My Baker

My sister bought this baker at a flea market in Florida, we share it, I have Bunco coming up and plan to use it for that. I managed to find these really cool chalk markers at Joanns, Bistro Markers, they are great. They are bright and beautiful and remind me of some of the cool restaurants we used to visit in Vermont.

Wine glasses

I made these glasses based on what I saw on Pinterest, what they had was very basic, and me being  I embellished, it was very fun at our party, I have better ideas, keep checking in, you will be the first to know.

Winter Garden Bloom and Grow

I was hired by Bloom and Grow, a gardening society here in Florida, to make crafts with kids. These are the crafts I choose, thank you Pinterest for the ideas. The first one was spool people which I did with scrapbook paper instead of fabric, the least popular. They loved the angry birds, that was the hardest due to the messiness of the glue. The butterflies were the best choice,  the kids could paint the wings, which are wooden spoons, spray painted with white paint. The kids any age would decorate them with markers, then I would push the wings up in the pin part of the clothes pin, we ran out of these. Pipe cleaners were a great choice for the antennas, and beads topped them off. Fun day, fun crafts, the kids seemed to like it and I have several parents thanking me for the nice crafts.

Disney/Florida

We live about 20 minutes from Disney/Florida, we went to the Contemporary Resort, California Grill, tonight to have dinner and saw these, I think I have a new thing for terrariums, it has been around since i discovered Pinterest a couple of months ago....I am not sure what draws me in with these, but something  does.

My painted table

I had this table from my mom, I always loved the shapes and wanted to paint it. So this is what I did, first I primed it and then added stripes to  match the pillows in the guest room, and the rest was just great fun playing with patterns. I really love painting furniture.

Decembers Thats silly

Here is the latest Thats Silly for Highlights/ High Five magazine.

I was really happy working on it and loved the way it printed.

That time of year....

Its that time of year again, this time caught me a bit by surprise, before I knew it, November is here and Jingle Bulbs is up and running.
For those who dont know, I have been painting and selling handpainted ornaments for many years. It is a fun diversion for me from the illustration work, I love hearing from my customers every year.
I feel honored that they let my artwork become a part of their Christmas. Here is a sample.

Pumpkin mummies

I got this idea from Martha Stewarts Living magazine, her pumpkins were oblong,  I couldnt find that shape so this is what I could find here in Florida, little ones. She suggested using crepe paper, my very smart husband suggested using ace bandages that stuck to each other, that worked really well. They do look a bit like terrorists, but they are supposed to be mummys, I like them they are cute... Happy Halloween.

Halloween Ghouls

Halloween Ghouls.... I needed something for the my Halloween Bunco party. I needed to have a way to mark the tables. I saw something interesting in a shop in SanFrancisco so I thought I would do my version.
But with no room left in my luggage I decided to make my own.  I really enjoyed painting them. Happy Halloween!

Portfolio's at Highlights

Recently I had the opportunity to visit the Highlights Company for the Illustrators weekend. I always enjoyed seeing how other illustrators present their artwork so here are a few of my favorites.

This first portfolio is of Laura Jacobsen's work. What I really liked about this aside from her wonderful work was the clever presentation, I like that these pieces can be taken out individually. Also the paper she matted the art on had her artwork printed on it, which really tied it all together. The box itself was imprinted with her logo which you could see above.

I thought this was a really fun way of presenting promotional pieces. Mike Dammer did this art and I thought the whole package really worked well together.

Here is another very great way of getting some attention for your work. Terry Taylor is a 3D artist and she had this 3D presentation. The photo isn't the best but the art was beautiful and really fun to look at. 

Another artist that I have watched for many years is Judith Moffatt, her work is cut paper, and beautiful.

She sells her art on Etsy, I was lucky enough to have 2 pieces of her wonderful art, she was a hit at the highlights party. Her costumes with her husband Bill are wonderful, always fun to see what they have come up with.  

Another artist that I had the pleasure of getting to know is Sherry Neidigh, she has been creating these amazing signs for Trader Joes. Now next time I am near a Trader Joes I will have to stop in.

First all digital art...

After a seven hour plane ride, listening to the Kardashians on plane tv, I was able to try out my Ipad for drawing, using my pogo stylus is like drawing with a Q tip, but I put all the details in with Photoshop once I got home. It was fun and on the next plane ride this Friday I plan to explore more. I love my Ipad....  

Mermaid Box

It is very hot down here in Florida...which leads me to the Mermaid Box that I painted a while ago.
I had this box in my studio forever so I decided to paint something on it for the guest bathroom to put toothbrushes, etc in,
So here it is....in progress...

 

Yummy, more digital

 

Another day another illustration with Photoshop, thanks Will Terry and my friends at PBA. 

It seems that the more I do this the more I learn, the less I know, thanks so much for "history".

Digital Painting

My first real attempt at digital illustration, I like the freedom to be able to play around with colors, I dont like that I cant seem to retain the details that I would like once I flattened it down, so off to Lynda.com for alot more training. All In all it was a good learning experience, hopefully the first of many more. 

Thats Silly

This May my artwork is in High Five Magazine. I love doing work for the Highlights company, they are wonderful to work for. I was very happy with the printing also. On Easter it was fun to sit down with my  4 years old friend Sienna, she loved Thats Silly.

Painting on Rocks Update

It doesnt look busy now, but it was, at least 500 kids past though our painting on rocks. This is Emily my wonderful daughter that helped me out, whew, I learned many lessons. The first one being kids especially little kids are very happy painting anything, rocks included. The second one is next time bring a tablecloth. I guess the last thing is people in general are very nice and forgiving, one parent was upset that I used acrylics that wont come off his shirt, until I explained if I used temperas they may not come off his car seats. One big learning curve, we had a wonderful day all in all. Came home played scrabble, she beat me, for the second time, a great day. Time to bone up on my scrabble....  

Pba Spring Art

The Picture Book Artists Spring art is up...check it out.
http://www.picturebookartists.org/

Painting on rocks

In Winter Garden Florida the Bloom and Grow Society is putting on a festival. They hired me to paint rocks with kids. I had fun coming up with these ideas... The weather is beautiful down here, and I am looking forward to the festival.

Easter Egg Time

For some reason, after I saw a wooden easter egg painted looking like chocolate, I had a need to make a bunch of them, so last year was all chocolate colored eggs, this year has some color..its fun, wooden eggs, acrylic and Scribbles 3D Paints , which have a mind of their own. My advice, have alot of Q tips available for the Scribbles  not behaving, for clean up, and have fun.

Rain Barrel Painting

Here in Ocoee Florida the town offered a free rain barrel and a wonderful day in the beautiful weather, to paint our rain barrels. Mine is still a work in progress, but I thought it would be fun to share. This is my friend Shari, also an artist. Her barrel came out great.

And then some others...

This woman is a quilter, I really liked the freeness and idea of this.

 And then this is mine, I didn't plan properly. So it is getting a new finish and waiting for another weekend where I am home and wanting to be outside. It is collecting rain though, so thats good. They were harder to paint than I thought.

This is where I am at now, I think bigger may be better with the artwork...