First fluid acrylic abstract

I got a new DVD by Pat Dews, Designing Great Starts with Texture and Form, which is excellent and really inspiring. One thing she suggests at the end of your painting time, so as to not waste paint, is to have a sheet ready and do a start using up what you have left. Sounded like a good idea to me.

So last night I was working on my full sheet....haven't ripped it up yet. I've put some liquid acrylics on it to see if I could brighten up the dull, overworked area. It may be working. Anyway, when I was finished, I had a tiny bit of left over paint. So I took a 6" x 6" Aquabord, wet it down and literally slapped the paint on there. I sprayed it with some water and covered it with crinkled up waxed paper and put a make-up mirror on it to weight it down. This is what I found this morning.

I'm thrilled with the vibrant color, brush strokes and the textures. Really looking forward to going bigger on this and trying them out on paper, and being more deliberate in my design.

Getting braver.....finally

I've been really struggling with getting the courage up to try a full sheet, 22" x 30", because it's just so big!!!

Well, I feel good because I've finally given it a go. This is not a painting that will be finished because it's getting terribly overworked as I need to get some bigger brushes. I'll do that as soon as I get paid next week.

But I did have fun and it's a first step. The 2nd pic shows some waxed paper and cheesecloth on there to create texture. In the 3rd pic, I took the frisket off the house. I'll probably cut it up and use it in a collage or maybe use a section that's not too bad for another painting.

I'm looking forward to trying again when I get the brushes. And I'm starting to feel what Peg always says.... FEAR NO ART!!!

Arte y Pico Award

Randy Carboni, who I met on Wet Canvas, has awarded my blog with the Arte y Pico Award. Thanks Randy! He and his daughter are working on a draw a lime a day for 100 days project. Very cool. Check out Randy's blog HERE.

“Arte Y Pico” is described by Ana, the award originator, like this: "Basically, ironically, it translates into a wonderful phrase in Mexico, 'lo maximo'. It will never find its counterpart in English, but if it HAD to, it would be something like Wow. The Best Art. Over the top" How cool is that?

Here are the rules:

Pick FIVE blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.

Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

The award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte y Pico” blog.

Small Landscapes

Little 5"x7" Aquabords with mostly Daniel Smith PrimaTeks and webbing spray. The black spray is clumping way too much. Not sure why. I scratched some of it off with a scalpel. Not a bad thing because it gave me a new idea for more texture, but I'm still going to try a new can and see if it helps. Got to solve it before I go to the larger boards. They're too expensive to wreck! LOL!

My babies are becoming cats!

They're 15 weeks old today and growing like weeds! They've been such a blessing to me and have really helped me through this time of grieving my Annie.

Billy, AKA Sweetface by his mom and Billy Bob Boy by his dad, is a purr box boy! He's very affectionate and has started to drink out of the bathroom faucet, just like Annie used to do.

Abigail, AKA the Leaper, is such a riot. She does these amazing flying leaps and is so fast. She's soft and loves to cuddle. In this pic she's sleeping in the spot near my computer where Annie's box was.

It's so sweet that they both have done these little things that Annie used to do that I always loved. I'm so glad we got both of them. They're very close and are usually together, either playing or sleeping. They sleep with me every night, on top of me and sometimes under the covers. They've completely stolen our hearts!!!

VBS Day 5

Well it's over!
What a wonderful week we had. The kids all said what a great time they had and how they can't wait for next year....and yes, we're already thinking about it! LOL!

This pic is of the Daily Challenge section. Each day the children are encouraged to live out their faith using what they have learned. The next day, if they have done the challenge, the get to have a bubble coming out of the flask. Lots of good things going on here!!!

More videos are being posted on the Immanuel Church Blog.

We're having a special worship service and picnic on Sunday with our VBS families at a local park. Many have said they are going to come and it should be a fantastic day. I'll be taking my paints with me and should have some nice sketchbook/plein aire time with my friend Melissa!

Day 4 and VBS Videos

We've been having such a fantastic time at VBS this week! I've created a blog for Immanuel Church and I've moved all the videos to it and it's got a slideshow too! Have a look! Immanuel Church Blog The one from today, Day 4, called Come to Jesus is especially good!

VBS Day 3

Well hump day is over and it was such fun. The kids are having almost as much fun as the adults! LOL! I'm exhausted and off to take a snooze with the kittens! See the videos here. Immanuel Church Blog.

VBS Day 2

We had another wonderful day. We ended up having 109 yesterday! I'm in charge of the crafts and one of the kids drew this on the table today...warmed my heart!

VBS Day 1

Well we survived the first day of VBS! Not a clue how many kids we actually had. We had 115 pre-registered. There were some no shows and some late registrations. All I know is that there were lots there and we all had a blast. Here are some videos and pics on Immanuel Church Blog.

More Aquabords

Here are a few more little 6x6's abstracts done on the Aquabord.

All of them have the webbing spray and the first one is done with some of the Daniel Smith Primateks...just love those! The second one is done with some of the Daniel Smith quins. Love those too!

Getting ready for VBS!!!

I've been really busy over the past few days working on the set for our Vacation Bible School...VBS...that starts tomorrow. Here's the main portion of the set in the sanctuary. I'll post more pics on Pbase later.

We have 115 kids registered as of today. It's going to be a crazy week! But it's such fun and we all love doing it as much as the kids love coming to it! Pray for us!!! LOL!