My Girls

Happy Monday!! I finally got a few pictures of some recently finished pieces to share. These are two paintings I did while taking Wyanne's Mixed Media Painting with the Girls class. I had so much fun and Wyanne is such a great teacher. This is my first time painting the full figure in one of my mixed media pieces. I had lots of experience drawing figures in my figure drawing classes in college many years ago, but this was new to me. It was challenging, but really fun to see their personalities develop!

Here is Autumn Resting:

She is peacefully resting under the tree with the colorful leaves falling around her. The verse is "My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will never be shaken." Psalm 62:1-2.

This next one is Spring Ballerina:

I've always loved dancers! I took a few ballet classes in my earlier years; it was great exercise! I even decorated my daughter's room in a ballet theme! I just love the grace and beauty of ballet dancers. Her verse is "Let them praise His name with dancing and make music to Him with tambourine and harp. For the Lord takes delight in His people; He crowns the humble with salvation." Psalm 149:3-4.

In both of these I used acrylic paint, collage elements (paper flowers, decorative paper, old sheet music, tissue paper, and recycled magazine clippings) along with water soluble oil pastels and watercolor pencils. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm planning to open up an Etsy shop soon and hope to find a good home for these sweet girls!

I have a few newly finished portraits to post soon and I've got several fun projects I'm currently working on. I started a piece for my newly reorganized studio space and I'm working on ideas for an upcoming show. I can't wait to share what I've come up with!

Have a wonderful day and I hope you find time to do something creative!! :)

Take care, Jennifer

Catching up!

Wow! Where has the time gone? I hate that it has been so long since my last post. The new year has brought with it the same busyness as always! I've been working hard to simplify things in preparation for some big life changes coming our way. I chose "Simplify" (from Ali Edwards' One Word Challenge) to be my "One Word" for this year. The word I chose last year was "Create" and I really enjoyed seeing the progress I made from the beginning of last year to the end with trying to focus on creating more in my everyday life. I started painting again, took several online art classes, participated in a few art shows and just made time for creativity and tried to make it a priority everyday. Now I'm adding "Simplify" to my life! I've been very busy re-doing, re-organizing, and re-thinking several areas in my home, including my studio! I can't wait to share pictures when I get things a bit more organized and cleaned up. I'm also revamping my filing system, trying my best to purge and remove clutter and just all around re-evaluating my organizational systems in all areas of my life. I feel like I'm off to a good start!

I've also been busy painting and I have a few pieces almost finished that I can't wait to share. I've been having a few blocks when in comes to finishing up and I'm not sure where they are coming from. I think I've been struggling with fear and perfectionism. Thoughts of "If I do this will I like it or will it mess up my piece? What if this changes that?" and so forth. I know I need to just push past it and create! Why does it get so hard at times? Do you ever struggle with this? I'm reading a great book, Taking Flight: Inspiration and Techniques to Give Your Creative Spirit Wings, by Kelly Rae Roberts. I so love her! Anyway, it touches on many of these things and has been so inspiring. I'm really enjoying it!

So, now that I've been building my body of work, I'm getting excited about the possibility of opening up my own Etsy shop. I've had some interest in my work and I'd really love to dive in and take this next step, but of course all of those fears and anxieties rear up again and make me wonder if I know enough to be doing this! Any advice out there from you pros? I would sure appreciate it! :)

Well, I'd better be off to get some painting done before preschool is over for the day!
Take care,
Jennifer

Happy Holidays!

I hope the holiday season finds you well and enjoying all the festivities! Hopefully things are stress-free and relaxing rather than overwhelming and crazy! I love this time of the year, the pretty lights, great music and wonderful smells all put me in a cozy, spend time by the fire type mood.

I wanted to share my latest painting with you. It is called Christmas Traditions and I created it for a Christmas art show that Collage, our visual arts ministry at church, is having.

The show is meant to coordinate with our Pastor's latest series, "When God was One of Us", and leads up to our Christmas Eve service. I wanted to capture some of the special traditions our family has this time of the year. I love to decorate for Christmas so I included the tree and the hearth along with the Nativity Scene. The verse is Isaiah 9:6 and hopefully helps to convey the reason we celebrate Christmas - the most wonderful gift we have received through the birth of our Savior!

It is a mixed media piece with acrylic paint and collaged paper, flowers, and buttons.

If you are in the Plano area, the show is at Chase Oaks Church and can be viewed through the middle of January.

Here are a few pictures of my process...

Sorry this last one posted sideways! Blogger keeps turning them for some reason! I'll try to get that fixed. :)

I hope you each have a very blessed holiday and sweet time with family and loved ones!

Merry Christmas,
Jennifer

Painting Faces

Last Spring I took Paulette Insall's All About Faces class. I learned all about creating a face using acrylic paint, something of which I had never tried before. I enjoyed it so much! I've always loved Paulette's work and to learn from her was such a privilege!

It has taken me a while, but I finally got the two pieces I started in her class complete and photographed so I could share them.

Here is Hope...

Here is Love...

I never dreamed I'd be able to paint a face like this. I'm so thankful for all I learned from Paulette and appreciate her willingness to share her art with others. She offers several different classes. If you are interested, check out her blog here.

Busy Creating!

Now that preschool has started I'm enjoying a little more time to work on my painting. I've been busy working on pieces for the two classes I'm taking with Wyanne. I'm enjoying them so much. She is a great teacher; very encouraging, inspiring, and full of knowledge! I'm also still trying to finish up a few paintings I began this summer. Here is one I just completed called A New Creation!

It is mixed media on canvas. At the top of the piece it says "Just as a caterpillar casts off it’s old self and transforms into a butterfly, a new creation of beauty….We also, who are in Christ become a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come!" At at the bottom, I put the verse is 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

I love how God created the caterpillar to turn into an elegant, beautiful butterfly, often with amazing colors and details. I think this is such an awesome illustration of how Christ transforms our lives!

I'll try to post more soon! Thanks for looking!!

Summer Coming to a Close

Wow, life has been keeping me busy! I can't believe the summer is coming to a close. Things are beginning to start up again for the fall and I've been preparing. My daughter starts her last year of preschool next week and my MOMS ministry as well as the LifeGroup that my hubby and I lead are all starting up again in the next few weeks. It is going to be fun to get back into the swing of things again!

I thought I'd share some more photos of my artwork! Here are a few more finished pieces.

This is titled "Beginnings of Creation" and is mixed media on canvas. I created this for a show that our visual arts ministry at church, Collage, was participating in. It was a local community event called the Live Green Expo. The theme of the show was recycling and taking care of our planet so I used recycled magazine pages to create the tree and leaves. I also wanted to convey the idea that God is the ultimate Artist, the Creator of the earth! The verse is from Genesis 1:11: "Then God said 'Let the land sprout with vegetation - every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came.' And that is what happened." Here is a close up of the verse, Genesis 1:11...

This piece I did for a dear friend who just had her first baby! It is also mixed media on canvas and the verse is Psalm 119:73, "Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands."

I've got several still in the process, all in different stages. I also began Wyanne's Art Play class and am so loving it! I worked on some new watercolor pieces last night and had so much fun. It has been a while since I've used watercolor and it was nice to pick it up again. If you are looking for online classes, I highly recommend Wyanne as well as Paulette Insall. Paulette is currently taking sign ups for her fall mixed media classes. You can check them out here! I'm just so thankful to these ladies for sharing their wisdom and talent with others!

Harvesting Creativity

Here is the follow up to my last post about ways I try to nurture my creativity. It was fun exploring my environment and spending time thinking about how I try to live artistically and creatively in day to day things. These are a few I came up with; I'm sure I could think of even more!

I've always tried to create a warm and welcoming feeling in my home. I want it to be a safe haven for my family. We are all artists in my family and so being in an inviting and stimulating environment is important to us. I love to decorate and through that share my own unique style. I also love to surround us with color and art on our walls. Above is just a little snapshot of a vignette on top of my kitchen cabinets.

Of course painting is one of my creative outlets. Here are a few of my in-progress pieces waiting to be finished. I find I enjoy having several going at one time in different stages. This allows me to work on whatever part I'm feeling drawn to at a given moment. I'll post these when I finish them up!

Scrapbooking is part of my art as well and I love the idea of leaving a legacy of memories by creating pages that tell our family's stories. Of course I love the artistic and creative process involved and all the supplies, but more and more I'm enjoying the telling of simple, everyday moments that make up our story during this season of our lives!

This is my studio area. It is a studio/guest room and I really need to get in here and do some purging and organizing. I also do a lot of my painting at the kitchen table...so worried about messy spills on the carpet in here. Anyway, I look forward to someday soon painting the walls a yummy rich color, adding new window treatments and creating a space that is a bit more reflective of me and what I love. This is a good start though! And my kitties love the way the sun comes in brightly every morning!!

I decided to get creative with my hair recently and added some fun and funky highlights!

Love, love, love to read and this definitely inspires my creativity. I read everything from fiction novels, christian life books, magazines, and art/scrapbooking related books.

I enjoy music as well and feel like it helps in creating a creative atmosphere. I listen to a wide variety including rock/pop, 80's classics, musicals, praise and worship and contemporary christian.

Finally, I try to harvest creativity by nurturing other's growth and interest in the arts. That is why I became an art teacher!

I truly enjoyed exploring the everyday ways I try to harvest my creativity! It is nice to think through an idea or concept and see how you are actually living it out in your life! :) Thanks to Stacy Julian for the great idea!