Summer in the Desert

 This picture was taken on a recent trip

 to the Desert Botanical Garden. 

I love the juxtaposition of the beautiful

delicate flowers, alongside the stiff piercing thorns.

It reminds me of life. 

Summertime is coming. It's held off until

now, and we've had such beautiful weather. 

My husband and I were on our walk this morning

and talking about how this is the longest we've gone

into the year without having to turn on the air conditioner. 

Thanking God for that blessing!

The following are a hand full of some

recent pieces I've painted. 

My husband cut a silhouette of Arizona

out of pine wood for me on our scroll saw 

and I did my thing. Cheerful as

cheerful can be. I really love the 

way this turned out. 

This is a landscape I did on a gallery wrapped

canvas with acrylic paint and posca pens. 

A couple of sweet kitties. . .

and two colorful fish, finish

out the bunch. 

Now it's time for me to get back to work

on a couple projects. 

I hope you're having a wonderful day! 

Terri 

Frida Folk Art Painting

I'm having fun working on some

Frida boxes that I look forward 

to sharing with you in the near future. 

In the meantime I finished this 

Frida painting. 

We're finally seeing a break in

the weather here in the southwestern United States. 

The monsoon season is coming to a close. 

We look forward to sleeping with the windows

open very soon. 

Wishing you a wonderful week ahead! 

Terri

Back on the Farm

My sweet friend Aimee asked if

I'd help add some color and

cheer to some of her animal shelters.

She wanted a border painted around

the edge of two of her new shelters

that someone had kindly donated. 

I knew there would be no way I could be up

on a ladder in 105 plus degree weather

during monsoon season

with all the inquisitive (and large) animals 

trying to figure out what I was up to. 

I immediately thought painting wooden

boards that could be affixed to the metal

sides was the way to go. (I'd let

my husband work out those details). 

Twenty-three wooden flowers were added 

throughout the design to give it dimension. 

My husband gets the credit for cutting 

those out for me. He had at least as much

work on this project as I did. 

I had 10 boards to paint. At one point they

were spread all over our family room floor,

the fireplace, our kitchen table, 

and the kitchen counter. 

It's so good to have our house back!

As I was painting and maneuvering backwards

on my hands and knees around the boards

I felt a sharp painful pop on my left side. 

It turns out I dislocated a rib. Ouch! 

When we went to install the pieces, I decided

to feed the animals first and keep them busy

while we worked. 

This is the larger of the two shelters. 

Her family of animals are so sweet and

she takes such good care of them. 

Aimee also asked if I'd paint a board

with a rainbow and a peace sign on it

for her horses palette shanty. 

There'll be some girl scouts coming

by soon. She's asked them to paint

the rest of the shanty boards in rainbow colors. 

Now I'm back to painting

some smaller pieces and

giving my ribs a rest. 

I hope you have a wonderful week

and greatly appreciate you stopping by! 

Terri

Daily Paintings of Late

My goal is to finish

a painting a day. 

I'm not always successful

with that goal, but I have

been successful in pressing

forward whether I reach it or not. 

This fact is a win for

me on it's own. 

Here are some

of my most recent

accomplishments. 

I'll keep my words

to a minimum in this post.

Thank you for visiting

and touching base.

I hope you have a fabulous week!

Terri

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall. . .

One of my neighbors kindly gave me

a big mirror a couple of months ago. 

It's 38" x 32". 

Another neighbor that knows about the mirror

keeps asking me if I've done anything

with it yet. 

Well, it's finally time to call her over

to see the mirror. 

I should say, the frame of the mirror. 

I'll let my husband get the mirror

part securely back in the frame. 

The frame was initially a brown

mottled paint and it was primed

in white to start the process. 

These first few pictures were taken at sunrise.

That's why they're a little dark. 

Next, I drew out my design and made

patterns for wood pieces that my husband

gladly cut out for me on the scroll saw. 

I placed the pieces where I wanted them

just to check my design, before

they were adhered to the frame. 

Voila! The finished piece. 

It's much more bright

and cheerful now. 

Thank you for stopping by.

Hoping you have a wonderfully

creative week! 

Terri

Giving New Life to an Old Guitar

My dear friends and neighbors

will sometimes give me things

they think I may like to paint. 

This old broken down

guitar is an example of one 

of those things. 

It's been sitting in the corner

of my art room for  a couple

of years waiting to be brought

back to life. 

I had a design percolating 

in my mind, now it was a matter

of putting it all together. 

The same friend that gave me the guitar, 

also gave me the cool wooden heart she'd

designed and had her husband cut out for her. 

I designed a pattern for wings and the "Love"

sign, and my husband cut them out for me

on the scroll saw. 

I strung beads where the tuning keys

would've been.

I used my wood carving tools to 

give the "Love" sign a little dimension. 

I also decided to change the plain heart 

into a flaming heart. 

My husband made

sure every piece was secured

properly with a combination of 

liquid nails and nails or screws. 

Here's another view from the front. 

I'm pleased with the way it 

turned out. 

It was so much fun to create. 

I hope you have a wonderful week ahead! 

Thank you for stopping by. 

Terri

Camping Dreams Become Reality

Camping is something I've

always loved to do. 

Being out in nature, wandering 

around and exploring new places,

is so much fun for me. 

Rocks, insects, creatures, and plant life

are all things I patiently observe and study

when we camp and hike. 

I decided to paint myself a camper.

Of course, it had to be pink with

lots of flowers. 

I added a little kitty that I'd drawn with

prismacolor pencils and adhered

it to the piece with matte medium. 

I showed it to my husband when I finished

and asked him if he'd travel with

me in my pink camper. 

He said as long as I was with him, 

that was all that mattered. 

Apparently I wasn't the only one 

with the camping bug. 

My husband was itching to go

back to one of our favorite spots

in the Chiricahua National Forest

in Southeastern Arizona. 

I thought I'd share a picture or two

of one of our "go to" camping spots. 

We've been to this one several

times over the past 20 years or so. 

I'm sure you can see why. 

Of course we had to do 

some hiking while we were there. 

The following are a couple

pictures from the trails

around our site.

In 2007 they had a bad forest

fire that really changed the landscape

for many years to come. 

It was still beautiful though. 

We stopped for lunch on our way

home in Safford Arizona and I spotted

this artsy camper in the parking lot

of the restaurant we visited. 

Whenever I see things like this, it makes

me smile. No matter if it's a little cooky,

or masterfully done, it's a slice of Americana. 

Thank you for coming along

with me on my little camping adventure. 

I hope you have a wonderful 

rest of the week! 

Terri

Superior and Artsy Sites to See

This week is a little mix of

work and play.

Although, I'd never call creating 

artwork, actual work. 

Onward, to some play and play then. . . 

Here are a few of my pieces from this 

past week. 

~Mixed media fun. 

Pink kitty

Mixed media with colored pencils,

paint, and collage papers. 

Blue eyed Frida mixed media

Folk art bird.

The quote is one of my favorites on faith:

Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings

when the dawn is still dark. -Tagore

Been there. . . 

On Saturday, we took a visit to Superior

Arizona. It's not too far from our house. 

Here are a few fun pictures of the 

desert and the town. 

The fruit on the saguaro's are open

now, feeding many of the desert animals. 

That's Picketpost Mountain 

in the background. 

They drop from the top to the ground

and feed more creatures there. 

Isn't it pretty? 

This was one of the fun artsy houses

we drove by. 

This house made me smile when

I saw John Wayne at the front door. 

The following are some of the

town shops with their murals. 

Thank you so much for 

visiting!

I hope you have a wonderful week.

Terri

This House is for the Birds

I hadn't planned on posting more

than once this week, but I took

these pictures this morning and

thought, 'Why not?'

 This is another one of our collaborations 

(my husband the builder, and me the artist). 

This is probably

my favorite bird house that we've

made together. 

I think it's because the design

is the funkiest he's made so far, and

I'm all about the funkier the better. 

It also makes me think I'm sort

of weird as an artist, because I 

love color clashes. 

(as is obvious by my pieces). 

Sometimes it's intentional,

and sometimes it's just because

I have to use whatever paint

I have on hand. 

Either way, I try and make 

it work and am usually 

pleased with the outcome. 

Thank you for visiting

and saying hello. 

Terri