Angels for Allison

Angels for Allison is a local charity that serves a sad but very necessary purpose. As their site says:

Angels for Allison is a nonprofit organization located in Jacksonville, FL dedicated to helping bereaved families in Northeast Florida. 100% of the profits donated to our charity help families who have lost a child with expenses, such as funeral or burial costs.

The thought of losing a child is unbearable, but to lose a child and have no money to them a proper funeral or burial? Far worse, so Angels for Allison helps those families out. One of the way they raise funds is to have local artist paint "angels" which are later sold at a charity fundraising auction.

Above is an angel I created for them. It was fun to do, and I hope they will raise a good amount of money at this year's auction. I still have one more angel to paint! 

Fairy Houses

In the late spring I took my grandson to the Jacksonville Zoo to see their incredible and awesome dinosaur exhibit, so we got combination tickets that included their Butterfly Hollow.  There were not many butterflies there then, but the exhibit itself was cool, As it says on their website:

Let your imagination take flight as you look for fairy houses, garden art, water features, comfortable seating and beautiful arbors.

So we looked, and I did find many of the fairy houses, and I loved them! They were just darling.  They were so adorable I felt I just had to create some of my own.  And so I did. I had such fun creating them that I think I may be trying more of them.

Bird Houses

Finally starting to post things I've done in the last few months. These are birdhouses my grandson John and I decorated. John's is on the right and mine on the left! I did mine to show various activities performed by the St. Johns Audubon Society, one of the organizations I'm on the board of.

We did these for a birdhouse decorating contest run by the Anastasia branch of the St. Johns Public Library system, an activity geared around the annual Great Backyard Bird Count held every February. There were well over 50 birdhouses entered in the contest, some of them true works of art. John is only three so he had tough competition in the 12-and-under category.

So neither of us won a prize, but we had fun decorating our bird houses and felt we were participating in a good cause.

Sketches and Scribbles - Part Two

Here are some more of the sketches and scribbles I did in the life drawing sessions these last 4 weeks. The drawings here are all 5 or 10 minute poses (possibly one 15-minute pose).

Sketches and Scribbles - Part One

These are just some of the quick sketches from my Life Drawing sessions I did the last 4 weeks. Most weeks we started with 30-second poses for quick gesture drawing, and likewise some 2-minutes poses. Then we moved on to some 5, 10 and 15 minute poses, and eventually 20-minute poses which were the ones I tried to capture with pastel. But the quick ones were good experience too so I'm posting some of them here. The ones posted here are all 30-second and 2-minute poses.

My Studio

One of the things I was excited about with my new home in Florida was that I was going to be able to have one entire room to devote to being my studio! Except I've been in my house for 8 months now, and the studio room was the one room of the house that was still a wreck with boxes stacked all around. I also love quilting and fabric arts (though have not done much of it lately) so my studio also needed room for my sewing machine and fabrics, and I had boxes and boxes of fabrics and nowhere to put them.

Not to mention paintings, boxes of pastels, beading supplies, quilt batting, canvases, pastel paper.... I just needed more storage space. So finally this past Monday I went out to look at storage units at Home Depot. I had planned to just buy an open metal shelving unit, but while I was there I was quite taken by this inexpensive Martha Stewart 9-cube organizer that can accomodate fabric boxes that fit right into the cubes! The oraganizer is stackable so I bought two of them.

I had to shift things around a small bit to make room for the organizers, but that gave me a good spot to put the IKEA children's easel that my grandson and I love to use when he comes over for visits.

And the organizers look great. Some of the cubes I left open, and some I bought boxes for - so I now have boxes for things like acrylic paints, beading supplies, picture hanging supplies, small bits and bobs of fabric.

It looks so nice I may have to paint a picture today. :-) Or start a quilt!

Art Critiques

Beth Haizlip of the Art Guild of Orange Park holds a monthly critique session at her house, open to any members of the AGOP. You are allowed to bring up to three paintings and put them up on an easel for critiquing. It's a great experience. Beth has a wonderful eye, and the other members often have valuable comments to add as well.

In Beth's own words:

You man bring up to 3 paintings to be critiqued. I will put the painting up on an easel and anyone is free to comment, good or bad. You must have thick skin - but this will help you become a better artist. 

I've been going to them for the last few months, and find them a fun and valuable experience. I'm always in awe of the work done by other AGOP members! This was the last session before the summer break, and I brought the three "barn" paintings I had done this past week. The feedback was great and I've made some changes to the paintings as a result. Some of the critiques - such as my clouds - I had noticed myself. But some of the other advice was not something I would have thought of. So I always learn something new.