Butterfly Wings - work in progress...

This morning I remembered that on Sunday night I remembered about adding some drips to my latest butterfly girl's wings but forgot to do that yesterday...I think I'll re-do the left wing...

I look forward to adding some more layers to brighten her up and to adding some bling colours and finishing off her hair....so much more to go...

Manic Monday

Aaaargh...

Ever had one of those day?  Flat out busy, everything goes wrong, people who won't take no for an answer, lunch at 2pm, exhausted, ready for a nanna nap at midday and not the usual 3pm?

It was 1:20pm and I had just dropped my 17yo son at a friend's for a several day sleep-over - no spare clothes and no gift for the mum but he had food.  *insert eye rolling*  - that's my eye's rolling.

So there are two ways back home and the way I decide to go has this huge fallen tree blocking the road so I have to turn around and back track and go home the long way....

I phoned the Shire when I got home and they said they would get onto removing it straight away.

Monday morning art group provided it own challenges but I did manage to work on my new butterfly girl painting.....

Hope you have a great Monday and not so manic as mine....

Sunday's Six Thoughts

1.  I've been working on a new butterfly girl - my brother asked for one with purple colours - for my niece - she likes to play piano and sing.

2.  Here's a pic of my studio aka my kitchen...

3.  I've also been working on a painting for one of my Nanga 8 mates (Flora Bowley Painting Workshop friends) - hope she like it!!  :D

4. Didn't feel too well yesterday but I did manage to make hubby an apple pie - he was not in a good mood - I didn't have any - trying to go dairy free for a few months and trying to lose weight too.  My great aunt used to make the world's best apple pie.  Her and Unc used to come round for dinner and we would have roast chicken and apple pie for dessert - best dinner ever whe I was a little girl.  I regret not getting her apple pie recipe.

5.  I received this beautiful painting of my dog Tessa from my friend Lin in Michigan, USA, during the week - I love it - she did a great job.

6.   I bought a new camera during the week and am still getting used to it - that's why the flash is showing on the painting - I have to turn off the flash everytime I use the camera.

Hope everyone had a great weekend esp my American friends who had an extra long Thanksgiving weekend.

Little Houses in Windows

I added some little houses and some buildings to my 'Windows' painting.

Here are some close up shots of the little houses:

Love the texture and stamping in these:

Is it finished????  Oh, I don't know.....maybe a little bit more - my houses do need windows and doorknobs.....

Windows

This painting started out as a demo painting for the opening of the kindergarten and then I changed it until it evolved into a painting I liked.

My camera had broken so the layers from the above pic  to the one below are not shown but I kept part of the tree and the windows in the house.

I don't know whether I'll keep the painting like this or if it will evolve some more.  What do you think?

Sunday's Six Thoughts on Monday

1.  I started the blogpost on Sunday night but had to finish it on Monday morning as my computer is acting slow and my kids are stealing my internet....and my camera is broken and won't focus - an early wedding anniversary persent - thanks hubby!!  :D

2.

 
I'm having a lot of fun with The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design e-course even though it's challenging me which is great.  I was very nervous at first because I know nothing about surface pattern design, then found out that graphic designers and a couple of 'famous' peeps had registered too.....and I have never used Photoshop or Illustrator....and this is a serious course....

....should I post my work, will it be good enough.....then I remembered Tam from Willowing's recent youtube clip and applied that to me and this course....

3.   I've done a lot of sketching this past week and was thinking about how bad I am at sketching and this week we are learning about sketching...so that's good....

Here's the banksia leaf I sketched:

and the motifs I developed from it:

4. My cactus flowered this week - this is the second time in 10 years it has flowered - 2 flowers and they only last a couple of days.

5.  We went to a 20year work reunion on Saturday at a restaurant on a bay in the river and here's the view of Perth city:

6.  Monday morning art group starts in an hour so I better get going - here's the painting I'm working on - too many colours and it's too busy...so needs a bit of blocking out:

Happily Ever After - A Charmed Life

Sometimes our 'Happily Ever After' dreams end abruptly with the death of a loved one and we like to have something to remember them by.  That is why I ordered this pendant from Happily Ever After artist Renee Burke when my dog, Tessa died on Oct 3rd.

Sometimes we are living our 'Happily Ever After' and would like to be reminded of that daily.  This pendants with charms that I ordered from Renee is an exclusively made charm for members of Kelly Rae Roberts Flying Course Summer 2011 which I will wear to remember all the beautiful women I met on that course of which many are my friends.

Renee writes of the significance of each part:

The wing signifies flight and the feather, our tribe. The bead is a rose quartz colored glass bead - "Rose quartz is known as the love stone. It helps the user feel a strong sense of self-worth, therefore being worth love. Rose quartz is the stone of universal love. When worn in jewelry the wearer feels a sense of self-worth. Healing properties of Rose Quartz:Rose Quartz has a gentle vibration of love for the owner. It gives inner peace and opens the heart to love."

About happilyeverafterbyreneeburke

"I hope to honor, empower, motivate and inspire with my mixed-media art. I also lovingly hand-stamp jewelry with words or phrases that have special meaning to you or names of those you hold dear. Creativity and art, along with my family, make my heart sing and are my 'happily ever after'. I look forward to getting to know you and would be delighted to do the same! xo".

 I love my pendants and if you would like your own beautifully handcrafted, lovingly hand-stamped jewelry then contact Renee using the above links.


Thank you Renee, I will treasure them always.

Circles

I'm seeing circles everywhere....

Honky Nut from a gum tree.

Cut log

Citronella oil burner

Used to wheel in the pool blanket.

Spice jars

Mugs

Used for stamping circles when painting.

Art Show and Painting Demo

Over the weekend the community centre had an Art Show on Saturday night and the Opening of the new Kindergarten on Sunday.  I sold 7 or 8 pendants, not as many as I was hoping to sell.  I have 20 left to sell and will make a photo collage later today to show you which ones are available in case you would like to buy some - will have to get my etsy store up and running too.

A big hello to everyone who stopped by and said hi, gave me some positive feedback, bought a pendant and even took one of my biz cards.  Thank you for stopping by my website and visiting my blog.

Here I am with my paintings:

Here I am doing my painting demo out the front of the art shed - with small children around I went for something very simple - a house and trees - I added people but they look really bad so I'm going to paint over the whole painting today - I'm thinking black, white and bright squares.

Here's my pendant displays - the board was outside next to my paintings and had to be tied down with the orange rope - the wind blew it over a couple of times and I had one casualty - the glass on one of my pendants is scratched.

Here are my other paintings on display:

I made a couple of big decisions over the weekend which I will tell you about later...

Pendants 11/11/11

Today is 11/11/11 so I'm setting this blog to post at 11:11am.  Wow!!

I've been working hard on getting my pendants ready for sale at this weekend's art show at the community centre and here they are:

I'll let you know on Monday how many I sold.  Today and Saturday I'll be helping hang paintings and get ready for the art show, on Sunday I'll be doing a painting demo and helping kids paint.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Monday Morning Art Group

During art group this morning I finished off the Wine Bottles - I think, I'm not too sure about this painting for a lot of reasons....

Here is the painting that I'm going to be working on during the painting demo session on this Sunday for the opening of the Kindergarten...

Here are the glass tile pendants that I'm working on at the moment - glued onto the pics:

And here is my glass tile pendant charm - it's my girlie logo - she's a little washed out and I added a bail to the bottom of her so I could add some more charms to her.  :D