thank you, very much...

I've decided (and been encouraged by someone) to be very diligent in writing thank you notes to my friends who support me financially. Not just an email, but an actual card. Which, I really like the idea. I hope I'm successful :-) My favorite part is designing them...

old 'stamping' ground...

Me and my sister, Courtney, were determined to go through our stuff that was in the family storage shed. It was a bit of a task but with the help of our mom, we cleaned out quite a bit of it. We found our old baby books, lots of old pictures, children's books, and my old stamp collection. When I had moved, I didn't know what to do with it so I told my mom to toss it. But she kept it, and I'm glad she did. I've started using them in some art projects. Don't worry - these are worth very much. May be about 30 cents each! :-)

I will be selling these on Etsy.com

The money will go toward my trip to India!

on my mind...

yep.

new medium?

So, i've got this big bunch of grey linen.

Earlier this year i decided that i wanted to paint on something different, for a change. I went to a local (new haven) vintage shop and looked at scrap fabric. I look through several different scraps including this gorgeous grey linen - although, it really wasn't a "scrap", it was more like a bundle. But since it was cheap and i was looking for some grey material, i bought it. I've used it a couple of times with acrylic paint...

and then, just mere days ago, I wondered what it would look like if i tried my watercolors on this beautiful grey linen. I loved it!! And since i really enjoy my 'lines', i used a some Sharpie :-) These are my first two, of many, maybe...

what happened?

Yeah, that's right. I'm a jerk. I said that i wanted to blog more, then i go for weeks without posting. Well, i'm not making excuses but i want you to know what happened. Ok, for about a week, i was just lazy. I didn't post because i didn't want to. Then i woke up one morning and thought, I'm gonna blog today. Wouldn't you know, that would be the day we lost the internet at our house. We were switching over to a new provider or something and we had to wait for our new router (or something) to come in the mail. So that was a few days. Then as soon as we got our internet up and running, I took a trip to Kansas City with my friend, Rita, to visit my sister, Courtney (a.k.a. Nourtney). And I just got back yesterday. So here's a short little blog post, let's call it a "bloglet"...

my told my sister-in-law, Sarah, that I would paint her anything for her birthday - her choice :-) she wanted something to go in their kitchen and she found a vintage advert for orange juice. here's the finished product...

imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? the original poster

oh baby!

I've had the privilege of creating paintings for some of my friends nurseries. Some of them have been gifts, but some were commissioned (and bought) by the baby's mom :-) I like being able to give my paintings away as gifts, but it's an honor to be requested to paint - and a little scary! I've had 2 friends now, that have requested a picture for their nurseries and just gave me the colors and told me that they trusted me. I'm always a little nervous at first but once I get an idea, I start to get excited! Plus there's something fun about painting for kids/babies. One of my biggest influences is Mary Blair, and a lot of her art was for children's books, cartoons (Disney), and advertising for products for kids. Always very whimsical and fun. As I'm trying to figure out exactly what I'm to do with this gift of painting, I'm enjoying being able to use it to brighten up some baby rooms - maybe that's it :-) Feel free to contact me if you know of some more nurseries! Anyhoo, here's Evy Rankin's painting...

since i have some time on my hands...

I've been back from Switzerland for a little over 2 weeks now - wow, it seems longer than that - and i've been painting a little. Here's my two latest works...

this was inspired by Alphonse Mucha's art...

i'm not sure what inspired this but i always love using a little henna design...

where do i come up with them?!?

here's my latest...

the "never, ever" is in reference to Alice in Wonderland where they sing "and i never, ever, ever do a thing about the weather, for the weather never, ever does a thing for me..."

these two were inspired by the oven in the old Dick Van Dyke show :-)

vintage, sweet vintage...

this is me. i like old stuff. i like stuff from the 40's, 50's and 60's - particularly. i have vintage clothes. i have vintage home decor. my favorite movies are old and in black & white. so naturally, when i paint, it (usually) has a vintage vibe. this is what i did this past week...

good grief...

i know, i know. I haven't posted in a while. I'm sorry. Most of my May was full of working, packing, or hanging-out with friends. I didn't actually paint much of anything. But now I'm in texas and i have some time to paint... and my sister, Courtney was getting on my case about not posting...

playing catch-up...

so, i've actually been fairly creative lately. Though, i haven't taken the time to post any pictures. Please forgive!...

this is a picture i painted a while back, but i finally framed it. it's very pink...

my new favorite thing to do is cover a canvas with material and paint on it. i like how this one turned out - maybe i'll keep it...

this was for my friends, Courtney and Joshua. this was his dad's silverware as a kid...

i found this old radio at goodwill. it has a handle so immediately i thought, "purse" or some sort of container...

so i ripped out the guts (not as easy as it sounds) and i covered it with this beautiful material. i think it turned out nice...

busy bee...

I did both of these today. my current favorite thing to do is use vintage material for my backgrounds. I covered this canvas with my new handy-dandy upholstery stapler (which is awesome! why didn't i buy one sooner?). Then i just painted on top...

this one makes me think of mom...

these are a few of my favorite things...

my friends, Rachelle and David, asked me to paint something for their new baby's room. i was excited because a lot of my paintings end up being child-like and whimsical. They already have the painting now, but I thought i would share it with you...

that's their dog, Jake :-)

my go-to subject...

Trees. I love them. I like to paint them. And i've painted a few! This is a canvas i covered with material then painted...

before and after... well, just after...

So, i've started following this great blog called, Design *Sponge. If you're curious: http://www.designspongeonline.com/ I love it! Every time i check it out, i get inspired! I especially like the 'before & afters'. The last few times i've gone to Goodwill or the Sally Army, i've been looking for a "b&a" project of my own. Nothing too big, but something fun. So yesterday, Ricci and i went to Goodwill and i found a cheesy little picture in a plain-jane wood frame. UNFORTUNATELY, i forgot to take a 'before' picture... but here's the end product...

thinking of africa maybe?

here's a little something i painted today. i'm not sure if it's finished...

Urban inspiration...

For the past week, i've been wanting to paint but i wasn't quite "inspired". I had a few ideas but i was left unimpressed. But yesterday, my friend, Ricci and i were running some errands and she had to return some shoes at Urban Outfitters. While she was deciding how to spend her store credit, i found an Alice In Wonderland book illustrated by one of my favorite artist, Mary Blair. And it was on SALE!! :-) So, while Ricci was in the dressing room, I sat down to look through my new book and guess what... i got inspired...

look mom! no brushes...

... sort of. Yesterday, all day long, i wanted to be creative. I tried to get inspired by looking on the internet, going thru some of my books, going for a walk. But no dice. I finally saw some colors on a blog that i wanted to play around with, so i pulled out the paints. I decided that i wanted a lot of texture so i would use my palette knife for fun. (I did actually use a brush for the tree truck) Here's the result:

isn't it romantic...

my latest painting... oddly enough, i painted it on valentine's day. it's a little more lovely-dovey than most of my stuff. but i was inspired while i was watching an old Jean Harlow movie, Platinum Blonde.

sorry that it's a little on the blurry side...

how do you spell that, stuart or stewart?

i was feeling a little playful and was inspired by the artwork of Stuart Davis and Robert Stewart...