ANOTHER one of those days!

You know those days where we start out with a plan and one thing after another comes up keeping us from what we had planned?? Yep...that's me the past few weeks! ARRRGGGGHHHH! I know you've all been there! I'm still fighting computer issues...living in the mountains has its own unique approach and I haven't found mine yet for this NEW LAPTOP! Apparently I'm going to have to find another way...I'm working on it...AND THEN...house problems are creeping up daily...so I spent the majority of the day on the phone and on the road trying to solve these issues...still in process...ALL THAT SAID SO I CAN SAY...I didn't get to put brush to canvas at ALL! Oh well...there is always tomorrow! I'm smilin still though, so no insanity yet!

So, another photo opportunity for any of you who may choose it for our contest. This flag is in my mother's backyard. She put it there among her beloved garden as a reminder that my sweet 20 year old nephew Casey Johnson is fighting for us in Iraq. She says it will stay there until he is home safe. I say awesome my mother!! Casey is the most wonderful young man. He gets a little information to us now and then, and mostly what he says is what we hear is NOT the reality of what it is there. Our men are still dying every day and the ambushes are frequent. So, for those of you who pray...please keep Casey and our other young men and women in your prayers...I call this photo "Casey's Flag". If you choose to paint it call it what you feel it needs to be called!

A reminder of our summer contest that will end on July 19 at midnight, so you still have time! Welcome to my newest followers! Here is a recap of the contest...All you need to do is paint from one of the photos I've posted in the past weeks; ANY PHOTO and send it to my e-mail, which is art4life44@hotmail.com. You can use your painting in any way you choose. The only other requirement is you need to be a follower. I will post your painting gratefully, I will put a link to your site and I will put your name in the proverbial hat and draw from those names and the chosen one will win a small contest offering. Most of the choices the winner can choose from I posted in my June 9 post so you can go there to see them. At the end of the contest I will most likely post all of them again so you can choose and I will contact the winner, get your address and send it right off as a thank you for following and participating! That is all there is to it! So, good luck and happy painting!

Aspen In Collage

"Aspen in Collage" was a couple of days in the making. As I have said before it takes a bit more when working in mixed media, but I LIKE IT! This piece is 24x8" gallery wrapped canvas

11/2" wide. As you can see I worked around the edges. I put this one in my Eye Candy section of my website, but I suspect it won't be long before these different sorts will be my norm...the fun of it is we shall see! I used handmade papers and bought papers and laid in the leaves a bit at a time leaving a darker area at the bottom. The grass is paper and the background is a painted ground of blues, purples and browns. I left the background free of detail so as to make the trees pop against its background. I wanted several layers of papers for "leaves" so as to build up a bit of texture and give the feeling of a bit of depth within.

Trees, as many of you know, hold a special place in my heart. I was raised in these Colorado mountains. As long as I can remember I used to tromp about the woods and was never tired of looking, really looking at these wonderful living statues that I believe God gave us as a present! The tree is a lot like people to me. In that I mean they are all different, yet the same. Each one has different scars and surfaces, but they are all trees. The ones with the most scars are the strongest, they have lived through many storms and natural dissasters. Our scars don't always show like the trees, but the strongest of us continue to survive and grow. And, we are all beautiful and are all wonderful presents from God. I don't seem to be able to paint them all the same. I see a different sort of beauty in every media I use to honor these beautiful presents we have to look at and feel cool under!

So, this is my latest offering. You can find it on my website.

I want to welcome my newest followers. Tomorrow I will remind us all of our summer contest, so the newest of you still have a chance to enter.

Waterfall at Sanctuary

This was a challenge painting for Dana Marie's Inspiration All Around Us. I built up a bit of texture for the rocks. This one has no collage...just paint and texture! It is done on a 7x5" clayboard panel. Simple and that is OK!

I spent the morning with my computer friend setting up all my particulars on my new laptop...FINALLY completed, so I'm cookin! For me, just getting a computer was much more complicated as I don't know how to do all the custom stuff to set it up...so it is 5 months of struggles and now 4G of storage and stuff! YIPEE!! BUT, now time to get back to my easel and the long skinny aspen collage I've been working on!

Don't forget you still have a good little bit to tackle one of the photos I've posted for our summer contest...just paint it, e-mail it to me, be a follower of this blog and you are in the runnin! Try it...My e-mail is art4life44@hotmail.com. Good luck!

Back in the Saddle Again

Ahhh home again, home again, jiggedy jig! Funny story, NOW! So, we went to Breckenridge for the 4th to see the art festival and just relax. We got to our hotel (I won't name it for obvious reasons)...and the room was just about the worst room in the history of rooms. The hotel was run down, hair on the floor, and the toilet was leaking all over the floor...SO, we requested another room...AND, hair on the floor, wallpaper peeling...YUCK...and some other stuff...SO, we requested ANOTHER room...sort of better...but this one had holes in the wall and dust everywhere and the window was DUCK TAPED SHUT...oh, back to the holes...I was convinced that they went all the way through to the storage room which was next door...and scenes of PSYCHO went through my mind. BUT, it was so late by then and not another room available in the whole city cuz of the 4th, so I settled for taking paper and stuffing it into the holes so I could sleep without images of Anthony Perkins eyeball swimming around in my head. I ignored the dust and the bare mattress showing because the bedding didn't fit and went to sleep. We did however take leave of our wonderful accomodations to go down to lake Dillon to watch the fireworks over the water. We parked about 1/4 mile up the road and walked down and then realized we'd forgotten our chairs, so we hiked back to the car for our chairs. One the way back the fireworks began, so as we are tromping along we ooohhed and ahhhed with the rest. We got to the water's edge, set up our chairs and continued our ooohhhs and aaahhhs for the rest of the show...about 10 minutes. HA. Yes, we laughed at ourselves!

Fast forward to Saturday and that was fun. We went into town and saw the show. My friend Carol Nelson had a booth there and I was tickled to see her newest creations of aspen leaves and chat about her experience thus far. Her reports at that point were that it was a bit slow, but she had two days left. Hope it went better for you Carol! And, Carol...I'm dying to see what you do with Tyvec and Poppies...if you so choose to try it!

My husband was fascinated with the parade. I've included a pic of the part of the crowd we could see. It seemed like 10's of thousands were there...all crowded on the streets. Guns blaring, candy throwing and it went on for EVER it seemed. One local we talked to said it is called the neverending parade. FUN!

And, so this little baby was a cutie, so I decided to add him (with his parents permission) as my tribute to the 4th! Until I get my computer friend and expert back up here to figure out why all my thousands of photos didn't transfer from my old computer to my new I'll have to do with what I've just taken...:)

NEW STORY...so, for obvious reasons we decided to come home yesterday instead of staying another night...:)...nice drive home...in the rain...alas...and we get home...Remember we live in the mountains up North Turkey Creek...we are sitting watching something on TV and I hear all these loud noises...we assume it is the fireworks...My sweetie goes down to the garage to shut the door (our garage is about 20 steps down the hill from our house with woods between it and the house). He just gets back inside and I'm walking towards our sliding doors on the middle level and I see a face in the door...of a baby BEAR! There he is cute as can be just looking in at me. In a nano second I realize the noise we have been hearing is a MOMMA BEAR and her two cubs getting into something on our deck! So, what does a good artist do? I run for my camera...and realize IT IS DOWN IN MY CAR IN THE GARAGE!! OH bother...another lost chance! No, I didn't try to sneak behind their backs to get my camera...I'm not sure, but I think my hubby had to restrain me for a sec so I wouldn't...So, I don't have any bear pics to show you...except for the one I just painted for your minds.

YEP there is a bit more news...I'm pleased as can be that I've been named in Tony Moffit's blog as a top 10 blog...thanks Tony...and thanks Nancy for telling me! And, I welcome my newest followers. I promise I'm back at my easel tomorrow morning bright and early to see what I might create. The jury is out on my latest aspen piece...At this time I'm considering pouring resin on it as an experiment...and I might list it under my eye candy on my website...Still experimenting on combining paper cast and painting...You be the judge.

Use the photo of the baby and crowd if anything strikes you for our contest...Remember we have until July 19 to get any paintings e-mailed to me to be drawn from...(art4life44@hotmail.com) Til tomorrow...happy painting to you all!

Aspen piece

This has been an interesting week. I am happy I have my new computer...but it has a few glitches and such so still working out all the bugs! One of the bugs....(and those of you who use the Photoshop Album Starter to edit your photos will want to note this...) is Album Starter is no longer available for download. That means that there is no support for this program anymore. I tried to transfer my old album to my new computer and no all photos came over. They are shutting down according to my computer expert. I'm not sure what that means in the long run. So, I'm still working out the kinks for that snafoo.

The second interesting thing is I am about finished with this latest Aspen piece and I'm not sure about how I feel about it. I know not all experiements will be successful...and I like the idea of this, but still haven't made up my mind. The paper casts are fun...but perhaps too whimsical for a piece that has for the most part realistic type trees...Would be interesting to have your thoughts! And, my feelings about this may reflect my frustrations about the breaks of appliances, the new computer that still has bugs, etc. etc...Ahhh Life!

So, my computer expert is out of pocket and we are leaving for Breckenridge so I'm taking a few days off from posting. Hopefully when we return and my computer person is available I will get back on track! I've noticed in posting this there is some trouble with my ability to get my cursor to click so I can type...hmmm...ahhh technology!

So, the flag photo I was going to post is not available right now for the 4th and our contest will have to wait. BUT, I'm wishing you all a Happy 4th of July!