Sweet Freedom Retreat - For the Wild Artist In You!!

Good morning artist friends!! Thanks for all the lovely comments on my last post! She will be heading to her new home this afternoon! :)

Today I am happy to help spread the word about this amazing retreat being held at The Gallery Off Broadway in Excelsior Springs, MO where some of my art is on display. The inaugural retreat is this September and is sure to be a blast!

There will be many fabulous art classes including a P. J. Paint and Create Party!! There will also be lots of wine, live music, good food, and fabulous creative wild women to share this unique experience with! How cool is that?!!

Check out the Gallery's page on Facebook HERE!

For more info on this very special retreat head on over to the Sweet Freedom Retreats Blog HERE!!

If you want to help spread the word about this retreat check out this post by my dear friend Kelly Berkey who is hosting a great giveaway!!

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!

Scratching Up More Photos . . . And A Blog Award!

mixed media on 6x6 inch birch wood

Thanks for all the great comments on yesterday's photo! I wish I were there now instead of being buried in more snow! It has been a record setting winter so far here in NY and I am looking forward to spring!

First I would like to thank the lovely Kelly over at KellyBerkeyDesigns for awarding me the Dearest Blog Award!! It was quite a surprise and I am very thankful! Kelly is an amazing artist and jewelry designer with a sweet soul. She is someone who inspires others with her love of life and of art! Do stop by her blog (via the link above) if you haven't already!

As for this new piece I am finding that I like scratching up and distressing my photos. I had pictured this painting in my head the other day. I knew which photo I wanted to use and that I wanted to extend the landscape especially the sun and water reflection. I used black gesso for the background and added the landscape details in white marker and grey water color crayon that I just smudged.

I am definitely liking the black and white contrast with these latest pieces I have done. I am hoping I don't get stuck in this color palette but then again why not?! I always think to much and limit myself to what I think I "should" create. For now I am vibing to the black and white and we will see where it goes!

Stretching To Sketch Challenge Week 6!!

Here is my sketch of Kelly for the sketching challenge she has been hosting over at her blog Kelly Berkey Designs. If you haven't joined us already please do! Every Thursday she will post a photo of herself for everyone to sketch, paint, or whatever. I am really having a good time and learning so much!

If you remember from my sketch last week I chickened out on doing the face profile. This week when I saw the picture I cringed because I wasn't sure if I would be able to do the face. And I really wanted to try this time! Although it doesn't look like Kelly I am pleased at how the face profile came out. Boy did I have trouble with the nose at that angle. I must have done it over 5 times and gave up! And then of course there are the hands. I have kept it no secret that I have had alot of trouble with hands since the beginning of this challenge. I knew I wanted to have her holding a heart and hope it is a pleasant distraction!

Check Kelly's blog later when she will be posting all the sketches for this week. I am excited to see everyone's work!

Stretching To Sketch Challenge Week 5

Here is my sketch for this week's challenge over at Kelly Berkey's blog.

I suppose you could say I cheated this week or more like I got frustrated and gave up on sketching the profile of her face. I tried and tried but it just wasn't coming out right. So I decided to have her hair falling across her face. That was the only thing I changed from the original photo.

The hardest for me this week (besides the face) were the hands, legs, and feet although I think I am getting more detail in my hands from previous sketches. This is done in graphite pencil and I am loving my kneaded eraser wondering how I did the first few sketches without one!

Kelly will be posting all the results later today. Be sure to stop by her blog and check it out!

Stretching to Sketch Challenge Week Four!

Here is my Kelly sketch for the weekly challenge. This one was more challenging than I initially anticipated. I was hoping to improve over last week but the back view was alot harder for me. This one is done in graphite pencil as my others but I tried to use all three this time which did help with the shading. And I finally got a kneaded eraser! Wow, that makes it much easier. Now I don't have to sit with a lap full of shredded rubber from the regular one I was using. I erase alot!

I feel like I put too much pressure on myself to do better than the last one. I don't think I realize that with each sketch comes a different set of challenges depending on the view and body parts involved. There will be new things to learn with each one. I need to be kinder to myself!

As always you can jump in and join us anytime! Kelly will be posting the results tonite and then a new photo for this week will be posted tomorrow. Check out the original photo here at Kelly Berkey's blog!

Stretching to Sketch Challenge Week Three!

This weeks challenge was just that for me. This was a tough one. And I know I probably say that each week! I worked on this one for quite a few hours. The hardest parts were again the hands and this time a side profile of her face. I had never done that before. I also tried hard to get her torso to appear as if it was slightly turned which I think I did achieve.

I really enjoyed this one once I got past my initial frustration. I wanted to throw in the towel at first. I am now realizing that sketching takes time. Time to adjust shading and proportions. It is a process. Things such as this is where I see my lack of patience truly show up! I need to take time and enjoy the process more instead of rushing to get done. I get too excited to see it finished!

Be on the look out for Kelly's blog post today when she shares all the results for this week!

To see the original photo for this sketch click here!

And as always anyone can join! So please do if you haven't yet!

Dipping Into Oil . . .

In the spring I had the great opportunity to take an oil painting class with an artist in her studio. There were only 3 of us and it was just 5 sessions. I met her through a friend and was curious about what it would be like to paint with oil. I had only been painting since February in acrylic so I really had no idea what I was doing and some days still don't!

This painting is a work in progress that I did in that class. It is at her studio still and hopefully I will get to finish it sometime in the future. As you can see it is a still life. Not my favorite thing to paint as you all know.

I have to say that using the oil paint was harder than I thought. I had a hard time blending it because it is so very wet and blendable! I don't know if I would have the patience for the long drying time. The complete opposite of acrylic. I kept muddying it all up. But the colors are so much richer than acrylic and the look of oil on canvas is so very different. I did not like having to use the turp. I paint in my house and I think that would just be too hard having to use something toxic like that.

There definitely pros and cons to both but if I ever did want to try it again I would explore using water based oil. As for right now I am having fun with acrylic and mixed media for sure!

And of course there is sketching! Stay tuned . . . I will be posting my sketch for this weeks challenge with Kelly tomorrow! She inspired this post today. Check out her vlog where she chats all about what she is doing to progress herself as an artist and a few of the resources she is using along her journey! Click here!

Stretching To Sketch Challenge Week Two!

Here is my sketch for Kelly Berkey's challenge this week. I have to say this was a tough one! I see improvements in my proportions and the hand but I had a tough time with the legs and was not happy how her hair came out. I went a little crazy with it!

Although this was a difficult one for me it was fun to do! Check out the other entries along with the original photo over at Kelly's blog! (Click here) There is some great work this week! I am looking forward to jumping in to the next sketch!

Hope you will join us!! Click Here for more info about the challenge!

Stretching To Sketch Challenge Week One

This is my sketch for the Stretching to Sketch Challenge over at Kelly Berkey's blog. Each week Kelly will post a picture of herself in a ballet pose for you to sketch or paint.

I had never sketched the human form before so this was intimidating for me. I used graphite pencil and a pitt artist pen. I plan to participate in this challenge each week and hopefully improve on my skills especially in sketching hands! That was the hardest part of this for me. The hair was the easiest. lol

You can check out the original photo for this sketch here.

Check out the rest of the artwork in this challenge here.

Hope you will join us!

Late Night Angel Sketching

Thank you for all of your comments on yesterdays post and your advice about what to use for her eyes. That is what I am loving so far about mixed media is that you can try anything!

I got in bed late last nite (I am quite the night owl) and as I closed my eyes I saw her. Another angel. I saw hearts floating down and her heart wings. So what did I do? Of course I had to jump up out of bed and grab my sketchbook and pencil. I didn't want to forget come morning. Here eyes look a bit weird to me but it was late and my room was dimly lit! Just when I think I have found my niche or style so to speak something different comes out of me. I am curious to see where it leads me.

Speaking of sketching I wanted to let you know about a fun weekly sketch challenge Kelly at Kelly Berkey Designs is hosting over on her blog. The challenge is sketching, painting, or drawing the human form and she has posted a photo of herself in a ballet pose just for the occasion! I will be participating and hope some of you do as well. Although I have never sketched the human form I think it will be fun to try! (Read all about the challenge here.)

I am hoping to have some time over the next few days to start painting these angel girls. Excited to get started and share them with all of you!