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...

Whimsical wednesday!

My submission a day behind, but better late than never...

Wouldn't you just love to be falling, ever so slowly through green and blue clouds, especially with a big yellow umbrella??

Illustration Friday, submission for "sweater"

At first I couldn't think of anything for this theme, then I  got this idea to use 2 paintings I already had and add 3 more really quick ones to make this story...

Our gift for Mythora

The winter was almost over but it was still so very cold. I knew Mythora must be freezing outside as she had no fireplace to keep her warm as I did , and the spring still seemed so far away.
A tiny idea came to me...

I picked up one of my lovely warm angora rabbits as they didn't need all their long fur since they stayed in by the fireside with me all day. I spun her fur right into my spinning wheel then I had a cup of tea and thanked her for her gift of such beautiful white yarn.

 The next night I did the same with her sister, and the next night with her brother and so on night after night until I had enough yarn. Come the weekend I started to knit...

I spent all day and all night turning the beautiful yarn into something warm for Mythora. The sound of the clicking needles lulled my rabbits to sleep by the fireside. The next time Mythora came by I was ready and ran outside to give her our gift, holding it up in the cold sun. She leaned down so I could slide it over her head. She looked so warm now and comfortable...

Now she could be warm until spring,when we could play outside again, and have fun in the spring air and warm sun!

Friday's Nature Table.

I've been following this for awhile but this is my first submission tothis, you can see the rest of everyone's posts to this blog here:
http://themagiconions.blogspot.com/2011/02/fridays-nature-table_10.html

This is the new creation my daughter and I have been working on...
We made it out felt, and after sewing the base, we made an owl that tucks into a "branch" of the pine tree, we made a swan, a turtle, 3 bears, a bunny to eat th eblue flowers , all 3 bears can fit into the cave, We made  a beaver and a stump with mushroom that can be moved around. Oh, and there's a little blue bird that's tucked in the tree attached to the cave.This was so much fun to make together! We did it all without patterns, just decideing how it should look as we went. It's for sale in her new esty shop: Barefootbananas
http://www.etsy.com/shop/barefootbananas?ref=pr_shop
Thanks for stopping by and checking it out. We have so many plans to make other nature scenes, other biomes, the tundra is next...
We really hope some little girl or boy might enjoy playing with this set!

What's on your workdesk wednesday

This is the first time I'm joining in on this submission idea... I love these type of things and I just found this one thanks to One world One heart event going on. This is my workdesk...it's actualy my dayjob work desk but as that's the only place I really paint it's also my art desk. I don't have much time to paint at home with my son so I paint on my breaks at work, that's why I do watercolors... easy to start and stop in 15 minutes of time. So I pull my art out, paint, and then put it back in the drawer, and pull my keyboard back over to get back to work. Not ideal but at least I get to paint.

Whimsical wednesdays!

This submission is actually made by my daughter, not by me, for her new etsy shop. There's a link to it at the right. It's called Barefootbananas. We're both having fun making cool little felt things!

Hope rocks again!

This is my second post for Hope rocks! In the original post I expalined the idea which comes from Lille Diane, you can click on her picture to the right that says woodstocklilly to see her blog and read how the idea got started. Basically the idea is to share a little surprise of hope by hiding these rocks.

My third rock I put on the desk of a co-worker who needed a little hope to realx about things she is dealing with right now. She says it's helping to squeeze the rock once in awhile.

 Rock number 4 got left today on a bench by the lake. I visited Keuka  lake in the snow on my lunch hour and took a few pictures of the cold water and seagulls and the tiny little white rock waiting there on the bench for the first passerby who ventures through the snow down to the water....It's fun to imagine what they might think when they find it!

Illustration FRiday submission for Reverse

Here's my submission finally, posted with my son crawling all over me. Is it fun to have someone try to stand on your head? so if  I have typos, please understand!

this is one of a series about the many sides of people, the one they show and the reverse of that as well.... I'll post more in the series later...