Adventure into the Art Realm

Painting or any type of artistic endeavor is definitely a mood thing for me. If I'm not in the mood to paint, no matter what I do it just won't turn out right. Same goes for crafting, cooking, and any other type of creative activity that I would like to do. That's why when the mood hits, that's all I seem to do for about a month or so until it wears off. Luckily I have a fabulous room devoted to just crafts. When I don't finish my project in a day, I can leave everything disastrously thrown about and shut the door for a few days until I can get back to it.

This long winded opening is essentially me saying that I've been hit hard with the desire to paint. And here's what I've been working on. Yes, I still am definitely a beginner. But the more I do it the better I will be. Plus it can be a great stress relief. Mostly, since I have all the materials on hand from my art class two years ago, it's essentially a free activity. Since my own personal budget is a bit tight I rely on free type things as an expressive outlet.

This picture was requested by a friend of mine for her birthday next month. I still need to fix up a few things but it's mostly done. 

This one was just for me. Something to remind me of the random hidden corners of Europe that I love.

This was just a pretty picture I found. I want to do this painting again and improve it. My favorite part is the red flowers in the upper right hand corner. And I love the ivy in the wheel.

This is a baby quilt I did for a friend of mine who's baby shower is next week. I even hand quilted it myself (don't look too close or you'll see the defects). I had a Harry Potter movie marathon while quilting it. Yes, it took all 8 movies. I'm such a nerd!

This one was done for my boss as a going away gift. You have to understand that I have a giant white board in my office. It just became a thing over the years that I would draw  things on the white board in dry erase marker. I've done everything from all the Looney Tunes characters to Disney movies - Finding Nemo, Peter Pan, Jungle Book, etc., to Garfield, to Peanuts, and so on. My boss even bought me colored markers for the board drawings. Once the characters are on the board my job is done. But as people pass by, they tend to label the characters as people from work. It's all fun. So at one point this picture was on the white board and my boss went through and labeled all her direct report staff as the different characters from this Snow White scene. So when she left, she requested this picture, which we then signed as our assigned character. This one is done in colored pencil, which I'm finding is a fabulous medium to work with.

So there are my art adventures as of late. Enjoy! Oh, and if you come across any fabulous nature/ landscaping type pictures send them my way! I'm always looking for painting inspiration.