Growing and changing

Last year at this time I was taking a watercolor class in which we painted scenes from Venice (the instructor and some of the other students provided reference photos).  I was not very happy with the small vignettes that I painted in the class and have wanted to have another go at them so below you can see the before and after

You can see how much looser I am today than last year and my paint is juicier - it's all in the first impression and don't worry about the details.  I will have a painting (not this little study) at Art by the Sea at the Vero Beach Museum of Art this coming weekend.  I will show you the painting later this week - just framed it today
Hope your day is filled with joy and thanks for stopping by (I am so busy right now painting, planning a new quilt, and working on my drawing skills that I keep forgetting to blog but I will try.......)
Chris

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

So far this winter has been pretty warm but last night was a cold one - 46 degrees - brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Hope your day is warm and sunny,
Chris

Winter blues

I have been painting a lot lately - and I do mean a lot - getting some pieces ready to exhibit - but it's fun to play a bit at the same time

Sometimes you just have to express yourself - and I do that with paint.  This started as an exercise to cover a piece of paper with paints left on my palette and morphed into an art journal/layout page.  The only bad part about putting so much paint on the page is that it takes forever to dry and even then, it's a bit sticky.
 
I was painting with blues and then - I saw http://citycrafter.blogspot.com/2013/01/city-crafter-challenge-blog-week-142.html - their challenge is Winter blues so I think this works quite well.

Thanks for stopping by,
Chris

My very own Downton Abbey

I created the above project for the http://citycrafter.blogspot.com/2013/01/city-crafter-challenge-blog-week-141.html in which you had to use book pages.  I adhered the dictionary pages with bees wax to a cover cut from an old book, then painted over them with more bees wax.  Then I added a vintage bridge table marker and layered on lots of Prima leaves, velvet flowers, and lace; 7gypsies and Heidi Swapp tapes; real leaf; vintage lace; and a vintage flower ornament; and of course, the photo of my grandmother and two friends - with their hats and dresses, they came right out of Downton Abbey - don't you think?!

Hope you are enjoying the new season of Downton Abbey and have a great day!
Chris