New inspiration and new projects

I love going to museums and admiring some of my favorite artists and discovering new ones too! My goal for this year was to visit a different art exhibit every month and get inspired by different artist and interpret my favorite pieces in my own style just for fun. I don't know about you but every time I go to a museum I want to run home and paint or make something, so this idea was about actually holding myself accountable to do something with that excitement. Obviously it's the end of July, and I'm a little late in starting this series for the year but better late than never :)

I'll be honest, extreme stress affected my creativity and I lost my energy and passion for a while. I was definitely going through a dry spell and a creative block for months on end. If you go through this, I encourage you not to give up and keep drawing or doing your thing even if it's repetitive, boring, or what you think is not your best work. You never know what will come from a silly idea, random concept or mistake :)

I love going to the Kimbell Museum because they always have the best Impressionist exhibits which I love! The exhibit I saw was from the Phillips Collection, which including Monet, Degas, Van Gogh, and Bonnard just to name a few. I had never heard of Pierre Bonnard but I quickly fell for his dreamy brush strokes.

The Palm, Woman with Dog and The Open Window all by Bonnard

This orange Degas was stunning, I love the contrast of the background with light blue dancers 

I knew immediately I wanted to start my "Inspired by" project with this piece in mind.

Dancers at the Barre

I love bright colors so this was a no brainer. I added some bright coral to the original palette and I really love how Degas seemed to "sketch" with black paint the details of the body and I went a little crazy with the black accents but I'm ok with that :)

I kinda wanted to do a traditional medium but I started playing on my iPad instead. I really love procreate because the paintbrushes and other tools are so life-like in appearance. It's instant gratification without the mess and effort of actual paint and I'm all about getting started as soon as possible! 

closeup collage :P

What's your favorite type of art? Where do you get inspiration? Do you have a "go to" place? I love hearing about other people's interests and techniques :) 

Happy creating friends!!!

painting and day dreaming

Hi there, I have been meaning to do a new post for a while I just couldn't seem to get to it last week.
Lately I have been very busy and very sleepy and that has left me a little brain dead and uninspired.
But I did manage to hang out with my good friend a couple weeks ago, she always gets me inspired to do something.... I love her carefree spontaneity, she's willing to take on any craft, sewing project, and painting and the drop of a hat.....so we had an impromptu painting session the other night.
I was experimenting with watercolors and acrylics. I think I like the watercolor on the left side better probably because of the purple :)

I've also been sketching random creatures, this summer has been awesome for kids movies, and I think this pink monster was inspired by my recent viewing of Monsters University. I really love that the monsters franchise not only celebrates that it's good to be different but values differences especially when it comes to teamwork, a good lesson for kids to learn and adults to remember.

My family and I have been through some trying times lately and I've been thinking about how much I really don't like the saying "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade". I'm all for making the best of a bad situation it's just not my favorite. But it did get me thinking about what cute little creatures would look like running a lemonade stand of their own.

so cute and happy :)

Anyway, I'm trying to get my creative groove back and work on stuff daily so I hope to have more new stuff to share soon. What are you up to the as we near the end of summer?
Happy Tuesday to you!

Things that make me smile

I was inspired by post by Emily over at Cupcakes and Cashmere. It's a list of things to remember and laugh at when you are having a bad day. I sent to all my coworkers and they loved it so I thought I would do a post about the things that are making me smile these days.

Jason Mraz in his cat T-shirt

this pic was taken from his fb page

My striped colored zinnias have finally started blooming. I love their happy faces.

The steering wheel cover my sweet friend Jennifer made me. I love the awesome quirky and colorful bird fabric, it makes me smile every time I'm in my car. She's a pretty awesome seamstress.

So happy and colorful

A nice apple pie. It's been awhile since I have baked for myself and nothing makes me happy like apple pie warm from the oven.

Pretty colorful paintings. Like those by Carly Allen Martin. She was featured in our local Dallas paper, and although at first glance, it seems simplistic or chaotic in form. It has a soothing and engaging quality too. She has inspired me to start painting again :)

picture from carlymartin.com

What makes your day a little brighter this summer?

Cute and Clever

This has been a crazy busy week, but I managed to tweak my bunny painting. With a mouth without a mouth I went back and forth, then I decided a mouth completes the face :)

before sans mouth

And I added more texture because I love texture and color.

After

happy bunny

I've started painting another fuzzy friend but can't seem to get back to it lately, maybe over this long weekend I will.

Also I saw this commercial the other day and watched in awe of the clever cuteness of it. Love the creatures hands grabbing for oreos :)

Hope the rest of your week is amazing!

Weekend Wrap up

This week was pretty busy, crazy and difficult. You know when sometimes situations aren't so great and you're frustrated and then it gets incredibly worse, and you think to yourself, "Wow, I guess things were not so bad before." That's where I'm at this weekend, it's been a struggle to focus on the positives but I managed to stay productive.

 I watched a food documentary, Step Up to the Plate, about French chef Michel Bras passing his restaurant down to his son. The restaurant is in the French country side but it's a very modern building and so is their approach to food. I'm really interested in chef's techniques and the cinematography in this film is amazing. The country side is so beautiful and it's entertaining to hear their story and watch them create.

I started reading Mindy Kaling's book. Her show has become my new favorite on Tuesdays. If you are familiar with her at all and like her work, I think you would probably like this book, her language is a little more colorful than on tv, but her take on things is pretty hilarious.

I've been trying to get back into painting, I bought some smaller canvases, I thought maybe I could do a series.  Here's the first one :)

Since I am a bit of a computer nerd, I was pretty excited to experiment with the new pattern tool in Adobe Illustrator CS6, for anyone that does graphic work this tool is a game changer! Basically before you had to draw the pattern piece once or enough for a repeat them build the pattern and duplicate it, it's hard to get sprawling patterns to match up, but this handy tool does it for you.
This makes me so happy!!

 I see Spoonflower fabrics in my near future! Here's some patterns I've been playing with.
Happy birdies and flowers I'm kinda obsessed with gray and navy mixed with pastel colors.

Earlier this week, I attempted to make a key lime pie, I used the wrong kind of milk, sweeten condensed is what you need, I was quite dejected. I really wanted pie, so I decided to correct my mistake and try again, with farm fresh eggs, I plan to have some for breakfast YAY!

So yeah, things could be better, and sometimes I feel like wallowing but getting things done is so rewarding. I'm going to keep focusing on the positive and start baking and creating more often.
How was your weekend?

Top 5

Here's my top 5 things I'm excited about right now.

1. I got to take a painting class with my friends this past weekend, it was really great to hang out and do something different together, and it's always fun to see how everyone's painting will turn out. Everyone has their own style :)

2. I get pretty obsessed when I discover new music or a new song I really like. I am really into the band Ruth right now. They are upbeat, and experiment with genres, and their lyrics are endearing :)
AND I really love their covers EP. I love when people put their own spin on pop songs, with the exception of Christmas songs lol. No one should redo Wham's "Last Christmas" because the original is perfect but I digress ;)

3. Springtime and new plants. I have been looking at these succulents for a while and I finally got some at Home Depot the other day :) And I got some new seeds too! I love spreading seeds it's always a wonderful surprise to see what will come up.

Neon green = happiness

4.  Yes, I love children's movies, and this is the best trailer I have seen in a long time. Is it summer yet?

5. I also love my British comedies and I've become pretty avid fan of Doc Martin. He was a successful surgeon in London who becomes a GP in a sleepy little seaside town, where everybody and I mean, everybody knows each others' business. It didn't come on PBS this weekend and I was going through withdrawal, but Hulu saves the day! They have a ton of episodes and I got to catch up on the 1st season which I totally missed. I will admit at first I wasn't that impressed but it kinda sneaks up on you and once you get to know the characters it's completely hilarious :)

Hope you have a wonderful week, I'm going to try to be more disciplined this week and make more time for projects that have been swirling around in my head.

Food and Fun

I had a really great time hanging out with one of my friends Friday night, we love to go to fun places to eat and she is a fearless Dallas driver (I am not at all). So we went to the best pizza place in Dallas, Cane Rosso, the first time we went we got to sit in front of the oven and watch the delicious pizza bake which was awesome, but this time we got a regular table and separate pizzas, because I really wanted to savor the leftovers :)

The flavors are so fresh and amazing, it takes me back to my brief Italian memories. It is made according to Neapolitan standards, so you know it's good quality. They have amazing dessert pizza too, which I have never really been a fan until I tried their Bella Mena which is vanilla bean mascarpone with caramelized apples with a caramel drizzle...yep amazing.

Pizza Bliss

Then we went to my favorite pie place for dessert. To my surprise and delight they new seasonal pies for Valentine's Day, a strawberry, raspberry, rhubarb pie, a red velvet chess pie and last but not least good old key lime, which I had been craving for quite a while. My friend tried Lord of the Pies ala mode, and I had a little taste and it was freaking amazing, next time I'm getting that one :)

my friend with lord of the pies

I also went to a painting class and still need to finish my painting, a separate post on that later :)

Recently, I started thinking about baby owls, some of my friends are pregnant so I was thinking about making their kids a cute softie.

I was debating between closed or open eyes, and I went with closed eyes. I thought it would be fun to make the body and the wings contrast and I had to add a cute little bow of course.

I will have to add more stuffing and take better pictures this week :)

This weekend was jam packed with stuff I love to do: eat at awesome places, painting, and sewing. Usually only one of these things gets done so I'm glad I got to do so much and that doesn't even count the Superbowl. I've got big plans, for February and I'm going to set a calendar get focused and accomplishment some fun ideas. What have you got planned for Feb?

Painting and Fashion

Over the past couple of days, I have found various stories online that are all about painting, in one form or another.

The first is about company that paints ads on walls, I didn't even know large companies still used this form of advertising, I am pretty sure I do not have ads that are this cool in my city scape.




STORYBOARD: Wall Dogs of New York from Tumblr on Vimeo. Check out more here



Then I found this awesome recreation of Van Gogh portrait done with photography. Even if you don't like Van Gogh, you gotta admire this guy for interpreting a work of art in a new and clever way. You gotta watch the video not just look at the still. The photographer, Tadao Cern, has an interesting story. He was an architect and then decided he wanted to try something else. He takes wedding photos, and likes to do different experiments like the Van Gogh as well as portraits of people while they are having blasts of air blown in their faces. Think comically cartoon versions of what your face would look like if you fell at an alarming fast rate.



Revealing The Truth from Tadao Cern on Vimeo.

And finally, I was stunned(along with the rest of the world) to see Kate Middleton's first official Royal portrait. She's so pretty and vibrant, and the portrait does not capture that at all. I keep thinking couldn't someone see where this was going & said to the painter, thank you but we have to go in a different direction...... I hope she get's a better one sometime soon, but until then I thought I'd share some of my favorite outfits of hers thus far.

Alexander McQueen + Velvet = Awesome

Amazing in a red wrap dress by Beulah London

A flowing lavender dream also by McQueen

Not many people can pull off an intricate interwoven bodice, but she can.....beautifully. I was surprised this was a vintage dress,it looks so modern to me.

This one is one of my favorites I love the lace detail.
Pictures from here and there
Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

A Crafty Christmas

Yes, I am a week late but better late than never :)

  I did manage to do a couple of crafty things during my Christmas break. One was decorating the clay ornaments I had made a couple weeks ago.
Sharpies worked really well on the baked Sculpey clay. My mom even helped me with some.

a little owl, multicolored star and gingerbread girl

We also mustered up the courage to tackle our mini canvases which was really fun. I don't think they turned out how either of us imagined but I'm still happy with them. I've always loved painting.
We are wanting to take another painting with a twist class again soon.

Mini art: Abstract heart is mine and Abstract view of a tree is my Mom's

 

Our painting with a twist sunflowers

Also this was the first year I received presents from Etsy, it takes a little get used to but my Mom and I  have learned a lot from doing things with my shop. I was like a kid in a candy store, it was so cool to see the way everyone packaged everything and actually have the items in hand to see the awesome craftsmanship up close.

Me and my Katie Daisy Print

I also got a print from Nan Lawson, I'm not normally a huge cat fan, but this little guy just makes me
smile.

sucha cutie

I have always been interested in ceramics, a few years ago I was lucky enough to take a hand building ceramics class and became even more enamored with the artistry of it. One etsy artist in particular has intrigued me for a few years. Now I can say I own one of her awesome pieces!

I love porcelian

As I mentioned in the last post I also got this awesome Mindy Lacefield print. Color makes me so happy and so does her mixed media art.

Did you get anything handmade for Christmas? I'd love to hear about it :)

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

I am a very visual person, I very much enjoy videos. Luckily I go to a church who also enjoys a good video now and then and today I got to see two really great ones that I can't wait to share.

 This first one is so awesome! It's a time lapse painting. It's just amazing all the planning and practicing that went into the process of this. Anyway I think it's pretty cool.

This second one is from a Charles Spurgeon sermon. I love how eloquently people could express themselves back then. It really makes me want to expand my vocabulary.
This video is an excerpt from his Christmas Eve sermon in 1854. I like how it goes from rough sketch to full color.

And on a more silly note, one of my favorite Christmas movies, is Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.
I love his elf pal, the misfit toys, and the abominable snowman. I was so excited when I saw this hilarious new commercial featuring some of the cute cast....speed dating no less!

 Ok I hope you are feeling more into the Christmas spirit now, and are spending time with loved ones and friends :)
I hope to post a new Top 5 of various things soon. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays :)