The Angels Have Arrived!

What a productive weekend I had! The stress of getting ready for the Harvest Festival is easing, ever so slightly. I've been so overwhelmed with the encouragement of my fans and friends. Thanks for all of the wonderful, positive comments on my blog and Facebook. Those comments really help to fuel the creative fire! You are all angels in my book!

And speaking of angels, I just finished up 6 for my upcoming show. New this year are angel tree toppers. I've also managed to get a couple "rolly-polly" angels completed as well. I really went out on a limb creativly and painted these in not-so-traditional Christmas colors. The mustard and green combination feels so good to me, I want to paint everything these colors... including my studio! The colors have an almost spring-time look to them. And what is so strange is that I generally don't gravitate towards pastel or tradional spring colors. I've learned that if the creative urge is there, don't fight it.

 

And REALLY venturing out of my comfort zone, I've been making some figures without eyes and my signature "big smile." They take on a much different look this way. Don't worry, I'm not giving up on those big teeth, it just feels good to let the creativity direct me down different paths sometimes.  

Gentlemen, Start Your Brushes!

Holy Cow! Do I have a lot of painting ahead of me! My next show (Harvest Festival) is now 4 weeks away...and I've still got lots of work ahead of me. The good news is that I finished the last of my sculpting yesterday. All the figures are sanded and gesso'd. Now it's time to put the brush to the acrylics and paint like crazy!

I love the painting process. I think it goes way back to when I first started to learn ceramic painting in the late 70's. My mom and I took a class at a local ceramics store and learned all about dry brushing, antiquing, etc. Some of the techniques I still use to this day! There was something so magical about walking through the store and looking at all those unfinished pieces and just imaging the possibilties of what I could do with them. My biggest achievement at that time was painting an entire nativity set (including shepards, cows AND sheep). There was a total of 10 pieces in that set. Took me 4 months to finish.

Now, I look at the 50+ pieces I have in front of me to paint in less than 4 weeks, wishing I had the stamina I did back in 1979.

Okay, enough nostalgia...back to work!