I get distracted so easily!

I hope everyone had a wonderful week! I was super busy trying to catch up after our little road trip. I got distracted with a couple of projects. Then I got sick, ooops! I've struggled with Chronic Fatigue syndrome for quite a few years and once in awhile I crash, and well, I crashed! so I haven't done much with painting at all. Time to rest up and recover so I can paint again soon! In the meantime here's one of the projects that distracted me!

I found this bench at the local good will for $29! I knew exactly what I wanted to do!

I began with dark brown paint.

Here's another angle.

Then I began layering it with thinned white paint. It took four layers.

In between each layer I sanded and scuffed it where it had originally been scuffed and

this is the finished project!

Another angle.

I'm sure you noticed that our bed is currently on the floor. I have a whole other project planned for that! but, I must have patience!

My inspiration this week isn't a person or animal. It's the places I've been. Everywhere I go I see things that I could put onto my canvas into my silly little world.  When I paint I don't copy pictures I've taken, but there's a  snapshot that stays in my head. Sometimes I forget that snapshot and am reminded of the idea I had when I go over some of my photos I've taken over the years so I thought I would share with you some of the things I've seen.

Folly Beach South Carolina

Smoky Mountains Tennessee

Albuquerque New Mexico

Sullivans Island south Carolina

The Grand Canyon Arizona

Baltimore Maryland

Washington D.C.

Blairsville Georgia

And, so many more...... I am grateful for my travels. I'll try to include some pics of our travels in this blog as I post every week!  

I wish for everyone to have a lovely week ahead!

It's All Fun!

Now, I get to tell you what this painting meant! I know that I've mentioned how much I enjoyed painting it. It's a tree family of course! The mom and dad are intertwined giving each other strength, comfort and love, their limbs curl and wrap around their son and baby. I placed the baby in the middle because their older son is the kind of kid who will be protective of his baby sibling. You can follow each of the limbs as they wind around and see how they are all woven together. I was so happy when they opened their painting and their older son knew immediately which tree he was. It made my day!

not available - it's a gift

After all of that excitement I turned back to my little easel and started something new. This time I decided to play with some golden/bronze leaves. Here's where it's at right now.

It's still in the what I call the growth stage. I always start with an idea of what I want but it develops as I paint it. Many times it transforms into something I didn't plan so I've learned not to state exactly where it's headed! I still have this one on hold. 

I have it hanging on my wall so that I can look at it as I pass by to ponder what will happen next. I have a good idea of what I'm going to do, I just need the right motivation to sit down and work on it. That's one of the things I love so much about having a corner to have studio space in, I can spread out a little and am under less pressure to finish a piece, since I can hang it on a wall and think on it a bit!

My inspiration this week is my dear friend Karen Shackles! She is an artist with her camera and can capture the most amazing things. She's on fineartamerica and here is a link to her page there. http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/karen+shackles/all She is privileged to live high in the rockies and gets to see amazing sights every single day. I love that she shares her talent of capturing incredible images with us! Thankyou Karen for constantly inspiring me!

  

New Trees and New Plans

"Hope" available at www.stacysartstudio.etsy.com

I play with my trees all of the time. This is one(on the right) of the my oldest styles. I've always loved the way trees stick no matter the circumstances. They can grow thru almost anything that is adverse. As you've no doubt noticed I like using them in almost all of my paintings and I make them twist and turn. I make them have hearts for leaves, I have them give a message, like the one on the right. I painted this one when I was reminded of some painful things that my son went thru when he was being treated for Leukemia  because a friend of mine was caring for her mother who was battling breast cancer. I don't know what it's like to have the disease but I do know what it's like to care for the one you love with the disease and this is how I felt about it. You want to take the disease into yourself so that your baby doesn't have to endure it, but you cannot so you must be a strong tree and hold him up, give him hope, love him with all of your heart, protect him when you can and give him strength when he doesn't have any himself. Also it feels bleak, like a cold winter but, there is beauty in winter as well and just like a real winter, spring always comes afterward. So there is always hope. That's why I painted this tree this way.

                             Then I painted this style tree. It's a happy Mom and Dad with a little one.

"Family Tree" available at www.stacysartstudio.etsy.com 

Do you remember when your big son was little and he would hold onto yours and his dads' hand so that you both would swing him in the middle? That's where this tree style came from!

Next I started trees in love! You know that feeling of love, where you give each other strength, devotion, safety, compassion, tenderness? Two people become one.

"Love" 2 sold 

Then I started playing with the limbs and how they were shaped. I named this one "Lace" because that's what the limbs reminded me of.

"Lace" available at www.stacysartstudio.etsy.com

Then  I began painting tree families for friends as gifts and I have had so much fun doing tree families. This is the latest that I've done.

not available (it's a gift)

After doing this last painting I decided to do a whole lot more of these. I love the freedom of making those limbs go into curly ques! I will be doing more tree families in the future and I'll be making them available to purchase as commissions. That way you can tell me how many people are in your family and their ages and something about your family so that I can incorporate something specifically for you in the painting. Also I'll offer it in different sizes so that different budgets will be included.    So! There you have the many trees of Stacys world! These are the things that reside in my head! 

I began this post talking about my little man battling Leukemia, well he's 18 now and is an amazing, funny, most entertaining kiddo! Which brings me to my inspiration this week. My boy is my inspiration and always has been. You can read about his story on my other blog. www.chemicalfreeliving.blogspot.com  He constantly amazes me with his kindness, foolishness, humour, compassion and strength. He struggles with the result of the treatment he received for Leukemia so he is home bound quite a bit and has learned to be pretty technically savvy which is a wonderful thing for mom!(the technically savvy part) Since I have no clue about these things! We are starting a new project together. Many people have asked that I offer cards in my etsy store but I've struggled to get that set up in a way that I feel that it's good quality and a reasonable price. I'm taking a couple of paintings and giving them to him to change the dpmi or whatever it needs so that they will print out in good quality. This will probably take a few months, (mainly because I'm slow) I will also be working on a few paintings that I will keep to use for prints only.    

Also I've mentioned before that I wrote a childrens book when my Avery was a baby and had planned on working on the art for that. Well, I didn't get far but there were technical things that I had to work thru with my untechnical(yes I know probably not a word) brain. I haven't given up on it tho and this winter when I hibernate I will be painting my fingers away! Avery will be putting up with his untechnical mother and help get it ready to be a book!

New trees and new projects! Isn't life grand?! Have a great week everyone! Don't forget to hug the ones you love! 

Distractions that turn into wonderful things!

First of all I must apologize for not posting my blog on Tuesday like I normally do. As I explained in my other blog I got all the days of this week mixed up! My husband was off on Monday this week instead of  Sunday and somehow that turned me all around and I thought that today was Tuesday! I'm even posting this quite late in the day too! Sometimes I just can't get control of my silly little brain! I hope your week is going well and you have all of the days of the week in accurate order unlike me!

I started this little painting last week and then kind of got stuck as to where I wanted it to go next. So I hung it up to look at, besides I had a painting to do for a friend is about to have a baby! I wanted to do a family tree painting my style of course! So I started that one. 

and then.... I got stuck again. I know where I want it to go but I wasn't sure of the next step and then a really wonderful friend who I've decided to share as my inspiration this week since she gave me inspiration this week gave me a call. She wanted to give me an antique weathered dressing table! I was so excited since I was looking for a little table to keep in my kitchen because I like to do my blogging there. So....I left my paintings talked my sweet hubby into going out and picking up the dressing table and brought it home!

This is how it started out. Beautiful piece isn't it? It's missing the mirror but I didn't want a mirror in my kitchen anyway.

This was the next step, I told her that I was going to shabby chic it and she was fine with that.

While I did this part I found some cool blue combinations that I will use in the future in some of my paintings. 

I almost left it that blue but decided to continue on to complete the vision I had for this piece.... and here's the final finished piece! I turned where the mirror was supposed to be into a chalkboard and found beautiful glass blue knobs at hobby lobby for just 1.36 each! I'm in love with it and will happily blog away there...IN FACT! I am right now!

While working on this piece I thought about my paintings and pondered and came up with a plan! So.. tomorrow I will be back at the easel!

My friend is the owner of  4 Essential Balance in Edgewood NM. She is an amazing massage therapist. She keeps me in shape so I can continue to be inspired to paint and she inspired me this week with this truly kind gift! Here's the link to her facebook page and if you are in NM or ever plan on traveling thru you should go get a massage!

   https://www.facebook.com/4essentialbalance?fref=ts

I hope everyone has a happy, laughter filled week!

  

It's Fall Out There!

Have I mentioned how much I love my new studio?

I truly do! Notice the small footstool under my new easel....That's because I am too short to sit at my easel and touch the floor with my feet! Hee Hee Also I have severe arthritis in one of my ankles and sitting with my leg hanging will cause alot of pain so I use the little footstool and am quite comfortable.

I have been having a little trouble with my studio of late tho. The trouble is this. It's fall time! No matter where I have lived, fall is always my favorite time of year. The weather is perfect and it's the last hurrah before winter sets in, so painting gets put on the back burner thru fall for me.

Oh! but everywhere I look there is inspiration! I started this piece this week. Here's the first layer.

The next layer... the beginning of what will be at least a million leaves.

Painted one by one...

Almost all of the leaves, I think I'll go back and add a few more for a better balance.

And a few more details but not finished yet.

I will try to keep working on it this coming week. I also have a piece I need to start on for a friend of mine who is expecting a baby soon. I'm going to do a family tree for her! 

My inspiration this week is......Artist AmyLynBihrle

  

https://www.etsy.com/listing/162728233/black-cat-one-love-art-print-or-aceo-by?ref=exp_listing

I love her art, it is done with such humor and beauty! Everytime I look at it I smile! Thankyou Amy!

Here is a link to her store.

  https://www.etsy.com/shop/AmyLynBihrle?ref=l2-shopheader-name

Whatever makes you smile, whatever you love to create keep on doing it! Have a great week everyone!  

My New Studio Space!

First let me say how sorry I am that I didn't post on my blog last week. It's funny how quickly things can change. I'm hoping, however that we are now in a spot that will remain the same for at least the next year! We moved into a little house! I tell all about it in my other blog www.chemicalfreeliving.blogspot.com so you can jump on over there to hear the whole story! but.... here's my new studio space!

I'm so excited to have a little more elbow room to work in and the floors don't move! Painting in a camper is challenging not just because of the space issue but also that it's on wheels so it moves every time someone moves inside the camper. This is a very difficult thing when you are trying to paint! This is the back corner of our living room, which makes me happy because I actually like to paint where my family gathers. Sometimes I am hit by a need to paint all by myself but that usually occurs in the middle of the night and everyone's in bed so this space works really well!

So...Right before all of this change occurred  I finished that painting of horses I posted about in my last blog. Here it is all finished. I was very nervous about this one but am so happy with the outcome! I really dread to stretch myself but am always happy that I did! I hope you enjoy the final product!

Here's  the beginning....

and here's the finished piece!

"Romping thru the Sunflowers" Sold

This week my inspiration is someone I've already told you about(T. Michelle Jacobs) but last week she released a new book! It's  "When Roses Were Red" I cannot wait to read the whole thing! Here's the facebook link so you can find out about it. You can find her books on Amazon.com. Now that I have a mailing address again I'm dashing off to purchase her new book!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/When-Roses-Were-Red/445335178847008?fref=ts

Thankyou T. Michelle Jacobs for inspiring me once again! I love your poetry!

and....I'm off to paint! 

Paint is flying!

"Blue Skies Ranch" Sold

How was your week? I hope it was all you wanted it to be!

I'm about back on track painting in a regular schedule now. It's lovely to be able to pick up brush and just paint again! I finished this piece that I had begun a long time ago and then it sold. I was very excited. I'm always thrilled and surprised when I sell a piece. Someone asked me why I should be so surprised that my paintings sell. It was a kind thing to say.  I think all artists suffer from some sort of insecurity when you put your art out there. For me the reason is that in every painting I do I put myself into  so when I put it out there it's the same as putting myself on display. It's always surprising and gives me such joy when someone loves my work. I hope to make people smile.  


Since I started working on finishing pieces I had begun some time ago I kind of got on a roll. Next I finished this piece. "Hey! That's my fish!" It's a 12x12.

"Hey! That's my fish!" 12x12 available at www.stacysartstudio.etsy.com

Twice I have enjoyed watching a bird sneak up on a fisher and steal a fish! Once with my nephew a great blue heron stole a fish right off his line. On another occasion while traveling down to one of my favorite places in south carolina I enjoyed this scene. A little boy arguing with a snowy egret over the fish he caught! Real life is better than what any of us can make up!


Then I began reworking this painting just a bit. The clouds have always bothered me so I went ahead and repainted them and I'm quite happy with it now!

"Storms' A'brewin" 16x20 available at www.stacysartstudio.etsy.com 

Then a very exciting thing happened. Someone asked me to customize a painting to include her two horses only in my silly style. The background is finished now.

Right now it's primarily blue with purple highlights because I'm planning on layering in much more purple. I've never tried to do a specific horse before so we shall have to see how it ends up! but I am excited to give it a try!

Now, it's time for what inspires me this week! I came across this amazing shop on etsy. It combines three of my favorite things. Re purposing, words and art! This wonderful artist has turned pallets into art. Here's the link to her shop so you can see her beautiful work!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/RescuedandRepurposed?ref=pr_faveshops

And here is one of my favorites of hers.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/155748124/and-though-she-be-but-little-she-be?ref=shop_home_active

I suppose it's because I am little and there are times in life when I have had to be fierce! (If I had to be fierce to someone who didn't know me, it always comes as quite a shock to them!)

Thanks for your inspiration this week artist Tess Angeline!