Day 111

Uncommitted

I framed these and put them together. I thought they looked kind of cool.

Day 110

Union Jack

Why am I trying so hard to be something I'm not? Or maybe it's not that I'm not, I just haven't taken the time to be. All the years in my business my art was dictated and confined. Once in a while I would branch out but my customers wanted what they always wanted. Just like when I see U2 I always want them to sing 'I still haven't found what I'm looking for,' which is exactly how I feel about my art. I don't know what my art is without the restraints, I want to be free but it is so uncomfortable and unfamiliar.

Day 109

Happy Faces

I think Gerberas are so cute and they come in such an array of beautiful colors, I love them. I tried to do 3 but the third on bombed, red on red and it was to hard to see the definition, so I might have to redo it tomorrow.

Day 108

Gerbera

Yesterday my last guests left and I didn't do my painting till 8:30 pm. It was a simple little daisy. This morning when I got up I looked at the little painting again and thought of an idea for my sister. She wants four paintings, and they were all going to be different but I wondered what if they were all the same and just the flowers were different, so here is the first one.

Day 107

Gerbera

Day 106

Forest Princess

Okay, this for the little girls in my life who love princesses, and my sister who loves all things cute.

Day 105

Hmmmmm

I am thinking there is a space above my couch that needs a painting and I like this design I did a while back I just want it in a different color way. So I tried it.

Day 104

Ballerina

I had my whole family in town this weekend and people and children sleeping in every nook and cranny, well, only the children slept in crannies. My studio is a great space but it also includes a bed which obviously was occupied, so it was harder to get my work done, BUT I DID!

Day 103

Petey

Day 102

Sandra

I have a friend who chickens are her pets. So I have decided that this little gal can go into my "dog" file because she is treated just like a man's best friend.

Day 101

Kipper

I have worked and reworked this dog and I can't get her right. She lives next door and this painting is close but it doesn't quite capture her. I will have to keep trying.

Day 100--Big Deal!

Day 100!

My artwork for today is dedicated to my good friend Ki. She is the creative talent behind Flea Market Style Magazine, Junk Bonanza and Junk Revolution. I went to work for her when I was in college and she has been my inspiration ever since. She is super talented and creative and a wonderful friend. Happy Birthday to you Ki!

The second big thing is I finally finished and delivered the abstract piece of art I have been working on since April. If you have been following my blog at all you have seen the variations on the theme. But here it is in real, hanging in the little girls bedroom. I have to say I am very excited and proud of myself for working on the my new style.

The painting is 4 feet wide by two feet high, it seems smaller in the picture, but it is a fairly large piece of art.

Day 99

Gerbera

Today is the 99th day I have been painting. I can't believe it went so fast. I don't have a clue what I am going to paint tomorrow which always means a slow start. The little space I have for my studio is neither heated or cooled and today the temps are going to be in the triple digits with high humidity. This morning I painted in the sauna but tomorrow I may have to haul it all inside. Maybe I will paint a "heatwave". Now, just exactly would that look like?

Day 98

Annabelle Hydrangea

(aka snowball)

Speaking of snow, I try to think back to February when is was so unbearably cold and remember why I wished for heat. Today is 100F with a heat index of 107 and tomorrow is supposed to be worse.

Day 97

Cosmos

Flower # 2

Day 96

Snapdragons

Starting a series of flower paintings on greens, blues, reds and yellow. This is so much more vibrant in real, now I not only have to sign up for a painting class, I have to sign up at Apple to figure out how to get better color in my scans.

Day 95

Babycakes

"C'mon babycakes" I said to Coco as we were crossing the street to go to Vacation Bible School yesterday. Then I wondered to myself, what is a babycake exactly. When I couldn't think of anything to paint this morning I remembered that little wisp of an idea and drew it up in my notebook, I picked 3 cute babies to paint, but there could be oh so many more and doing so many things.

Day 94

G

Giraffe is an obvious choice for the letter G but for the small g I wasn't sure. Originally I had the giraffe eating gumdrops. Then I went thru the dictionary and these were my other choices, grapes, groundhog, guinea pig, gingham, garden, gazelle, gorilla, galaxy, games gecko, grand piano (which could be really cute buy possibly hard to manipulate a giraffes body to playing the keys) and the one I chose gondolier in a gondola on the Grand Canal no less. It was too funny in my mind so of course that's the one I chose and this is the outcome.

Day 93

Cats

I think cats are so much harder than dogs in more ways than one. They don't come when you call, fetching is out of the question, they are completely opposed to tricks, they expect to use the indoor facilities and they never offer to clean up, and in general they feel they are far superior beings. With that said, this is my first attempt at a cat. I am going to assume I will get better.

Day 92

Venus #3

I got my Turquoise! But I'm still not in charge.I used my ruler and a pencil....

Look at that color combination!

Venus had trouble getting those fake eyelashes on and I almost had to give her a pirate patch to cover it up.

In the end, I still haven't got the picture from my brain to the paper, I feel farther away than ever. I have to take a break from Venus for a while and work on my Venetian Giraffe gondoliering in the Grand Canal.

Day 91

Abstract # 9

Since I went swimming instead of going for art supplies yesterday, I kept working on my abstract. Here's another one, it's a lot less orange in real, but I am not that good at fixing color on my computer. Today I shall buy Turq! But if I don't, I have a cute little giraffe all ready to go.

Day 89 & 90

The Birth of Venus

It was a hard delivery and it didn't come out quite right. I got sick, I can't make turquoise (I always mix most of my own colors, expect turq and magenta, I never seem to be able to get those right) and it was blazing hot in my un-airconditioned studio. Anyways, enough complaining. Last year I had this idea, what if Venus wasn't curvy, what if she had a 1960's hairdo and was a little embarassed about being naked, what would that look like? Well not exactly like this, but I still have it in my mind how it would look. I'm half way there. It is so excellently cool in my head, now if I could only get it out and onto the canvas, I have the most wonderful heavy gilt frame that needs a piece of art. I will get this right. I am going to the paint store today just to get Turq. and then we'll see who's in charge.

Day 90

Day 89

Last year's idea, with the last 2 day's worth of work

Day 88

Nothingness but Happiness

Yesterday I was ready to give up on trying to develop a new style. I like what I do, but there has always been a part of me that feels like I could do more, or express it in a different way. Today I woke up with a bad cold and couldn't think of anything to do. I found a little 1" x 1" scrap of paper I had cut out of a stylized dancer. The back round it what caught my eye. It was the most delicious shade of green, turquoise and a little lime and I decided to try to achieve that color. And this is what I came up with. It isn't anything, but it does evoke the feeling of happiness in my soul, so I like it.

I think I will frame this and put it on etsy.

Day 87

E

Day 86

F

Fairly fun frittering the hour away painting letter #6.

Day 85

Red Hots

Red and Orange and Yellow and Magenta. Hot Hot Hot, just like the 4th of July weekend in Minneapolis. My garden is blooming and is filled with all these colors. I painted a large version of this in January a couple of years ago and always wished I had did one thing different. Today I did.

Day 84

For my friend Jan

Her little baby, KinKade

Day 83

Another Day Another Dog

Day 82

Honesty

Yesterday I painted for two hours and did not, I repeat, did not complete any single piece of art. That was my daily goal. At some point over the course of the year experiment I thought I might fail at that commitment and yesterday was it. And yet, at the end of this year I will have accrued well over 366 little pieces of art, because on many days I am able to paint 2 or 3 items. Today I painted this and the one I will put on the next post for "today". I thought about just posting this as yesterday's art, but I am choosing to be forthcoming with myself, personally I don't think anyone really cares if I painted this today or yesterday, but in my heart I would know and therefore I care. Thanks for listening.

About this painting, it is of my friend's dog Lulu. Her little love. She wears a bow in her hair almost everyday, unless it falls out. Like most dogs, and why we love them, she is a true and faithful companion.

Day 82

High Heels & Lemondrops

To my friend who chose high heels and lemondrops over cancer. Who chose to let love and joy define her life. Here's to you Loretta. Cheers! And here's to the rest of us that will will never forget her.

Day 81

Another Lemon to make Lemonade

I painted a lemon for my friend but it was microscopic and so I did another one a little larger, but just as yummy. And while I painted, I thought about her and her life, and how she just lost one of the loves of her life. She is sad, but she still sees the beauty and joy and hope life brings. I love her spirit. I love her joy. She truly is a lemonade maker and if she had a stand out in front of her house, I for one would stop and buy what she was selling.