Painting up a storm

The chair's not done yet.
I did another small painting anyway.
Here it is.
Hope you like it.

DIY ~ frugally

Over the next while, I plan to highlight some of the cool blogs that you can find on the right hand side of this blog under the heading Blog Favourites of Mine.

If you know me at all, you know that I have pretty good "frugality skills". I do appreciate any new inspiring resources that can that can assist me and my family economically. Some time ago, I discovered an intriguing blog called Frugal Upstate. The author of the blog, Jenn, is a stay-at-home-mom and a self-confessed "frugalite". She offers scads of practical ideas, and her site's dedicated to helping readers (are they called blogees?) to save moolah while still living a good life.

One of the gems she shared in one of her posts was how to make homemade laundry detergent. It's super simple (only 3 ingredients) to make, it's incredibly cheap, the clothes wash beautifully and smell wonderful! See the little cup next to the bar of soap in this photo? That's how much you use of this soap per load. I'm impressed. Good bye Tide detergent!

By the way, you can see Jenn demonstrate Detergent Making on YouTube too. Obviously folks are looking for ways to save money these days, so I encourage everyone to check out the Frugal Upstate blog and tell her ART of Humungous Proportions sent you. Oh! And try out homemade laundry soap. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Panel 3 already?

I know, I know. What happened here? Panel two isn't even finished yet, and here's another drawing on the chair? Well, it's like this: my son Zachary made me an offer I couldn't refuse. He volunteered to draw panel 3 for me today, so all I have to do now is paint it!

As you can see the painting I chose for panel 3 of my Faux Gogh chair is Noon Rest from Work, painted by Van Gogh in January 1890. I've always loved this painting. The intense colour, the subject matter, everything. Everything, that is, except for the man's face. I've often wondered if the man's face was ever finished or not. To me, it seems somehow of lesser quality than Van Gogh's usual standard. Not to worry folks, I shall try to improve upon it! *Wink*

Zach did an awesome drawing don't you agree? It's a very detailed drawing, so it's going to be fun painting this panel. I wonder if he'll offer his "sketching services" for the back of the chair as well! Can anyone guess what I've chosen for the back panel?

Chair on the 4th day of painting

Here's a little coup d'oeil of the second panel of my Faux Gogh chair. I just love the poplar trees in Van Gogh's Two Poplars on a Road Through the Hills (1889) painting. I find some of the original painting a bit boring visually though ~ sorry Vincent ~ so I'm improvising quite a bit on this panel.

Don't you love the autumn colours, and how they look, juxtaposed against the dark blue sky? This is my favourite time of the year and I think it's appropriate that I'm painting this autumn-ish panel while the leaves are turning brilliantly outside my window.

Most of panel two is finished, but there are a few more details to paint still. This Van Gogh sure had talent; did I mention that before?! Stay tuned ...

Chair Day 3

It's kinda late for me cuz I've got to get up at 5 a.m. so I have time to just post a photo for you, so you can see how my Faux Gogh chair is progressing.

A glimpse of things to come ...

I had bought a wing back chair a few weeks ago. This chair is for our home. Yesterday, I started the adventure of painting my second Faux Gogh chair.

After a rather lively family discussion, it was mutually decided that I should try something other than Starry Night on the front panel and seat, because I had been there, done that (ie., Arlene's Faux Gogh chair). So my task was to pour over Van Gogh paintings to try to figure out what would be the best choices for our chair.

One painting in particular caught my eye, which I think fits the style and proportions of the $19.99-Salvation-Army-Special that I'm painting this time round. It's called Wheat Field with Rising Sun. I love the colours, the movement and the title ~ which I shall rename Wheat Field with Dawn. (Note: there are mountains in this painting too, and since I'm a native British Columbian, it seems even more appropriate).

In case you're wondering, I'm not trying to paint an exact replica of Van Gogh's work ~ just my impressions of Vincent's impressions.

Anyway, here's a glimpse of the chair. This is very rough looking still as there will be a few more layers that need to be added before it's completed. However, I can see already that I'm going to really enjoy this project.

Also, I'll "re-realize" what an absolute master Vincent was. His work was powerful, dramatic and uniquely imaginative. Pure genius.

One must work and dare if one really wants to live. ~ Vincent Van Gogh 1853-1890

Inspiration strikes

Inspiration.
Sometimes, it's a hard thing to find.
But I admit, it's much, much easier when you spend time in a book like this one. Look at the treasure that Arlene gave me the other day.
Van Gogh ~ The Complete Paintings. What an awesome book!
I spent ages looking through it with my piping hot cup of Passion Tea the other night.

And then yesterday, I painted what this Gladiola & Sunflower Faux Gogh acrylic painting. It will go up for sale at the Wild Blue Yonder Gift Show, hosted by the ever-lovely Bessie & Bea on October 24th & 25th.

I'm no Vincent, but it's fun to play with some of his techniques.

Next, I need to start thinking some inspiring ideas for my 12 Days of Christmas Swap contribution. Mail out day for that swap will be here before I know it. I also want to start painting on my chair THIS WEEK.

All this and looking for a new job ~ Methinks I need a 72 hour day!

New painting to show off!

I just had to show you what my son, Zachary painted over the weekend.

He's been thinking that he wanted to do some experimenting with oil paints and the sunflowers I had on the kitchen table for the past few days seemed like the perfect subject matter.
I think the painting is beautiful.

He picked up on the vibrancy of the yellow and red sunflowers, didn't he? I love the swirling background ~ almost Van Gogh-ish, I dare say. It's going to look so beautiful on my gallery wall in our livingroom.

Speaking of food ...

Just to let you know the homemade salami I talked about in my last post was a big hit. I used half the salt that the recipe called for and yet it was really tasty.

And speaking of food and tasty, I must direct you to the Creative Sandwich blog. The ladies who write it ~ Bessie and Bea ~ talk about food a lot. Food and art. And often their take on food, art and life is hilarious. Wander on over there, and tell them I sent ya!

Salami anyone?

It's late, and I really should be going to sleep because I have to get up early to work tomorrow. However, I just wanted to share something with you.

Years ago a neighbour told me about making homemade luncheon meat, but until recently, I didn't have a desire to try making it myself. Well if you live in Canada, you'll know why the sudden interest in making my own lunch meat.

Yesterday made some salami. Well, at least I started making it yesterday; but it is a bit of a process. First I had to cure overnight in the refrigerator. Then this afternoon, I boiled the rolls for an hour, drained them, re-wrapped them, then back into the fridge they went for the night. (Oh, by the way, I put in only half the salt that the recipe called for because I find most commercial salami wayyy too salty).

It'll be fun tomorrow to see how my salami turns out.

My finds today

I was running the sons around to various places all over the map today. However, I did find time to hit a garage sale and HomeSense ~ my most-est favourite-est store in the whole wide world! The four tea-light lamps came from the garage sale and the beautiful iron angel from HomeSense. Did I mention it's my most-est favourite-est store in the whole wide world?!

My beautiful angel is physically disabled. She is, in fact, an amputee. That is why I got her on sale for a song. *This is me doing my happy dance!* At first I thought I'd get some polymer clay and sculpt a new arm for her. But my son Zach reminded me that many old statues have limbs missing. So my angel shall remain the way she is. Isn't that typical of us humans, always trying to "fix" things that are beautiful just the way they are?

Today ...

we went to Fort Edmonton Park. It was the first time this year we ventured over there. I think we picked the perfect day because it was lightly raining with off and on sunshine ~ and there were hardly any people at the park, so we had lots of space to roam and explore.

It was a good day.

A Tiny Tuesday Challenge

I was reading ART DE ME today ~ seems Arlene was taking up a challenge that she found on the Funky Art Queen blog. So I checked it out and decided to play.

For the challenge I had to find 10 tiny things, group them together for a picture and post them to my blog. Then I tell you why I picked them and then leave a comment on Funky's blog with a link to mine.

My tiny items include (L to R)
1. A Sparkly bead
2. Candlestick Clue game piece
3. Wooden spool of thread
4. Elf
5. Old game piece
6. Scrabble tile
7. Vintage Christmas tree bulb
8. Marble
9. Bakelite button
10. Retro suitcase key
I chose these goodies because they are a part of a larger collection of tiny retro objects I collect and keep in different jars in my livingroom and ART studio. So many fun things!

Hope you enjoyed looking at my little treasures. Make sure you check out the links in this posting.

I think I'll go over to Creative Sandwich now to see if Bessie & Bea are going to do the challenge. I'm sure that would be entertaining with those slightly eccentric ladies!

Playing with ATCs

Yesterday morning, I had the enjoyable opportunity of introducing my friend Carla and her three daughters to Artist Trading Card (ATC) making. At first, everyone was a little shy and uncertain, wanting to know how to. But once I told them that the only rules for making these miniature pieces of art is that 1. The size should measure 2-1/2 by 3-1/2 inches and 2. That the cards be for trading only, not for sale, and a couple
pointers about backgrounds, etcetera, they were off and running. Just look at all the beautiful cards ~ such artistic flair!


ATC History
Many ATC enthusiasts credit a Swiss artist for initiating the ATC movement in Zurich in 1997. However, many types of "trading art" swaps have been around for a very long time. Apparently, during the Impressionistic era, mini portraits were circulating as business cards of sorts ~ kinda like MOO cards today, eh? Personally, I was swapping Mail ART postcards as early as 1987. I'll have to dig
some up and post them one of these days for you to view.

Hopefully we'll get a chance to get together again and make some more art soon ~ I look forward to that.

Atypical Super Heros

Here's a couple Sad Super Heroes that I completed for a challenge from Sarah. They were created by starting out with scribbles like another set of characters I created earlier.

I'm thinking that this would be a really good exercise for anyone if they were feeling artistically blocked.

Tomorrow morning I'm planning to introduce the world of altered art to a friend and her kids. Tonight I'll get all my supplies together to take with me. Maybe I'll have some interesting things to post then.

Misfit ART

Sarah gave us an interesting assignment for our Soul Journals. We were to do a 2 page spread about a time we felt like a misfit. Using a permanent marker, I doodled over the page (without trying to think about how the end product would be). After all my scribbles were done, I tried to find characters. This is what I ended up with.

I liked the drawing process ~ the characters turned out really interesting, I think. I'll be trying this drawing exercise again, but I don't think I'll go with the misfit theme ~maybe I'll draw some "Super Sad Heroes".

I accept ...

Paint and Paste's Dale accepted the challenge that I posted on my blog during Sarah's absence. (I just checked ~ Sarah's back with more work for us to do!).
Then she challenged me,
see what I did in response to her challenge ...



Check out her list below, see if you can find them in my collage and maybe even give it a go ...
feet
something orange
candy
a purse
something that represents one of your hobbies
vegetables
an airplane
a quote
eggs
a frog
cosmetics
a lamp
something romantic
a house
a recipe
a mirror
someone wearing glasses
something pink
a fork
a word that describes you
Additional conditions:
Incorporate circles in your collage (such as: cut images into circles, create a circle layout, cut your paper into a circle)
Add identifying words to at least 5 of your images (meaning: put the word "egg" on your picture of an egg)

Polka dots!

Don'tcha just love em?

I just can't get enough of these polka dot socks ~ I have several pairs and am always on the lookout for more.

I'm sure that there's a deep psychological explanation for my appreciation for this dotty fashion sense. But then again, other individuals have also shared this passion.

Who doesn't love polka dot socks!

Hot off the Press

The Charming Exchange book arrived at my door yesterday. Yay!
I placed the original charm bracelet on the book's cover in the shot above. The only disappointment that I had with the book was that the original charm bracelet that started this whole thing in the first place didn't appear in the book. I'm thinking that the reason is is that our charm project appeared in the July/August issue of Belle Armoire magazine and there may have been a copyright issue there.

One of pairs of asymmetrical earring sets I made with another artist, Jennifer Rowland appears on page 71.
A Charming Exchange is available for purchase here.

I took my own challenge ...

The list that I wrote up for Arlene to work into her journal seemed like a good thing for me to try out today. Here's the result. I worked on a background that I'd done a while back. I love the colours!

It's off to bed for me cuz I have to get up early tomorrow. I'm looking forward to tomorrow though, because some PHAPers are getting together to play!