Just in a Cocoon

So, I know...I know.  It's been awhile since my last post.  I have been dealing with some personal stuff and last week I was ready to blog a new post.  I just had to clean my office first....well by the time it was done, I was done.  Now, here I am in a clean office ready to blog away!!!

We finally got rain today...FINALLY!!!! It has been awhile and it was getting just a little too dry around here.  Luckily, today we have been getting a steady rain and my son and I have been snuggling and watching movies.  I hope life is going well for you dear reader.  I just love this time of year.  Spring is when everything comes alive again after looking dead for so long.  I hope your home is looking beautiful now.

Speaking about things transforming....I came across a article showing the transformation of caterpillars to butterflies!  What a perfect thing to talk about while everything is changing around us.  I know it has been a long time since I have posted last, and this post will be short, but I hope it is a good start to a lovely Spring!

Check out the article HERE !  Number 16 is my favorite, the Glass Winged Butterfly.  I like it so much, I'll add the picture here.

Valentine's Day

Love is in the air!!!  At least for most.  For those who refuse to celebrate this holiday or have no one to share it with, I do hope you find a way to make this day special.  I remember hating Valentine's day in my single days but I always found a way to have fun.  My single friends and I would exchange gifts and watch chick-flicks while eating a ridiculous amount of junk food.  Now my husband and I just try and find a moment of quiet while our son sleeps and watch a goofy comedy and eat a ridiculous amount of junk food.  Have a wonderful day with friends, a loved one, or family.  

Since, many people have dates planned this coming weekend, I wanted to honor one of the many things that happens on dates, getting to know each other.  If you are a new reader to my blog, I want you to get to know me.  Way in the beginning of starting this blog, I explained what I do know and my education in art.  What is just as important as that is, what art really means to me.  What happens when I see something I love in a museum or gallery.  So please read what I have written over a year ago explaining what art is to me:

What Art is to Me

Now that you know my intentions with this blog, let me tell you a little about myself.  I have a degree in art from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas.  My degree is in painting and photography, of course, my two passions.  I currently live in Kansas with my husband and my son.  I hope that information about myself can help you understand why I have started this blog and that I do know a little something about what I am talking about.

Today, I want to talk about my favorite artist and his influence on me and hopefully your art as well.  As a child I fell in love with Impressionism.  Its beautiful and the movement and colors created a fantastic dream world I can live in.  What is impressionism?  It is a style and movement that art took after artists wanted to show movement in artwork to make it feel like the world was still moving even when it was captured in a painting.  The world is constantly moving, growing, and changing so why not capture that in a moment, in a painting.  So with that of course my favorite artist is Claude Monet.  His paintings appealed to me as a child and still do to this day.  Anytime I visit a museum that has one of his paintings I get butterflies as I study the work with intensity.  I grew up just outside of Houston, Texas so I visited the art museums there on a regular basis.  There is a Claude Monet painting there that he painted in his later years that defines art to me.

The Japanese Footbridge, 1912-15 Claude Monet

You are probably thinking, that is not the footbridge I know of...well your right.  This version he painted later in his life when his eyesight was failing.  Monet had an eye condition that made everything have a red hue to it.  Why I find this version the most fascinating is we are truly seeing through his eyes.  We are seeing the world as he saw it, red.  THAT is what art is to me.  Showing the viewer the world through the artist's eyes.  So let me show you my world through my eyes.  

Patience

Happy Groundhog day everyone!  From what I've heard, Phil predicted an early spring so lets hope he is right.  As much as I want snow for my son, I do want that lovely spring weather so going outside will not be so freezing!

Patience is something everyone has trouble with.  Standing in line at the DMV, waiting for water to boil, or to an artist slowly working to get that finished product.  Well, if you think to yourself, I am a fairly patient person, let me introduce you to Lorenzo Duran Silva:

This artist does leaf art, and not just any leaf art, intricate cuts into leaves found on the ground.  Lorenzo collects leaves, cleans, dries and presses them.  Draws out a design and lays it over a tiny leaf.  He works on the design ranging from a week to a month.  At the very end, he pulls his drawing paper off the leaf so carefully as to not ruin that month of work to reveal a detailed, intricate design.

So, how patient are you?  On a scale of a toddler to Lorenzo Duran Silva?  After looking at this man's work, I think my patience is closer to a toddler's patient level.

I hope you enjoyed learning about this artist and remember to be the best artist you can be....patience and all!!


Here are more images of Lorenzo's work and here is the website I got my information from: HERE

But Is It Any Good?

Greetings from middle America!  Living in the middle of everything has its perks and downfalls.  Later this week we will experience the perks to having everything happening around us, like cold weather.  We will be enjoying some warm winter weather in the 60's while others are sadly buried in snow.  The weather just seems to pass over us and head on out to other corners of America.  Shockingly enough, I would love some snow this winter.  Our son received a sled for Christmas and I would love for him to use it for the first time this year.  We just need snow!  To all my readers who are buried in snow and can not go anywhere, I wish you safety and warmth!  Maybe we can switch places for just a minute so I can take my son sledding.

Abstract art....is it any good?  I know most art museum goers find themselves saying under their breath, "I could do that....and that is worth millions?  I'm in the wrong profession!" A simple paint streak across a canvas may seem like simple work but, when it comes to art, it really might not be.  Some of my favorite classes to take have been in Art History (minus the cave drawings, I enjoyed the more current work).  Understanding the work and knowledge behind that one paint streak is a lot more complicated than you might think.

I was on Pintrest late one night, which is most nights, and found a great blog discussing this exact topic, Is It Any Good?  Let me share with you this blog and this might help you see abstract art a little differently, and hopefully, know you might not be able to do it yourself.

Read HERE!

I hope everyone has been sketching away and bettering themselves in your art ability.  And as always, be the best artist you can be!

Sketching

On this cold cold day, I am held up inside because it is toooooooo cold outside.  Its the kind of cold that cuts you to the bone no matter how many layers you manage to put on.  The kind of cold that takes minutes not seconds to warm back up once you get inside.  The kind of cold that makes you mad at how slow your car takes to warm up.  Can you guess that I am tired of being cold?  It is even harder when you have a little one who is still in a car seat.  Little kids can not or should not wear a winter coat while in the car seat.  So, you wrestle your child into the coat inside, walk a few steps, then wrestle the coat off your kid in the car, lather, rinse, repeat.  So, yes I am ready for spring already.

The last few days I have realized something that was missing in my life.  I can list many things but lately, the one that I have been focusing on was my art.  I write about it and sometimes do a craft or two with friends but not like I used too.  In college, I would spend late nights in the studio working on my latest piece.  I used to forget eating meals until I finished just one part of a painting.  But, I have not made a painting in awhile.  I think that most artists go through that period where life happens or an art road block occurs in your mind.  So, how do we fill this void to keep the juices flowing and our talent alive?  Sketch. When I say sketch, I mean anything.  A shoe, a word, a circle, a dream, anything.  That helps collect your thoughts into a book that eventually will bring you a work of art.  I have countless sketchbooks strewn around the house with sketches that are now the paintings hanging on my walls.  I have forgotten that.  I have forgotten to spend time in a sketchbook doodling my thoughts.  I think that is why I have hit a road block when it comes to creating paintings.  I need to work through my thoughts to find the one that is worthy of a painting.

My challenge for you is just that, sketch.  Go buy a sketchbook or make one by binding some blank pages together and sketch.  Get your thoughts down onto paper so you can work through them and find your next masterpiece.  I wish you the best with this because I will be with you doodling away.  If I have anything worthy or well anything, I'll share with you my readers.  If I like it enough or even you do to, let me know and I'll make it a painting.  If you want, please share your sketches too.  I would love to see them.

As always, be the best artist you can be!

Re-Visit

Hello again friends!  This week I decided to do something different and just leave you with a link of an older blog post I wrote in the past.  A re-visit to a topic I covered in case you missed it the first time.  I'll have us re-visit my En Plein Air blog.  You can read it HERE!!!


Also do not forget to visit my ETSY SHOP to buy some of my artwork.

Have a great week and remember, to be the best artist you can be!

Adult Coloring Books

Hello friends!  My first post of the new year!  How exciting to have been writing this blog for over a year now with wonderful friends to read what I have to say.  A lot of the time it is not very much, but I do hope that what I write is educational and informative.  With that said, let us dive right into our first topic of 2016!

What is on trend these days?  Adult coloring books.  They are everywhere!  I even got a couple for my Christmas gift.  These books, if you have not heard of them, are complex designs for you to color, mostly directed towards adults or older kids.  The reason these books have appeared is because coloring is relaxing, and as most adults know, being an adult is not always kicks and giggles.  Life can pile up and become stressful.  Tuesdays are like that in our house, for some reason.  My son usually has a bad day on Tuesdays, my husband usually has a bad day on Tuesdays, and guess what, I usually have a bad day on Tuesdays.  I am sure each and everyone of you has one of those days every once in awhile.  I just hope they are not as often as every Tuesday like in my house.  So with all that stress looming, adults usually try to find a way to relieve it.  Now we all know their are a lot of unhealthy ways to do that, but finding a healthy way to relieve that stress is important.  So, why not color?  Sitting down to focus on a complex coloring design is healthy and helpful.  Now, you know I am no doctor, far from it.  But with some knowledge in Art Therapy, adult coloring has brought a lot of people comfort.  Yes, you guessed it, adult coloring is a form of Art Therapy!  Creating art can give you relaxation and focus.  A time to get your mind off those terrible Tuesdays and on to something simple, coloring.  Go and try out some of the coloring pages I listed below to bring some peace to your crazy adult life.  No one ever said being an adult would be easy....well, maybe a kid who has no clue yet and thinks being an adult is eating whatever you want whenever you want (which is true but still its more then that). So as always, be the best artist you can be!

Check out these coloring pages for you to print out at home:

Owls

Elephant

Mandala

Do not forget to visit my Etsy shop for the latest deals on my paintings!  

Click HERE