Artful Pendants

I've started a new creative adventure that I'm having a tremendous amount of fun with, I'm creating glass art pendants from my paintings and photographs. I've also launched a new ETSY shop, Artful Pendants!

I have to say that making each pendant by hand is very therapeutic and relaxing. I'll be adding more and more pendants to my shop over time but for now, I feel I'm off to a good start.

All the pendants, whether they are photographs or paintings, are inspired by nature and therefore, I felt I had to do something quite special and "natural" when photographing them. I have to say, taking photos of them is almost as much fun as creating them.

Pendants are $7.50 a piece and I will always be running a buy 2 get one free offer. I hope you will visit my new ETSY shop and enjoy these new nature inspired pieces. http://www.artfulpendants.etsy.com/ .

Butterfly Inspirations.....

One of my favorite hobbies is photography, I feel like I am constantly running around with my camera trying to get photos of something or other. Last month I was able to follow this little guy around for about an hour (no kidding) and get some great photos of him when he landed in a patch of purple Lantana.

Not only will I enjoy looking at these photos throughout the year but I think he would make a great painting as well, sorrounded by the beautiful purple of the flowers. I always save all my photos to use in a possible future painting because....you never know.

I was able to get so close to him that you can actually see how hairy his little body is in some of these photos. Funny that I never think of butterflies as hairy but........they are!

Although this little butterfly looks like he is cooperating nicely for thse photos, he did lead me on a wild chase through the garden for quite sometime before settling down so I could take these photos. The pursuit however was worth it because in the end, he was very cooperative. Maybe I just wore him out.......I don't know.

Hope you enjoy this beautiful butterfly!!

Butterflies & Hydrangeas Jewelry Box

I'm finding it a bit harder to blog about new artwork lately, with all the gardening I'm doing and new blooms I'm taking photos of, it seems there is always something new appearing outside these days. This is a piece I finished a couple of weeks back, my Butterflies & Hydrangeas Jewelry Box.

This box is actually heavily distressed and antiqued. I really wanted it to have a feeling of being a time worn piece.

I did the antiquing one night after all the painting was done, I was in my kitchen, it was midnight and I was working on this box over the sink. Chris was actually playing a concert so this is when I can sometimes get the most work done in the evenings, the nights that he is working.

I've been on a real butterfly kick these days so I had to add two to this box.

There always has to be a surprise when the box opens so this time, I put a full Hydrangea bloom on the inside upper corner.

Butterflies & Hydrangeas Vintage Shabby Chic Ceiling Tin

I just finished this 12" x 12" Butterflies & Hydrangeas shabby ceiling tin. I'm very pleased with the way this one turned out. I started out by antiquing the tin before laying on the design. It was only my second antiquing experiment and I have to say, I like the technique and I'm pleased with the look it gives the tin and the design.

I've been on a real butterfly kick these days. Who knows how it ever starts, I've just decided I need more butterflies in my life I suppose. You'll see what I mean when you see some of my other recent works....lots of butterflies.

I've also really been perfecting my Hydrangea technique and once again, took notes on how I did everything and what colors I used. You may think it's silly but you don't always remember what you did to achieve a certain effect so when I do something I like or use a color I like, I take notes on how I used it , when I used it and how everything came together. I actually have a notebook with ideas, techniques and colors. I find it very useful to refer back too.

So I decided to paint some of my favorite Hydrangea colors from my own garden, which are blue and lavender/purple.

Keep an eye out for more butterflies flying your way in upcoming posts. I'll be listing this piece some time today on my ETSY site.... http://www.artfulcreations.etsy.com/ .

Pendants For Kathryn

I have finished the miniatures for kathryn's order. These were so much fun, I really had a blast painting them.

My favorites by far, are the butterflies. I took so many great photos of butterflies this summer, I really wanted to put them to good use and paint some on a few pendants.

It has kind of inspired me to do a whole series of butterfly miniatures now.

Kathryn's favorite themes were Hydrangeas and Roses so I did a lot whith those 2 kinds of flowers. I also tried to vary designs a bit to keep them interesting for both her and me.

I'm really looking forward to starting on the Emu Egg brides' box and should be getting that going later on in the week. I will post pictures of the naked egg before I start painting it so you can see what I'll be working with. I'm so into the idea of painting jewelry boxes now that I think I will get some more of these going and add a new section on my ETSY site, just for jewelry boxes.

New blooms

Quite a few new blooms have emerged in my garden this week. Among them, all of my Oriental Lilies have been opening.

The Stargazer Lilies smell so wonderful. Every time I go outside near my garden, the aroma hits me.

An upclose and personal photo of one of my pale pink Hibiscus. I have pale pink, a darker mauve, red and white.

Now in this photo, you can see from a bit of a distance, how my Hibiscus are looking as they pop open. The view from this vantage point is different every day. You never know which colors will be open at the same time or what direction they will be facing. The blooms stay open about a day or day and a half, then close up and fall off. Then the next ones start to open up. To me, these are really the glory of my summer garden, so showy and just plain gorgeous.

While I was out yesterday taking photos of my Hibiscus, I noticed I had two little visitors again so I couldn't help but get some good photos of them.

Fun Surfaces

This morning I received an order for a gourd birdhouse. I love painting those and well, it got me thinking why I love them and what other surfaces are very rewarding and fun for me and why..... The Pink Roses duck egg above, I painted for a gift exchange last year. I had a great time painting this one. One of the reasons that I like eggs so much is the curvy and well, sensual surface. It just feels so wonderful in the palm of my hand.

Eggs are also challenging to paint because especially with the smaller ones like the duck and turkey egg above, when you have an idea, it is sometimes hard to fit it all on the surface. I guess I also like them because I love the crafty part of it as well, making the hangers out of stones and beads, also gluing pretty stones on the egg itself, to add the finishing touches to the design. I've also always loved eggs and have a decorative egg collection in my china cabinet, which has overflowed to the glass display that makes up the bottom of my end table in my livingroom.

Every time I'm at a crafts fair, I tend to gravitate to the booths that are selling gourds. I guess I would say I love gourds for the same reason as eggs...their shape. These vessels are made by nature instead of man made so you never quite know with a gourd, what shape you are going to get. I think that is what makes them so much fun and so compelling to paint, different shaped gourds lend themselves to different designs.

Ok, then there is Yupo paper, a great alternative to traditional watercolor paper if you feel you can let loose, not be so serious and just have some fun for a change. Funny that it is called paper because there is nothing natural about the surface, it is a totally man made synthetic surface. You can do more serious paintings on Yupo, like my Red Calla Lilies above or do silly and fun paintings like my Springtime Birdie Doodle below. Either way, all the traditional rules of watercolor go out the window and you can just pretty much do anything you want. The result are paintings that have a crystal like shine to them, they are beautiful to look at on this unusual surface.

Well, Doodles, what can I say, I'm loving them. This is the name I've given to paintings I'm starting to do on Yupo paper, that are very playful and fun, nothing seious about them. I feel like a kid who has discoverd crayons for the first time when I work on one. They are a real form of therapy for me, perhaps a break from art that makes you take it and yourself way to seriously sometimes. The doodles get their image by first, completing a background I'm happy with, then removing areas of the paint, showing the white Yupo beneath, to reveal the design itself. I think the possibilities with these are endless and my mind is brimming with ideas for new doodles in all different sizes.

Wild Berry Mirror

I've decided in addition to showing fine art in all stages of progress, I will be showing completed decorative pieces as well. I just finished this mirror for a customer of mine, just a couple of weeks ago. I was happy when she ordered it because I really needed to replace the photo of this one on my website. For some odd reason, a very blurry photo got listed on my site way back when. I do try to avoid bad photos, my husband Chris and I are always so careful about good photos but this one, somehow slipped by.

This gave me the chance to photograph a new version of the mirror, this time with a good photo. You can see the frame right after I'm done with it, before the glass gets inserted in the back and then, the finished piece, with glass on the last photo. I don't have this new one up on my site yet but it is in my ETSY store at: http://www.artfulcreations.etsy.com/

For those of you who don't know about ETSY, it is a great place online to shop for anything handmade. Lots of friendly sellers and buyers alike, a very welcoming envioronment to shop in.

My Next Watercolor

I already started thinking, while I was working on Peony Bouquet (see artwork below), about what my next painting would be. This for me is one of the hardest parts of a painting, deciding what to paint! I know other artists have this same problem as well, I have so many ideas and not enough time to paint them all. Then the issue of how you want your ideas to be painted comes up. Do I want to paint something on canvas, large or small?? What about on paper, I have several different sized watercolor blocks, maybe paper would be the surface of choice.

Sometimes I'm sure of what I want to do next or atleast I think I am, then the next day, I've changed my mind again. I feel I'll really never know what I"m starting next, until I sketch it out on my surface of choice. Once I get that far, I know I'm committed.

The above photos are ideas for my next painting. I got some really wonderful butterfly photos this summer, that I'm using for my inspiration. I take pictures constantly, in my own garden as well as out and about. The photos that I take and save, really help fuel my creativity all year long. I'm thinking my next painting has to be from one of the above photos but will it be on canvas or paper, how large or small will it be??? Those are the things I have to decide next.