"In The Garden" Art Show

My very first art show! Well, as an adult.

I did have some pieces in student shows while in high school, full disclosure.  But that was like a million years ago, so I'm claiming this as my first REAL show. Yes, it was a small one, but I was BRAVE and entered two paintings. One was selected for the juried show. I didn't ever think I would win any of the prizes, I just want to take the plunge and give it shot, you know? (And, no, I didn't win a prize or ribbon, but I don't care - I'm just so glad I did it!)

After all, I DID proclaim Be Brave as my motto, so I'd better step up to the plate. It was disappointing that Dwight's painting was not selected, especially after seeing some of the paintings that were. But all art is subjective, and just two judges did the selecting. It seemed pretty clear they leaned towards watercolors. Granted, there were a LOT of watercolor pieces in the show, so that probably had something to do with it!

The gardens were beautiful! The main area was circular divided into four wedges, each labeled with a season. In the center was a small pond, complete with lilies, goldfish and croaking frogs.

My parents came along and were so proud - awww. *blush*

Aren't they cute?

They had a two-story deck thing so we went up there and I got some shots of the grounds. I love the little buildings! Both the one on the left and the greenhouse on the right (you can sort of make it out in the third photo below) had paintings on display. Mine was in the greenhouse. It was perfect. I loved it in there. I wanted to dig up the entire greenhouse and take the whole thing home with me!

The outer ring of the circle was paved with regular paving blocks along with bricks bearing every day of the year. 

There were vertical post markers at the start of each month. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be a giant sundial or what, but it was very clever and absolutely beautiful. I was so impressed with all of the gardens there. 

Pansies and violas - my favorites!

I didn't think to take photos of the winning pieces until a bit later, so I managed to skip right over the "Best in Show" as it was in the first booth. Meant to go back, but spaced it (it was a lovely panoramic watercolor {surprise!} of a farm).  Here are the other winners and a couple of the honorable mentions.

1st Place

Mine next to the 2nd place winner - it was an amazing photo-realistic 

acrylic absolutely deserving of a prize!

3rd Place

A couple of the honorable mentions

Here's to more shows and lots of fun making the pieces I'll enter next time!

WIP – Messy Daisies and Poppies

16" x 20" canvas

I put the book paper on this canvas last night using matte gel medium. It's from a really old copy of the works of William Shakespeare. For real. Making art with art. I just blew your mind.

ANYway.

Tonight I picked some inspiration images and started finger painting. It's my favorite way to paint... except when my favorite way is with brushes. Or watercolor pencils. Or... You get the idea.

But honestly, I love freedom and messiness of painting with my fingers. It was a great way to spend an hour on a Friday night!

Finished - Tulips

Here is the finished painting. I posted a WIP about a month ago. Now I just need to wrap it up to give to my sister for her birthday. Which was April 6. Oops. Better late than never, right?

I added some white drips, removed a leaf, added another elsewhere (felt like I had "bunny ears" on the previously posted version), some detail throughout, splatters - that sort of thing.

Here's a side-by-side.



I'm very happy with the finished painting. I hope my sister agrees!

WIP—Gold Face

Here's one of my current WIP (12"x12"). Still lots of work to do on this. If it looks metallic to you, you're right! I put a thin layer of copper paint over the face and hair area just for the hell of it.

I'd intended for this to be more abstract, but it's coming out more literal. Her nose definitely needs more work. Right now it's way too "LaToya" for my tastes. I'll adjust the shading and make it closer to the inspiration photo I'm following.



I picked up this free wedding magazine at the grocery store. Lots of good face/flower/posing inspiration!



I don't know what I'm going to do with her hair, but I'll figure it out as I go along. I have no formal training with painting — ok, I had a random "painting and drawing" class in HS—so I'm pretty much winging this whole thing.

WIP — Tulips

This is a 12" x 12" canvas I'm currently working on. I did the grey background on Sunday then came back to it yesterday after work and did what you see here.

This is still a WIP (work in progress), but I'm very happy with it so far. It will probably be a birthday present for my sister since her birthday is coming up and she loves tulips.

This is almost entirely cheap craft acrylics I picked up either at Michael's or Walmart. I used a white Sharpie poster paint pen for the white outlines around the leaves and some detail work in the flowers. It was the first time I've used it and I'm pretty sure I love it! I used the medium tip, but it's pretty fine. I also picked up the fine tip, but I haven't opened that one yet. Gotta love new art supplies!

This is what I used for inspiration.

It's from the cover of a free magazine I picked up at the grocery store. The bright colors against the simple and neutral background caught my eye.

What work in progress do you have going? I'd love to see, so please share your links in the comments.

Blooming True – And falling in love with painting

This is a cross-post from my main blog, Something Shiny with an update. That is, the finished painting. I am head over heels in love with it.

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Original Post

The last five weeks have passed in a flash. A paint-, joy-, and discovery-filled flash. Five weeks ago, I started the Bloom True e-course hosted by Flora Bowley and Beth Nicholls. Flora is a fine artist and instructor and Beth is the woman behind Do What You Love for Life. They teamed up to create the most inspiring and information-packed e-course I've ever taken. I'm certainly no expert and haven't taken nearly the number of courses others have, but I think I can safely say that Flora's course is leaps and bounds above many others.

Flora's generosity in teaching is incredible. She's supportive, joyful, shares her process with grace and whole-heartedness that just makes me want to be a better person, as well as a better painter. She focuses on everything positive, giving us exercises to build our creative courage, banish our negative self talk and inner critics, and just BE. In the moment. Inspired. Intuitive. Bold. Brave.

I learned about Flora's course through Beth's site, watching the informational video as soon as it hit my in-box. I was mesmerized, enthralled. And then the words, "Be Brave" painted on Flora's studio wall flashed on the screen, and I knew. I knew I HAD to take this class. You see, sometime late last fall, I decided that "Be Brave" was going to be my mantra for the new year. And then quickly re-decided that it would be my motto starting right then. Those words just came to me, tapped me quietly on the shoulder, whispered in my ear. I had to obey them.

I immediately signed up for the class. This was November 30, 2011. I told my husband that he didn't need to get me anything for Christmas. I just bought my gift. And what a gift it has been. There is SO much more I need and want to learn, and this course has set me down a path that has made me incredibly happy. I'll be painting and just start smiling.

I never thought I would be a painter. I avoided painting classes in high school even though I loved taking art classes and went out of my way to take as many as I could. Painting was so daunting to me. I was much more comfortable with drawing or using other media. Now, I'm in love with it. I want to paint all the time!

One of the other women taking the Bloom True course had a slide show of a painting in progress on her blog. I loved the idea so much that I created one as well. This painting process involves lots of layers, and I also rotated the canvas MANY times as I went through the layers. I've oriented them all the same way for this slide show so you can see the evolution. This painting is not finished. I need at least one more layer, but I wanted to share this with you in the mean time.

The quality isn't the greatest, but you can see all of these images in my flickr set. I've got three canvases going for the class; this is just one.

Evolution of a Face

One of the things I've heard from multiple artists is to use any leftover paint from one project and just slap it on a blank canvas, avoiding waste and getting a jumps start on your next canvas. This painting started out as one of those leftover paint canvases.

I don't have any photos of the origins of this painting, but it started out with some light blue, smears of bright yellow-green, various black swirly marks and random other bits of color. At that point, I kind of saw a face in the marks and quickly painted the outline and the hair line. I had leftover fluid acrylics in violet and turquoise, so those were added and I decided to run them with a couple spritz of water.

Which brings us here:


I added some shading on her neck, roughed in her features, and darkened the area behind her head on the right. I showed this to my husband, and he thought she looked a bit like Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas, so the next day, when I came back to the painting, I decided to give her bright orange hair.



I didn't like the placement of her nose, so I covered over the mark I'd made. I worked on her eyes and added various layers of red, orange, yellow and some magenta to her hair. I also swirled some violet in there as well. I took a spray bottle top, pushed it into her hair to pick up paint, and made the circle marks you see in the corners.

I was really liking where she was going, but went out of town for a few days so she sat about a week at this stage. When I got back from my trip (an art workshop I'll write about later), I was itching to paint again, so on Monday night, I decided to finish her up or at least come close.



I worked on defining her eyes, adding lots of shading to her face to bring out the features, added to her hair and decided to go with swirls. Lots of layering, little touches here and there and I decided to call her finished. I'm thrilled with how she turned out. It's my favorite painting to date. I just keep staring at her, hardly believing that *I* made her.