'Hoppy' Easter - PPF

'Hoppy Easter' Oil on 3x5 Canvas Board

Spring is finally making an appearance here in the windy city.  We had temps in the mid 40's today which prompted me to paint something with flowers.  I found this pattern in the April 2011 Paint Works magazine.  The original was done in acrylics on a small wood cabinet but I wanted to try something other than landscapes with my oil paints.  My boyfriend's mom loves to decorate for all of the holidays so I'm giving this to her as an Easter gift when we go to brunch on Sunday.

I'm linking up to the Paint Party Friday blog so 'hop' on over and check out all of the other great artists.  Happy Friday!

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Watercolor Wednesdays

Watercolor 5x8 Canson 140lb Cold Press 

Good morning!  Hope your week is off to a good start.  I did this little sketch in my semi homemade art journal and used my Koi Water Colors Pocket Field Sketch Box watercolors to paint it.  I have to say I absolutely love these watercolors.  I've tried a couple different types and brands of watercolors including the tubes and I have found that so far, these are my favorite.  They have beautiful depth to the colors and it's so small I can take it anywhere.

As for my semi homemade art journal, I found a small photo book on clearance at hobby lobby a few months ago and decided to turn it into an art journal of sorts.  I just slipped the ring off both the covers and the pages, cut some watercolor paper to the correct size, used the original paper as a guide to punch the holes, then alternated watercolor paper with the pages that came with the book so I can sketch and watercolor.  The best part is, I can add more pages as I fill it up, or completely remove the old pages and start with a whole new set!

I also FINALLY ordered the new batteries for my Canon EOS Rebel so I can start taking gorgeous pics again instead of using my phone's camera. Yahoo!

If you would like to share your watercolor artwork just click on Mr Linky below.

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Sunday Sketches - Water Lily

Good morning and happy Sunday!  I'm linking up to Sunday Sketches over at Blue Chair Diary so hop on over and take a peek at all of the wonderful sketches this week.  Sorry for the bad pic, I was drawing late last night and wanted a quick pic as I'm going to be using watercolors to color it in later on today.

Hope you are having a great weekend!

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PPF - Tuscan Window

11x13 Watercolor on Canson 140lb Coldpress Paper

So much has been going on the past few months.  I feel like I've been gone forever.  Christmas was absolutely wonderful despite having bronchitis.  My wonderful boyfriend gave me a plasma tv, a kitchenaid mixer and a $100 giftcard to Michaels! Yes I am spoiled! I used my giftcard to purchase my Bob Ross oil paints and have been painting away.  I hope to share those over the next few weeks.

The new year brought the flu, I feel as though I have been sick more often than not this year, ugh! Two rounds of bronchitis, the flu, the stomach flu and just recently a cold.  I'm thinking it's because I'm not typically around little ones until meeting my boyfriends very large family.  Every time one of the kids has the sniffles, I get sick.

 February brought the death of one of my boyfriend's brothers. My boyfriend is the youngest of nine children and they are all very close.  It was hard to watch him go through that kind of pain.  It also brought my birthday and more spoiling from my boyfriend in the form of Kohls and Hobby Lobby giftcards. I got some great clearance deals at Kohls and a wonderful Wilton cake decorating kit along with some painting supplies from Hobby Lobby.

So far March has proved to be following along with the previous months bad luck, my bf's family dog got very sick.  I spent a week there caring for him.  Poor thing could not eat, barely walk and was having a tough time breathing.  After several vet visits and a misdiagnosis it was determined that he had metastatic cancer and we had to put him down.  One of the hardest things I've had to do.  The good news so far this month...my daughter got engaged!  They just moved into a new townhouse and needed some artwork for their walls so she came over and 'stole' some of my oil paintings for her bedroom and has asked me to do an acrylic painting of Ganesha. He's a little Indian elephant god, yikes!  My experience with acrylics has not been the best so far, but it's a pretty simple painting so hopefully it goes well!

Also hoping that April will finally bring some good news as well as some spring weather.  Can't wait to open windows and feel the warmth of the sun.  Hope you all have a great weekend, please stop by Paint Party Friday to see all of the wonderful artists and their creative works!

step one

step two

Step three

The finished piece

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