Painted Hungarian Folk Art Flowers

By now you know that I am obsessed with Hungarian Folk Art.  Traditionally in Hungary this type of art is painted.  It is also embroidered onto cloth.  I use markers when I draw them.  I've tried watercolors but I don't get the bold, saturated colors I want.  I've tried acrylics but I had trouble getting the paint to behave.  Finally today I had an epiphany, not sure why it took me to long to figure this out...I painted with very watered down acrylics and I think it's a great first effort but there is definitely room for improvement....

 



 

There are 30 minutes between the time my daughter's school day ends and my son gets out. I spent that time drawing.



 

 

Ready for paint.






Painting in the flowers. I went over the pen lines one more time after the paint dried.


 

Detail of my wedding shawl which I pulled out for inspiration



Detail of my mom's tablecloth. Just a picture on my iPhone. I tried to "borrow" this but she wouldn't let me take it because most of the things I "borrow" never make it back to my mom's house. :)
 

Another picture of my mom's tablecloth.



Another little peak at my jewelry.
Hoping to have my etsy shop up and running soon!!


 I'm sharing this as DPP#14 Saturated.

And:
 

A Hungarian Folk Art Butterfly

My last two posts have started off with apologies for not posting...so I won't do it again. 
Maybe 2013 is just going to be a differnt kind of blogging year.

I enjoyed doing this pencil & pen drawing of a butterfly with Hungarian folk art flowers.  It's quite small so I'm not sure I can add color properly.  I like it in black & white.

My garden is so full of weeds right now.  I am heading out after this post to weed.  I had to take these pictures at particular angles so you can see the blooms and not the weeds!

 

 



Another folk art drawing

 We are going camping again this weekend so I hope to spend some time painting lakeside.


 

#26Acts and Hungarian Flowers in Watercolor

In honor of the 26 who died at Sandy Hook Elementary School a week ago today I have been participating in #26Acts.  For each person who died I am doing something kind.  Some are small...like a positive message with a dollar bill attached and some are bigger...like giving to may favorite charity in memory of one of the victims.  I am making sure that each one is associated with a specific name in the hopes that they will not be forgotten.

 

Getting ready to start:

 

 

Here's something I painted as a Christmas gift for my mom a few years ago but never got around to sharing here:

Here is my list of the kindness acts so far.  I'm not counting the cookies and chocolates because they didn't have a victim's name attached and I strongly feel the need to associate a name to each kindness.  I still feed good about brightening those guys day, though, they work hard!


Happy Holidays to All!

Sharing with my friends at Paint Party Friday.

Finished Hungarian Floral Bird

Last week I showed you my work in progress, a Hungrian folk art bird in pen on paper.



Here's the bird and her floral tail all colored in.  I'm very happy with the color. 
She might just get wrapped up as a Christmas gift (If I can bear to part with her.)

 

I hope the holiday season is going smoothly for all of you.  I am 99% done with my shopping and now I am sending out holiday cards.  I don't do cards every year but this year we have a cute picture and I was able to get it together in time.

 

I am calmer than I was last week despite a bit of stomach flu in our house.  The most stressful thing left of the holiday season is figuring out where to put our Elf on the Shelf every night.  This is the first year we have had one (was I the last mom to hear about these things?)  My daughter was pretty sad that we did not have an elf in our house so she wrote Santa a lovely letter and our elf arrived the next day!  Keeping her moving each night has been a bit of a challenge.  The other night I woke up with a jolt at 3:30am realizing I hadn't moved her!  A few nights before that it was 5am.  Still...if this is the most stressful thing I have going on right now, I'd say I'm doing pretty good!

Sharing with my friends at Paint Party Friday.

Oh, December!

Oh, December!  We've entered that time of year when I can't remember anything and I have to rely on lists and my calendar and my iPhone to keep me on track.  There are so many extra activities, holiday parades, holiday sings at school, holiday parties, gifts, plans...I get a little frazzled.  I somehow found the time to draw this Hungarian folk art bird which I am loving.  I love it in black & white, love the graphic nature of it, but I think I will love it even more in color and will do that soon.

Mostly what I have been doing lately in my free time is reading.  I find it funny that in the year I've been blogging I have not mentioned reading because I love to read.  I read about 3 or 4 books a month but in the last 3 weeks I've read the Night Circus, Gold, The Art of Fielding and am now on The Second Empress. 

What are you reading?

Friend me on Goodreads and you can see follow my books and I can follow yours.  (Hopefully this link works...I've been having a hard time with it!)

Finally I leave you with this pencil sketch of more Hungarian inspired flowers...this was done a couple of years ago but was lost in a sketchbook until this week.

Happy Paint Party Friday!  I'm hoping for equal parts relaxing and getting some holiday stuff done.

Happy Friday!

Last year I saw these cute little wooden tags on sale at Anthropolgie. 
I wasn't sure what to do with them but I thought they were so cute.



I finally decided to draw little Hungarian flowers on them. 

I love how they look. 

I'm using one as a thank you note.

 

 My friend A gave me this cute little birdie for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. 
It's actually a bird house! 
There is a little hole in the back for a bird to enter and make a cozy home.

I'll tie the thank you note to a rose from my garden and deliver it to A. 

Happy Paint Party Friday.

Latest Hungarian Folk Art Doodles

Some Hungarian Folk Art Flowers to share on Paint Party Friday.

 

In other news...we survived our first week of school and both kids are happy, especially my son, who had a rough year last year.  What a difference an engaging teacher makes!

 

I also survived my first week back at a regualr Bikram Yoga practice.  I went three times this week and I did not die!  In fact, I feel great.  I am so grateful that I can give myself the gift of Bikram Yoga.

 

Obi the puppy had his last round of shots.  I look forward to taking him the beach and hiking.  He loves wrestling with Io the kitty.

 

 

 

Since I have been exploring the world of smoothies lately I bought a Ninja blender.  I got the one that comes with single serving cups...so you can blend in the huge 72 oz pitcher or directly into a 16oz tavel cup.  Can I just say I love my Ninja.  I might sleep with it in my bed tonight...that is how much better it is than my old blender!  I've decided to embark on a smoothie only fast starting today.  So far, so good but we will see what happens tonight at dinner time.  I'm not sure how long this will last but no more than one week because next Friday I leave for my third annual girls weekend in Palm Springs.  There will be eating.  The next week, though...could go either way.  I'll keep you posted!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Current (and lifelong) Obsession

For the duration of the Olympics I have had my art supplies in the living room and I've been painting and drawing while watching TV.  My little art desk was looking dusty and sad so I cleaned it up and moved back in.  Here's what I have been working on lately...my current (and lifelong) obsession with Hungarian folk art.

all clean

sketchbook

watercolor and pen

acrylic on canvas pad

sketching a vignette from my mom's china cabinet

practice, practice

watercolor and pen

watercolor and pen

inspiration from the real thing

My Hungarian Doll Collection

I've been doing a lot of Hungarian folk art lately and today I decided to take out all of my Hungarian dolls to share.  Most of them live in a china cabinet but some are so old that they are packed away.

The two on the edges are my oldest dolls, especially my childhood doll on the left who dates back to the early 1970's.

Here she is in better days...I must have been 7 or 8 in this picture.

Detail of her skirt and apron.

At school with me, I think this was third grade, it was some kind of heritage day.  I'm also wearing an embroidered blouse, apron and slippers (papucs,) I wish my teacher had taken better pictures!

My other childhood doll (on the right in picture above.)

Detail of her apron

She is my big girl (in the middle in picture above.)  My mom brought her back from Hungary for me about 5 years ago.
 She is almost 2 feet tall

She has great little feet (and bloomers!)

I bought this doll when I was in Hungary in 2001.

Also bought in 2001.  Even though she is small, the detail on her is amazing.

Given to my daughter by her grandmother.  I've had to repaint her face a couple of times.

Tiny