Mini Monday - Bedroom Door

Although I worked on the livingroom ceiling this weekend, I don't have a photo yet, so I thought I'd show you the bedroom door. This is another door that did not come with the kit, so I built it from a piece of basswood. I decorated it with narrow moulding, a panel of "wall paper", and a scroll that I made out of clay. Then I painted the door white and added the merest brush of gold on the edgings. The doorknob is a crystal one that I bought.
I looked at various wallpapers for the bedroom walls, but in the end, I painted the lower half of the walls in a soft ivory and made my own hand drawn wall paper and border. It took a fair bit of concentration to keep the pattern even in image, color, and scale, but that was half the fun!

RESPECT

This little Sheltie pup is about to learn a short, sharp lesson in respect for the cat, taught By the cat! (No animal was injured during this incident . . .one indignant look and a short hiss did the trick.)
I'm sometimes astonished by the lack of respect we artists get from the public. I was contacted out of the blue, by an organization in a bid to get me to donate to an "important fundraiser". It was something I might have considered, but the person asking, did not use my name in the request, (I was just a generic artist) and they did not know what kind of art I create. The real kicker was that the "important Fundraiser", with all the promised promotion attached, was less than TWO WEEKS AWAY! When I replied that it was too short notice, I was repeatedly asked if I would send something for the other "important fundraisers" that the organization was putting on at a rate of about one a month. Well, no, I don't think so. I'm not sending something to an event that is a glorified Grab Table! I saw this episode as an example of the lack of respect some people have for artists.
How do we overcome this attitude? Maybe just by being professional in all our dealings, and making sure that we treat everyone, including ourselves, with politeness and the golden rule. And among ourselves, let's rememer to be kind to each other - basic support, good manners, and knowing when to bite our tongue. Life's short, let's make it pleasant.
The painting I've used to illustrate this post, is called Temptation" and it is an 8 x 10 Colored Pencil painting.

Mini Monday plus a day - Guest Room

I've missed the last 2 Monday's . . . life gets like that sometimes. Today I'll catch up by showing you both sides of the Guest Room. I wanted it to be a peaceful, soft green, but I found out early on that paint does not go on the walls well, even after a base coat of gesso. So now I always line the walls with watercolour paper before I paint. I wanted one wall to be wallpaper, and I decided it would be fun to make my own. I did a background acryilc wash in a warm cream, and then did the stripes and floral columns in shades of greens with colored pencil. I made the door and trim and painted them (and all other trim in the room) a pale almond to keep the room soft and restful. The door knob is a craft pearl painted gold, and the hinges are tiny brass ones that nearly made me crazy trying to put them on. The floor is done with narrow craft sticks, painted in acrylic washes to look like pine, and then glazed several times. Everything is a 1/12 scale of course.

While I was doing the leading on the window glass in this room (a diamond grid printed on clear acetate and then gone over with a fine tipped marker), I made a smudge. No problem, I'll just sponge it off, I thought. But the acetate started to melt just slightly, making the smudge even worse. The heavy acetate with the light one on top was already in the window frame, so I had a problem on my hands. To solve it, I got out my acrylic paint and painted a "stained glass" wisteria over the smudged area and took it beyond so it would look as if I had meant to do it in the first place. Of course I did!

Halloween's coming . . . SHELTIE VAMPIRE

Our boy Bram loves his costumes. This year, he is going to be a Vampire, with sparking "fangs" and an elegant cape. Just look at that face - he's having a marvelous time. This is the little guy who also loves his ghost costume. One of the many wonderful things about Shelties is their sense of fun. SHELTIE VAMPIRE is a 5 x 7 watercolour and would make a wonderful birthday card for someone who has a birthday in late October.

Mini Monday Kitchen 1

This will be a quick post today because it is a holiday Monday. This is one wall of the kitchen, another very necessary room, and the first one that I put a lot of work into. I already had my indoor plumbing, but it sat in an unfinished room for quite a while as I worked on the kitchen. What's life without a good cup of tea and maybe some tea biscuits?
This room is a wing that needs to be added to the main house, but that will be one of the last things I do. I wanted a sunny yellow kitchen, as I like my kitchens to be cheerful. The floor tile was made from peel and stick tiles from the DYI store, and I hand-painted a section of duck stencilling for around the top of the walls and printed it out as many times as needed. The stencilling around the door (that I made without any pattern, same as the other doors in the house) was painted directly onto the wall. The wainscotting was a mistake, as now the sink and counter won't fit snugly against the wall. May have to do something about that! But not today.