2016 Retrospective

Tags

acrylic paint, Altered books, art exchange, art journal, gratitude journal, hand painted cards, Journal, Peace, Retrospective

Here are some of my favorite pieces/photos from the past year. Each is going to be linked to the blog post that describes it, but I’m having technical difficulties for now.

January

I sold this piece at an exhibit at Hatch Art House in Madison, WI

February

This little landscape was donated for an auction at the Beaver Dam Area Art Center

March

Gratitude journal page entry

April

Three years of gratitude journals!

May

Flower farm near our house in WI.

June

Leaf Mandala with Flowers

July

Summer Waves Mandala for a Community Art Project

August

Illuminated box #1 completed

September

October

This photo was taken on our trip to Maine. We totally fell in love with Maine and look forward to many return trips! We went for the fall color and found so much beauty.

November

Process Painting #3: Love

December

 

https://wpcomwidgets.com/render/

These hand painted cards are from 3 separate posts, but I wanted to include a representational sample and send you into the new year with plenty of peace.

Happy New Year!

 

Year’s End Peace Art

Tags

Blue and white, blue paisely, cards, Christmas, Holiday, lettering, paisley, Peace

So I made 30 cards in all. It was really interesting to work in a series like this. I think I may make a larger piece inspired by the process, but until then here are 9 of the last 10. I’m not sure what happened to the 10th photo, but the cards are mailed so we have what we have. I hope this provides you with a little peace to end the year out right. My word for 2016 was Thrive and I think my word for 2017 may be peace. I think I made some good progress with thriving in 2016!

I have a lot of gratitude journal post catching up to do and I think I may incorporate it into a year in review kind of thing. We will see what time permits.

I wish you all peace, health, and gratitude in the year to come!

Sunday Trees: Merry Christmas

Tags

birds, mystery, photography, Robin, trees

I don’t know if this is unusual for New Jersey, but it was 50 degrees F here today! My sweetie and I decided to go for a walk and explore a new part of the Patriots’ Path. On the way there we stopped so I could photograph some woods that have mystified me.

Ok, it isn’t the woods that has me stumped 😉 but the massive gate or entryway. Closer inspection did nothing to explain the presence of these pillars. There is no sign of an old road or a house foundation. There are fallen trees all around them. I particularly like the one that fell right in front of them!

The part of the Path we explored is in the Frelinghuysen Arboretum. We don’t see Robins in Wisconsin in the winter no matter how nice a day it may be so imagine my surprise to see this one in New Jersey on Christmas!

I wish you peace and beauty today and everyday.

Festive Doors of NYC

Tags

Festive, Festive Doors, Fifth Ave, Holiday decorations, NYC, photograph, photography, Thursday Doors

And a few windows.

Yesterday my husband and I took the train into NYC and walked from Penn Station up 5th Ave. to the Museum of Modern Art. Here are some signs of the season we found along the way.

Saks Fifth Ave and Lord & Taylor had the best displays on our stretch of the avenue.

Looking to Saks from Rockefeller Center was pretty awesome. Having the angles heralding the season and framing the castle on the store was fantastic. The animatronic geese at Lord and Taylor were so fun, too. The geese and the Lego windows were our favorites.

 

And there were lovely doors that were beautiful and interesting just as they are.

If you want to check out more lovely doors see Norm 2.0. This week he has some beautiful picture of Montreal.

 

A (Solstice) Day at MoMA (part 1)

Tags

art, collage, Color, Jasper Johns, Modern Art, MoMA, Rauschenberg, Starry Night, Van Gogh

Today we celebrated the Solstice by going to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. This has been something I have wanted to do this since we started planning our move to New Jersey in March. This first painting I did not capture the name of the artist, but it seems to capture the spirit of Solstice.

Of course this is Van Gogh’s  more familiar depiction of light.

The textures and colors of this painting are really wonderful to see in person. Here is a close up and a different perspective.

Here is an overview of some you may or may not know.

Cubism 101

 

This room was full of colors and textures that I really loved. This is the room that the light painting that I opened up the post with was in.

I discovered 2 new favorite artists! Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. They incorporate color and texture in ways I aspire to and really created some fantastic pieces!

I have a lot more to share, but I am totally worn out for tonight. I hope you enjoy this introduction to MoMA!

p.s. We got a membership cause we are definitely coming back!

 

More Peace and Paisley

Tags

Blue and white, blue paisely, Diva Challenge, Diva's Challenge, paisley, watercolors, Zentangle Inspired Art, Zentangles, ZIA

Here are 10 more Peace and Paisley cards. I plan to make 30 in all. It has been a great process to make this series. For more information about the process and the first 10 cards see my post from yesterday here.

I have uploaded one of the cards to Fine Art America if you want to purchase a set to use for your Christmas cards.

Sending out Peace

Tags

Blue, cards, Christmas, Christmas card, Holiday, paisley, Peace

My hope in life is to contribute to peace and beauty in the world. I’m taking that very literally this Christmas/Holiday season. I’m individually painting & illustrating my cards. Here is the first set of 10.

I made a stencil for the large paisley and for the word Peace and then I played with Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils, Ranger Distress Markers, some random gel pens and my Pigma Micron pens in 005, 01, and 03 of course they are all the blues. Making peace and beauty out of the blues. And I used my Pelikan Opaque Watercolors for the backgrounds. Each card is Zentangled and doodled and signed by me.This really fits nicely with the Diva’s Zentangle challenge #297: Give the Gift of Zentangle. For more tangled holiday fun check her out at

The quote on the inside of my cards is

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.                                                                                                             Melody Beattie

Peace.

I have uploaded one of the cards to Fine Art America if you want to purchase a set to use for your Christmas cards.

Lighthouse Painting

Tags

lighthouse, painting, Sunset, water

Here is my final painting from my beginning acrylic painting class. I plan to play with it some more.

I Choose Hope

Tags

Chomsky, quotes, Sunset

Gluten Free Breakfast Yumminess

Tags

gluten free, gluten free breakfast, Gluten free porridge, porridge, yumminess

I love porridge. I used to eat hot or cold oat meal for breakfast everyday, but apparently that was contributing to my migraines and fatigue. Now I eat a rice porridge that I have cobbled together from lots of information I have found online and what tastes good to me. This is one of my 2 favorites. Be prepared for extreme yumminess and give it a try even if you don’t need to eat gluten free – its that good! So to start I take a cup of brown rice (not Basmati) and cook it over low heat with about 4 cups of cold water for about 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally. I make a batch of this about once a week and then I reheat about a cup of rice each morning. I fill up my bowl with sweet dark frozen cherries and almond or coconut milk and the rice and warm it in the microwave for 2 minutes. Then I add some pecans (or what ever nuts you like – I like to use the ground almonds left over if I have made my own almond milk). I also add some real maple syrup or real honey if I want it a little sweeter, but its great without sweeteners, too. I also add 2 teaspoons of fresh ground flax seeds and sometimes some coconut oil. Enjoy!

My other favorite variation on this uses frozen mango and coconut with coconut milk. This with a touch of maple syrup is basically dessert for breakfast. Goji berries are a great addition to either one. My usual porridge includes some frozen mixed berries and some of the other additions.  Any one of these is a great way to start your day! I’m gradually reintroducing foods into my diet and I can generally tell pretty quickly if it won’t work. I have tried some gluten free granolas that were ok, but I think I’m going to stick to my rice porridge and maybe have oatmeal for travel and emergencies. Food really has a lot to do with how I feel and now it is time for me to make a big batch of turkey noodle (gluten-free) soup. Bon Apetit!