Tuesday, April 21, 2015

neglect not the gift

Guess what?!  I've been painting!  A little.
I've also realized, with all of this moving and packing and unpacking, that I've got a lot of stuff that I've never posted, a lot of student/older work.  So I'll put some of that up in the next post.
For now, let's do some post-student work...
My husband, Aaron wrote a poem on his mission that I wanted to illustrate for his birthday one year.  These are all watercolors, after Vereshchagin, Walter Rane, and Carl Bloch.
"I often ponder the solemnity of that cold and lonesome hill
that stands as a witness of the Father's call and our Captain's reply "I will."
"But is it enough alone to know that we must follow where'er he goes
For in the great halls of eternity echoes his call, "Come follow me,"
But who will follow where our Captain calls,
When at the gate he asks, "Watch with me,"
It was easy to follow when he gave sight to the blind,
"But please, dear Captain, not now, not me."
And who will follow to King Herod's court, where scourged he fell to his knees.
The pathway seemed clear as he taught on the shore
Oh Captain, let us return to Galilee.
Yet his love pulls me onward when my faith begins to flee
No matter where my Captain leads, that echo resounds, "Come follow me."
So who will follow to Calvary, though cold and lonesome the hill
To stand as a witness of our Captain's call, and our humble reply, "I will."

He's pretty great.

Here's a sketch I did of little Aaronie when he was a babe...
And here's a tiny little oil sketch that I never finished.  I'd like to though.



This is what's on the easel right now.  I started some portraits of my sister's kiddos several years ago, and I'm finally getting to this one, of Neve.  It's almost done!
Here are some shots of the various stages, in backward order:





You know you've got a good painting when your palette looks like this!  I LOVE color!!

A little one I did for my favorite Sandy Foutz...


This is a larger collaborative piece I did with the primary-aged children in South Dakota.

And I was asked to do something for a Christmas event with a fine art exhibit and concert, also in South Dakota.  I had VERY little time to do it, so it's really not a great piece.  I'm not even going to show you the whole thing.  But here are some details.
The face of the baby Jesus is very small, about the size of my fingernail.  He is looking up at the attending angel while Joseph and Mary are sleeping.


Joseph is trying to stay awake, but he's worn out, man!


And the angel, watching over them, giving them rest. 



Thanks to Steve and Allison for being my impromptu models!

Friday, April 17, 2015

Arty Kiddos

Here's an update on the kids' art...It's fun to look at the last post about what they were drawing/painting.  The contrast from then to now is so exciting!  They grow up so fast!
Aaronie has yet to really do much drawing.  He's 4, but he just hasn't done much with a pen or pencil.  He loves clay, and he has ventured into painting a little lately, so we'll keep working with him until he gains some more confidence and therefore more interest.
But Nora and Sara, especially Sara, love everything arty.
These pieces were all done in South Dakota, so Nora had just turned 6 and Sara was still 4...
I wish I had their names on each of these, but I believe this is Sara's:

The snowman is Nora's.  She saw me take color notes on a drawing once, so that explains it.  Look at the note below: "Im.invitng.you.ovr. BRING A CAT".  Hahahahaha
These are all Sara:



And I LOVE this one, by Nora.  I love how big the Holy Ghost is, and how he has his arm around her.

Also while in South Dakota, we did an art activity with all of the primary-age kiddos from our church.  We did print-making, collage, watercolors, and then we did this collaborative piece:

I drew in the figures and painted all of the faces and hands, etc..  Then I mixed up some different yellows and greens in acrylic and let them go.  I touched up over the top with some oils and then my kiddos did some drawing with acrylic markers.  I've never really been too sentimental about any of my art, but a had a little moment while painting this, seeing Christ with my children...

Anywho, now we are in the mountains of Utah.  The weather is great!  And we have a fenced-in yard!  So we've had some fun with different art supplies.  We set up some watercolors outside, and the kiddos decided to paint the trees and the scrap wood instead of just paper.


Painting inside with cookie sheets works too.

And blowing watercolors around with straws...
Aaron is painting, everyone!  Hurrah!
And last, but not least, we've been learning to weave.  We got them some cardboard looming boards (basically a thick piece of cardboard with notches all around the edges--you really could make it yourself) and let them pick out their own yarn.  And they loved it!  Each of them made something, and now they're learning to make pom-poms.  They even took their looms to church to keep them busy during the main (sacrament) meeting.  Art for the win!