Sandy Shore

"Sandy Shore"

Image size 6.5" x 5.5"

Acrylic

I did this small study as an acrylic poured painting with no idea of what it would become.  It is obviously abstracted, but I saw water running over sand on the shore.  I added a little bit of white to give it the feeling of the foam at the edge of the water.  This would be fun as a large painting.  These small studies are great for giving ideas for more involved paintings.

Cloudy Calm

"Cloudy Calm"

Image size 54" x 13"

Encaustic

I really love the end result for this painting.  I've always liked skyscapes and the size of this one is really fun!  This photo doesn't show all of the layers that can be seen in person.  I think this is one of my favorite encaustics so far.  

Sweet Beverly

"Sweet Beverly"

Image size 15" x 12"

Watercolor

I've painted 3 different views of my friend Beverly wearing this fun red hat.  I haven't been totally happy with any of them, so you'll probably see another one sometime in the future.  I'm determined to get a really special painting out of these reference photos.

I want to paint more portraits so that I feel more comfortable with them.  I should probably pick a more forgiving medium so that I don't tighten up worrying about making a mistake that might not be fixable.

Skyscape III

"Skyscape III"

Image size 12" x 30"

Encaustic

Painting is my primary focus once again and really enjoyed finishing this encaustic painting.  I love the colors in it and the shine of the polished wax really makes the colors pop!

Biggest project ever

This week's post is a different type of art project, but it is the most difficult art project that I've ever finished.

My daughter's wedding was a couple of weeks ago and I got to see her wearing my art project - actually two different ones.

Although I hadn't sewn for 10 years, I wanted to try to make her wedding dress.  We found an incredible fabric in the fabric district in downtown LA which started dictating the beginning design of the dress.  There were a lot of changes along the way to the finished dress.

When I started college I chose to major in fashion design.  I stuck with it for about a year before changing my mind, so I did have a rudimentary understanding of pattern drafting.  I learned more during the making of these dresses than I ever did in college.  There were a lot of "one step forward, two (or three) steps back" kind of days over the past six months.  Unfortunately, all that I learned will probably never be useful because I won't do a project like this in the future.

Now that the dresses are finished and there were no wardrobe malfunctions the day of the wedding, I am really glad that I chose to take on such an important project.  There were countless days and (sleepless) nights that I questioned my ability to make something so important to my daughter's most special day and I certainly cut the finish date as close as it could possibly be (three days before the wedding - the night before I left to travel there).  My daughter looked beautiful and said she felt great wearing them, so that is all that matters.

The wedding was perfect and I had such a wonderful time.  The photos below are ones taken by guests.  We should have the professional ones in a few weeks and I'm excited to see how the photographer caught Michelle in the dresses.

This first two pictures are of the wedding dress:

These next two are of the dress and overskirt that I made for the reception: