Cattail And Dragonfly Painting In 3D & Blog Vacation

The latest piece of art to come off my easel is "Wings Of Glass" , my first 3 D acrylic painting.  I've always loved cattails and of course, dragonflies so I decided to make them the subject of this particular piece.  This painting measure 16" h x 8"w x 1 1/2" d.

The part I loved the most about creating this painting was the 3 D aspect....the cattails, leaves, dragonfly and part of the background, were done with mediums.  The dragonfly is comprised of a (glass effects) medium and the rest of the above mentioned areas are done in stucco.  The final product is a painting that you can see but also feel as well, the texture is really fun to run your hand through.  To see the effects close up, click on the image above to get a better look.

Next on my list for the new year will be more 3D paintings and I got the idea yesterday, while feeding my dogs breakfast ( why then you might ask.....I cannot possibly say) to create a series of multi canvas - 3D - Bonsai paintings.  Cannot wait to get started on one of those in January.  For the time being, I'm taking a bit of a painting break to enjoy the holidays.  Have a great Christmas everyone, see you in the new year

Pink Hibiscus In Bloom & The Wonders Of Photoshop

**I'm taking a blogging break for a week or so to finish enjoying some of my vacation time**

This week in my perennial garden the pink hibiscus have started to bloom, they are a summer favorite of mine as they always put on such a pretty show for about 4 weeks during the season.

I use a lot of my black eyed susans that have started blooming for cut flowers to bring in the house and sit on the living room coffee table.

With the black eyed susans, I like to cut them to bring them inside after a good rain or after I have watered, that way I find they will not wilt but will last for many many days.  I also run freezing cold water over the ends of the cut stems, which also seems to help.

The hibisucs I cannot cut and bring in, they wouldn't work as a cut flower but they sure are pretty to look at and photograph each year.

I hope you have beautiful blooms in your own garden each week to look forward to and photograph as they put on their summer show.

Ok, on to wonders that don't have anything to do with nature, this particular one centers around the amazing things that can be accomplished by using Photoshop.  This past week when I submitted "Fair Weather Friends" to my licensing agent Laurie, she asked that I change the types of birds in the painting to better suit what they are needing to make the image more usable for them.  

To keep my original painting in tact I decided to create the chickadee, goldfinch and wren that Laurie asked for on loose sheets of unstretched canvas and insert them into the orginal image by using photoshop.  Above is the goldfinch, I painted this bird leaving out the areas that would be in front of him in the painting, so he could just be slipped in behind  the purple climatis petals.

The end result is a pretty cool variation on my original theme.  The original painting is left in tact and a second digital image is created using the newly painted birds.....the finished product is two very different bird house scenes.  These changes of course did not magically appear with the waving of a wand (I wish) I did the painting and Chris (the husband with the photoshop chops) created the new digital image for me.  He did a great job so thank you photoshop for existing in the first place and thank you husband for all your hard work on this image.

Electric Pink Lilies

 A new painting is fresh off the easel, "Electric Pink Lilies". 

From start to finish, this piece gave me quite a time, including one canvas that was swiftly thrown into the trash.

Then slowly, this happy pink lily painting started to take shape and told me that it really wanted to be finished.

Sometimes the creations that give us the hardest time, turn out to be the most rewarding.

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........




Butterfly Photos, Inspirations & Nature Scape Paintings

I was just speaking with someone recently about how ideas and inspirations for paintings come along. The kind of ideas that take seed in your mind, even through the course of years and end up being something you feel, as an artist, you have to paint, you cannot help yourself. That got me focused on butterflies and this lead me to think of the different inspirations for some of my favorite butterfly paintings that I've done.

I started getting fascinated by butterflies, I think, when I first took this series of photos back in the fall of 2009. We were at Mohonk Mountain House for our anniversary and these gorgeous Monarchs (I admit, they are my favorite butterfly) were drawn to the Verbena patch and I in turn, was drawn to them.

I took so many photos of these beauties over the course of the couple of days that we were there and then, like so many other photos, I filed them away for possible use in the future.

Fast forward to the summer of 2010 (at least, that is about when I think it was) that patch chuck full of butterflies from the year before , became the painting above "Monarch".

Believe it or not, those photos inspired these paintings as well. True, for these I left the Verbena behind and instead wanted to incorporate my favorite butterflies into my new obsession, trees. I was particularly fascinated with Apple Blossoms at the time and so, I created "Monarchy" above.

When Monarchy left my house, believe it or not, I was a bit sad, as it cheered me up each day that I looked at it. I had hung it in my studio and so, I could see it while I was working and really enjoyed it's happy presence . Because I missed that painting, I wanted another one with my favorite butterflies and Apples Blossoms but this time, with a bit of a different background and I wanted a multi-canvas piece and ended so up creating "Monarchs Emerging". This one hung in my dining room until it flew away so at least I did get to see it for a while.

Back in 2007, I spent quite a lot of time photographing this Swallowtail that was hanging around the front of my house to be near my Impatiens. I was out there constantly because pretty much every afternoon that I walked the dogs, there he was, back again, waiting for me to photograph him.

Actually, this particular butterfly was not very cooperative and did lead me on a merry chase throughout the yard. For this reason, I ended up with lots of blurry photos but, I did get some that came out well, the few times I could get him to sit still that is.

In 2008 I took photos of one of my spring time favorites....Lilacs. They grow on the side of my house and I love cutting them to bring inside each year.

A couple of months ago, I was on the phone with someone and for whatever reason, the idea came to me like a light bulb going on, I wanted to paint lilacs and a Swallowtail butterfly together. I'm not sure why this idea occured to me at the time it did but I immediately wanted to get started on "Awakening" below.

With 3 new paintings that I've just finished, now is the hard tiime for me, deciding what to do next. Last night I was awake for some time trying to think of the next subject for the next painting. I think I know what I"ll do but I'm never totally sure until I start work on the next piece. I'm wondering, what inspires you?? What kind of thought process goes into creating some beauty in your life? www.artfulcreations.etsy.com