Now Available as a Postcard!!

Back in May of last year, I finished a painting called "Cedar Rapids: A Bloom Among the Cornfields".  It's a painting I painted about my hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Now I have produced a postcard from the painting.  I have them with me at the Cedar Rapids Visitor's Center Monday through Friday; and in the close future at my art booth in the Fairfax USA Days on Saturday June 28th.  So if you are interested or know of anyone that's interested in a Cedar Rapid's postcard, send them my way! Here's what they look like...

 You can read more about the story behind the painting in my blog post called "Cedar Rapids: A Bloom Among the Cornfields".  Enjoy and thanks for stopping by!

Same But Different

I opted to a bike for a change.  It’s very similar to the “Live, Laugh, and Ride” that I did a while back.  I mixed it up a little, put cloud shapes in and used a different bike.  It made me think of riding through the air on a bike.  Awww...There's nothing like that feeling!  So this has the same saying in this painting but with a different look.  It was a nice little easy break after doing a commissioned piece that I had struggled with.  Here’s “Live, Laugh, and Ride – Number 2”....

I welcome any feedback you may have.  Thanks for stopping by!

Dot Perfectly...

I thought I might let everyone know the progression of the horse painting.  My Wonderful friend gave "Dot, The Horse" painting to her friend.  The gal was very pleased with the painting.  She even said that she loved the painting!  It's always wonderful to hear that from someone who receives a commissioned painting for a gift.

Here's a picture of my wonderful friend (Jen in the pink), the painting, and the recipient of the painting(Traci).

In fact, Traci went on to say.... " Words can't begin to explain what this means to me. I love the painting & how it reflects Dot perfectly...absolutely amazing. I remember this day in working with some figure eight training, cantering, & then letting her go running across Monte's field. Before heading back, I let her graze as I watched the sunset. I remember looking down at her while she grazed, laughing with the amount of grass she had & had to take a picture of her...there are many days I wish I could get her back."

What wonderful feedback and such an amazing gift that Jen thought of!  It sounds like it'll be a wonderful memory that has been preserved for Traci.  Enjoy it Traci and next I think I'll work something easier like a bicycle painting.  LOL!  I'm also planning on having a booth of my painting at the Fairfax USA Days at the end of June.  So if any of you happen to be in the area, come say "Hi" to me!  Thanks for stopping by and I would love to hear any comments you may have!

Dot, The Horse...

This was a commission painting that I was asked to do by a friend for a friend who had to give up a horse.  The friend ended up moving into town and had to give up her horse because there wasn’t the room in town.  I imagine that was very hard.  My wonderful friend thought that it would be nice to have a painting to remember the beloved horse. 

I must admit that I had never painted a horse before and was a bit uncomfortable with painting a horse that actually looked like a horse.  I know that may sound silly but these things can sometimes be a challenge.  Also, the other part of the challenge was that I only had one photo to go off of.  The photo of the horse was mostly in shadow and rather dark.

The Photo of Dot that I worked from.

I started out doing a great deal of searching on line for photos and paintings of horses to figure out how to best approach the subject matter.  I then did a fair amount of sketching and drawing as a prelim to get a better feel for how to approach the actual painting.  I will tell you that some of the drawings looked like oversized ant eaters!  LOL! 

After doing a fair amount of drawing and sketching, I did some prelim sketches of various sizes.  My friend wasn’t sure which size painting would be best.  So, in an attempt to give her a feel of the different sizes, I sketched 5 different sized drawing.  She decided that she liked the 12” x 12” size best.

Another struggle for me was which way to go on the browns of the horse.  I played around for a week on scratch sheets of watercolor paper blending different browns—from golden shades to rusty shades to gray versions.  Ok, I’ll admit I may have been over analyzing but I wanted to get it to where I felt right about the right colors.  I ended up using quite a few of the browns that I had “experimented” with.

Then, my wonderful friend waited patiently while I slowly painted the actual painting.  Another 3 weeks later and I was FINALLY done with it. My friend came over and I had her take a look at it.  She smiled and said she liked it but as I looked at it with her I saw some fixes I needed to do.  They always say an artist is their own worst critic and I find that it’s very true for me. 

Another week later, and I made those changes and then I signed it.  I’ve made this rule with myself that once I’ve signed it I step away from the painting.  It’s done and I really do hope that my friend’s friend enjoys the thoughtful gift.  Here’s the finished piece that I call “Dot, The Horse”….

"Dot, The Horse"; Watercolor on 13.5" x 13.5" Paper.

Thanks for stopping by and I welcome any comments you may have!

Classic Cars Galore....

I've been a little slow placing some of my latest paintings up on here.  I recently started a part time job working as a cashier for a local large chain retail store and haven't had a great deal of time to do other things like I should.  And so, here I am doing a bit of catch up.

These paintings are based on photos that I took during my long road trip; which was about 2 years ago now.  My how time flies.  I took these photos during Day 19 in Long Beach, WA.  There was this HUGE car show event called the Rod Run to the End of the World put on by the Beach Barons Car Club. It occurs every year there during the first weekend of September and it's amazing.  I remember sitting on the main drag eating a bowl of clam chowder on a bench and watching almost a thousand different cars; all polished, painted, muscled out and pimped out, driving by as I sat there.  Between that and people watching, it was a wonderful day of just observing. It was a ton of FUN and I took a ton of pictures that day.  I used a couple of them for the inspiration for these two paintings....

Photo: "VW Vagabond on Longest Beach"; Watercolor on 11" x 21" Paper

This Volkswagen Bug caught my eye while walking along a back street area in Long Beach but the original wasn't on the Beach.  I decided that this VW was crying to be seen on a beach with its racked suit cases on top.  In fact, I refer to this painting as a Vagabond VW on the Beach.

Photo: "Pontiac at Beach Motel"; Watercolor on 11" x 17" Paper

This Old Pontiac was parked out front of this Beach Motel and it was a scene that I've been wanting to paint for a while.  My boyfriend, Mr. Motorhead, really liked this one!  And I will admit that it was a fun one to paint.

Thanks for stopping by and I welcome any comment you may have!

Live, Laugh, and Ride...

After getting quite a few comments on Face Book about "Enjoy the Ride" watercolor painting I did for my living room.  I thought it might be fun to do another bicycle painting with a quote/saying.  I was rather inspired by a quick photo that I took of a bike on my long road trip the year before last.  It was a bicycle that was chained up to a tree along a shopping area in Bend, OR.  I have fond memories of that day, watching paddle boarders along the river and hanging out a local pub that night listening to local musicians.  A wonderful day on the road exploring the USA.  With those fond memories, I took that photo and turned it into a warm, sunny piece of bike artwork.  I think that the quote/saying fit with my memories of that day.  I call this watercolor.."Live, Laugh, and Ride..."

"Live, Laugh, and Ride..."; Watercolor on 16" x 20" Paper.

Thanks for stopping by and I welcome any feedback you may have.

Encaustic: My First Experience ...

I had always been curious to try encaustic art.  It has a very long history and I always liked all of the possibilities of layering/collage aspects that are available with this form of art.  So when I saw a local art workshop that was offered on-line, I jumped at the chance.  Even better, it was a low cost art workshop where I would take home 3 finished pieces; or so it advertised on-line.

Photo: The Indian Creek Nature Center, which is situated in southwest Cedar Rapids, IA.

The workshop was held out the local Indian Creek Nature Center; which is near a Sac & Fox Trail that I enjoy frequenting with Mr. Motorhead’s dog.  It’s a wonderful place to go out and enjoy nature.  I arrived last sunny Saturday afternoon, paid for workshop fee in the main barn and then walked a short distance to the “Sugar Hut”.   I went in to find several people huddling around the wood burning stove that was the heat source for the hut.

There was hot wax warming in a couple of places.  One place was a griddle with several small tuna cans filled with colored wax.  Another place was a large electric frying pan where the teacher for the workshop was stirring the wax with a resin.  It looked terribly sticky like hardened caramelized sugar.  She scraped the bottom of the frying pan and would mix and stir it around with a metal paint scraper. 

Photo: Colored wax, implements to apply, carving tools, resin in a bag, paper towels,
vegetable oil and a block of beeswax too.

As everyone, arrived she started to explain some things about the wax.  She explained that it was Darmar Resin that she was mixing with the beeswax and that it is used to make the wax more of a solid form when it cooled at room temperature.  She said that the electric frying pan needed to stay below 200 degrees.  At the 200 degree mark the wax would start to boil and give off noxious fumes.  Not a good thing; she explained. 

The beeswax she used was from a local bee keeper and she ordered it by the 3lb. brick from them.  She showed us how the brick looked.  It has a natural yellowish color she said that you learn to design your artwork around.  She then explained that she used oil paints to pigment her wax.  You can buy wax that is already colored but she liked to have more control over her colors.  She also said that you can generally get all of the colors from the three primary colors; yellow, red, and blue.  But she made a batch of green for us too; to make mixing a little simpler. 

We used cut up matte board that she had pre-cut into 4” x 6” squares.  She took a natural bristled brush, dipped it in the frying pan wax, and brushed it evenly across the matte board.  Then, she used a heat gun lightly over the waxed matte board to make it shine but not too close to make it run off the matte board.  This is how to make it seal and adhere to the matte board.  She repeated the process of using the natural bristled brush to put another thin layer of wax over the matte board.  “This is how you form your strata base”, she explained as she lightly ran an iron across the surface.

The iron had no holes in its surface; and either it or the heat gun could be used to seal the surface.  She explained that this sealing needed to take place each time between layers or the whole of the wax surface could slide off or crack.  Also, the layers needed to be done fairly thinly too.

Photo: "Encaustic #1"; 4" x 6"

Then, we were invited to make our own strata base.  It was not as easy as she made it look, but I managed through.  Next, she took us through all of the different possible ways of applying the colored wax.  She had quite a few brushes and other implements to choose from.  She also explained that if we did not like what we made that it was easy to just scrape off the wax and start again.  For most of the 12 in the workshop, this was our first time ever doing encaustic art.  Also, there was only handfuls that were artists in the group.

Next she took us through the process of transferring and also explained how to carve and apply oil paint into the carved out areas of the wax.  We played for a bit more and some of the participants started a second piece of matte board to form the strata base.  About half way through the workshop she invited us to take a break, go outside and perhaps, take a small piece of nature to use in our piece of artwork.

Photo: "Encaustic #2; 4" x 6"-- An attempt at a girl on a bicycle.

I went for a short hike and then came back to the hut.  I started applying color wax to my second piece and just playing with the different ways in which to apply the wax.  I also carved out a girl on a bicycle and applied oil paint into the carved out crevices.  The detail was lost when I applied the last layer of sealing wax.  Darn it!  I guess there's some learning curve with this new stuff.

Photo; "Encaustic #3"; 4" x 6" -- I'm framing it!

Next, I started the third piece and decided after a layer of colored wax that I would try a transfer of a barn scene.  I placed the ink side down of the black and white copy against the top of the wax surface; then, rubbed with a large metal spoon, over the surface while applying pressure.  Next, I poured a little water over the paper and started to rub lightly with my fingers.  Eventually, the paper came away but the black ink from the copy stayed on the waxed surface.  Ooooo, cool I thought as the last bit of paper washed away.  I think I'm going to frame this one!

I had a little more time yet, and decided to go back to my first encaustic piece and apply a transfer to the top of that one too.  Overall, it was a fun workshop and it was nice top broaden out into a new form of art.  I may decide to dabble in this new form in the future but I definitely would need an area where I would not be concerned about getting hot wax mess on the floor, walls, and etc.  This is when a heated garage would come in handy…. Hmmmm, maybe I could see if Mr. Motorhead has a bit of garage space available?

A Commissioned Piece: "Football 39 Hero"

Just before Christmas, I was approached by a friend who wanted to have a special painting done for his son as a present.  His son had been working towards his Eagle Scout for sometime and an award ceremony would be coming up to celebrate this wonderful accomplishment in February.  His son also happens to play football and plays well too.  Just an amazing kid that is respectful, hard working, and accomplished.  I think it says a lot about his parents and they should be deservedly proud.

At the time, when I talked with my friend I was working on Christmas paintings of the "Dogs Resting" (for friend's) and the "Meen Green Machine" (for my boyfriend, Mr. Motorhead).  I told him we could talk about it at the beginning of the New Year.  I must admit that I still have not gotten use to the idea of doing commissioned paintings.  I rather find it stressful in that what I may picture in my head will be something completely different than a client.  But ever since I met this friend, we've always been on the same kind of "wave length" when it came to communicating so I felt a bit easier doing this commissioned artwork.

My friend emailed me with a couple of photos and we talked about some ideas over the phone.  I sketched a few options of layouts.  He decided on the one layout that I would have chosen and was my first choice.  We also talked about colors, and etc... and this is what came of it.  I call the watercolor painting "Football 39 Hero"....

"Football 39 Hero"; Watercolor on 11" x 15" paper.

And here's one of the original photos that I was given to work with....

And here's some of the process from the sketch that was approved to the final....

The Approved Sketch...

First, I started with the sky....

Then, I worked a little further on the detail of the front football player...

Then, I worked out from there....

Then, I was almost there....

Then, I finished and emailed a picture to my friend to get his okay that I was in fact really done....which is the final of this painting.

The finished painting!

Enjoy the Ride!

About 3 months ago, I moved into a new place and I'm now finally getting to a point where I want to start hanging things on the wall.  It's not that I have a shortage of paintings to hang on my walls.  But sometimes it's nice to have a variety of things on the wall that have cute sayings or to have other unique items among the paintings on the wall.  Well, in the search for some cute quotes or sayings that I could find on-line for my wall, I found a shortage when it came to bicycles among the quotes.  Most of the quotes had a bicycle and the quote of "Enjoy the Ride!"; which was fine but I just wanted something a bit more.

And so, with drying time happening during a commissioned piece that I'm currently working on, I decided to do my own cute quote with bicycles.  The nice thing is that this way I could plan what I wanted said, choose the colors, and put as much bicycle in it as I wanted.  Little by little, it came together.  I have always enjoyed the quote that "Life is a journey", and I kind of like the "Enjoy the Ride" with the bicycle.  So with those two quotes in mind I laid in a background of a combination of flat washes and alternative methods.  I used a bit of scotch tape here and there to remove color; along with some masking fluid.  I used objects to apply the masking and just kind of played around with it.  I had fun and this is what came of it....

"Enjoy the Ride"; Watercolor on 12" x 18" paper.

I was pretty happy with this and I think it should look good in my living room decor.  Thanks for stopping by and I welcome any comments you may like to share.

A Fountain Angel...

I started this painting back at the beginning of December but then got side tracked with Christmas paintings.  A couple of nights ago, while taking a break from prelim sketches for a commissioned piece I got to looking at it.  I thought to myself that I really need to finish it.  It didn't need that much more done to it.  I quickly went over a small area and then finished with a bit of ink.

"Fountain Angel"; watercolor and ink on 15" x 20" paper.

The painting was inspired by a photo of a fountain that I took during a Fall colors drive one Saturday along the Mississippi River.  There wasn't much color along the river that day, so I started looking at other things in the area when this fountain caught my eye.

I welcome any comment you may have and thanks for stopping by!