Put A Bird On It

Hello strangers!

These last few weeks have flown by with fall finally here.  As I am a few weeks away from having my baby, I have been scrambling to get my house ready for the new member of the family to arrive that I have neglected my blog.  I am here now and hopefully will squeeze in another post before I'm busy all over again.

Halloween is less then a week away and I hope you are having fun preparing what you will be this year.  Our family is going to be Minions.  Our son loves the movie so we thought he would love us all being Minions.  It's a simple costume, yellow shirts and overalls.  I have a wonderful friend who knitted us hats that are the Minion's faces.  So we will be all decked out next Monday.

I love bird art.  I think it is a simple beauty that birds often are, except for maybe during the Alfred Hitchcock's movie "The Birds".  For me personally, I think it has a lot to due with that often fun question, what superpower do you wish you had?  I have always said, to fly.  So, birds fascinate me, especially bird art.  I am not the only one who has found bird art pretty.  The trend a few years ago was to put a silhouette of a bird on nearly everything and called it art or cool.  Birds were popping up everywhere and not real ones, just images of birds.  Me being a fan of bird art anyway enjoyed the new trend.  Yes, it has become cliche enough that the popular show, Portlandia, did a skit about it.  I have put the skit below for you to enjoy and laugh at.






In my home, I have many different and unique things hanging on my walls.  All have a purpose or story.  I am not a fan of hanging something without meaning on my wall just to fill space.  Two pictures I have come from my Grandma's home.  After she passed many years ago, we went through what she had and took things we wanted to keep to remember her by.  Two of the many things I kept were two bird art prints.  I have kept them in their original metal frames and have had them on my wall for a few years now.

They are simple but pretty and hold a special meaning to me.  So, if you are feeling fun one day, put a bird on it!

Christmas is coming quickly so, if you are starting your shopping, do not forget to check out my Etsy shop HERE

Wall Art

What have you been doing now that Fall is finally here?  I have been enjoying this lovely weather while gearing up for all the fun activities to come.  This time of year is an endless parade of holidays and wonderful memories to be made.  In the next few weeks we will go as a family to get our pumpkins from a pumpkin patch.  Then, soon get ready for our baby on the way while still enjoying a Thanksgiving meal.  Finally, we will get a tree and decorate for Christmas, my favorite holiday.  So many wonderful things coming while the weather helps make it all bearable.

As we have been preparing for our next little one to arrive, we have been moving our son out of what was the nursery into his very own big boy room.  I spent last week painting one of his favorite things on the wall to make his new room his very own, a train or as he likes to call it "choo choo".  When we got the nursery ready for his arrival a few years ago, I knew I wanted it to be Winnie the Pooh themed.  I feel foolish being an artist and not painting something myself on the wall.  I just can not imagine buying a stick on image when I know I can paint it myself.  How much more special will it be for my children growing up knowing that their mother painted their room just for them.  Here is the Winnie the Pooh in the nursery:

I knew I wanted to keep the theme going especially knowing we are having another boy. The room is blue and ready to go.  I also knew that this room has been pretty used to having Pooh on the walls...all kinds of poo.  

As I finished painting the train in our son's new room, I knew that it made the room just for him.  I painted the train like the one we are planning on getting him for Christmas to make it that much more special:

I simplified it because after sketching out the actual train I knew it would take me forever.  It is close enough to look like the train set he would get without being over the top.  

If you can, I recommend painting something on your child's wall.  Making something personal for your child and taking that time to do it, is so sweet and memorable.  Your child will look back on their life and remember that their parents gave them something unique as a sign of their love for them.  

Have a good week or a few, depending on when I manage to get back on here to write again.  Always remember, to be the best artist you can be!!

Perspective

School has started and fall is just around the corner, it's time to get into the routine of the year again.  I don't know about you, but I have been having trouble getting into that routine. I hope your doing better then me!

As usual I found myself looking at art online and found some really awesome sidewalk chalk drawings.  What makes these drawings so amazing to me is the perspective.  These drawings only look good from one vantage point.  When drawing the artist has to be extremely knowledgeable in knowing where the drawing will look correct and correct measurements to accomplish a complete drawing.

 Notice how the drawing changes when you move where you would be standing.  The talent of knowing how to make a drawing look 3-D on a flat surface.

If you want to try making a drawing like these, tell me how!  I have never been great about perspective and anyone who is good at it, have always amazed me.  Here is the link to the website I found these pictures and their are many more for you to enjoy, Click HERE

Do not forget I have an Etsy shop and if you would like to see my paintings or even purchase one, you can look HERE

Bee Have

Do you feel that?  Can you?  That slight, slight drop in temperature?  It's coming!  It really is coming!  FALL!!!! After being a hermit the last few weeks with this blistering weather, I have emerged from my cave to feel that slightly cooler weather.  It has been wonderful and just in time for school to start.  It feels like we can finally have fun outside without dying.  Which it is just in time for all the festivals to start, this is my favorite time of year living in a place that actually has a fall.  I hope y'all are enjoying the little bit of cooler weather too.

As I just keep putting off finishing my painting, I decided to get some sketching done.  It is so important to sketch as often as you can.  I am very guilty of not doing it more often.  Sketching to an artist is like working out for an athlete.  It keeps your skills fresh and you begin to perfect your technique and style.

After wading through all the junk mail we recieve, I found an informational letter on the decline of the bee population.  I know they are important to our environment like really, all living things.  I have thought about one day having some beehives and processing my own honey.  The only thing is my mom is deathly allergic to bees.  So, she might not get to visit if they were buzzing around.  So, I can just imagine having bees instead of actually owning some.  So, whats with all this bee talk?  Well, I decided to sketch a honey bee.  After sketching it, I had a whole bunch of ideas flood into my brain about what my next project will be.  I am excited to get started BUT I need to finish my painting I already have in progress.  So, maybe the excitement for this next project might get me to finish my current one.

I hope everyone is enjoying the last bit of summer you do have before school begins and activities start.  Keep sketching and working on your art, do not let it slip away. Remember to be the best artist you can BEE!!

Christmas in July

We have been traveling quite a bit this summer.  For the last three months we have gone to Texas three times.  I am from Texas so these were all family trips.  After the third time, I told my family we were done for awhile.  Now I can sit and enjoy summer here in Kansas with my family.  Now that it is July, the weather outside can be described as close to the temperature of hell.  So, spending summer time with family has been restricted to indoor activities until that wonderful Kansas Fall arrives.

Since most places like to have a sale for Christmas in July, I thought I would partake as well.  I need to make room in my house and in my Etsy shop for new artwork so time to slash prices and move some product.  Please visit my shop HERE to see the discounted items**.  If you know me personally, you can always contact me and I can wave the shipping fee and just hand deliver the artwork.  I hope everyone is staying cool this summer!

**Please note, all items have been discounted 25% except photograph prints.  Some items have been discounted before and the original price before any discounts have been made can be found in the description below the item.

Art or Science

I hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th of July!



My husband likes to share new and different YouTube videos with me.  Whether I like them or not, I watch them, especially when it's a silly song that will be stuck in my head forever. Last week he showed me Ant Hill casting with molten Aluminum.  This video is fascinating but brings up the debate whether this is actually art or science.



My personal opinion is that this is science.  Just because you use an expensive material and mount the finished work and find it in a museum, does not make it art.  Art to me is something that you created with your hands and with your imagination.  This is taking something that is already made and using it for your own enjoyment.  I am not saying that these Ant Hill casts are not cool, because they are.  But, this practice is a great way to study and learn about Ants and their home.  I find this so interesting and hope they use this method in scientific studies of Ants and their way of living.



So, what do you think?  Is this art or science?

Middle Ground

I hope everyone is having a great summer.  Sadly, it is almost halfway over.  School will start and the pools will close.  At least the benefits to it all is cooler weather.  

I started working on the second layer to my painting, the middle ground.  Most paintings consist of three layers; background, middle ground, and finally, the foreground.  Luckily, I did not need to go back into my background to fix my middle ground work.  

I am not too happy with what I painted but, luckily, paintings are made of paint and paint can be layered and covered up.  Being able to edit yourself is a wonderful thing in painting.  Here is what I have done so far and will keep you updated as often as I have a moment to write my blog.  

I hope everyone is having a good summer and have been finding some time to create art.  So remember, to be the best artist you can be!