15 Reasons to Paint

15 Reasons Why You Should Paint Today.

1. Painting engages your mind.
2. It relieves stress - unless you're a perfectionist.                          
3. If you're a perfectionist it gives you a chance to loosen up.
4. People will wonder what your doing.
5. It's like meditating, when you paint you stay in the moment.              
6. Painting fulfills that need to create something that can possibly even outlive you.
7. Painting is a fine way to get some alone time. Unless you're painting with a friend. In that case, it's a good group activity.
8. Painting allows you to travel for cheap as you paint a loved one, a favorite place or one you created.
9. It's a good excuse to make a mess. (If you want one.)
10. Painting goes well with wine.
11. It's a great way to fill that empty space on your wall with original art.
12. It feels good!
13. It's a great way to avoid doing your taxes!
14. Great way to express yourself without words. Art is an universal language.
15. It's a great way to spend time with your dog.

  









Okay, I started this wanting to come up with just ten but couldn't stop myself. What are your reasons to paint today? Leave me a comment.

Living Life at the Speed of Summer

 The Speed of Summer

What a busy summer! What's next? Today a wedding reception for my nephew Paul and his lovely wife Heather. The next two days; move my daughter out of the apartment she lived in while at college and bring her home. Then Wisconsin followed by my first gallery show on August 22nd. I'm excited about the show but I am realizing that I have a lot of work to do before it opens including finishing a painting.
So that's my excuse for the poor blog schedule. No excuses... I did miss you though.

My garden is at its peak! I have taken many new photos for lots of new paintings .

For the first time that I can remember I am longing for the cooler days when life slows down a bit and there is more time for painting. Am I nuts! Don't I remember last winter?  I just want to paint more. I will be starting another 30 in 30 on September 1st. I can't wait! Why don't you join along? There are over 350 artists from all over the world signed up already.  Join Leslie Saeta and the rest of us at http://30paintingsin30days.weebly.com/ .

I started a new painting this week. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to paint all day while Mark and Matt were at the Oshkosh air show.   

I had my trusty buddy, Cooper at my side.

I went inside when I heard the thunder. Really? Rain so hard when the sun is out? It was beautiful though, and I was able to resume painting at the kitchen table.

Coop helped pick out the colors.

Starting a New Painting on a Rainy Day

Working on a commission and starting a new painting.

 That's my kind of day! Let it rain all it wants to.

Painting Glasses for the Unforgettable Art Event

I had a lot of fun painting wine glasses this week for the Unforgettable Art Event.  The  Annual Affair for Alzheimer's will be held Saturday May 3. Tickets: www.alz.org/illinois or call 815-484-1300.

Using Americana Gloss Enamels I painted flowers from my Garden Series. It took awhile to catch on to painting on glass with transparent paint but I got it.

In fact, it was so much fun that I went out and bought several more wine glasses to paint. I thought it might be fun to paint Wisconsin scenes for the upcoming Artarma in July.

Ember is Today's DOG on MY BLOG 2014-03-31 17:26

I know animal experimentation is very controversial but it's not when your just painting a picture of them. I have been loving the alcohol ink paintings that I have been seeing several artist produce. So I went to Cheap Joe's, ordered a few, watched a few U Tubes and was anxious to try them out. I choose Ember, a Jack Russell Terrier because of the variations  of his fur and well, let's face it, he has great markings.

I drew out the picture... it looks more like a paint by number than a sketch. This amount of detail was a joke- One of the nice things about the inks is they do what they want - you deal with the outcome. They are very forgiving though, as you can continue to manipulate them until you get a result you like.

   

After using masking fluid I was ready to put in the background. I choose blue and green. Then I added browns, yellow and black to Ember's face.

What a mess! So I added more trying to manipulate the paints in some way to look like a dog. This was about the point where I thought maybe this painting is a scrapper. 

So I rubbed off the masking fluid in hopes that I would be able to recover this painting. I had to remind myself this was my first time using the medium and that it would require some practice.

Then I played with the colors some more, removing some with alcohol and adding paint in other areas.

Then I drew a few details in with an ink pen. I think I can go back and fix the right eye with some white ink - but alas the white ink, along with a few other colors is on back order so I'll have to wait until it gets shipped to me.