Staying Creative with a Little Doodling and Sketching

"Shiprock"

"Edwin Yanozha"

I've been doing some doodling and sketching this past week as I started feeling better from the cold I seem to have caught.  Here are some pictures of the sketches.

"Little Boy"

Today I started painting a birdhouse as a gift for a friend and once that was about half way done I did the sketch shown of the little boy.

"Let go ... Let God!" Watercolor on 4x6" Postcard

Lay down to go to sleep a couple of nights ago and thoughts kept spinning around in my head. I have learned that when I am trying to avoid feelings or thoughts this is sometimes what happens so instead of laying there I need to get up and go into my art room and write.  I started out writing and then came across a little plaque a friend gave me probably fifteen years ago so put it with a couple of other things and the little painting to the left is what that still life looked like.  After taking about an hour and a half writing and painting I was then able to go back to bed and slept like a baby.

Busy Time During the Past Week - "Beauty of the Valles Caldera" Finished Today

Last week I took this painting on the right to my friend and she and her husband have already installed it above their fireplace.  I have to admit it looks perfect there. I had also done some wedding invitation samples at the request of a friend's daughter though not my specialty and in keeping their privacy won't show pictures of the samples I created for them though they seemed very happy with the result.

Yesterday in order to get the creative juices flowing I had to paint SOMETHING but didn't really feel like working on the oil painting I started about a week ago so doodling created this little acrylic painting I'm calling "Limbering Up" in getting those creative juices flowing.

This morning have been fighting off a cold though found the time and had the motivation to finish the original oil painting on 9"x12" canvas I started last week "Beauty of the Valles Caldera".  I love this particular place in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico and hope that love shows through in all the paintings I do of this beautiful and natural state I call home.  

Original Oil Painting "Looking Up the Hill" on 10"x12" plein air panel

This past Saturday rather than my normal routine I decided to stay home and paint.  Paint is really what I did almost the entire day.  I finished an oil painting for a friend the day before and did finalizing stuff first on that Saturday.  I then painted the oil to the left "Looking Up the Hill" and was surprised at how this vision appeared on the canvas and seemed to take on a life of it's own.  I then finished off a landscape in oil on a 12"x16" canvas paper and a fun little 4"x4" wooden block in acrylic.  Sunday I finished off the wooden block flower with some silver gel pen.

A new follower on Twitter made a comment that she'd like to sell my birdhouses.  I'm so flattered and happy that people like the birdhouses I paint.  I have to tell you I buy the wooden birdhouses at Michael's, even bought some at Walmart and Hobby Lobby.  Each of the birdhouses I've painted have been a labor of love, individualized for whoever I'm giving it to and not for sale.  I did try painting one with specifications so almost a commissioned birdhouse except it was a gift and I have to say that I felt so confined by the specifications that it wasn't as much fun, I don't think it turned out as nicely as all the ones done from my heart, thinking about that person with each paint stroke and idea.

The oil painting I did for a friend recently is actually a painting from a Walter Foster instructional art booklet that she just fell in love with.  I have gotten so used to doing my own original art that I wondered how different this one might look from the original I did when I first started painting.  It was a good experience to paint again from someone else's work and I think this turned out even better.  Also I recalled some of the techniques I learned from my painting instruction years ago and think that's why the oil painting above flowed so easily from my thoughts.

Tomorrow I take the painting to my friend that my husband lovingly framed for me today.  I'm so grateful that I get to share my love of art and gifts I've been blessed with and hope my friend enjoys this painting for years to come.

Happy New Year 2013 - Acrylic "Marie's Teapot" Finished New Year's Eve

Woke up New Year's Eve morning to snow which was such a welcome and beautiful sight and then started an 11"x14" oil painting I am painting for a friend.  As the day progressed and into the evening I went into my art studio to take another look at the painting I'd started in the morning and found myself painting the background and foreground on this original acrylic painting "Marie's Teapot".  I painted the initial teapot in November 2012, thought it was finished but as I kept looking at it realized no, it was not.  So here is the now finished painting and I'm much happier with the end result.

Happy New Year 2013!  It seems this year is starting out to be an amazing year of growth, enjoyment and personal productivity and creativity.