Home is Where My Heart Is Doodle

I love to doodle with Zig Millineum pens and my Prismacolor colored pencils. It is very relaxing.  I can pick it up to work on it any time outside of the studio.  (I have trouble sitting down with nothing to do with my hands, so I always like to have something nearby to work on.)  This is one that I just finished.  It represents my HeartHomes in the Four Seasons.  I had to include a little Owl and a little Red bird.  I've included two close ups, so you can see the details.   I have the flowers of spring, the yellow and orange leaves of fall, the snowflakes of winter, and the greens of summer. Just an example of how I relax and have fun. Hope you enjoy!

Beth  ♥

Put Your Big Girl Pants On...

...or have a Pitty Party?  or both?  Do you ever have those days or weeks that you feel like you are getting nothing accomplished? You just don't feel like doing much of anything? Is it just me or is this more common than I think? Sometimes I just want to sit down, have my pitty party, take a nap, then wake up feeling better, ready to start checking things off my to do list...with my big girl pants on.  Move on.  (Note to self...The Pitty Party didn't help anything!) I don't like to whine, but it's been one of those weeks for me. I've been worried about some things that have drained my energy.   I started out with lots of energy and motivation.  I went to the garden center and bought lots of pretty flowers to plant in the yard to spruce things up outside.  After figuring out where everything is going to go, I started planting.  I got about half of the flowers planted before I had to stop and clean up and go out to the ball park to help out in the concession stand.  So by the end of the evening, I was worn out and feeling about 20 years older than I should feel. So I crashed and burned.  Each day since, I've tried to plant a few more flowers, trim some trees, and water the flowers so all this effort doesn't die!  A few years ago, this would have taken me 2 days to plant the flowers and then sit back and enjoy!   But this time,  it is taking a little longer.  I am feeling every muscle that I've used all week. My bum knee is not cooperating very much either.  It is getting done, but slower than I would like.  I'm sure it will be worth it once it is done and the flowers start to grow.  And I know that many people are hurting much more than I, so I am grateful I only have a few aches and pains and that I have the time to work in the yard.   For now I have to put my Big Girl Pants on (panties doesn't sound very much like a Big Girl, does it).   So even though I feel like I haven't accomplished much, I have.

My lesson learned here is to take time to enjoy the flowers and the sunsets. Time goes by way to fast!  Enjoy it!
   
Beth  ♥

Did I say that I love making Owls?

Well, I have probably said that I enjoy painting them, but recently I have made a few owls out of clay too!  So I will be making more clay owls this week.  I may come up with some other little critters too. You never know what will happen when I start playing with the clay.  You can find the little purple and lime green owl in the top photo, here...in my Etsy Shop.

      
        Beth  ♥

Annual Girlfriend trip to New Orleans

The annual girlfriend trip rewind! I spent four days in New Orleans with my long time girlfriends from high school.  We go on a trip together each year. About 5 years ago, we decided that we should get together for a weekend and catch up.  After we had so much fun, we decided to make it an annual event.  Before that, we rarely saw each other because we were busy with our own lives since the wedding showers, weddings and baby showers of our younger days. Then a personal tragedy for one of our girls, brought us together.  We realized that we should be there for each other, no matter what!
Time goes by so fast and things change.  We all need our girlfriends to get us through the ups and downs. It is always such a relief to get together.  This year we had 5 out of 6 of us. We really missed our friend who could not make it, but we had a great time! A really great time! (We are getting together with her in a few weeks.)  Our trips are not filled with fancy events, just time together exploring and seeing the sights and lots and lots of laughter!  You know the kind of laughter that you can have and not worry about what people think, about laughing too loud or too much or at the wrong time.
One afternoon, we spent a few hours having drinks and appetizers on a balcony, just enjoying the music and the weather.  While we were there we were able to experience this wedding party going down the street. Then they stopped just below us and danced and took pictures! It was great to experience the culture from our 'little' balcony.    We went out to eat each night, wandered around the French Quarter each day, played games, and laughed a lot.  So it was a great week! I wish we lived closer to each other so we could get together more often.  

I also took a lot of photos of the local architecture.  If you know me, you know that I love to draw architecture! Well, I was in heaven with all of the interesting doors, shutters, windows, iron work and all of the Old French feel in the architecture. The colors are pretty awesome too!  I have plenty of photos to use as references for some drawings and paintings!

On a side note, I will be looking out for a book that should come out next year. One of our cab drivers told us that he is in the process of writing a book about his 52 years as a cabdriver in New Orleans.  If his (Giovanni's) book is half as interesting as our cab ride, the book should be pretty interesting!!


Beth  ♥

Pet Portrait in Pencil

I recently finished a custom pet portrait done with graphite pencil.  This little cutie is name "Allie" and she is going to be a gift for her 'daddy' for his birthday!

She was drawn with graphite pencils on Stonehenge paper and is 5" x 7".




Beth  ♥

Spring time brings baby nests...

Last year I painted a whimsical painting of a tree with owls, squirrels, birds, rabbits, foxes, and raccoons for a nursery.  I've never been up close and personal with raccoons...until now.  In the fun painting that I did, I painted the baby raccoons in the knot hole in the tree, with the momma raccoon waving from behind the tree.  I think they are so cute! So I was very surprised to find some baby raccoons in the eave of my storage building in my back yard.  I heard them making noise and assumed that it was a birds nest.  But when I decided to use the ladder to check it out, I found that it was not birds, it was baby raccoons!  At first I thought that the Momma Raccoon had been blocked out of our newly repaired storage building.  So I was worried about the babies starving.  The next day when I checked on the raccoons, I stuck my head up by the eave where they were, and saw a much larger mass move!  Momma Raccoon was up there and it really surprised me and I thought that she might jump at me to protect her young!  Startled by this new discovery, I jumped down off the ladder!  (causing me to lose my balance and fall...but I'm okay...bruised, but okay. I'm sure it was very amusing to my hubby to see all of this happen, after he knew I was okay. We had a good laugh about it anyway.)  After getting over the shock of seeing the Momma, I was advised to leave the door to the storage building open over night and see if the Momma Raccoon would take her babies and leave to find a quieter spot.  I left the door open and the next morning she and her babies were not in the nest.  Hopefully they found their way out safely and another quiet space to live.

Momma Raccoon

Here is the photo that I took of Momma from the other end of the eave.  I didn't see her in the photo until AFTER I saw her up close!




The last picture is of the babies when I first discovered them. There were three babies laying up there alone.  I didn't see their Momma and they were at the other end of the building where I found them with their Momma, the next day.

Maybe I'll come across a bird's nest next.
Have a great week!

Baby Racoons without Momma

Beth  ♥    

More Textured Painting Fun!

Abstracted Flower
20"x 20" Acrylic on Canvas
Beth S. Macre  © 2013

Painting with acrylic and modeling paste to create texture is so fun to play with!  I was asked to create a painting with these colors, so I had fun coming up with this design and then painting it.  Love the color combinations so much that I may need to use these colors for a painting for my own home.

The customer loved her painting! I appreciate all of my customers who continue to help me be the work at home artist that I love!

Beth  ♥

Art Studio to Office

Before...lots of little holes patched up!

Painting walls is not my idea of fun painting, but that is what I have started doing at the Macre household...along with my usual art projects.  Its been a few years since I painted a few of the rooms in my house, so I have to paint them to freshen up the walls.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, we hope to move sometime in the near future, so before we put the house on the market, we need to freshen up things around the house.  I'm starting with the 'former art room', because it has been the longest since it was painted...mainly because there was too much stuff in there. I don't have a photo before I took all of the stuff out. Because it was an art room, there were many things on the walls over the years, so you can imagine the nail holes in the walls.  In the photo, you can see the patches for all the tiny nail holes and then the after photos that show how fresh it looks with the new coat of paint! (It looks worse than it was.)  I will definitely be going through the stuff and be more selective in what goes back in there.  It is going to be an office instead of the art studio now. I'm going to resist the urge to fill it up!  It is very nice to have a clean slate.

Painting finished.

Furniture back in place.
 The paint color is closer to the photo above this one.
It looks different in different light.

The other side of the room still needs a little organizing.  I'll post photos of that side eventually.
Now on to another room as soon as I get caught up on art commissions...and to finish my taxes!

Have a nice weekend!

Beth  ♥

Hoppy Easter!!

Happy Easter! 

Beth  ♥   

Spring Break and Norman Rockwell

Spring Break has always been a good time to take some time off from the every day rush of work and home chores. But now that I am not teaching and I am working at home, I realized that I should still take that time off to refresh.  My daughter's birthday usually falls during Spring Break, and this year it was again. So our Spring Break getaway was to go see her. Since she has a big girl job now, we went to visit her for a few days.  While we were there, we took a trip to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art to see the Norman Rockwell Exhibit.  Although the weather was not very Spring Break like, (more like winter break) I was very excited to go see this exhibit! It is always great to see art, that you have admired in books, up close and personal.  When I taught art, I used to teach a unit about Norman Rockwell.  I had a video about the artist that I would show every year, which means I saw the video 4 to 5 times per year times for approximately 20 years!  I went to the exhibit with my daughter and my 'hubby' (the loyal husband that will go to just about any art event that I ask him to).  Even though neither of them wanted to linger at each painting like I did.  It wasn't long before they left me behind in the crowds, that were also listening to the audio tour guide with me.  I seemed to be in a crowd of too many people to get up close and personal, like I wanted to, so I had to start going out of order.  I would try to find a painting, that I was familiar with, that did not have 20 people around it, so I could walk up to it and really see the brushstrokes and the pencil marks that Norman Rockwell so carefully placed on the canvases. It was great to see such talent up close.  They would not allow photos to be taken of the Rockwell exhibit, but I was able to take some photos of the permanent collection and some of the views from the museum.  Next time I go, I hope the weather will be nicer, so I can take some photos of the outdoor gardens.  I really enjoyed the exhibit, and my second trip to the museum, and I am really happy that Arkansas now has this beautiful place to visit!  I'm sure I will be going many more times!

"American Gothic" in spools of thread.
You have to look through the sphere to see it right side up.
Or when you take a photo, turn it upside down.

"Rosie the Riveter"
Norman Rockwell
(part of the permanent collection)

Click on the photo of the painting of "Rosie the Riveter" to read more about how the museum acquired this painting.  

If you are traveling near Northwest Arkansas, I recommend that you go visit Crystal Bridges, if you enjoy looking at great American Art!  I will post more photos from my visit soon. Have a wonderful Easter weekend! 

Happy Easter!  

Beth  ♥