An Inspiring Trip

Finding Inspiration

We live in Kentucky

We have a son living in Utah

Jim and I headed to Utah to visit said son,

relax and soak up the beauty there.

Here's the real reason we headed to Utah.

2 of our 11 grandkids live there and we miss them.

We also have a grandson who is a student at BYU.

So of course we had to visit him.

This was the view out the window of my son's home.

I took lots of pics of the beauty that I saw at every turn and I want to share them with you.

It was harvest time while we were there and there were lots of tractors, harvesters and trucks everywhere as farmers tried to get their corn, onions and potatoes harvest.  

The above tractor was set up to harvest onions.  

We didn't get to see that in action, but they were harvesting onions and potatoes everywhere.  

This was right out my sons door.  

For 48 hours every field surrounding his home was a buzz of activity.  You can see the truck with the lights on.  

It started early in the morning until late in the evening.

I love this building and I take pics of it nearly every time I go.

I drew this while I was there.

There are buffalo there as well and 

they are pretty interesting animals.

This was a fun quick sketch I did trying to get the dimensions/perspective of these giants correct.  

I photographed the roots of this tree because they are so interesting.  It really is part of the tree.  

I was in a museum in Salt Lake City and saw and loved this little scene.  Don't be surprised if it shows up in a painting soon.

 These are just 2 of the beautiful landscape photos I took while there.  Scenes like this excite every creative bone in my body and I 

can't wait to start working on this.

This was a small sketch I did trying to get perspective correct for a future painting/s.  This was such a jaw dropping view I know I will use it many times in the future.  

I won't paint it multiple times, but I will use parts of it and I will definitely look back at it just to get inspired again.

Utah is a dessert state, but there are marshes like this and I think they are beautiful.  This is inspiring to me as well.

I love to see the reflections in the marshes as well as the grasses.  

Jim and I hoped on the Trax, the light rail system that runs in Salt Lake and cities near by.  

We're country bumpkins and had a devil of a time figuring out how to pay to get on the thing.

In fact, a great young man helped us otherwise we might still be standing on the platform.  

Now this is totally inspiring.

It and many of its friends are on display in the Greater Cincinnati Airport.

How fun is this big guy.

Jim and I needed some rest and relaxation after spending months getting our house on the market,

endured a devastating flood event, not of our making and making all the repairs from that.

Seeing our son and his family was wonderful, as was having the chance to rest and recuperate.

We saw some beautiful scenery, 

enjoyed all the harvesting going on around us,

went to some of our favorite stores and restaurants,

and slept whenever we wanted.

Had no to-do lists.

Just enjoy our kids and the beauty available to all.

I feel like I'm rejuvenated and ready to get busy with all the activities I try to accomplish.

Thanks for stopping by today and

 let's paint together real soon.

Click HERE to get your printable of 

7 tips for mixing color.  Print this out and keep it near where you paint to refer to again and again.  Mixing color is a lifetime process.

Have you subscribed to my YouTube channel yet?

Click HERE to go to my YouTube channel and hit the thumbs up button and subscribe.  I teach a lot of beginning art lessons on this channel.  

Project Day

Projects

 

Do you have projects waiting to get finished?

 

I always have lots of projects in my head,

but usually I have a lot of things started,

but not completed.

 

Today was completion day for at least 5 projects.

 

Project #1:  Small Wise Men Still Seek Him vinyl on a 5" square tile.

 

   Love this kind of project.

 Quick and easy!

 

Project #2:  A bigger tile.

 

This is 12" square.

Another easy, quick and great looking vinyl project.

 

Project #3.  Wood blocks and vinyl lettering.

 

 This project, as are most of these projects,

several years in the making.

Why I ask?

Because they are so incredibly hard I just couldn't face them.

Not hardly.

I just didn't do it.

But once I got started, I pulled out all the projects I had hidden away that were similar and finished them.

I love the word,

FINISHED.

These were made out of a 2" x 4" cut to size and I didn't distress them.  I painted them all one color as a base coat and then I took three different colors and painted them very lightly over the base.  Whatever got on the board in a swipe or two, is what got to stay.  You can see the kind of mustardy color underneath on all three pieces.  No sanding and then cleaning.  I like that the best.

 

Project #4.  Birthday plaque.

 

I'm an old geezer girl and I have trouble remembering all the birthdays in our family.

I saw this on pinterest

and thought it was genius.  

I had my friendly vinyl lady,

Elizabeth Sanders,

make the vinyl for me.

Painted the board the same color as the underpainting on the prayer blocks,

then put some varnish on it,

then I added the cup hooks,

and I purchased the tags

and wrote each family members name and their birthdate on a tag and then hung them up.

Now,

All I have to do is remember to look at it.

 

Project #5.  Picture frame wreath.

 

 I saw this wreath on facebook, I'm sure it originated on Pinterest.

My frame is a green over cream crackle finish 

and I got in my box of Christmas supplies and pulled out just some odds and ends and created this fun wreath with just bits and pieces. 

I bought this frame at a thrift shop and put the crackle finish on it and it had one of my first paintings in it. 

The painting had to go, but I loved the frame.

When I saw it on facebook, I knew how I could use my fun frame.

 

So, after starting off the day with a migraine,

I ended up having a pretty productive day.

 

Then I went to the gallery and worked on a commission painting.  Next I came home and made a 5 gallon bucket of laundry detergent.

 

Stick a fork in me.

I'm done.

 

Don't forget about my online beginning painting course.

You will learn:

Color mixing,

Color wheels,

brush strokes,

composition,

perspective,

how to practice,

what paint and brushes to buy,

Supports,

and then step by step instructions to complete two paintings. 

 

You can learn to paint anytime, day or night, even in your jammies.

 

Click HERE to check out this course. 

 

I Can Do Hard Things

I Can Do Hard Things!

This was my gift to my grand daughter for graduation.

She has belonged to a home school theatre club, Center Stage Productions

 for several years and has been in a number of plays.

 I had a lot of memorabilia from the productions.

In January I had this crazy idea to make a collage of the memorabilia

and paint her as the White Witch from Narnia on top of it all.

However, I had no idea how to do it,

so I called in the experts.

My online friends who have encouraged me along the way.

Barb Pask, a fellow Mason, OH graduate helped me with the collage part.

I didn't know how to afix the "stuff" to the canvas or how to paint over it.

But Barb did and shared that info with me.

Thanks Barb.

Meredith Adler gave me some pointers on getting the painting to look more like Kelsie.  Thanks Meredith.  Your encouragement always means a lot.

Terri Buchholz also told me some reference books I might look at.  Thanks for the help even though I don't think you knew how you were helping me.

I drew 7 or so versions of her,

but only one of them even resembled her.

I painted her 6 times on panels, paper, and anything I could.

One was so horrible, I threw it away, and I never do that.

I got away from it for several weeks while I worked on her dad's campaign

and when I got home, I went to my studio and said,

"I'm putting it on the collage and if I screw it up, I screw it up".

In an hour and a half I had her face on the collage,

and,

it looked like her.

 

   I knew I could get the hair on with no problem,

as that was the easiest part of the painting every time I did it.

In the close up, you can see the items under neath the painting.

I really wanted some of that to show through.

Here's the reference photo I used.  

That's quite the wig, huh?

Anyway, she was thrilled with it,

which made me feel pretty good.

There were a few weeks, that I really didn't know if I could get it completed or not.

But, I did.

Hardest thing I've ever done,

So Far.

Artful Campaigning

Artful Campaigning

My Son In Law, Eric Stewart is running for Family Court Judge

in Logan County, Ohio.

I am up at their home in Bellefontaine, OH working on the campaign for a few days.

(it's pronounced Bell - fountain).

Any way

today on the campaign trail,

I drove my 14 year old grandson around out in the county

as he knocked on doors campaigning for his father.

Isn't he just the cutest???

He has helped organize the routes of 36 precincts

with all the people who regularly vote in the primaries.

He has gone out every day to spread candidate love,

and flyers and signs everywhere,

after he has done early morning seminary,

practiced the piano and

done all his homeschool work

every day for weeks.

What we learned along the road today was everyone,

OK most everyone

has an artistic bone in them somewhere.

We were out in the county, not in a city or a town,

but out in corn and cattle country,

and we saw some really cute things people decorate their yards and homes with

to make it their own.

This super cute piece was made by a little old pipe smoking man out of tree bark and other scraps.

When I asked him if I could take a picture of it,

he wanted to show me the real animals he had in his little barn.

He had two little donkeys and one of them made quite the fuss when

we were introduced.

The gentleman was quite the character

but looking at his very neat little home and not a thing out of place barn,

you wouldn't know he had much of a sense of humor

until your eye caught this.

He had it outside on a wall of his garage.

The only decoration I could see,

but isn't it adorable.

 I don't know the story behind this little gem,

but it was too cute not to photograph.

This guy said his yard was a work in progress,

but let us add to it by putting a sign in his tastefully decorated front yard.

You can see the vibrant color of this log cabin barn quilt on this huge grain farm.

The world can never have too many guard dog gargoyles.

Industrial Yard Art.

I told you this was corn and cattle country, right?

Another success story,

as Caleb places another sign in this front yard.

Here's candidate Eric Stewart,

Future Logan County Family Court Judge.

It's late,

we're all tired,

but we've had a great day of campaigning

in the heartland. 

Thanks for checking in with us today.

 

Jammy Art

 

Karter and his horse

We were in our jammies in my studio painting a week or two ago when Karter and Lakyn stayed with us.

I drew the horse on Karter's paper and a butterfly on Lakyn's paper.

They did most of the painting.  I helped a little on each one, but very little.

Karter is 5 and loves horses.

Pin It

  

Lakyn is 3 and she painted this butter fly herself.

I helped a little bit on the body, but she the wings all by herself

Lets hear a little applause for their super duper great wonderful paintings.