Warm-ups to kick Artist's Block

This is a "wire drawing" of an eye, done while I was up at the North Shore, relaxing.  Whenever I have art blocks, I have 3 or 4 tricks to get myself back into the mood.  One of these involves sketching anything with a pencil.  Then I use an ultrafine marker to connect all the lines, and finally, I add thicker lines with a fine marker.  Before you know it, an hour has passed, and now you'll be ready to paint the moon!  Another trick is to paint color studies, using only 3 colors, and starting with only 4 shapes.This color study started with a blue square surrounded by yellow.  In the middle of the blue square was a yellow olive shape with a red center.  Do you see them? I used manganese blue, cadmium yellow, and red rose deep.  At the very end, I allowed myself a mixture of alizarin crimson and winsor green for the black colors. Now you have 2 tricks to keep that mean old artist's block at bay!  Good luck!

Wire Drawings with my family

Karen's drawing

Janine's drawing

Nancy's drawing

I just returned from a trip to Spearfish, SD to visit my parents.  My sister, Nancy, and niece, Janine, were also there visiting.  One evening, I taught them how to do a wire drawing of a sewing machine.  The plan is for Nancy to use one of the drawings for her new business card.  Her business is Functional Art.  Check it out!  Great texture art for the home! To do a wire drawing, you must scribble, then do a contour drawing, and then link all the pieces.  Kind of hard to explain without a visual.  Someday I may do a video on it.  Sorry I haven't posted for awhile.  I'll catch up in the coming days, OK?  It's been a very busy spell for me!

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!