Art, Jelly and Nascar

Carrollton Welcomes Race Fans

The Quaker State 400 comes to Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, KY. and it's just up the road from us.

The Chamber of Commerce puts on Race Fest with

entertainment, food, vendors and of course race cars around the Court House.

We belong to RiverView Farmer's Market and we always set up on the Court House on Wednesdays. 

We set up our produce, which in this heat isn't much,

our jellies, herbal vinegars and soaps,

and what else, but my art.

My husband's wonderfully sweet and clear jellies cause he's so sweet,

and my herbal vinegars, cause I'm a little spicier.

We also make soap and lotion bars, which I love.

Here are some of my crafts and my art.

There were lots of activities, an idol competition, corn hole, classic cars and race cars.

Nice night in Carrollton, KY.

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Shameless Self Promotion

My very own picture book.

I made this using Shutterfly and a groupon discount coupon.

It is nothing but Shameless Self Promotion.

The book features 20 of my newest paintings.

I'll have it at art shows and at our farmer's market so you can see at a glance my work.

Here's my bluebird and "Mother and Child"

This is from my newest form of painting.  

It's sort of abstract impressionism and I learned it attending 

a Dreama Tolle Perry workshop in Carmel, IN.

I have to really work at all this computer stuff and when I purchased the groupon

for the book I didn't know if I could do it, or how long it would take me.

There is always a learning curve for these kind of projects, but

I prevailed and made it around the curve.

The last 10 pages went much faster than the first 10.

They got the book to me very quickly and I was very pleased with the results.

What do you think?

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How to Make your Own Art Supplies

https://mail.google.com/mail/#inbox/138243048dae5581

Clink on the link above to get directions and recipes for making 35 different type of art supplies for your kiddos.  Ya gotta check this out.  Paints, glues, glitter glues, and lots lots more.



Jean is the blogger and she has two beautiful little girls and they make art every day and always comes up with some great stuff.  If you have kids, you might want to follow this blog.

Enjoy


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Alex Paints Plein Air

Alex, my art student, and I painted plein air this morning.  

Plein air is just a fancy French term for on location, out in the open air.

We walked all around the orchard, flower gardens and yard and finally settled on this site.

She's painting part of one of my husband Jim's flower gardens.

There are echinacea, Queen Anne's lace, marigolds, and a vining purple flower drooping over a railroad tie.

Alex mixing her paint.

Here's my really high tech setup on the back of my golf cart.

My easel is actually in the back of the cart.

Here's Alex with her finished painting.

Not only did she paint plein air, but she also painted alla prima, meaning she got it done in one sitting.

She did a 5 x 7 canvas panel and it is attached to the board with double stick tape.

It was getting pretty warm by the time we finished,

but I think she had a good time and we both learned alot about colors, lights and shadows and how to paint quickly.    

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Hand painted Garden Stones

Here's some garden stones I've been painting.  

They look great in my garden.

they'd probably look good in yours also.

I have 8 different stones right now and they are all different.

I'll have them at the RiverView Farmer's Market next Wednesday before and during race fest.

Each stone is 12" x 12" and they are varnished before painting 

and then 3 more coats of varnish are applied after painting, using an exterior varnish.

I painted the ones with the flowers from a vase of flowers my husband cut for me 

from one of his many gardens.

love the trees and the cabin.

pine trees and a great big tree

a path into your garden

lavender, yarrow and daisies

lavender and Queen Anne's lace

All stones are $25 each.

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Alex paints a tree

Alex and her tree

My young art student, Alex learned about shapes and forms today. We began with her drawing a candle I set up for her to see the shapes and shadows in my photo cube.  Then she painted this tree.  She used her light source from the left side and gave her tree highlights on the left and shadows on the right.  She made three passes over her leaves to give them a three dimensional look.  She did really well don't you think?

After I took her picture I noticed that half her face was lit up from the light coming in the window and we talked about what we learned about which direction the light comes from and what it does to make things looks three dimensional.

She's a cutie and a great student.  Her Grandma Vickie was pretty proud of her too I think.

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Keeping My Chickens Flying

I just finished reading an interesting article written by famed artist/writer Jack White about keeping my chickens flying.  He began by telling an interesting story about a farmer during the depression taking a pick up truck of chickens to market.  He was followed by a business man who was trying to pass the pickup but couldn’t because of the poor road conditions back then.  The farmer would stop his truck every hundred yards or so and beat the chicken crates with a broom.  He would drive a few hundred yards and get out and beat the chicken crates with a broom.  The business man couldn’t resist asking what the farmer was doing.  The farmer told the business man that he was taking two tons of chickens to market in a nearby city.  They were all he had and he needed to sell them desperately.  The problem was he only had a one ton pickup truck so he had to keep half of the chickens flying in order to not stress his old truck.

Jack went on to say that with the economy as stagnant as it is, artists may have to find a way to keep their chickens in the air in order to feed their families.  I couldn’t agree more.  His approach was very pragmatic and down to earth and gave examples of how artists he knew were thinking out of the box and letting their art evolve to continue to create and eat. 

One of the examples he gave was very close to something I’ve been working on.  I was given some outdoor tiles and have begun to paint scenes on them.  They have a minimum of three coats of outdoor varnish on them to protect them from the weather. They make really unique garden stones.  I would love to paint one for you.

I will begin showing them at the RiverView Farmer’s Market this Saturday.  They are $30 each.

They are heavy so it will cost approximately $20 to ship one, but if you live in or near Carroll County, KY and can come to the Farmer's Market on Saturday at Hometown Pizza on Saturday from 8 a.m. until noon or the Courthouse lawn on Wednesday from 2-5 p.m. check them out.

I'm only showing two of them right here, but I have four available at the moment with more to come.  

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Please Don't Eat the Daisies

Anyone who knows my painting journey knows I've had a lot of trouble painting

flowers.

I love flowers, I was a florist for years, we raise a lot of flowers, many of which we sell to florists, 

I have cut flowers in my home practically everyday that we have any blooming.

But still I struggle painting them.

This is from a bud vase of daisies, lavender and pastel yarrow we grow.

The bud vase is an antique that I love.

So I set out to paint them once again,

and I'm finally happy with the result.

I have a progression of this piece that I'm sending out in my newsletter.

If you would like to see the steps needed to get there,

subscribe to my newsletter from this blog.  

Thanks for looking.  

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Learning with Alex

Learning with Alex

This is my art student, Alex for a few weeks.

She loves to draw and paint so her grandma thought maybe she would

enjoy learning how to paint.

She made a color wheel, a color chart

and painted some flowers from what I picked this morning.

They are daisies, echinacea and lavender.  

She did really well.

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Riverside Drive, Augusta, KY

Art in the Garden

This was my view from my booth in Art in the Garden in Augusta.

Looking out at the Ohio River through the garden gate.

The river is not normally blue, but last Saturday the sky was so blue

it reflected in the water.

It was a beautiful sight.

This was a fun painting to do.  

It's a 5 x 7 acrylic on a panel.

$100 /free shipping

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Art in the Garden - Augusta, KY

This is  my booth at Art in the Garden in Augusta, KY.

I was one of three artists who were lucky enough to actually be in the garden.

The weather was beautiful Saturday, cool, overcast, dry and here I am lucky enough to be in this beautiful garden.

On one side of my booth was this beautiful water garden.

It has several types of plants, two sculpture/fountain pieces, coy and a very tiny with a very big croak frog.  Looking at the beautiful hydrangeas and begonias, listening to the water and a band within 30 feet made for a peaceful serene day.

Art in the Garden had a large variety of artisans this year.  

Jewelry

Pottery

Paintings

Plants

Alpaca weaving

Quilting

Mosaics

Great Food

Just couldn't get much better.

here's one view of the water garden.

The croakin frog can't be seen, but it was a tiny little frog sitting on one of the water lily pads.

Behind me and to one side were these beautiful hydrangea bushes.

They have all three colors on each bush and then there were two bushes that were completely blue.

This is the view I had as I looked out on Riverside Drive.

There were 75 artists there and they had a fabulous view of the river with ferry crossing every few minutes.  

This is the Lance Bates home.

He actually owns the garden I was in.

It used to be a city garden, but he bought it when he bought the house and lovingly cares for both.

Pictures do not do it justice.

He opens his home for tours as well as the garden.

It is quite the sight.

Thanks Lance

Thanks Augusta

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