and butterfly to the wallpaper. I kept the color palette simple on this one, gray, silver, black and white were the main colors that the customer wanted in order to echo the design of the wallpaper.

She also sent me a photo of a special piece in her home, a stuffed animal, bangle tiger that she had on display. Her one request for the painted tiger was that he retain the piercing blue eyes that the stuffed animal version had. The tiger was painted on the box and then I incorporated the contemporary floral design around him. I think the two go very well together. Fun but also very challenging at times to create this one.

Emu Egg Butterfly Jewelry Box

I really ran a muck since my last post, I finished another jewelry box. This one I will be listing in my ETSY shop.

The star of this box is a butterfly that is perched on top of some burgandy, pink and yellow flowers.

This box opens to reveal a fabric lining, just as the brides box did. Rather then a curved horizontal cut, this one has a beautifully done straight cut. I have to thank Corinne for the beauty of these cuts because if she didn't do such a wonderful job with that part of it, it wouldn't look good no matter what subject matter was painted on it. Here you can see a close up of the hinge area.

I painted the whole box light pink, green & white, then built my design from there. The funny part way, I meant to leave it like the brides box that I painted, with the bottom half of the egg left its natural color. This however is where your best planned ideas go wrong. I was a bit sloppy with applying color to the top of the box, I really ended up having quite a bit of paint on the bottom half. I thought, hey no problem, I'll just wash it off and clean the bottom half up. Well, what a surprise, water, baby wipes, alcohol not even Goo Gone (which gets everything off any surface by the way) would work on this box. Turns out the shell is that heavily textured that, once you get too much paint on it, forget it, it's not coming off. This is where you have to be flexible in art and go with the flow. So, I decided that the whole box should be painted that base color, and so it was.

I also carried the design from the top half, to below the opening of the box on the bottom half. I really feel the design flows a lot better that way rather then forcing it to stay in one area. I really struggled with this box too....who knows why but it took me forever to get drawn out just the way I wanted it to be. Once it was though, I was able to dive right in and paint. From there on in it went pretty fast.

**I've decided that around mid month, each month, I'm going to be doing an "In The Spotlight" post on my blog. Here I will be featuring an artist whose work I love and greatly admire. I've got a long list of all different kinds of artists and craftspeople I plan on asking so I hope it will be a very varied display of work. I'll be posting my first artist next week so stay tuned. I hope you will all enjoy discovering some new and beautiful art work.