Blue Sky Over Golden Field Commission!

I was recently commissioned to do a painting for the new funeral chapel in Dauphin, Manitoba. I was asked to do a blue sky over a golden wheat field with the Duck Mountains in the background and a little Ukrainian church near the horizon. And in case you don't recognize it, this is meant to represent the Ukrainian flag. It is 4 x 2 feet, a lot bigger than what I normally do! I was a little worried at first but it wasn't too bad, just a lot of repetition. I don't want to look at wheat again for a while.

The client finally saw it in person today and was very happy with it, actually, if I may say, used the words "breathtaking" and "mesmerized". After a long time of little success this is really a thrill for me. Thank you Joe for this amazing opportunity!

A close up:

I will post again when the painting on display.

Miniature Sewing Room

My second shadow box is done. I started on this last year and then put it aside for a while and recently decided it was time to finish it. This idea all started with these items that I bought, along with the little sewing machine, years ago.

I had to build the sewing table, using cardboard, filagree pieces, wire, etc. The shelves are also made of cardboard. On them there is fabric, ribbon on spools made of paper and plastic tubes from inside a pen, thread on spools made from a toothpick and cardboard, painted cardboard buttons on paper, books and boxes made from paper and fabric, a basket made of wire and crochet cotton with balls of yarn that are mostly crochet cotton, and a couple of the bought items.

On the walls there is a faux mirror made with a resin frame and silver sticker paper, a cuckoo clock that is just a charm, a little hat that I made, and a tiny painting in a resin frame. The painting is 7/8 x 5/8" (2 x 1.5 cm). And there is a pretend light fixture on the ceiling which is a painted resin piece, bead caps and a glass drop. The texture on the ceiling which you can kind of see was done with modeling paste.

Here is a close up of the painting.

Frost

It's surprising how many hours it took just to paint the leaves for this, but I got it done, and combined them with more painting, beadwork, and some microbeads to create this frosty picture.

 Here's a close up:

Good news!

Today I just shipped my first online sale, to someone who is not family. Five pieces of jewelry! I hope this is a sign of good things to come.

And I have been trying to be more productive, but it is hard when my son is home. "Mommy play Minecraft with me." "Mommy get me an infinity bow." "Mommy find me more diamonds." If you play Minecraft you know these things take all day, especially when you have just started a new world playing only in survival. Make that two new worlds.

Meanwhile, I have a new project going. I recently found a big stash of pressed flowers and leaves in my craft room. They were sitting in a book for about 20 years and still look good. I have found a use for these dusty miller leaves and I'm in the process of painting them. It took me a couple of hours to get half of them done, while watching Poirot on Netflix. I hope to get to do that again today.

New Year, New Desk!

All I wanted for Christmas was a corner computer desk, the kind where you actually sit facing the corner. There doesn't seem to be very many like that but I did find one on the Walmart site. It just fits in the space I have, after removing a few things. Then I gave my son my old computer desk and was able to take out his little table, which is now a Lego table, and this opens up a lot of space in my room.

Also, my dad built some nice shelves for my bead containers, which is much better than the big shoe rack I was using.



Before:

After:

Before:

After:

The only thing you can't see is my over-stuffed closet.

Now to get back into creating more. I feel like I have been really slacking off for some time. As a warm up I did a quick little painting for the Different Strokes Project at wetcanvas.com, the theme this month being favourite childhood toy. I chose this stuffed lion cub that I still have and added it to my art journal, using paint and stencils to fill the rest of the space.

I also finished a digital piece using Procreate on my iPad. The reference was a photo of vegetables from my garden. Not sure how I really feel about it, but it was good practice anyway. I don't really know where I'm going in terms of style except that I want to move away from realism, but not too much.

 I nearly gave up on that broccoflower thing, lol. It tasted good but is a pain to paint. And this was for a digital challenge where the theme was colour.