Shrine Embellishing

Remember this shrine from

way back when? 

In case you missed it

and are so inclined, 

you'll find the related post here.

It's just been sitting around 

on a shelf waiting 

for some zhooshing up.

I got out my bead box,

assorted assemblage items,

and went to work (or play, as I'd rather say). 

I used a PVA glue instead

of a glue gun, or the stinky

kind of glue that'll literally 

glue your (I should say,

 'my') fingers together. 

It takes a little longer to dry,

but I think in the long run

it'll create a more durable hold

and my fingers will remain separated. 

Thank you for stopping by.

Hoping you have a fabulously creative week! 

Terri

Cats and Skulls and Magnets, Oh My!

The past weekend was so much fun! 

My daughter and son-in-law

took their "mom's" out for an early

 surprise Mother's Day celebration. 

(It's so nice being good friends

with my daughter's mother-in-law.)

The four of us went to the 

English Rose Tea Room

in Carefree Arizona. 

It was just perfect. 

Being a tea drinker myself I had

to up my game the following morning

and forgo my usual mug for Grandma's 

porcelain tea set. 

While it wasn't quite as delicious without

the real cream and lump of sugar,

it extended the delightful memory just the same. 

If you ever happen to be in the 

area, it's a wonderful place to visit. 

* * * * *

Moving on now to my 

art creations of this past week. 

Here's a pic of my purple kitty plaque, . . .

. . . . my new skull plaque, . . . 

. .  .  and some fun little art magnets. 

These little guys are all painted on 2"x 2" pieces of wood. 

I decided to make some one of a kind 

mini artwork magnets as well. 

This little kitty is one of those. 

So much fun! 

Hope you have a wonderful week. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Terri

Goat Folk Art Painting

A dear lady who owns a farm animal

sanctuary asked if I could do some more

artwork for her. (My husband and I have done

some work for her in the past). 

She'd like a goat, pig, and cow painting. 

I've got the goat just about finished, and have

been working on a few other things

to help cheer and brighten up her place 

(not that it's not already really cheerful). 

I thought of this unconventional funky frame idea

after I'd already started this piece. My husbands 

been working on that. 

Unfortunately, for him to attach it, it may mean

a lot of nail holes and wood putty to cover those holes

of the front of this piece. 

I told him to just do what he needs to 

do and I'd go back over and fix what needs

to be fixed. 

Between you and me, I'm hoping not much. 

When I finish something, I like to wash my

hands of it, and not have a potential redo in my future. 

I'll be sure to post a picture

after the "frame" has been attached. 

Hoping you're having a wonderful week. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Terri

Folk Art Chicago Skyline WIPS

 A dear relative of mine asked

me if I could paint a 

picture of the Chicago skyline

in my folk art style for her. 

I told her I'd be happy

to give it whirl, and she could

decide (under no obligation)

if it's what she had in mind. 

This has been an EXTREMELY

tough challenge for me

over the past couple of weeks. 

It's not a subject that

would ever pop into my head if I was 

sitting around one day wondering

what to paint. 

I gravitate toward "fluffy" (cats, animals,

flowers, etc. . .), or "funky" (skulls, collage, 

Mexican inspired pieces, etc. . .). 

I ended up painting two scenes.

This first one is at daybreak

with a more realistic configuration

of the actual buildings. 

The next one is a night time scene where I 

took some key buildings and lined them up

side by side. 

I'm so grateful for the opportunity

to stretch and grow and step

out of my comfort zone. 

I messaged her with these pictures and

thanked her for the gift of "growing"

through this experience. 

There's still a bit of polishing to do on both

of them, but this is the gist and I've set

them aside for now. 

What's my first piece I chose

to work on after this mental challenge?

It's a wood butterfly my husband put

together for me (cue the Smurf theme song here). 

Wishing you all a satisfyingly productive week!

Terri <3

Folk Art Cats

A month or so ago I base

coated several block squares

of wood in black paint. 

Then I painted a round head

with shoulders in white on each

one as a base to do a series

of snowmen. I set those aside for 

another day. 

Well, another day came last weekend,

but instead of snowmen I turned

them into cats. 

Need I say I'm ready 

to move on to the spring season?

This is my mixed media angel cat. 

I had a lot of fun painting

these and for the most part

things seemed to flow along 

quickly. 

There was one afternoon I would've

thought 30 minutes had passed when it

was actually 3 hours. 

My husband actually waved at me and 

said, "Hello. . . there's another person in

the house. . ." haha (oops, it was time

to put the brush down and give

some time to my husband). 

Except for my husband feeling neglected, 

those are my favorite kind of days.

Thanks for visiting!

Hope you have a fantastic week. 

Frida Collage

I was going through my art journal

and came across a face I'd drawn

in colored pencil. 

No neck, no ears, and a nonexistent chin, 

but I liked her. 

I decided to throw caution to the wind

and make a mixed media collage. 

I didn't think about rules,

or what was accurate or not,

I just did it. 

"Just do it!" 

I'm kind of liking her

and that's what matters, right? 

The freedom to "go for it"

was fun.

I want more artistic 

experiences like that.  

Hope you have a great weekend! 

Wonder Kitty

Something simple, light hearted,

and fun was what I felt like painting.  

I came up with the idea

of a folk art Wonder Kitty!

I didn't search before I 

made my painting to see if

it had been done, but afterward

I searched for "cats in clothes paintings". 

There are so many images

of paintings with cats in clothes

(much more sophisticated than mine).

Scrolling thru them made me smile.

Painting this piece made me smile too,

which is the heart of what art is about for me. 

She may be primitive and rudimentary,

but to me she's PURRFECT! 

Folk Art Santa

Before the season gets too far away,

I thought I'd share this

piece I recently finished. 

First, I'd like to tell you about an artist I absolutely 

adore by the name of Julia Eves. She has

an Etsy Shop & Instagram that are easy to find if you'd

like to check out her work (you won't be sorry). 

I had seen an ornament she made from an old

paint can lid of an adorable Santa which

really inspired me. 

I drew out a big Santa head pattern on wood

and asked my husband if he'd be so kind as to 

cut it out for me (it's about 13" x 18").  

Here's how it turned out. 

I just love it! It's hanging in my

art room and I have no intention of taking it

down just because the season's over. 

That's not too surprising considering

Christmas music has no season in my world. 

Thank you for your beautiful work

and inspiring me Julia Eves! 

My Painting Process

 There's a local PBS show I watch

from time to time called Books & Company. 

The host of the show interviews a particular

author and inquires about his or her book 

and their personal process

of writing and developing their stories. 

I love hearing about the different ways

they go about it. 

I know many artists travel similar unique

paths to end up with their finished pieces. 

Those kinds of things fascinate me, whether

it be an artist of the word, paint brush, 

or musical instrument.

Today I'll briefly share one of the ways

I go about painting my pieces by

sharing some of my works in progress in

the earliest stages. 

I'm working on a dog house and another

picnic table. One's in my family room,

and the other's in the garage, so the pictures

aren't the greatest, (thanks to poor lighting)

 but you'll get the gist. 

Before I start any piece I pray. 

I ask God to bless the work of my hands

and to guide and lead me as I create the design

and paint the piece. I ask that it'll be a blessing

to whomever it ends up going to. 

After that, I don't worry about it how I'm going 

to proceed, I just start with one element and

let the design flow from there. 

I always use one color (usually a dark one)

to get my basic design down. 

This is what I call free hand folk art. 

I have had to be more precise in the past

with a design image, and in that case

I'll draw it out on transparencies and

use the overhead projector to complete 

the design that way. 

I did the base design in the following picture

and started in with my first color. 

That's what I usually do. Then I'll 

go back with one color at a time and

continually add to the design until it feels and 

looks done to me (which can take a while). 

My husband always says, when he's dizzy,

he knows I'm finished. 

I'll be sure to post the finished

pieces, (hopefully in better lighting)

so you can see how they turned out. 

Until then, may God bless the work of your hands. 

Terri

Home Tweet Home Bird House Part 2

Here're the rest of the pictures

of my funky folk art bird house. 

If you missed Part 1, you can see that here.

My husband asked me to 

draw a couple designs for him 

to adhere to the sides of the house to

give it some dimension. 

I gave him my drawings and after looking at me 

quizzically for a second, 

(He's the first to admit he doesn't get art.)

he cut them out using his scroll saw 

and nailed and glued them to the house. 

He liked them much better once

he saw them in their finished state. 

I took the following picture so 

you can see that every visible 

surface is painted with some

type of design. 

I even paint a design on the bottom

(which I didn't take a picture of). 

There's more dimension and raised

elements on the back. 

I try to make the overall design balanced,

but not perfect. That's the fun of folk art for me. 

Thanks for visiting. 

Wishing you a wonderful day!

Terri

Home Tweet Home Bird House

This is the project I've 

been working on this past week. 

As I mentioned before, we're

building up our bird house collection. 

I'll post some pictures

of the other two sides on Friday. 

My husband is thinking it's too blue. 

Hmmm. . . I'll have to think about that. . . 

Thanks for stopping by!

Terri

Folk Art Mixed Media No. 3

This piece started out with a cool

moon and starry sky behind her. 

I really liked it, but thought it needed something else.

It was missing an oomph of some sort. 

Well, one thing led to another and the background

I started out with has now vanished. 

I'm kind of sad that I didn't take a picture

at that earlier stage.  C'est la vie. 

It still doesn't have any type of top coat on it. 

I'm leery of the beeswax and I don't have any self

leveling gel, nor have I ever used it before.

I need to figure something out in that regard. 

Other than that, I call her finished. 

Now that number 3 is behind me, I can

say I'm learning not to take the process

too seriously. 

If I make a mistake or somehow ruin it, so what?!

I'll take note of what I learned from the mistake, put

it behind me, and move on!

Thanks for stopping by!

Terri

Folk Art Mixed Media

This is my second try at mixed media. 

I wanted to paint over her face and start over

so many times, but I promised myself

beforehand that I was choosing volume

of work over perfection. 

This is what she looks like before beeswax.

The following is after the beeswax. 

Grrr. . ruined another piece. 

It'd be easy to insert a snarky 

remark here, but I'll refrain.

I want and need to allow myself grace throughout

this season of learning. 

Well, it's back to the drawing board.

Happy Mother's Day if it applies to you.  

Peace, Love and Joy

Terri

My Very First Acrylic Portrait

 She had an old fashioned charm

about her that I adored. 

I found her tiny picture in an

old Victoria magazine. 

She'd be the subject of 

my first portrait painting. 

I have a bad habit of wanting

anything I'm learning to be perfect right 

from the start, but I'm fighting it. 

There was a lot of work and reworking,

and it still wasn't quite right. 

Then there came a point when I had 

to say she was finished. 

Even as I look at her now, I see

things I want to fix and change. 

But I've decided to leave her just as

she is, perfectly imperfect. 

She's my first stepping stone, and 

I'm off to my next one. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Wishing you peace, love and joy.

Terri

Mixed Media Failure

My first time experimenting 

with this genre of mixed media ended

up in a failure. 

There were some things I wanted to change

as the project progressed, but I kept pressing

forward, wanting to get my first piece completed.

I made her head too big, messed up the neck area,

the outlining was not subtle enough, . . and on and on . . .

All of that I thought I could live with until

it came to the fiasco with the hot wax.

Apparently I didn't get enough coverage on

her face with the colored pencils before

I poured the hot wax.

Gray spots rose up from underneath. Ugh. 

The point of no return. 

I'm not going to let it get me down.

I've learned a lot and will carry that knew

found knowledge in to my next piece.

No one starts out as an expert in anything. 

As my Dad used to say, "Repetition is the Mother of skill."

Wishing you peace, love and joy.

Terri