Inspired by Matisse and Hafiz - Part 1

I completed this painting...with only one major flub along the way. One. That's not too bad, right? Here's the finished painting and below are several images on its way to its final stage (including the flub one, of course).

"Inspired by Matisse and Hafiz"

Once the positioning of the figures had been decided upon
I painted a quick rendition of them.

I gave the figures bodies.

I darkened their tones and left their bodies featureless
because my goal was to keep them racially and gender neutral.

I painted the words to the poem...and...Doh!
I found out I'd left out one line.

So I painted over the lines above where I'd missed a line
and repainted the poem. And done!

What a truly wonderful painting to work on. I love doing commissioned pieces. I feel like I grow with each one.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Dancing with the Stars - Part 2

It's so much fun painting a super loose painting like this. Going for pure whimsy is a delight! After starting my day with a full face collision with a newly formed spider web, I finished working on this. After I apologized to the spider, of course. Sweet little thing had clearly spent hours creating what I managed to destroy in a fraction of a second.

Here's the completed painting and a couple more steps I took before it was finished.

"Dancing with the Stars"

I added more stars and some color accents on top
of the yellow. I think they look like comets now.

I thought it needed some red here and there to balance it.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Dancing with the Stars - Part 1

I have this thing about wasting my art supplies. I can't stand to let it happen. When I cut watercolor paper down and have scraps left over, I hold on to all of them and make little gift tags or bookmarks. When I'm using acrylics I use a canvas as my palette. After a canvas palette is completely covered I use it as a background for a new piece. I think they make the most wonderful starting point for new art. 

This is the palette I used from my painting "Fourth of July" so you'll see the colors I used for it.

Here's the palette canvas I started with for today's painting.

I added a couple of figures, some stars, and other white elements.

I added black lines over the figures and added yellow accents.

I'm excited to finish this one tomorrow. I've had a day full of professional development for my wonderful teaching gig (I teach three and four year olds with disabilities). And the funny thing is, since I was thinking about school again after a bit of a break, I dreamt last night that I showed up to the training in something I'd never leave the house in. Oy.... And, yes, I dressed with care this morning to make sure it didn't turn into a reality.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Twisted

Sometimes pure perfection happens.

I was in the laundry room, which just so happens to be a very tiny room, and my little guy showed up. "Twist and Shout" streamed out of his phone...and that precious kid of mine started to do the twist and sing loudly into a vacuum cleaner extension tube "microphone". Well, of course I had to join in! And the two of us twisted and shouted for the duration of that magnificent song.

Hanging in the laundry room has never been more fun!

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Got the Moves

It turns out that going around singing "Moves Like Jagger" is not correlated with actually having moves like Jagger.

According to my kid, that is.

But you know how positive affirmations work, right?  If you keep saying it, and saying it, and saying it, the odds of it being "so" seriously increases. 

Click here to purchase this painting.