Roses are blooming

Yes I have been painting just not posting! This is a painting I did using goache and black ink. I first drew my composition on watercolor paper. Then I painted with white goache or you can use tempera paint, in the areas I wanted to keep white. When this was completely dry I painted black ink over the entire painting. This I let dry overnight. Then I wet the paper and scrubbed what I could, of the ink off the white areas. I think it gave the painting a vintage look. I chose to paint the one rose red. I don't know if I am finished with this painting yet.

Merry Christmas

The photo above was from when my son played at a concert called Tuba Christmas. They played Christmas tunes with the tuba and euphonium. My son got cut out of the picture when I downloaded it onto my blog! It was freezing cold out but it was fun to hear him play since he plays at a college a few hours away we don't get to hear him play much. Happy Holiday!

Julie and Julia

I put the movie "Julie and Julia" on while I was drawing this afternoon. It reminded me that watching the character Julie write her blog is what inspired me to start mine. Julie worked full-time while she cooked her way through Julia Child's cookbook. OK she has a few meltdowns along the way but she stuck with it.

I am officially abandoning my card a day project. I just can't keep up with it. But I am planning on posting more photos of the paintings I am working on and posting finished pieces too. I can get a little overwhelmed with life and all of its details but I can't stop painting! I may not be the worlds greatest painter but I don't feel like me, if I don't paint. So stick with what you love and you will live a more fulfilled life.

Work Stoppage

I lost an Aunt last week and this week my mother-in-law passed away. All artwork has come to a stop for now. I will try to get back into the swing of things soon. Hope someone still reads this.

Our Town

I had a painting accepted into the "Our Town" show which is at the Community House in Birmingham Michigan. It is the first time I have had a piece accepted into that show so I thought it was very exciting! The opening, which tickets are $75 and up, is a fundraiser for the Community House. They served cocktails, very nice hors d'oeuvres and desserts. I included a photo of my painting, which is a watercolor named "Under the Table".

Artprize continued

Another piece that stood out to me was "Invasion" by Lisa March. It is about the carp invading the Great Lakes. Carp are a very invasive fish once the get into waters and there have been controversial measures taken to try and get rid of them. Her piece of art is carp that are made of wire and paper machet (I think). The carp are very life like with expressive faces. They appear to be swimming at you.

In "Dream Collector" by Heather Holloman the artist had 378 jars displayed on 6 wooden bookshelves. People could walk in between the shelves to look at the jars. In the jars were dreams. She had recorded mostly childrens dreams, wrote them down on cards , put items in the jars to represent those dreams and suspended them in water. It was interesting to read the dream cards and to see how she represented them.

More on Artprize

We went back to Grand Rapids to see more of Artprize on Sunday. If you don't know anything about Artprize it is an art competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan which runs from September 22-October 10. Art is hung in 192 venues including outdoor spaces. Paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, video all are available for viewing. The top prize winners are picked not by a juror but by the public. The top prizes total $450,000 which is an unheard of amount!

We parked near the Grand Rapids Public Museum in a parking structure. The Museum holds 72 pieces of art. I can't say I remember all of the pieces titles or the artists names but I can tell you what stood out to me. Many of the artists were on site and answered peoples questions.

On the way to the museum we walked past several large sculptures. One that stood out to me was a deconstructed car that looked like it was sinking. I thought the artist was making a statement about the sinking auto industry in Detroit. That is my first photo.

Other pieces that I loved was "Reminisence" by Jennifer Surine. Her piece was made from sterling silver shaped in loops and twirls and hung from fishing line. It was ethereal looking. It reminded me of jewelery or small wire chandeliers. The artists said it took her 17 hours to hang.

The second photo is the painting "Uprising of Sausages and hot dogs" by Sergery Tyukanov. Apologies if I spelled that wrong. It reminds me of Bruegel paintings where the streets are crowded with people drinking and dancing in the Medieval times. The artists said the painting is about our civilization that is constantly consuming.

I will continue on Artprize in my next post.