Here is the second in my post-industrial downtown series. These are done with paint pen on one side of a transparency and acrylic paints on the other. This one doesn't have a title yet, but it was one of my favorite spots when Ethan and I walked around downtown one day. I am planning to do two more in this series, and then open my Etsy shop!

This is just a quick sketch I did of Ethan one day while we were up at Mount Tom for an afternoon. Esme and I brought our art supplies and Ethan serenaded us for awhile. For years I've been talking about making some album art for him and I told him this will be my first one - plenty of room for the title and easily printed.

I recently had an interesting conversation about the "preciousness" of really nice, quality, and often expensive art supplies. Do you really want to use that pricey canvas for a project you're not so sure about?? It's hard for me to loosen up and experiment when I know how much these nice, big, extra-nicely-wrapped canvases cost. Donna Estabrooks had a great idea on how to loosen up with some things not-so-precious. She'd heard about people painting grocery bags to repurpose them as gift bags, so we gave it a try as part of warming up for a class. These photos show the two sides of my Whole Foods bag. This was soooo fun and freeing!! I highly recommend giving it a try if you're having trouble breaking out and letting loose! There are so many possibilities for these. Plus, even though my friends and family do enjoy passing the same gift bags around year after year, I know most of them would be excited to receive a gift in packaging I'd made just for them.

Christmas Presents and a Painting

I was very lucky to receive some arty gifts this Christmas, including an easel, and a mat cutting system. Hoping Ethan will learn to use the mat cutter and become my mat guy! I am just not very good at things that require such precision. Thought I would share another piece that includes him - this is one of my favorites from a new series I'm doing of post-industrial areas. This is a building in the crumbling downtown in our city and that little green speck on the lower left gives it it's title - "Ethan on the Street." This painting is done with kind of a different technique - it is paint pen on one side and acrylics on the other of a transparency. I've been inspired by Ludwig Bemelmans, author and illustrator of the Madeline series and hope to finally open my Etsy shop when I have four finished. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Welcome!

Thank you for visiting my new blog!! I plan to share my new pieces here, and thoughts about the process. To start, I'd like to share a quick portrait I did of my husband, Ethan, after learning some new techniques in a class with one of my favorite artists, Donna Estabrooks. Ethan is my biggest supporter and has encouraged me to create from the very start. This abstract piece is a mix of oil pastel and acrylic paint and was initially started with my non-dominant, left hand.