special friend blend 26

Hi there! I hope you are having a great weekend! I've had a creative kind of day. First up is a card that I made for my sweet sister Tina. We enjoy drinking Orange Spice ice tea together when she comes over to visit so I pulled out the PTI Tea for Two stamp set and created a card for her :)

I recently purchased a few PTI ink pads including Autumn Rose which I used to stamp the tea pot with and I'm really disappointed because the image is not real crisp. What's up with that?! I've contacted customer service and I'm hoping to get some sort of response. Tina will surely appreciate the card regardless ;)

For card sketch inspiration, I'm joining along with the current Freshly Made Sketches sketch challenge:

It's Day 9 of 30 in 30:

I was in the mood to paint roses so I pulled out one of Gary Jenkins The Beauty of Oil Painting books and followed along with the Tea Rose tutorial. Since I haven't practiced painting roses in awhile, I first painted on an 8" x 8" linen canvas board:

the roses seemed to grow as I painted and the canvas became very full in no time!

I was brave and gave it another try on a 16" x 20" linen canvas. NO two paintings are ever the same (at least not for me)! There are so many that I've done in the past that I'm going to revisit and repaint on a larger size canvas to hang in my home. 

I'm linking my paintings to this week's Paint Party Friday site:

Thanks so much for stopping by ~ I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Be Sweet ;)

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Barnyard wood and roses 20

Hi there! I hope you had a great weekend! I had fun hanging out with my dear husband and sweet sister :) Today I have a 12" x 12" painting to share inspired by Gary Jenkins The Beauty of Oil Painting Barnyard Roses video and book tutorial. To begin, I followed along with Gary's book instructions on how to paint a barnyard wood like background using acrylic paints:

After I applied several layers of paint and had achieved the look I was going for, I was able to move on and paint the roses and foliage:

I learned a lot along the way while painting this piece and can't wait to give it another try on a large 20" x 20" or 24" x 24" canvas to hang in my home:

I'm sharing this painting on the Paint Party Friday site:

Many thanks for stopping by ~ I hope you have a great day!
Be Sweet ;)

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Peach Parfait Roses 33

Hi! I hope you're having a great week so far! Today I switched paintbrush strokes and painted a few roses on an 11" x 14" canvas panel inspired by a lesson in The Beauty of Oil Painting book by Gary Jenkins. I'm not really thrilled with how the roses turned out but at some point, one must move on. Gary always reminds his students that one will probably have to paint at least 400 hundred roses to get the hang of the strokes! I'm two closer to my goal ;)

99.9 % of my paintings are "alla prima" style meaning (at first attempt) a wet on wet technique.

For color inspiration, I joined along with this week's ColourQ color challenge:

I'm joining along with this week's Paint Party Friday site:

Thanks so much stopping by!
Be Sweet ;)

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a trio of luminescent poppies 24

Happy Summer! I've been practicing painting poppies AGAIN. This time, I painted a trio of luminescent white poppies on an 11" x 14" canvas panel inspired by a lesson in The Beauty of Oil Painting book by Gary Jenkins.

After painting and repainting each poppy 2 or 3 times, I stepped away and called it complete. I can see where I need improvement so on to the next. Each brush stroke is quite a learning experience. 

I'm joining along with the current Paint Party Friday site:

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Be Sweet ;)

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a trio of bright poppies 20

Hi there! I finally did it! I pulled the trigger and painted on a large canvas for my home :) I painted the trio of bright poppies on a 24" x 24" canvas inspired by a lesson in The Beauty of Oil Painting book by Gary Jenkins.

I reworked each poppies several times before moving on. I can step back and see where I need improvements but for now, I'm going to hang this one proudly on a wall in my home :)

I'm joining along with the Paint Party Friday site:

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Be Sweet ;)

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luminescent pastel poppies 32

Hi! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend! I'm trying to paint everyday so the brush strokes and color combinations become second nature. I recently attended a costly art workshop at Scottsdale Artists' School. As I was trying to justify the cost in my mind, I realized I did learn valuable information even though I didn't walk away painting like Monet ;) Probably the most valuable pearl of wisdom I learned was that one may attend workshop after workshop from all the masters in art but you still have to put in the time and practice, practice, practice. I relate painting to nursing and think of how scared to death I was more than 20 years ago when I first graduated from nursing school and was responsible of taking care of multiple patients at a time. After all those years of experience behind me, it has become second nature and I'm really hoping painting will be the same, second nature that is. Hopefully it won't take 20 years before I can proudly hang a piece of art that I painted in my home :) 

Today I have a 12" x 12" gessoed art board to share featuring a couple of luminescent pastel poppies inspired by a lesson in The Beauty of Oil Painting book by Gary Jenkins.

The poppies were rather challenging for me. After the third attempt on each, I decided to call it a night and move on. 

I'm joining along with this month's Creative Carte Blanche creative art adventure where the theme is Winged Things.

I'm also linking to the current Paint Party Friday post:

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Be Sweet ;)

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