WVFA Animal Farm or Art or Something Like That....lol

 It's been a regular farm around here, with all the comings and goings and new critters, planting, and already harvesting, art shows, and poster designs to create and the list goes on! I managed to squeeze some time to paint this little lamb above, for the Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts. It was touch and go, and I missed the original deadline due to all the goings on, but I managed to beat the extended deadline by a couple of days, whew! It's painted in acrylics, still my medium of choice. I'm dabbling in oils, but I love acrylics, probably because there are no chemicals. No matter, this piece is waiting to find out if it's been juried into the show.

This piece was extra fun to create! I used my mixed media technique of slathering texturing compound on my base board, and then I tried to sculpt using the joint compound and that was a no go. So I sanded that down and brought out my trusty Creative Paperclay to hand sculpt bass reliefs of the horses heads. Using a base paint, I smooshed that around the piece, then sealed and then meticulously added layers of metallic colors, wiping here and there to add dimension and interest. I was actually surprised at how it turned out, and happy as well. Soooo, now the wait to find out if either of my pieces has been accepted. I guess I could go sneak a peek, huh?! Hold on, I'll go look.... aaaah, still in round one of the jury process so I will keep you posted. Well, off I go to my Simply Sheryl's blog to post about my latest gardening ventures. Have a great week!

My Three Entries for the Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts

Calabaza de Cuero

 It's nail biting time again. Funny, I always worry about being accepted, and haven't been turned away yet, so why the nail biting? I guess it's that old lack of self confidence creeping in. Keeps me humble right? Lol.

Sunset In Sonora

 This was an interesting challenge, but a lot of fun to do. I wanted to try and use my doilies in a tree painting, and it worked, although I had another style in mind prior. What's nice is I can still try my other idea. I've learned though that joint compound does not like cold basement floors. It was a bit hard to spread, and a lot more crazing happened than I like. The paint filled most of that in luckily, and the antiquing process brought out what was left, to my advantage.

The Red Hen

Pastels and chickens, who knew that would be my new fun challenge to try?! I have a couple of other challenges in that regard, and my temptation is to blow past the sketch step and get right to it, but I think I will try and sketch out my idea first to make sure I have my light and dark areas figured out. I can do that while Kent is doing his dulcimer practice so it works for both of us.
I'd better get to finishing getting ready for work. I am introducing Mary Cassatt to my students today. It will be interesting to see how they settle in after Spring Break.

Western Style Tooled Leather Look on Carved Gourd

 Got this done finally, and it turned out pretty nice if I do say so myself. Nature Guy and I were both sweating it, as two days ago this was not looking the way I had hoped. Proof that details matter.

I had to change a plan or two, for instance, the holes around the top band of the gourd weren't doing it for me. As I was rummaging through my jewelry making stash I found some eyelets that intrigued me so I tried placing a couple in the holes and they sure made a difference so that was a nice discovery slash inspiration. I had another plan for the base of the gourd, but acrylics weren't working the way I had hoped. it's all good though as the end result turned out great as well. You can't really see it well in this photo, so when we get back from our travels I will share more photos. All in all, my art pieces for the show are going better than I hoped, whew! Are you working on anything new?

Gourd Carving... getting ready for the WVFA

 Trying out a new technique and flying by the seat of my pants so to speak. I see a new book out on gourd carving, right after I already started this...lol. Oh well, I've always wanted to try a tooled leather look on gourds, but I have another piece in mind. This may be titled "Trial Run".

I am getting close to my deadline, so I'd better get this done. So far, so good. I have a few tweaks to do before I finish the painting, but I am nervously and feverishly working to finish this and another piece before my deadline. I know, why wait to the last minute right? Well, work, and family stuff and illness and a family death put me behind big time so as usual I'm scrambling. It will all work out. In the mean time I think I'm going to order the book I saw and see what I can learn.