Busy…Learning & Teaching !

It’s been a long time since I have posted some work… I’ve been doing the Doggie Portraits – I LOVE doing this because I get to meet some amazing fur peeps and their owners.  Since we lost Murphy in April, our puppy time has been greatly reduced.

To fill that ‘void’, I decided to challenge myself and create an online class.  The platform I used is Skillshare – they offered a $200 bonus for a ‘new’ class in the ‘craft’ category – crafts being basically anything you can make….. so I took them up on the challenge.

While working on the class, I discovered that I actually had a TON of ideas for classes, and decided that I’m going to brand them as Art for Everyone from Whimsyville Studios !…. simple, fun projects with 15-20 minute ‘how to’s’ and of course colorful and fun artwork.

I would LOVE it if you would join me – I’d love it so much, that I am offering it to you for FREE – (at least the first 30 of you that take advantage). After that you can join for 99 Cents a month..

Here’s what we will create as the class Project….. My Doodled Rooster…. hope to see you there!

what to do…

i receive a lot of email with titles like “9 ways to make your mopping look professional” and “25 things to make with cucumbers”. I generally get to #2 on the list and call it done.  I have my own list – anything outside of this list is fluff – i do love fluff (*notice there are zero chores on this list).

and when I am old and have dementia (which is probable given family history) this should be easy to follow along…

1. eat
2. sleep
3. work
4. eat
5. play
6. drink
7. return to one.

what to do…. i think i’ll paint.

the worlds lamest blogger

so i keep forgetting that i own a blog – how responsible right? are there blog police? surely. am I going down in bad artist history? probably. I just want to make art and try to sell more of it. spend time at the beach and really – just get in a few witty comments on other peoples pages. I’m here for smiles, cocktails , random haiku and just to leave “it” a little better than I found it – whatever ‘it’ is.

Happy Tuesday – it’s not friday, but it’s def. not Monday.

murphy. may you enjoy the stars. We miss you.

Murphy’s Haiku

it’s almost sweetie time

Gelli printing and hand lettering – a match made for me.  While these are both digital versions – hand lettering done first, and rendered in Photoshop and the gelli is a scan – I can now do the ‘real’ thing with confidence. I really love this print and with #gellis you can never get the same result twice. I did also try in in the center and it didn’t do anything for me…so scan and audition – and then decide.  Hope you have a wonderful sweetie day.

Sunday Fun-Days

I’ve been teaching myself to digitize my artwork. This is a combination of my hand lettering and an abstract Watercolor flower.  I decided that it might be fun to create a new way to share artwork…. so….

Introducing a new art game – kinda like Cards Against Humanity except you pick the answers from your life instead of a pile of cards (and you decide whether or not it’s humane…)

To play, simply put your choice of fill in the blanks in the comment section or print the piece, add your words and share (#whimsyvillefun) or post on Whimsyville’s Facebook  Page under today’s post (Jan. 24, 2016) . Best original answer wins a ‘digital’ version to print out …. tell me what you are thinking, good or bad….

Have a great week – Love, Ann

 

schuw – summers over.

Sample Coloring Page: the Hipster

Sometimes it is sad, sometimes it is happy. This one was a little warm for me personally but it was filled with such abundance and fortune – at least in my mind. Nothing ‘huge’ happened, a little 21 person family fun, a quick trip to the lake house and a lot of ‘fresh’ ideas for some artwork.

Now, we get down to business – more art.

So I am experimenting with some ideas, based on my last post – from JUNE (holy cow). Good ideas take time.

Here is the blank if you’d like to color one too and the question is…. If you were to purchase
a coloring book of my work, would you prefer that I add the doodles and
you just color or would you prefer to add them yourself?
(You would be provided with some tiny bit of guidance and some samples 🙂 ).

I would LOVE to hear your thoughts.

Thanks.

Doodle Diversions…

So, I took another class on-line called Doodle Flowers  from Joanne Sharpe. What I love about taking her classes is that it draws me into a new place with my own artwork. So while the class was about flowers, these are some of my results… flowers ? um I have only done one or two..

I imagine the ‘next’ generation of this series will include some collaged element(s)….

These originals are 11x 14 or 14 x 11 and are $125.00 , unframed if you are so inclined, and as usual I can do your animals. The final one is of a dear friend’s two dogs !

Snap

A Cat called Patches ? argh.

Everybuddy loves some Bunny

The Hug

Chick filled-in

Just Pork

Susan’s Doggies at Nap

Karma, the lizard

the test of ‘realness’

So this week i finished a 24 x 24 commission that was sort of rendered by my appearance at the Carolina Beach Arts Festival. A Pelican Collage. Have you seen it before ? yes. Thing is it was for someone that I have to see on a daily basis and it was ‘scary’. He insisted on a substrate I was not sure would work – paper / cardboard. He didn’t want to hear a thing about canvas panels, birch wood substrates or anything that me, the artist, thought would be prudent….

In an effort to appease the client and in a ‘oh what the heck-throw caution to the wind- whatever’  mind set  i did as he asked. Guess what?

It’s fine. He even gave me a ‘tip’ for doing it his way – $ 50.00 –

Moral of the story : Try it – it may get you something in addition to a happy client.

The finished collage -Pelican II

off to the festival

Its time for the Carolina Beach Arts Festival – and I’ve been working really hard and looking forward to this festival.  Lynnette Ashby and myself will be the ‘featured artists’. Joining several others near Artful Living in Carolina Beach, NC we will each be working on a 24 x 48 panel in our own style as well as overseeing a community ‘sampler’ project of the same size.   I can not wait to see all the arty goodness as well as take in the beach.

Many thanks to Josie for the beautiful article linked above and the board of ICAC for letting me participate.

8 x 20 SurfBoard Collage and Paint… a new series of paintings for the Carolina Beach Arts Festival

CABF poster

Tearing paper, a mathbook and collage

I am a relatively ‘new’ artist – like ten years or so. Before that, I was a math nut. These are two really different sides of the brain… so it only makes sense that i would tear up an ancient matchbook (circa 1865) and create a Pelican. The math book was falling apart literally, but full of really great pictorial representations of how to create fractions and trigonometry and a bunch of fun word problems…. you know the ones… “If you have ten pancakes and there are 5 people to feed, how much syrup do you need…” ha.

at any rate, here is the little guy – and one of his friends….  i hope to continue more in the series this weekend for the upcoming Beach Art Festival…

2015 torn paper and paint 8 x 8 on birch wood panel.

torn paper and paint pink starfish collage 8 x 10 on canvas