I'm back

Right now I got nothin' but I want to activate my blog.

A Year in Review

I have painted a few thing this last year, but I have not posted. I am going to post today, so I can track my progress. This is not the best, or the worst. It is what I have not yet put in storage, which means there are a lot of unfinished items.

This first painting is unfinished. It will be columbines, Because water color is done in stages I wanted to show how difficult it is to see a finished product, before the painting is finished.  See my point?

I did this picture twice, and have not completed either.  You can see how different they are going to look when they are finished.

The giraffe, iris and truck are all colored pencil classed I took with the decorative painters.  Paula Leopald was our teacher.

This is a watercoloring class I took with the decorative painters. Charles Danford was our teacher.

This is a class I took at Judy Patti's studio.  She was showing us how to paint in the style of Charles Reid.

 This is one of the classes i took in Vegas. Terry Harrison was our teacher.

Not my favorite, but Judy was showing how to paint with acrylic medium on mat board.  Maybe someday I will find a use for this technique.

If I ever send out Christmas cards, this is what they will look like.

Judy's Bag/shirt.  I think it looks good at this stage.  Let's hope Judy like the finished product.

Wet on wet technique.  It looks unfinished to me.  Maybe I could use this technique for the Christmas cards I never send.

Southwest vases.  The first picture is finished, but it not in storage yet, because I have to get the colors on the second painting to match that of the first.  Watercolor is done in stages, this is what the first painting looked like before I added additional layers.

Unfinished puppy. I do love the animals!

Getting ready for Vegas

Paul did not quite give up his hobby, so I am back.  I have painted a bit after my last posting and I wanted to get those pictures posted before my trip to Vegas. I also found a useful application to all my art work.

What we have here is the start of a zinnia painting.  I will try to post after I finish. I am kind afraid to finish, there are so many ways I can mess it up.

Next we have a bunch of grapes.  I did not like the shading on some of them so I used some white gesso to ease and I plan on going back and trying again. I like the colors, who would have thought green purple would turn out so well.

The last couple of paintings are trees on Masa paper. I thought the first painting was to light. So, I did it over.
It is amazing how different they are.

My Kindle Fire has been disconnecting me for my wifi a lot lately. So, I decided to upgrade to a tablet.  I ended up buying a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 last week. This week the tablet is already $30 cheaper than what I paid (Drats).

 Anyway, I was looking for case for my new toy and I found I web site that would let you upload any picture and use it for a tablet case, turns out it was only for the back.  The resolution is only 3MP, but still it is not a bad picture. I love the idea of having useful application for my paintings.

It is good that I order another case, and the one case actually fits into the other case.  I am okay with it only being for the back because I can use the one case for hard core use, and the smaller case for browsing.

It turns out is was not my Kindle's fault. Seems I need to upgrade my router because right now I don't have a router, because for some reason Paul dis connected the router and now he does not know where it is. This weekend Sheila and I have plans to visit the Micro Center.

Last Hurrah

I told Paul if he gave his 'hobby' I would give up mine. He gave up his on Oct 15th. So, it appears I will not be crafting for a while. These are the project I completed before I decided to take him seriously.
The 1st is color pencil workshop held Oct 19th.  I wanted to learn how to make crystal look like crystal.

The second picture are samples of what the Rocky Mtn Hi chapter did at our in our Oct meeting (Oct 21th). Only one of these masks is mine. See if you can guess which one. There were about 20 mask done, but not everyone was willing to share. These are not the best or the worst. These are the ones I was able to photograph.

The last picture is the Shrinky Dink I did with the group on (Oct 22). We crafted a bunch of (abt 50)Shrinky Dink sheets into tree ornament with a wilderness theme. Elissa donated a tree, I donated red bulbs and Maryiln is working on adding glittered pine cones that Sheila donated. We plan on giving it to the folks at Gander Mountain on the 18th of November. I hope to get a picture of everyone else's ornament at that time. Some of them are so clever.

I still can't get the Shrinky Dink to work properly. This one was all curled up and touching it's self in several places, I threw it away. Linda pulled it out of the trash and 'fixed' it. Shrinky Dink is the most frustrating material EVER.

I did not go cold turkey the minute Paul denounced his hobby. The third week of October appears to be my last hurrah.It is probably just as well, I don't see a lot of improvement and it was pretty expensive. Still, it was fun while it lasted.  Drats! Now what am I going to blog about?

Fall is in the Air

I love this time of year. I am so happy that the hot air of summer is almost finished.  It seems when the tempature drops I have more energy.  I have been so busy. Of course, it helps that we have another craft day planned for the 7th and I have been busy trying to think of fun and exciting things to keep my guests occupied. I hope they like what I have planned.

Multi Purpose coasters

Batiked Christmas card.

Still to be announce shrinky dink ornament.

We will not be doing this project, but this is my lastest watercoloring project. It is painted on textured gessoed yupo paper. I kinda of like it. Maybe I am finally developing a style.

August Workshop

The Chapter had a batik workshop at Judy Patti's Studio in August. Here are my paintings. If we have a family workshop at my house in October, we can either make place mats or a batik painting. Think about it.

art show pieces

Here are the two pieces I entered in the art show.

Art show Centerpiece

Here is the centerpiece I made for each table.

Art show Luncheon

Here are some of the place mats made by the Rocky Mtn Hi Chapter of the Society of Decorative Painters for their September Art Show Luncheon.

Autumn Leaves

I have been busy painting, but it has been the same project. The board of directors for the Rocky Mtn Hi Chapter of SDP has decided to paint place mats for all of our guest at our the September Art Show, and foolishly they put me in charge. Here is the design we will be painting for our monthly meeting on Monday. I hope the meeting goes well. It took me forever to come up with this design, and as hard as this was, I am not sure I will ever be able to paint the poor farm.

To Key or not to to Key

I have been trying to think of new ways to use the alcohol inks. I suppose this could be construed to a bit of sibling rivalry.  I really liked what Judy did with the napkin rings. Anyway, my idea was  bookmarks.  I think they turned out kinda cute.  

Sunday night I color a half of sheet of shrinky dink.  I was going to make a key chain, but the shape kind of lends its self to another bookmark.

Current Projects

Here is the painting we just finished in class.  Can't say its my favorite. But practice makes perfect. So, hopefully the more I practice the better I will get.

I found what I think is a pretty good fern that I plan on working on next.  I tried working on the poor farm, but, alas, my ambition exceeds my ability.

Speaking of upcoming projects. I am going to try today to make a couple of alcohol ink bookmarks. 

Collage Prep Work

I have been doing the prep work for our up coming workshop. Two of the pieces turned out pretty good and two not so good.  I have email the person whose piece does not look so good and she has picked out another piece. .

  The other piece was mind and I have also picked another piece. I am posting the results for all pieces so you can see the difference.  It turns out collage work done by the beginner needs a lot of color. 

Sheila will not be able to join us for the workshop. So, we started the project she picked last Sunday.  It is not done, but it is looking pretty good!