Life Cycles of Frogs and Toads

For the last few weeks I have been working on this mural to be used as a game board at the museum where I work.  We have a special frogs exhibit and docents will use play this game with school groups who come to visit.  At first I worked on it in the office I share with the other educators, but I actually moved much faster on it when I brought it home.  Watched a few episodes of The Office on Roku, listened my daughter practice playing the recorder, and filled all the details.

At this point, I am thrilled to be done with it!  I do have to tweak it a bit now that we've tried playing the game, but at this point it is pretty complete.  One of the docents very kindly said to me, "So you're an artist?"  I wish!

Painted Rocks and My Vacation

I spent most of this week on Cape Cod. I almost always take some kind of little art project with me - often ATC size, and this year, after seeing all the lovely painted rocks on Pinterest, I just took a bottle of white paint and a paintbrush.




I love the simplicity of white on rock. These were just playful and fun - I may work up to a more serious similar project at some point. Right now I have to sneak in a little creativity wherever I can - it's been a busy summer!

I had a great week and mostly enjoyed spending time with my family. We all loved Marconi Beach, part of the National Seashore. The waves were huge and we got to see whales breaching in the distance. This photo is of Esme and me on the sandbar that appears at low tide at Scusset Beach - probably about to start searching for hermit crabs.



I also loved the simplicity of just sitting around with my husband. He got me two books at The Odyssey to read on the trip - the new biography of Juliette Gordon Low and The Monsters of Templeton. Of course I enjoyed the biography - it's the third one I've read about the founder or Girl Scouts, and still gave me some new tidbits I'd never heard. I enjoyed the novel as well. It was a bit predictable in places, but I loved the way the author wove in the family's history with the modern story.

I'm so glad the cold weather is almost behind us for another year. Esme and I like to sit outside with paints or colored pencils, at home or at the park, and let Ethan serenade us while we create. This is one of my last winter-inspired pictures for this year, and it's a typical scene from my life! It's just a quick sketch with oil pastels and acrylic paints, where I made some swirls on paper and saw what kind of people would emerge. Now I'm looking forward to Friday, when I hear we might hit 72 degrees here in the Pioneer Valley, and hoping that soon pictures of little girls in flowered dresses will emerge from those swirls.

I think I am on the mend and at last feeling in more of a crafty mood. When the last spot goes away, I think it will be time for a party. I have been really been wanting to work on whimsical projects the past few weeks. I was lucky enough to go away for the weekend with my handsome husband, and created this painting in our friend's cottage on the Cape. It was inspired by a line in a song he once wrote that always inspires me, "Paper thin hopes folded into a boat, to sail away with you." I am planning to do a few more pieces with this line in mind.

I am sooo excited that I finally opened my Etsy shop! I have been talking about it for a while and decided to just grab the paintings in my post-industrial landscape series and go for it. This is the painting I did for the Easthampton Plein Air competition. It was fun, but a bit of a challenge because the paintings had to be done outside, and there were heavy downpours most of the week. Luckily Esme was willing to brave it out and go with me almost every day when I got out of school. It was exciting to have my painting hanging at the Nashawannuck Gallery with so many other wonderful pieces. This was one of my first paintings inspired by Ludwig Bemelmans, one of my favorite artists and the creator of the Madeline series.

I've been spending most of my free time the last couple weeks trying to get my studio organized. I use it for all my painting, scrapbooking, sewing, and otherwise crafty supplies, so it is QUITE full. I was lucky to have a friend over to help me redo it and make me feel less boxed in when I'm sitting at my table. Now I've hit the place where I just want to give up and just do some creative projects!! Enough organizing, I want to be painting or scrapping! I have been trying to develop my own style of portraits so I'm doing some smaller sizes for practice. Soon I hope to get into these lovely bigger canvases I've been saving.

Here is the second in my post-industrial downtown series. These are done with paint pen on one side of a transparency and acrylic paints on the other. This one doesn't have a title yet, but it was one of my favorite spots when Ethan and I walked around downtown one day. I am planning to do two more in this series, and then open my Etsy shop!

Christmas Presents and a Painting

I was very lucky to receive some arty gifts this Christmas, including an easel, and a mat cutting system. Hoping Ethan will learn to use the mat cutter and become my mat guy! I am just not very good at things that require such precision. Thought I would share another piece that includes him - this is one of my favorites from a new series I'm doing of post-industrial areas. This is a building in the crumbling downtown in our city and that little green speck on the lower left gives it it's title - "Ethan on the Street." This painting is done with kind of a different technique - it is paint pen on one side and acrylics on the other of a transparency. I've been inspired by Ludwig Bemelmans, author and illustrator of the Madeline series and hope to finally open my Etsy shop when I have four finished. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!