Murals on Kitchen Cabinets

Painting murals is not new to me. From my teens on up, I have painted scenes on walls, doors, commercial window displays and traveling circus trailers. (really!)
Sometime it can go faster than painting the same thing on canvas that same size. Don't ask me why. it just does.
If you have followed my "cabin in the woods" renovation you'll know that my building came with cabinets recycled from a 1950's kitchen. The wood was that hard to find solid "thwunk" type wood found in your grandma's kitchen. And it also meant it came with that dark varnished look so popular once upon a time!
I removed the doors...sanded them, then painted them...more than once, with white primer.

White doors with a mural on panel below it that I painted a few years ago

White walls, white ceilings, white cabinets. Something had to change before I started moving my art supplies into it.

I went to my computer and pulling from my folder of "random traveling photos" that I accumulate for ideas, I thought.....actually I knew what I would do if I went one of two ways-mountains. Or beach. I settled on mountains :-)

Sequence of steps

So I painted in the sky, added the clouds and then started the background. It's a whole lot easier to add the foreground after the background is completed. Otherwise you will try to paint around a tree or around the leaves and it doesn't work.....at this point I tossed the pencil and just started winging it. Take a look :-)

Adding Mountains and tree details

You can see where this is headed as I added the mountains.

At this point I had to decide what to do with the section to the far right. These cabinets are a little over 12 feet long and 4 ft high.

My plan is to add a sink under the shorter cabinets when I eventually get the water running to the studio.


You can just see where I added a white path to the far right.







Here's a closer look at the left side below

Bringing in a middle ground and foreground

A friend sent me some stunning photos of texas bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes and I had my plan for the right hand side!

See what's been added!

DONE!

So there you have it-a soothing mountain view with birds, flowers....forgot the butterflies but hey I can add them later :-) So be brave-paint a door panel, closet doors, kitchen cabinets or anything else that strikes your fancy! And it you want to take it with you at some later date, just paint it on some lightweight plywood (birch is good) and screw it to the surface.
Go paint!

50 Shades of Green

Gray landscapes...even when the sun comes out the many shades of gray that form my vision of winter, linger.  The first spring flowers and the early blooming Bradford pear trees pop out to brighten the landscape but their background is still gray.  Then, as if overnight, the barren landscape turns into very subtle shades of green. At first it's just a filmy green; Like someone placed a green filter over a black and white landscape.  Then it becomes more and more obvious-almost as if the dark shades are being absorbed into the softer greens. And that is what it is-soft gray greens at first. Fifty shades of green.
Within a week, the maple "helicopters' are dangling from the trees and the honeysuckle leaves are opening.....
and then everything begins to announce that it is April in North Carolina and time to renew that glorious feeling that only comes with Spring!

Crab apple tree

Spring plowing and 50 shades of green

Maple Tree seeds

The wild dogwood under the sycamore

Wiz kid artist stuns my art class! :-)

Wet into wet painting techniques and the results!

The first class ever using the wet into wet oil painting technique was March 21 at the Vance Granville Community College!   Under the category of Personal Enrichment, 
The 5 intrepid painters created some amazing art.
I brought along my assistant-10 year old Alex who embraced the Bob Ross techniques last year by recording hours of video after his mother took away his Electronic time-what a great move by mom! And then he began to paint!

Alex with a few of his many beautiful paintings!

Children will naturally turn to creativity when the TV, electronic games and cell phones are removed-all to everyone's benefit!

From 12-5, the class stayed in the art zone and we had a great time! We practice wet into wet with acrylics as well but you have to paint faster. It was easy to take a snack break in the middle of the workshop as oil will not dry for days.
I'll let the photos do the talking!

collage of the finished paintings

This class introduced the use of a palette knife, letting wet paint blend into wet to create particular effects...and of course the sky is the limit when it comes to taking what they have learned and use the same techniques on a myriad of subjects!

Next similar class is April 17 from 12-5.

I encourage photographing the steps

Learning to use the palette knife

Laying in the background

Going to the Dogs. My artistic journey!

Going to the dogs...artistically!

After finishing up 2 weekends...long weekends..... of shows, I found myself going to the dogs. On my easel.
I already live with 5 dogs and with a background that once encompassed dog shows, dog training and pet boarding (with a 100 run kennel no less!) I find it as easy to return to a life with dogs as I do with horses :-) 

Our pets occupy a special place in our hearts and it's easy to see why my collectors love to have  portraits of these special families members created. And I have created hundreds...perhaps thousands, over the years! 
At these last two shows I created Jack Russell Terriers and a Corgi puppy. Both are two of the most popular pups at the horse shows although I am seeing more and more mixed breeds-a nod to the efforts of  dog and horse rescue groups that work hard and diligent to place their charges in the best homes possible!   The "Tiny Urls" take you to my Etsy store where you can see these much larger!

All 3 are available as originals, for purchase :-)

http://tinyurl.com/nueldyg

http://tinyurl.com/oznpjqf

http://tinyurl.com/o5m5rcn

Going to the Dogs is a special place I think. When it comes to your canine companions, every day is a good day! And that is a nice place to be :-)

Artsy Duplication

Since I am heading out the door I am unabashedly copying my blog from "MTheresaBrown" so that I can keep you updated! It's just Artsy Duplication!

Art studios, landscaping and chickens...

Finally! Warmer weather! My poor ponies have a sea of dried mud around their run-in shed that will again turn to mush with the upcoming expected rains but MAYBE there will be a week with no rain, snow or mix after that! 

So the renovation on the small studio is drawing to a foreseeable end...at least the walls are painted-white. I cannot bear the thought of anymore interior darkness! Hubby Steve is putting in the work counter...same height as a bar-that could be nice too!


I have been doing some raking and semi-landscaping. What that really means is that there was wire  along the edges of the pasture fence that the pretty vinca flower vines had grown through and covered so I have actually had to use a pick ax, short and long handled pruning clippers to get up...a lot of it. I guess I noticed it but then did nothing about it...just ran the lawnmower around that nice long clump of dark green vines with their purple summer violets.   After I finally spent 2 days yanking, digging and chopping at it all, the wire is up....followed by curious chickens who went to work digging in dirt I had conveniently already "undug" for them.  

We are at a show right now so other than popping up an image of a recently completed and now shipped painting, I am off to make some sales today (always a good thought-heck it's the goal!)


Follow my journey with me and see how I set up the inside of a 12 x 20 studio!

Silk screening on silk techniques

Silk screening is one of those things that bypassed me in college. I don't know why or how exactly. I can etch on zinc plates covered with asphaltum  and sunk into acid baths. I can pick up a linoluem block and hand carve it to print on. But I never learned to use a silk screen.
Then of course everything changed with the computer and silk screen seemed to be going the way of the dark room for photographers.....but oh my, now I've had a taste of it!

So with just the barest of equipment I have begun to screen on my silk scarves. It is the layering that really attracts me! Just like my layers in my abstract paintings, I can form layers on the silk.

Once I figured out how to burn an original image onto a transparency (courtesy of a friend and my hubby !) I saw the possibilities open up!


The collage is from a day with a girlfriend who has done this awhile.
The photos below it are the scarves I just completed using the method. Enjoy the beautifully colored layers! Some were done with Lumiere dye that adds a cool shimmer to the colors.

adding layers on already dyed scarf and my friend cleaning a film

My teal layers

Add caption

Eggplant with dragonflies

Abstract flower layers

My abstract horses

The power of snow

It's very early in the morning and too dark to take outside photos but oh the power that a heavy snowfall invokes! The household is still asleep with the exception of Troop, the Corgi who felt it necessary to go outside at 5 am. Imagine his surprise as he hopped into the 6 plus inches of snow, not quite realizing the bottom step was now invisible, covered by the snow-quite an event for a short legged dog!

There is power in a snow event anywhere I have lived-whether it is 6" or 34", Foremost is the stillness it creates. There is a hush that we don't realize silences our daily lives until we experience the softness that comes with snow-quiet, muffled, still.
A snowfall, first thing in the morning  brings a peace-for me at least and memories of snows gone by - pf my childhood, my children's childhood-fabulous memories that bring back a warm fuzzy feeling of having experienced the power of snow and what it can evoke in the senses, experiences and memory.

Just starting

With hot coffee in hand, a fire in the fireplace, I am waiting for the sunrise to experience the complete visual effect of the snow. The artist in me loves the transformation of the familiar trees, buildings and landscape.  I enjoy the tang in my senses when I step into the cold and t satisfaction that comes as mentally I check all the boxes in my brain in regards to my animals-inside and out-food, water, shelter-check. Not even the chickens are stirring or the wild birds that have congregated in recent weeks at my feeders as the winter ramps up. By the end of February, people have wearied of the cold and snow....but this year winter is not over and only teases us with sunny warm days tossed at random between winter storms and temperatures.

The power of  snow is in the senses, the memories and the seed catalogs that promise and remind us that spring is just around the corner. Be patient and enjoy the stillness today brings.