Bead & Wire Earrings

Here are the earrings I am taking to the Tennessee Art League to hopefully sell in the store!

Bracelets

Here are a few items that I will enter into a juried show and hopefully they will get in!  And getting sold would be nice, too : )

Summer Fresh

What says summer better than fresh tomatoes?  2 slices of bread and pass the mayo & salt!  Enjoy!

Challenge Painting

I found this blog called Different Stroked FROM Different Folks.  I worked on this painting as part of that process. I love this site because it is one picture and many different artist interpretations of that subject.  It allows me permission to have my painting look like me.  There is great freedom in putting something out in the public arena that hasn’t been seen before!  Here is what I will submit today!

Enjoying the Process

After a retreat this weekend, I became increasingly aware that in many areas of my life I get focused on the outcome and lose the joy of the process.  That is especially true in my art.  My art teacher has a saying that applies here, “It’s better to be pleasingly inaccurate than irritatingly correct.”  I have struggled on the irritating side of things lately so I decided to make a big attempt to loosen up.  Yesterday I painted these roses as loose as I could with a brush:

I like the painting (because I enjoyed the process and that’s what I see when looking at this one) but I wanted to be more expressive and looser.  So I painted one painting entirely with a pallet knife.  It is OK and isn’t pictured here.  It was the catalyst for this next painting though!  I came home from church and worked at this one until I decided I didn’t have any more to say.  It is painted with a brush for the under painting, then pallet knife for the remainder.  I am very happy with this one because of the freedom I enjoyed in the process.  I am just beginning to break free of orderly constraints!  When I look at it tomorrow, I may need to add something, but that’s another day…

Bracelet Party

Our church is sending a group of women over to Ukraine in a week or so – this will be the 3rd year – to minister to and encourage this group of Ukrainian women.  Last year the women of our church made multiple hundreds of scarves.  After scrunching and stuffing these fluffy gifts into travel bags, a smaller project was decided upon as a gift for this year!  Thus our bracelet making party today!

There were 8 of us all together, and we made 89 bracelets towards a total of about 500 needed!

Recent Art

I am taking an oil class from a wonderful teacher.  This is the first class where a still life has been set up and everyone in the class paints the same thing.  It is very helpful to see the same object through different eyes and personalities.  Here are 3  paintings I have done in the last 2 weeks.  The apple was our first project.  Then came the pear.  I painted a 2nd pear just for practice when I got home from class.  Can’t wait to see what we’ll be painting this week!

New to Etsy

I just spent some time updating my Etsy account.  I have a new earring design which I think is loads of fun!  Here are a few pics:

Silver Pieces of Creativity

I have been working in my studio the last several days with some 16 gauge half-hard sterling silver wire.  Let me just say this wire will hold it’s shape.  My hands, biceps, and triceps have been getting a workout!  Here are some pieces that someday will become pendants:

Jewelry fun

Here are some earrings I finished recently; I haven’t gotten them on Etsy yet because I just can’t seem to get into coming up with cutesy names and interesting descriptions.  Once the Christmas tree is out of the living room, perhaps there will be more room in my brain…