Follow Your Painting...

...wherever it goes. This little painting had a mind of it's own. Very little of it ended up how I thought it would when I began. I started it as a potential greeting card design so I made it a small 5x7. I'll tell you a little secret: I have been trying to build up a little starter Etsy inventory so I can open my very own little Etsy story and fulfill a dream/goal. I, so much, want to get my little art business off the ground. I wanted to make up some small paintings that would be great little card prints. Uplifting, happy, great message, card prints. I started to feel a little panicky about this little painting because each and every time I touched a brush to it, I ended up doing something completely unplanned. Sometimes the trusting is just so hard. Magical, but hard. In fact, after I finished it, I realized that I, completely unknowingly, changed an entire word in my painting. I'm still a little annoyed about that, but I'm trying to take my own advice here and follow wherever it goes. So I'll just have to let it go.
It all began with a piece of vintage map of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, that I picked up at an antique store. I then glazed over it with blue liquid acrylics and a baby wipe. I painted the wings and the heart began as a collage piece, but you would never know because by the time I was done with it, it was completely painted over. The flower petals were painted on book text and the leaves are small green scraps. When I finished the whole thing, I glazed over it with some brown fluid acrylics and a baby wipe, then I added charcoal, because I just love charcoal. Charcoal changes EVERYTHING! Well, that's that! I'm off to bed soon. Tomorrow is a big day! Not only am I going on a little "girl day" adventure with my daughter, but my sister is going to finally get to have her baby. Hopefully this time tomorrow, I will be the aunt of another sweet, wonderful, new baby girl. Wahoo! I'm so excited!

Be The Bright Spot

This is a little painting I have been working on for a while now. I wanted a VERY textural background so I started with a piece of watercolor paper and added torn bits of book text, some of which was my grandma's. I love using meaningful things in backgrounds. It's like a little hidden treasure that only I know about. Then I added some stamps, a piece of lace, some fabric from the quilt I made for my daughter when she was born, and some random bits of ribbon from my ribbon jar. I then used my sewing machine to sew random spots of stitches here and there. I gave the whole thing a coat of gel medium and then painted over it.

"Be The Bright Spot" 9x12, mixed media, on watercolor paper

And here is my bright spot. It's my daughter's 9th birthday. I can't believe that she is 9. She is the best girl ever and makes my day....each and every day. She is always the one to give hugs and kisses and is so kind. We crazy love her. I have always LOVED making cool birthday cakes and parties for my kids' birthdays but this year, since I have been so sick, I have had to really simplify. I honestly can't do it this year and it's killing me but my daughter doesn't mind. She tells me it's OK and I just love her for that. She is so compassionate. I love this girl! Happy Birthday to my sweet Miss A! LOVE YOU!

Today's Art Adventure

This week, my little ones, have been showing signs of the big "B" word. That's right. The word that makes moms crazy (at least this mom). The word that kids use when they think that their mom needs to entertain them. Yep! They're BORED! Which means for me that I haven't been spending too much time painting. They were needing something to do and I was needing an art adventure, SO we decided to paint rocks.
Here is my 3 year old's paint experiment. It didn't take him long to finish his rocks, but he thoroughly enjoyed mixing paint and seeing what color he could make his rinse water.
Here is my 8 year old (at least until Monday) working on her masterpieces.
And here's our finished rocks. Since after applying paint to rocks, they are now too special to part with, my kids' rocks are now living in our home on a semi-permanent basis, but mine had a special purpose. My daughter and I headed out to the walking path that runs along the river and left my rocks for others to find.
She helped me find just the right spots for each and every rock and we had a great time trying to decide where to put them and wondering what the people who would find them would think. Where will they end up? Who would be the lucky recipients? Would someone throw them in the river? And if they did, what would the fish think? It's just so exciting to think about.

Hopefully, one of them will brighten someone's day. Because painting rocks just made a pretty happy art adventure for the three of us today. Now hopefully, I can spend tomorrow at my desk getting some painting done on one of the many backgrounds I have started that are awaiting my attention without having to hear the "B" word. Hey! A girl can dream.