Portland for a week. Attending art and soul retreat.

Finished two legs of a three legged trip.   Waiting in San Diego for about two hours to get flight to Portland.  

Other than a little confusion about getting a new boarding pass, getting to the flight operated by Alaskan Airlines was great.   Service was good.   Flight arrived in Portland right on time and the shuttle was waiting at the curb.  My reservations at the hotel were a little confusing but all was confirmed.   Got my load of stuff to the room and made it to registration and then to the meet and greet on opening night.   This is where you can see what the various instructors are teaching.   I think I made some very good choices.   

Erin Keck was teaching a little class hi-lighting some new (at least new to me) paints and glazes.   This was an embelishments to our name tags.   I was almost too tired to do it after being on flights all day; but I did it and had fun.   

Had a few snacks and a glass of wine and then back to the room.   

Got all my stuff unpacked and put away and organized my stuff for the first day.   Now to get some sleep.

Oh by the way, from MIA to San Diego, I watched a movies I never was going to watch - The Intern.   It was very funny.   Loved it.   

Stay tuned for more pictures and things.   

When is a cutting board not a cutting board - When it's an OWL.

Owls!!!!

I have too much stuff and occasionally I recycle an item into something else.   (As I've said, Pinterest is going to be the death of me.)    Many, I repeat M-A-N-Y similar items on Pinterest.  

The above pictures are when they are done and I put a coat of rusty vinegar on them to tone them down.   Lots of old bolts, screws, washers, etc.  

My bathroom is rather small, but full of art pieces I like.   They are so cute and since I wasn't using them as cutting boards, I like the new use.   I have so many more that I want to make, so stay tuned.  

What do you do with leftover yarn - Make hats of course!!!

I follow Pinterest and Scan it frequently.   It sure is neater than clipping pictures from magazines.   Well I saw a hat and then searched for more hats.   Found several different, but similar, methods and zeroed in my favorites.   Asked my friend Anita if she had any leftovers and I had some.   This is the number of hats that I got from one cardboard tube from gift wraps.   I think, if I counted right, I got 43 hats.   They will make neat Christmas presents this coming Christmas.

 

 

Aren't they cute.   Different think I would make this many when I started, but they were so very easy to do while watching TV.   Good way to multitask.  

 

Making a Christmas Gift

My brother in law, Bob, has a great dog and I thought if I could make him something with Foxy Lady as the center piece it would be a great Christmas gift.   He had liked my collage of Benny last year at the Art & Soul Camp, so I asked my sister for some photos of Foxy Lady.

He is a copy of the collage I did for myself last year at the Art and Soul Camp.



  

I asked my sister for some copies of pictures she liked of Foxy Lady.  he sent me photos and I picked the one I thought would work the best.

Here is a picture of the final results.

That was such fun to do and well received.   I am going to another art and soul camp in early spring and hope to do a rooster - in celebration of the Key West Roosters.

Let's do a trade.

I have a very good friend, Michelle,  who is tentatively planning on moving in a few months.  We met as members of a yahoo group, Assemblage Artists, and have been friends since that time.   I find her work totally inspiring and very out of my comfort zone.   When I knew she was leaving, I wanted to buy a few pieces of her work to add to my collection.   She thought maybe a swap would be better.  She wanted this picture and I was thrilled to find a good home for it.   It is large about 2 x 3 feet and framed, although the picture doesn't show the frame.

This is what I traded for

We have another trade in the works and I will post that soon.  

I think Maggie created a monster - Boats and more boats

My last post talked about me learning a tiny little bit about acrylics.   The only way to learn more is to do more.    I really like boats - don't own one, but I really like them.   I decided to do more boats.  If you remember I went to a class by Maggie Ruley a few weeks ago and discovered that I loved acrylics.

First, I sketched on what I wanted.   This helps me get the proportions right.

Second - I added a wash of color for the canvases.   Need to cover every square inch with paint so you have a base to pain on.

 Then I put on several layers of paint, shaded them and when satisfied, put a couple coats of shiny varnish on them.   I love them. 

Maybe I will said away in one of them.   That would be fun. 

Inspiration - amazing where it comes from.

Last Thursday I attended and posted about a painting class at Maggie Ruley's studio.    I really enjoyed it and felt really enthused when I got home. 

I had seen a painting at The Studios show in March.   Loved it and thought something similar would be good.  Since then, I've seen about a dozen similar ones in Pinterest and figured I would try it.

I've had this canvas cut and in this frame for years (years is NOT an exaggeration).   I took the second photo (one I found on the Internet - similar to the one I saw in March) and sketched it on the canvas.   Step 1  - done.

 Here is the photo I had printed off the Internet.  

 Below, I had  blocked in all the areas with a base coat of acrylic paint.   I am not really experienced in acrylic as I started in oils, moved on to watercolors and now I am trying acrylics.   So far, so good.  

A little more detail added.   Sorry about the feet in the picture.  Oh well, that's the problem with my TINY studio space.   Doesn't handle big paintings..
 Still more details being added.

 Picture finished with two coats of acrylic varnish.   I like the sheen on the painting.  Intensifies the colors too and I really - really like that. 

 Picture framed and is now hanging on my ever-crowded walls.

You notice that I left out the board that props the boat up in the picture.   Didn't think it was necessary.  

This is really fun.   I will have to go through my pictures and see if there is anything I want to paint.   I expect there is and I will post when completed.