Thankful

I want to take a moment to thank all of you for accompanying me on my creating/blogging journey.  It's been three-and-a-half years of absolute bliss for me and I plan to continue well into the future. To celebrate my gratitude I'm going to have a HUGE sale on my art.  Everything on my DailyPaintworks site will be 50% off through the month of December.  There's no way for me to mark everything down on the site or to provide a discount code, so just contact me via DailyPaintworks or on this blog site and let me know which one you'd like and I'll alter the price.

Thank you, thank you!

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!

Keyboard Warp

I love happy accidents. 

My awesome brother somehow managed to have his right hand fingers just one-key-to-the-right off.  (This actually happens to me A;; TJE TO,E! ALL THE TIME!)

Well, lucky me, he was trying to send a message to his bud "Jakub"and, of course four letters in he ended up with "Kali"...and happily, I received a delightful message from my brother. 

And because I am who I am, I keep imagining his right hand doing the "Time Warp".

It's just a jump to the left.

And then a step to the right.

:pve upi Love you, baby brother!  Now put your hands on your hips.... <big sister snicker>

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!

Pretty Kitty

We have these huge quilted decorative pillows for our bed.  What we plan to do is this...each day after we get up and make the bed, put the decorative pillows on top.  What happens is this...we half-hazardly pull the duvet up and walk away.

But it works out just fine because each day after we pull the duvet up, our cats get on our bed and settle in for their all-day-long catnap. And it turns out that cats make the best decorative pillows ever. 

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!

Blog Hop Around the World!

I'll get to the blog hop in just a moment. First I want to share with you my daily painting for today. This post is all about love...my love for my fellow artists and their work, our love of creating art, and the love of art appreciation.  Here's to love....

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

 

 What's a blog hop...

A few weeks ago I was invited by Rebekah Nemethy to participate in a blog hop. I responded immediately with a big "Yes!" I'm super excited to have the opportunity to share Rebekah's beautiful work with you, share a bit about myself and my work, and give you a glimpse into the work of several other amazing artist friends of mine from all over the world.

First, Rebekah...she and I met through Daily Paintworks, a website where artists can upload their work (many of us are daily painters) and offer them for sale.  I'm thrilled that Rebekah noticed my work and got in touch with me.  I do so love this amazing internet artist community that I'm lucky to be a part of!

Rebekah is an amazing photographer.  What I love about her work is that rather than stepping back from something and seeing it as a whole, she captures the small details that make up the larger piece, the bits that could so easily go unnoticed, the parts that I find truly make me take pause and reflect.  It's sheer perfection that she has named her photography business, "Reflective Photos". Here's a sample of her lovely work.

Much of Rebekah's photography features animals and her love of creatures great and small shines through...she also donates a portion of her sales to a number of organizations that support and care for homeless animals.

I invite you to check out her delightful blog that currently features a weekly project that introduces a new photo and 100 words every week.

Her work is available for sale here.


And now a bit about me...

1. What am I working on?  Since June of 2011 I've created something (a painting, a sketch, etc.) each and ever day, and in August of 2011 I started my daily blog featuring my creations. I'm always working on something. I carry my sketch pad and small ruled notebook everywhere I go.  I'm constantly jotting down ideas in either picture or written form. One thing I'm putting a lot of energy into these days is creating the illustrations for a picture book I'm writing.  It's a lovely and amazing thing to tell a story in such a visual way.  I'm also feeling the itch to do another large mural...look out walls of my house...another one of you is about to get some colorful attention!

2. How does my work differ from others in its genre? Well, gosh, this is something I've never really thought about.  I would like to think that my art infuses its viewers with love, joy, happiness, and bliss. That my work tells a story that people can relate to. Really, I'm not even sure what genre my work belongs to unless "Whimsy" is a genre.  

3. Why do I create what I do? It's quite simple.  I create because it makes me ever so happy.  If I have any stress from my life, my art diffuses it.  If I'm already feeling happy, I feel even happier. I've heard that when you dance or sing you cannot help but be happy.  For me my art is like that.  I also absolutely love, love, love to give my art away as gifts and when my art is purchased I'm beyond honored that someone has chosen to welcome it into their home. 

4. How does my creating process work? I typically have at least ten pieces that I'm working on at the same time, often many more. They're all at different stages and I complete them in no particular order, it's just when the urge strikes.  Sometimes I'll lay them all out on the table and one will actually call to me, "Pick me!" :-) Much of the time ideas just pop into my head and I simply paint something that makes me feel good.  Flowers are like that for me.  Sometimes I am inspired by an event or something I've seen and I'll draw/paint from memory or a photo I've snapped on my phone. Basically I'm all over the place with my process, but it works really well for me. Then each day I pair a completed painting with a funny/silly/goofy/crazy/whimsical story from my life and post them in my blog.


Continue the blog hopping on 12/1/14 with these amazing artists!

Prerna Poojara is an amazing artist living in India that I met through an online course we are both taking, Dancing with Your Dreams. Prerna's lovely and intuitive style is breathtaking.  The faces she creates are truly incredible as well as her projects, Infinite Buddhas of Compassion and 108 Ganeshas. 

Prerna's favorite mediums are canvas and paper and for her, art is a spiritual practice to heal and understand her life purpose. Prerna's beautiful work is available here.


Salima Alikhan, a fellow Austinite, is an incredible artist I met when we both took a picture book writing class at The Writing Barn here in Austin.  She's beautifully illustrated three children's picture books and has written and illustrated one.  She's been drawing ever since she could hold a pencil, and has loved art pretty much more than anything in the world all her life. The first thing she attempted to draw was Mighty Mouse, in chalk, on pavement.  Here's one of my favorites of her many amazing pieces.

 
Her illustrations are painted with such incredible feeling and sensitivity. I love the emotional connection I get when I look at them. Links to Salima's published works are here.


Amy Burke O'Toole is an amazing artist and teacher from Pennsylvania.  She beautifully put together the Dancing with Your Dreams course that Prerna, I, and many other artists from around the world took together. Amy is an incredibly heartfelt and sensual artist.  She is an intuitive painter and her work leaves me breathing more deeply, my spirit more calm, and my mind more at peace when I see them. Here is a recent piece that I absolutely love.

Amy works with a huge range of media and is one of the most creative creatives I have the pleasure of knowing. More of Amy's work can be seen here.


Wanda Collins Johnson is a lovely artist from Tennessee I met at a picture book workshop at The Writing Barn.  Wanda exudes beauty, love, and peace with her being and that is beautifully expressed through her paintings and writing as well. Both her writing and painting are exquisite in their expressiveness and as a reader and viewer you melt into them. This is one of my favorites of her work. 

Her choice of media and colors give her work a dreamy quality that soothes my soul. Wanda's work is available here.

Thank you so much for reading about some of my favorite artists!  Be sure to check out each of their blogs on December 1 when they post a bit about me and a few of their favorite artists.

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

No Shave November Fail

I've been actively participating in No Shave November.  Actually, now that I think about it, it's not an active thing at all.  Rather, I should say that I've been passively participating in No Shave November.  And things were going quite swimmingly until....


Me: "Those few long hairs on your face are getting pretty long, kid." Turns out that sixteen year old boys get random long hairs while all the other hairs just stay short, sweet, and delightfully prepubescent. 

Little guy: "You can trim them if you want," he said as he played a game on his phone.

Me: "OK."  And I did.

Little guy: "Wow, mom, serious No Shave November fail."

Me: "Ack! Why didn't you remind me?!?!"

Little guy: "I'm just joking, mom. You're the only one in the family doing the No Shave November thing."


Yeah, but gosh, somehow I feel like I just blew it.

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!

For the Love of her Boys

Last night, like most weekend nights, there was a boy fest here at our place.  Thing is, our sweet dog, Hazel, is convinced that she is one of the boys.  So when they closed the bedroom door at about 1:00 AM leaving her on the outside, she fell into deep despair. 

She came into our room and whimpered endlessly.  She jumped onto our bed and shook with sadness.  She sighed often and heavily driving us absolutely nuts.

So after trying unsuccessfully to sleep with my head completely covered by our duvet for at least an hour, I got up, opened the boys door just a Hazel's width, let her scurry in, and returned to my bed.


And "Zzzzzzzzzzzz" filled the house. 

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!

The Kid's got Nerve, I Say

Just the big guy is hanging out at the house tonight.  We hadn't seen him all evening, though the "boom, boom" base rang loud and clear from his room.  So...when he finally got thirsty enough to bless us with his presence, well....


Me: "Hi, snoopy-poo!"

Dave:  "Schnickerdoodle!"

Me:  "Love bunny!"

Dave:  "Punkinater!"

Me:  "Cutie boo-boo!"


And the kid totally ignored us.  The nerve!

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!