Sketching and reading

This is from my idea sketchbook this week... Future paintings are started here and I did a type of zentangles, but I need to check out more of their blog... Sorry for the poor quality photos as my house is so dark it's hard to get a good pic...

This is what I'm reading but as I'm sure something incredibly horrifying is to be revealed soon or at the end, and I'm just not sure I'm up to reading whatever it is, I've put the book aside for weeks. If anyone has read it let me know a reason to keep reading it, as I hate not to finish a book I've started....

remake

This is my favorite paininting ever... Monet's bar at the Folie Bergere...
I remade it for the monday artday challenge... I should have had her wearing the crazy clothes I normally stick my ladies in.... but anyway. She represents time for me, time stuck where you don't want to be, lonely in a crowd, just a totally vacant expression becuase she's spent her time going inward....
My remake's expression is a little to serene looking, not at all the right "not there" look. Oh well... would have to spend way more time than I have to get this one right!

Check out more art at monday artday blog by clicking to the right
and at 3muses here:
http://thethreemuseschallenge.blogspot.com/

Hope rocks again!

This week I only left one hope rock as there's so much snow I didn't know if they would just get buried...

I left it on the steps of a public building, we didn't get snow for 2 days, but when I checked on the little guy he was still there, nobody had scooped it up. Then... it snowed, but when I checked a few days later he was fine, sitting quietly on the side of the steps, waiting to be found. And.... the next day he was gone!

Then I went back to the lake where I'd left the hope rock 2 weeks ago... and the poor guy had fallen off his bench and was laying underneath. Apparently noone but me sits by the lake in winter... who knew? So I replaced him on his snow free bench and we'll see how he fares. Not sure why I feel these little guys are male!?!)

What I've been doing this week

Well these photos don't represent all I've done creatively this week as I finished 4 paintings at work.... I start a ton and work on them all a little here and there so when I finish I finish a lot.I only have a photo of one though as I left the rest at work and we have a snow day here in NY. My daughter and I have been needlefelting again... Can't wait for warmer weather to get outside more though...

She's obviously falling for you....

The cat even "helped" us create... I'm almost finished with the butterfly this little lady will ride...

This little mermaid has a story to tell but she hasn't shared it with me yet..... something to look forward to!

To see more creatinve things try these 4 sites....
http://themagiconions.blogspot.com/  for their friday nature table
http://naturalsuburbia.blogspot.com/ for their creative fridays
http://madelinebea.com/blog/ for theme related creativity in the sunday creative and to
http://creativeeveryday.com/
and these will be available at my daughter's etsy shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/barefootbananas?ref=seller_info and/or at my etsy shop which you can click on at the right... Thanks for stopping by,say hello if you have time...

Sunday sketches and sketchbook challenge...

Did these with the theme of opposites in a flimsy little sketchbook meant for kids. It's just a place I sketch in for ideas for future paintings. But after reading the sketchbook challenge page I decided to go with their theme of "opposites". I normally start drawing ladies, starting with their face, even if I plan to do something else. So this time I made myself start with something Opposite... geometric shapes. I started with the triangles then couldn't resist filling them in with more organic shapes and such. Then I tried 2 sketches of a woman and a monster but I tried to not worry about making it pretty, just kept my pen on the page and let it be ugly.... My art always ends up cute and I tried not to let that happen, the lady is not cute but I'm afraid the monster pretty much ended up that way.

what i've been doing lately...

My daughter and I have been learning to do needlefelting... it's so much fun. I like it even better than sewing with felt, the colors of the roving are so pretty. And the other great thing is that we're enjoying it together. We made these little guys on our first tries! My son lets us do it with only a minimal amount of climbing on me, The only challenge is to keep the needle away so he doesn't get hurt on it. There's so many things I want to try to make with this... It keeps my mind busy at night thinking of ll the possibilities...

If you really want to see more these and others will be available in her etsy shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/barefootbananas

Illustration Friday submission for "layer"

This is an little bit older watercolor I did, where she's removing a layer of everyday clothes, everyday appearance, to reveal the secret truth of herself. We've all got those secrets... this is sort of a recurrent theme with me, not as strong as the falling ladies of course...