Fetching Fun: January 2016

January 22, 2016

Vino

Who does not love red wine?!

No friend of mine!

Here is another fun one for the Food Series I've been having a good time with over the last few months.

Made primarily with gouache and red wine concentrates, this is a fun one for any oenophile!

"Vino"
2016
Gouache, Red Wine Concentrates
18x24

If you get close enough you can smell it...but please don't lick.

Enjoy 'Vino,' and the other paintings from my Food Series at Five Corner's Cafe all winter!

Strawberry Fields Forever

The best way to get back into drawing and painting after a hiatus, in my opinion, is to do a quick contour drawing.

I used to have so much fun doing these simple technique building activities with my

Drawing students of all levels;

the trick is to not look at your paper when you are drawing something (look at the object)...and to take it a step further, make one continuous line by not picking up your drawing tool.

Try it!

Here, I did peak at the paper for composition sake,

and then used simple gouache paint and fine tip markers for pops of color.

Can you follow the line in each section?!

Wouldn't this look pretty in a little girl's room!?

January 21, 2016

50!

50 seems like such a big number.
But then you meet Todd and that number diminishes.

Cheers to the youngest 50 year old I know!

What do you get your man when this big number rolls around?!
I wanted to make it big...something special...so for the 50 days leading up to his birthday Elias and I gave him one gift per day.
It was fun!
Some days were bigger (tickets to NYC/Peter Lugers), and some were smaller (toothpaste), some were personal (hand painted canvas from Elias), and some were silly ("It took me 50 years to look this good" t-shirt); but overall it seemed to be a hit.
You knew it went over well when you heard his guy friends telling their wives to do it for them!
Maybe I'll get 40 to 40 this summer?!
Hint, hint...

Since he didn't want a big party, I tried to pay attention to the small details...and I know from experience that cocktail napkins and matches do not go out of style in this household...

Seriously, the cake of all cakes.
Two layers of dark chocolate cake with peanut butter chips, two layers of "zebra" cake (Elias' addition), alternated and glued together with peanut butter cream cheese frosting.
The chips hide the imperfections...
With only one cake pan to my name, this took a LOT longer than one would assume...
labors of love...