Adventures of the Magnificent 7: {art}

Awesome brush markers from Sharpie...
had to try them out...
they blend on canvas!

I started piano lessons when I was small - like 1st grade or so. I took them and practiced and moved along in the books and pieces until I was just about good. I had a natural talent to sight read. I could sit down to the piano and plunk out the music pretty well, for the first time seeing it. Even today, when I sit down and start reviewing those old books and familiar tunes, I can do it pretty well for not touching the keyboard for 3 months.

When I was a sophomore, I took an art class to fulfill an elective requirement. I was playing piano, the flute and now I thought, this would be an interesting class. I had no idea what to expect.

Sadie and I worked on together
for Aunt Julie

That was the best class I took for myself ...the self as a teenager and the self as a mother and adult. Here are a few things I learned:

1. Shadows are not black, they hold color. They are dark colors, because of the lack of or less amount of light present, but they are there.

2. If you can learn to draw by only looking at the object, follow the lines, move your eye at a consistent speed, look for shapes to draw...your final product will look more accurate than if you tried to eyeball it on your own.

3. A white flower is not just white...same type of concept as the shadow.{my 'juicy painting' of a white iris haunts me--I want to get it right, someday.}

4. You can look at something more than one way. {more on this later}

Carolyn Johnson was my art teacher. She is great! She is more of the typical art teacher you think of...a little more of a free spirit, lost pencils in her hair quite frequently, and sometimes would steal my pencil or brush and "have-at" it for a moment. {Sometimes seeing something is easier to understand than words can describe.}

I am trying to find my own voice in my art work. I love watercolor, thanks to Cheryl Renee Long and her class I took in Maple Valley {painting isn't just about recreating a photo, it's about putting paint on paper and expressing something through a medium.} I am trying to get back to liking acrylic.

THEN: Something that I did in High School and got some attention locally...

The Old Thorpe Mill

NOW: Christmas presents...

Christmas 2012

Sadie and I worked on this for her teacher, Mrs. Joyce.

Morrison Barn and Peoh Point--1st look at it:

{I will be doing this one again, another way.}

I started with this not long after we moved to Castle Rock. It turned out too dark for what I had in mind, but I liked the colors and it was fun to blend and mix. It has sat until January. I have been thinking and working on something...