A Doodle Day....

No serious art will be posted for a while...as we have a lot of irons in the fire....grandkids mostly and some construction and rearranging, plus packing stuff from my Mother for my daughter....etc............so I'll just show you two things from what I call my " DOODLE DAY".....when I just have to "doodle" for my pleasure only. The contemporary one is actually a collection or pile of pieces of scraps I doodle on when I'm actually painting a serious piece....and I collected them all, arranged them and made them into this piece of art with a little manipulation play on Adobe Photoshop to make it look like a watercolor.............Then the other is just that....a play with color and words....a "doodle".........have a "doodle day"!! Hope you are all having a blessed day!

My Second Try at Collage...

This is my second try at a collage, which is something somewhat new for me....it is a painted textured canvas, cutout zinnias from my own artwork, stamps on tissue with birds, vine looking scrolls and words that show us how trustworthy God is....in Matthew 13:31, 32. (you can click on the scripture if you want to read it) The collage is a bit busy, but it fits how my mind is....BUSY!...with some clutter spread around the house....even so, I think it works. I don't know what I am going to do to the frame yet, but it will come to me....then I'll hang it in the gallery.....unless you want to suggest something..... It was fun to do and I want to do more.....I forgot to mention it was highlighted with oil pastels and pencils, then stamped with the letters from my new letter alphabet set #4 from stamp-out-cute-.com. I hope you enjoy it.....and feel free to comment...as I am looking for honest critiques! ....or advice! ENJOY!

TREASURES FROM MY MOTHER...

I've been weeding out and going through old china that I had collected for years....and in a box of my Mother's stuff, I found these "Bird Nests"...in some plastic ice cream containers......obviously cherished and prized by her.....I don't know how I missed them.....but it is like a little visit from her....the eggs were mine and I added them for these pictures....feel free to use these photos if you like for art work.....she LOVED birds and she would watch a pair of Cardinals move their babies from the nest ....even if it took all afternoon! I know because I sat with her on one of those occasions....and now finding these "Nests" makes me so grateful for that afternoon with her....just before she had her stroke. She was partially paralyzed for thirteen years and couldn't walk or talk....but she would ...Oooo and Ahhh ...and make precious sounds...kind of like baby talk while smiling big....winking...and squeezing your hand! You always knew what she was saying! She loved people...especially children. Everyone in all the stores knew her! They would run over to her wheel chair as she made her way over to them....and there were lots of hugs....always. She was so much fun....Once when riding with me to go to my tenth year high school reunion....we kept seeing all these vegetables all over the highway!! She insisted we stop and retrieve as many as possible.....she said, "They are perfectly good....and not a bruise on them!" We kept stopping for more on this almost deserted highway, occasionally seeing an eighteen wheeler.....and a few coyotes.......we began to laugh and laugh at the sight of....US! She said, "I can just see the headlines in the paper...."TWO 'CUTE' TOMATOES....RUN OVER BY AN EIGHTEEN WHEELER WHILE PICKING UP VEGETABLES.................on the highway!" We were cute BACK THEN.......in those days. She was loved and cherished by our whole family....especially loved by my Dad in his special way....buying her diamonds and caring for her those thirteen years in a wheelchair.....always making sure she had her nails painted and taking her weekly to have her hair done......he (Pappa) was a regular at the local beauty shop......he would sweep up for the gals when they were cutting hair......not too bad for a retired Colonel!....however he was a farm boy....and I was proud of that more.....proud of both of them....they were loved and are so missed. Nelda, thank you for painting those wonderful bird nests....and bringing back memories of a loved and cherished Mother....and her bird nests! (We LOVED Dad too!) Check her (Nelda's) blog for the paintings!...and my friend PJ'S too!!

INSPIRED BY SCRAPS...

After deciding to do a new kind of treatment with my art....I began to search for old treasures purchased when I had my antique shop.....and found my old type letters that I had forgotten about! There is a complete set of capitals, small letters and numbers , plus a few punctuation marks....!!! I was so excited I started stamping letters to see how they looked and decided to make labels for the front of my ugly plastic boxes. Then made a label for my clear bag of scraps....I almost threw away! While looking at the scraps an idea began to emerge with the two pieces that have a large cutout in the middle....(which was a flower that I framed for the show)....anyway I took a 16x20 canvas and gessoed it.....then played with the pieces of scraps.....then made some script on my computer....Psalms 119....then printed larger..... Isaiah 58:11....a favorite of mine and decided it would be the theme....words in particular..."garden" ...."you will be like a watered garden".....well, you would have lots of flowers in a watered garden....so flowers it would be.....since I've never done this before and don't have new supplies yet...I used an old standby...decoupage medium. I tore and cut up old scripture for the outer edges of the canvas which you can't see....and some of my floral drawings or manipulated photos I've done in the past.... printed out.... You will not see it finished until much later.....but the last touches will be painting or oil pastel-ing the flowers to make them extend around the edge of the canvas and enhancing the gerbera daisy that looks dark...it will stand out more when I'm finished.....some stamping....then I have a few embellishments to add....and a few tiny photos to give it meaning....I will get a final picture and you will see the finished product around Nov 1....or sooner.... It truly was a joy to do....just playing with the shapes and colors and adding the words....I love the concept that it began with pieces that were doomed for the trash....but looking closer....there was something special about them....and as I worked with them.....I began to see a purpose for them....and upon finishing....the pieces of scraps doomed for the trash....were of value and had beauty....maybe we should think about people in the same way.....as we are each created completely unique and different....not a single person alike in the universe....but uniquely created.....Somebody is pretty smart and amazing!.....and it's not me.......Forgot to say "THANK YOU" to all you artsy bloggers who have inspired me!!!....and I welcome any advice, ideas and especially comments....enjoy!

JUST RELAXING...

The two week antiques show is over....our last B&B guests left today. We have just relaxed, sat outside and watched our chickens chase bugs, while putting our feet up. We had the best group of people at our B&B and in our home. The girls here in the houses were so much fun as we sat around the table and shared ideas and crafting tricks.....etc. My head is so full of a fun two weeks with THE greatest girls ever!! .....the yellow chicken was one of many presents those girls brought me!! I got a lot of goodies from them.....their "heart" sharing was the best!! THANK YOU to ALL of YOU!! I couldn't do any serious art while taking care of the Gallery with occasional customers coming and going......so I did a few "arty envelopes" to mail to friends and two to my grand-children....here is one for Eli and another for Olivia....with fun worksheets inside for them to color and figure out. Just a way to let them know how much I love and miss them!! YOU should try it....use junk mail and just paint it....go green...as Nelda says in her blog and as PJ has done and shown as well on her blog.....! Tomorrow is a day of rest....and WE ARE GOING TO REST SOME MORE!!