Tags and Bookmarks

Shel and Kim are co-hosting

 Inspiration Avenue's challenge for this week

the theme... Tags & Bookmarks.

This week's challenge got off to a

fabulous start when I

received this wonderfully delightful

tag by Kim in the mail!!
I LOVE it & thank Kim enthusiastically!

You can find more of her work

at her shop IMGIRL

~
These are the tags I made for the challenge

Speaking of tags and bookmarks
IA is having a tag swap!
Check it out & join in!!
http://inspiration-avenue-team.blogspot.com/

angels and acceptance

The theme for Inspiration Avenue's art challenge of this past week was angels. I had fully intended to create an angel, however this week i had been stretched to my max, struggling with several things, one of which were painting angel ornaments for the grand children.


What has been bothering me most of late is my increasing lack of motor skills. My shaking hands were the main reason i closed my little jewelry shop over a year ago.  Two weeks ago i made a necklace as a little surprise gift for my sister in law, and  noticed how much more my hands shake and also the lack of strength they now have.  I went looking at the pictures of jewelry i had sold from the etsy shop and i confess to feeling deeply saddened that those days are forever behind me.
Making those little angels also served to put the mirror of reality before me, little facial features had to be redone because a trembling hand messed up. Even the simple task of writing the girls names was another reminder, as if i needed yet another! 

 There is a part of me that grieves and yet it's all right.


There's a saying "when God closes a door, He always opens a window"  while it's not Scripture, i am convinced that God has given each one of us gifts to be used, and art has been with me since childhood. So i will rejoice in this gift and paint with a grateful heart as long as God gives me breath.

a little bit of everything!

It's been one of those very long months that we all have when everything is hitting you at once.

my "net-book" stopped working needing an expensive repair, health problems, money problems, dealing with a major disappointment.... sigh.

But not all was a negative...

my friend Kim Collister was featured in

 Somerset Studio magazine!

I own some of her fabulous creations & was so

 inspired reading about her method for creating such artsy, encouraging tags 

that i thought i'd try my hand at them. 

Creating art is good therapy! 

 

I  mailed these out as a surprise gift for some 

very special customers as a little

 "thank you for your business".

~

Here are some new pieces I've done with 

the palette knife!

 i discovered that 

i love painting with the knives

and can't wait to do more!!

Blueberry Barrens

Abstract in Blue & Brown

Abstract Knife Painting

Dreaming of Spring

and

for something completely different...

....

the IA team had a "Mandalas" challenge 

a few weeks ago

that i couldn't post due to the pc trouble

so here are my belated & most feeble attempts

Oh!! I almost forgot to tell you,

though you probably have guessed,

i have a new laptop thanks to my hubby

it's my early Christmas and birthday gift!

Hopefully i will catch up with the IA challenges

and show you what i've been doing in my journal

but that will have to wait till later.

take care!

Autumn!!

Inspiration Avenue's challenge for this week is

"your favorite season"

That is easy as Pumpkin Pie

Autumn!

all the colors

  the crisp air

the crunch of the leaves

Mixed Media Art Card

the scent of apples

and wood burning stoves

i love everything about autumn!

Hand painted Maple Leaf pendant

Autumn Watercolor Landscape

What's your favorite season?

come on over to

Inspiration Avenue 

and enter our challenge!

and even consider joining our team!

IAC - a pink rose

Cindy, our IA sister loves roses!

so it's no surprise that Cindy selected "Roses"
for our Inspiration Avenue's challenge!

My mother-in-law was the sweetest soul
who had a twinkle in her eye and love in her heart.
So when she passed at the age of 92,
we planted a rose bush to remember her by.
This is a picture of one of "mom's roses"
that I took a few years ago.

for the challenge i played around with the photo

This was a lovely and very enjoyable challenge!
Thank you Cindy! Come join us at
Inspiration Avenue!
~
And the color of these roses fit perfectly for
Kim's
31 days of Pink!

~ the Lay of the Land ~

Since i began this art journey in July 2011

i've been

observing, experimenting, learning, stretching,  growing, discovering.

When i started, there were two things i  really wanted

* to become a GOOD, & i mean a really GOOD artist

and

* to discover my style and become the best i can in it.

But when i look over my shop,

well quite honestly  it's a mess!

i'm all over the place.

There is no cohesive style.

I have learned recently that i like mixed media more than watercolors

and that even though it was out of my comfort zone, 

being more loose and abstract seemed to free me.

~

this is an abstract mixed media landscape

i did that really excites me!

~

and this one....

changed everything!

When i first went back to art, i tried acrylics and hated the medium because i couldn't get it to do what i wanted. But now with thanks to God (yes i pray about my art) and being brave, all the little lessons have finally come together! What makes me SO excited is that this piece is totally paint (acrylic) and the composition, technique & feel is exactly what my vision hoped it would be.
 I still have more to learn but nevertheless i have passed a hurdle and have found myself!
~
The Inspiration Avenue Teams  Challenge, hosted by Jenn of Just Add Water Silly, was "zentangles"
and in keeping with my new favorite theme "landscapes"
here is my entry

i added a hint of color because quite frankly i love color :)

Blessings & Joy to you all!!

Ah Paris, the city of Love!

Inspiration Avenues challenge "I Love Paris" is brought to us

 beautifully by our IA sister Hettienne.

 Hettienne's wonderful photos and descriptions of Paris 

have me longing to go and experience it for myself! 

Oh, please check out her personal blog for 

another gorgeous tour of Paris! 

~+~

I tried 2 other pieces but they didn't feel right, this one

is much closer to the feeling I wanted to capture.

I created a traditional collage and then played around with it  

giving it old fashioned romantic vintage feel

Here are 3 versions

( this one makes me think of French Toile!) 

It's not too late to enter the I Love Paris challenge yourself!

Hope to see you in Paris!

and

thank you so much Hettienne for the inspiration!

chucking the plans and the teapot challenge

Boy just when i thought i was getting the feel for abstract art,
this week happened!

I sketched a few designs in pastel pencils that
i thought were terrific.

But when i was painting them..... totally awful!

The more i looked at those mini sketches,
the more awful my work became.

So after working on the two paintings for a day and a half, 

i chucked the sketches &
 just did what i  thought worked for the piece;

 and when i was happy with what i saw,
i stopped! (lesson learned from last week!)

Life Circle

Abstract Landscape

Now i think in total honesty i should tell you
 that my much beloved hubby, 

actually laughed out loud when he saw the abstract landscape.

hmmm...... of course this wonderful man doesn't like abstract or expressive art & though he respects VanGogh, he wouldn't want any of his work in the house. So maybe, and this is my semi desperate way of coping, his laughter at this piece may just be a good thing!?

~~~~~~~~~~

And for the Inspiration Avenues "tea pot" challenge, time was a bit short this week,
 but i took one of my photographs and played around digitally
giving it a new look for Shel's challenge.

"Green Tea"

Inspiration Avenue's challenge & PostCard Swap UpDate

Inspiration Avenue's challenge for this week is "Art Journaling" and our hostess Maggie showed us so many beautiful examples of art journals, plus she included videos showing how some go about creating them!

I have an art "idea book" / sketchbook but haven't used it as an art "journal" and what's in there isn't even close to the examples of what Maggie showed us. However i decided to give it go.....

~~~~~~~~~~~ + ~~~~~~~~~~

And now for the 

Post Card Swap Up Date!

Only four arrived, I hope the fifth one wasn't lost in the mail! But here are the four that arrived and you can tell that each one was made with their own artistic flair!

I love each and everyone, & thank you all so much!!

This was the very 1st card that arrived & is so pretty! It's from Peggy Gatto !

A wild Bohemian w/ a 3D butterfly was created by a mother & daughter team, LiLa O!

Earthy & loaded with texture, "BE" is from Jeanet Annott !

This lovely creation is from my IA sister, Cindy & is decorated with tiny jewels !

Plus this surprise bonus from another IA Sister, Kim !

This swap was so much fun i can't wait for the next one ! 

P.S. Postcard Swap!

The Inspiration Avenue's "P.S."  postcard swap is in full swing! Postcards are being mailed and postcards are being received, and good things are arriving daily!

Here are the postcards that i have mailed out. Three are going to IA sisters. These three cards all have something in common, they have a chickadee bird. What makes that special is that my sister-in-law gave me a very special birthday gift which was wrapped in gorgeous bird tissue paper. I love that paper & have saved it to use on special projects.  I thought this paper would be perfect for my IA Sisters postcards!

The other two postcards are on their way to South Africa and England.

So far I have received three and when all five arrive I'll share them with you right here! :)

Days of the Week - I A Challenge

Kim of IMGIRL, is hosting her first Inspiration Avenue Challenge, her theme, "Days of the Week" as according to the nursery rhyme.   We were challenged to create a piece of art that fits the description for the day we were born. Kim even included a link so we could determine that. :)

 Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for his living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

 It turned out I was born on a Wednesday.... "full of woe".

I tend to create more uplifting or even whimsical art & landscapes and rarely create anything somber, so this was a bit of stretch!  What kept going though through my head was the classic Spiritual... "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen, nobody knows but Jesus. Nobody knows the trouble I've seen; Glory Hallelujah."

I painted this with burnt umber ink and and a bit of Mayan Blue watercolor, on 5x7 Fabriano Hot Pressed paper.

 For this version I played around and digitally enhanced the color a bit .

It still isn't too late to submit your entry for the Inspiration Avenue's challenge, you have till Sunday noon!
Thanks so much Kim for this interesting & terrific challenge! I really enjoyed this!... oh maybe i shouldn't say that since i'm a woeful Wednesday child... revise that... it was a miserable experience! LOL  ;D