Be all you are meant to be

Be all you are meant to be

4 x 12

Karen Raven quote

Mixed Media Collage

Something about creating these little collage pieces

brings me great joy.

The colors, the ideas,

the design process,

and also the thought

someone is going to receive it

and in their heart

they will feel good.

I love this quote

by Karen Raven

and have used it in another piece.

"Only as high as i reach can i grow,

Only as far as i seek can i go.

Only as deep as i look can i see,

Only as much as i dream can i be."

What is your joy?

Do you ever have that feeling or voice inside say 

"I am meant to do this".

That's what I feel when I come up with an idea

or I create a new piece of art.

I continue to learn and practice

and try new mediums.

And I may not necessarily create a masterpiece...

but deep down,

I know I'm moving in the right direction.

My wish is you find that voice inside that tells you

what your meant to do

and it is from a higher sense of spirit.

I know that my best pieces of artwork

comes from that place deep inside...

it is a driving force beyond 

my mere existence... 

I'm simply here to bring it into the world.

Hopefully you are also doing the same!



The Garden at Giverny

The Garden at Giverny

9 x 12

Acrylic and Pastel

Pastel Paper

Ok, well, not what I had intended...

Found a photo my mom took at Monet's actual garden.

My parents went there on a trip to France a few years ago.

How awesome to find those photos now!

The idea was to render a likeness of the photo in pastel.

I started. Got frustrated.

Ready to scrape it...

Didn't want to start all over again,

waste the pastel paper

or time I had already put in it.

So I sprayed what I had done.

Now I really didn't like it,

but thought it had a decent fundamental base

for an underpainting.

I don't even know if you can or should do it.

But I did anyway.

I painted over the drawing.

I'm sorry Mr. Monet...

lol

He would be shaking his head, I'm sure.

We can only get better when we keep practicing!

As the master himself said:

"It's on the strength of observation and reflection

that one finds a way.

So we must dig and delve unceasingly."

-Claude Monet-

Disaster or not...

it's all part of the process.

Monet painted in his garden in the same spot sometimes

4-6 times...

No master go there overnight...

they had amazing work ethic.

One day,

I hope,

it will all come together!

Home on the Range

Pastel

14 x 18

140lb Cold Press Watercolor

Asked to tackle this piece as a retirement gift...

I worked from two reference photos.

One was of the property and one was of the subjects

headed back from a hunting trip.

I tore edges of a large piece of watercolor paper

stretched it on a board.

Started sketching the landscape and figured out

how I could get the figures worked in as though they fit naturally.

Once I liked the composition

I layed in an underpainting in watercolor.

Then began to apply the layers of pasel,

starting with hard nupastel

and working up to soft sennelier and rembrant.

"Enjoying success requires the ability to adapt. 

Only being open to change

will you have a true opportunity

to get the most from your talent."

-Nolan Ryan-

Thanks for stopping in... more to come!!