Are you sick of the horse pictures yet? Friday is officially horse day here. I drive down (it’s quite a ways from where we live) during the day and ride, come home for a bit, pick up the kids and drive back down for my daughters lesson. I hope I don’t sound like I am complaining because if you’d told me a few years ago I would be spending any amount of time around horses again, I would have been beyond thrilled.
I have been letting myself play around, experiment and explore. Here are some outakes of my day. Maybe they will end up somewhere, maybe not….
update, a few hours later…
My daughter’s best friend has been raising money for Haiti by making and selling these heart branches. So sweet don’t you think? They are fitting on many levels, not the least of which is how open kids hearts are to help others.
The family that wears matching shoes together…
Poppytalk is holding their first poppies awards, I guess sort of the peoples choice for the handmade world. Here’s the part where I ask, quite shamelessly, to pretty please with sprinkles and a cherry on top, to vote for me! I am nominated in the affordable art category, along with a long list of other talented folks. So even if you don’t vote for me, please stop by and vote for your favorite.
I picked up my monthly lot of the dying breed known as magazines today and oh my. I found my dream home in the latest issue of Inside Out. The house is the perfect mix of old and new, kind of a barn meets loft feel, in a gorgeous setting. Oh and they have horses. Apart from the fact that I am torn whether I could actually live in the country, I would move there in a second.
As I jump into new paintings and projects for the new year, I wanted to share what was probably the one that was the most fun of 2009. I was contacted to see if I would lend some of my paintings to a movie that was being made here in Portland, and while that alone was exciting, it is a film being directed by Gus Van Sant. That’s all I needed to know. In addition to the paintings that were used as set dressing, I was asked to create the main characters sketch book. The currently untitled film stars Mia Wasikowska (aka Alice in the upcoming Alice in Wonderland) as a dying girl preoccupied with mortality. The images and quotes deal with death and are influenced by the fact that the characters father had been a naturalist. Some images were specifically mentioned in the script so that helped as a starting point. Here are a few pages. Now I’ll have to wait another year to see if any of it actually makes it into the film!
So, I received a couple moleskine sketch books for Christmas (love), that I am hoping to fill with ideas, rough sketches etc. In addition, I gifted my self with a color a month planners. One page a day, one book for each month and they all come nicely boxed. I am not a diary keeper, but I think these will be a fun challenge for myself, to write/sketch/whatever every single day for a year. When the year is up, it will be a fun time capsule of sorts to look back on, don’t you think?
As we head into the weekend I thought I’d share some links!
There is no end to amazing blogs out there, here are a few of my new (to me) favorites:
I’ve been trying to work on some paintings at least a bit each day, all in various states of completion. I am realizing I usually have been working a good hour or so before I become inspired and ‘ready’ to really go at it. I’ve never really done a warm up because I only have so many hours to work before the little ones come home, at which point I become very jealous of those who have an entire day to paint. This is the main reason I put start and keep sketch book on my resolution/goal list. Maybe if I put more effort into that part of thinking/trying/experimenting stage, I will be more ready when the paint comes out. Thoughts? Do you start your day of making with a warm up?
I just purchased this great drawing from Lauren Nassef. I have been slowly buying pieces to fill a wall I have in our dining room. I can’t wait to see it in person and get it framed and hung up!
My print ‘Girl in the Yellow Suit’ is part of Art Wall’s January room. Art Wall is a virtual display space created to exhibit the artwork of independent artists. It’s approach to showing art is fun and a great inspiration for creating your own art wall.
these are still very much in progress…
