♥Spring Changes♥

Spring Changes 

Mixed Media on watercolor paper

9 1/2 x 11/1/2 inches

This is a watercolor/mixed media painting of my lovely crocuses peeping up around the snow.  

If you look closely at the earth in this painting, you can see the text printed on unryu rice paper and collaged on. 

The earth brings forth changes, bringing us the first sign of spring, growth and renewal.  Cheerful, I can hear the birds singing.

What a pleasure it was to see these delicate little flowers after a hard, old fashioned winter!  Check out my front garden...we were running out room to put the snow.  A week of rain helped clear most of it away.






I belong to the Passion for Painting Guild on Artfire. Every month we have a painting challenge, and for March the theme was "Changes". (All month I've had David Bowie's song Changes stuck in my head) I painted this one for the challenge. You can check out the guild page here: Passion for Painting Guild  Please "Like" the page to receive all the latest updates on the amazing artwork there.

Get Your Vitamin C Here...

What an awesome week it's been...The kids have been off school for March break, the mountains of snow have been melting like crazy, the sun has been shining and little plants have been poking their little heads out of the ground.  And I've been painting like mad.

For those that follow me on Facebook, you would have seen my status earlier this week...

My son and his friend were so disappointed yesterday. They were in the kitchen with me chatting and watching me cut up oranges. I put them on the kitchen table, artfully arranged them and started to draw..."Heyyyyy...we thought you were giving us a snack!" LOL I think they were hungry :-)
I've been creating loads of paintings of oranges!


This is one of my first paintings:

Watercolor on Paper 10 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches

This is another...

Watercolor on Paper 10 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches

The following two paintings are ACEOs.  For those that don't know what ACEO, it stands for Art Cards, Editions and Originals. They are miniature works of art, 2 ½ X 3 ½ inches that can be matted and framed to hang on the wall.

They are small enough to fit inside standard card-collector pockets, sleeves or sheets if you choose.

ACEOs can even be put into a greeting card as an extra surprise for a birthday, anniversary, or just as a special surprise.

Watercolor on Paper ACEO

Watercolor on Paper ACEO

I started posting Creativity Tips this week on Facebook.  If you are an artist or just love to create, click on the "Like" at the top of my Facebook page to receive updates on my artwork or my Creativity Tips.  Here is my page: www.facebook.com/jdmstudios Or, just click "Like" on the right hand side of this page.  One of the tips I suggested this week was to use crayon or wax as a resist. 

I used wax on the following two paintings as a resist.  Check out the highlight on these oranges.  After drawing these oranges, I used a white crayon and colored in where the light was hitting them. When I added my washes of orange color the area where I colored with crayon remained white.  Looks just like orange peel skin.

Watercolor on Paper 10 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches

 I used a white crayon on this painting, too but didn't quite turn out as well as the first one, unfortunately!   Too much paint and not enough wax. I ended up lifting color to create the highlights but didn't quite have the same texture as the painting above.

Watercolor on Paper 10 1/2 x 8 1/2

This last painting is an acrylic.  My youngest son kept raving about how juicy these oranges are especially if you peeled them and bit right into it!  Hopefully some of that came across in the following painting:

"Juicy" Acrylic on paper 10 1/2 x 8 1/2

Jingles the Wonder Cat (cuz we really wonder...)

I have to share this story about my latest addition, Jingles the Wonder Cat.  She is a grey tabby, still a kitten.  She will be one year old on May 11.  She is quite different from other cats we've adopted into our  family.  She is pleasant, but doesn't like a whole lot of cuddling, 30 seconds is quite long enough for her... unless my husband is on the laptop and she tries to sit in his arms.  He complains that he can't get any work done, but he secretly loves the attention :-)

Watercolor Painting of Jingles

Besides being standoffish, and I know that most cats are, she has this quirky little habit.  She does not like stuff on tables.  And will spend a fair bit of time knocking stuff on the floor.  Doesn't matter if its a pencil or a book.  One night she and I spent a half hour straight playing knock it down, pick it up with my youngest son's puffer. You would think I had nothing better to do!

So, this story begins with three straight weeks (seems longer) of having flus, colds, and ear infections in our house.  My husband was the only one spared.  After finally getting through the worst of it, it felt fantastic to go through the house vaccuuming, washing floors, dusting, just giving the house a good, thorough cleansing.  Exhausted, I sat down at night to watch a little TV with some nachos and salsa, one of my favorite snacks.

I do watch my weight, so I left some in the bag.  I left the bag on the table just in case I came back for more.  Now,  I am sure you can see where this is going.  I had my fill of the salty tortilla chips and went off to bed. 

I woke the next morning to my husband's hysterical laughter and "Ah, Jo-Ann...you've really got to see this!"

Now, our house is not small.  Its a century old home and from kitchen you have to go through the dining room and down a hallway to get to the front door, I'd say 25 to 30 feet.  From one end to the other, from the kitchen to the front door, was a huuuuge trail of tortilla chips.  And at the end of the trail, right at the foot of the stairs, was the huge, empty bag .  I have no idea if she ate them (judging by the amount on the floor, not likely) or if she just used the bag as a toy, but it sure looked like she had a fantastic time throughout the night!  And guess what I spent the next hour doing... vacuuming those darn tortilla chips.

Here's a picture of the little monster:

She's pretty cute, isn't she?