I decided a couple days ago to paint out of the lines. I grabbed a plastic knife and went to town. Then I noticed that Micki of The Art Hermit had just posted a painting that she did with a plastic knife! What are the chances? It must be the new year making us want to try something different. Micki asked if I would be posting mine, so here it is. I actually did not finish it until today and I did use some brushes to finish it up.

It is called "Trying" I feel this way a lot...

I also want to share with you something very fun and exciting that happened to me. I won the Claire Barone Art give away and yesterday the most sparkly red box showed up at my door FULL of goodies!

I absolutely LOVE this painted glass necklace and just feast your eyes on everything else....ornaments, mounted prints a beautiful magnet with the cutest pink elephant and even a little glass mermaid pin. Rose was quite interested in all of it when she came home from school. She kept telling me that it was A LOT of beautiful stuff and she can't believe that Claire would just give all of that to me. :) I agree. Thank you so much Claire!! Jennifer

I love the pretty colors of this one. I am always striving for that antique looking blue. I have a few old paintings in my home with that yellowed blue sky and it is hard to mix that color. This blue here is pretty close. I always try to paint in the colors that would match my house, because of course, these paintings are in my house. Hee hee I do love the pastel nature of this painting. I am getting very anxious for spring.

Jennifer

I have several little devil paintings coming down the pike. For some reason Valentine's and little devils just go together for me. I always picture little devils stealing hearts.




The other day my little girl Rose had mentioned to me AGAIN how she hates art class at school. I asked her why? And she said because they make her stay in the lines and make her follow the rules.
I must explain that Rose has always been one to want to go out of the lines, if you know what I mean. So I just explained that I am sure the art teacher is just trying to show you all the different ways to make art and you really should listen and do what she says there, but when you come home you can use what you learned and do whatever you want. They do come home with some pretty fantastic art projects. I wouldn't mind taking her class. Hee hee. I can see though how some children might walk away from art class thinking they hate art or that they can't do art.



I just keep reminding her that there is NO right or wrong to art.








Speaking of art work....if you have never seen "In the Realms of the Unreal" a documentary on Henry Darger. I recommend. I am sure many of you have already seem this. Wow, very interesting .


















Before I go, I thought I would share a picture that I took over the Christmas Holiday. My sweet Anthony sleeping like an angel after a late party.


But then you look a little closer at what he had to take out of his pockets before slipping into bed.





I know you Moms with boys understand. What's in your 7 year old son's pockets? Ha ha.

Jennifer

Have you ever had a conversation with a paint brush?

I have.

I have told them that I will take good care of them and not leave them in water over night.

I have lied to many paint brushes in the past.

I promise this time will be different.

Jennifer

I've Abandoned my BLOG!

I've abandoned my Blog!

Said like in the movie, "There will be Blood".

What a nice vacation. This was the first year that I can remember being sad about taking down the tree.

It was quite a season of glitter and gluttony, retrospect too.

Along with all the Christmas parties, I had a funeral and a small 20 year reunion of my closest school friends. I should say LOTS of retrospect. Maybe that is why this Christmas felt so fulfilling. It was not so much about the gifts but more about the people and memories.

It felt good painting again yesterday. Although, I did miss my babies being back to school.

Today, I feel more like I am back to my normal routine again and I might even get a chance to stop by some blogs. I should definitely do that instead of listening to 2012 documentaries. Yikes! I have a feeling any of your blogs would be much for uplifting.

Jennifer

This R2-D2 artwork was created by my son Anthony. We are all huge fans of Star Wars. We were lucky enough to be able to go to Star Wars in Concert. All the music was played by an unbelievably talented Symphony Orchestra while parts of the movie played on a giant screen . Anthony Daniels who played C-3PO narrated . It was quite an experience and I think we all agree we would do it again. Although, Anthony did cry all the way home because he wanted to meet Anthony Daniels and get his autograph. :(

Yes,

Anthony wore a Jedi robe there. He was not the only one in costume as you can imagine.

These are my latest paintings up on ebay. These have been almost finished for a couple weeks and I just now got around to putting the finishing touches on them.

Too much partying and not enough painting.

Now I am off to go mail my Christmas cards. It is crazy that you can only send two cards on a dollar. Wow. I might look into postcards next year. ;)

I have to show off my niece Laura's painting. It is of my dear baby Rose hugging my other niece's dog , Punch.

This is a perfect opportunity to welcome Laura Beth to the art blog world. If you go to her blog you may recognise her from my sister Cris's Mommy's Midwest Mountain bog. This is one of her beautiful daughters. Cris, I hope you don't mind that I am showing her off first. Hee hee

Laura has always had an amazing talent for doing portraits, even as a young girl, gees she is a young girl, I should say even as a child, she would sit and sketch portraits of the children around her. Now, in art school she is really spreading her wings. I have been after Laura for a few years now to show off her work and she has finally become brave enough to do it. :)

Laura, I love this painting! You will have to let me buy a print!

Jennifer