Christmas and NYE 2018

This holiday season was one of the best! I took off 3 days and because of how the holidays fell, I had 11 days off work in a row. It was glorious!
We spent a couple of days south with my family. I had a few days of lounging around at the house, then we had an epic NYE party, complete with photo booth, live music and door prizes! (we know how to throw a party! )


NYE at our house:

My bother played music all night, with this girlfriend singing. 

Finished a few fluid paintings over my 'staycation'.  

Started the #30daysofcreativepractice on the 1st. Below was the "layers" prompt day. I am exploring during this 30 day practice. trying new things; finding out what I like and what I don't like. Practicing lines and shapes and color combos. Honing in on my artistic style.  

it's been fun so far and such a learning experience! I'm on day 7 today! 

I hand painted and gold leafed ceramic ornaments this year for Christmas gifts. Everyone has loved them! I even gave a couple away as door prizes at our NYE party.  

Photo of us and the kids before Christmas service at The Crossing.  

Harrison, the girls and I at my cousins house on Christmas eve.  

This 24x18" oil painting (+cold wax) was finished over the holidays, as well. This is going to friends of mine. It's called Beneath the Surface. 

Whew! this post was a big 'catch-up'! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! 

Happy creating!

B

as of late....

I've been creating a lot of art this summer! I've also been creating quick videos to show you BTS into the process of my art journal pages.  You can view some here , here, and here.


Here are some of the journal pages I've created. Below is acrylic paint, pastels, collage in an 8x8 Dylusions journal.

This is a mini art journal spread. (TN cut in half). Acrylic paint and collage.

The below 11x14", fluid paintings are acrylic high flow on canvas. They have a protective gloss varnish and are for sale. I think all 3 of them look beautiful together! They are only $35/each. Or $75 for the triptych.  Please contact me for inquiries.

Here are a couple more journal spreads in my 8x8 Dylusions journal.  

 I've started a wood panel series with oil paints and cold wax medium. I've been wanting to learn these mediums and couldn't believe it when one of my fave artists/teachers, Jeanne Oliver, teaches us this very thing on last week's lesson in Wanderlust! I was so thrilled!
Here are my 8x8 wood panels with a layer of Venetian Plaster and starting to lay down the oil base color in blush.

2nd layers involved some white and titanium buff. Then, I pulled bits of those layers back to let my base color peek through. I also added some Indian Red pigment powder for some more design and texture. 

                           

There are a few more layers to go! I will share them over the next coming weeks. I need at least 2 days between layers for it to firm up/dry before adding more on top. Oil paints alone take weeks to dry. But, adding cold wax medium shortens the drying time; as well as adding a beautiful buttery texture and leaving a matte finish.  

With every layer, I lay down my leftover paint on oil paper (below).  Hoping this turns into a fun little piece to frame later.

During the downtime of drying, I've been working on my Concertina Sketchbook. Paris is the theme for the first 10 pages. I am using my Paris photos as inspiration. This is still a work in progress. I want to fill it with more fun sketches and shapes from Paris. I learned to do this from another one of my fave artists, Karen Stamper and her online Concertina Sketchbook course.

Lastly, I've got just a few more pages to finish of my 8.5x11" Storyline Europe Album. Here are a few sneak peeks. 

background above is a frottage technique I did on our very beautiful French hotel walls. 

I'll end this very arty blog post with some adorableness!! Our 2 rescue Golden Retrievers (7yr and 3yr old) have never seen a river, lake, pool, etc. (only the small rock pond at the dog park). My man and I like to be outdoors and so we thought it was a good time to 'test the waters'. (pun intended). We took them on their very first 5-hr float trip on the Huzzah River. 

They did so well! They did try to jump ship a couple of times at the beginning! But, not too long after... they trusted the raft. They also enjoyed playing and exploring on the shore, as well as swimming and fetching the tennis ball! 

By the last leg of the float trip, they were snuggled up together, napping in the sunshine. 

So proud of my girls!!

Goodbye 2017, hello 2018!

Hello all! I did my #bestnine over on IG the other day and I came to realize that I had a really eventful year! My boyfriend and I bought a house. I turned 40 and jumped out of a plane at 15k' over Vegas. I had some creative breakthroughs and we adopted a 6 yr old puppymill golden retriever.

2017, overall, was a very good and positive year for me. I let go of a lot of negative energy around me and set up boundaries in the process.

With that being said, I am really looking forward to 2018. There are so many things I want to accomplish. I want to have the most creative year to date! I am going to strive to create art on a regular basis. I know life is not going to always let this happen. But, I am hoping the week (s) that go by without creating art, other weeks will find me in the studio more than once! 

I am excited to share with you, that I will be in Wanderlust's 2018 online art class! I am so blessed that my mom gifted this to me for an early Christmas present! 

One of the benefits of "early bird" sign up, is access to some additional free videos. I had so much fun participating in Kasia's dynamic paper painting lesson! These fun papers will be used in future projects! (i.e. art journal pages, collages, etc)

Above are the various papers I started with and below are the middle and final stages of dynamic painting. 

Here are some juicy close ups. 

For the Wanderlust's year long journey, I will be creating in Dylusion's 8x8 Creative Journal. 

A couple of weeks ago (before I knew I'd be part of Wanderlust), I had ordered Dina Wakley's Media Journal. 

I am going to use this journal to play in, do challenges (outside of Wanderlust) and repeat some of my fave lessons from Wanderlust. 

I filled in the inner cover and first page this week. I participated in Dina Wakley's #showusyourMEdia challenge for December, called "HAPPY". 

The right wing flips up to reveal journaling: “my happy is being in my studio listening to Miles Davis. My style is chaotic like jazz. When I’m creating, I am totally lost on the moment and everything else falls away”

Here are most of the products I used on this spread.

What is making you happy these days? Please share below, I would love to know! 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!