Collage is one of my favorite mixed media techniques to use when making these fun spring roosters. Using fun spring colors and various materials make their strutting attitude pop and grab your interest.
Creating these fun fancy spring roosters does take a lot of time and layers of materials, but they are well worth it and one of my best sellers at art sales and shows. Some of the materials used are hymn book pages, colored scrapbook acid-free paper scraps, or any other interesting torn paper and dried acrylic paint that I peal up off of a palette. This is my favorite thing to use for the feathers because the torn dried paint lends itself perfectly to that shape and it is never just one color. The pieces are assembled and glued to the canvas using Matte Modge Podge.
Meet some of my mixed media rooster stars.
Top Left: Clarence Top Center: Daisy Top Right Farah
Gladiolas are one of my favorite flowers. They have always seemed very brave flowers to me and I like that their name has the word glad in it because that’s how I felt when I finished this painting. This one was done with oil paint and a palette knife with very quick strokes and thick paint. Since none of these are blooming where I live now, I thought this was a perfect time to post it. Enjoy!
Gladiolas, October 2021, Oil on Canvas with palette knife, 15″ x 30 ” $200.00
This one is available for sale should you need some gladiolas in your home before Spring. More paintings for sale can be found here.
A Beautiful Star is what lead the shepherds to come and see, Jesus, born in a manger. It had to be astounding, glorious, unlike anything they had ever seen. I don’t know if it looked anything like this, but printing this star felt like Christmas splashing onto a canvas. This painting won Best in Show at the Premiere Gallery Local Artists Show, Flower Mound, TX November 15, 2008. You are invited to come and see it at my upcoming Art Show.
Vintage Wares and Original Art Collective Saturday Market! December 4th,2021Beautiful Star Acrylic on Canvas 24×48
You can come and see this one in person at our upcoming Vintage Wares and Original Art show December 4th, 2021. 1021 Bolivar in Denton between 8AM to 5PM. There will be handmade items, Christmas items, knitting, quilts, crochet, vintage accessories and furniture, original art, fresh roasted coffee and pecans.
Come and See!
So just like the shepherds followed the original beautiful star in Luke 2:8-20 to the treasure of Jesus, God in flesh, born in a manger to dwell amongst us, I am inviting you to follow this start as well. Come and see us at our next Vintage Wares and Original Art show! We can’t wait to meet you. 1021 Bolivar St. Denton TX 8AM to 5PM December 4th, 2021.
Mixed Media Butterflies bursting with delightful color and texture are all over my art studio right now. Mixed media in visual art means that more than one medium was used to create the piece of artwork. These butterflies are part collage, ink, india ink, and acrylic paint. As I painted them, I thought about the scales that cover their wings and wanted to reflect that in the art. These were created with layers of ink and diluted acrylic paint building on top of each other. I named them Become, Transform, and Metamorphos.
Become 20″x20″ $200.00 Transform 20″x20″ $200.00 Metamorphose 20″x20″ $200.00
Butterfly Inspiration
I have had a very special connection with butterflies lately. They seem to find me and when they do, they minister to my soul. They remind me that change is possible and it can be good. When I see one fluttering nearby, I rejoice because it is doing exactly what it was made to do. They don’t really fly actually if you watch them…they flutter. I prefer calling them ” butterflutters ” for that reason. I think they like it which may be why they seem to be so attentive to me.
Butterfly Invitation
Whatever you call them, they are just lovely and they inspired these three mixed media butterfly paintings which will be gathered together soon at my upcoming Original Art and Vintage Wares Collective November 5th, 6th, 19th and 20th from 8AM to 4PM to be held at 1021 Bolivar in Denton. I hope you flutter by and see me! For a sneak peak of art for the sale, go to the art for sale page.
Multi Media Butterflies
P.S. Have you ever heard of multimedia art? In this type of art, the artist would combine visual art (these beautiful butterfly pieces) with non-visual elements, such as music or sound, performed dance or drama or literature. So I did. The video below showing the process of how they were created is multimedia. Enjoy!
Multi Media Butterflies, Become, Transform, Metamorphos!Hope to see you soon !
Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?
A CoWorker commissioned these two paintings of bluebirds from her home country because they reminded her of her mother who also loved them. I was thrilled to paint them. Another sweet bird painting is here.
Blue Birds for a friend. Sold, Oil on Canvas, 12 x 12″ each
Birds remind me of God as provider and sustainer. They seem to understand that fact so much better than we do, don’t they? Matthew 6:26-34 tells us not to worry because the same God who cares for them, cares for us. Look at them… Learn from them… They have something to tell us.
This message is a great reminder that God made, we are able to rest in the life He gave us without worry, without angst, and in complete rest and peace. This is something CoVid taught me was sorely missing in my life and now that we are as back to normal as possible, I’m not so sure I want to return to the same previous level of commitments and work.
The world we live in is full of fear and reasons to be anxious. Can we do this friends? Can we rest in the hands of the One who created the world and loves us? And can we do it the whole while singing as they do? I want to try. These paintings are my song to the One who knows my every need before I ask.
The Woman At the Well narrative is one of my favorites. It inspired this piece done with oil and a palette knife. It is on my business cards and my blog header and screensaver on my computer because it reminds me that I was once just like this woman in need of living water.
Woman and the Well, Oil on Canvas with Palette Knife, 24″ x 36″
I love celebrating the life I have been given so this is a precious theme to me. There is another piece in this same theme named, “Healed and Restored” on the Art for Sale page that is the same size.
In this painting, the figure of Jesus is the tallest red figure with arms of living water, symbolizing that He was destined to shed his blood to cover our sin and give us new life. The woman is bowed and dropping her water jug. One of the swirling arms of living water is lifting her head illustrating that He not only covered her sin, but redeemed her from her shame. The Chosen produced a beautiful scene of the Woman at the Well encounter that is extremely powerful if you have not seen it. It is not a spoiler for the rest of the series and very well done.
I’ll never sell this painting. I painted it for me. However, I’m sharing it as a phone or desktop wallpaper with my blog subscribers. If you don’t know how to subscribe, just reply and message me and I can get the wallpaper to you, but subscribing gets it to you automatically. Enjoy!
A friend asked me for an oil painting of a single tree, with a thick, sturdy trunk, in a wide-open green space where heaven and earth overlap by a swimming stream where the water endlessly refreshes and the shade is safe. Her request inspired me to incorporate the ideas of strength, freedom, refreshment, and safety into the painting. It invited me to also consider that when we have these things in our lives, we are greatly blessed. The opposite also is true, that when we don’t have them, we are in great need. The process of painting this tree provoked me to reflect on how what she described and what this painting represents is actually what all humans long for.
“The principle of true art is not to portray, but to evoke”
Jerzy Kosinski
Strength… “A single tree with a solid, thick sturdy trunk…”
The trunk is the strongest part of a tree supporting the full weight of all the branches, fruit, and leaves. It has a tough outer covering of bark which protects the tree from harm. I think about some of the strongest people I know. They are not easily blown about by trouble and are able to bear the weight of life. They have an inner resolve that is something other than this world. They are not without fear, but are not overcome by it and are willing to stand in the midst of whatever it brings and continue growing.
Jill’s Tree, Oil with a Palette Knife on canvas, 30″ x 30″ “A single tree with a solid, thick sturdy trunk, Freedom… “in a wide-open green space where heaven and earth overlap, by a swimming stream where the water endlessly refreshes and the shade is safe.”
For a video showing the progression of this painting, see the bottom of the Sold Artwork page.
Freedom… “in a wide open green space where heaven and earth overlap…”
There is something beautiful about painting a tree with all the space and freedom it needs to grow. Its leaves reach out soaking in the sun and the roots are not crowded; able to move through the earth unhindered. Even though this tree is rooted in one place, it is actually free, because it is doing what it was meant to do and has everything it needs to continue flourishing is here. It’s the same with people really. We need to be able to breathe in our relationships, have space to grow, and feel grounded to enjoy the freedom to do what we were meant to do.
Refreshment… “by a swimming stream where the water endlessly refreshes…”
The tree and all life on earth for that matter is completely dependent on water. The blue stream spreading across the horizon in the painting reminds me that water is life-giving and ensures the survival of the tree. I happen to live in an area of the world where I have never spent a day or even an hour longing for water and not being able to have that need met. It is sobering to consider that is not the case all over the world. There is a ministry I support in Africa called Amazima and this article is a beautiful story of how their students brought refreshment to a woman who lived a 1-hour walk away from her nearest water source. It drives home the gift of water that endlessly refreshes, inspires hope, and sobers me with thanksgiving.
Saftey… “and the shade is safe.”
Sometimes we sense danger in shadows, but this tree creates shade that is safe. The shade here brings relief from the intense exposure to the heat of the sun. This shade is a place to linger and enjoy. We all long for places of safety as well. My heartfelt prayer for the orphans, the widows, the oppressed, and every human is that they would become strong, find freedom, be refreshed and rest in a shade that is safe.
Hope and prayer were the inspiration for this sweet collage.
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.”
Emily Dickinson, American poet
Collage featuring, birds brightened with india-ink and polka dot wings, set against the snow covered ground of music from The Lord’s prayer and the night sky. Click here for more about how to create a Hymnbook collage.
“It is said that the darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn.”
Thomas Fuller, English churchman, Author, Historian
A woman I barely knew, and I, started meeting at 5:30 AM to pray in the room above her garage. My life from that moment on would never be the same. At the time there were very deep needs in our families and things did indeed feel very dark to me.
“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.”
Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
We were raying for answers for family members and other concerns. Six months later, a house on the same street came for sale by the owner and we miraculously got it. This enabled my dad to live with us during his last years of life. It moved us 1 mile from our church and 8 houses down from my new friend who prayed. The lives of people we were praying for started changing and miracles were happening, but the most startling thing that happened was the change inside me. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall came and went for 4 years and we kept meeting at 5:30 AM and all the while, my own heart was changing and softening and opening to knowing God in a way I never knew possible. I learned to let go of what I wanted and wished for and to trust that if God didn’t want me to have those things, whatever He did have was better. For me, learning to pray, was not about singing the right notes, but it was about learning love the song God wrote for me more than the song I was writing on my own. It was about loving God more than I loved the idea of any of my prayers being answered.
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”
Desmond Tutu, South African Anglican cleric and theologian
I could not possibly list all the answers to prayer we saw come about, but I can tell you that we serve a God who hears the prayers of His children. He is our hope and he makes beautiful things in us when we hope in Him and pray. Through life and death situations and heart conditions, in spite of us and our failures and flawed prayers, God faithfully heard and answered. Lives changed. Losses came followed by blessings. Hard hearts became soft. Many of the answers came in unexpected ways and some of those have been the sweetest.
One of the sweetest gifts through that entire season of morning prayer was the faithfulness of that precious praying saint who taught me to pray and was a friend to me when I was convinced I didn’t need one. Turns out, I did and I’m so grateful.
Five Loaves and Two Fish and the miracle of the feeding of 5,000 is a powerful narrative. After a day of healing and ministering to large numbers of people in a desolate place, Jesus performs a miracle with a young boy’s lunch of five loaves and two fish. I’ve painted this scene many times and every time I do it, it is a bit different.
Five Loaves and Two Fish, Oil on canvas with palette knife, 48″ x 36″
My favorite verse out of the Matthew 14:13-21 passage is verse 20 “They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.” I love what is revealed about the character of God and how it challenges us to stretch our faith to believe that God truly desires to and does provide abundantly. There were leftovers!
If this story is new or unfamiliar to you, I encourage you to read it on your own and expose your heart to this narrative. One way my family has absolutely loved engaging with this story is by watching The Chosen. The producer/writer of this show Dallas Jenkins has his own loaves to fishes story as well and it is pretty incredible. Enjoy!
Whenever in life I have chosen not to lean on my own understanding, God abundantly provides. Through moves, changes, losses, sacrifices, when all seemed impossible, there has always been more than enough for every need when I trusted Him. This painting is a visual reminder that I truly cannot out-give God and He is an abundant provider.
What is so hard about graphite pencils… well, graphite. Drawing pencils are made with graphite of varying degrees of hardness and blackness. A better question would be, ” What do the labels on the pencils indicate?” The letters and numbers range in order from 9H, 8H, 7H, 6H, 5H, 4H, 3H, 2H, H, F, HB, B, 2B, 3B, 4B, 5B, 6B, 7B, 8B, 9B, and 9xxB.
The H pencils were used for shading the back of this elephant where the light is and the darker more splashy lines and shadows were done with an 8 B pencil.
The “H” on the left side of the range, indicates the hardness of the pencil. The harder the pencil, the higher the number before the H and the finer and lighter the lines are going to be. Harder pencils leave lighter marks because less of the graphite material is left on the paper. These are good for light lines. If used lightly, these marks can be completely lifted off later with a kneadable eraser.
The “B pencils” on the right side of the range indicate the blackness of the marks made with that pencil. These pencils are softer because more of the graphite material is left on the paper leaving a darker mark. They are good for shading in a large or very dark area and a kneadable eraser will lift off most of the graphite but not all leaving a shadow behind.
“HB” is right in the middle. Most sets you find from arts and craft stores give you a range from 2H to 6B, but you can also buy pencils individually. Some sets do include an 8B and oh, how I love the dreamy rich black color from an 8B pencil. A range of several different pencils is best so you have the best tool for the job at hand.
In the sketch above, I used HB to draw my image, 2B for light lines and light shading and 8B for the darkest part of the pencil lead, and the 8B. You can see that the 8B pencil leaves a mark almost as dark as the black ink on my shopping list.
It takes a lot of time to do a sketch like this and learning can feel frustrating. My encouragement is to not give up. Your kneaded eraser is your friend.
“With every mistake, we must surely be learning.”
George Harrison
Making mistakes does not make you a bad artist, but making them and letting that stop you from continuing does. It is the same in life really. We will all face trials and hard circumstances. If a beginning artist knows there is a reward to pushing through the struggle of learning to draw well, should not we also accept that we will struggle in life? We need to be willing to continue through the growing pains of learning and struggling in life and we have encouragement to do so in James 1:2-4, friends. So my hope and prayers are with you. If you ever read one of my posts and have questions about my faith or would like to be prayed for about something, please reply.
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