Crazy Lady Paintings

"Sending you a Big Hug"

This is one of my latest crazy lady paintings. If you look closely, along her neck there's a message. It probably looks like hair at first, right?  :)   I just finished teaching a 2 day workshop in Watertown, SD at Jennifer Stone's beautiful new studio.  What a great time we had!  So many laughs and new friendships were made!  I had 19 students, and they all did a fabulous job at creating very imaginative crazy ladies of their own!  Below is a collage of their paintings.  (Remember, I made this on www.PicMonkey.com)  It's a great site to make collection photos. 

Healthy Eating

I will be out of town for the next week, without access to my computer, so I wanted to post a new favorite recipe for all of you who want to eat more healthy, plus it is gluten free!  It's easy to make and really good!

Cauliflower Crusted Pizza

Nonstick spray

2 ½ cups cauliflower, grated

(about ½ of a large head)

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

¼ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

 salt and pepper

½ cup tomato sauce

1 cup (about 20) grape tomatoes,

sliced in half

2 cloves garlic, sliced (2 teaspoons minced)

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Italian seasoning

5 slices bacon, (lightly fried and cut up into small pieces)

Fresh basil leaves

Directions:

1.      Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 425degrees.

2.      Grate the cauliflower using a box grater until you have 2 cups of cauliflower crumbles.  Place in a large bow and microwave for 7 – 8 minutes, or until soft.  Remove for the microwave and let cool.

3.      Mix in the egg, one cup mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper.  Once combined, pat into a 10 inch round on the prepared pizza pan.  Spray lightly with nonstick spray and bake for about 15 – 20 minutes, till edges look light brown.

Top the pizza with the sauce, ¼ cup mozzarella, Italian seasoning, garlic, red pepper flakes, tomatoes, and bacon.  Bake in the oven until melted and bubbly, another 10 minutes.  Top with basil before serving.  Cool 5 minutes before serving.

*This recipe is a revised version from the www.fitsugar.com website.

The value of a Design Sketch

"Family Roots", Acrylic, $1500, Image:  21" x 29"

I started this painting in early February at Karlyn Holman's Paint-in.  Then, my teaching schedule got in the way, and it just sat unfinished for 2 months.  I knew that the deadline for Red River Watercolor Society Show was coming up, so I decided yesterday to tackle this painting.  I think it's really hard to pick up where I left off so long ago, don't you?  Anyway, I didn't even have the inspiration piece to look at, since I had given it to my friend, Jennifer, for her birthday.  It's 5" x 7" and is pictured below.

5 x 7 inspiration painting

I knew that I didn't like the design in the inspiration piece, but decided to keep painting, since I had a deadline looming over my head.  ( I liked the colors, but not the design.)  I would have been so wise to stop and do a simple 2 value design sketch.  The painting took me about 2 hours longer than it had to, due to me making corrections and wiping out with rubbing alcohol to reclaim my light pathway. Anyway, the good thing to come out of me flying by the seat of my pants, is that I really like the circular design of the finished painting, "Family Roots".  It's almost like the painting is swirling, directing the viewer's eye to the center of interest.  Still, I'm of the "old school" way of thinking, making a design plan before I start a painting.  Lesson learned!  I was up till 3:00 a.m. last night finishing this painting!

How many tomorrows will I waste?

"Fancy Pants", Acrylic and Collage, $295, image: 15" x 15"

This painting was so much fun to paint.  I painted with 2 friends and we tried to channel a new artist friend, Tonja Sell.  We met her at Karlyn Holman's Paint-in, and have so much respect for her talents, plus she's a really nice person to boot!  I tried to make this painting funky, but this girl just insisted on being pretty, so I decided to title it, "Fancy Pants".  The thing that was most fun was using colored pastel pencils on the face. Below you can see the close up view of the pencil marks. That's one thing that Tonja Sell does so well.  She scribbles lots and it sounds like a little chicken scratching in the dirt.  I grew to love that sound while I painted across the table from her at Karlyn's Paint-in.

So now you're wondering about the title of this post, right?  That is for my Healthy Eating Challenge Group.  I basically wasted this past week, doing little exercise, and going out to eat lots.  I made up this saying, "How many tomorrows will I waste, till I FINALLY REALIZE that TODAY is the DAY?!!"  Today, I feel focused and ready to take on the week.  One thing that I will do is to prepare meals ahead of time.  I tend to make bad choices when I just have to grab something on the run.  BTW, I haven't heard from any of you who are joining me in this challenge.  Am I all alone in this challenge?  Reporting in, I lost 1/2 pound last week, bringing me to a total of 2 pounds since I started on March 19th.  Please email me and tell me how you are doing, and whatever challenges you've had these past weeks.  We can share recipes too!  I've been watching Jaimie's 15 minute meals, and there's some really great healthy meals, and easy like I like them too!   We can cheer each other on! Have a great week, and we'll report back next Wednesday! Here's a writing that is so profound.  :) 

Make Small Commitments. Get Big Changes.

Excerpted from Rules of the Hunt

Taking Care of You

Drink plenty of water.
Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.
Eat more fruits and vegetables and eat less that is manufactured in processing plants.
Avoid eating food that is handed to you through a window.
Live the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy.
Play more games.
Read more books than you did last year.
Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
Sleep for 7 hours.
Take a 10-30 minute walk daily. And while you walk, smile.

Your Outlook

Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
Don't have negative thoughts of things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
Don't overdo. Keep your limits.
Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.
Dream more while you are awake.

Drawing Challenge, Days 23-30

Here's a recap of the past 8 days. ( I did 2 on Day 28)  The last row is my attempt at doing a self portrait.  Obviously, I still have a ways to go, because none of these look like me, but I think the last one on the right is getting a little closer.  This is my new challenge.  You will see lots more attempts of self portraits in the future.  Below is all 30 Days.

Darwing Challenge, Day 30

I can' t believe that this is the last day of our drawing challenge by Kathie George.  She asked us to do whatever we wished that would be a gift to her, so that she can make a collage of all of our paintings.  That ended up being one of my hardest challenges, because Kathie is a dear friend, and I wanted to do something great for her!  I looked around my studio and saw my Omi Da statue that I bought years ago, and feel like it brings me good vibes in my studio.  It was made by Vern, who I was told, is a member of the Ojibwa Indian tribe.  Everything on the sculpture has a hidden meaning.  I like to think that the clear ball that he is holding is our world and we are all responsible for protecting our earth and making it better for the next generation.  (This is my own made up story, but I like it!)  Anyway, there is leather, antler, bones, fur, clay, feathers, and a multitude of other textures on this sculpture. Even though the face of this being isn't beautiful, it has such a good spirit overall.  Even my husband really likes this sculpture, and he tends to like realistic artwork.   I wanted to do more shading, but tried to keep this to a simple drawing.  I want to thank Kathie George for hosting this challenge, and for giving such great direction and lessons along the way.  It's been such a fun month!  I really hate for it to end!   

Drawing Challenge, Day 29

Today's challenge was to draw something from a distance, where you put the subject shape within an imaginary square or rectangle and then draw the negative shapes that happen because of it.  I've always struggled with boat drawings, so I decided to draw Kathie George's reference, but I can honestly say that it was hard for me to see the detail in her photo, so I left it pretty plain.  What I do like is that my boat honestly looks like it is floating, unlike most of my other boat paintings where the boats look like they should have legs.  They never did appear to be floating.  So, I like this drawing for that reason and no other!

Drawing Challenge, Day 28

Today's assignment was to do a gestural drawing.  First we get the main shapes in (like circles, or squares) and then very quickly draw the subject.  I love this way of drawing, and I actually got the size correct and got the whole subject within the page!  Progress!  Kathie George asked us to draw with a pencil and to NOT erase.  I went by the rules. (Those who know me are raising their eyebrows right now, but truly, I did go by the rules. :)  Then afterwards, I used a permanent marker and followed the lines that I liked best.  This only took me about 15 minutes to do.  I also used Kathie's past lesson about extending your arm and measuring things with your thumb, that's how I got the inside of the cup to be the correct elliptical shape.  The rest of the cup was 2 1/2 times the width of the elliptical circle.  The sculpture was given to me by Joye Moon as a hostess gift when she stayed with me years ago.  I really treasure it!  Joye teaches workshops all over the country too.  Check out her website. Love her portraits!

Drawing Challenge, Day 27

These attempts of drawing a self portrait are in order from the top down. The first one was done on Day 26 of my blog.  I liked the shadows on it, but it didn't look like me at all.  So, attempt #2 was done on Day 27, but I truthfully wasn't feeling good, and was babysitting all day, so was out of steam.  I learned a valuable lesson about getting the shadows too dark.  There's no going back from that.  Also, someone told me that my first sketch didn't look like me, because I'm always smiling.  So I tried one with a smile. Wow, that was hard to draw teeth!  So, Attempt #3 as actually done on March 28th but I wanted to post them all together so that you could all see that I didn't give up!  I kept trying and learned from each experience.  On the third attempt, I did a gestural drawing, first by putting in circles, and rectangles to get the right shape.  Then I quickly sketched, looking at relationships between everything and even had a good hairdo to sketch!  :)  I don't think this looks totally like me yet, but it's getting closer.  Thanks for this challenge, Kathie George.  By the way, this collage was put together using the website, www.picmonkey.com  It's a great site!

Drawing Challenge, Day 26

Today's challenge was to draw some part of our body, so I picked my face, looking in the mirror as I did it.  I have a bad cold, so it's not the best time to be doing a self portrait, but I did it anyway.  I've been studying shadows lately, and have found Jan Kunz' book, Painting Watercolor Portraits that Glow, very helpful to remember to connect shadows.  Kathie George told us to do a contour drawing, not lifting our pencil, and that really helped to connect the shadows.  I don't think this looks anything like me, but I do like it as a portrait of someone. 
So, Today was Weigh In Day for those who joined my Healthy Eating Challenge.  How did you do? If you want to, you can report back to me privately OR you can just keep it to yourself.  I honestly ate my yogurt and coffee before remembering to weigh in, so I'll just go by the weight that I was 2 days ago, which was down 1.5 pounds from my starting weight.  I have a bad cold right now, and lately caught myself using that excuse for not exercising.  A couple of years ago, I took a Community Ed class about dieting.  The leader asked us all the reasons why we were there, and wrote them on the blackboard.  I thought to myself, "Finally, I'll get that answer to my problem!"  (My excuse was that I always gained weight on trips and with my teaching schedule picking up, that meant for a lot of roller coaster weigh ins.)  So, there were about 15 excuses, including winter weather, stress, having too much to do, cravings, etc.  The leader then erased all of the excuses and said, "No more excuses!  You either want to do this or you don't!!!!"  Wow, I never forgot that phrase!  So, what's it going to be, fearless group?  Are we done with excuses?  Do this:  Whatever your excuse was that came to mind, find an answer for it, and make this week better than last week.  I sit in front of the TV too much and tend to eat there.  So, this week, no more eating in front of the TV.  There, that excuse is history!!!  Have a great week! :)