Half of Green Machine...

I've recently been house shopping.  And while I'm going through all of these houses, I've been dragging Mr. Motorhead along with me to look at things.  It always comes in handy when you have know someone that is a maintenance man to take a look at things.  It gives me an idea of what's fixable and what's not so fixable. Poor Mr. Motorhead putting up with all of this and never once complaining.  I decided that he little a extra Thank You for all that he's putting up with.  So, I did another painting of the Meen Green Machine for him.  The Meen Green is a 1971 Dodge Scamp that Mr. Motorhead owns and pampers.

I had Mr. Motorhead close his eyes while I put it out the painting in front of him and then had him open his eyes.  He liked it; I could tell!  But the first thing out of his mouth was: "Where's the other half?"  Yep, he has a bit of a smart-alack streak in him.  I told him if he continued to be nice to me, I MIGHT paint the other half of the car! Course, I told him it would be a smaller version if I did.  LOL!  Take that one buddy; got to keep him on his toes!  Here's the half I did paint...

"Half of Green Machine"; Watercolor and Ink on 8" x 16" paper.

   So hopefully, in the near future I will be sharing some good news about a house in the Cedar Rapids area that has become my home.  I would like to have a permanent place to call my studio.  I'll keep you posted as the process goes on.  Thanks for stopping by and always feel free to leave a comment!

A Bit of a Rorschach Version....

Here's the latest of my of the "Live, Laugh, and Ride" Bike Series.  This one has a bit of a Rorschach Ink Block effect.  I had a bit of fun in putting this one together and figured a bicycle crank as a dominate center piece to the artwork.  Then, the symmetry of the two bikes off to the side, a true cyclist will see the bicycles in this Rorschach test! LOL  Here it is... (Please forgive my lousy photographing skills.  It's darker in one corner and I couldn't quite get the lighting right.)

"Live, Laugh, and Ride 3": Watercolor on 15" x 20" paper.

I may play with using different colors on this same type of lay out.  Who knows?! :)  I welcome any feedback you may have and thanks for stopping by!

Red Chevy at Duffy's...

Here's a quick little painting that I did a couple of nights ago.  It's a 1950's red Chevy that I saw when I was at one of the Thursday night car cruise nights at Duffy's in Cedar Rapids.  I thought that the Duffy's building in the back gave it a vintage feel to the painting.  Duffy's is a local place that specializes in selling collectible cars.  They usually have the business open so you can go in and view the cars inside during the car cruise nights; otherwise the hours are just during the days.  These are the type of cars that you wouldn't leave out on a car lot.  They are more of the pampered type.:)  Course, don't let Mr. Motorhead, my boyfriend, hear me say he pampers his car.  That's not very man-ly! LOL!  Here's my latest painting... Enjoy!

"Red Chevy at Duffy's"; Watercolor and Ink on 8" x 8" paper.

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

Shawn's 1970 Camaro...

Shawn is a friend of Mr. Motorhead, my boyfriend, and I was rather excited when he asked if I would do a painting of his car.  Shawn has a 1970 Z28 Camaro that is a beauty.  It is a Sea-green color with black striping with a bit of pin striping.  It's in mint condition and I just jumped at the opportunity to paint it.  Here's the finished painting...

The challenge with this painting was narrowing down on a layout.  The front grill and the split bumper is very unique to this car.  I wanted to do it justice.  But at the same time, I wanted to do a view of the whole car.  Mr. Motorhead and Shawn were playing with a few ideas one night over dinner and the idea of a two shot of the car came into being.

I did three different lay out drawings for Shawn, but he had a hard time visualizing it.  So I took the one that he seemed to like the most and did an ink shading drawing of it.  That seemed to help him out with what it would look like.  Here's the ink shading drawing that I did...

This really was a fun project to do and it went relatively quick once the layout was figured out.

Thanks for stopping by and I would love to hear any comments or feedback you may have!

Alien Grill Grin...

I sometimes am at a loss on how to name a painting.  This particular one was based on a photo of a close up I took on an older model classic car's grill.  It was taken during another car show that I attended with Mr. Motorhead, my boyfriend.  But I didn't know enough about the type of car or year to use that as a name.  Yes, I guess I need to ask more questions while I'm taking photos than just learning all this car stuff by osmosis. I am guessing that it's a 1930's or around there by the hood but that's all I can figure out.

Here I am at a loss for a title and I hate having "Untitled" and a number after.  Not my kind of thing; its too vague.  Then I had an idea, I would put a photo of it on Face Book and see about suggestions for a title.  Thus, a title for this painting emerged.  It's called "Alien Grill Grin".  A few of the people on Face Book thought it had a bit of that "Alien" Giger feel about it.  I'm unsure about that and will let you decide.  Here it is....

"Alien Grill Grin"; Watercolor and Ink on 10" x 13" paper.

It was rather fun to just focus on part of a car, and don't be surprised if you see more of these types of paintings in the future.  I welcome any comments or feedback.  Thanks for stopping by!

1930's Chevy...

I managed to do this cute little painting during a free evening this week.  It's based on a photo I took from a car show a couple of weeks ago that I visited with Mr. Motorhead.  It's a 1930's Chevy but I'm unsure as to what year.  It's a combination of watercolor and ink.  I've been calling it "Boo Chevy" because it looks like a face that's saying "Boo!"  I know it's silly of me but that's what I see!  You can decide for yourself; here it is...

"Boo Chevy"; Watercolor and Ink on 8" x 11" paper.

Here's the photo that I based the painting off of...

I managed to get a ton of more material for car paintings this last weekend.  I took a ton of pictures while at the Good Guys Car Show in DesMoines this last Saturday.  Mr. Motorhead and I went down to the Iowa State Fairgrounds and spent the day seeing tons and tons of cars.  It was an interesting way to spend a one year anniversary.  But when you are dating a Mr. Mopar Motorhead, well... LOL!  From what I understand there were at least 3000 cars at the event and I must have walked at least 10 miles trying to see all of them! THAT might be a slight exaggeration but I tell you my legs are still sore from doing all of the walking that day.  So there may be more car paintings on the way soon!

Thanks for stopping by and I would love to hear any comments or feedback!

Purple Plymouth Special

Wonderful Summer time!  It’s that time of year when there’s more and more car shows going on.  I went to one this last weekend with Mr. Motorhead.  Then, this last week I got to looking at different photos that I had taken of cars from last year’s season.  This is based on one of those from last year. 

   

Here is the painting; I refer to as, “Purple Plymouth Special ” …

"Purple Plymouth Special"; Watercolor and Ink on 10" x 10" paper.

This is a watercolor with a bit of ink.  I thought that I would try something new this time.  I decided to just focus on the front of the car and leave out all of the various other details.  I purposely made for white spaces to be in the painting and just added in shapes for cars and trees that were in the original photo along with the Plymouth.  Please don’t ask me what year or specifics on it; but the original car was a burgundy color.  I can tell you that much! J  Though, I do believe it is late 1940’s Plymouth Special Deluxe from doing a bit of research on-line.

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

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!