DIY Gift Tags and Last Minute Gifts

Suppose you are invited to someone's holiday party and forgot to shop for a gift for them. My mother's words come back to haunt me at this point. Mom shouts down from heaven, "Never go to someone's house empty handed." Sometimes I also hear her advise, "Take a sweater", but that  advice doesn't apply to bringing hostess gifts.

Here are my directions on how to find gifts around your house and how to make gift tags for them: 

Supplies you need for gift tags: a manila file folder, hole punch, scissors, piece of twine, ribbon or string, a pencil and earaser and a thin tipped felt pen ( colored pens are optional). 

Cut the manila folder into rectangles the size of a standard business card. Snip off the two top corners at angles. Punch a hole near the top in the middle of the card. Draw elipses (squashed circles) with a light pencil line to get the shapes for the bottom and shoulders of the bottles. Draw over your outlines and write your message with a thin tip felt pen.  Color with colored pencils if you want.  Thread a ribbon or twine through the hole and attach the gift card to your gift. 

Cutting and drawing your gift tags

Another design using elipses and how to attach the ribbon loop

Look around your home for items you can assemble into quicky gifts. Do you have an extra of a favorite pen or an old cream pitcher whose sugar jar mate has disappeared? Imagine the possibilities.

The pen and pencil were gifts I received and was quite happy to get. Every artist I know loves to receive art supplies

Don't go overboard finding imaginative gifts and wrapping around your home. I think Mom once advised me to use stay within the limits of good taste.

Happy Holidays to All! And best wishes for happy art making and good health in 2015! 

Some might find these gifts and wrapping questionable

Finding A Balance Between Sleeping Beagles and Painting

It's a chilly winter night in Upper San Diego. I am seated in a cozy corner of my family room between 2 warm, dozing beagles (top picture above). 

I don't want to disturb the beagles by getting up but I need to go into my studio because I want to paint.

Instead I have decided to stay sandwiched in between the 2 warm beagles and edit pictures from France on my phone for painting tomorrow. 

I guess I have found balance.

Little Shop of Watercolor

Do you know that I have a shop? Its sort of like the one in the photo below, except its not in Italy and I don't sell fresh fruit.  

You can find this shop in Castelina en Chianti in Tuscany

My shop is on etsy.com. If you want to stop by my shop and browse or window shop, just go to etsy.com and in the search box at the top of the page type in AnywhereArtShoppe and you will be wisked to my shop page.  My shop is open 24/7 and I am always in the shop to wait on you.  I have plans to add more to my shop very soon.  I am thinking about selling art kits, sketchbooks and bags to take your art supplies anywhere, in addition to my paintings. What would you like to see in my shop?

I painted this yesterday afternoon when the rain was falling in San Diego.

Careers for Artists Riddle

What do these items have in common?

Question: What does an eraser, a sketchbook drawing, a shoe shine kit and photographs have in common?

Answer: all of the items are tools used in careers, vocations and jobs that involve applying paint. 

Career Advice: if you enjoy applying paint as much as I do, you might want to research careers that involve paint and some form of applying it: manicurist, house painter, sign painter, hair colorist, shoe shiner, furniture refinisher and art teacher are some I can think of. 

I Wrote Articles for Pages Winter 2015 Magazine

I was quite excited to see the new issue of PAGES magazine because it is a wonderful magazine full of ideas for making books and art journaling. I was also excited because the Winter 2014 contains two articles that I wrote.  It was very nice to see my ideas about painting and journaling in print.

I wrote about making color choices for your art journal pages and about how to set up a cozy corner for art journaling in your house, so you can get more journaling done.  I sent some of my journals to Boston and the designers there took photographs of them and published them with my articles. I also took some photos in my house to show my actual journaling corners and they are in the magazine also.  So are the beagles, Sox and Ollie, who just happened to be in the cozy corners when I was taking the pictures. 

If you want to see the magazine, I believe you can find it in the magazine section of Barnes and Noble or you can find it online at http://www.interweavestore.com/cloth-paper-scissors-pages-winter-2015-grouped?source=igodigital 

Let me know what you think. 

Painting Fog in Watercolor From the Inside Out

We have gotten some much needed rain here in San Diego the last few days. The usually sunny view out my family room window has been much grayer.

I have been experimenting with painting cool grey skies outside in the distance and warm interiors in the middle and foreground of my paintings. 

The results are in the above photo. With my newly organized painting supplies at my fingertips I am able to paint more often. I have to admit that sometimes I don't return my art supplies to the studio and we have eaten some meals with the paints on the table, but there have been no complaints...

Test Run for the Organized Office/Art Studio

It's Sunday afternoon. The sun is shining on my patio. I look out through the back windows and think, "It's beautiful out there today. Look how the light is shining on our roses. If I were an artist I would paint that scene."

Ok, so I am an artist and I have been working on organizing my studio so I can find my materials when inspiration strikes.  Apparently, it is striking right now. 1,2,3, go. Where is my sketchbook? On the shelf, lined up with the other moleskine sketchbooks.  Can I easily find it? I find it quickly. Now, I look around for my pre-assembled box of art/painting stuff, amazingly I find on top of my desk. According to what I am reading in the engineering textbook, all my watercolor journaling tools should be stored together. Now if look in the basket under the desk for my paints, they are way in the bottom of my basket. I locate them after a few moments of searching and take everything into the other room with the view of the roses. 

I sit down to paint the view. No pencil is to be found. I have just flunked my first run of organized painting. Oh well, I grab a pencil, sketch the scene loosely and paint for an hour or two. It is quickly apparent that my painting isn't perfect, but I am happy. My intention is to paint regularly ,explore more new ideas, and improve my techniques. In today's painting I wanted to work on having a range of dark, light and medium tones in my painted images and I wanted to concentrate on contour drawing. I have done both. A good time was had by all.

Organizing/Engineering For Better Painting

What do watercolor painting and engineering have in common?

Top left, finished painting done with organized brushes.

They have a lot in common, I am discovering. My husband is an industrial engineer by training. He learned in his college courses how to make manufactoring and other business' more efficient.

Every now and then I ask him questions about how I can improve my painting using engineering ideas. 

I am fed up with the time it takes to search through my office and car for my favorite brush when  I want to be painting. Plus this year, I started teaching 4 classes a week in 4 different locations, so I must be able to find my art supplies, put together lessons, and arrive on the correct day at the correct time in a relatively presentable outfit.

I now am motivated to look at how I can improve my organizational skills.  I am looking at everything that goes into my teaching and travel painting tours to see how and what I can do to create an efficient life so I don't sink into a vortex of papers, pens, brushes and triple appointments scheduled on the same day.

This morning I sorted out the tangle of brushes I had in my brush holder. I put the duplicate brushes somewhere else and only put the brushes I usually paint with into a sophisticated and very expensive DIY brush rack. You can see my brush rack in two views on the bottom row of the picture above. My husband tells me organizing your tools is an engineering concept, so I am reading his textbook, pictured above top right, to learn more engineering secrets I can share with you to make our painting easier for us.

Watercolor Marker Bargain and Paris Gray Chalk Paint

Warning!

Do not stop by my 

AnywhereArt Studio in San Diego unless you want to be painted Paris Gray. 

Left to right: My Winsor Newton Marker shopping list, my newly painted hutch in Paris Gray and the culprit, Annie Sloan chalk paint.

It's Monday and I am on a painting binge. Almost everything is being repainted to create a uniform calm environment in my art studio/office. I am covered in Paris Gray chalk paint, which you can paint on almost everything, without sanding!

i am also trying to decide who on my shopping list besides me, needs Winsor Newton watercolor markers. I might just order my 6 most important colors for myself or more, but who knows when they will be on sale again at Jerrysartarama? $3.59 a piece! Normally, they sell for $5.99.  Jerrys just emailed me a coupon code GIVETHANKS. It gives you a dicount and free shipping but read the fine print because it may not cover sale items.....

Winsor Newton Watercolor Marker Road Test

Today I decided to take my new watercolor marker out for a spin.

It wrote like a charm. It has two points you know, a marker tip and a brush tip. After you draw you just brush water on your marker line and push around the puddles of water combined with the ink.

I added some cobalt blue paint so the burnt umber marker would have a friend. I always like the combination of blue and brown together.

i ordered this marker from Cheapjoes.com when he offered free shipping. I used willpower when ordering and only bought one color. I wanted to try it out and see how I liked this new marker before I invested in too many colors.  

This marker does a great job and I definately think it will be better for traveling then my watercolor pencils because I think its more versatile. 

Now I have to decide what additional colors I "need". What colors would you buy? 

Watercolor and Words Star

This is Edie Jordan. She is a student in the new class I am teaching at Escondido Adult School. The class is called Watercolor and Words and we are working with all kinds of ways to add words to our paintings.

Edie has painted some very good paintings. I like her work very much.

Edie's paintings

Edie does homework, has a wonderful attitude and never throws crayons at me. I am going to give her an A++ .

Chalk Paint and Table Setting

Yesterday I decided to repaint my kitchen table. I painted it with 3 different colors of chalk paint. Then Inspiration struck.

In an earlier post, I posted a table setting chart that I thought my family should memorize so they could set the table correctly.  

I drew the diagram on the table top with a marker after the chalk paint dried.  

Please don't think I spelled bon wrong, I was trying to be funny since we have 3 dogs who like bones.

Art and Change

I read this quote this morning in an L. A. Times article about a violin teacher in Beverly Hills teaching a student via Skype in Erbil, Iraq.

"Art never stopped a war...art cannot change events. But it can change people."

Leonard Bernstein

Here is a small art lesson for you. I set up this still life last Thursday for my art class. It had a lemon instead of the squash but the lemon got used for last night's chicken dinner.

Here is the drawing I did. You can trace it, copy it or toss it.

I started the painting by drawing with watercolor colored pencils, then added more colors with my watercolor paints.

Change is my new focus. I am trying to change some of my habits and attitudes that seem to be getting in my way. Autumn always seems like a good time for new changes.  

Useful Guide to the lost ART of Table Setting

Thanksgiving will be here before we know it. I am a child of the 1950's who had a very proper mother.  One of my chores was to set the table.  I believe table setting is a lost ART.  No one in my family will set our table correctly, nor will they listen to me when I try to instruct them. Maybe some of them will read my blog and study this diagram. 

Did you notice how many glasses of wine you get in this diagram?  That alone might motivate me to set the table according to this diagram. 

You Can Paint Anywhere

Sunday, I experienced an artistic dilema. I wanted to spend some "quality" time with my husband and I wanted to finish a painting I had started early in the week.

The solution to my artist's dilema was to grab my painting and my trusty bag filled with important painting supplies and ride along with my husband while he completed his errand. I have to admit, he offered to buy me lunch if I came along. 

The car made a pretty good painting studio. My water bottle fit in the space for drinks between the two front seats and so did my artist tissue. I balanced my palette on one knee and my sketchbook on the other. I held one paintbrush in my right hand and stuck my other paintbrush behind my ear. 

View the results: 

Finished painting

If you like the finished painting and would like to have it for your very own, you can purchase it in my new Etsy shop, AnywhereArt Shoppe which opens today at Etsey. Com

Home Again and How to Integrate French Culture into Your Life

I feel like I zoomed home in some kind of Harry Potter contraption and landed in San Diego in a matter of minutes after leaving France. In spite of all the anxiety about flights being canceled due to the Air France pilot strike (which I believe is settled for the time being), my flight home was smooth and easy. My new travel method is to book a flight home from France, on Delta's first flight out on a Tuesday morning.  There was no traffic at 5 am on the Paris streets and almost no one at the airport and best of all no lines to wait in at the airline counters, security and passport control.  The food stands were open and I was able to get one last French pastry and cup of espresso for breakfast. The only negative was that the designer duty free shops did not open until 7 am but I actually think that was a positive because it saved me an impulse last euro purchase and I don't wear designer stuff anyways unless it comes from a thrift shop.

Integrating what you learn in France to your home life is always rewarding and challenging.  My family has agreed to letting me feed them my omelette and quiche cooking experiments inspired by the delicious egg dishes I ate in France.  However, they are  refusing to speak French so I can continue to practice and improve my French language skills. My table will be set with new French tableware and place mats.  The family will probably not even notice that.  My husband will be wearing the clothing I purchased in Paris for him but it looks remarkably like the clothing you can buy in the U.S. because if  I had brought him back a French tailored sport jacket I doubt he would have worn it anywhere. I will wear the tops and dress I bought in France around town and when I teach, hopeful that someone will notice my new French chic look or at least observe the fit and the subtle colors of the French garments. I hope they like my new lumberjack shirt as well. Maybe I can set a trend in San Diego.

As far as my artwork, my head is filled with new ideas from all of the museums I visited, paintings I did out of doors in France and new art supplies I purchased in France. I am especially enthusiastic about using gouache, which is opaque watercolor paint and adds vivid color to your watercolor paintings. 

As far as my teaching inspirations gained from this trip, I will continue to value my student's unique, personal style of painting and drawing and continue to guide and nurture their skills in the directions they want to go.  Seeing many diverse styles of painting  in French musuems, galleries and shops confirms my own conviction that there is not one correct way to paint or make art. 

Besides all of the above, I am also contemplating how to cultivate my own garden here, both literally and meta physically. More about that as soon as I figure out how to do this. Probably, buy some top soil, ask my gardener friends for tips, listen more and hope people have read to the end of this post and will comment and advise me.

Paris Photo Shoot

Terrie Ellsworth, our friend, artist, antique dealer and our arbitrateur of style, decided to do a photo shoot in the living room of our Paris apartment.  

Sarah Reid posed in her recently purchased coutier dress.

I was encouraged to join the photo shoot and posed in my new lumberjack look purchased in Paris.

How to Spend Your Last Day in Paris

Tomorrow is the last day of my vacation in Paris. I think I have an idea of how I want to spend it.

First thing in the morning I will hop on this tri wheel motorcycle,  

and drive around Paris liberating all the shoes and purses.

After that I might do some painting, visit a museum, eat one last omelette and try to fit everything into my suitcase.

The View From the Bakery

I painted a quick painting of the view from the window of my favorite Paris Bakery and cafe, Eric Kayser.

Speaking of baked goods, pictured below are my favorite desserts I have eaten in the last 3 weeks in France.  

On to Paris

In the photo above on the right: we are all posed with Sandrine, in the middle who is the owner of Les Jardins des Helene where we stayed.

 Then we took the train to Paris and we stopped in at our favorite bakery Eric Kayser for some tea and cookies. 

This is the living room of our apartment in Paris.