Happy Halloween everyone!  This was me a few years ago, and I have no clue what I'll do tonight.  I've got kind of a Mindy Kaling approach to this...

Here, as promised, some shots from Ivy's 3rd birthday.

 

 

                                               And yes, there was COTTON CANDY. 

British designer Abigail Ahern recently posted on her blog eight ways to create an imperfect room.  It made me smile, because it's almost identical in a way I TRY to create a painting.  Check it:

1. Add texture (texture is like a herb it lifts an interior out of the mundane and elevates it to a whole other level, the trick is to create as much friction between surfaces as you can. Friction by the way in interiors is a GOOD THING!
2. Move furniture away from the walls, even by angling a chair or table slightly it will break up the linear aspects of your room
3. Layer, layer, layer the more layers you add to the space the more interesting it becomes. The reason being we want to confuse the eye, we want to tantalise the eye so when you walk into a room you don’t quite know where to look and if you don’t have stuff you just can’t pull that off. Oh and don’t worry about the dusting aspect, a bit of dusting on a Saturday morn with some jazz on its pretty dam cool if you ask me!
4 Lighting the more lighting you add the more interesting your space becomes, in my new studio 9 lights are on softly glowing casting a beautiful light.
5 Add something oddball, an unexpected piece of art, a sculpture, a spare chair in a odd colour anything that doesn’t quite fit with the general scheme
6 Add something funny, easiest decorating trick in the book since it requires no skill but it immediately lightens the mood, animals are great for this, ceramic, papier mache or otherwise
7 Add something imperfect as mentioned above, it you go down the vintage route its easy peasy since vintage pieces have a narrative, tell a story that again elevates your interior to a whole other level
8 Lastly but most importantly add colour, the single most important thing you can do (if you reign in your palette you can mix and match far easier)

Great advice, huh?  It applies to lots of things I think.  ( My paintings below...)

 

Working on little things...

 

Did ya'll know I teach kids art?  Yep.  From 3 years up.  My kids are awesome and super talented, so let's check out what they've done, ok?

 

Isn't it impressive? We made this out of recycled materials that were collected by myself, the kids, and random people I texted. 

Sorry I have been so MIA, I have been dealing with this:

 

 

 

Isn't that disgusting? It's my dad's hip replacement.  Also my daughter had her 3 year old birthday party.  The fabulous Mindy Bledsoe took like a gazillion photos, so I will have some really professional pics for ya'll soon.  Unlike my shoddy iphone shots below.

 

But who cares, it's margaritas! (my mom and I had to celebrate after the birthday party)

 

 

 

   And I did do some work this week.  This painting was delivered to Artspace here in Shreveport.  Ok, so it was painted a little while ago.  But I did drive it and carry it and stuff!  Whew! So exhausting. 

Theda Bara pretty much gets my vote for best depressed-with-smokey-eye-look. 

 

For anyone looking for ideas, this would be a great Halloween costume.  Bonus points for the snake bra. 

And here is my version in pen, and on iphone.

I looooove to drink red wine.  One thing I can not do is drink the same time I am painting.  This practice seems to work very well for many artists.  Take Francis Bacon, who apparently was completely hammered every time he worked, and all the rest of the time too. 

"Innocent" ~Francis Bacon

 

It's just seems so picturesque to sit and create while sipping a cocktail. Also, French. 

{via In The Make}

 

 

Every time I've tried to accomplish this I lose focus, and whatever drive I had going is gone.  Seriously, this is what happens:

{via The Museum of Bad Art}

 

Just kidding.  Is that Michael Jackson clutching a horse head?  How much wine do you think this person had to drink?

Well, Happy Friday everyone!  It's almost Happy Hour. Go do a drawing and show me how it turns out!

Check out these illustrations by fashion artist Tanya Ling.

 

Aren't they wonderful?  I also really love her daughter, Bip Ling.  She blogs about fashion, has super awesome hair, AND a bunny phone!

 

 

Very cute and talented family!  Maybe too cute. 

 

Wanna see my studio?

 

 

 

A few paintings that are currently for sale at the Blue Gallery.

 

 

Seance

The Girl and the Wasp

 

Float

Have a Happy Columbus Day! 

Some extremely important things that have happened lately...

 

 

I FINALLY finished this piece yesterday!  I really like how Mr. Llama's hair turned out.

 

Ivy and I planted some really old sunflower seeds a few days ago, and we were pretty excited to find these growing.

 

 

And David bought this cup.  Fun fact: I never saw Star Wars until they re released it in the theaters in the 90's.  Whaaaat?  I know.

Some pretty big things are happening in the cosmos this week.  One of them is Saturn moving into Scorpio tomorrow.  Saturn teaches us some pretty hard lessons, it's about limitations and harsh reality.  And if anyone out there has had any contact whatsoever with a Scorpio, you know just how intense this sign can be.  I do.  I married one!   Here are a few of my favorite artist's who's pieces illustrate this transit to me:

 

Heather Nevay

Olaf Hajek

Riikka Sormunen

 

And I couldn't leave out Goya!  Appropriately titled "Saturn Devouring His Son"

 

 

 

When done right, I think tattoo's can be really beautiful. Being noncommittal myself, I don't have one. But if I did, it would look like one these I think.

 

 

 

 

Let me show you a tattoo that a client got of MY PAINTING.  Seriously ya'll.  It really can't get any better that this.  My ego is horribly inflated now.

Gorgeous, right?

 

The painting it was based on.

 

 

 

How many tattoo's do you have?  Do you regret it or still love it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let's talk about plates people. We all use them, and they are pretty cool hung up in a cluster or dispersed randomly.  Also, for your pet's bowl.  I have a few for sale in a shop called Blewster's Antiques.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are a lot of fun to make and quite different than what I normally do.  Think painting with nail polish.  It's kinda tricky, but I am very pleased with the outcome!

One of my favorite things is to show the process of how I work. I love seeing other artist's works in progress, and I'm always so inspired by it.  Not sure if this is helpful to anyone, but who cares? Here you go!

This painting is titled Chiromancy and look at all the different stages it went through

 

 

I was not at all happy with the girls in this one. What's up with the side glance? 

Much better!  But I thought the background was lacking.

 

 

And finished! I love the headdresses, the darker edges, and the general gaudiness.  Thanks to Lacey for purchasing!

 

 

 

   And since today is the first of October, I  leave you with our spider infested mantel.  Yay! October!