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

New Skull Series

I'm working on a new painting

that's rather stressful and

decided to paint some more

skulls as a brief diversion from that. 

These almost seem

to paint themselves, and

the fun thing about them

is that they seem to 

be morphing a bit. 

I like seeing their evolution.

In fact, I'm looking at one

of the original skulls I painted

(it's hanging in my art room)

and thinking about how

much I want to sand and repaint it. 

That'll have to wait for later. 

These are the four I completed

this week. 

I've finished 8 so far and my

new goal is 12. 

Some people may find them

scary, but they make me smile.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Hoping you have a wonderful weekend!

Lastest Creations

I'd set this piece aside a few

weeks ago and finally added

the finishing touches. 

It still needs a coat of varnish

which I'm hoping will really 

make it pop. 

She went from looking Japanese

to looking more Indian. 

The following is my 4th out of 4 small

sugar skulls that my husband

cut out for me. 

I hid it behind my back before I 

showed him and said, "This is

the look on my face if I see

a scorpion in the house." 

I pulled it out and showed him

and sure enough, he laughed and agreed. 

Fortunately we don't see

them in the house very often. 

Next I made a couple of 

twin thank you post cards

for some special ladies.

"Your the best" is 

a phrase dear to my heart

because those were the

last words my Dad said to me. 

It's hard to believe he's

been gone 16 years. 

He was always such an

encourager.

This next little painting is of

a quoll. 

I'd been watching a documentary

on Australian wildlife and saw

this cute little critter and decided

to paint him. 

Last but not least, I 

painted this folk art sun today. 

My husband had cut out

the pattern I drew for him.

I gave myself a very short

time to work on it. 

I kept telling myself not

to over-think it and just paint.

It's my Sunday sun.

Thank you for visiting.

Wishing you a fabulous week ahead. 

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. 

Outsider Art

I've always loved outsider art.

I should probably qualify that statement.

Some of it can be pretty dark and disturbing,

and not my cup of tea. 

I'm drawn more towards uplifting, colorful,

positive themes and images. 

What I'm most drawn to is the idea

that this is my own little world. 

If I want a flower taller than a 

high rise, I can have that. 

I guess I'm always drawn to

the freedom of expression that 

outsider art (or art in general) lends. 

Sometimes life can seem so structured

and regimented. 

It's nice to "escape" for a little

while into a land of my own. 

I also finished number 3 of 4 smaller sugar skulls. 

This guy needs some Visine. 

That's sometimes how I feel when

I wake up.

Yikes!

Hope you have a great and productive weekend! 

Terri

Pushing Art Out

These three pieces are

the fruit of my solo

mixed media challenge

to push out art. 

I mean push it out

like squeezing toothpaste

from a tube (letting it flow

and not worrying about it). 

I'm getting pieces under

my belt, so to speak. 

Through this exercise, 

I desire solely to

learn to move freely

about my creative

surface, allowing

the inner to translate

to the outer. 

It's not easy, but as my Dad

used to tell me,

"Repetition is the mother of skill." 

All I need to do is to

keep pressing forward. 

Hope you have a wonderful week ahead! 

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! 

A Sugar Skull, a Puppy, and the Superstitions

There's a photo realism piece

I'd like to get started on this week. 

I'm all prepped for it and am ready to go. 

You could say the plane is on the runway 

and ready for take off. 

It's just waiting for clearance

from the tower (me). 

I haven't done one since high school,

and am finding myself procrastinating.

Why do I do this to myself?

Who cares if it doesn't turn out?

I can just paint over it and 

start again. 

While I'm in my self imposed

"holding pattern," I decided

to paint some simple light

hearted folk art pieces.  

Now that I'm reflecting on

these folk art pieces, they may

actually be harder than the

photo realism piece I'm planning. 

It's hard for me to paint freely. 

Photo realism isn't free. 

Hmmm. . . 

I finished up another

sugar skull.

That's 2 down and 2 to go

on that project. 

I only did one coat of 

the blue because I 

like a little of 

the black showing through. 

It's gives it a more rustic feel. 

I thought I'd share some pictures

from our weekend adventure. 

My husband and I live a short distance from

the Superstition Mountains and Wilderness

which is part of the Tonto National Forest in Arizona. 

It's such a beautiful place to explore. 

The only wildlife we saw this time

were some turkey vultures and

a beautiful herd of black cows

(all wearing their fuzzy winter coats). 

I wanted to take a picture of them until

we saw the bull, and then we decided to 

zip on out of there.

 Hope you're having a wonderful week!

Thanks for visiting. 

Some Heart Warming Post Card Love

I did a little prep work

before starting on my 

postcard project. 

The first thing was

to washi tape the borders

of each individual card.

This was more to prevent separating at

the edges than for aesthetics

(although I do think the border is cute). 

Then I used painters tape on the back

to adhere all 4 cards together to

make it easier to work on them

all at the same time. 

I then flipped it over and got to work

cutting, collaging, painting, and doodling. 

I used some of my old drawings

that I'd cut up for collage pieces

as well as Loteria images, and

other goodies I found in my

paper stash. 

Love always and forever. 

El Corazon

La Rosa

Love

These are for the heART exchange

if you're interested in participating

(I was a latecomer to the party.)

The deadline for entry is this Sunday. 

Hoping they'll bring a smile

to the face of their recipients

and a message of LOVE.