Painting II

 Well, although my life is still full of small speed bumps, I must say the funnest of them is Painting II. I just love this class. There are lots of struggles for me in this class. We have decided I paint best sleep deprived. As crazy as that sounds, I am much more intuitive and less precise when I am tired. So embracing this new sleep deprived phase of my life.  Here are some of my paintings.



The painting on the left is done on unstretched canvas. Duck cloth to be precise. I had hoped to actually quilt this painting. This picture was taken on Mackinac Island in August of 2011. I happened to be waiting outside of a store and saw this precious little girl looking at the art. I just had to paint it!

 Matt worked for the DNR. My good friend Tim Kaufman allowed me to use his photograph to paint from. He took this photograph using his 800 mm lens. This happens every spring when the DNR bands the baby eagles. The DNR agents climb the tress and pull the eagles down to get banded. The eagles are then put back into the nest. Apparently the parents just circle, but do not attack. This little guy gave matt quite the talking too. This photograph has been published in the National Audubon Society Publication.

This picture was also taken by Tim Kaufman (www.timkaufmanphoto.com). It is a Pileated Woodpecker in his hole. I just love this picture. Again Tim graciously agreed to let me paint his work! This was also done on unstretched canvas. Although I have a lot of room for growth, this is by far my favorite class. It is 6 hours long on a friday and I can't think of a better way to spend the day.

Recycle 4 ATC 136-140

So in an effort to continue my recycled art I made some more ATC cards. These are all made on the back of recycled card board.  Some of the images and backgrounds are from recycled paper.  Even some of the trim and ribbon are recycled from old clothing.  Old dictionary, maps, and book text are added for background. New items include decorative tape, 3D elements from ARTChix, images, and thread mingle with the old.


ATC 136 House I have got to say my favorite element is the 3D house. Love the wood laser cuts. Thank you ARTChix!

ATC 137 Trip

Love the Trip Suitcase! Check out the recycled bias tape that looks like pink lace!

 ATC 138 I love Paris. The image is just perfect. The Eiffel tower hat is the best. The Paris Washi tape graces the recycled, painted cardboard!

 ATC 139 The boot--Another ArtChix laser wood die cut.  Added to maps, and other fun images, this one doesn't have any text but is full of spunk.

ATC 140 Paris
I do love these laser wood cuts so! I combined my favorite stamp of music notes with the wood cut of the Eiffel tower. Combined with my vintage and yellowed dictionary definition of Paris, it is pure ATC addiction!

Recycle 3 - Drawing II The Self Portrait

Drawing II is turing out to be a very fun class. Great assignments and creative freedom.  The class is also full of very talented and super fun artists.  For this project I used acrylic paint, water color paint, stencils, and old dictionary/book pages. Although I am falling behind in my quest to produce a recycled project a week, I will not quit. This project I used recycled book pages...


To the right is Katie. I love her simplistic line drawing full of beautiful, bright springlike flowers!

Tom's has a unique appearance. He did the entire self portrait out of pen strokes.
I truly enjoyed the blue and yellow color.  To the right is Kendra.  I love her non-traditional use of text and the fact that she was able to use two separated pages for her composition.

 Melinda was able to make black and white pop!

Chelsea did such an amazing rendition of herself. You have got to love the cheetah!  How would you draw yourself???

Valentine's Day ATC Swap

 The ArtChix Valentine's Day Swap was hosted by Nikki Smith, the greatest hostest. The first ATC was made by B. Smith. She didn't put any of her contact information. I must say I love the buttons.

 This valentine was done with fabric and is quite amazing. I didn't have a name, but am able to thank here by email! Such a great job with the detail. There are beads around the heard with fabric, ribbon, and text!

 Nostalgia for sure. Lisa Robinson does an amazing job with her ATC's. I love this one because it transports me right back to childhood. This looks exactly like the Valentines that I used to send. The more animals and hearts, all the better.......

Such vibrant red, Camelichar did this one with two lovely ladies highlighting this gorgeous card in black.

 Nikki Smith always has some of the most original ideas. I love the pom pom's at the bottom. The ribbon, eiffle tower, and heart bead make this cupid so decorative.

......and lucky me another card all the way from Germany. Sabine Busch made this gorgeous card. It is just screams romantic. I love the image, words and the lovely heart!  Thanks to all those great artists who put those valentines in my mailbox. It was such a great swap. Even though valentine's day has past, XOXO

Perspective Drawing

 Perspective drawing was the first of our big assignments in Drawing II. We had to have 5 vanishing points and we could use any medium and any subject.

Tom did Detroit with an automotive theme. I just adore his work.

Carly blew me away with the owl and bird house.

 Cassie combined bricks, buildings and books for a neat angle.

Katie did wolves howling out some colorful sound. I swear they are golden retrievers, but then again I can see Golden Retrievers in and ink blot.

 Kendra did an amazing color wheel of columns with a very realistic lion coming right out of the page.

 Dustin is working on an amazing city scape from above!

My take on the anatomy of the human body, distorted into vanishing points. (My favorite is the red blood cell clotted in the capillary.)

Tessa is a whimsical color genius with her bubbles and depiction of camping!


This class will be very fun, and will bring lots of creativity.

Recycle 2 ATC 131-135 Valentine ATC

So Recycle project two involved using those ribbons that come attached to tags for clothing. Some of them are beautiful. I also enjoy those tiny little safety pins that are used to adhere the tags to the garment. So I indulged my ATC addiction by making some more Valentine ATC's!!!

 ATC 131 Be Mine
This was done with a heavily layered base that was on recycled cardboard. I then added a heart with the words BE MINE which were cut from a old children's book.  My favorite part is the red/white ribbon that was from a clothing tag.

 ATC 132 Romanticism
This was done on recycled card board. The lace on the right edge is taken from a recycled wool skirt. This was used to secure the lining seam. I then used an old dictionary definition for Romanticism. The circle is a SIZZIX die cut from an old book. The heart is made from my favorite fabric paper, that is a culmination of recycled images.  Finally, the key ribbon is from a garment. These satin ribbons are often used by retailers to keep garments from falling off of hangers. I usually cut them out, and save them for these very projects.  The heart with the key hole is from a broken piece of jewelry from my junk box.  Finally the brass tiny safety pin is recycled from a garment tag! All the cast off's can come together to make a romantic ATC.

 ATC 133 Encircle was done on recycled cardboard. Again there is recycled book and dictionary pages. The first heart was made from a dictionary page and the second heart was made from fabric paper.

ATC 134 Love was made from recycled cardboard. The word LOVE was done on an old label maker.

ATC 135 Saying Good-Bye
This was done on recycled cardboard. The heart that is gold in color was made from recycled plastic grocery bags. The second heart was made from old sheet music. The ticket in the lower right corner was from a musical that I had seen back in 2012! The twine under the text is from a garment tag!

Hope you enjoyed the recycling project #2.

Painting Week 4

 James is making huge progress on his painting. He was painting on the floor this time and it is so large I had to stand on a platform to get this picture. James is also painting on canvas that is not stretched and he is using acrylics.

The one to the right is mine and is being done from a picture that I took on mackinac island. The picture is fro 2011. I am using fabric paint on duck's cloth so that I may embellish and sew on it when I finish it.  I have 12 hours into this at this point and still a long way to go. I must say this is my favorite class.

 Unfortunately I do not have a steady hand. This is Tom's. He is amazing and progresses so fast. I just love his work. I made him promise that I could buy one of his paintings prior to leaving class.

To the left Tom and James are having an intense discussion.

 Chelsey has put some finishing touches on Super Man!

















Elise is in painting I and is in our class, she is a natural.

Andrew is our painting instructor. His paintings are always amazing. He works side by side with us so we can see how he approaches his paintings!