Custom House Portraits

I've had so much fun painting house portraits lately that my eBay auctions have suffered. But, I promise to get them going again this week. I have one auction ending this evening, Wild Rose Crossing , which was pictured in my last post.

Jenn and Jacqui, mother and daughter team, from The Bowers Bird Nest asked me to paint two house portraits for them and I just shipped them out today. The first one, "Woodend" was an old house that they loved that was in disrepair and they asked me to spruce it up. The beauty of the Australian countryside is quite amazing!

The second one was a quaint "Lake Cottage". You should take the time to visit with Jenn and Jacqui at their wonderful blog where they share lots and lots of wonderful photos of their life in Australia. Jacqui just celebrated her 18th birthday and the photos of her celebration are so much fun. What a great mom Jenn is! Happy Birthday Jacqui!

Wild Rose Crossing Folk Art Painting

This evening I added another small painting to my eBay auctions. I had way too much fun painting this one. My mother gives me a hard time about all the big hills in my paintings and I thought it would be fun to add this cute gal rolling out of control down this slope.

Paula realized, a little too late, that she had outgrown her bike from the previous summer and keeping her feet on the pedals was no longer possible.

Wouldn't it be fun to live here along the water where you can cross over the bridge to visit with neighbors. I'm so ready for spring and as I type this, it is sleeting and the wind is blowing wildly. We are supposed to get 3-5 inches of snow by morning.

I have so many blogs that I love to read and Penny's from Lavender Hill Studio is one that I go to daily. She does the most beautiful mosaics and is one of the sweetest bloggers I've come across. She has presented me with this "Spread The Love Award". Thanks Penny!

"When you receive it you are in turn supposed to award it to someone else. The award is for spreading love, support, and blogginess to those people and blogs that make you happy and in turn, make others want to spread some of that good stuff around too*!* You are to then go to leave them a comment letting them know that you left them a little tidbit on your blog”.

I am passing this award on to:

Rose at Classic Charm for her "charming" blog with decorating tips and "charming" wit. She has a lovely family too.

Cindy at Rose Haven for her healthy eating/cooking tips, gardening, and for saving that cute little kitty, Lucy!

Melissa at The Inspired Room for her "inspiring" words on decorating and life in general. Thanks for letting me do the "Dragonfly Cottage" painting from your photo!

Thanks ladies!!

Collage Cottage Folk Art Painting

Today I squeezed in a little 5 inch x 7 inch "collage" folk art painting to list on eBay this evening. Sometimes I just need something simple to paint when I'm having a hard time concentrating. I just love holding these tiny canvas's in my hand while I dream up what to put on them. With Valentine's Day on the way I decided that "love" was in the air!

The houses in the painting are collaged with old print from a 1965 Frontier Times Magazine. Notice in the smaller house, below the top window the word "Injuns". The roof on the the larger house is scrapbooking paper. Simply click on the photos to see a larger image.
Anna Marie has been madly in love with her dear husband, Henry, for 35 years. Together they have raised 6 children, 12 dogs, and 6 cats and have survived with their feelings for each other intact! Their love is infectious and the envy of the village.

Spring Folk Art Paintings

Since I've been busy the past two weeks with commissioned paintings, I haven't had time to paint anything new for my eBay auctions. I've decided to share some of my spring paintings that I sold last year. With the wind howling outside and the snow falling, the idea of knowing that spring is just around the corner really lifts my spirits.

Flower catalogs arrive in the mail and beckon me to make new purchases for my gardens and draws me away from my drafting table. I planted new thornless climbing roses late last year and can't wait to see the pink petals climbing over my wooden fence. With all the inspiration from spring garden catalogs and magazines, you can expect many more "new" spring paintings with lots of beautiful flowers soon. My brush is just itching to get moving!!

Spring is God's Gift

Spring Breeze

Ruby's Boarding House

Chestnut Shelter Wedding Folk Art Painting

One of my blog readers, Laura, commissioned me to do this little painting. She and her husband were married in this building, Chestnut Shelter. When she sent me the photos, I couldn't believe the huge icicyles hanging from the roof. What a romantic wedding this must have been! Candles glowed in the windows, little heart wreaths on the door, and they even stood outside in the snow to have their picture taken. Believe it or not she didn't even look cold in the pictures. They even had a bagpiper at the wedding! Cute couple, don't you think!

This was painted on a tiny 5" x 7" canvas. Laura is giving the to her husband for Valentine's Day. What a lovely idea! Now I've got to come up with something in the next couple of weeks that says "romance". Send me your romantic ideas for Valentine's Day by leaving me a comment.

Dragonfly Cottage Folk Art Painting

This past week after reading one of my favorite blogs, "The Inspired Room", I got "inspired" by one of Melissa's photographs that she took while driving through a neighborhood. Please stop by Melissa's blog and browse for a while. You'll get more ideas for your home and you'll want to return again and again! I've painted many houses over the years from photographs that I've taken while traveling around the country. This is a great way to build up a file of things to paint and believe me, I have a lot of files on houses. She gave me permission to use her photo of this cottage to do this painting that I listed on eBay this evening.

Loving couple, Alice and Joe, built this little cottage using their unique artistic abilities. Alice, an artist and gardener, loves bold color and painted the front door and the trim purple, much to the astonishment of her neighbors. Joe, works with metal and designed the brass dragonfly downspout for the house. Now, the neighbors are their biggest supporters of their artwork!

There really is a brass dragonfly on the downspout in the photograph. So, don't forget to check out Melissa's blog to see the photograph of the real house. She's a real sweet,talented lady and would love for you to stop by!

Spring Fairy Cottage Folk Art Painting

I had quite a "good" time with this little painting. It makes me want to get outside and plant some flowers! Although with the snow on the ground, that's not likely to happen. Painting these little gardens gives me so many ideas for my own yard. It would especially be nice to have some fairies to help me with it!

This house belongs to my dear friend and neighbor, Linda. I changed things by adding flowers, porch furniture, and moving her home to the country. She also gained a stained glass studio in her back yard! Won't she be surprised. I've had a few people recognize their homes in my paintings even though I change the surroundings. Fairy Cottage is a magical place where flowers bloom profusely and gardens are always tidy. Miss Linda resides here and loves to tell spendid stories of tiny delicate fairies to her grandchildren. She weaves her magical tales where fairies create beautiful stained glass in her art studio and they garden by night. Fairies, always "neat" by nature, clean up their messes in the studio and finish up pieces that she has started but can't seem to complete.

Lavender Cottage Folk Art Painting

A new little painting that I added to my eBay auctions last night.

Miss Lillie lives in Lavender Cottage and loves knitting, reading, writing, and painting. She has posted this in the local paper where she is looking for the perfect husband to round out her life in the cove. Oh, and she also loves winter and snowmen!

I think a spring painting just might help to get past those winter "blues" that we start feeling in January and February. So keep watching!

Evergreen Cottage Folk Art Painting

I've decided that this cold is not going to get any better any time soon and I may as well get some painting done. "Evergreen Cottage" was listed on eBay this evening. Doctor's Camille and Clarence Rogers are both doctors in the local village. Many a night they have been called from the warmth of their home to call on a patient in need of care. They've lived in Evergreen Cottage for several years, which was handed down through a family of doctors on the Roger's side. Their humerous quote is "we cure 'em on kill 'em". Their love for their patients and friends is quite apparent through their gentle and committed care. Don't worry; their patients know they will get only the best of care.

In my sickly condition, this little story seemed appropriate! Wish I could find these doctors in my town. A "house call" from a doctor would be greatly appreciated right now! I'm sure by now everyone is tired of my constant whining, including my husband, who now has caught this cold. So, as I was painting, I photographed several different stage of this painting.

One of my readers left me a comment and asked how I kept my building so straight. Besides years and years of practice, the easiest way to paint smooth, straight buildings is by basecoating with several thin coats of paint. I always dip just one corner of my brush into water and then load the brush with paint from the outer edge of the puddle of paint and pressing down as I pull out of the puddle. This may take several coats, but gives a smoother basecoat and gives you better control when you don't have too much paint in the brush.

In the picture below, one coat of paint has been applied to the building. This will be the mortar color.

In this photo I have based the roof and have now stared painting the individual rocks.
This stage shows some shading on some of the stones.
Here you can see that the windows are based with the curtain color. The shutter and door area are based as well. The area between the curtains then is painted either black or yellow.
The curtains are shaded and the yellow areas are shaded too.
Thanks to all the well wishers and I promise not to keep whining!

New Folk Art Collection Cloudeight Stationery

I'm so excited! Cloudeight Stationery has added by folk art paintings to their free online email stationery. They notified me this morning that we were their first "new" collection for 2008. You can check out this new collection here.

I want to thank everyone for the wonderful comments and I promise to answer all the email about my custom house portraits within the next couple of days. My cold has escalated and I've been in bed for a couple of days. I promise to be back on my feet soon and will answer each and every email.

I also want to thank Suzy at Wild Rose Cottage for this sweet award. Please visit her blog. You'll be glad you did!

I will be passing this award onto my blog favorites in a couple of days when I'm back on my feet. Thanks to all my readers and your wonderful comments!

Supper Time

Every evening when my husband, son, and I sit down to eat, our cat Callie sits in the fourth chair. I've not been able to get a shot of everyone at the table. She sits in the chair and lays her little chin on the table like she's supposed to be served along with everyone else. My son said he noticed this evening that as soon as she heard me getting the plates out of the cabinets, she came running. She'll be disappointed that Eric leaves to go back to college Sunday because my husband and I always eat at the kitchen counter when it's just the two of us.

The Village of Coopersville Folk Art Painting

Yes! It's finally finished. It's really hard to paint when you are feeling under the weather. But, I finished this one tonight and listed it on eBay and I'm ready for bed. I seem to keep coming back to winter scenes. They are so peaceful and so fun to paint.

The picture below shows you the detailing that's partially done on the large Inn.

I will be working on some smaller paintings next. If you have any suggestions, for a painting, please leave a comment and I'll see what I can do.

Slow Going

Since Christmas, it's been pretty slow going getting back into the swing of painting every day. I threw my back out while putting the Christmas decorations away and with the warmer weather and rain, sinus problems have set in. Taking sinus medication always knocks me out. So, I thought I would share the beginning process of my next painting. This is a 16 x 20 winter painting. I always start with the background, painting the sky and ground areas first.

I then proceed to draw my buildings from photos of houses that I've taken over the years. The buildings are then basecoated and are now ready for all the detail (my favorite part).
Hopefully, this painting will be finished and listed in a day or two.

My Final Folk Art Instruction Book

"Charming Village Scenes You Can Paint" was my third and final book. It's my favorite! It's a much larger book with lots and lots of color pages and step by step instructions. This book was published by North Light Books. All of my books are now out of print including this one, but can still be found sometimes on eBay.

I would like to thank Penny from Lavender Hill Studio for writing about the little painting she purchased from me on eBay. She has sent a lot of new readers my way and it's truly appreciated. Go on over and visit her blog. She has beautiful mosaic pieces that you are going to love! You can see more of her work on her website.

Snowflake Cove

It's done! The first painting for 2008! "Snowflake Cove" will be listed on eBay this evening. I'm on to the next one as we speak.

Snowflake Cove is a magical village where it snows nonstop. The people who live in these quaint little cottages have lived here their entire lives and pass their homes down from generation to generation. They are a snow loving group of souls and wouldn't think of living anywhere else. They never shovel; they simple trudge through the snow or wear snow shoes because they love the beauty of this soft white blanket. Esther and Joseph who own the local general store, keep it fully stocked at all times and even make home deliveries.

My second book was titled "The Village of Greenwood" and all the items in it coordinated with the projects from the first book. A lot of the items from this book are now owned by a very dear friend.

The last of this series was "A Village Christmas". The tray featured on the front cover is one of my favorite pieces and I display it every Christmas. There was also a very "BIG" mistake in this book. When I proof read it, every where an "r" was supposed to be typed, it was a "t". Their keyboard must have had a glitch. I thought we had caught all of them, but on the very first page it says, "Christmas is one of my favorite times of year. It's a time of sharing in the spirit of the season with "OUT" families and friends. Needless to say my family and friends weren't impressed! I had a lot of apologizing to do.
These books are all out of print. Used copies can still be found sometimes on eBay.

My Folk Art Instruction Books

Today I'm back to painting even though technically it's a holiday. I've been away from my brushes far too long and feel the need to create again. Since I don't have any new paintings to show you, I decided to share a little information about how I got started painting.

My brothers and sisters all worked for Hallmark cards as lettering artists and draftsmen. My brother, Joe was the lettering artist as well as a great artist in all respects. My sister, Patti, and brother, Keith both draftsmen, design how things work, like pop-up books, decorations, and cards. I decided to stay home with my children but still needed to work. I started teaching folk art painting classes from my home and as the kids got older I wrote my first instruction book. The book was supposed to be titled "An Americana Collection" The Village of Stoney Point. When it was published there was an error on the front cover where they left the last letter off of Americana. I started exhibiting my work at national conventions and travel teaching throughout the US and Canada. I did this for over 25 years and made many wonderful friends which I dearly miss.

When my father and mother- in- law both got sick with cancer in 2001, I decided family was more important and I stopped traveling all together. Ebay presented an easy way to paint and sell my work and still have lots of time for family. I'm so glad that I did because we lost both of these precious people soon after.

This is the cover of my first book. I still have several of the pieces from this book.