Painting Tiny - Bite Sized 3D Artwork.......

This week I decided I really wanted to paint small and so I went to my basement stash of canvases and ferreted around for a while until I finally found what I was looking for, some of the smallest sized canvases I have on hand, a 6" x 6" and a 4" x 6".   "This piece is "Sunburst Monarch" full of color and happiness.  I think I will make a tile trivet out of this design.......

I also felt like painting a dragonfly so on the 4" x 6" canvas I created "Jeweled Beauty".  Both paintings are created using acrylic mediums so they are 3D, you can actually see and feel the texture on each piece.  I'm finding textured work really has the effect of making you want to reach out and touch it when you walk by.  It is really fun to feel the different levels of textures under your fingers, very tactile.

Aside from painting, I'm dealing with a house that is in a state of flux at the moment (no end in sight either).  Some of you might know that Chris and I are moving to Orlando this year. We closed on our house the week after Thanksgiving and we will be moving away from NY in a little over 4 months so these are the start of some crazy busy days for us.  We're going through all our belongings, trying to throw away what we don't want to move with us , organizing everything and even though we'll have movers when the time comes, we're packing our more precious items ourselves. We're very excited to get started on our new journey and I dearly wish we could leave now but we have to wait a few more months, most likely till the end of May.  At some point when the time gets closer I'll have to pack up my art studio but not quite yet, I will keep painting for many more months, until the last minute basically.  I always find I miss painting when I'm away from it for too long.

Bits & Pieces

I'm coming into home stretch with my new painting.  This weekend I'm putting the finishing touches on it and going over all the areas with a fine tooth comb to see that everything is just the way I want it to be before I call it complete....

I won't show the painting in it's entirety until it is completely finished but at least you can see the happy bluebirds painted on their garden perches for now.

This little guy had to be totally reworked from what I had originally designed as his size wasn't quite right.  After a bit of a make-over though, he came out looking just the way I wanted.

Yes, sand dollar pendants are back in my ETSY shop.  I had originally thought months ago that I was finished creating them but I find, I missed painting them very much so I decided to start offering them again.  I did however put a few rules into play so that I would continue to enjoy working on these ocean pendants.....  First of all, sand dollars were my favorite, the surface really speaks to me as a fun, creative and just plain great blank canvas to work on in miniature so, I will not be bringing any puzzle, glass or wood pendants back to life, just the ones I love the most, the sand dollars.

Second and most important of the two rules to pendant painting happiness, no custom orders .  Custom orders are only available with canvas art, not pendants.  Unfortunately, offering that kind of work on my sand dollar pendants sucked the joy right from the air when I had to create them and that equals (=) no fun anymore.  I'm stocking my ETSY shop with whatever tickles my fancy in the sand dollar department.  What I will have at any given time is a mystery and I will paint new pieces every once in a while, when the spirit moves me, which equals (=) keeping the fun in my miniature art.

"Fair Weather Friends" - From Scratch

I started a new painting about 2 1/2 weeks ago, "Fair Weather Friends" and I wanted to show how this painting (which is still in progress) got it's start in life.  The above is a section I just finished yesterday and so far, it is coming along, making good progress each day that I work on it.

The first step in the process of a new painting is one I cannot show you a photo of, because it happens in my brain.  It is the initial concept which can take anywhere from hours to days to germinate in my head.  Once that happens and I have a clear idea of what I would like to do and what size I would like to do it in, I create a sketch.  Above, I've selected a canvas, a large 20" x 20" that my new design will be created on.  First I get the basics of a happy blue sky completed before I can move on to anything else.

I have spent more time with the sky, tweaking the colors, making them bolder in areas and even though I've spent quite a while working on it, I'm not finished just yet, it will be adjusted again as the painting moves toward being finished.  At this point, what could it be?

The beginnings of a birdhouse..........

A birdhouse with Climatis  growing all around it......

Purple Climatis are now beginning to emerge and the makings of some fair weather (feathered) friends hanging out together.  A painting this size, with this much content and detail will take several weeks to complete.  Layers of color need to be built, shading and highlighting as I go and I can see already, this piece will need some additions that were not in the original sketch.  If you listen to the painting, it will always tell you .  As each painting grows and changes, it will let you know what direction to take it in, the artist just has to "listen".

Garden Perch & Emerging Blooms

I'm almost finished with my 10" x 10" Bearded Iris and bluebird painting "Garden Perch".  I started it this week and all the details are completed now, everything is done except the background....I'll get rolling on that this coming week.  I'm really enjoying seeing my paintings on a white background at first, I like the clean crisp look that lets the main subject matter "pop". 

We finally started to have some sunny weather again this week which allowed me to do lots of garden clean up and got me out there with my camera as well, to get photos of what is currently blooming.

I still have to plant annuals for this year but hope to get a jump start on that this week.  Lots of colorful, beautiful blooms in the garden this spring to inspire creativity.

I hope no matter what area you live in, you are enjoying some lovely blooms that will inspire you to be creative this week.

Bearded Iris Garden Complete.........

"Bearded Iris Garden" is complete, I just finished it this past week.  It went through many stages along the way, painting the leaves, flowers and adding all the little details that complete a painting.  I love seeing my work through the eyes of my camera, it lets me know what I'm doing, what needs to be changed and how the painting is progressing.  I'm starting a small companion piece that will continue the theme of this painting, it will be 10" x 10".  Plus I"m adding a little winged surprise to that one.  Maybe next week I'll be able to show a little bit of the progress........




"Beyond The Depths" - Abstract Acrylic Triptych

"Beyond The Depths" is the newest abstract triptych painting to leave my studio this week. Would you believe when I sat down to first start working on this, it was supposed to be a hummingbird painting? After the first day I was thinking "ok, maybe I see a hummingbird in there somewhere." By the end of the second day this piece let me know that it wanted to be an abstract, one that focuses on the deep, dark and unchartered depths of the ocean. I think it is really important to listen to my work; my paintings always guide me in the direction they want me to take. Sometimes pieces turn out just as I envision them and other times, like with this painting, they take me in a totally different direction and it is up to me to listen.

The painting I'm currently working on was supposed to be a garden sculpture painting with abstract elements and instead, it turned into a fairy painting......see what I mean? I just listened and that is where the painting led me. Hopefully that one will be finished in the next few days.

"Beyond The Depths" measures 12"h x 24 1/2" w x 1 1/2" d. www.artfulcreations.etsy.com

A Garden Dragonfly That Sparked An Idea

I took this dragonfly photo 3 years ago when I came outside one day to find this little guy waiting for me in my garden. He was kind enough to sit still while I took this photo of him resting on one of my Iris leaves. I didn't think much of it at the time but last year in 2010, I became very inspired by this photo as I looked at it over the course of months. He didn't know it at the time but this dragonfly inspired me to create 3 paintings based on my sighting that day. The paintings really do not look at all like him, he just planted the seed that created the spark in my mind and my imagination did the rest.

This small dragonfly painting is called "Floating", featuring a large and small dragonfly team.

This piece is my favorite of the bunch for sure...."Kaleidoscope Dragonflies". With this diptych I wanted to create a painting that reminded me of looking through a kaleidoscope with all the changing colors and shapes. The dragonflies also wrap around the sides on this piece.

"Dancing Dragonflies" was the first painting to be created after I saw my garden visitor. What is the inspiration for your favorite creations, how did a spark of an idea take hold in your mind? I would love to hear how everyone else gets inspired to create what they love. www.artfulcreations.etsy.com

Clematis Blooms And The Inspiration For A Painting

As I mentioned in my last post, inspirations for paintings come from just about anywhere and everywhere you can imagine. Each year I always take photos of my Clematis when they start to bloom in the spring. They are so colorful and elegant, I simply love this blooming vine.

I have 3 colors, pink, white (which remind me of fragile pieces of paper) and purple, which is of course my favorite color.

I've been wanting to paint some Clematis for a while now and seeing the blooms start to emerge a few weeks ago got me inspired to get going with my ideas.

This painting is entitles "Flourish" and showcases the blooms of my pink Clematis, set against a black background.

This piece is a triptych and it was lots of fun to position the canvases to imitate how the Clematis vines grow out in the garden. The vines flow up, down and all around the trellis I have set up for them.

I think the black background always sets a colorful design off and makes it really pop.

This triptych measures a total of 13" h x 19" w x 1/1/2" d. Each panel is a different size, which also represents the different sizes of the flowers and blooms when they are growing out in the garden. My purple and pink Clematis are the largest and the whites are the smallest, most delicate looking of the 3 varieties. The canvases are 8" h x 8" w - 8" h x 6" w & 6" h x 4" w.

I hope this spring everyone can find a focal point in their gardens that will inspire a new creation.

Awakening - Swallowtail Butterfly & Lilac Acrylic Triptych

A new painting just flew out of my studio this week.... "Awakening"- a swallowtail butterfly triptych. This piece and a few others will be flying off to Celebrations Gallery next week . http://www.celebrationsshoppes.com/ .

I really got the bug to paint some lilacs a couple of weeks ago and felt that a swallowtail would be the focal point of this painting should I decide to put my ideas on canvas.

I always have lots of ideas for paintings floating around my brain, some come to fruition while others seem to fade off as nothing becomes of them, while more still, get filed away on the back burner for another time.

With this particular piece, I didn't think about it all that much, I got the idea and decided to run with it. I wanted to use black as a background because I knew it would be very striking with the subject matter. All that remained was for me to play around with the orientation of different sized canvases to see which sizes and configurations I wanted to use.

Displayed with a 1/4" between each panel, this piece measures a total of 16" h x 16" w. Each panel is a 1 1/2" deep gallery canvas. The top piece being 8" x 8" and the smaller canvases measuring 6" h x 4"w.

I hope this brings a little springtime cheer into your day.

www.artfulcreations.etsy.com