Texture Tuesday . . . From The Garden

For this weeks challenge the theme was gardening. I chose this recent photo of azaleas I shot at the NY Botanical Gardens. The word popped into my head as I was processing the image. I used Kim's latest texture stained linen. I love it!

I added 2 layers of stained linen set to soft light and then did some adjustments to the saturation and levels for contrast. I love what this texture does with the muted pink and gray tones.

Here is the original image below. . .

Stop by Kim's blog to see more entries for this week and for more info on how you can join us! Just click HERE!

My First Image Transfer . . . And A Cookbook Giveaway!

It is no secret that I love photography and I am always excited with new ways to incorporate it into my art. I have tried image transfers a few times before with no luck. And with my low frustration tolerance I tend to easily give up!

I just received Misty Mawn's new book Unfurling in the mail last week and dove right in. I missed getting into her most recent online workshop back in the winter so I knew I would be purchasing her book when it came out. And I am so glad I did! It is like a workshop in a book! If you love her work you will not be disappointed with this book. I read the section on image transfers and it looked easy so I decided to give it another whirl. Surprisingly enough I was able to have some success! As you can see from the photo above it is no where near perfect but I am pleased with how I did for my first attempt.

I used my tree photo posted from this weeks Wordless Wednesday post and an old poem I wrote. I found a stack of poetry the other day that I wrote about 10 years ago. I hope to share more of that with you. I did the transfers above on 140 lb canvas paper. Not sure what I am going to do next but boy I am excited!

And speaking of books I wanted to let you guys know that I am hosting a book giveaway on my other blog "In My Life". I will be giving away a copy of Sheryl Crow's new cookbook If It Makes You Healthy! All you have to do is leave a comment! I will be announcing the winner on June 1st. Check out that post HERE!!

Hope you are all having a wonderful start to the holiday weekend! xo

New Sketch . . . Feeling More Free To Be Messy

Last night while Lou and I were watching the finale of American Idol (anyone else watch?) I grabbed my sketchbook which had a bit of dust on it. I always have it out in the living room along with a couple of my graphite pencils just in case the mood hits me which it hasn't in a very long time. And since the finale show was so darn long I started decided to start moving the pencil around.

Lately I have been telling Lou that I long to be messy in my art work. I want to paint and draw recklessly, just letting my muse lead me. But what happens is I am wound up tighter than a knot and am constantly trying to achieve perfection from the get go with each piece I attempt. I feel like it would be more fun to just let go and be messy! So that is just what I did with this sketch. I was making crazy marks laying down shadow areas on the face, and where the eyes, nose and mouth would be. I just tried to keep the pencil moving and not stop to correct anything. There was a lot of correction that came later but I have to say that it felt so freeing to draw that way. And the end result is so different than any face I have drawn before. Even the nose which usually makes me crazy cause it is so hard to draw came easier somehow. I cannot stop looking at her!

Have any of you felt that way with your art? Hope you guys like her as much as I do! I so want to try and paint her. And paint her messy and imperfect! Not sure about that yet. Maybe I will stick with the pencils for now. . .

PS . . . For those of you who watched AI, I was secretly hoping Lauren would win. Was shocked and a bit bummed that it was Scotty ;)

Wordless Wednesday . . . Love Tree

Love Tree

Botanical Gardens, 2011

Texture Tuesday . . . Yesteryear

I used this new image I shot this weekend at the botanical gardens for this weeks texture tuesday challenge. The challenge for this week was to use the image of your choice along with Kim's "Yesteryear" texture.

I like the vintage feel this texture gives the photo. I altered it to sepia first and then added the texture using soft light and multiply blend modes.

Here is the original photo below!

As always if you are interested in joining us just hop over to Kim's blog HERE! And if you want to check out the other great entries for this week's challenge click HERE!

Scenes From My Saturday At Botanical Gardens And Gallery News!

Hello my lovely friends!! Hope you are all enjoying your weekend! I was excited to put this post together and share with you some images I shot yesterday at the botanical gardens. Hubby came with me despite his horrible allergies although looking back, probably not the best idea. He sneezed his way through the 2 hours we were there.

It had rained Friday night so there was lots of pretty dew drops to be scene on the flowers! I have always wanted to capture that in a photo. The above shot was taken in the new Azalea Gardens that just opened a few weeks ago. I love azaleas so I was excited to see the new gardens.

This is a beautiful lily that I got super close to! Can you tell I love macro photography?!

Not sure what this one is above but I wanted to get a close up! I have a macro lens on my wish list!

This little bridge was in the azalea garden. So peaceful to walk through! When we got home I realized I took 90 photos! I had no idea I had shot that many! But that is what happens when I am in the zone. I loose all track of time and what I am doing.

This post will be a 2 parter! Lots more to share!

Oh, and in other news I sold 4/6 of my photos at the patient art show! I will be donating the other 2 to the hospital.

And check out my artist friend Kelly Berkey's blog today as she is sharing lots of beautiful art from her trip to the Gallery Off Broadway! You will see a few photos of my art on display! And they are still looking for artists to represent. You can check out that post HERE!

Happily Back To Black And White!

Angels Bring Love
mixed media on 6x8 flat canvas board

Hi my lovely friends! Thought you would enjoy seeing some new black and white work! I hadn't done one of these pieces in a long time so it felt good to get back to it! I was inspired by my angel photo. This time I added a new love stamp over the photo after I sanded and inked it up! I also bought my first box of crayola's since childhood and broke those out to use for shading! They worked well on the matte photo paper.

The words popped into my head as I was working on the background. I quickly wrote it down on whatever paper I could find because in the past I have had moments like that lost thinking I would remember the words later.

Now I have to get back to another one I am working on today with my farmhouse photo! The photo is altered, glued, and now ready for some landscape sketching! I will share that with you all soon!

Hope you are all enjoying some creative time today! xo

Scenes From The Patient Art Show!

I am skipping "Wordless Wednesday" this week because I was too excited to share my experience at the Patient Art Show Monday night! I had a great time! The staff did a wonderful job of displaying my work. It was so exciting to see it hanging on the wall when I arrived. And even more exciting was when I found out upon arriving that 2 of my pieces had already sold! By the end of the night a third piece sold! What was really special was knowing all of the artwork at the show was created by cancer survivors. There was amazing work on display ranging from photography, painting in oils and acrylics, and even mixed media!

Here I am talking with an attendee sharing my technique for textured photography. And of course talking with my hands! lol

Here I am happily posing with my work!

The show closes tomorrow. Whatever pieces don't sell I will be donating to the hospital. I think it is great that they encourage art as a healing experience. It sure has been for me! I look forward to showing more work next year!

Texture Tuesday . . . Vintage

This week's theme was to share a vintage inspired photo. I instantly thought of using my city traffic photo. You can see the original below. I used one layer of Kim's "she loves you yeah" texture which is one of my favorites! I have used it on quite alot of my city images. I also altered the image to a sepia tone. Between the sepia and texture I feel like this image was transformed into a vintage shot of NYC!

As always you can join us for Texture Tuesday's! For more info head over to Kim's website HERE! And to see the entries for this week's challenge check out Kim's blog post HERE!

Inverting Images . . . Way Cool Effect!!

I was playing around in photoshop again (there's a surprise! lol) and I accidently hit the wrong button. I was layering some texture to a new photo and I hit "invert". I pleasantly surprised with the effect! The photo above is the inverted image of my dogwood tree image you can see below. Wow! I love it. The pinks turned to purples and the blue sky turned a cool shade of brown. There is also added texture as well.

The image below you may recall from many months ago. It is my night image taken in newport. I added some texture to it and then hit that invert button!

This time I was floored with the effect! The image below looks like a painting to me! All the darks and lights switched. I added an antique tone to it. I love it!

Tomorrow I start a FREE class with Kim Klassen "Photoshop Skinny Mini eCourse" !! I am such a newbie to these layering techniques and texture so I am excited to learn more! There is still time to sign up! Click HERE for more info.

Sketching . . . How I've Missed You

"Her Heart Waits . . ."

With all of the photography work I have been doing it felt good to pick up my graphite pencils, grab my sketchbook and get to sketching! It has been awhile and I realized that I miss it. There is just something about the simplicity of pencil and paper that draws me in.

I often fear that when I get stuck in one medium (lately it is photography) that somehow I will forget how to do any other type of art. Sounds pretty silly doesn't it?! I am embarrassed to even admit that to you guys! Have you ever felt that way?

I need to realize that hopping around is part of the process. And it can be fun! That is if I let it be.

At first I sketched out this girl with no window. And then I wondered where she was looking. So I drew the window frame, added the stars and it felt complete. Now if only I could paint this! Maybe I will try if I can tear myself away from my photos!

Oh and today I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my coffee mug photo is included in this lovely treasury on etsy! You can check it out HERE!

Wordless Wednesday. . .

Our Dogwood, 2011

Texture Tuesday . . . Orchids

Its that time again my friends! Wow, do the weeks just fly on by! This week Kim' challenge was to share any image we wanted with our choice of texture. I choice this orchid photo I shot at my friend's office. She loves them! I added Kim's Luminous texture. I love it! I have used it quite alot lately! I added one layer in soft light and one in multiply. Then I took down the saturation to get rid of some of the yellow tones. I do like the softness it has with this texture. When I first saw Luminous I knew exactly which photo I wanted to try it with first!

Here is the original photo . . .

If you would like to join us or just check out the other lovely photos for this weeks challenge just hop over to Kim Klassen's blog HERE!!

Mother's Day Gift Made With Love And Photoshop!

Mom and I circa 1969

It must have been because of my current photo altering addiction that the idea for this mother's day gift popped into my head. Truth be told, my mom and I are not close. Our relationship has been difficult and at times it still is. But in the end she is my mom and love is what matters. As I get older I realize how hard it must have been for her to raise my brother and I especially with a husband who was an alcoholic.

I found this photo and knew that I wanted to make something special with it. This was taken the day she brought me home from the hospital after I was born. I loved that you couldn't see her face, I think it did something wonderful for the image. The words popped into my head as I was altering the image.I added a sepia tone and one layer of texture. I think it gives the image a lovely vintage look. And this time the image is already vintage! lol

Thought you would enjoy seeing the original image so here it is below!

My mom was only 20 years old when this was taken. So unbelievably young that I cannot imagine what it must have been like at that age to have a baby.

I myself have always sensed that in this life I was not meant to be a mom. It was something my soul knew. And when I got cancer and lost my ability to have children via surgery and chemo it was confirmed. Maybe that was why I always knew it wasn't for me since I was a young girl.

On the bright side though I get to be a mom to a furkid! ;)

Wishing all of the mom's out there a very happy day! And to those who are not. . . .wishing you a happy day too!! xoxo

Sunset Love . . . New Digital Collage

Sunset Love

prints available in my etsy shop

Here I am again with more digitally altered photos! What a surprise right?! :) There is a serious addiction developing here. But I am having fun so that is what matters right?! My blank canvas is still yelling at me. All I have done is sketch out my landscape and added a bit of purple for a sky. Then I happily went back to photoshop! lol

The above image was created using two of my own images. One is a sunset shot I captured in Puerto Rico on our honeymoon and the other is a photo of a heart a drew in the sand on the beach in newport. I layered the heart over the sunset, moved it around till I liked the image , and spent some time adjusting opacities as well as hue and saturation. I could spend hours playing around with all of the image altering techniques to be had!

I love the results! Hope you do too!

PS . . . I think I may need to change the title of this blog soon to "Photoshop Addict"!! lol

Wordless Wednesday. . .

Newport, 2009

Texture Tuesday Challenge!

First let me thank everyone for your lovely comments on my last post! I am so excited to be sharing this journey with you! I enjoyed reading them all!

Hard to believe it is Tuesday again! And that means a texture challenge courtesy of Kim Klassen! This week the challenge was to take a photo of a coffee cup adding your choice of texure. Well let me tell you that it certainly was a challenge for me! Choosing the texture was the easy part. The hard part was getting a good shot! Still life photography is not really my forte but I didn't want to give in to the fear. Lighting is always tough for me in this type of photography.

For the image I used my coffee mug placed on our bay window sill and noticed that my Valentine's card from hubby was still on display. I liked the composition of them together. I used Kim's luminous texture layered in soft light and multiply.

Here is the original image . . .

As always you can join us over at Kim's site! Just click here!

Angel Collage And Exciting News!!!

I put together this digital collage the other night. I used one of my lake photos and layered my angel photo over it. I really loved the surreal feel it has. I did try adding a texture layer but it was too much. I think the leaves and trees lend enough texture to the image. Funny I never thought I would say no to texture! lol I am really having fun playing with this new medium, so much so that I am neglecting a big blank canvas that has been begging for paint!

Now for my exciting news! I have been wanting to share this for a couple of weeks but wanted to wait till I was sure it was a go. And now it is! My art will be displayed in a gallery! It is the Gallery Off Broadway in Excelsior Springs, MO. I found out about it from my sweet friend Kelly over at Kelly Berkey Designs and with her encouragement have jumped aboard! The owner Kathleen Fenton is so lovely and encouraging to new artists such as myself. You can check out the facebook page for the gallery HERE!! I have sent some of my original paintings and was excited to find out that she also loved my altered photography! So I framed a few of my favorite textured photos and sent them along as well. My work arrived there on Friday and I am so excited that it will soon be on display!

It hard to believe that little over a year ago I was just beginning on this amazing journey with art and now I have an incredible opportunity to share my work in a new venue! I am so grateful to all of you for your encouragement and support along the way! I am having a blast!

Hubby and I are off to a local art museum on this beautiful Sunday. I am hoping to take some photos of the grounds and will be sure to post them! They may even have some texture! :)

Wishing you all an amazing day!! xo