Another Little Piece of My....Art!

Hi Everyone....and a big thank you to all the people who have recently signed up to follow my blog. I'm very behind (as usual) but I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge you and to say I appreciate it. I'm always amazed that anyone wants to read my blog....but I'm happy that you do!

Not much exciting going on today. It's too hot to do much but stay inside. We're into triple digits now and I'm sure we'll most likely stay there for the better part of the summer. Ah, such is life in the high desert of Southern California!

So far I'm staying with my goal of a small piece of art each day. We'll see how long it lasts! I did art journal pages for about six months straight and then just stopped. I'm sure that will happen with these, too. My brain only stays with something so long and then it has to move on.

This little piece is 6" x 6" and I named it Yesterday I Loved You. I don't have a clue what it means but that was the first thing that popped into my head when I thought of a name.



I had several of these little pieces lined up on our mantel and was surprised at how many I've done with this red/orange/yellow color palette. You all know my all-time favorite color is purple so one would expect me to create in that color but I don't! Maybe it is the heat that is causing me to gravitate towards the hot colors. I don't know but I sure seem to be stuck on those colors. I need to break out of this and use something else.



This one will be going into my etsy shop later today.

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Yesterday I did venture out to the patio for a few quick minutes of spray painting. This is the result....



These will probably be cut or torn up to use in other art. It's a good, fast, easy way to get some texture and interest and added layers. I need to get some new spray paint colors. I'm getting tired of the ones I have. I love that lime green color, and there's actually some purple in there someplace....you can just barely see some of it in the next picture....



And there's that infamous pink glass of ice water sitting there on my work table! You'd think as bright as it is I could avoid it but as I showed a few days ago, that isn't always the case.

Ok, I'm off to play some more! I have something a little different that I'm working on today. I hope you have a good day and that it isn't too hot where you are....

Hot, Hot, Hot....and A Little Temptation....

Summer has arrived in my neck of the woods....or in my case, the high desert. We're expecting temps into the 100's today. I'm staying inside where it's cool. I just made myself a big fruit smoothie and I'm just cruisin' along.

You may not believe this but so far I've managed to do a lot of art in my new studio and it's still fairly neat and clean! Yesterday I made another small mixed media piece. I'm really enjoying these small canvases. I even bought 10 more with a coupon. I gessoed each one and stacked them on my work table and now they're just waiting for me to create something on them. Here's something I did about a week ago and forgot to share with you....it's done on an 8" x 10" canvas board.

The first thing that came to mind when I looked at it was French Temptation. I'm not sure why that popped into my head but I just went with it as the name for this piece.

Everyone who is in the collage/mail swap please don't forget to let me know when you get your collages and be sure to post pictures of them in the flickr group.

And Little Messy Missy, one of our swap Collage Queens is hosting a bookmark swap if anyone is interested.

Stay cool!!!!

Summer Daze....

It's Sunday and it's getting hot. I knew it was only a matter of time before my wonderful, pleasant, mild weather was a thing of the past. So maybe this will be a good day to stay inside and create something....other than chaos!

HB is completely engrossed in learning one of the programs he uses in his recording studio. He's having a difficult time of it. Kind of like me trying to learn PhotoShop on my own! So he's in his studio and I'm in mine and later today we'll come out and spend some time together watching a movie. Life is good!

Today I have a fun little piece to show you. I did this one on a 5" x 5" canvas.

This one started out with my usual splopping of paint! I used some light turquoise, yellow, and just a touch of red....applied with my favorite tool, the palette knife. Then some stamping, some bubble wrap, some scraps of paper, and fake writing.

Then I cut some leaf/petal shapes from yellow scrapbook paper and used turquoise ink to stamp some roses on all of them....you can't really see that in the photo. The edges are painted black and that's it! Summer Daze is the name I gave this one because it reminds me of a pinwheel and as a kid I usually had one in the summer. Watching it spin around put me in a daze!

This one will go on my etsy page later today. The link for that is over there on the right side of my blog.

Don't forget to let me know when you receive your collages for the swap. And also be sure to post pictures over on the flickr group. If you need the link for that group it's in the previous post just below this one. (I'm lazy today!)

Have a good day....and stay cool!

Collage Queens Rock!

I'm a little slow getting around today....it's been a lazy Saturday.

The collage swap is winding down....everyone is receiving their collages so I thought I'd show you some of the ones that have been received so far. If you participated and have received your collages please let me know so I can post the photos here. And don't forget Lee created a special flickr group for us. It's the 6x6 Collage Queens! Love that name!!

The first two collages were created by Lee and they went to Robyn:

The next two are the ones Robyn sent to Lee:

These next two are the ones Kate did for Judie:

Just a little side note here....Kate is sending out a request for prayer flags. If you'd like to make one for her just head over to her blog and read about it.

These are the ones Judie made for Kate:

Aren't all of these just wonderful little pieces of art! I love this!! Art flying back and forth around the world putting smiles on our faces. If you didn't get to join this swap never fear because I think Lee and I will be doing this again.

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Now here's another piece of art that I did recently....

I named this one Alphabet Soup! Actually HB named it. That was the first thing he said when he looked at it.

And last, I put some photos over on my photo blog. This morning the agapanthus was just starting to open up so I took a bunch of photos. One turned out so good that I put it on some blank cards and will be listing it on my etsy shop later today. I'll also have Blue Lagoon listed if you're interested.

An "Oops" and Some Art....

HB and I survived the margarita last night! It was soooo good. I had mine blended and HB's was on the rocks. Then we had a delicious Mexican dinner, came home and vegged out the rest of the evening! Are we exciting, or what!! Oh, well, we had a good anniversary so that's what counts.

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Last night after we came home I was in the studio. You may have noticed in some of the studio pictures that I always have a big, hot pink glass of ice water sitting on my worktable. It's with me at all times. I was working on a little collage done on a piece of cardboard....and I bet you can guess what happened. Yep! I bumped the glass of water, caught it before it spilled completely but enough splopped out that this is what happened....

Darn! Thankfully it wasn't anything all that great. This is what is looked like....

I think I'll try to salvage those dimensional flowers to use on something else but for the most part this piece is going to the trash.

Even with mishaps I continue to love being in the studio and creating art. As you know, with me it's either feast or famine and right now I'm in a feast mode. I have things stacked up waiting to show you! Recently I bought a bunch of small canvases and gessoed them all so they would be ready when I felt the urge to create. So I've been having fun creating little pieces of art. Here's one of the latest ones. I named this one Cayenne Dreams....can you tell I have heat on my mind! I know it's coming and I'm never ready for it.

I wish you could see this one in real life because the texture is amazing. I started off with a layer of spackle and I pressed a stamp into it in several places. Then layers and layers of paint, stamps, paper, stencils....you name it and I bet I used it on this piece.

Today I've been messing with some scraps so who knows what I'll end up with but I know I'll have more art to share with you tomorrow so be sure to come by again. I love having visitors!!

Now go out there and have a fun day!

Me and HB....Our Special Day!

Today is the 20th anniversary of the day I met HB and it's also our 15th wedding anniversary. If you haven't already read the story of how we met you can find it here along with a photo of us before gray hair happened! As always, we will celebrate with a margarita at a Mexican restaurant.

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And here's another little piece of art from me....

I named this one 97 in the Shade! It hasn't reached that here....YET....but I know it's coming. This piece is done on a 5" x 5" canvas. I like to either work small, like this, or really big. I haven't done too many big pieces mostly due to space restrictions but I'd love to have an open space where I could actually sling paint around Jackson Pollock style! Which do you prefer....working on small pieces or doing a big piece? I saw a class mentioned recently that was all about working BIG but I don't remember where I saw it now. But that's ok 'cause I'm not going to be doing any classes for awhile now. I have so many classes stored in my brain that I could work for months on just that information. And here I am still doing the same old thing!! What's wrong with me??!

Getting Inspired By Other Bloggers....

After receiving that collage from Carmelina with the pretty little crocheted flower I was inspired to get out some of my crochet thread....

This is just one huge tub that I have....and that's just the top layer showing in the photo! There's at least one more full tub and I think there's a few more balls of thread in another one. I used to make little crocheted purses (I showed them way back when) and I have lots of colors of crochet thread left from them.

Then I had to locate my hooks....

I have a few of those, too and usually tend to use the same one most of the time!

And after all that the only thing I actually crocheted was a little chain to go around the edge of a picture on a bookmark I made....you can just barely see it on the one to the right!

Actually these two bookmarks are much brighter and have a golden look. I used one of my older paintings for the image.

After that I went back to my paints and paper and worked on some collages. This is something I did several days ago. I was inspired by Paula and all the layers she does in her work.

I named it Blue Lagoon. Very soon I think I'll be adding some of these things to my etsy shop. I haven't had anything in there for such a long time....not since I was making so many watercolor ACEOs with faces on them. That seems like ages ago!

I hope you get inspired by someone, too. Have a great day!!!!

A Little Art and a Gift....

Thank you to everyone who stopped by to visit my studio. Whew! I'm tired! I drank too much champagne and ate too much cake....and I think I've visited only about 1/4 of the studios that participated. There are soooo many. That's why I've been a little absent from my usual Blogland visits. But I'm going to be stopping in to see all my friends over the next few days. (If you're just coming by to see my studio it's in the previous post just below this one.)

I've been busy in the studio and should have some things to show you in a couple of days. I do have one small piece that I did....it's a 5" x 7" canvas board that I worked on. I named it Days Gone By....

One of the things I've been working on is trying to leverage some of my art. Traci Bautista talked about that in the recent class I took and it seemed like a good idea since I have tons of finished art stashed everywhere around the house! I found this book....

and have been trying some of the techniques. It's a lot of Photoshop stuff and you all know what a dummy I am when it comes to that program!! But I'm going slow and following the steps and maybe I'll be able to learn some new things. I don't think I'm such an old dog that I can't learn new tricks....eventually!!

Also recently I received this beautiful collage from Carmelina ....

I love the colors!! Thank you, Carmelina!

Ok, I think that's about all I have for today. Have a wonderful day, and I hope you're having beautiful weather like we are. I know it won't last and very soon I'll be whining about the heat but for now it's perfect!

Where Bloggers Create - My Studio Tour....

The big day is finally here. I can hear you now...."what big day?" Did you forget?? It's the 2nd annual "Where Bloggers Create" party!! Remember, I told you about it. In case you forgot you can learn more by clicking on that little logo below and you'll also see a list of everyone who is participating.




I hope you wore your party clothes 'cause this is gonna be fun!

Help yourself to cake....

and grab a glass of bubbly....

and let's get started.

I recently moved my studio from an upstairs, very secluded room to a room on the main floor right in the center of the house. You enter off the main hallway and it's not a very big room - only about 10' x 10' excluding the office alcove but I think we've made the most of it....

(All photos are clickable to view larger)

This is my main work table. HB made it with two kitchen base cabinets and a door....he took the doors off the cabinets because I thought it would be much handier....and it is!

and here's a close up of that area. HB put up all the shelves and one of these days I'll get them painted but for now they work just fine. All my mediums and artist's paints are on the shelf right above the table....

I have some gifts from bloggers on the wall right next to my work table....I like to be able to see them. They inspire me....

This is the underneath cabinet on the right side of my work table. It has drawers that hold images and other ephemera.

The left side cabinet holds pads of paper and some canvases....stamps on the bottom shelf....

Under my work table is another set of drawers. At the moment there isn't much in them but I'm sure they will be full soon!

This bookcase is to the left of my work table. It holds some of my mixed media books plus other supplies....

In the picture above can you can see that uppermost shelf....it goes almost completely around the room and is great for things I don't use often.

Directly behind me as I sit at the work table is this stack of drawers. They hold tape, crayons, watercolors and more supplies....

Over the window I have some of my art journals and some more gifts from friends and bloggers....

Underneath the window I have a small table that holds my paintbrushes and a carousel of craft paints.

To the right of that little table is the office alcove....

I love having the desktop computer, the printer and scanner all in the studio with me. There's a bookcase to the right of my desk area....it holds some office supplies, and a shelf of blank journals....

Also in that bookcase are all my "artsy" magazines....

Behind that bookcase is my sewing/clean work table. You can see "Hedy" over in the corner....she's my mannequin head and she keeps watch over me....

I have another bookcase in that area....it has mostly books but one shelf has beads. This room has double doors but I didn't think I needed to use them so I blocked one door with a bookcase. I needed storage more than I needed an extra door....

Ok, that concludes the tour of my little studio. Thank you for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed it and will come back to visit me again....I'm usually right here painting or drawing. Here's a little peek at some things I'm working on....

In a few days I'll be showing more of them to you. Until then, bye....see you soon!!

Just a Reminder....

Just a little reminder that if you're still curious about my new studio space I'll be posting lots of photos late tonight for the big 2nd Annual "Where Bloggers Create" party. If you haven't heard about it just click on the button below....




and it should take you to the blog where you can find out all the details. I've spruced up and tidied and I think everything is ready so I hope you'll all come back for a peek inside my new studio space.

Other than that I just have one piece of art to show you....



This is a large size post card that I made for a blogging friend. She received it so I can show it now. This was a fun one to make and somehow, just slightly makes me think of Alice in Wonderland....I think it's the rabbit and the hearts.

See you later tonight....