New Birth, New Berth

Maria and Wrigley

Well hello again!  It's been a bit quiet on my end from my usual weekly post, but for good reason.  While it wasn't completely intentional to have multiple life changes at once, my husband and I found our dream house, put our townhouse on the market, and had a baby all in the same month!  Needless to say things were a bit hectic and thus the blog was ignored for a bit.  But alas, the fog has lifted, I'm back in the studio on a more full-time basis, we are settled into the house, and my sweet baby girl is getting into more of a routine.  Our sweet pup, Wrigley, has also settled into the new home and into big sisterhood nicely after realizing we haven't forgotten her (we had a few weeks of either hunger striking, or worse, taking a large scoop of kibble in her mouth and throwing it all over the floor for me to clean up, ha!).

New studio space...the before picture

Since I keep my studio in my home, it was essential for me to have a dedicated space to paint, so when we walked through our now home for the first time and saw a tile sun room, I knew it was the right place for us.  Above is the before picture with the former owner's furniture...soon to come is the after picture!  Right now I'm still in process of organizing so stay tuned.

Getting back into the swing of things has been surprisingly refreshing...recently I completed a Caribbean beach scene commission during Christmastime, and created a stadium scene for a BYU grad.  I'll be sure to post a picture next week!

Ballerina in Black

As a follow up to my last blog, I finished up one of the two ballerinas I was working on!  The grand plan was to create one ballerina in white and one in black, so I started on the ballerina in black and had a fabulous time with her.  While I did a hybrid of brush and palette knife with my last ballerina, I decided this time to attempt this one completely using palette knife.

For those of you unfamiliar with palette knife, it is the metal tool all the way on the right in the picture above.  Whereas brushes are made of bristles and create smoother, flatter texture generally, palette knife is made of metal (and sometimes plastic), and is sans bristles.  It allows you to scoop up more paint off of your palette and generally results in looser, more expressive strokes on the canvas and creates a lot of texture.  The only downside is that the paintings stay wet for a long, long time.  When I finish a painting with a brush, I avoid touching it for a couple weeks but I don't worry about it too much.  That said, with palette knife, it's critical to move the painting to a place where nobody will encounter it or touch it for quite some time!

Ballerina in Black is a 24"x36" oil on linen.  What do you think of the palette knife technique?!  Let me know! I'd love to hear from you.

Hope you enjoy and are having a very happy Monday so far!

Ballerinas in Process

Happy Monday!  This past week was a little rough as I came down with the flu!  I had no idea you could get the flu in the summer but apparently you can.  Oof!  Well, I'm feeling better, which means back to work.  I had such a good time painting my ballerina, that I decided to try to paint a couple more!  I sketched them out, although I think I am going to change up the ballerina on the right...I don't like that her foot isn't totally showing and I'm not sure she's zoomed in enough like the ballerina on the left.  Right now, the plan is to make ballerina's outfit on the left dark, and on the right white.  We'll see how it goes and if that holds true in the end.  As an artist, sometimes you go in with one plan and end up with something totally different!

Off to the ballet (in my mind, that is)!  Hope you are having a spectacular day!

Vacation!

Every year, my family and I go to Sunset Beach in North Carolina for a week at the beach.  We have been going as a family for about ten years now, and it has a special place in my heart because it is where I got engaged and also where I won my very first painting contest.

This week of vacation is also the source of my parents family Christmas card, which is always at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville restaurant down in Myrtle Beach.  We take the 45 minute drive down to watch the fireworks, walk around the shops, and snap the yearly shot.  My husband and I are on the left, parents in the middle, and brother and sister-in-law on the right.  This year, my sister-in-law's sister (middle right) joined us as well, which was a fun addition.

It's always inspiring to go down to the beach, since I can see God's handiwork in a new light.  Check out this rainbow!!!  I've never seen a full rainbow, and if you see in the upper right hand corner, you can see a faint double rainbow.  Amazing!

Finally, here's a (slightly blurry) shot of the Calabash Creamery, our favorite ice cream shop at the beach.  The ice cream is amazing and worth the line that typically loops all the way around the shop!

Okay so back to painting!  Check out my most recent piece, a shot of a ballerina in mid-leap.  I got the inspiration for this piece after I visited the Kennedy Center to see the ballet.  I find it amazing how beautiful and graceful these ballerinas are all while knowing the dedication, strength, and hard work they had to put in to look so lovely.  Enjoy!

Hopefully you just had a great vacation or are about to have one!  Either way, have a happy Monday (one day late!)!

Hairspray...An Artist's Windex

Anyone who's seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding knows what I'm talking about for the title of this post.  Gus, patriarch of the family, believes that everything from wounds to cars can be fixed with the power of Windex.  So when I ended up getting ultramarine blue paint on my beloved lemon yellow wing back chair, I just about cried (although I think my husband cheered...haha!).  What do I do?!  Well, after a quick google search, I discovered quite a few people mention using hairspray.  Okay, I'll try anything, I thought.  And guess what?  Hairspray is an artist's best friend.  Check out the steps below to get oil paint out!

The culprit, wet corner of painting

The victim, yellow wing back chair

Step 1: Take a dry, white rag and blot any excess paint off (if stain is still wet).  Do not smear around, simply blot, and when rag is saturated, move to a clean part and blot again, until rag no longer picks up paint when blotting.

See the blue spots?  That's from blotting, then moving to a clean spot until no more paint is picked up from the blotting process

Step 2: Spray hairspray onto clean part of rag, or directly onto paint spot

Step 3: Rub clean part of rag (with hairspray on it), over paint spot.  Similar to Step 1, but in this case, you can rub instead of blot.  This step can take awhile, be patient and rub in different directions to really pick up the paint.  If you see the paint begin to spread around, stop, and go back to Step 1.  When rag is saturated with paint, move to a clean section of rag and repeat.  Be liberal with the hairspray, but try to keep it in a concentrated area around the spot.  Each time you move to a clean section of the rag, apply more hairspray.

Step 4: Slowly but surely, the paint will disappear, and you will end up with nothing but a wet hairspray spot.  If you are dealing with clothes, stick them straight into the washing machine.  If you are dealing with something that can't be laundered, dampen spot with water (unless dealing with a material that water stains, such as silk).

Step 5:  Blow dry until hairspray spot is gone!  If you find that the area is tacky from the hairspray, wet again and repeat Step 5.

Voila!  No more stain!!!!!!!!!!  I can't believe it!

Okay, so what if the stain is dry?!  I tried this on a dry carpet spot that fell victim to orange paint, and I can say that the results are similar!  You may have to work at it a little more, and you may not be able to get every ounce of stain out, but never fear, you can make it better at the very least!

Happy painting...brush in one hand, hairspray in the other!

Derby Day!

Derby Day, 24"x48" oil on canvas

I went out of the box and tried something different...horses!  I've never painted a horse before, but after seeing several wonderfully talented artists do their rendition of horses, I figured I would give it a shot.  It was a fabulous way to break the mold from doing cityscapes.  Like most pieces in general, it required a lot of concentration and it had its challenges, but it was a ton of fun!  Since the horses were in motion, racing down the track, I had to blur the background and their legs, something I hadn't done before.  Thankfully, the technique is surprisingly similar to the way I paint water, so it came naturally!

While I wish I was also congratulating California Chrome in this blog post on the Triple Crown, I will say that I am so impressed by his two victories and overcoming the odds!  

Hope your Monday is going great and that you have a day of victory!

New Work and Inspiration!

A couple weeks ago, I taught a class of fourth graders at a local elementary school where one of my best friends teaches.  While I don't typically teach classes, I had a really good time flexing those muscles and ended up being inspired by these kids!  Being that it was the end of the year, I tried to keep it light on the lecturing so we could get to the actual painting.  I taught about three kinds of painting: Abstract, impressionism, and realism, and then the kids got a chance to practice one of those for themselves.

Last night, my friend Natrisha came over with a bunch of thank you cards from the kids, and one of them even gave me their piece that they created, which had me totally floored on the day I taught.  You can see it in the picture above, it's an abstract sunrise.  How cool is that?!  I love the geometric shapes and his use of color...this kind of brilliance belongs in a gallery!  Aren't kids so creative?!  Nothing else hampering their creative spirit, no fear, nothing holding them back!!!

Cottage on the East End, oil on linen, 12"x36"

As for me, this is my latest piece, a fun Cayman cottage that I did using both brush strokes and palette knife.  Palette knife is a lot of fun, as they are basically just dull knives in different shapes and are designed to pick up a lot of paint.  It forces you to paint more quickly and less meticulously than with a brush, so the appearance is more about the color impact and less about detail, although do not be fooled, you can get plenty of gorgeous detail.  My inspiration to begin painting, Howard Behrens, was a palette knife artist.

Lastly, in my spare time this past week, I started a project as a gift for my mom.  While I can't divulge what it is quite yet, it involves sewing and cutting fabric.  I'm no seamstress, so while this is already considered a challenge, it's even more so when your dog decides to lay on the fabric.  Look how unfazed she remains as I attempt to make cuts.  The end result?  A dog shaped pattern as I finally just had to cut around her.  I'd move her, but she's just so cute!!!!

Hope you all have a GREAT fourth of July week and enjoy some awesome fireworks!