Monthly Archive

I have all the paintings I have done so far, which is 28, laid out on my living room floor. Today’s post is the only the 19th on this blog because I started painting a week before creating this blog and there’s been a couple of days when I painted more than one piece.   I put them in order as best as I could from earliest to latest (amazingly enough I have a hard time remembering the order of the earliest work). Seeing them together and in chronological order, it is really evident that I have improved as a painter.  Over time, I have gotten better at working with this small size and square format as far as composition, but also I think I’m learning to paint faster and use the qualities of acrylic paints to my advantage, which in turn allows me to paint more intricate details.

Anyway, here is a photo of all 28 in order. Each column represents one week from top to bottom. Three more columns + one (22 paintings) to go! The ones that have not made it on the blog yet were either not my favorite choices or I feel they still need a little work. 

And for today’s post, I painted “Pinky Swear” suggested by my good friend Cristina. Thanks for the idea, Cristina!

When I entered the 50-50-50 art challenge and exhibit, I submitted a painting with a little girl blowing dandelion seeds as a sample. Originally I thought I would include that painting in my series of 50. However, I haven’t gotten it back from the gallery yet and I painted it on canvas paper, so it would have required me to go down to the gallery, pick it up and find a way to adhere it to one of the masonite boards in order to use it. So I decided to repaint it, include it in the collection and pick up the other painting later.

Here is the original dandelion painting called “Floating Dandelion Seeds”:

While painting this for the second time, I decided to change it a little bit - and I’m so glad I did. The addition of the field in the background gives it more depth and I think the painting took on a dreamy quality. This painting is one of my favorites in this series so far and I call it “Carried by the wind”:

I want to say thank you to everyone who visits my blog and a special thank you for all the wonderful comments.

I have several compositions now with a profile view of a little girl’s face. This seems to work really well with this small square format. There may be a few more to come.

“Bubbles”

When I came up with this theme for 50-50-50, I decided to have a balance between little girl and boy memories. So far, I have a lot more girly memories among my paintings. So to contribute to the boy side, here’s the “Slingshot”. Though slingshots are mainly enjoyed by little boys, I had one when I was little. I’m not sure I ever used it, but I made one because my brother did and I had to have everything he did.

I have met many artists that do not like painting hands. I was just thinking that this painting is the forth focusing on hands in this series. Hands are a bit difficult to paint I suppose, but I don’t mind it because I can always use my own hands as a point of reference.

This painting is very similar to the one I posted yesterday. Actually the two ideas came to me at the same time. Paper airplanes are great because depending on how you fold them, they will fly completely differently. It’s fun to experiment with different tecniques and in essence create different planes: one that flies straight and fast or one that makes a lot of turns and so on. I think this one would fly straight & far.

I’m not really sure what this is called- maybe: paper fortune game. But I remember playing this with my friends quite a bit when I was in elementary school. There was even a very funny South Park episode based on this game.

I painted this in a much looser and quicker style than what I usually do. It was fun to loosen up and step a little outside my normal style, which is kind of the point of this 50-50 challenge. It’s a good learning experience and allows me to experiment with different styles, etc.

Many children have this silly notion that if you cross your fingers, it cancels out what you say. So, technically you can tell a fib or lie as long as you cross your finger while saying it. This is what this painting is about - this little girl is crossing her finger behind her back because she is “the fibber”.

I sketched out this idea a while back and as I was looking through my sketchbook, I rediscovered it. This reminds me of waiting at the doctor’s office when I was little and how my feet didn’t quite reach the ground. It’s a very simple composition, but I think you can really get the feeling like this little girl is waiting for something or someone. And so it’s called “Waiting Patiently.

This is a sweet painting about a boy whose eyes are getting really heavy as he is listening to his Mom read his favorite bedtime story. I used blues and browns predominantly because the browns give this image warmth and blues seem appropriate for a little boy’s room. I’m happy to see this combination of hues work very well together. The major weakness I think is the book, if I have time, I would love to rework it.

It’s called “Bedtime Story”.

This weekend I worked on 2 paintings that work as individual paintings, but also work together. According to the rules of 50-50-50, each piece must stand alone as an artwork.

“Girl’s Only Treehouse”

I think this painting is very cute and works very well by itself. I spent a lot of time on that treehouse, but I’m very happy with the way it turned out.

“Tree Climbing”

This painting works very well by itself also. I have a lot of memories climbing trees at my grandparents’ house and it was a lot of fun.

And when put together, it adds a little more to the story. The boy is trying to climb up to the treehouse and the blond little girl is looking down at him, but she is not lowering the ladder or helping in any other way. Makes you wonder about the “battles” going on between this girl and boy

This painting represents, saving up money for that really cool toy or maybe a bicycle. When I was little, I was a saver. I always put my allowance money aside, so I could buy something bigger with it later. But I think most children aren’t like me and would rather spend their money right away.

Looks like fun - reading an exciting adventure novel on a beautiful sunny day.

“Shadow Duck”

Shadow animals are so creative and fun!Initially, my intention was t o make it look like someone is holding up a flashlight while another person is creating the shadow on the wall. However, I really liked the simplicity of just the hand and the shadow and decided to leave the background white.

Hopscotch. What can I say about hopscotch? I think every kid has played this game at one point or another.

I’m really happy with the way this painting turned out mainly because it’s just fun! It’s a fun composition, I’ve been playing around with the birds-eye-view with some of my other projects and I really enjoy the results. I love that all you can see is the shoes. I’ve been told I have a thing for shoes- in my own life and in my art.

And once again, this painting lends itself really well to texture. I had to experiment a little to get that texture, but I got the result I was looking for. I was already in the middle of this painting when I realized that some gel texture medium would be perfect to get the concrete look. Unfortunately, the only one I have at the moment is the very coarse pumice gel that I used for the bubbles in “Playing in the bathtub” painting, which would not work for this one. So, I called Aaron Bros. because they are the closest store that carries a decent selection of art supplies and I wanted to know if they had any texture mediums in stock. Of course, they did not, but the woman suggested using sand or salt. Since I don’t have any sand lying around, I tried salt and to my amazement - it worked! So that’s the story of “Hopscotch”.

Children love gum. When I was a young girl, I found it really frustrating that we were not allowed to chew gum in school. I loved it and I could chew on a single gum for hours and hours. I remember I went to a camp one summer when I was around 10-11 years old and one little girl chewed on the same gum during the whole week. She would take it out while she was eating and stick it to the roof of her mouth while she was sleeping. Aside from that she, was chewing that same piece of gum. Now as an adult, I find that really gross. I don’t chew gum much anymore and even when I do, I spit it out as soon as it loses its flavor.

I started this blog to share art projects I’m working on. I’m currently participating in 50-50-50 art challenge and exhibition. You can read a description of this on the left column.

The theme I chose for this series of paintings is “Timeless Childhood Memories”. I picked this subject matter for a number of reasons. I believe children are very creative and they can find enjoyment in the simplest activities. I wanted to showcase that concept. I also thought it would be fun to challenge myself to come up with a unique idea each day that fits this theme. I’m trying to come up with ideas that a wide variety of people can relate to and that are not tied to a specific time period, but could come from anyone’s childhood regardless of age or background. My hope is to touch people’s hearts and remind them of fond memories from their own childhood.

This painting is called “Playing in the Tub”. When I was little, I loved to play in the bathtub. At the time, I didn’t think the main purpose of taking a bath was getting clean, but instead time to play in the water with toys and bubbles. I’m very happy with the way this painting turned, especially the bubbles. I added some pumice gel for dimension and iridescent pearl for a shimmery quality.