PPF Better late than never

Hi Everyone!

Well I am so late for Paint Party Friday and because I have been setting up my garden I have lost tract of time. Sooooo on finished pieces of new art. You get old art this week. LOL

I was telling Denise from Denthe that I feel like my blogging friends and their post are a nice break from the everyday Covid and how it is being handled in the US. I love seeing the art, the photos the beauty that is being shared. Thank you to all of my blogging friends.

Now here is a menagerie of my art. 

                                                         Be Safe and Elbow Hugs
                                                            Nicole/DVArtist
                                               Honor and integrity in art, in life

Garden Busy

Hi Everyone!

Like most people I have a routine in the morning. Once that part of my day is done I really don't have a plan. My thought today was to create some art. However, the sun came out again, and this time it was warm, so I thought I would do some gardening. Now I am not a do or die gardener. In fact living on sand makes it pretty difficult to garden without a lot of expense and hard work. So when I do grow things it is in containers. To start my seeds I use plastic pop bottles. (We don't drink pop but I have friends that do and they give me their bottles.)  I cut a patch out of the side of the bottle then make holes in the bottom. I lay out some small rocks and then the dirt.  I push in the seeds, water and put in the kitchen window. Here I have 2 types of tomatoes, cucumbers,  and brussle sprouts.  I also started some garlic, and green beans in containers that are out on my back porch. I have lettuce ready to go as well. I make a small green house for the lettuce. When I get it up I will show you how I do this.  You can grow lettuce all year  round with this method. 

For now my garden begins.

 The tape tells me what plant and the date.

If tomorrow is like today I will get my shoe caddy garden started too. It is something I did in 2014. It worked perfectly. 

Take one of those canvas shoe caddys that hang on the door.

For this one I cut off three of the shoe holders.

Then I put grommets on each pocket	I put hooks on my fence
Of course it had to be painted	I lined the pockets with plastic bags I had on hand then started to fill with dirt.
I had Lavender, Oregano, and Rosemary.	This is how I started back then.

Are you a gardener? Have any tips you would like the share?

Leave them in the comments

Be Safe and Elbow Hugs. 

Nicole/DVArtist 

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

Barbara this one is for you.

Hi Everyone!

I am so happy that all of you come by and leave comments for me. On my post yesterday and the day before Barbara from Pinelands Creations, who just happens to be an exciting artist,  left some great comments asking me questions. We have this connection in the way we create, although our art is very different. Hey, that's the joy and beauty of art. Anyway, I started this painting and said I would work on it.  She asked if I had an idea of where it was going? My answer is, No. I just started adding paint then scraping if off to get a stained glass effect. I wanted something on top so how can you go wrong with black and white? My go to colors. LOL. Sooo for you Barbara this is what I have so far. I believe this is how my brain feels right now.  It started like this.

 Then I went here with it and didn't like it.

This is where it is now. 

As I look at it on my PC. I see where I will go next with it. It is interesting that it also represents the creepy movement I still have in my right eye. NO the doctor is not very interested in getting it fixed. His assistant phoned me today and the call was not beneficial for me. Anyway I am just trying to live with it. 

Next, Barbara bread starter is so easy to make. 

2 cups warm water, 2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 t yeast if you have it, if not use granulated sugar.

Mix it up taking out any lumps. Cover and put in warm place. 

I use the top of my fridge. Leave it alone.  The next day take a look it should be big and bubbly. Leave it alone. The next day it will have settled down. Leave it alone. 

Wait 8 days total then make bread. I will post a recipe when I make mine.

Be safe everyone and Elbow Hugs.

Nicole/DVArtist

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

The Sun Is Out

Hi Everyone!

Today the sun is shinning for the first time in weeks. Hey, that's how it is on the Oregon coast. I was just out in my back yard and saw some interesting things growing. When I am done with this I will go and take some photos. For now I wanted to show you two things that are very different. First, in our state, as many others, we no longer use plastic bags at the grocery store. Paper, or bring your own. With Covid if you bring your own you have to bag your own groceries. If not you pay 5 cents for paper bag. I have so many brown paper bags. I do use them for my paper mache, and I sketch on them, but the other day I used my left over paint on one then sandwiched another on top to get this. They are fully dry now and I am gong to rip these up to create an art piece. 

The other photo is of my bread starter. The first day it is really full, the second day it settles down and by the 8th day it is ready to use. This is the second day. It's fermenting perfectly.

I'm a little behind on commenting. I will catch up today. 

Right now though I want to go outside and get some rays.

Be Safe and Elbow Hugs.

Nicole/DVArtist 

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

Keeping busy

Hi Everyone!

I hope all of you are well and staying home. Mr. M. and I have been in for a month, only going out twice for food. We have made a rule that we do not speak of Covid but only once a day. We only watch the news once a day too. We are making our lives as stress free as possible during this time. We both are finding things to keep us busy like art, games, walks in our back yard, and keeping in touch with family and friends. Also since there is no yeast in my town I made a bread starter.  What are you doing to keep busy?

I was in my art room painting when I changed canvases and just started putting paint on. No plan, no rhyme or reason. It is overcast and stormy here so I tried to take the photo on my back porch for some sort of light.  The colors seem to be true. 

I will probably work on this but for now here is what I have. 

Be safe, stay at home.

Nicole/DVArtist 

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

PPF and Art Journal Journey

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to Paint Party Friday and Art Journal Journey 

Be sure to stop by both blogs to see  what all of the artist are sharing. 

I don't have much today but I thought this painting would be good for both PPF and AJJ

The prompt for AJJ is geometric art and the host this month is Valerie from Bastelmania. 

This weekend I am going to lock myself in my art room and get some real creating done. For now though here is what I got.

Acrylics on canvas. 

And a few for the week. Working on hair.

 To all who come this way please be safe and Elbow hugs

Nicole/DVArtist 

Honor and integrity in art, in life.

Second on the 2nd

 Hi Everyone!
I am joining Elizabeth for Second on the 2. You bring back a post that you are happy with. I had a lot of people, at the time, ask me how I paint my glass cabochons. So here it is. This was posted in 2017.

 I want to thank all of you who have been writing me about my hand painted cabs. A few of you asked, "What is a cabochon/cab?"   If you are not into stones or jewelry making you would not know that.  The true definition of a cab is a stone or more so a gemstone which has been cut, shaped and polished without facets. The shape is domed on top and a flat bottom. Over the years this has changed a lot. Cabs are faceted, they are now made of every material known to woman, and the dimensions and shapes are what ever you want. Cabs were originally  used for jewelry, but now they are used in every aspect of art. I was also asked how I paint my cabs. Here are a few step by steps. 

OK, you need glass cabs. Plastic scratches too much and losses value if you are going to sell them. Plus you want your art on the best canvas. I also use TesTors enamel paints. Yes, I know some people use nail polish, but again I am looking at a value point to this art. 

Plus I get brighter color satiation with the TesTors.

Like any glass painting art, you start with the colors or design you want to show first. So, if I want the middle of a flower I would paint that first and work 
backward from there. 

The start

Adding color with paint brush

 Adding more paint

 Use a stiff fan brush

 Continue to add paint and design as you go.

 TesTors paints can be found in most hobby, and art stores.

Nicole/Beadwright/DVAtrist

 Honor and integrity in art, in life.

TAD with Rain Stencil art

Hi Everyone!

Today is Thursday Art Date with Rain. Each week she has a prompt for the art we are suppose to share. This week is art from stencils. At first I thought I would not be able to join in since I don't work with stencils. Then, I remembered a few years ago I took some of my Nicole's BeadBacking drew out different things, then I cut them out and used them a stencils for negative art. So I do get to join in this week! Most of the Elephants sold and I donated the money to save the Elephants. The series is called "Save Me" If you don't know what Nicole's BeadBacking is well you are missing out on a fabulous fabric to use in all kinds of art. I developed it for beading but over the years it has become a staple for many multimedia artist. You can check it out at my website beadwright.com.

 

 Be sure to check out all the other artist sharing today at TAD with Rain

Be safe and Elbow hugs

Nicole/DVArtist 

Honor and integrity in art, in life.