What I've been up to and are blogs dead?

There are certain blogs that I love and visit with regularity.  They are all "big" established blogs that have large followings and are managed as full time businesses.  This little blog of mine used to keep me pretty busy and I loved it.  I never had a ton of followers but I'm proud to say that some of my posts have had thousands of hits.  In the beginning I think I had very high hopes for this blog and then after a couple of years I viewed it much more as an art sharing platform.  And then...I confess I stopped doing art on a daily basis.  I was in a rut, sometimes broken with a quick painting or two, but it's safe to say that my art and blogging rut has lasted (off and on) for the better part of 1 1/2 years.  I am cautiously optimistic that my rut is finally over and I've been doing art every day.  This time, instead of blogging a ton to share my art, I've been sharing on Instagram.  I have discovered that there are so many wonderful artists and challenges on Instagram.  They are so much more accessible on IG than in blog form...which finally leads me to the point:  

Are blogs dead?

(Maybe not the big ones...but little ones like mine?)

Follow me on Instagram here. 

Folk Art flowers inspired by the folk art of the Kalocsa region on Hungary.  Mixed Media.

Dobos Torte.  The BEST Hungarian dessert.  Layers of cake and chocolate.  SO GOOD!  Watercolor.

Last Year

Yes, it's certainly been a long time since my last post.  Last year I got a job teaching art to elementary school children.  It was very different from anything I've done before, very exciting and very exhausting, too!  I had every intention of documenting our projects and blogging about it but time got away from me.  Finally, finally, here are some of our art projects.

Learning about creating texture using lines and patterns.  This was a fifth grade students work.

2nd graders make a BB8 for May the Fourth

Collaborative school of fish

2nd grade mixed media dinosaur landscapes

1st graders created African masks

This fifth grade class learned about Sonia Delauney and we created inspired art using strong colors and geometric shapes.

In fourth grade we created some fun optical art

For our last art project we had some fun creating this fish who is not what you first expect

Gaviota Painting

Very late post but back in August I painted this scene of a favorite surf spot for a friends birthday.  I used a picture he posted on Instagram, and here is the original picture he took on the left, and my painting on the right.  I was very pleased with it, and so was he!

Untitled

I've been an unwilling witness to a life falling apart on social media.
A beautiful artist that I know.
Watching her personal chaos has affected me quite a bit,
even though I don't know her very well.
I was thinking of her today and this is what I saw in my mind.  

I've never really painted anything like this before.
I wish I could tell her she inspired me, but I don't think she'd hear me.

Let me know what you think.

Be honest.

Sharing on Paint Party Friday.

Art for Kids - part 2

The frame

Here is part 2 of the project my daughter and I did this week.  In part 1 we created pretty pictures of poppies with crayons and paint.  Now I'll show you the process for the frame.

I bought pre cut picture mat boards but you can easily cut your own.  With a pencil lightly draw your pattern on the frame.  Use white school glue to go over all your lines.  Let dry over night.

Once completely dry, paint over the whole frame.  We used metallic gold paint.  Let dry.

When the paint is dry apply black show polish with a soft cloth.  Be fairly liberal with the polish so it sticks into the edges and grooves in the dried glue.  Wipe away any excess but don't wipe too much, you want some of the black to stay behind to create that antique look.

Aren't they great?

Sharing at Sunday Sketches today.

Art for kids - part 1

I've volunteered in art class at my children's elementary school for many years and pondered the idea of teaching my own art to kids many times.  This week my 10 year old and I did a "beta test" of the first project I'd like to do.  It involves crayons, school glue and poster paint and was so much fun!

We decided on a flower theme and both of us are drawing poppies, mine are California Poppies while Rose is drawing the Icelandic variety.

I am amazed at how nice a crayon drawing can turn out.  I might have to use crayons more often!  Besides being fun to draw with the color variety is astonishing.  I loved digging through the crayons and being amused at the names.  One crayon I used was called "Outer Space."

Once we were done coloring, we crumpled up our paper.  

This was kind of scary...because wrinkles are usually avoided!  I crumpled mine up 2 or 3 times for good measure, flattening out after each so that there would be lots cracks in the crayon wax.

Then we painted over with blue poster paint, making sure it got in all the nooks and crannies.

Before the paint dried we rinsed in off with water.  I learned that you must act quickly or the paper will become too saturated and tear.  Not too worry, though, I put it on a metal rack (a cookie sheet!) and set out in the hot sun to dry.  As soon as it was dry I was able to apply clear tape to the back to fix the rips.

Stay tuned for the next step where we make lovely antiqued, gilt frames for our works of art - see part 2 here.

I'm sharing at Paint Party Friday, it's been far, far too long and I'm happy to be here!

Algae Bloom

A couple of months ago there was an algae bloom off the coast of Santa Barbara that turned out water from it's normal blue to a brilliant Caribbean turquoise.  A friend saw a picture I posted and asked me to paint it for her.  I LOVE the way the painting turned out and so does my friend but the process was different than my normal process.  Follow along below...



It started with this photo taken from a cliff above the ocean.  See the original post and more photos here.

Before I started painting I covered the whole canvas with yellow ochre.  As a self taught artist I had never heard of starting a canvas with an all over color.  As much research and reading and video watching I have done on painting I'm surprised I had never heard of this, but the recent article I read insisted that starting with a color will make all the difference in the world.  Besides the depth created by some of the under color peaking through, painting on a colored ground is supposed to help your colors stay true.  Painting directly onto bright way may distort the way you choose your colors.

Filling in more color.

As this point I thought I was pretty close but the foreground was really bothering me.  I posted this picture online and immediately my brother started texting me about perspective and how he didn't like the foreground.  I've never gotten such instant feedback!  So back to work I went.

Adding more detail to the foreground.

Finished!  It didn't photograph as well as I had hoped.  It looks even better than this and my friend is happy!