Archive for the ‘art’ Category

All Kids Are Artists

June 5th, 2013
7 Comments

Penelope’s really come into a creative grove since she got her new studio. What’s even more awesome/remarkable is how all of the neighbor kids congregate in the tiny hallway to create artwork with her.

We’ve got quite a few budding artists on our street, including a 6 year old girl whom I’m convinced could be a fantastic calligrapher.

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So I’m going to start a series. A virtual gallery stroll, if you will.

These kids are really inspiring to me, especially how they just freely create without any rules.

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Penelope drew this bee for her aunt B. Get it? Adorable. She’s always creating little pictures and sculptures.

On the first Wednesday of each month, I’m going to be posting her creative endeavors and maybe a couple from the neighbor kids as well. I would love to see you participate! Use the banner above and post your kid’s creative endeavors on your blog on the first Wednesday of each month. We’ll link up for a virtual gallery stroll. For this month, feel free to link up in the comments to any artwork your child has done. If you don’t have a blog, feel free to submit your child’s work to me before the first Wednesday (July 3) and I’ll publish it here. I hope you’ll participate with me! See below for submission requirements.

Artwork must be 100% done by your child 18 years and younger. Photo must be taken in natural light and image must be at least 550px wide.

Penelope the Artist

April 26th, 2013
12 Comments

Penelope draws things and tells me to frame them or to make things inspired by them. I’m loving this phase in her life.

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See the drawing above, the girl on the lower right? Penelope wants me to make me a dress with see-through sleeves and a button down front. Who is this girl? The next big designer.

And I need that dress in my closet.

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She also made this rad creature. The ears all over her head are awesome.

And speaking of ears, we’re up to our ears in all of her awesome artwork. The dilemma we’re having is what to keep, how to keep it and how to clean out the extra art without hurting her feelings.

Right now we call her stash place (a flat storage drawer in my studio) her collection. We have her put her completed art projects in her collection and then we’ll typically sort it all out from there. A few pieces (like Penelope’s monster above) goes straight in a frame. Goodness I love this girl’s style.

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I started teaching Penelope how to use my dip pen (top left). I love seeing her experiment with holding the pen different ways. It’s hard to see her scratch and pull the nib on the page, but she’s so willing to learn and I’m more than happy to teach her.

It’s a few days past her birthday, but I still plan on turning one of our utility closets into a special studio for her. I can’t wait to see that excitement on her face.

Inexpensive Minimal Gallery Wall

March 23rd, 2013
18 Comments

zero-budget-project

I’ve got another installment of the great Zero Budget Project. I don’t know why I’ve been dragging my feet on styling our bedroom. It’s not like it took that long or wasn’t fun to do. I guess I just needed to channel the right creativity.

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I walked past these ribba frames while on a routine run to Ikea. They were $1.99 – and that spurred an idea. What if I did an entire wall out of these awesome cheap frames? I think the best part about these frames is that they’re an inch and a quarter deep. They don’t look as cheap as they are. So for just over $20 I was able to decorate this wall. Easy peasy.

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It took a measuring tape, a level and a pencil. I measured out the width of the wall and graphed out where each piece should lie. It worked out to 10 inches apart. I went through old artwork and cropped down the pieces that would work (really only taking the pieces I liked that were just about 5×7). I had a few holes in my 11 piece series so I looked through Penelope’s stash and made a few new pieces as well.

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Curating, prepping, cleaning, painting and hanging artwork took a few hours. All the while Chris was MIA, it was fun to reveal the newly cleaned and decorated space to him. Making him excited about our space really makes my efforts worth it.

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The ribba frames come with these pre-cut mats, I didn’t use any of them for the artwork on display so I sandwiched an engagement photo of ours in between two of them using a flower frog (from Gather & Hunt).

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I didn’t go with any specific style or color theme with this gallery, and I like it that way. I went with pieces that I liked and tried to arrange them in a way that would make them balanced.

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I believe I made 5 pieces specifically for this gallery, it was a much-needed exercise to bust out the watercolors. Details on each painting after the jump.

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Zero Budget Project: Family Art

December 14th, 2012
5 Comments

I’ve hung up two pieces in our house this week. That’s pretty sad considering I have about 50 or more pieces all ready to hang. All of our artwork is just hanging out in a pile in a nook in my bedroom. It takes up quite a bit of space so there’s not much room on my side of the bed. It’s amazing how hanging art will make a house look lived in.

We have a very blank wall above the stairway. It’s one of the first things you see when you walk into our home. It needed art on it badly. I had this vision in my head to do some lettering with all the nicknames we call each other and just fill the entire paper with those nicknames (kinda like Penelope’s old room sign -scroll to bottom). I’m still not sold on that idea, so I just did: Chris, Melissa, Penelope and Felix forever.

I went through about 7 sheets trying to get it all perfect and this is the best that I came up with. I’m still not thrilled about it. But no matter. I’ve got loads of this paper, I’ll just practice some more. It’s not very hard to replace the art, either.

I like the idea of something about our little family and our names and having those words fill the page entirely, bleeding off the page behind the frame. What do you think? What should it say?

Sponsored: Discover Art You Love

September 12th, 2012
9 Comments

This post is sponsored by Art.com. Find your art and love your space with art.com’s prints and museum-grade framing.

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Back when I was first learning how to paint with real watercolors (about 8th grade), we had an assignment in my french class. I’m not sure what it had to do with speaking the French language, but I loved it all the same: we had to replicate a french impressionist work of art. I chose an obscure Monet piece. As I was looking through and discovering artists of the French impressionism, Monet really struck a chord with me. I became just slightly obsessed.

A painting I did at the ripe old age of 13

Funny story, not long after I discovered my obsession with Monet I found out I needed glasses. BADLY. My mom and dad joked that my poor eyesight was the reason why I related to Monet’s impressionist style so readily. They were probably on to something. Or perhaps it was something about the impressionist movement that made real moments and landscapes so beautiful and breathtaking.

Since learning more about art and art history Monet still has a place in my heart, but I’ve grown to love all kinds of artists. Right now I’m totally digging on these fantastic artists:

Even now, as I look back through the paintings I’m most proud of (interesting how most of them happen to be at my parents’ house) I find that each of them have a very painterly approach.  Perhaps this is a coincidence because of the style of the first artist I ever loved?

Throwing paint isn’t always my go-to technique, but it’s fun to do. There’s something about the almost childlike or (this is such a ‘po-mo’ term I hate to say it but it’s true) visceral experience of the controlled chaos of making an image with bold brushwork.

Who was the first artist you ever loved? I would love to hear your stories! Let’s talk art, today.

Do you have an iPad? You can access Art.com’s Art Circles app where you can discover more art via curators (yours truly is on there), style, color and words. The app is absolutely stunning, free, great inspiration for your home and for getting your art on. If you don’t have an iPad, you can find my art picks at my You+Art profile page.

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