First Painting of the New Year

I started this painting in December, but it's finally finished! The original intention was to come up with something that would go with my living room decor (I'm really enjoying green apple and terracotta orange together) but now it may serve a new purpose. I work at a store on the east side of Milwaukee, and we're putting together a silent art auction. All the money will go to charity, and the art will be on display for about a month. The problem is, the art I wanted to donate is nowhere to be found. I blame my hasty moves from one apartment to the next. Somewhere along the way I lost two pieces of artwork. In any case, this new painting may be coming up for auction at our local store soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

Halloween Project

This Halloween I dressed as the IRMA (Inventory Replenishment Merchandising Application) icon at work. Yes, I am a nerd. No, I don't have a picture of the full costume or the icon it was based on, but I do have the glasses!

I cut out the shape of the glasses I needed out of purple craft paper. Then I discovered that the eye holes were too big, and my real glasses were showing through. I added another layer of paper inside the first so I wouldn't have to start over, and I think the result is more interesting. The dots on either side are made from glue and glitter, and in the center you can see where I had to cut the glasses apart and reposition them. More than a few people at work asked me if they were real. I call that a success!

Fabric Flower Painting: Step 6

I'm finally done!

I was so excited I couldn't even wait for the glue to dry before snapping a picture. I think this is the first project I've actually finished in a long time.

Fabric Flower Painting: Step 5

It's been a while since I last worked on this project. Mostly I've just had trouble staying motivated. I feel guilty about not finishing it in time for Christmas of 2011, and now it's March and still unfinished. So today I finally dusted off my art supplies and got to work.

In step 5 I've added a layer of ochre over the background. I got a set of six shades of ochre as a gift from my sister a few years ago, and when I combine it with clear acrylic paste I get a nice golden shade of paint.

Valentine's Day

While we're waiting for inspiration to strike (in regards to the flower painting) I thought I would share another project on here. Tonight I spent at least 3 hours making a Valentine, and I snapped pictures along the way!

Fabric Flower Painting: Step 4

Step 4 was the long and tedious task of cutting and gluing each fabric piece in place. Let me just mention that having the shapes sketched out on the canvas was not helpful at all. The fabrics weren't sheer enough to lay them out and use the canvas as a template. What I ended up doing instead was guess, cut, check, cut some more, check, trim, check, glue. At least it worked!

Fabric Flower Painting: Step 3

Well, here is how the fabric trip went down. I took Sam (the painting's recipient) with me for support. We went to JoAnn's and headed straight for the remainder bolts.

We found one that we loved, but not much else to go with it, so we kept looking. Then, oh wow, we found a field of colors!

After about 20 minutes of waffling on color choices we ended up with a nice little collection for less than 8 dollars.