I Love the Flower Girl

Heron project at Riverside International Gardens-La Crosse

Judy-Creates display projects at West Salem Elementary School

detail of flowers on her current painting

She was the inspiration of the Cowsills song, The Rain, the Park and Other Things from 1967. As well as a mentor for myself.

Paint organization tip

I met Judy through a local garden club 20 some years ago. Of course it had to be flowers that brought us together and the love of art. She is a creative soul. From gardening, painting and sharing her talents and love of nature with her area school, her efforts make the world a better place.

Display Judy and husband Dan created for school

She motivated me to hold my first one woman show at the Pump House were she volunteers. Always giving me words of confidence.








You can really see her passion for nature comes through in all that she does.


Thank you Judy for all you do!

Blooming Hard

At first I thought painting some blooms would be my cup of tea, since I'd painted plenty in the past. But with this new style and medium, I was challenged.


I really need to loosen up and let the paint do it's job. I seem to be trying to incorporate what I learned with acrylic paints and it's not working.


The milkweed pods is my best of the bunch.

Fairy Bells 8x10

I hope I'm not getting too gimicky and hope to not get any bad habits while I practice. Here 4 of the 5 paintings I did this week getting me to 23 paintings to date.

After painting this one I really wasn't happy with the outcome but tried to salvage it by removing the excess paint and came up with an interesting fuzzy effect. The jury is still out with this one.










I had to try some daffodils from a past photo. Next week when mine are in bloom I'll be able to apply the Plein Air approach and will compare.

White Narcissus 8x10 

Good news to share. I am signed up for my first Plein Air Workshop with American Impressionist Artist Tom Nachreiner. This will be at the end of May right before Cedarburg, WI Plein Air event. So I'll be sure to check out the talented artists involved. Very excited to be able to get a jump on technique.

Playing Around with Paint

If a brush is involved I'm game. I just love the process of applying paint. So when I saw a workshop on making and decorating your own kite I signed myself up and made a date night out of it, so my husband would join me.



I'm the decorator and he's the assembler. Food and drink were also involved but only after.


For $10 we joined Mary at the Winona Arts Center for a couple of hours of getting our creative on. I don't know how well they will fly, I may turn them into our campsite decor.





Oh and by the way I had to first stop off and assist Justin and Chris at my favorite park and do a little painting on a sign for them.


So instead of working on my own paintings for a day I went out to paint the town. 

Building Skills

Big Bend Ranch TX  8x10

 

                                                                            This weeks exercise was buildings.


Getting  it right is no easy task. Lots of lining up and correcting cues that create the perspective, that help you know it's a building.








One way artists can check their work is to turn it upside down and see if it still works.




This courtyard was especially challenging since the area was lined in bricks. 

Big Bend Settlers Homestead TX 8x10

I think a workshop with a professional is in my future to help me critic my efforts.

I'll keep a few of these to go back to at a later date.

Belize Bungalow 8x10

Saquaro Park Shelter AZ 8x10

These are 8x10's, numbers 13-18. You may have noticed I have skipped a number. I did the work but not the reveal.

Next up florals from photos.

Jen-uinely Sweet

From Jen Barney website

I'm inspired by another artists story. Her rise to fame, literally because she is a baker. La Crosse area folks know her, Jen Barney, a two time winner of the Food Network Holiday Baking Championship.


The La Crosse Library sponsors a program called Monday mornings on Main, as the guest speaker Jen Barney gave us insight into the challenges and rewards of being a contestant. She felt she was well prepared bringing with her a folder of ideas and recipe notes. She credits her success to being herself and being GENUINE, that kept her grounded throughout the challenges.

Winning has helped launch her dream of opening a store front by the end of this year in La Crosse. She currently creates her cakes and confectioneries out of her home, called Meringue Bakery. Besides having the honor of winning she spoke of the confidence it brought out of her, a real sense of self worth and "Why not me?" attitude.

This I could relate to, so many artists deal with the issue. I know that it isn't enough to be good or even great if you doubt yourself.

Check out Jen Barney on her facebook page Meringue Bakery and website meringuecakes.com  or even better yet watch the videos on the foodnetwork.com seasons 4 and 5 Holiday Baking Championships.







At one point I dabbled in the art of cake creations. It was on my list of to dos and took a class at Michaels sponsored by Wilton. Learning some techniques and basics I had a lot of fun bringing treats to coworkers and experimenting with inspirations found on pinterest. Here's my one contest winner, a combination of piping, fondant and gum paste with super sculpy clay figure. Coincidentally it was at another library sponsored event so I depicted the book My Secret Garden.

My cakes were straight from a box and just a creative outlet during winter working hours. I don't want to even compare myself with a professional baker,

Practicing Painting for Plein Air

Grasses 8x10

I'm aspiring to learn to paint Plein Air. I declared to do 100 of these small 8x10 paintings as a way to challenge myself to develop more painterly strokes and capture the light.



Still working from my photos, these paintings are numbers 8-11.


Painting textures, whether on walls in my home or on canvas, is fun to do. This painting I got a little carried away with a palette knife but I feel it helped me capture the texture of grasses.

New Mexico Landscape 8x10

I returned to this same landscape, that I tried to do in colored pencil. Now that I've had a chance to really examine the photograph and what I liked about the color combination, it was still an effort to capture.

Pichacho Peak AZ 8x10

Trying to get more out of a landscape I selected a photo with more plant material in the foreground and a more dramatic sky.


Definitely still need to work on the mountain and plant details but I like the sky.

Monahan's Sandhill Dunes 8x10

Now this is more typical of plein air. A higher contrast of highlights and dark shadows. This happens to be sand dunes in Texas. Although it does kinda look like snow. I think this is a more interesting composition.

Doodling

A change of pace from striving to create a masterpiece, I changed it up going back to doodling.



It was something I loved to do in high school during lectures and boring presentations.

















Now it has become an alternative art form and a respected way to divert your attention and actual make you a better listener.



Sorry I just couldn't sit still and just focus on the words, doodling helped me from daydreaming.














After completing the last series of cats, I wanted to do something more with this pose. As they say, it was speaking to me.



So I gathered up the markers and scribbled away while listening to a book on tape. I felt very productive.