CINDERELLA WORE PRADA

Many years ago during a  creative block

 I started  some off the wall fun mixed media projects. For my Cinderella slipper I took a Royal Crown cloth bag to create the stool.  The deep purple color with the gold trim was elegant enough for any princess.  I embellished  the stool with large wooden beads and a necklace of yellow beads for the trim. The shoe was made from Viva towels that I had painted with watercolors. Then the ribbon and buttons were added to give  you  a 

version of Cinderella's slipper. 

She wore a little strappy number.

Bee #1

Here is a bug of intense character. 

It is yellow satin ribbing with hand made paste paper wings and big beady eyes. Now you know what I do in my spare time.

What do you create when you let your creative  hair down?

Bee #2

TO MY # ONE FOLLOWER

   

Helen Eaton 

OK, you are my only follower.
First of all thanks for reading my disjointed ramblings which are cathartic for me to share. I write as if no one is reading so I feel free to get as silly as I want.




It seems we should get acquainted so I went on line to see and enjoy your art work. Just for fun I compared our strawberries and you won.  The above photo is a little fuzzy, your strawberry looks much better on your web site.    

Guess I need to work on my fruit.
Happy Painting.

     

Mary Ellen Koser

PAINTING IN THE DARK

Generator

HURRICANE MATTHEW  October 6, 2016

     I have never experienced a hurricane, bad storms yes but not a Cat 4 with 120 miles an hour winds.Taking all the information we could garner we decided to stay and ride out the storm.

Evacuation supplies-check
Food supplies-check
Plenty of water-check
Batteries and lights-check
Dog food-check
Shutters up on all windows and doors-check
Generator-check but we had never actually hook the thing up to run it for the house! 
It was a tense hour or two trying to read the instruction book and get all the settings correct;
     ended up calling our handy man the next day to help us figure it out.

 I was anxious but not frightened. It did cross my mind that this may be the last day I live but I've had a good go at life so I was at peace. Once the decision was made to stay you have to take whatever comes your way.

Solution: take two sleeping pills and sleep through the whole thing! It worked for me. My kids and brother thought I was crazy.

     As it turned out we did just fine. I do realize that it was luck that spared Vero Beach from a really bad out come and I am thankful. Still no electricity but I think we will venture out for a ride to see how others faired and to see if Publix is open.

This time the force was with me and I live to paint another day.
I took pictures of the proper setting so we won't forget the lessons learned. Wisdom comes with age.

Add caption

MY PAINTING IN THE VERO BEACH MAGAZINE!I

I'M TICKLED PINK ABOUT THIS. :)

DISNEY ON ICE

     A few weeks ago my husband and I visited with our grandkids. That is always a joy but to make it even better we all went to see a Disney On Ice show in Orlando. Needless to say Disney puts on a wonderful extravaganza for the eyes and ears to behold.

      Getting a clear still shot was hard because the skaters were in perpetual motion.  The most important shot was of my grandkids watching the magic of Disney and eating pop corn.

     Sometimes it is good to get away from painting. I find I go through streaks of finding subjects that I can't wait to paint and then I go into a creative malaise. My therapy is to step back, organize something, clean something, read some fun books and spend time with people.

     What I know that the spark will return so just relax and let it happen.

     Refilling my artist's well as I write.

AN ARTIST'S ANXIETY

Finished Product: Time for Tea

      Somehow I thought painting should always be an enjoyable stress free career. Wrong!

I have come to the conclusion that it is hard frustrating work. It took me forever to define my style which is colorist/expressionist and now to ply my craft.  I pour over the books and DVDs of Anne Obrien-Gonzales, Lisa Daria, Carol Marine and Clair Harrigan. It is starting to sink in but there are many moments of; OK now what do I do and if I get any more layers on this painting it should be sold by the pound to get top dollar.

#1

"Time for Tea" is not going well to say the least. Step one flowed nicely with the stencil tablecloth and stenciled background wall space. 

Then in step 2  I tried the dreaded flowers and I mess them up every time for so many reasons. Jazzed up the back "table" with red checked design. The red checks were distracting from the focal point so off with it's head. 

#2

#3

Getting creative I added a paisley print paper for the cup of tea, it helped but now the white vase is  just a big dominate blob. I painted it yellow, that helped but it was overwhelming the design so I added a whitish see through rice paper to tone it down a bit. The finished product is at the top of the page.

What did I learn:

* When a picture is not going well I get "artists anxiety". Before I figured out the cause I just thought I was a bit depressed. Note to myself; expect this feeling a lot in the future.

*Dead lines that run down to the wire stress me out a bit. I'm the type that has all in order with plenty of time to spare. Well, I just lost track of time and the dead line date. 

* Have faith in myself that if I don't give up I will figure out the solution of what is wrong with my wonky works of art.

* Never ever paint those big fat flower blobs. Notice how they changed into Trumpet Flowers.

MAIN STREET VERO BEACH GALLERY

Acrylic Skin Flowers

Guess what? I have a guest artist spot for the month of September at MSVB. I am going to jump in with both feet to show my colorist expressionist style. This is who I am as a painter and it feels true to my artistic soul.

Summer of '42

Contemplating

The exhibit was held on September 2nd thought October 5th at the Main Street Vero Beach Gallery on 14th Avenue.

The day before my sister in law helped me hang the exhibit and it took longer and was more work than I expected. The next evening was the monthly Gallery Stroll in Vero Beach, Fl. which is always a lively evening.

Many of my friends came by to wish me well and see my paintings all in one place. I had not seen all my new work in one place either. Someone noted that I like the color orange.

I'm the one in the blue flowered top.

One wall of the exhibit. It was tiring but a delightful evening and yes my feet did hurt by the end of the show:)