"Les trois derrière”

My daughter and I had a fantastic time on vacation in Quebec City and Montreal.  We laughed a lot, ate a lot, climbed a zillion staircases, and slept a lot. We both enjoyed keeping track of our daily activities in the travel journals I made for us.

Inspiration is everywhere.  I took many photographs, of course.  The weather was perfect for outside dining.  We took full advantage of that in both cities' many cafes and restaurants.  

The inspiration for my 9x12 mixed media painting on wood panel

My interpretation:

Just having fun with it!!

the background in acrylic paints

Oil paints to complete the composition

Voila!

Cherry Blossom Time

My dear granddaughter, Samantha, is a traveling surgical assistant.  She's currently working in Olympia, WA.  She's keeping me updated with photos of her weekend adventures.

I absolutely love this photo of Samantha.  

I simply had to paint the scene!  6x8 canvas board (acrylics)

Her favorite color is purple so naturally, I chose to paint her jacket accordingly.

Finding/Making time to be creative

A couple of weeks ago, my husband came with me to do some grocery shopping.  We always have fresh flowers on our kitchen table.  It was his "job" to select some flowers.  He chose combo of red and yellow roses - perfect!

I used them as inspiration for a little 6x8 painting (acrylic)       

my photograph

Heavily textured gesso on canvas board.  Using only a single brush, first pass with color

Added dimension to the flowers using Liquitex Heavy Body acrylics smeared on with miniature spatula

                                          

The Slouch...

I saw myself in the mirror the other day and noticed I was slouching. (That'll NEVER do!!) thus the inspiration for this piece...

 just beginning to work on her...

Dolls, dolls and more dolls...

I love making dolls.  Working with paper clay is one of the materials I use and is the base for these two little sweet things.

This is my first effort making dolls in this fashion (notching out a space for legs and attaching with wire).  It was a learning experience for sure!  My holes on the crotch area and legs didn't match up as well as they should; unintended holes made with the wire trying to attach the limbs - it was a bit frustrating...

Hat and Crown made from assorted papers.  (Don't even ask how many tries it took before the tricorner hat fit!)  These dolls are quite small - measuring approximately 5" tall.

I had the honor recently of being published in Art Doll Quarterly.  

Linking to:

Inspire Me Monday

Sweet Shot Tuesday
Tuesday Muse
Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday Bloggers
Wordless Wednesday

Katherine's Corner

Creative Crafts Thursday

Favorite Photo Friday
Happy Friday Blog Hop
Weekly Top Shot

Ordinary Things

Sometimes I find it hard to find something to photograph.  I know that's silly.  I live in a beautiful part of the country and yet...I decided to take some pictures of ordinary things in my kitchen.

My collection of decorative teapots sits on the kitchen counter.  The texture was masked over the foreground teapot.

Handy utensils - texture over entire photo.

"Brown Rice Paper" texture courtesy of Pixel Dust Photo Art.

Inspire Me Fridays

Photo Art Fridays
Friday My Town Shoot Out
Favorite Photo Friday
Weekly Top Shot
Your Sunday Best
Photo Show Off
SundaySnapshot

Landscape Pillow

Quite a few years ago,  I had a chair covered with my needlepoint.  This chair needed a pillow - don't they all?!  A couple of vacation photos inspired the design of the pillow.

  

Sketches were drawn combining pleasing elements from both photos.

The pillow is made of hand painted silk dupioni.  Several layers of silk organza stitched in place represent the mountains.  Dark green silk dupioni stitched over top represents the trees.  The topmost layer consists of light green silk dupioni (flower stems), raspberry silk dupioni and ultra suede (flowers).

Narrow piping made of lilac silk dupioni adds a finishing touch to the pillow.

I prefer an eclectic style of decorating.  The landscape pillow looks happy in its new home.

Gone To Shell in a Hand Basket

I found some great shells on the beach this morning!

What a Difference a Week Makes!

It's hard to believe a whole week has gone by since my first Pink Saturday blog entry.  We've had a cold winter here in Naples, FL.  The flowers in our yard have been slow to grow.  From my studio window,  I  noticed the amaryllis had shot up and I thought it would be interesting to take a picture each day and watch their progress.

 Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

WOW, I wish I could accomplish that much in my studio in one week!

Sunday Morning Beach Walk

I took my usual Sunday beach walk this morning. I cannot imagine a better way to start out my birthday!!

This strange creature intrigued me. I think it's a jelly fish. The color and texture is very interesting, don't you think?

This buoy washed up to shore.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, I presume...that ages me for sure!

The wood grain on the breakers is fabulous.

It was a windy, chilly morning.