The Crown of Life

I finished the painting that I started awhile back and showed you here.

I reworked the flowers by re-positioning some of the petals, then added Glossy Accents to the middle of the flowers.

Then, completely repainted the butterfly and added Glossy Accents around his wings. Also added bits of stamping to the background.

For a finished look, the corners are enhanced with metal brackets, so the piece can be hung without a frame.

Some musical notes helped the singing birdie look more like he is singing, and the notes got a good helping of Glossy Accents as well.

Lastly, was the decorating of the crown, which also got several applications of Glossy Accents, and my favorite ~ Swarovski crystals.

The text was printed on photo paper and  the edges enhanced with Walnut Distress Ink before adhering to the painting, then the whole piece received a couple of coats of gloss sealer, and it's done!

The Crown of Life

Acrylics and inks on canvas

I'm enjoying the loosely painted style and will be trying it with oils and watercolors.

Next week I might be brave enough to show you the watercolor I just finished of the two rusted trucks I've been trying to complete for over a year. Haven't decided if I like it, so it may go to the boneyard.  I'll have to see what my husband and daughter think of it.

Have a superb weekend everyone! If you're going camping, cook a Smore for me! :-)
and Honor to those who served and are serving in the armed forces ~  thank you!

I'm linking up with Paint Party Friday, a virtual gallery tour hosted by Kristin and Eva.

HuMp Day Haiku

Seven Reynold Two

Will you clean and cook our meals?

Oh but if you could!

So you are probably wondering if I've lost my mind. No, I haven't...yet. Seven Reynold Two was made for the Art House Co-op's, Mystery Project that I participated in.  My prompt was "Help! The Robots are taking over the local elementary school!"  Instead of painting an image of robots at a school, I made a robot and photographed him at the school. You can see the photo here.

We've been having rainy and cold weather this week, and I didn't have the inspiration to photograph nature for Hump Day Haiku. We had fog too but I couldn't think of a good Haiku for fog.

I'm linking up with Nature's Walk Studio for Hump Day Haiku. Hope you have a great HuMp Day!

More Musings another day. Thanks for stopping by.

Fruits and Veggies

This week I have been working in my sketchbook for The Sketchbook Challenge theme for May, which is "Fruits and Veggies, and I am so happy about that!  The theme is one of my all time fav genres to paint.

 "Orange"

Acrylic and Copic marker

On this painting I used an orange for a stamp. The cool thing about it is that the juice from the orange, blended with the paint and made a watercolor effect. I used the grey Copic marker for the shadow, then highlighted the oranges with some antique gold acrylic paint for a sparkle effect.   I wasn't sure about adding text or anything else, so I left it. Simplicity is sometimes the best design strategy.

"Apple"

Acrylic, ink, pastel

I painted the apples with Copic Marker and acrylic paint over book paper. Then I stamped the background with an apple. More experimentation is in my future, as this was really fun.

"Tomato"

Copic Marker, ink, acrylic

This piece is my favorite and the one I entered in the challenge to win a prize.  I found an old book at the antique store from the 1930's. {Many thanks to all of you who left helpful comments about copyright stuff in regards to using books as backgrounds}.  I was hoping to find a larger book, this one is about 5"x7", but it was brought to my attention, that books used to be made in small formats back in the day, (more than 75 years ago). So, my works will be small for now, but that's okay.


Also painted a new Daffodil painting on this book paper too, and like it much better than this one.

It became a Mother's Day gift for my mom. She liked it!  :-)

That's all I have for this week's party. What party? Well Paint Party Friday of course. Be sure and visit all the wonderful participating artists and enjoy the weekend! Thanks for popping in.

HuMp Day Haiku

Little Hummingbird

So tiny, yet so mighty,

Miraculous bird!

The Hummingbirds have arrived in full force. We have five feeders and I have to fill them all daily, that's how many birds there are. It's incredible!  I tried to take an overall shot of them all at once, to show you, but it's impossible. {Hey maybe I can take some video... that's an idea.}  Anyway, thanks for stopping by ~ I'm linking up with Nature's Walk Studio for Hump Day Haiku.  Have a miraculous day!

My Inspirational Artist ~ Roos Schuring

Roos Schuring is a Dutch plein air painter working in Holland. In this video, she is speaking in her native tongue, which I think adds a wonderful added feeling to the video. Enjoy!

HuMp Day Haiku

"I set my rainbow

in the cloud for a sign of

My promise to you.

    Paraphrased from Genesis 9:13-14

Last week we had lots of rain and in the late afternoon it was raining when the sun came out. I thought, "There must be a rainbow somewhere!", so I checked.  Sure enough, nearly in our backyard was the brightest, most vibrant, huge rainbow I've ever seen!   It felt like you could reach out and touch it, that's how close it was.  It lasted a good 10 to 20 minutes as the storm moved across the lake. By the time I got my wits about me and realized I should try to take a photograph, it had moved further away and become smaller. But you can still see how vibrant it was.  So totally awesome!!!!

I'm linking up with Helen's Hump Day Haiku over at Nature's Walk Studio.  Have a most wonderful and superb HuMp Day!