Sometimes the story behind a painting is almost as enjoyable as the painting itself!  This is the story that begins with an idea and my love of the ocean...

About four years ago, I purchased a large 36x24 canvas that I planned to hang over our guest room bed in Florida.  While changing to new bedding in the guest room, I was suddenly inspired to get the painting done once and for all!  It also helped that my husband was back in NY and I had entire days to be creative...a true "me time" opportunity!

Over a year ago, I sketched an idea about what I wanted to see in this painting...and that's as far as it went.  Here's my rendering:

Enter the arrival of my Wayfair quilt that totally transformed the look of the guest room and that's when the call to paint started.  I dug out my sketch book and studied my design.  You may not know this, but there is a medium out there that when applied to canvas, will created a surface suitable for watercolor!  The name of the product is QPR Cold Press Ground and it's super easy to apply.

 Once the medium was dry, I drew my design on the canvas with a pencil.  ​Adding the sky and ocean set the mood of the painting for me.  When that was dry, I decided to add a little sun because, after all, we always refer to Florida as "sunny Florida" right?  I immediately began to doubt my decision once I began painting in the yellow but later realized I'd be painting objects in front of the sun that would break up the streaks of yellow.  Next came the sandy beach and painting around my objects.  ​

It was finally time to paint details and I started with the palm trees, since I love painting them!  The pilings and birds were next and I was happy how they turned out.  The Ponce Inlet Lighthouse got painted and this was another object I've painted previously and had a good comfort level for. The tall grasses pretty much completed that entire section of the painting.

The next section to paint was the momma and her toddler making a sand castle.  This is where my heart was guiding me as it is a future depiction of my daughter in-law, Kris, and their second child (currently in the planning stages!).  Or, it could be present-day and my grandson, Liam, is now walking!  It is a fluid story for sure!  I decided to tackle the sail boat and that was also an image I've painted previously with success.

It was time to tackle the two people fishing!  The future story is the dad is my son, Will, and the child is my grandson, Liam.  Or, it could be a present-day depiction of Kris's nephew, Ethan fishing with Will.  Either way the story will fit the scene!  I decided to add the sand pipers, a bird I absolutely love to paint!  They are fascinating to watch hopping around on the beach.  A beach umbrella and beach chair took care of that corner.

My husband asked if I could add dolphins and a turtle at the very end and I'm so happy for his input.  You can see them in the finished painting at the beginning.  This painting took me about 7 days to complete as I only worked for 2-3 hours at a time on it.

I hope you enjoyed The Telling of a Painting story!

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO

LYN

I'm posting today because I am absolutely gaga over Cyanotype printmaking!  If you've never heard of it, it is taken from the work "cyan" for it's dark blue tones and is commonly referred to as a Prussian Blue color. It was the same color as used in blueprints until around 1950.  Cyanotype was invented in 1842 by a British astronomer and chemist, John Frederick William Herschel. To say the least, it is a very old process.

I've been following Cyanotype printmaking for awhile and when my friend, Kathy Greenia was here visiting, we played with pre-inked papers I had purchased through Amazon.  Going on a nature walk and picking leaves, flowers, and twigs that we thought would be fun to use was a highlight of this activity!  Waiting for the photosynthesis process to take place was magical!

Fast forward to yesterday when I took a class from a Cyanotype artist, Judy Pickett at The Hub on Canal Street here in New Smyrna Beach! I learned so much about this technique!  Once you know the gist of the process, it's really a matter of playing and experimenting with lots of different organic materials and papers.  We used rice paper, mala paper and watercolor papers.  I purchased the Jaquard Cyanotype Powder solution as it has a longer shelf life to use when I return to NY.  The instructor used a liquid solution such as Photographers' Formulary Liquid Cyanotype Printing Solution.

I'm excited to share this intriguing technique and my hope is that you give this a try yourself.  If you'd like more information, search YouTube and Pinterest.

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO

LYN

Today was about the pure enjoyment of simple pleasures.  A walk along the river always enriches me.  Taking photos of whatever caught my eye along the way was amazing.  Not only did I get in a little exercise, I gathered several reference photos for my sketching practice, and I decided to post on my blog about it.

I miss writing and sharing my creative journey that the E-News gave me.  However, I also love my blog and I can share just as well from here! 

Until next time, I have some dried up leaves to sketch!

XOXO

LYN

Yesterday I made this card to give away and I love it so much, I want to make more of this style.  The technique is super easy with The Misti, Distress Oxides, a water spritzer, regular cardstock, and the direct-to-rubber inking technique.

In case you aren't familiar with this inking technique, arrange the leaf stamps onto the lid of The Misti to line up with the cardstock.  Pick up one of the Distress Oxide inks and randomly swipe onto the leaf images (without over thinking!).  Note:  Distress Inks can also be used for this technique.  Next, pick up a second ink color and swipe over the stamps.  It won't matter if you swipe over the first ink.  Finally, pick up the third ink and fill in any remaining areas.  Lightly spritz the stamps with water (I emphasize lightly because regular cardstock reacts poorly to too much water.)  You can always go back and re-ink areas and re-spritz.  If I were to critique this card, I can see the long leaf in the lower right corner got too much water as the detail is washed out, but that didn't bother me.  Let completely dry before the next step.

The magic is to accent the stamped images with a bit of gold paint diluted slightly with water and a round brush.  A splatter of gold paint with the same round brush hit against a dowel fills in the stark white areas nicely!  After making sure the gold paint is dry, a simple sentiment finishes the card.

If I didn't give this one away, I'd place it in a wood frame and add it to my fall décor, which is why I'll create more of these to keep and give away!

Products Used:
Paper:  Hammermill Color, Copy, Cover
Ink:  Ranger Distress Oxides:  Crackling Campfire, Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade
Sentiment:  Concord & 9th - Mushroom
Stamps:  Stampendous:  Summer Leaves, Sentiment:  Amuse Studio
Paint:  Peerless Gold Transparent Watercolor


Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO

LYN

I was inspired to paint this for my son's office.  No matter what kind of day he's having, gazing at this will invoke a calmness that only the ocean can provide!  All that's needed is background ocean sounds!

Recently, I fell upon a Pinterest pin about hammering flowers.  It is a technique I'm familiar with but never took the time to explore.  I decided to try my hand at it!

My son and daughter in-law gave me a beautiful begonia plant for Mother's Day and its gorgeous brilliant red flowers was a perfect choice for this "experiment!"

To my surprise, my brilliant red flowers turned a greyish purple blob when pounded!  The flowers were quite wet and pulpy when I was finished pounding, and I literally needed to allow the paper to dry before proceeding.  The leaf was just an outline but was a nice green color.  I was surprised I didn't get more detail, but since I was totally experimenting, I kept going.

I love doodling and turning blobs into a meaningful visual picture, however, I felt this particular project was a different kind of challenge for me.  I kept at it and "walked away" when the negative voice in my head got too loud!  ​I actually pounded a second leaf to better fill in the space during the doodling process. 

The piece was nearly finished and rather than add splatters as I often do with watercolor, I literally pounded additional flowers directly onto wax paper and pressed the wax paper over the piece to allow any wet areas to randomly add color!  (Refer to the original pounding above to see the difference.)

Another artist I follow (stalk) is Catherine Cote (CreationsbyCeeCee) for her amazing watercolor and doodle talents.  She is also one to add gold paint and white gel pen to many of her pieces, which I promptly did as well!  ​I actually pounded a second leaf to better fill in the space during the doodling process.

The finished piece is only 5x5 but I took it to my favorite framer (Hobby Lobby in Liverpool) and am thrilled with the frame and matting.  The hard part is waiting for it to be ready!

Hope you give this project a try, especially if you're looking for a new creative challenge!


Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO

LYN

 It has been way too long since I've responded to challenges!  The current Card Concept Challenge intrigued me as I made several Christmas cards this year and to choose a favorite one was actually a challenge in itself!  Here are two favorites that couldn't be more different!

The Adirondack card began with stamping the Buffalo plaid image (Inkblotshop.com) on red cardstock and a Moose diecut (Penny Black).  Along with my Hugs and Wildflowers Stamp Set (Gina K) for the cross section of a cut tree.  Living most of the year in Central New York state really provides me the environment to create this card even though I was in Florida when I made it!

​
Finally, here's a photo of my

tree and front window that is

my favorite place to read.
























​

​Thanks for stopping by!
​
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year!

XOXO

LYN

​This week, I'm showing you how easy it is to create lots of cards with one triangle shape!  I've purposely kept the cardstock base white and didn't add any additional background embellishments.  We loose time fussing and this E-News is all about producing!

DIRECTIONS:
Cutting a triangle Christmas tree begins with a rectangle.  I cut rectangles in various sizes, but for this explanation, I'm using the dimensions of 1-1/2" x 3-1/2. 

Find the center of the short side (eyeball it) and cut from the center point down to the bottom corner.  Repeat for the other side starting at the center point.  Voila!  You have a perfect triangle tree shape!

Before I started cutting triangle trees, I had an idea in mind to use the following papers/materials:
Felt, Glitter Paper, Paint Chips, Background Scraps, Small Pattern Papers, Embossing Folders, Scrap Ribbon, Washi Tape

Have fun making simple Christmas tree cards!  I'd love to see your tree cards!  If you're just making a few cards, it would be fun to go all out with embellishments!

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO

LYN

In my last E-News #346 I posted a fall background card using Distress Oxides.  I thought it would be useful to show my process of making this (literally) 5-minute card.  Running out of time has definitely served me well in discovering this fun technique.

To begin, I chose 2 Distress Oxide colors from my stash and pressed them onto my glass mat as shown.  

Generously spritz the inks.

Using regular cardstock, quickly swipe the top half of the card across both inks and repeat going in the other direction.  Dab the card front into the remaining ink for added blots, but don't fuss too much.  Let dry.

Repeat the process for the bottom half of the card using 2 different inks.

The background will look something like this.  The magic is that each time this background is created, different results will be achieved.

Stamp the bare trees twice to achieve the design across the entire width.  I used Tim Holtz Tonic Studios stamp positioner.  The Misti will work also.  Rather than black ink, I chose VersaFine Smokey Grey.  A sentiment was added in the same ink color.  Final step was to splatter in gold acrylic paint that is slightly watered down.  I like to hit the loaded brush against a dowel or larger paintbrush.

Here's the first card I created using the same inks.

This technique will work for a snowy scene as well and I can't wait to play with winter colors!

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO

LYN

​I subscribed to a new artist on YouTube this week!  Lynne Bauer of Dragonfly Spirit Studio.  She creates simple Postcard Paint-Alongs.  I happened to have Strathmore postcards just sitting in my drawer, so I was happy to watch her video and create my own little paintings.  She shares really useful information as she paints along beginning with a dime!  I think you'll be pleasantly pleased to give her video a look, especially for my friends who are new to watercolor!

This was my first of 7 postcard paintings.  The techniques I really love are painting a water ring around the sun and creating sparkly waves reflecting off the sun with a credit card!  I added birds just to fill in the space.  Notice where the horizon line is on this one compared to the others!  Had to go back and refer to the video several times.

​I basically worked with the same color pallet using Daniel Smith watercolor.  I just chose color in different orders and mixed them differently as I went along.  I found it interesting that the artist doesn't recommend using black paint for the foreground images, but I'm happy with the results.

​I love the bloom around the sun on this one.  The heron was hand drawn on a scrap paper first, scribbled on the reverse side with a graphite pencil covering the entire bird, and then placed onto the postcard.  I traced the bird with a blending stump, 'cuz I couldn't find a dried up pen.

​​Same bird image and graphite pencil technique.  I love how each postcard is a little different!

​Had to veer away from the video and go out on my own with a palm tree.  This bloom is amazing around the sun too!

​Tall grasses are so easy to create and fills in the corner nicely.

​Had to try different color combinations for the last postcard.  There is no limit to the colors you can use for this project!  I loved creating these little painting so much, I hope to move into making 5x7 cards using the same techniques!

​I sure hope I've inspired you to give this a try!  Like Lynne says continually in her video, "it's a postcard!" and meant to be quick and fun.


Have a pleasant week!

XOXO

LYN