Vacation Over . . . 10 minute Warm Up

Vacation is over and I have been trying for a week to get back to the 10-minute warm-up that
Diana Evans hosts on her blog.

Today, my granddaughter, Alessandra, came over with her mom to have me help design a pattern for a specific dress that she wanted made.  As her mom and I worked, and in-between her numerous fittings, Alessandra drew in her sketchbook.  Later at dinner, we talked about art and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit.  After she left for the evening, I decided that 'now' was the tie to do a warm-up sketch!

I grabbed the nearest tea cup.

Looks like I am a little out of practice . . . . so . . .tomorrow I will try again.  

Visit the 10 minute Warm-up on Diana's blog and see what others are up to! 

More practice!

I did this rose, some time ago, but I was not finished.  So for today's 10 Minute Warm-Up,  I finished it!
linking again with Diana's Illustration and Design blog.

See ya tomorrow!

Practicing . . .

Just practicing sketching and watercolor . . . taking the challenge to do a little sketching every day. Sketch is of a motif on a notepad on my desk!  Linking with the 10 Minute Warm Up over at Diana's blog.  Just splashing color on the page in preparation for painting my stairs sketch.  Marking down notes, to remember what I want to do and not do.  Come on over and take the challenge!

Sketch - Perspective

I have been inspired by Diana Evans over on her Illustration and Design blog to do 10 minutes of sketching each day. (She hosts a 10 Minute Warm-Up linky on her site.)

As I said in my last post, architecture inspires and I had planned to do a watercolor using the lines of architecture in an old lighthouse that I visited. So, today, I have drawn out the lines, in readiness for the watercolor. You can compare this sketch to the picture in the previous post. What do you think? Can you see a watercolor wash and bright colors eventually in this sketch? I can. I will share when it is finished. Stay tuned!

Inspiration from Architecture

Recently on a trip to my home state, I visited a lighthouse, that I never new was there!  What a delight!  

I won't go into all the details (doing a post on the lighthouse in my other blog) but for the purposes of this post, I do want to show a couple of pictures of the architecture in the old building.  I love the old buildings and their craftsmanship!

Eaves over the front door

And the lines are so fascinating!  (I know, actually a study in perspective!)  I'm  thinking of what I could do on a sheet of paper with paint and those lines!

Staircase to the light 

Floor beams - actually ceiling of  basement 'refrigerator' room

Now to go put something on paper! 

linking today with:
Create-with-Joy

Sunday Thoughts

In the beginning . . . of this story . . . there was a little bird. Imagine you are the bird flying above it all.  Nothing up in the sky with you, except the air and a few wispy clouds. Not much below, plenty of space to yourself. You flit around happily, without a care----day after day . . . after day.  You've been flying for a lengthy time, all by your lonesome. You tweet but  there is no one to hear you.  

Looking down you see a beautiful garden. You look into the expanse of green and blossoms, you spy a man and woman walking along a path.  You flit down to a nearby branch, so nice to rest a while in the cool of the evening.

 lonely Oriole Hoop Art by pruitthandcrafts

You listen to the muffled tones coming from the couple, you watch and flit from tree to tree following them along the path. They sound so complete with each other, strolling, enjoying their surroundings and each other.   You tweet cheerfully, hopping along from stem to stem happy to be with them.  You may not understand their sounds nor they yours but it is enjoyable to be together.  "Yes,  I'll do this again" you say, "I enjoy this.  I'll make it an evening routine."

But alas, one day, when the little bird came to the garden, there was no one there . . .  he was alone again.  "Where are you?" he tweeted.  "I am missing you. It's not so much fun flitting from limb to limb without the comfort of you." *


* Scripture Reference: Toward evening they heard the LORD God walking about in the garden, so they hid themselves among the trees.  The LORD God called to Adam, "Where are you?"  Gen 3:8-9  NLT

**Authors Note:
I do not intend to be sacrilegious, or irreverent with my little story, just wanted to present a picture, from a point of view that we can possibly understand.  Obviously we don't fully understand God, but we do somewhat understand what is in our own world.  I wanted to paint a word picture of how God must have felt when humans hid from Him in the garden.  And my Sunday thoughts are:  Are we hiding from Him in our daily lives?  How does that make Him feel, when all He wanted in the beginning was to have relationship with us? "Where are you?"

Books are for Reading with Grandpa!

My husband and I both write.  I literally love children's books.  I love them for their stories, but I also love them for their art.  I collect them and really need to review some of them here in this blog . . . but I am getting off subject . . . .

I am working on an illustrated book series for children (my progress is chronicled  here from time to time in this blog.) Hubby has already published two books, one of which is for children. He's currently working on a novel, but he loves children's stories as much as I do.  Last year he finished a second children's book for our grandson, Owen, who has a speech impediment.  It is a common impediment, that he will eventually grow out of, they say, by the time he is about 8 or 10.  He has trouble saying his R's.  So grandpa wrote him a little book replete with R words!! It was Owen's fifth birthday present!  

Anyway, a couple of our other grandchildren were visiting this weekend, and grandpa read Owen's little book to them at bed time!  I just had to snap this sweet picture.  Vivi is intently listening, while LaRaya is looking at his first book, while she listens.  

I really need to finish my book project. It the first in a series, which I call my Grandma Books.  There is a tab at the top of my homepage if you are interested.  Books will be available on this site, eventually . . . :)

Header Sketch

Recently I have been  working on a new header for my art and creative writing  blog -- this one obviously!

 I did this sketch for my theme.  Turned out pretty good, except when I photographed it, it was an overcast day outside and the photograph turned out blue! I know the rule, "Let your white be WHITE and your blacks be BLACK!" I've tweaked it all I can to remove the color, but alas, it's still blue!  Maybe I should have run it through the scanner instead of trying to photo it!! 

Enjoy anyway . . . 

Linking today with:
Sunday Sketches

Inspired by the Children

Recently I visited the pre-school where several of my grandchildren attend. 

It was a colorful, busy place, indeed!

As many other schools, art was displayed on the walls.  I was particularly taken with one hall wall, since my latest art passion has been fiber art, or textile art quilts. The children's art was a similar type.

The wall looked like a crayon box with one textured art piece for each color.  Each piece was a collage of items in the specific color glued to a background sheet cut out to a specific shape.  There was a brown bear, a black sheep, a white dog, a blue horse, a red flying bird, etc.

Apparently the teacher chose a photograph, cut out the larger shape in the same color paper, then had the children pick items of the desired color to glue onto it.  Here, she had a frog picture for the green inspiration piece.

And, voila! The finished piece.  I love what the kids used for the eye, the nose and the mouth line in this piece:

Another was a picture of a gray cat with a purple tinge to the picture.

The finished purple cat reminds me that we don't have to stick to the exact color of an item that inspires us!

Sew . . .  here is one of my own textile art quilts where the color does not stick to purely nature's colors:

Plum Blossoms in Blue by AbigailJayneArt

Although it may be a little hard to see on your monitor, I used pale blue tulle to accent my blossoms in this piece--and I don't remember ever seeing any Spring blossoms in blue--except maybe an occasional hydrangea flower! But these are obviously not hydrangea flowers!   Sew fun using other colors to create!  

What inspiration have you received lately and . . . 

what did you do with it? 

Linking today with: 

Inspire Me Monday

Mantel Art

More of Bella's art (see yesterday's post), displayed on the mantel.  

Soon, her mom will need an entire wall.

After my own heart . . .

A girl "after my own heart" . . . have you ever heard this expression?  Meaning a kindred spirit, someone who likes what you like, originally used in the Bible when God was looking for a king, someone to rule like He himself would.  Well, one of my grands is shaping up to be a girl after my own heart!  She is Bella Jo, she is nearly 5 years old (in September) and she is taking up painting and art!  She used to draw a picture, wad it all up in a cute ball, and reach her hand out to you with the ball in it and say:  "Here I made you a present!"  I think that she is beyond that stage now!

Bella's mischief look!

 Shes says that she wants to be a painter/designer!  Here is the picture she was working from and her finished work in the bottom picture:

Feels good to know that your artful heart will have a legacy down in the generations!  Yay! Go Bella!

The Making of a Logo

I have been working on a new online shop to carry my art.  Realizing that I needed a logo, I have been doodling  . . . .  First I thought about using a textile logo, you know, warp and woof of fabric (in the middle section of this page . . . .

But, and since Abigail Jayne is the pseudonym for my art pieces, I thought that the logo should be the initials. I have had fun playing around with some concepts for the letters.

I think I have settled on  an embroidered set of initials, then a photograph that I will tweak with photo editing software.  Here's the embroidery in process:

Here is the photo, manipulated:

Sew . . . . not finished, nor decided on a final product for a logo yet, but having fun with it!!!

Textile ART!

I know, I've left this blog for far too long . . . first there was the holiday season, then winter doldrums, now it's Spring! But I have been busy! And yes, I have sidelined my book in favor of another project.  And yes, I will finish my book, I want it finished and published by the end of the year--just taking it a little slower on the last few illustrations. When I have something to share, be sure, I will do it here on this little blog.

My current projects  involve a practical one and an artsy one.   For the practical one, you can read about it in my other blog from time to time. But this blog is for ART!  (and writing, of course!)

In the ensuing months, I have taken up my textile artistry with a passion. Playing with multi-layers to create texture and composition.

Exploring with texture!

I have several quilted art pieces that I am currently working on, by exploring fabric texture and simple stitching to create feelings about the vast universe around us.  Nature inspires me and at this point in time, I am enthralled with Spring.  Here are a couple of my current pieces, soon to be on sale in  a new Etsy shop exclusively carrying my Abigail Jayne art pieces.

My current series of nature inspired pieces starts with this one:

Emerging Foggy Spring

You can read about how it was created in this blog post. Then, inspired by longing for Spring, I created this one during the winter blues:

Spring Among the Blues

 And this one inspired by the first blossoms against a drab winter background:

Late Winter Blossoms

And this one, the second in my blossoms series:

Plum Blossoms in Blue

Hope you will stop by my shop and see what else I have been creating!  Have a great day with your own creating!

Linking with Bev's Pink Saturday