Hello

Popping in to say,

"Have a wonderful Wednesday!"

tweet, tweet

to fly or stay put

To fly or stay put...

Isn't that always the question?

This little bird is enjoying the scenery

but his mind is elsewhere-

up in the heavens soaring through clouds

and breathing in all the scenery down below.

Walking in a Flower Forest

I have been rather prolific the past week.

I finished three assignments for MATS.

I love being able to draw on my iPad when I don't feel like getting messy.

It's the perfect art tool you can take anywhere.

I am off to teach my elementary kids how to use it today too.

I teach at two schools and I am always amazed how quickly they learn.  

Most of them grasp layers after a couple of lessons;

Even the kindergarteners ;)

It keeps me learning and on my toes so to speak.

If you look closely you will see that the dictionary page is the definition of uppercase.

It made me laugh and some days, well everyday,

that is a good thing.

Solo Art Show

It's happening!

I set up my solo show today and it is now open 

though April 20 on weekdays.

I would love to see you at the opening

this Thursday March 17, 6-8pm.

Blakely Hall, Issaquah, WA.

Photo Time!

Photo Time for my upcoming solo show!

Solo Show Next Month!

The sun is shining and there is hope that spring is right around the corner.  My solo show is fast approaching too!  The opening is set for March 17 6-8 pm at Blakely Hall in the Highlands, Issaquah, WA.  I would love to see you there.  It will run until April 24 and then part of it will be in the front window of artEAST for the following month.  I have painted the past 10 months and there will be about 12 new pieces plus some of my favorites from my own collection.   These three paintings will be there along with others which I will feature next newsletter.  Birds of a Feather is the newest and is 2'x4'.  It features lots of paint layers as well as a Shoe-billed stork which happens to be my favorite bird (after crows of course) and a ghost fish too.

Acme #2000 art pouch-for the artist on the go-with optional nest pocket (model not included) is the next closeup.   This one makes me laugh and can happily live in my studio.  I would love to carry my art supplies wherever I go...along with a couple of crows ;)  There is an optional nest pouch featured and many more art filled pouches not shown in this view.  You have to see it all! And finally we have Babel which is raw canvas covered in collage, stitching, buttons, vintage papers, stamps, and glitter.  Can you tell I teach elementary students?  One can never have too much glitter. I will share more later, but enjoy for now.

#2015 Best Nine

Artists on Instagram are posting their best nine so here are mine! 

Here's to the end of 2015 and onto a creative blessed 2016.

See you next year!

Paintings with a Cherry on Top!

I love cherries!

It seems as if others agree-

This painting sold as soon as it made it to artEAST.

 So I painted another one.

 Maybe now I will move on to pumpkins or holly...

time is moving much too quickly ;)

Big Vase-Small Table

Sometimes I just want a very large vase of flowers 

to fill my day with overflowing love.

 And if I can't get it then I will paint it.

This one started out as the bottom left-

Can you see it?

Then it morphed into this

and finally the piece you see above.

Hope your day is filled with a huge bouquet of flowers!

Two paintings meet on a Utility Box-Hooray!

 My two paintings finally get to meet.

A Great Day and Home Sweet Home will say hello on a busy street corner

on Newport Way in Issaquah WA by the Issaquah Creek.

I am told that 64,000 commuters drive this road every day

and this does not even include the thousands of returning salmon every fall.

Wouldn't it be nice if those salmon could poke their heads out of the creek,

and take a much needed break to enjoy some art 

and be encouraged by this happy air-breathing fish?

It could happen. 

Just don't let this happy fisherman see them.

 Here is the intersection and 

the utility boxes they will go on.

A vinyl reproduction will be made and wrapped around these boxes somehow.

Can't wait to see how they turn out!

I will let you know when they are living here!

A Little Girl's Art-Two Legged horse with a Party Hat?

Look what I discovered at my dad's last week.

One of my early drawings.

Glad everyone looks happy and 

I especially love the hands.

Good job with composition and use of lines if I do say so myself ;)

For the Love of Stamps-I am in UPPERCASE Magazine!

I love this magazine

and I love stamps

so...

 I just had to submit an article for the stamp/lace issue.

And it was accepted!

I talk about my mom and her love of stamps.

"I adore the ethereal quality of stamps.  The fact that they have traveled around the block or around the world gives me pause and sometimes goosebumps.  They are small exquisite gifts of color and composition that are utilitarian unless stumbled upon and studied for their beauty. My mother collected them, filed them away in notebooks, and looked up their worth and history in stamp books.  Her name was Phyl and she was a philatelist which seems appropriate.   I never caught on to her collecting and could not really grasp the necessity of this endeavor.  But as an artist I love the serendipitous use of them in my paintings.  And I love using a few of her stamps as a way to honor and remember her legacy.  I know this new-found use for them would make her smile."

 Some of my stash...

 The stamps find their ways into my work.

"My stamps are glued in the first layers of my paintings and they undergo a transformation with paint glazed on and around them.  Sometimes I apply so much paint that only I know the stamps are there, except for the added weight and texture they give.  Often their muted or vibrant colors set the overall tone of the painting.  I love it when Queen Elizabeth peeks out from around a vase or a sheet of blue stamps become bedding in a nest."

 They often get covered over with paint layers so they only peak through.

They make great nesting material.

 and shine out from tables,

 walls,

and just about everywhere.

To learn more about UPPERCASE Magazine

just click here.

"After all of their global adventures, I hope the retired stamps are settled in to their new home and look down from their painting at the abode where they now reside.  Maybe they can even see the new mail that arrives daily, and just maybe they check out those stamps and casually ask them how their trip was.  Yep it could happen."

Yippee for UPPERCASE Magazine and Stamps and Me!

Doing the happy dance here

with some random doodling this morning.

The next issue of UPPERCASE Magazine features stamps.

How cool is that?

And even more cool is that I will be included...

Yippppeeee!

You may know that I always use stamps and buttons in my paintings.

I just adore them and the fact that each one comes with a story.

Uppercase is offering $15 off your subscription or renewal with the code

"cannotwaitforU26".

Feel free to share the code with your friends and family. 

It is valid until the end of June. 

I adore this magazine.  Why not check it out here:

http://shop.uppercasemagazine.com/collections/subscribe

Would you invite Jonah and the Whale to eat lunch with you?

OK this was a fun one!

The theme consisted of drawing crustaceans and placing them over a pattern.
I thought outside the box -- when does that not happen?
I decided Jonah and the Whale would be a good theme.

So I took mixed media patterns and drew over them on the iPad.

This one reminded me of the submarine ride at Disneyland years ago.

It always freaked me out because the water would drip in from the top portal as 

we purveyed the watery landscape outside our window.

And granted the subject matter might be a little bold for kiddos,

but not according to the kids I teach.

They would love it; guess they think a little outside the box too ;)

Since I still am not paying for a monthly Photoshop subscription (sigh),

I decided to do the next best thing and make my mock up in the virtual world.

So I printed and cut out the plates

and gave them a great table setting.

What a fun assignment and class.
I will miss Lilla Rogers' Bootcamp when it is over.
Only one more assignment next month ;(

Just Jump In!

Sometimes you just need to jump in

and lay down anything.

 Color, texture, line and shape...

just to give your brain something to grasp on to 

and begin the creative process.

And a new stencil helps the process along.

I am loving this stencil and the affect it gives.

Oh and btw-

Just found out this one sold!

So I am doing the happy dance!

MATS Bootcamp Poster

 Here is my submission to Lilla Roger's class

Make Art that Sells Bootcamp.
I am adoring this class!

 This month's assignment was to design a poster

for an upcoming art event in Brighton England.

 First we played around with lettering.

I haven't really done any since the 70's.

So this era found its way into my iPad design.

 Then I tried some freehand drawing and actually liked the different styles.

 I kept envisioning a girl heading to the gathering with all her art supplies

(yep that would be me--always over prepared)

and of course my corgi had to come with me.

Then I cut her out and scanned her onto a grid background.

 It went onto the iPad and the fun continued!
I added the British flag, 
a small photo of the Wheel, 
the Brighton Dome where the event will be held,
a photo of my yardstick, 
my paint palette,
and a stamp with a young Queen Elizabeth.

I then changed the font for the final picture at top.

Phew I think I am done.

Now on to some messy prep for some wood wrapped pieces

that will be loose and fun--

always need to do loose stuff after tight work at the pixel level.

Well bust my Buttons!

This painting is a large one.

So it is filled with flowers and buttons

in honor of spring!

the 52 buttons are from my mom and mother-in-law 

and I love to think of them while I stitch them on.

It has layers of texture from joint compound and crinkled tissue. 

Tissue paper is such a great base.

Here are some closeups...

of details and lines rolled onto the painting...

and painted tissue and stencils...

and those buttons...

with 52 drilled holes...

all stitched in place.

"Well Bust my Buttons" will be going to artEAST Gallery in April
and hopefully will find a home ready to embrace buttons.