Dolls and Faces

I don't think I could have more fun with an assignment! The mini this week at Make Art That Sells is
to draw dolls and faces. This is my go to!! I do it all the time, my notebooks are just filled with them.
So I had a fantastic week with this.

I saw this doll at the local church sale last week, just begging to be painted!!

And these are real people that look like dolls!! My sister in yellow and my Mom in the 40"s from
an old black and white photo.

Back to Class

I'm back at Lilla Rogers Make Art that Sells class, round 2.
I did 5 weeks of part 1 earlier this year and now we have 5
more weeks. This week is the scrapbooking market. I honestly
didn't know anything about this besides seeing all of those
packages of doodads and papers in the craft aisle of Michaels.
It turns out that painting all of these little icons around a theme
and placing them on the page is right up my alley. I loved it.
The assignment was to paint/draw camera's and typewriters.
And then place them around a theme. The scrapbook companies
then take the icons and create all sorts of fun things to cut
and paste. So here is vintage travel and memories.
I love this class and totally recommend it. The group of artists
are amazing and we've formed a wonderful bond!

Painting

The last few weeks have been a bit distracting and unproductive for me.

My kitchen is being renovated so the house is upside down, I have to wash my 

dishes in the sink and I can never find what I need. I'm definitely not complaining,

I can't wait to have my new kitchen, that's at least a month down the road. 

I had a spell of migraines and now I'm on a raw diet as a liver cleanse.. It's working

too, I feel really good, but somehow changing your whole diet is disruptive to

the day as well. 

I have made lots of art regardless..I just haven't finished anything or felt the joy.

In Mati Rose's painting class we've been learning fun techniques and playing around.

But I can't get past the first few layers on each one. 

All fun but not finished.. 

Today I finally just went out, picked flowers from my garden and

went for it.. I had more fun with this than I have in weeks. 

Here are the progress shots on today's painting.

layer1

layer2

layer3

I'm not done but yay! I got somewhere today...The slump is over.

This painting is a little more literal than my goal, abstracting the flowers is next but I 

found some direction today.
This post is part of a link up with my fellow Make Art That Sells classmates.
Click here to visit them!

IF-Rescue

It's been a while since I participated in Illustration Friday. I'm just
squeaking it in at the last minute this week, I've missed the discipline
of it but I've been so busy this summer.
Here are some lush yet wilted garden flowers,
with the rain coming to the rescue.

Frittata. May Painting a Day 29

I made this last night, tons and tons of vegetables and egg. I will admit
that I like cooking, but only sometimes. Most of the meals I make are
quite simple, if it takes too long I lose my interest.  I would be so happy
to have an in house cook.... what a fantasy!

Tomato. May Painting a Day 28

I just took a few days off for the Memorial Day weekend. I spent
a lot of time working in the garden planting the herb garden and a
few planters. Cut back a whole bunch of overgrown trees and shrubs.
And then had my family over for a BBQ on Monday. I almost got too
relaxed and didn't paint again today but then this little can of
tomato paste appeared and that was it..along with this very out of season
tasteless tomato. I am looking forward to my heirloom tomatoes that
are growing in the garden now.

Zucchini/Mushrooms May Painting a Day 24

This month has been all about painting the food straight from life.
30 minutes, gouache, food. Once I established my technique for this
series it I decided to just stick with it for the whole month. Seven days
left to keep up the same type of imagery and then I'm
really ready to move on and be more magical and imaginary in my
paintings. Until then another week of food.

Eggs. May Painting a Day 23

The best eggs I've ever tasted are the ones my brother Ivan
cooks for his ramen. His new restaurant will open in NYC this
summer, IvanRamen, down on the lower east side. He already
has 2 shops in Tokyo that are out of this world, but now I don't
need to travel 13 hours to eat his food.
The eggs he cooks are the perfect texture and oh so beautiful.
I'm focusing on eggs here but everything he makes is so delicious.
Make it down there when he opens!

Bowl of Ramen from IvanRamen

Candy. May Painting a Day 22

Yesterdays almond butter was so BROWN...I really needed to be
colorful today, so I dug out the ancient leftover Halloween candy that
no one touches. I don't know why we don't just throw it away, it's sort
of sticky. The props here will go straight into the garbage can. If I'm
going to splurge on sweets it's going to be a big scoop of ice cream.

Almond Butter. May Painting a Day 21

A big giant spoonful of gooey almond butter. It's my favorite!
And on a green apple is so good too. This is the first one that
quite hard to keep from eating while I was painting it. I'm having
it now. Yum.

Water. May painting a Day 20

This is a 2nd go for Illustration Friday, liquid. My first is here. The blob
on the table is supposed to be a drip of water, This one was very difficult.
I love trying  though. I worked on making the whole thing liquidy looking
also.

Bagel. May Painting a Day 17

A big puffy everything bagel. I'm admitting here that sometimes
I go over the 30 minutes, basically because if I don't feel finished
it's really hard to just stop. This one I did just stop.
I don't eat bread so this was a bit torturous to have in front of me.
I guess that's what made it easier to say, "I'm done"

May Painting a Day 16. Sage

The sage in my garden is still there after the winter, very woody
and leggy with dried flower pods all over the top of them. I had
hung a branch of them to dry a few weeks ago so here is the live
plant and the dried one. I am submitting this one to Illustration
Friday too, for the word future. Maybe a bit of a stretch, maybe
more like before/after?

Pear. May Painting a Day 14

This one turned out to be so hard.. I spent WAY over
my 30 minutes because I never liked it and just kept
painting over and over. I finally had to stop so I wouldn't
just have mud. I did photograph this time which I will
post below. I think the earlier versions had some good
elements that I lost but that's ok.. I'm just
playing with these.

May Painting a Day 13. Sriracha Hot Sauce

I spent yesterday (Mother's Day) with my son, running errands,
getting him some new clothes for work this summer, getting  food
to fill up the refrigerator since it's much emptier when he's not here.
We didn't get home till late but then he cooked me dinner so I got
a little time to relax. I love spending time with him. This Sriracha
sauce gets used much more when he's home.

Scallions. May Painting a Day 11

I got these this morning from the farmers market,
They are so beautiful, (I'm talking about the real ones)
I've been doing these May paintings very small, 6x6"
It felt like a size I could accomplish in 30 minutes. But
this one demanded bigger paper. Its 9x12". When the
timer went off at 30 minutes I just couldn't stop, so this
took an hour. I added acrylics at the end and I just kept
layering it up until it looked right to me.

Red Pepper May Painting a Day 10

Tomorrow morning is the farmers market. I haven't been there
yet this spring so I'm really looking forward to it. I will look for
some interesting new veggies to paint. The thing I have been putting
off also is planting the garden. Need to get out there this
weekend and get it going... It's so hard to get everything done.
Sam is home from college for the summer. The house is messy
already but nice to see him.

Asparagus. May Painting a Day 9

I'm going to grill these tonight on my new grill. These actually
don't smell great raw.. so I'm glad it's just a 30 minute painting.
It's such a short time that I forget to take progress pictures but
I did take one at the very beginning.

Cupcake. May Painting a Day (8)

It feels good sometimes to take frustrations out in your art, I'll have
to paint a happier cupcake another day but for now this is what
I got... The last few days have been migraine days, I missed a good
friends birthday dinner last night because I just couldn't get out. It rained
hard all day but I was grateful for that since the garden was so dry.
Tomorrow will be better. I know it, My son is coming home from his
first year away at college. I'm looking forward to seeing him.

Blueberries. May Painting a Day.

The thing is I have a monster migraine today.. I've been so
much better, I'm working with a nutritionist and the food
changes have made a big difference and I'm 80% migraine
free now. (I actually, sadly have a food sensitivity to blueberries)
But sometimes I still get a whopper, I don't know
what causes them. Today I just made myself get up and
do my painting. Not feeling well helped me to simplify,
which is something I've been wanting to do. Today I had to
and I'm happy with the results.
I have to confess here that I did the lettering on a separate
piece of paper because I just wasn't confident enough to
paint it right on the art. That goes against my principle, since
one of the goals here is to not be precious about the piece
and whatever happens, is what it is. But today I feel
vulnerable. I'll add it in for real another day.
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