Doors & Paint

if you've been around here a while,
you know i have a thing for doors.

last week jasper and i went to visit our dear loves in port townsend and they took us to visit fort worden state park...
where i discovered all these neat doors and cool old paint.

i am such a sucker for a good ol' vintage patina!

i wish every surface of my house looked like this:
aged, worn, old, historical, like it has a story of it's own to tell.
i've checked out all the paint technique books from our local library.  it doesn't seem like you could get it to look this good.
this old.
i'm fascinated with doorways.
always have been.
for me they have a myriad of meaning:
access, exploration, discovery,
opportunity, opening, transition,
transcendence, a veil between the worlds, mystery,
the unknown, surprise, enlightenment.

and colors!
oh how i love these random bits,
not meant to be art but to patch and spackle, here and there
again, i would adore having any of the walls in my house look like any of these old, rusty, random and patched up walls.
i like the touch of pink
could these curious spatters simply be there to cover up unwanted graffiti...
perhaps so, but thank goodness they used random colors, and every one under the rainbow, never any two cover up jobs looking twinish.
love the drab colors too.
does anyone else besides me want the outside of their house to look like this?!  look this good?!

yes, please.  i'll take a random wall niche.

some graffiti that hadn't been covered yet,

thankfully.




this is one of my favorite photos in this set:
doorways and stairways...
don't get me started!

i want hallway walls like this.



fort worden is only one of a million cool places in port townsend to visit.  there are the beaches, the farms, the shops, the food, the friends!  we hope to spend a lot more time exploring PT this summer
and if you ever find my current house deserted upon arrival, come search for me in PT, where you'll likely find me setting up home and splattering paint every which way!

in the spirit of adventure,
xoxoxox
jennette



































Painted Silk Pillow

jasper made this silk painting in his after school art class at SeaHorse Studios
i love the colors he choose.
his inspiration was the sydney opera house!
we made the piece into a pillow case instead of a wall hanging.
it's one of my very favorite things!

hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
i am trying to get some sewing done over here: cot covers, bags, pillows..... the works!

xoxoxo
jennette







Paper Mache Bee


i did some paper mache recently and thought i would share a nice way to give new life to old plastic crap!


like this plastic crap!  i found this at the thrift.  and as i am attracted to all things honey bee, i had to nab it.  but alas, i hate the plastic-ness of it!  so i figured i'd use it as a base and paper mache over it! 

smarty party much?!
just joking!
(kinda!)


since i have been "going gluten free" i have all this wheat flour in my kitchen i need to use up somehow.  so why not mache paste?  It turned out a bit bumpy and clumpy but it ended up ok with this extra texture.

working away


gettin somewhere

completely covered and starting to dry

after it dried i gave it a coat of thinned out white acrylic paint.  i wanted some of the print from the newspaper to show through like you see on Ann Wood's boats

a view from beneath


so the semi-opaque white honey bee is just hanging out in the shop.
not sure if i will try to add color or detail.
but i am happy to not being looking at the plastic-ness of it anymore!  it's been transformed, upcycled, and repurposed!

what are you all crafting lately?
gifts?
me too!

going home soon to play with boxes, wrapping paper and ribbon!
xoxox
jennette

p.s.
don't forget the shop will close at 4pm on Saturday December 24th and will reopen Wednesday January 4th at noon.
Thanks for all your support!

 







Painted Bus

saw this cool painted bus at the grocery store the other day

love seeing artistic expression like this in the rural suburbs

looked like someone could be living in it

what a fun adventure you could have going across country in this!

plenty of space to bring your friends and collect your junk!

this section offers me inspiration for the '61 vintage Fireball, which will be getting a new creative paint job soon.  can't wait!
and i will have updates on the interior progress as well.
you'll be amazed!

xoxox
trying to stop being sick
jennette



Get Your Paint On Week 3


two pictures of the same thing, in different light.  this weeks assignment was to pick four items from around the house that we love the color of and try to match those colors as close as possible by mixing our paints.  the miniature red purse, pink feathers, green piece of wood from our old house, and blue chippy stool were my choices.

in progress

finished piece.

since we could paint any subject matter using our four colors, i wanted to try something really simple this week.  i didn't want a bunch of detail like last week.  i wish i had a more intuitive sense of shadowing and highlighting.  i don't automatically know where to shade and highlight so i get frustrated.  here i was looking at a wine bottle and just had to decided on where the light source could be coming from.  these are odd colors and not at all realistic so it was tougher for me. 
week 4 is all about composition.  we have a list of about 10 elements of composition and we are to pick one or two of them when focusing on our choice of painting.  i just saw a photo of a one room church in the Andes mountains in Peru that i want to try painting so i will be back to show you when that's finished.  the photo is in an online magazine and i cannot figure out how to lift the image to show you here so i will try making a link to it so you can see the original photo i base my painting off of if ya want....

making pasta with huge shavings of parmigiano reggiano,
xoxoxxxo
jennette



Get Your Paint On Week 2

a glass of red wine helps the painting along

background good to go
got my brushes ready

"Suddenly at Twilight"

this weeks assignment for my Get Your Paint On class was to be inspired by an artist(s) we like and to try to emulate a part of their style in our painting.  i am inspired by Amanda Blake who is a painter in Portland,OR., that i love. emulating her night time sky seems to be what i had the most success with.  i also used her ability to do faces as the inspiration for this little guy.  The rest of my painting and subject matter was inspired by this drawing that August did of Jasper when Gus was 10 and Jasper was 2.  Gus called it "Jasper Demon!":

the original Jasper Demon





just a few days later i already see several things i could have done to make this painting more "right."  i should have done a gray wash, especially over the tent, to give it a less bright and more night time look.  and i could have gradually darkened the ground as it goes back to make it look like it is receding.  also i have no sense of proportion so the demon's wings are just about as big as his body!  i wish i would have allowed more time to fill in the foreground with more movement.  i suppose i could still go do more of that but now we are on to week three, which is all about color.  I need to pick four objects from around my house that i love the color of and then try to match those colors as closely as possible by mixing my paints and then use those four colors in a painting of my choice.  deciding what to paint is the hard part.  i want to try something bigger, with less detail, for this next one.  i will let ya know how it goes.  in the mean time....... you could go get YOUR paint on!

attaching medals to my military jacket,
xoxox
jennette









Get Your Paint On!

here i am working on my Week 1 assignment for Get Your Paint On

so i decided to take my first painting workshop!
scary!
and fun!

Get Your Paint On is a five week painting class with Lisa Congdon and Mati McDonough.  it is conducted all online in a private, safe and supportive environment where Mati and Lisa share their unique and colorful approach to painting.  each week has a topic of focus that is supported by information, tips, and important ideas from Mati and Lisa.  they post videos, images and photos to elaborate on the weekly topic.  they give an assignment each week that is connected to the topic and we have one week to complete the painting assignment.  then we post a photo of our painting to our private Flickr group.  we are asked to comment on others work in a supportive way and Mati and Lisa comment too.  there is an interview each week with an established artist about their work and process.  and Mati and Lisa each take a day to share what they are inspired by with links and images.
you might remember my "new" quilt from the antique show in november...

what does this have to do with painting, you ask?  well our first week covered selecting mediums and using materials with our painting assignment drawing on inspiration from the incredible Gee's Bend quilters of Alabama. We were asked to make a gridded or quilt like painting so we could experiment and get familiar with our paints by making blocks of color.  i love quilts and immediately thought of the one above that is now hanging over my bed.   the quilt looks like it could be a Gee's Bend quilt so i decided to be inspired by it for my first ever painting!





here is a look at my week one finished painting.  i have never really painted like this before so i have so much to learn.  these blocks of color seem so heavy and solid to me. 
i am getting to be so fascinated by paintings and how painters can make something look so real in paint.  some painters can make photo-realistic paintings!  amazing!

if you have any interest in exploring painting, you should check out the next Get Your Paint On.  There will be another level one class this spring or summer and i already plan to take the level 2 class after this one.

week 2 assignment has to do with finding artists that inspire you and trying to use or incorporate an element of their style that you are fond of.  i have been loving Amanda Blake since discovering her in November at Little Winter so i have spent this week looking at her paintings and doing a lot of my own drawings while trying to emulate her style.  i am loving it so i will try to show you the next painting and the inspiration for it, when i am done.

please be nice in your comments and feedback.  i am too new at this to be handling criticism, even if its constructive! like my mom always taught me, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say nothin at all!

drawing circus tents and floating crystals,
jennette