Lazy Sunday

Hi Everyone!

I hope all of you had a relaxing, creative weekend. My Saturday was busy but today I said the heck with it all and watched a movie. Ya know sitting in a chair and actually watched it. I finished this painting, and talked to my kids and grand kids. My Son's birthday was yesterday, I can't believe he is 51. OMG! It's crazy when your kids are middle aged. I said something to him that was a "mom" thing. He laughed and said, "Mom, I'm a big boy I can handle it." Your kids are always our babies no matter how old they are. 

So here is the painting I am working. I wrote that it is finished but I don't think it is and there are a few things to fix up. Maybe a fiery wash over the greenery.

Enjoy your evening. 

Nicole/DVArtist 

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

TAD PPF and Eyes

Hi Everyone!

My eyes are a bit better today. Staying off the PC and resting them helps a lot. I called my ophthalmologist and with covid they are putting people on a list and calling us when there is an opening. I do have an apt in August that was made before the shut down. I will try to get to as many of your blogs as I can in the next few days.

Thursday Art Date with Rain is a good one this week. Cracks and Crevices. 

That covers a lot of territory. However, since I have not been able to create anything new I am showing faces that I have drawn with wrinkles. Ya know those kind that never go away. LOL

This is one of my favorite. 

He is framed and hangs in my living room.

An old Fisherman with wind weathered wrinkles.

Crevices?

Bridge of nose and forehead crevice.	Happy cracks and crevices.
If she keeps making faces like this those will not go away.	OH yeah cracks and crevices.
Lines of a gentle man.	My car art put to paint.
Cracks and crevices of molded leather.	I think she is beautiful.

Even though these are all older art I hope you enjoyed them. 

I am linking with TAD and PPF

Hope you are all well.

 

Nicole/DVArtist

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

Can't See

Hi Everyone!

Quick note. I am having serious vision problems today. I promise as soon as this subsides I will catch up on all of your blogs. 

Be safe and take care 

Nicole/DVArtist 

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

Paint Party Friday May 22

Hi Everyone!

Here it is Paint Party Friday. I am going to show a painting I posted a few days ago and one I finished last night. I am happy with both of them.

Here is the one from last night

I call this "Inside a Flower"

This is an 18x24" gallery canvas that has been used before.

 I painted it black and with the paint I already had on my pallet started laying down peddles. The more I painted the more I felt like I was inside a flower. Hope you like you.

To see a larger view click on the picture.

I am so happy how this turned out
and if you would like to see how I created it
click here

To see a close up of this click on the painting.

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I do love hearing from you.

Nicole/DVArtist

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

TAD with Rain

Hi Everyone!

I am running late. I slept in, something I find I am doing more often these days.  

Today is Thursday Art Date with Rain. Her prompt this week is
Round n Round. I did find some art that would fit the bill.

Up until quite recently I created beading patterns in many different stitches.

This was a huge seller.

 Round n round pastel on my Nicole's BeadBacking fabric.

Water color

Glass Cabochon I made

and here is another glass cab.

Have a great day and no matter what your state or country is doing as far as "opening" up

be very careful and safe as you can.

Nicole/DVArtist 

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

Acrylic experiment

Hi Everyone!

I wish for all of you to have the very best day that you can have. 

I am excited about this experiment that I did with acrylics. 

 I have been wanting to create something like this for a long time and until I saw a Bob Ross video I had an idea. Most everyone knows Bob Ross and that he is an oil painter. I paint both but for this I want to see if I could take his techniques and apply them to acrylics. A few years ago I made my own clear flow medium for acrylics and soooo this is what I created.

Scroll down to see how I painted this.

 I started with a 12x16" black gallery canvas

 Using white acrylic paint I dabbed in the background

and allowed to dry. Bob Ross used gesso but I am out of gesso.

 Using black acrylic paint I put in the trees and fore ground 

        and allowed to dry. Again Bob used black gesso. 

                                 Then I applied a coating of my acrylic flow medium.                            

Now for the fun part. What I basically did was put a glaze over the black and white.

I started at the corners and worked down the canvas with Phthalo blue. I went back over the

corners with Prussian blue. I painted the fore ground with Indian yellow and then blended in

a mix of Sap green and Crimson for a darker appearance.

I did find that I had to add a bit of the flow medium 

to my brush to get the right effect.

With the white paint I added the light and rays.

I think it turned out pretty well and I will use this effect in the future.

Note I did use the colors of paint that Bob Ross did.

Recipe for the acrylic flow medium. I mixed these because I didn't find either one work very well on it's own.

Mix about 40% of a slow drying medium to 60% of a flow medium then add

some airbrush medium until you get a smooth texture. You can actually make this as thick or loose as you like. Keep it in a tightly covered jar. It will last forever.

Have a creative day today.

Nicole/DVArtist

 Honor and integrity in art, in life.

Monday Canvas

Hi Everyone!

It's Monday, it's raining, and I have a million things to do today. I am making a list and trying to get each item finished, but come hell or high water, ( which here it may be high water. LOL)

I am going to paint this canvas. 

I have this idea in my head and I soooo want to get into the art room.

a 24x18" Pro gallery canvas. Wish me luck.

What are you doing today?

Nicole/DVArtist

 Honor and integrity in art, in life.

The Movie Joker

 Hi Everyone!

I have had a very busy day and now am fixing fried chicken, potatoes, corn and homemade biscuits oh and country gravy. This is NOT the type of food Mr. M. and I normally eat. However,  last month this chicken was on sale so I got it. I told Mr. M. "Hey, it's food". Also I am not frying the chicken in oil. My new pan doesn't require it.

 I don't know why I told all of you that. Who cares what I am fixing for dinner. LOL

I mentioned in my previous post that I watched the movie "Joker. Debra from She Who Seeks asked what I thought about it.  

For those of you who DON'T know,  I AM the macabre queen. I love scary, weird, strange, sci fi, zombies, skulls, and aliens. I do NOT like slasher or gore.  So when I saw the previews of Joker, I thought it was something I would like. 

For me the movie felt disconnected from any story line. The Joker was mentally ill and had a laughing tick. There were flash backs and flash forwards that, for me made the movie disjointed. I never knew if he was hallucinating or it was the real thing. Mr. M. and I could not wait for the movie to end. The ending was hmmm stupid, and very disappointing. On a good note, Joaquin Phoenix played the part he was given very well. He makes for a good crazy guy.  Of course this is just my opinion, 

I wouldn't watch it again. 

Nicole/DVArtist 

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

Sunday May 17

Hi Everyone!

I hope your Sunday is a good one. So far it has been good for me. I HAD to go to the grocery store today. I made sure I was there right when they opened. Perfect time for shopping. I got what I needed. I have not been in this store for over a month and I was surprised at how much food and other supplies are missing. There are notes saying the warehouse is out. Almost everything was rationed. They did have 25lb bags of flour from a distributor that I did not recognize. No, I didn't buy that. The people that were there shopping were all masked but one man. I noticed a girl about 8 years old standing by the doors that go to the back room. She did not have a mask on.  I didn't think anything of it, only that I wondered where her mom was. Later, as I went to the bakery isle, I saw here again standing alone but realized she was with a guy that was stocking part of the shelves. He didn't work at the store he was an independent. As I got closer the girl began to cough. NO mask, and obviously never been taught to cover her mouth. I turned on my heals and went down the next isle. They followed me out of the isle to the doors for the back room the girl waited while her dad went through the doors. Now, I get it. Day care, a person to come in and watch your kids, or even a relative is hard to come by. So maybe he didn't have a choice but to bring her. But REALLY you don't have a mask for your child? The dad was wearing a mask. I find it pretty appalling. I phoned the store when I got home but the manager wasn't in yet. That is my gripe for the day. LOL

Last night, while I was waiting for the movie, "Joker" to come on, I sat down to paint. I didn't want to pull colors and I already had black and white out, so thought I would paint some clouds. From there I just painted. I like how the brightness in spots came out. 

Just a doodlely painting. 

Well it is starting to storm again. I need to go cover my plants.

Have a great day.

Nicole/DVArtist

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

My Flowers

Hi Everyone!

Yesterday we had our 1 day of sunshine so I spent the day out back playing in my garden.  We are now in another 7 days of fricken rain storms. The main thing I hate about living here.

I forgot to show all of you what my Son and his family sent me for Mother's Day. I was so surprised to see this sitting on my front porch. 

With so many states starting to open, including mine, it is important now to be more careful than before. As for Mr. M. and me, we are staying inside, away from people and the tourist that just keep coming form other cities and states.

Now how pretty is this?

 When it storms here I can have all my curtains open and it is still like night in my house.

The clouds just block any sun rays. 

Be Safe if you venture out.

 

Nicole/DVArtist 

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

No Time

 Hi Everyone!

OMG!!! I have been extremely busy the last 2 two days. With what? I can't tell you. It seems every time I think I can visit blogs some thing comes up. I have been going to gardening school via you tube too. I promise Friday and Saturday I will catch up with all of you.

For Paint Party Friday I have this weird piece of abstract. I'm a weirdo what can I say?  LOL

Also the rain is still coming down with force. Wind? I can't even talk about it. It is like winter all over again. We do get a break tomorrow and then another week of storms. uuhhhgggg

Enough of that. I had painted this canvas black quite awhile ago. I just put it on the easel and went for it. Again no rhyme or reason. I didn't have any intentions of putting in a face but as an after thought I did. Ya know one of those wondering thoughts. 

 As  I look at this on line this piece feels quite disturbing. Chaos, sickness, unsettled. 

What do you see?

I am hoping that all of you are well, have enough food and supplies and are keeping in touch with family and friends.  

Nicole/DVArtist

 Honor and integrity in art, in life.

Driving to Salem

 Hi Everyone!

Well the rain is still non stop. Everything is drenched and my drive way has about 5 inches of standing water. The ground is sand here and it can only take so much rain. 

We will have rain until Sat. uuuhhhgggg. 

Yesterday we finally got an apt. for Mr. M. to get a long over due injections in his back. That also means we had to drive to Salem, OR. It is about 3 hours one way. We do take the back roads most of the way before getting on the I-5. It is just AMAZING to me to see people out and about with no face coverings and just mingling like there is no virus.  Oh well, can't fix stupid I guess and people will do what they think is OK. Anyway we made it the surgery center. I waited in the car, I wanted to take photos but it was pouring rain. Finally the nurse rolled Mr. M. out and we were on the road again. In normal times we go to Salem once a month and then stop in the town of Albany to shop and Winco and Costco. The two stores are right next to each other. Since covid we have not been able to do that. So we stopped at Costco. I will say that it is required to have a mask and most people were cautious and trying to keep a distance. It is difficult when a store doesn't have one way isles. 

We were able to get everything we needed and got out and headed home. 

I told you all of that, ha ha, to say that I take photos on these trips. Just shots out the car window. These are for me to paint, or to practice painting. I have been working on clouds and with all of the creepy weather, I got some good shots.
Also will share a bit of the drive with you.

All of the cloud photos were taken on one of the back roads after leaving I-5

If any of these photos will help or encourage you to paint clouds 

please feel free to save any of them to your PC.

The black part on the top of the photo was one huge black cloud that dumped buckets of rain on us.	I took this one for the light and dark.
a bit of blue sky off in the distance. I also like the movement of these clouds.	another shot with distinct lines of dark and light.
I just liked this big clouds.	I really like how these clouds go off into the horizon.
The only road out of Florence, that gets you off the ocean is Hwy 126.	Don't know why they call it a HWY it is a two lane road.
In summer it is impossible to get around tourists, lots of accidents on this road.	This day not much traffic, plus I try not to get cars in my photos.

The tress and bush are green and lush from all the rain we get here. As I mentioned before this use to be a rain forest. With decades of logging, brings less rain, less rain, less forest. It is a viscous circle. So called replanting, well you don't want me to get going on that. LOL 

Hope your day is a good one. Be safe my friends.

Nicole/DVArtist

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

My last class face

Hi Everyone!

It is storming something wicked here today. Typical Oregon coast weather. Today I am showing the last face of my class, "Painting without thinking" Even though the class is over I learned a lot about painting this way and will add this to my way 

of not only painting but all aspects of my art. 

I hope all of you are safe where you live. Our state will open in phase 1 on the 15th. Counties have to fill out an application stating that they have complied to the rules and then the Gov. will give them the chance to open up. Hell, my flippen town has NOT complied to any kind of safety over the last few months. Yes, food establishments closed and did take out but people here just think it is life as usual. Going out terrifies me because of that attitude. Social distancing is a joke here. Wearing a mask is finally starting to appear. We have a huge homeless population here and they mingle everywhere.  Even one of my good friends just goes about like nothing is wrong. Maybe that is the way to be but I just don't want to take that chance.  I am also listening to congress, what a joke. I know dr Fauci has to be careful of what he says, but I just wish someone would tell the truth.  OK, that is my rant for the day. I am turning off the TV and going to my art room. 

I think this last face shows the frustration in my soul.

Be safe out there.

Nicole/DVArtist 

Honor and integrity in art, in life.