Thank You, Austin

This was so much fun!!! I've been wanting to create Texas themed art for a while. I did a few when I first started painting five years ago, but haven't since then. Here's the first of what I plan to be a super fun Texas theme series.

"Thank You, Austin"

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A Song Written Just for Her - Part 7

I've been thinking lately that I want to grow my hair out again. Not super long as that's just way too much trouble. I have some big Texas hair when it's long and I never seem to be able to manage it. Really I'm just thinking shoulder length or so. But then Dave ups his scaring me tactics. Boy, my guys so love doing that. And as my bangs are growing out I'm having more and more trouble seeing their sneaky approaches.

Lucky for me Hazel is on my team and she gives them away most of the time.


And I finished this painting! I can't believe it took a week, but I've been up to tons of other good stuff. This was super fun and I loved learning about Mary Blair. Super fun being inspired by her work!

"A Song Written Just for Her"

I painted the second tone on the guitar and
added some marks to the man's shirt. I also
added a second tone to the woman's face.

I worked on his hands, added hair color,
and sketched the features of their faces.

I began working on her hands, added color to
his hands, added a second tone to his face, used
red to create a bottom and side of the guitar,
and painted some of their facial features. I
also painted her hair white as the yellow
wasn't showing as brightly as I'd wanted.

I painted yellow on her hair. This time it really
shows well, so I decided to do the same with
his hair. You'll see in the finished painting that
I continued adding more elements.

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Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

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A Song Written Just for Her - Part 6

My family. They're always here for me if I ever get stuck.


Me: "Do something funny!" (I needed something to blog about.)


My little guy sat on the couch with a fork dangling from his mouth.


Dave: "Well, a little while ago XXXXXXXXXX" (I've decided that I cannot relay this story out of respect for one little guy in particular.)

Little guy: "Nope!" And then he waggled his head back and forth, the fork in his mouth waggling with him.


So, dangling/waggling fork for the win!



I continued working on this painting. I'm finding that there's a lot of dry time with this one which is slowing my pace. I don't mind, though, paces are meant to be slowed. Well, that and I made a week's worth of food. A stocked fridge = guys who leave me alone and let me paint. :-)

I painted the man's shirt and applied a second
layer to his legs and changed them a bit. I
also added a band and some dangling strands
to the hat.

I added details to the mans leg, put frets on the
guitar, and began the layering of the flesh
tones on their faces.

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Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

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A Song Written Just for Her - Part 5

My little guy always does his best to make me feel good about myself. Tonight at the gym after my Zumba class....


Little guy: "You still look like an idiot."

Me: "Me or everyone?"

Little guy: "Everyone, but especially you."

Me: "Gosh, thanks."

Little guy: "But it's OK, you're just a beginner."


Aw...now I feel better. Lovable little toot!



I kept plugging away at this painting. Turns out that when you work full time, come home and work on a commissioned piece, go to the gym for that Zumba class, and then come home to paint just a bit more, pretty much the whole evening has blissfully gone by. Wouldn't have it any other way.

I worked more on her dress. I'm really liking
the simplicity of the painting of her skirt
with the under layers showing through.

I painted what will become her hat and
painted his legs and part of the guitar.

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Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

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A Song Written Just for Her - Part 4

It's not easy being green.

So today I eradicated a bit of green in my life.

I've had these kelly green skinny jeans for a couple of years. I've worn them three times. Once around the holidays. That worked just fine. You know, festive and all. The second time was when I was in a Miracle Whip commercial and I was one of the "State College" fans wearing green. That worked great, too. The third time was last week when I wore them to work. Well, by golly, those pants are REALLY green!

So I picked up some brown fabric dye last night and today I died 'em. It didn't exactly go as I'd planned. They're more of a deep olive green than a brown and the stitching, which was apparently not cotton and therefore nonabsorbent, remained bright green. But I rather like them and I'm going to go with "I meant for them to turn out like that." Yup!


And I continued working on this painting. I had a really busy day and honestly didn't get much done on it. But I did spend a nice amount of time with my mom and I was able to do a lot of work on a secret commissioned piece. So I'm happy.

I added red centers to all of the
flowers I'd painted last night.

I sketched the figures with pencil (it may be
too light to see in this photo).

I went over the pencil with white paint.

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Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

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A Song Written Just for Her - Part 3

I trimmed our big dog, Hazel, today. I'd like to think that being an artist lends itself to my dog trimming skills. Perhaps that's why she looks like a character out of a Dr. Seuss book...down the the truffula tree that her tail now is, and the UGG boots she appears to be sporting. Can't wait to see the looks I get when we go walking tomorrow.


And I continued working on this piece. Before I started painting several years ago I had absolutely no idea that there were layer upon layer upon layer in most paintings. What fun it is to work on all of these delightful layers that will become a part of the whole image.

I added little yellow speck here and there.

I added big white flowers.

I gave each white flower a yellow center
and painted smaller white flowers here and there.

I added coral colored flowers. 

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Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

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A Song Written Just for Her - Part 2

Four of our five chickens are currently molting. This means that while they're producing copious amounts of feathers that are all over our yard, they are producing no eggs. Zero...zip...nada. Our one holdout is Barry. She's the head mistress lording over all of the other chickens. Luckily she's a benevolent leader and never has to show she's boss, the other girls simply know this to be true. And she happily shares all resources and cozy spots. But all bets are off if there's a big bug involved. Then she shows her fierce speedy super powers and the others just watch in awe.

We need to figure out how to get her to use her super powers to get the other chickens laying again.


I continued working on this painting.

I added additional elements to the background.

I added even more and I darkened the blue
ones I'd added before.

I started doing some patterning of marks
in the upper half. I loved how this reminded
me of Vincent Van Gogh.

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Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

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A Song Written Just for Her - Part 1

I brought home a pocketed apron I'd received over the summer during some professional development I was co-teaching. The apron was a gift for everyone who attended and of course I snagged one for myself. You understand...aprons rock! Well, as I received it a teaching thing I have had it hanging in my classroom because I assumed that that was the right home for it. But the thing is, I already have an apron I use in my classroom and that apron is deliciously covered with tons of tempera paint. I've got big plans for this little apron I took home today. Cannot wait to get it deliciously covered as well.


And I started working on getting it covered this evening when I began a new painting. I'm studying a new artist in the class I've been taking. Her name is Mary Blair and I'm super excited. I love her palette and style. It's so bright and whimsical! It will be quite a change from Max Beckmann's, whose style and palette I also loved.

I haven't gotten much done this evening as I've been watching instructional videos and then waiting for paint to dry. I wish I'd thought to go ahead and cover this canvas a few days ago. My mom had given me an already painted on canvas that she'd picked up at a thrift store or something like that. Ah, well...instant gratification is way overrated.

I painted over a canvas that my
mom had given me.

I did a rough painting of the background.

I decided that I wanted the gray to
be a lighter shade.

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Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

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Outfitted

It's a funny thing what happens to art when it's framed. When one of my pieces is bought or if I buy someone else's work, and the piece happens to be framed, well, it's like it just got a huge promotion. Like they went from being a high school graduate to completing their master's thesis. It never fails to amaze me what a difference an "outfit" makes for art.

Now do I generalize this fabulous information to my own life and my own outfits? Nope...or at least hardly ever. I like to think of my style as being always ready for a workout or for getting dirty.


This piece was an exercise for a class I'm taking. We're focusing on the artist Marie Laurencin. Loving her style and I cannot wait till we get to her watercolors!

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