Life, Art, Beauty, Plants & Craziness
There is a seriously serious thunderstorm rolling through at the moment, and I am finding it difficult to sleep. I might as well post a few low quality, camera phone pictures of my works in progress this week. Most of which seem to have taken on a dream like quality that I really dig.
What a week it has been hanging out at my parent’s house. The week really has flown by. However, I’ve managed to get a little work done. Funnily enough, the first painting I completed was confiscated. My mother is right though, this one really does look good on her mantle.
I am hanging out at my parent’s all this week. Yay for summer vacations! My mother is getting all the grandbaby time she can handle. Which is awesome for me! I get to catch up with some old friends and get some paint time in. The only bad thing is that my folks live on a farm in the middle of nowhere, which in itself is awesome, but makes internet usage almost impossible. I’m am surviving basically on my iphone. Don’t worry I have enough apps to keep things in business. Blogging is a bit primitive but totally possible.
Here are a few pics of what I worked on today. All works in progress mind you.
A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love.
~Henri B. Stendhal
Everything is tied together. Funny how that works. To have love without hope makes whatever one loves a little less meaningless. This is my train of thought as I think about the journeys we travel throughout life. As a newly revived in spirit artist, I find that hope does drive me in my creative life, but love is what steers me true. Each of these feelings rely on each other to keep my dream alive. But without a doubt, if there is not genuine love for what I am doing or creating then there would be no point. When it is all put together then hopes are manifested into dreams, and a love for the dream creates flight.
My hope is that my dreams are recognized by the love that I have for my creative spirit. In doing so I can fly.
err…..guess what tomorrow’s little birdie painting post will be?…….FLY!!! LOL
All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.
~Walt Disney (Now this is a man I can believe knew his stuff)
I pray every day for courage! Especially the courage to dream and dream big! The one thing I have learned about dreaming is to keep doing it. The path might not always be too clear (mostly a murky muddy swamp actually), and many times we get lost along the way, but it is way better than sitting blindly on a stump. Now if I can just figure out the time to dream actualization ratio. I’m overabundant with dreams but, especially of late, falling short on time. The day is already closing by the time I have a minute to spare. I suppose this is also something that will work itself out in time. For the time being, I will just go with the flow and see what happens.
The above painting is two of four mini bird series that I am posting over the next few days. The original Hope Bird is available for purchase here. Price is $20.00+s/h. I am also selling prints through Fotomoto. These birds would look great as a blank greeting card. See the link under the photo.
“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise”
~Oscar Wilde
Oh how I know only too well what you mean Mr. Wilde! Life seems overwhelmingly tough some days. Yet, when I reflect on that bad yesterday, I can clearly see the blessings that each second actually held. I have so much hope for the things to come. I have much hope indeed.
The above painting is one of four mini bird series that I will be posting over the next few days. Hope Bird is available for purchase here. Price is $20.00+s/h
I am so excited to take an e-course from one of my very favorite artists, Kelly Rae Roberts. Kelly Rae is one of the very inspirational reasons that I made the jump into art fabulous-ness in the first place. I’d never heard of Kelly Rae before until my sweet, awesomely inspiring, old school chum, garden buddy, partner in crime, friend Courtney asked me if I could do a painting for her. She even threw the icing on the cake and said she would even PAY me for it….uuuhhh OK! I started blogging about it here and here. When discussing what Courtney wanted in the painting, she named off a few artist that she was really inspired by and Kelly Rae Roberts was top on her list. A few minutes of perusing her site, and I soon bumped her to the top of my list too. Please visit her website at http://kellyraeroberts.com if you haven’t already added her to your all time favorite artists ever.
Now on May 30th, I am so excited to start Kelly Rae’s Flying Lessons: Tips + Tricks To Help Your Creative Business Soar e-course. I am all signed in and rarin’ to go.
I am sure I will be posting all the fun things I am learning and implementing into all my business practices. Which I know will help me become the successful artist I know I can be.
Love you forever,
Wenders
p.s. Paintings for sale at my etsy shop! Super deals through out May!
I was always a paint when inspired kind of gal. This doesn’t work so well when you have an almost 3mo old to take care of. It’s more of a paint when you can….IF you can sort of thing. I’m learning to adjust. I suppose he will too with time.
See, he already looks happy enough….. That’s totally not a scowl of misery on his sweet buddha cheeks.
Pay more attention to your blog…Pay more attention to your blog…pay more attent….
Awe LOOK!!
Smooch smooch..Kiss Kiss
errrr… What was I saying? Oh yes, I was trying to remind myself to blog more, but I keep getting distracted for some reason. I am so busy these days that sometimes I even forget to finish getting dressed. I’m pretty sure the UPS man has been fully traumatized by now. It’s too bad I haven’t been keeping up with my blogs because some major happenings have been taking place in our family and my Wenderfloina world. Now I have to spill it all in one long rambling post.
Jude is 10 whole weeks old and time is flying by at a blinding pace. He is doing so many fun things like smiling, cooing, and laughing. He is also doing some not so fun things like show his emerging temper, decide not to take a bottle of expressed milk no matter what you promise, and decide that he no longer needs to nap or sleep ever again, in his whole life. He told me so. Anyway, he keeps me very occupied. Like right now. You won’t really be able to tell, but I am going to have to pause and save this as a draft and see if I can convince him to go to sleep. Just for tonight and then he can stay up for the rest of his life if he so chooses. Just sleep..Pause….Pause….Pause….He disagreed…He is mulling over his decision to remain awake in his crib right this very second…
Meanwhile… other happenings are, as a family we decided to eat better. I spent a fateful day watching several documentaries that made me open my eyes about the state of our food consumption. The most influential of which was Food, Inc. This documentary also helped me make a decision I had been contemplating for a while now. I gave up meat. I have been following a vegetarian diet for almost a month and don’t plan on going back. Parker and BFS are still amongst the flesh eaters but that’s ok with me. Mine is a personal decision. However, as a family, we switched to organic foods, simple foods that have as few additives as possible, no GMOs, growing vegetables and herbs in our own little garden, and their meat and our eggs are cruelty free…etc etc. Our mission is to make food joyous, and a priority. To know what we are putting into our body and why. I’ve even decided to make all our own bread. We are also following Jamie Oliver and his food revolution. He is desperately trying to get America to wake up to the appalling way in which the government and schools are feeding our sweet babies while they are in school. I am totally on board.
These guys will thank me for it later. I’m pretty sure…
In the mean time, I must pause again to re-convince the tiny sleepless one that sleep is, in fact, a good thing. And sleeping at least 10 hours at night will ensure that he lives to 100. No joke…..check this out.
Pause…Pause…Pause….
On the Wederflonations front, my painting time has been at an all time low. I’m still having a hard time fitting it into my schedule. However, I have recommitted my self to truck on through these rough patches and do what I can. I did FINALLY manage to finish a commissioned piece for a beautiful soul and will be mailing this to her on Tuesday. Just in time for Mother’s day.
I really can’t post a picture of the painting in her entirety because the new owner wants to be surprised, but as soon as she receives it I will post a pic and brag and brag. I just love how it turned out.
Oh! Also, I landed another job and will start working on that commissioned piece tomorrow
…hopefully….one moment please…Insomniobaby is calling…pause….pause…pause…..
Lastly, and most excitedly, I got my Mother’s Day gift from my favorite guys in the whole world. I will be registering for Kelly Rae Roberts’ Flying Lessons e-course. Mrs. Roberts is truly an inspirational artist and was inadvertently responsible for my reemergence into the art world. I will be posting more details later. I couldn’t think of a better gift. Thank you so much men of mine!
pause…..pause…pause…..
The house is quiet now. This is my cue to sleep while the sleepin’s good. Peace and Love.
and in the mean time, check out my etsy shop……… riiight [here]
Desperately trying to get back into the swing of things but feel creatively drained. As a matter of fact, I just feel drained PERIOD! I wonder why?
Hmmm…ok, on second thought….
Having a new baby in the household has definitely turned our world upside down. Night and day has become blurry. I can’t remember a time when I dreaded the night time so much. Oh yeah, it was when my oldest was a newborn.
Mind, I’ve never really been one who needed a lot of sleep. (I was the queen of all-nighters back in my spry college days.) That is until sleep isn’t an available option. Then I crave it desperately! Unfortunately, this little guy seems to need less sleep that us at the moment. I would love to down a pot of coffee right now, but I know that I would be sharing the “stay awake juice” with the nursing one as well. Now, I don’t want to give the impression that our lives are not glorious and fulfilling …oh we are definitely fulfilled…..just doing it very sleep deprived!
That being said, I am not sure how to fit all of this into my creative life. The sheer volume of the new daily responsibilities take up most of my time and tend to thwart my moments of inspiration with a wailing need to have a diaper changed. I’m not even going to tell you how long it has taken me to write this blog post. The good news is, so far I have managed to keep us from living in a total disaster area, and have managed to crank out two new paintings.
The problem is, I’m not sure where I am going with these paintings. I suppose I want to try something new. I’ve also never been good at figures and faces, and all of a sudden I have decided to give that a shot. Not sure if I am headed in the right direction, but at least it is a forward motion. Snail pace be damned.
Another Lady With Birds
I really want to incorporate some expression and life into my paintings, but haven’t really drawn figures since art school [# redacted] years ago. Hopefully, I will get better at these bird ladies, but for now I am following a whim and see where it takes me. We shall see.
What I like: I love the texture, I like ONE of the eyes, i like the color and mood of the painting. I love how the ink blends and blotches. I like the dots.
What I don’t like: I don’t like the flatness of the birds or the face. The composition is boring and the proportions need ALOT of work.