Painting with Hannah and Benjamin

We had Christmas - meaning opening presents and staying the night and eating Christmas yummy food - with Christy and Daniel and Hannah and Benjamin the Friday night before Christmas.
Saturday we painted.

I've Been Painting

I haven't been painting anything to put in my Etsy shop (www.bearhollowcreations.etsy.com). I've been painting sets for our church's Christmas program. We'll have three performances with about 1500-2000 people attending. (that's a total, not each night)

You can see the completed set here.

http://hilldaleworship.blogspot.com/2008/12/set-is-finished-yeah.html

One of my little miniature paintings is in a challenge. Several artists and crafters entered one holiday item at http://www.newmonthlychallenge.blogspot.com/ I don't remember what the prize is for the winner, but the glory of winning is always good for me! :)

I entered "Star Over Bethlehem."

It's part of my Christmas ACEO series.

You can go to http://www.newmonthlychallenge.blogspot.com/ and check out the other entries and then you can vote for mine. Haha, no, you can vote for whichever one you want. But as of this writing, a chunky Lego bracelet is winning. Hmmmmm.

Really Big Art

I'm creating some very large paintings. Our Christmas production this year goes back through time, so to create the scene changes I'm making a giant "book" where we can turn the "pages" and change scenes. It will be incorporated into a larger set. I'll put pictures of everything up.

Each scene is painted on two 4' x 8' pieces of luan. Luan is very, very thin plywood used mainly for door facing. http://www.insidewoodworking.com/lumber/luanplywood.html

I'm using wall paint for two reasons. 1. Between me and the church I have a lot of colors to choose from. 2. It's free.

Would wall paint be considered acrylic?

Here's the start of my first painting.

Of course I took a picture of myself. You can see where the church will be.

The church filled in some and no snow yet.

Here is the finished scene. It is supposed to be Austria back when Silent Night was written. I found a picture of a church in Austria. Hmmm, it's on my church computer, but I'll put it here too so you can compare.

I think I'll repaint the church doors. Since they are the color of the ground it looks like a hole in the picture. I'll make them a darker brown.

Here's the original picture.

Cardinal in the Pine Tree

A new ACEO miniature painting. It's part of my Christmas series.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17365233

See the others in the series here.

christmas-aceos

Christmas ACEOs

In honor of the VAST Christmas sale I painted some ACEOs. They are acrylic on canva-paper mounted on a playing card.

You can check out the VAST sell on the VAST blog http://vastgallery.blogspot.com/

One has a rather traditional look.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17052173

One has kind of a pop art look - I guess that's how you would describe it.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vl_other_2&listing_id=17052411

And one is abstract.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vl_other_2&listing_id=17052584

They are already marked down 20% like all of the Christmas items in my shop.
http://www.bearhollowcreations.etsy.com/

I've Been Tagged

I was tagged by one of my VAST colleagues from Hawaii Schar Freeman

It's a fun way for our VAST team to get to know each other and to promote our blogs.

Now I am to follow these points:
1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by including links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.

OK, so here are 7 things about me.

1. I married my Jr. High/Sr. High sweetheart 3 days before my 19th birthday. We've been married now for 32 years! I have two married children and 6 grandchildren!

2. I sing, play the violin and piano and write music for handbells, instruments, choirs, etc. In 1995 I was Jeffer's Handbell Supply's "Composer of the Year" for my arrangement of Brethren. It has been recorded on many CDs. It is the background music on this web site http://www.riverbells.org/handbellhistory.htm

3. I grew up in a Worship Pastor's home and am a Worship Pastor (in the old days we said, "Minister of Music") so I have lived in Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Colorado and now have lived in Tennessee for 20 years.

4. My organist at my last church called me "The Christmas King" because I did such wonderful Christmas services week after week through December.

5. I've always loved art but just started painting 2 years ago after taking a class at Joann's.

6. I learned to do stained glass over twenty years ago when I lived in Colorado. I was at a big stressful church and needed something creative to do that wasn't music or church. :)

7. I used to be a card carrying member of Clowns of America International. Still like to do clowning. see "Jingles" pics here

And here are 7 people I've tagged - or will tag today (I follow their blogs too.)

Jean Levert HoodTexas Hill Country Painter

Matt Talbert Paintings

Kae1Crafts & Kae1Supplies

MYSTIC SILKS

Diane Clancy's Art Blog

Kauai Artist presents Painting Paradise

Kathy Martin Studio

Stained-glass Christmas Sale

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=616363


Giant Christmas Sale!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=616393




All of the Christmas stained-glass items in my Etsy shop http://www.bearhollowcreations.etsy.com/ are 20% off from now until November 1. Don't let them get away!



http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=616272

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=616242

Painting Pumpkins

Elmers makes a really cool paint brush for kids. The paint is in the brush. You squeeze the brush a little and the paint somes out at the bristles.

The grandbabies had a great time painting!

Forest Fire in a Treasury

Thank to Kae for creating a beautiful treasury on Etsy using art from the VAST street team. She included my Forest Fire painting.

Click here to see the treasury.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=11683&show_panel=true

Click here to see Kae's art blog.

http://kae1crafts.blogspot.com/

Things I Learned from Barney - Mixing Colors

My grandchildren love to watch Barney the Dinosaur. Barney and the children sing lots of songs and in the process learn a lot of really cool things. My 2 1/2 year old granddaughter - because of Barney - knows that when you mix blue and yellow you get green.

Sing this to the tune of If You're Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands

If you mix blue and yellow you get green.

If you mix blue and yellow you get green.

When you mix the two you'll see

A new color magically.

If you mix blue and yellow you get green.

Then there are verses about red and yellow, and blue and red.

This - mixing colors -is something that I found to be a lot of fun. And it has saved me a lot of money.

I just recently bought some acrylic paint. I had only painted with oil and watercolor before this. I bought some good quality paints and therefore couldn't buy a lot of colors and still fill my car up with gas. So I bought these Liquitex paints:

Cadmium Red Deep Hue, Cobalt Blue Hue, Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue, Hooker's Green Hue Permanent, and Titanium White. I really like this paint. It's nice and thick and creamy and mixes beautifully.

I'll write more later about exactly how to mix tons of colors and shades, (right now I need to get to work) but I wanted you to see these ACEOs. All of the colors you see on these four little paintings were made with the five colors you see above.

So let me encourage you - if you're just starting out - to buy a few colors of paint (primary colors and white) and learn to mix your own colors. You'll understand more about color and save money in the process!

SOLD - Amber Waves of Grain

I'm always excited and a little surprised - I guess I shouldn't be surprised - when one of my pieces of art sells. I hadn't checked my home e-mail yesterday, (it was Wednesday. I was busy) but when I opened it up this morning I had a notice from Etsy www.etsy.com that "Amber Waves of Grain" sold. How fun is that?

Here are the posts where you can see the other ACEOs ACEOs explained here in my "America the Beautiful" series.

http://bearhollowcreations.blogspot.com/2008/09/america-beautiful.html

http://bearhollowcreations.blogspot.com/2008/09/america-aceos-continued.html

Forest Fire!

The second piece of art in my Sycamore Art series is titled "Forest Fire!" (If you missed the first painting, click here Sycamore Art ) That link will also show the sycamore trees.


I started with an old piece of plywood that I had used in making some stained-glass pieces. I chose this piece of wood partly for the great texture - which shows beautifully through the layers of paint - but also because I wanted my Sycamore Art series to be environmentally friendly by not only using the bark, but by recycling an old piece of wood and making something beautiful out of it.
I gessoed the board - I have no idea if that's how you spell that - and then painted it brown before painting layers of reds and oranges with a touch of yellow here and there.

I then picked out some pieces of sycamore bark that looked either like flames or like they had been burned into interesting shapes and mounted them on the painting. I didn't do anything to the bark except mount it and protect it with a coat of varnish. These are the shapes I found them in.

It was very difficult to photograph this work because it has such a shiny finish. No matter what angle or amount of light I used I would get a really bad glare either at the top or across the middle. A side angle seemed to show the color well without getting a glare.

I took a couple of pictures outside hoping the bright light - yet in the shade - would allow me to photograph it without the glare. I also took a picture of it under the tree that the bark came from.
You can see this new painting in my Etsy shop
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=15545663

This painting will definitely be a topic of conversation no matter where you hang it.

In an Etsy VAST Treasury

(Notice that the title of this post is clickable!)

Wow! Look at this! My Shining Sea ACEO has been included in a tresury on Etsy. That means someone liked it and it fit in with a theme she had in mind and so now when people go to the treasuries to see what items are being featured, they'll see my painting.

There are some other GORGEOUS paintings in this treasury. I think Mystic Silks "Fickle Winds" may be my favorite. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6866440

Check out the treasury! http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=26710

America ACEOs Continued

Here are two more ACEOs from my new series

America the Beautiful.

If you missed the first two you can see them here

http://bearhollowcreations.blogspot.com/2008/09/america-beautiful.html

An explanation of ACEOs can be found here

ACEOs

Amber Waves of Grain

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=15426880

Shining Sea

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=15427189

You can find them in my Etsy shop

http://www.bearhollowcreations.etsy.com/

Feel free to collect the whole set. :-)

We won't think you're being selfish.

America the Beautiful

I've started a series of ACEOs ACEOs explained here called America the Beautiful.

I'll end up with an ACEO for each phrase of the first verse (at least), but I wanted to go ahead and post the first two that I have finished.

O beautiful for spacious skies...

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=15392365

For purple mountain majesties...

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=15392626

These original miniature paintings are the standard 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 ACEO size. They were painted with acrylic paint on Canva-Paper then mounted to a playing card.

You can click on the link just below each picture to see it in my shop,

or you can go directly to my Etsy shop by clicking here: www.bearhollowcreations.etsy.com

ACEOs

I've started a new series of ACEOs - "America the Beautiful".

Before I talk about these little paintings in particular, let me explain ACEOs for some who may have never heard of such things. (I guess I'll put the America the Beautiful ACEOs in another post.)

ACEO is an abreviation for Art Cards Editions and Originals. Here is a good explanation I found at Associated Content.

"ACEOs are collectible little pieces of art. An ACEO is always two and one-half inches by three and one-half inches. That is the size of a standard sports trading card. The rule about size is the ONLY rule in the ACEO world. An ACEO can be created in any medium the artist desires: paint, colored pencils, ink, etc. There are even ACEOs made from wood, clay, fabric, and metal.

ACEOs are tiny art works that can be matted and framed to hang on the wall. Many people display their ACEO collections in the same kind of plastic sheets and albums that sports card collectors use. You might slip an ACEO into a greeting card as an extra surprise for a birthday, anniversary, or Christmas. ACEOs sell on Ebay for anywhere from ninety-nine cents to over one hundred dollars or more!"

Hahaha! So, if you want to save the Ebay fees and trouble, just send me a hundred dollars and I'll send you one of my ACEOs!

The pictures in this post are of watercolor ACEOs I made last year. They were painted on watercolor papaer and then mounted to a playing card. I sold a few of them. These are still in my Etsy shop http://www.bearhollowcreations.etsy.com/

Better Blacks

Better black? "Black is black" I suppose many would say. "And besides, a tube of black paint came in the set of paints I bought."

It's true, black right out of the tube is definitely black, but you'll find that a mixed black gives a beautiful depth and is much more interesting to the eye.

The easiest way to mix black is to take two colors opposite each other on the color wheel and mix them together: green/red, blue/orange, purple/yellow. As you mix, you may first get a shade of brown. That's how I mixed brown for my violin painting http://bearhollowcreations.blogspot.com/2008/09/mixing-brown.html But you'll notice on that painting that there are parts of the body of the violin that are dark and could become black with a little more of the blue added.

In this painting I used my favorite color combination for making black - red and green. I used alizarin crimson and veridian. Actually, I first painted the entire canvas with inexpensive black acrylic. This way I didn't have to worry about any white shining through the background. I then painted the entire background with liquin paint thinner. The liquin allowed me to cover all the background quickly and without using a lot of thick paint. (I wanted the calla lilies to be thick and didn't want them to have to compete with the texture of the background.)

I took my red and green and barely mixed them. I didn't want to lose all of the red or green. Using a criss-cross painting motion, I painted the background with my red/green mix. I don't think you can tell from this photograph, but the red and green can be seen here and there in the background. That's what gives the background some interest and some depth. I think I threw in a little blue here and there too. Not that you really see it, but I really love blue and think everything should have at least a little touch of blue.

So the next time your piece calls for black, see if a mixed black will do the job. You'll be very pleased with the results.