Another Corner of My House

I love looking at peoples home interiors and watching shows like house hunters. I think it's so interesting to see how people decorate and whether or not it's their style. You know the mother daughter team on TV that comes in and critiques your place so you can sell it? They would just die if they came to my house. I envision them walking through my house saying things like "paint the walls a neutral color, your style is overwhelming and people will have a hard time picturing themselves here." Well, I do understand what they are trying to do, but thank goodness I don't ever plan on selling my house. I've always thought of putting a coffee table book together with pictures of some of my favorite friends homes. A lot of them are amazingly decorated in their own groovy way from flea markets to thrift stores with retro, vintage and modern flair. Our "stuff" just keeps getting swapped back and forth like musical furniture.

The pictures above were taken after a day of rearranging. Moving out a TV cabinet that wasn't being used and freeing up a lot more space. I call this room my "Genie Bottle," and it's the first room you see when you enter my house. It's a great place to hang out and have a glass of wine. I know, I know, I still need to paint that cord hanging from the capiz shell thing in the corner. I turned it into a lamp and now I need to hide the cord by painting it the same color as the wall. I also moved the GIANT lantern painting to the entry way. This piece was so big that I made a frame out of painted fence boards. Not easy to do but saved a lot of money.
Enjoy the peek, Karin

Drawing and Planting

I spent some time this morning drawing samples for class on saturday. We will be learning how to draw and then paint reflective and transparent objects. Here I did a some water drops and an old glass bottle in charcoal. This will definitely test their patience. You have to work slowly adding more and more layers till it pops off the page. Boy, all these samples pieces I do really bring back memories of my art school days. I can hear my teachers comments as I'm working. It's like they're sitting on my shoulder giving me advise, "bring this out a bit more, make it pop", "make the lines blend away, don't be afraid to go darker". Does anyone else experience that? It's kind of nice. I wish I could thank them now and let them know I really was listening.

Later, I went to Barrels and Branches and bought some beautiful blue pots and succulents. I was going for a monochromatic look. I love how the plants have shades of blue and pink in them. When I planted everything, I had a lot of extra pieces left over for propagating. We'll see how many will make it. Karin

Mother's Day?

If you don't have a clue what to get your mom for Mother's Day, my sister Anica makes some really cool stamped necklaces. She's got her own Etsy shop now so mosey on over and take a look.

Group Project is Getting Some Color

The elephant mural project is underway. We painted the background with two coats of the most brilliant turquoise. I'm so excited that Carol was in to going for a more graphic shocking background rather than realistic. It's so different when your doing a group collaborative project. The three us throw out suggestions, then make a decision. Throw out more suggestions, make a decision. It's kind of funny because we've been changing our minds constantly throughout this project, letting it sort of evolve on its own. The picture might be hard to make out, but hopefully you can see something. I love each stage of the process and will post a new shot of it each week. Something about the stark white silhouettes against this blue makes we want to leave it like this for awhile. I'm sure by next Mondays class I'll be ready to add some more layers. You'll notice the waves of the canvas. It's a large piece of raw canvas(unstretched) that I tried to smooth out, but they kept coming back. We're going to have to come up with a cool way to hang this once it's installed. I'm thinking weights and pulleys. If you have any ideas, let me know.

If you're around on Mother's Day weekend, stop by the Pannikin. I'll have a table set up under the big trees for their annual Mother's Day Celebration. I've been invited to be there both Saturday and Sunday. Hope to see you then. Karin

Sunday Show and Tell

Here's a little update on yesterdays class. Since it was crunch time for all my students to get their paintings completed for their upcoming show, I decided to set everything out the night before. These are the times when it's okay to be a little OCD. I even posted stickies on each project so that they new exactly what they needed to work and which colors to mix. They all worked so hard and can't wait to go visit their paintings at the Pannikin.
The second class finished up their special mothers day paintings. Super cute owl families modeled after my needle felted owls. Last but not least, Caroline finished her first class painting of the gray nat catcher. The only thing left to do is make the picture tags for each one.
I'll make sure to post a picture of their show. If you're in the area, make sure you check it out at the Encinitas Pannikin on the student art wall. Enjoy, Karin

Getting Ready for Summer

After the three days of super hot weather, Art and I were inspired to get the garden ready for this years veggies. We usually start the grand process of weeding the week before Easter and it takes several weeks to get the yard back into shape. Here are some shots of our progress. As fast as the hot weather came, it left, bringing a winter chill again. Can't wait to spend some time in these hammocks again this summer sipping fruity cocktails with my sisters. Oh, that's my little girl Blue with the big smile. So proud to finally be a dog for a day. My dogs have been acting like indoor cats all winter. Have a great weekend everyone, I'll be back on Sunday. Karin

I Just Got a Fresh Batch of Fabric in!

I'm loving how pretty the colors turned out. I've listed a few new styles in my shop and have some other designs mulling around in my head. Designing fabric can be very addicting and Spoonflower is such a great fabric printing company to work with. I recommend hiring Dannielle (their color tech girl) to re-work the colors so they are calibrated to their printer. That is unless your computer savvy which I'm definitely not.

I'm thinking of making an apron or something- mixing all my chickadee fabrics. I haven't decided yet and I don't want to mess up, so it's pretty much stalled the whole project.
And speaking of birds, I'm posting a link sent to me by a fellow etsian and bird lover. She's asked everyone at Etsy to post it in any of their bird related product descriptions to help save a lot of birds from becoming extinct. So if you love birds please sign this petition
http://audubonaction.org/campaign/birdsandclimate

Elephant Sample Painting

I was a little nervous thinking about painting my five foot elephant so I decided to do a smaller 16x20 inch first. It won't be exactly like this, but similar. I still have a little left to do on this one, but I had to step back and take a break.
Today was also my first "open studio" day which I plan on doing once a month. It's a fun day for artist friends to get together (no instruction) and work on our own projects. We all had a great time. This one was very impromptu, but I hope to be more organized for the next one. Karin

I've been stalked

I woke up today to find out that the Etsy Stalker has found me. They featured my "Tehani" print in their lotus article. Check them out here.

Bunny Baby

I just finished this baby bunny painting I started around Easter. I will try to have it listed in my shop by tomorrow or maybe wednesday. Seems like this week is flying by too fast already.
Tonight was my Monday art class with Carol and Francesca. We finally started sketching on our elephants to the raw canvas. This picture might be a bit hard to make out since it's just a pencil sketch. I tried to take a shot of the whole 8 foot canvas, but you wouldn't be able to see anything, so I took a close-up of my elephants head. I'll take some more as it progresses. Clicking on the image will give you a better picture. Enjoy, Karin

My Kids Art Class

My little students are busy preparing for their first real show next month. Here are some of their paintings. They just have one more to finish before May 1st. Hopefully they'll have them done in time. Andrew (6 years old) has just finished his John Deere tractor painting for his little brothers birthday. His brother Colin is in love with tractors.

Dream big- why not?

I was going through some interviews I did last year when I came across this one from Modish. I actually said I'd like a bigger studio. Back then I had no idea it would have happened at all and so quickly! I really loved my old studio, but it was too small to paint in and had poor lighting. Now it's my office/sewing/jewelry making room.
So keep in mind, it's good to throw it out there and dream big, because it will make the wheels turn a whole lot faster. Let's see, what else do I want? A new kitchen would be fabulous.

For more details on my newest studio remodel you can check out this post. Enjoy, Karin

Quote for the day....Plus some more paintings!

My friend Erica sent me this quote:

There comes a point in your life when you realize:
Who matters,
Who never did,
Who won't anymore...
And who always will..
So, don't worry about people from your past, there's a reason why they didn't make it to your future..

Ain't that the truth!

Here are a few more paintings I got back from a recent show. They looked so cute hanging together in a cluster. Enjoy, and have a great weekend everybody. Karin

Tehani

Here is a painting that was in my last show and I just listed some prints of it in my shop. It is 30x40 inches if I remember correctly. I normally don't sell my larger paintings in my Etsy shop because I usually need them for shows- or I love them too much- or they are really hard to determine an accurate shipping amount because of their size. If you are interested in one of my originals, feel free to contact me for a price or see if they are for sale. Otherwise I'll try to have a print available at all times in my shop.

Slow Motion Tuesday

Was it just me or did today feel kind of funky? I had plenty that needed to get done, but was only able to do the minimum. I did manage to wrap some canvas prints in a few sizes, not sure which one to list in my shop yet. I still need to paint the sides of them a pretty mango color. I also did a custom candle order for a baby shower. She asked for a sea glass blue and I think they came out beautifully. The scent is called Bahama Mama or Blue Hawaii depending on what color I make it. I normally make these in the summer months and blend coconut, mango, pineapple and lemon. So juicy!

"Four Seasons" prints are now in

Just wanted to let you all know that I just listed a fresh batch of prints (including all the the four seasons), felted birdies and some jewelry in my Etsy Shop.