Sunday, August 29, 2010

Four Little Paintings on Canvas

a very very  tiny painting (2x3 in.)
trying to paint a watercolor on small canvas (2.5x3.5)
an acrylic painting of a man for a change(3x5)
an acrylic painting on canvas of a  woman with greenish hair (4x6)
a  little sketchbook painting (3.5x5)
another little sketchbook painting













Saturday, August 28, 2010

More Blogs I Like

Squirkworld  Lots of knitting, crocheting, and general craftiness along with interesting musings on a number of things including migraines and music! (Squirky also happens to be my daughter.)


Crazy Aunt Purl  More knitting, cats, and general hilarity. This was the first blog I ever read. (I had googled roll- brim knit hat.)

The Pioneer Woman The second blog I ever read. I don't follow it as frequently as I used to, but do check in every once in awhile. Evidently there is a movie in the works based on this woman's blog/life. Ranch life, cooking, home decor, kids, and homeschooling. She's also very funny.

And artist's blogs I follow. Beautiful photos, artwork, lifestyles.

Misty Mawn 

Kelly Rae Roberts

Judy Wise   I'm taking a workshop with her in Portland this fall!


Teesha Moore  The artist that inspired me to start doing art journals several years ago. She's amazing!

Ornamental  Nina Bagley writes so eloquently about her life and her art.

Sanctuary Art  Love her decorating projects and general craftiness. Also her  music playlist.

Cathy Cullis  She makes tiny dolls, intricate embroidery pictures, little books and  interesting water colors

(Apologies for the formatting on this. There is something about using Blogger that I don't get...)


Monday, August 23, 2010

Linkies! Home Decor!

 I keep meaning to share my favorite blogs/websites. I have my blogroll that I go through everyday--usually in a certain order. A lot of women artists and crafty people, and a few other non-artist sites as well. But for today, here are a few of my favorite home decor sites.
                                                                   how not to decorate



Lonny Magazine
An online decorating lifestyle magazine. I especially like the current issue.


Decor 8 Blog
A blog that features gorgeous photos of everything decor inspired: magazines, shops, products, photography and photo stylists portfolios.


Apartment Therapy
I'm totally addicted to the home tours on this one.

Next time I'll share some of  my other favorite blogs.






Friday, August 20, 2010

Some Paintings in a Watercolor Booklet...

as if they were in my art journal. I need to make a new art journal, but in the meantime, I'm just grabbing whatever paper I can and drawing/painting/collaging away. The thing is, this "Acquerello" watercolor booklet is 9x4.5"  and  doesn't fit on the scanner to show the whole piece (as I painted it.) So here they are, slightly cropped.








Monday, August 16, 2010

Trying to do Real Art...(i.e. painting on a canvas)

For some reason, I don't consider my previous paintings in my art journal pages "real art." So I had to go out and buy some tiny canvasses to paint on.  That should make it real enough. And here they are! Yep, there is no difference except I can hang them on a wall.  And if I paint a bigger "stretched" canvas that will make it even morel like "real art." Or not. I just like to "do" art. Since I can't figure out how to had a caption to these pictures, I will put them here: upper left painting is acrylic on a 3x5 canvas " Purple Dress Girl." Upper right is a tiny stretched canvas, 2x3 "Grey Nude" watercolor.  The last is a  5x7 canvas painted with gouache (which I love)  called "Flowered Girl."   It's  so interesting and so much fun to try different arts/crafts/painting/knitting/crocheting/doll making/not to mention gardening/cooking/baking/sewing/. I guess I  really like the "art" of being a homemaker/artist/retired person.





Devil and Angel Dollies

Devil and Angel Dollies
Egg heads and tissue paper bodies, inspired by the ones hanging above in Santa Fe's Pasqual's cafe and restaurant.

What I've Been Reading

  • The Grownups...Robin Antalek
  • From Here to Paris...Cris Hammond
  • A God in Ruins...Kate Atkinson
  • Some Luck...Jane Smiley
  • Crazy Little Thing...Tracy Brogan
  • We Were Liars...Emily Burkhardt
  • Nora Webster...Colm Tobin
  • Saving Grace...Jane Green
  • The French House...Don Wallace
  • Florence Gordon...Brian Morton
  • Us...David Nichols
  • Life Drawing...Robin Black
  • Lucky Us...Amy Bloom
  • Perfectly Miserable: Guilt God and Real Estate in a Small Town... Sarah Payne Stuart
  • Paris I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down...Rosecrans Baldwin
  • Beautiful...Ruth Richl
  • The French For Love...Fiona Valpy
  • Green Angel...Alice Hoffman
  • The Husband's Secret...Liane Moriarty
  • A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman...Margaret Drabble (short stories) a
  • The Arsonist...Sue Miller
  • Table for Seven...Whitney Gaskell
  • Outside the Lines...Amy Hatvany
  • The Widower's Tale...Julia Glass
  • Still Life With Bread Crumbs...Anna Quindlan
  • And The Dark Sacred Night...Julia Glass
  • The Good House...Ann Leary
  • We Are Water...Wally Lamb
  • Three Junes...Julia Glass
  • After I'm Gone...Laura Lippman
  • The Woman Upstairs...Claire Messud
  • Death of the Black Haired Girl...Robert Stone
  • Lydia's Party...Margaret Hawkins
  • Bread and Butter...Michelle Wildgen
  • Thursdays in the Park...Hilarry Boyd
  • A Place At the Table...Susan Rebecca White
  • The Glass Wives...Amy Sue Nathan
  • Summer People...Brian Groh
  • Beautiful Day...Elin Hilderbrand
  • Carthage...Joyce Carol Oates
  • The Lovliest Chocolate Shop in Paris...Jenny Colgan
  • House of Glass...Sophie Littlefield
  • The Comfort of Lies...Randy Susan Meyers
  • The Painted Girls...Cathy Marie Buchanan
  • The Kept...James Scott
  • Tell the Wolves I'm Home...Carol Rifka Brunt
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower...Stephen Chbosky
  • The Position...Meg Wolitzer
  • Teach Me...R.A. Nelson
  • Carry The One...Carol Anshaw
  • The Bookstore...Deborah Meyler
  • The Interestings...Meg Wolitizer
  • The Union Street Bakery...Mary Ellen Taylor
  • The Girl Who Stopped Swimming...Joshilynn Jackson
  • Another Piece of My Heart...Jane Green
  • Knitting Yarns, Writers on Knitting...Edited by Ann Hood
  • Margot...Jillian Cantor
  • Fork in the Road (essays/memoirs about food/travel)...James Oseland
  • The Baker's Daughter...Sara McCoy
  • How To Be A Good Wife...Emma Chapman
  • The O'Henry Awards: 2001 Prize Stories
  • Sisterland...Curtis Sittenfeld
  • The Pursuit of Other Interests...Jim Kokoris
  • The Mourning Hours...Paula Treick DeBoard
  • Nine Inches (stories)...Tom Perrotta
  • A Country Called Home...Kim Barnes
  • The Kitchen Daughter...Jael McHenry
  • The Best Of US...Sarah Pekkanen
  • Family Pictures...Jane Green
  • The Beginner's Good-Bye...Anne Tyler
  • A Farm Under a Lake...Martha Bergland
  • Special Topics in Calamity Physics...Marisha Pessl
  • The Lost Mother...Mary McGarry Morris
  • Memories of A Marriage...Louis Begley
  • Tapestry of Fortunes...Elizabeth Berg
  • Heat Wave...Penelope Lively
  • Sag Harbor...Colson Whitehead
  • Big Brother...Lionel Shriver
  • Second Nature...Jacquelyn Mitchard
  • Medium Raw...Anthony Bourdain
  • Pieces of Happily Every After...Irene Zutell
  • The Boy...Lara Santoro
  • Lit...A Memoir...Mary Karr
  • More Than It Hurts You...Darin Strauss
  • The Burgess Boys...Elizabeth Strout
  • Tales of Burning Love...Louise Erdrich
  • A Home at the End of the World...Michael Cunningham
  • The Cookbook Collector...Allegra Goodman
  • Look At Me...Jennifer Egan
  • Shelter Me...Juliette Fay
  • The Gathering...Anne Enright
  • A Nearly Perfect Copy...Allison Amend
  • Gone Girl...Gillian Flynn
  • The Casual Vacancy...J.K. Rowling
  • The Gin Closet...Leslie Jamison
  • Dearie--The Remarkable Life of Julia Child...Bob Spitz
  • Indiscretion...Charles Dubow
  • The Marriage Plot...Jeffrey Eugenides
  • Oystercatchers...Susan Fletcherr
  • Bitter In the Mouth...Monique Truong
  • The Future of Love...Shirley Abbott
  • Flight Behavior...Barabara Kingsolver
  • The Lake of Dreams...Kim Edwards
  • Afterwife...Polly Williams
  • Daddy Love...Joyce Carol Oates
  • Good Family...Terry Gamble
  • Whistling In the Dark...Lesley Kagan
  • Model Home...Eric Puchner
  • A Soft Place to Land...Susan Rebecca White
  • The Shadow of Love...Rebecca Stowe
  • Almost...Elizabeth Benedict
  • Bridge of Sighs...Richard Russo
  • Beast...Joyce Carol Oates
  • Summerland...Elin Hilderbrand
  • The Ellementals...Francisca Lia Block
  • Broken Harbor...Tana French
  • So Much for That...Lionel Shriver
  • State of Wonder...Ann Patchett
  • Ash Wednesday...Ethan Hawke
  • Dark Places...Gillian Flynn
  • The Roundhouse...Louise Erdrich
  • The Loop...Nicholas Evans
  • The Next Best Thing...Jennifer Weiner
  • The Truth About Lorin Jones...Allison Lurie
  • Black Dahlia and White Rose (stories)...Joyce Carol Oates...
  • Lone Wolf...Jodi Piccoult
  • In One Person...John Irving
  • America, America...Ethan Canin
  • How I Became A Famous Novelist...Steve Hely
  • At Paradise Gate...Jane Smiley
  • The Kite Runner...Khaled Hosseini
  • Duplicate Keys...Jane Smiley
  • The Dylanist...Brian Morton
  • The Age of Grief (stories)...Jane Smiley
  • In the Woods...Tana French
  • Claire Marvel...John Burnham Schwartz
  • Breakable You...Brian Morton
  • Ordinary People...Judith Guest
  • The Safety of Secrets...Delaune Michel
  • Maine...J. Courtney Sullivan
  • Started Early, Took My Dog...Kate Atkinson
  • The Hunger Games...Suzanne Collins
  • The Family Man...Elinor Lipman
  • We Need to Talk About Kevin...Lionel Shriver
  • Mudwoman...Joyce Carol Oates
  • Dear Husband (stories)...Joyce Carol Oates
  • White Truffles in Winter...N.M. Kelby
  • The Weird Sisters...Eleanor Brown
  • Elizabeth Berg...Once Upon A Time, There Was You
  • The Last Nude...Ellis Avery
  • The Book Borrower...Alice Mattison
  • An Object of Beauty...Steve Martin
  • An Available Man...Hilma Wolitzer
  • The Marriage Artist...Andrew Winer
  • After the War...Alice Adams
  • The Leftovers...Tom Perrotta
  • Case Histories...Kate Atkinson
  • Nantucket Nights; Summer People; The Love Season...Elin Hilderbrand (o.k. I'm obsessed.)
  • My Sister, My Love...Joyce Carol Oates
  • Russian Winter...Daphne Kalotay
  • A Friend of the Family...Lauren Grodstein
  • The Lost City: The Forgotten Virtues of Community in America...Alan Ehrenhalt
  • Silver Girl...Elin Hilderbrand
  • How to Be An American Housewife...Margaret Dilloway
  • Little Bee...Chris Cleave
  • Freedom...Jonathan Franzen
  • When Will There Be Good News? ...Kate Atkinson
  • Don't Make a Scene...Valerie Block
  • The Summer of Naked Swim Parties...Jessica Anya Blau
  • The Grief of Others...Leah Hager Cohen
  • The Embers...Hyatt Bass
  • One Good Turn...Kate Atkinson
  • The Sweet Relief of Missing Children...Sarah Braunstein
  • Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie Girl Culture...Peggy Orenstein
  • Behind the Scenes at the Museum...Kate Atkinson
  • Had A Good Time: Stories from American Postcards...Robert Olen Butler
  • After You...Julie Buxbaum
  • The Year Of Endless Sorrows...Adam Rapp
  • Lately...Sara Pritchard (stories)
  • Julie and Romeo...Jeanne Ray
  • Secrets of Eden...Chris Bohjalian
  • Satisfaction...Gillian Greenwood
  • Sing You Home...Jodi Picoult
  • Eat Cake...Jeanne Ray
  • Sarah's Key...Tatiana de Rosnay
  • Unfinished Desires...Gail Godwin
  • That Old Cape Magic...Richard Russo
  • The Lake Shore Limited...Sue Miller
  • Heat...Bill Buford (memoir)
  • Joy School...Elizabeth Berg
  • Pictures of You...Caroline Leavitt
  • The Blue Bistro...Elin Hilderbrand
  • The Painted Drum...Louise Erdrich
  • The Castaways...Elin Hilderbrand
  • East of the Mountains...David Guterson
  • My Father's Tears...John Updike (stories)
  • Blood, Bones & Butter...Gabrielle Hamilton (memoir)
  • Moral Disorder...Margaret Atwood (stories)
  • Grub...Elise Blackwell
  • Attachment...Isabel Fonseca
  • Snow Angels...Stewart O'Nan
  • Every Last One...Anna Quindlen
  • The Life List...Lori Nelson Spielman
  • Between Husbands and Friends...Nancy Thayer
  • Songs for the Missing...Stewart O'Nan
  • The Goldfinch...Donna Tartt
  • Someone...Alice McDermott
  • The Silent Wife...A.S.A. Harrison
  • Fin and Lady...Cathleen Schine