Blog Award

As mentioned in my previous post, I've been given an award (and a very cool looking one I might add) by the lovely and talented Vania. To be given an award by such a wonderful artist and all around cool person is quite an honor. Run, don't walk, to check out her BLOG so you can scroll through and check out her gorgeous artwork! Thanks again, Vania!

Apparently the Renee award was created by Bella and Ces in honor of their friend Renee.

So now it's my turn to choose 8 people to receive this award.

My chosen 8 in random order (except Mom is always first, of course) are:

1. Mom @ http://www.boggledbloggle.blogspot.com/
2. My crafty cousin Katie @ http://www.katie-anderson.blogspot.com/
3. Liese Martin @ http://deadpanalleyillustrations.blogspot.com/
4. Heather @ http://reverieart.blogspot.com/
5. Janine @ http://justplainbeans.blogspot.com/
6. JoMo @ http://pistudio.blogspot.com/
7. Jennifer @ http://www.blueskysunburn.com/
8. Thelma @ http://paintingsbythelma.blogspot.com/

XXOO ~Rischa

Kolby's Paintings

Kolby and I have been in the studio all week working on art. Mostly his art as I've been his lovely assistant while he learns new things. I managed to work on a little bit of my own, but not much. Anyway, he got interested in doing modern, abstract kind of art after viewing Gary Reef's vids on YouTube. Kolby likes his style and said it looked like fun the way he works on his masterpieces. He said he wanted to try it. This, of course, made my day. I had a ball this week working on these two pieces with him. Since Kolby is done with Math early for the entire year (yay) I let him work on art all week.

So without further ado, here is his first one, which he named, "Rush Hour". It's very large (I'd have to measure) and done on 3/4 inch stretched canvas.

His second piece isn't named yet. He isn't as happy with it, but I think it's because it's small and on a canvas board rather than a large, stretched, mounted canvas like the first one. It was the only larger canvas I had. I made a mounted wooden box frame for him, but he wanted canvas. He said he likes the texture. So a canvas board it was. Anyway, I love it. He signed it with a "K" stamp underneath that clear thing in the center. I don't know what those are called, but I'll show a close-up of it so you can see it better.

...and the close-up:

They both still need to be sealed. That last painting he used lots of 3D elements such as Hemp Rope, the Glass thinger, and wall texture. I used "Beachy" when naming those files because he said he wanted colors that were "beachy".

I have several other things that I want and need to blog about. One of them being that a really awesome fellow artist honored me with a blog award! Yay!!! I'll compose that post when I've chosen 8 people to pass the blog along to. Plus, right now I'm feeling rather cruddy and just want to go to bed. Nyquil is calling my name....along with my pillow.

Good night everyone!!

Artful Spaces; DIY wall art for the home

Look what finally came in the mail today!

Artful Spaces!!

Remember me talking about wanting this book in THIS & THIS post? The author of the book contacted me via my blog comments and let me know it was available on Amazon.com for the United States as a pre-order, I posted about it, and Mom sent me a message saying for me to not order it so she could get it for me. Sooooo.....here it is!!

I thumbed through it and I'm loving it so far. It has some great ideas to get you inspired!! I won't give any of them away...I'm thinking that would be a copyright issue. (notice the blurred words in the photo above?) I can say that anyone would be able to produce cool artwork with the help of this book's prompts. I'm super excited to get started on it! Thanks, Mom!!

Embroidery

I thought I would post a few pics of the newest thing that I've picked up. I've recently learned to embroider. It's all Katie's fault. LOL J/K Katie! I just started "doodling" with the threads and here are a few things that came from that.

I know I didn't do the start/end of the felty one right. I need to work on my blanket stitch. I've really enjoyed embroidery so far. I bought this book called Doodle Embroidery and it's SO COOL! I took photos of these and sent them to Candice and she'll be using them in her scrapbook designs. I can't wait to see them. She sells at ScrapDish.com if you want to check her designs out. They're very nice. I'm working on some embroidered things that will go in my Etsy shop, too....if I can ever get the courage to open it!

I've also been working on my WOW class. That's the class that Willowing/Tam teaches. You'll see her links in my sidebar if you're interested.

Happy April Fool's Day everyone! And Happy Birthday to my Uncle Jeff and my friend Christa's daughter. Wouldn't it be cool to be born on April Fool's Day? I bet sometimes people don't believe them when they say, "It's my Birthday today". LOL

A Painting & Excuses

First the excuses.... I know I've been gone a while from this blog. I haven't had a lot of time to be creative for various reasons. Sick, busy, new feathered additions to the family, doc appointments, shopping, & etc...

With the excuses behind me I'll go ahead and post the fun stuff. Here's one thing I did manage to finish.

The Blue Guitar:

The colors didn't turn out as pretty as they are in real life, but that's what I get for taking quicky shots with a point and shoot. No light box, no outside light, no nothing to help my photos look pretty. You get the idea, though.

FYI The guitar string is actually sewing thread dipped in Mod Podge. The musical notes are from a Ukrainian Hymnal and have a color wash of antique yellow over the top. The yellow color you see in the painting is really more of an antique yellow, as well, but the colors turned out kind of mustard-esk. This will be in my shop very soon. Opening is coming up! Yay!

Featured Artist

Today, Refuge Pour les Artistes will be featuring the work of a talented young artist named Kolby. Yup, folks.....my kiddo can paint! He doesn't enjoy it like his mom and both of his grandmothers, but he sure is good at it. He painted these two AWESOME birds for me when he went to visit my parents in GA back in 2005. He was around 12 years old then. Mom guided him through it, but he did the actual painting himself; or so they tell me. I'm so proud of these paintings.

There's a bit of a glare on the pink bird's pic. You get the idea, though. I should have taken it out of the frame and scanned, but I didn't. I wish he enjoyed painting. He thinks it's a girl thing, even though we've all told him otherwise. I guess because he sees so many females doing it around him? lol Maybe he'll change his mind some day. These are acrylic on 8x10 canvas board and mounted in wooden, painted frames.

Becky Kelly’s Watercolor 101

I’m really posting to test my new blog editor, Windows Live Writer 2009, but since I’m blogging I might as well post relevant content. Since I do not have any photos uploaded of my recent work, I’ll talk about a great web site I happened to find recently.

I was checking out one of Etsy’s Treasuries yesterday and noticed Becky Kelly was featured. I have heard of this artist before and I’ve seen her work, but didn’t know she was on Etsy. I admired her beautiful watercolor pieces for a while and then did a Google search. I thought she might have a web site with watercolor tips. She did! Her site is www.BeckyKelly.com. I’m really interested in Watercolor lately, so THIS part of her site really tickled my art fancy.

I love it when talented artists share their knowledge with those of us eager to learn! If you think about it, they really have nothing to gain by doing this except for our gratitude. It’s very generous, don’t you think? Like those artists on YouTube who show their techniques and ask nothing in return. Sure, it gets their name out there, but it also is giving away their secrets for other Artists to use. Pretty darn cool of them if ya ask me! But…..nobody did, so I’ll shut up now. lol