The local art show

The local art show raffle wall was sooooo full this year that it took two photos to show all the donated paintings. These are all 5x7 paintings donated by all the members of the art group. We've been doing this for a number of years now and it has been one of the biggest fund raisers at the summer show.
The idea is that you buy your raffle tickets and drop one into the bag under the painting that you'd love to win. On the last day of the show, there is a random drawing done for each one.
I think most of the area has caught on that this is an awesome way to maybe win an original painting for very little money while supporting the local art group!!
Well....I did my first round of gallery sitting Tuesday and I'm off to go sit a few hours today!

A peacock ATC

for a summer PAT (pick a theme) on the Illustrated Artcards site.

I really wish that all the shine and glitter of this one would show up better in the scan...but it really looks great in person. I did all the stylized feathers in pen & ink. Then, for the body, I used beautiful glitter gel pens. They blend so well and really have a nice shimmer that doesn't show all that much in the pic. I then used a variety of gold leaf for the circle in the center as well as the areas outside of the feathers.

I'm pretty pleased with the whole thing overall. It actually looks quite lovely in person!

It's been busy

the last couple of days. Had the start of another of our local art shows. For this one we get to bring one piece that is framed and ready to hang and up to five smaller unframed pieces that we can put a lower price on. Those unframed matted pieces go into what we call the "bin".
All the "summer residents" and vacationers who come here each year to bask by the ocean just love to grab some deals on local work in that bin.
The opening last night was lovely. Had a chance to catch up with some folks I hadn't seen in quite some time. The show runs though till Aug. 3rd.
I've volunteered to babysit the show two days next week. I don't mind....it gives me time to look at all the art a bit closer. I may bring more paintings with me when I go, since I sold three from the bin last night....so we get to replace them with more as they sell.

Today I had a loooooong day of cooking. I made calzone, chourico & peppers, sesame noodles, brownies, etc. I've also got a number of things to do on the grill as well.I've got a family party happening at my house tomorrow.
I don't see all that much of the folks from my side of the family. I do however have an aunt and uncle that I'm rather fond of and they have 8 children. These were my favorite cousins growing up. Of course they are all a bunch of old farts like myself these days and have familes of their own. Seems we're going to manage to get most of them here tomorrow. My aunt had been asking me for ages about having a family picnic type outting at my house ever since the first time she'd been here. My uncle just loves the area.
So my husband spent the day getting things ready outside by cleaning the pool, cutting the grass, putting up the badminton net, getting the kayaks ready....etc.
I think we're finally ready.
Well....off to bed. I'm soooo tired.
Looking forward to a day of fun tomorrow.

Had some quiet time

here at home this weekend. Took advantage and did some drawing for an atc draw-a-thon. Got four done.....

two pen & ink

and the lilly done in colored pencil and the tropical boat house done in marker.

I also broke out some of my new beading books and

taught myself a new beadweaving stitch.

I made these green glass bead earrings using some of my

favorite square green beads. They've got little garnet bead

accents.

I think they came out pretty nice for a first time. I've added them to my Etsy shop. I'm gonna try a few more variations on them.

I've also got another stitch in the works but haven't gotten it quite down yet. I think it'll be beautiful once I've figured it all out.

Yay...I'm in

the local juried art show this weekend.
This is a show that is known as the most difficult show in this area to be accepted into. I've shown in it a number of times now, but it's always a moment of holding your breath when you call the phone number three days after you drop off your work, listening to hear if you've gotten in.
Even when you're rejected (hate that word) you at least know you're in good company because I've seen some of the most well respected artists in this area get turned away.
I was only going to try for one painting this time, but in the end, decided on two. What the heck...it can only help increase your odds...lol
I had one out of the two accepted! Yay....I'll take that any day!
The one that got in.....it's the koi painting that you see in my last post.
Guess I get to dress up and go to an opening on Friday!!

Yes...another

Painting of koi! This is the larger one I mentioned previously. Image size 14"x20".
I decided to take pics of the steps for this one. Starting top left, this is where the fish are masked and the the juicy backgroud is put in. This is all done very wet. The pieces of stretched gauze and pieces of wax paper are added now too. (see eariler post on koi painting for this process)

The next photo is with all the texture elements removed and masking removed from fish.
In the following photo I'm painting the colors on the fish. This again is done very wet. All of the background is dry, but you really wet the white area of the fish and add the color to this.
The next photo starting in the bottom row at left is a closer detail of the fish, as is the next one, where all but one fish is painted. The last photo is the finished piece.

This was just a fun painting to do. It's been a while since I've done one this size since I've been sooo busy for so long with all the "little" art I've been into.
This one is now all matted and framed. Hope to stay on a roll and do more "big" art.

All my jiggys

are finally made and almost ready to mail. These little guys are being donated to the Autism fundraiser event called "Art Now for Autism"

http://www.artnowforautism.com/

The foundations logo is a puzzle piece, and it turns out that for this event they have a special need for "puzzle pins".

Since I've been making these puzzle pins for a while now...I contacted them about these and was told that they'd LOVE to have some!

I've made eight of these little guys for them!

These fun little pins will be on their way on Monday!

Since I'd completed the pins last night, I spent much of today as a "play" day. My friend Debbie came over to join me in a day in the pool!
We started with coffee on the dock for a bit so we could catch up on all the latest....then into the pool.
I don't believe we even got out of the water for two hours straight! It felt sooo good. We had a really fun time and it felt very much like two little girls just having a great day of play!
Note to self: do this more often! :)

Our local art group

does a summer painting/craft show and sale each year.

During that week-long event they also have a wall set up of 5" x 7" paintings donated by each of the members. The paintings are used as a raffle fundraiser.

These little paintings are always a huge hit and earns the group a nice tidy sum.

This is my donation for this year................... a watercolor of koi.

I was recently given a book on working in a spontaneous way with the medium. I've always been pretty loose and love working very wet with the paint...but this was much fun. It also incorporated other things into it to create texture. For instance.....the look of pebbles at the bottom of the water was by placing pieces of wax paper onto the wet paint and some of the other textures...the seaweedy looking stuff was by doing the same with pulled apart medical gauze.

After adding these things to the painting you drop in a bit more color on top and then let it dry. When dry, remove it all and paint in any extra detail.

I had such fun doing this I was working on several at once.

Right now I also have a large....maybe 18 x 24" (didn't measure it) piece like this in the works.

This was great fun for loosing up and kick starting a creative block!

It's sooo hot and dry

that the water lillies are growing wild!

When the weather gets this hot and the pond level gets low...the lillies come out in force. Guess it's the positive part of a negative situation. Sort of a reminder that there is always a bright side.

Happily.....the dragonflies are out and about as well.

I do feel lucky to have all of this beautiful nature to sit and watch. Have had some really unfortunate events happening lately but I know I've always got my spot on the dock to retreat to. My thinking place!

A day of Independence

4th of July

Busy busy day. This day starts off with the little local "farmer" type parade....you know the kind. The fire dept, police dept, local garage, the local farmer, the neighborhood market....all create floats of some sort and become a parade. My husband and daughter and I actually did it one year. We created a float to promote the local art group. Even got a couple of the artist to take part.

During this parade the folks driving the "floats" throw candy at the crowd and sometimes shoots water guns. More than enough excitement to start your morning...lol

After the parade the family gets together for what we call in-law-day!

This is the day that celebrates multiple birthdays that happen to take place all in the month of June, but since we don't gather for all of them...this is the weekend it's done. Mine happens to be one of them!!! Yay.

This takes place at the family house on the river. The view doesn't get any better!

The "in-law" part of this day if the fact that it's my birthday, my brother-in-laws birthday as well as the wife of my husbands uncle. So you see, we're all "in-laws" as seen by his family. Works for me. Great reason for a party!

Later, we joined some friends on a boat for a trip out to where we could watch the fireworks. The weather looked pretty marginal but the rain managed to hold off.

Every year we go off to watch the fireworks by boat. Loads of food and drinks aboard and lots of fun people. The veiw for the fireworks display is amazing by water.

Underway............ boat parlor........ FIREWORKS!!

Learning curves!

Well....this blog is certainly a learning curve.

I don't know how many times I've started this post, only to have to delete it because I didn't know how to make changes...lol
Goodness....pics land in here any which way and type goes all over the place!!!

Oh well....all in good time I'm sure.

Been waaay too busy lately. Trying very hard to get my Christmas in July sale in my Etsy shop, http://www.wedesigns.etsy.com/ up and running.
I've only had the shop since April....so it takes a lot of time to get noticed and have those sales start coming in. The sale sounded like a good way to do that!

Here are a few (if I figure out how do do this right) pics of some of the things I've made for this event.

Wooohooo...yes! Got the pic...lol
This is my "swirl" pendant made from numerous colors of polymer clay.
I've made a collection of these in different colors which are available in the shop, but this one, with its red colors, seemed perfect for the Christmas in July sale!


This one is my "Sea Glass" pendant.
Love sea glass. This one is a lovely frosted white piece.
A simple piece of elegant jewelry.
My design was inspired by an exhibit I went to of wearable art by Alexander Calder.


These are some blank holiday notecards I created yesterday! They are my "Zettie Santa".
Bright and colorful and oh so funky!
I'm never really crazy over the old traditional cards.
Love to send something that gets a giggle!


Right now I'm working on a reindeer "zettie" style card to go along with the santa. I think it's coming out really cute.
For those cards I do the b&w line work by hand and then scan that into my computer. From there I use my Wacom to digitally paint the colors.
My husband gave me the Wacom last year....so I'd better get busy making some good use of it...lol

Well.....off to get a few things done around here. Gotta go off to the store. Have a big birthday/Forth of July party to go to tomorrow.
Two of the gifts will be my sea glass pendents....but I do have one other gift, a male, that will be getting a good bottle of gin. I'm sure there won't be any returns happening with that one...lol
After I've got things ready for tomorrow, and do a bit more job hunting, I'm going to try to get more work done on the reindeer cards.
I'll try to get a pic of them for next time.
Happy July 4th to all!!
WW

Finally....

Wow...I've finally done it!
My very first blog. I've always wanted one for some reason. I don't know...maybe because everyone else on the planet seems to have one?
I figure this may be a good place to share my thoughts, my art, and my other websites with everyone.
Well....this is it for the moment. Hadn't actually woken up this morning with the idea of starting this today....but here I am.
I actually do have a bunch of other things I've gotta get done right now....so the decorating here in my new home will have to wait till later.
ww