i'm loving my iphone and the photos apps available!  here's a picture of a statue i have...

here's another painting i did recently...this shows the progression and my re-working...

 i used acrylic and pastels...

i wasn't happy with the color on one side...i then put color on both sides, and kept working on her face.   i still wasn't thrilled, so i kept at it. i gave her more hair.   i lightened it up quite a bit and added flowers.

then i didn't care for the flowers and how detailed they looked.  i painted and pasteled and chalked over them, leaving a bit of color showing through.  i then added more of a creamy color to the white, which looks better with her hair and the tones in the painting.

here's the finished piece.

chalked another event board at native foods cafe at the bridgeport mall.  i just love the whole vibe i get while in there.  i am blessed to be able to do their event board at the end of every month for the next month.  it feels great to be a part of such a cool place.

and my grumbacher paint classes at michaels are so much fun.  my students are churning out such great work!  i'm really proud of them!

we did a series of van gogh paintings...here is the still life...

here's the floral...

and here's the landscape...

 

i got my hands pleasantly messy with clay.  i sculpted this little guy.  i used an armiture of wadded up newspaper and formed from there. 

i didn't know what i was doing or where i was going with this.  it was so much fun.  i used woodburning letters to make the word faith on his chest.  and i decided to make him functional and be able to hold something.

it took a few days to really dry out.  i kept checking him on the kitchen window sill.  when he finally didn't feel cold and clammy, i knew he was ready for paint.  i first used adirondak dyes and then used some acrylic to make some of the color more intense.  some of the dyes that were more greenish, i thought looked kinda mossy, which i loved.

looking around i put some tree branches and a little bird in his arms.  i was thinking shells, or leaves in the fall would look cute too.

still lovin' those apps on my phone!  this was all on instagram.

i am in the midst of misty mawn's 5 week online art course.  i wanted to take this course because i just love misty's open and free work.  she is spontaneous and uses many different mediums and i wanted to get a taste of that.  i will post as i do new work.  it's not easy finding the time though!  i am already sooo behind!  but luckily it seems that may others are as well.  with working and teaching grumbacher painting classes - and doing one of the paintings that i'll be teaching during the week so i can get the process before teaching, leaves me little time for this class.  but she is leaving the class up for us for a year...which is so freeing.  anyways...here is a journal page that i created...it's me, although it doesn't look like me.  she looks younger and has better eyelids...but i absolutely loved this exercise!  it really freed me up to just put down color instead of trying to be exact. 

fun with apps...

well i just got an iphone...not a new 4g model, but a 3g.

and with it came my excitement to get some photography apps...

had to run around my house and shoot some things and then add

fun effects to them...here's my messy art area...at least this effect kinda softens

the mess :)

and i love this one.  it's a lighted house that i keep up all year.  at christmas i put some snow at the base as well as trees on the sides of it.  this effect put white spots all over it which looks like snow coming down!  love it!

and this was a mary statue i got at the goodwill.  i got really close and then did a scratched photo effect.  i absolutely love it!

and i enrolled in misty mawn's e-course.  fun, fun, fun!  our first assignments are sketching with charcoal and pencils.  this is something i came up with tonight.  it's been soooo many years since i have done a portrait with charcoal.  i think i was in college!  so this was like rediscovering it all over again.  her class will last for 5 weeks.  i'm going to be sooo busy!  but it's definitely a good thing.

grow your blog in 2012 via one smart cookie!

just want to let you who blog, know about something coming up which i'm sure will be filled with a wealth of information:  one of my favorite blogs called miss mustard seed will be a part of a 5 blog hop that will give information for growing your blog...for FREE.

i just want to first tell you a little about miss mustard seed.  i have been following her since i started blogging a little over a year ago.  i have this alter ego...i'm basically a want-to-be picker.  i just love going to garage sales, flea markets, etc. and finding things that what you call "another's trash".  i have an eye (so i think) for decorating and that is filled with things that are old.  why?  i just love the feeling of history...of age (which a lot of times means better made)...of uniqueness...one of a kind...or nostalgic.  well, miss mustard seed aka marian, finds things, and has become quite skilled with transforming what someone else would call dated or old, into a beautiful piece by painting, recovering, revamping.  she has really made a name for herself quite quickly too.  she has a huge following.  she is a spokesperson for many products, and is writing her first book.  she is also a mother of youngin's, and a youth pastors wife.  she's a busy bee.  and i always read her daily posts.  always.  well she's a part of a small blog hop for you...and me...and anyone else to get information on what she and these others have done to grow their blogs called

so...i just wanted to pass on this information to YOU.  stop by her blog and read more...i hope you learn and grow in 2012.  happy new year!!!

i am here

i am here

there isn't time, but here i am

i am being pulled

my leg is pulled, my arm is pulled

but my heart is here

how do i make time?

i must

it's my heart...my soul

the blood that runs through my veins

so i am here

AHHHHHHH....I WON!!!!!!!!!!!

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!  can you hear me???  i can't believe that i just won a blog contest from one of my favorite blogs of all time....miss mustard seed!!!!!! 

 i just won $100 gift card to Williams Sonoma AND a $50 store credit to stylish patina!!!! 

both miss mustard seed and stylish patina are great girls that have made a BIG name for themselves by doing what they LOVE...finding old things, making them beautiful, and reselling.  i have been subscribed to miss mustard seed for over a year now, and get her daily e-mails telling me what she's been doing...what she found...and her wonderous transformations of cast offs to fabulous.  i love each blog post and read them word for word.  she has become a spokesperson for many companies...posts for HGTV, Cottages and Bungalows magazine, and more.  i have commented on many of her posts that have contests, and just figured that i am a little fish in the big ocean of her huge ocean of little fish, and that i wouldn't ever get "picked"...but I DID!!!! AHHHHHH! so excited!!!!  and stylish patina is such a cool blog that i discovered through miss mustard seed.  she has the same love for "picking" and styling that i love and so can't believe that i am going to be able to "shop" there too!!!!  she's got an etsy shop, as well as an actual store called The Foundry....  so forgive me if it seems i'm bragging or boasting, but i'm beside myself.