My husband and I are working on a collaborative project. When he takes a photo that inspires me I do a painting of it. The last 2 peices that I blogged about were part of this project as well as 2 others that I blogged about in the past.  I thought you might like to see the photos next to the paintings. We’re going to present our idea to galleries and see what they think. It’s a cool idea because the photos are art in and of themselves and the drawings are art in and of themselves. When you see them side by side you see the beauty and uniqueness of each piece and each style of art. They compliment each other and together become a new and original form of art. So here you go. The photos next to the drawings. 

I like to look for other artists who share my passion for colored pencil. I enjoy seeing their work and am often inspired by their ideas and creativity. My favorite colored pencil artist is Sheri Doty. (She also goes by Sheri Lynn Boyer-Doty.) Her work is amazing! So lifelike and touching. She always seems to choose subjects that are heartwarming and cheerful. The other thing that I like about her is that she uses Prismacolor pencils! A woman after my own heart. I would recomend to anyone who likes art to take a few minutes to look at her stuff at imagekind. It will be time well spent.

I am so excited for spring to come. It’s march now so warm weather is on the way and I can’t wait! I want to be able to go outside in a T-shirt and cut-offs. I want to be able to take barefoot walks and go hiking in sandals and lay out under the stars without sinking into 3 feet of snow! (: I want to be able to spend hours and hours outside working in a garden or wandering the mountains.

I drew this picture because I wanted to express a feeling of springtime and the fresh newness that comes with it. I took a few pictures of this one, the way I did with the red squirel, so that you can see some detail and have a better idea of what it looks like.

This is a drawing of my sister Shelly’s eye. She has really dark eyes, almost black. I’ve always thought they were really beautiful. This drawing doesn’t do them justice but I did my best. It was done with black and white prisma color pencils from a photo that I took. I remember the day I took the picture. We were running around the city and just having a great time. Hey Shelly, we have to do that again sometime. (:

Here’s another fantasy painting I did. I named it Queen of Neziaro because of a fantasy land called Neziaro that my family made up. We like to make up legends and fantasy stories and such. You can read some of them here.

I started this one yesterday and finished it today. I got the idea from a Loreena Mckennitt song. It’s called Dante’s Prayer and in the chorus it says,”cast your eyes on the ocean, cast your soul to the sea.” Anyway I was thinking about the idea of a person gazing out at the sea and then I thought of the idea of a fisherman’s wife who is waiting for her husband to return. I also liked the idea of a not so settled sky in the distance so there is a question about how the weather is out there. I think I’ll write a poem about it. I’ll post it on here if I do. This is the 3rd in my ‘little paintings’ series. If you’d like you can bid for this on ebay.

I’ve decided to enter an art competition that will go from Feb. 15th through March 28th. My sister in law, Kristina found out about it in the paper and sent me the article.

It’s always fun to enter a competition. Even when I don’t win it’s a kick. I never actually agree with the judges and it’s a lot of fun to go around and decide who I would have picked as a winner. There is so much talent out there. I always have to remind myself that I don’t have to be the best. I just have to be as good as I can be and that’s enough. It’s better to compete with myself, to always try to make the piece that I’m working on better than the last one and then if I fail to not mind and just try again the next time. The day that it becomes too serious is the day that I’ll stop. It has to be fun or what’s the point? We are that we might have joy, not stress and misery. Those things come but why bring them upon ourselves? I paint because I love it. If it sells, it sells. If it wins, it wins and if it doesn’t, at least I enjoyed the ride.

The paintings that you see on this post are the ones that I have decided to enter.

I went down to the museum where they are hanging my work and the director told me that he has decided to use this painting for the premier piece in the show. Cool huh? Jake has framed it beautifuly with black matting and a shiny black frame. It looks great.

You know I am really glad that I know someone who knows how to make frames. It can be so expensive. Jake is awsome at it. If any of you out there are looking for someone who will make BEAUTIFUL custom frames for a great price contact him and he’ll make you one. I know I sound like I’m trying to advertise for him or whatever but he really does a great job. I would recommend him to anyone.

Availability status of this piece:

Currently on loan to the Fairview Art Museum, Fairview, Utah: Museum Web Site

Original available for purchase. Temporarily not available while on exhibition (Contact sales@willowrise.com)

Giclée quality prints are also available. (Please visit willowrise.com for details)