SKA Gallery

I was asked a few weeks ago to be a guest writer on a my friend Sheila Arora's blog. My task was to give my personal interpretation of one of her abstract paintings. I'm quite fond of her paintings (as you can see below) and love to write, so it was a no brainer. Please take a moment to check out my perspective of her painting.

http://skarora.com/what-you-see-part-1/

School Spirit Days - Star Shirt

"Super Star Day"

 

 

Nothing better than a homemade delightfully obnoxious shirt for the first day of Spirit Week. I picked up a cheap cotton white shirt at Target and spray dyes from Joann's. The star stencils were created from poster board. And then I just went crazy with the spray dye, spraying both the positive and negative stars. The only problem I had was with a few of the spray nozzles not spraying evenly, at all. But, all in all, it was a fun to make and fun to wear on this billionth day of gloomy winter weather.

Tomorrow is "Career Day." I have threatened to dress like a ballerina. But, will keep it simple with being a painter, that shouldn't be a stretch.

Intuitive Bird Painting

 

 

The Story of a Flower

This painting began last spring when a few friends and I decided to go to the local produce auction. The auction is held in the little Mennonite Community about 10 miles north of our little town. This was my first experience at such an auction and should probably be my last, but only spring will tell. Needless to say, it was an overwhelming rush of vegetable and floral beauty. All of the sudden, we were bidding on things really not understanding the bottom line. Did I mention... I'm not a mathematician? Side deals were being formed for butterfly bushes and black cherry tomato plants. Trading trees for rose bushes and an attempt to acquire all the perennials in the place. When the auction was over, we were sitting on the sidewalk trying to figure out how we are going to pay for all this since they don't take debit cards. And wondering how we are going to get all this home. We filled up three truck loads packed full of plants.
The flower in the painting now lives outside my chicken coop. When the flower dies and dries on the stem you are left we these beautiful pods that have these fine curls at the end. They are just as beautiful dried, as they were thriving.

Underpainting to add depth

 

almost finished

 

In the Classroom...

It's "Wellness Week" at school, so we created a healthy foods still life. Students created the fruits using oil pastels. Then, they blended the colors of the fruits using baby oil and q-tips. Kids love this part!!! Lastly, they painted the table and background with watercolors. This is a super fun project with a big visual impact. One of these days, I'm going to try an entire project with the oil pastels, baby oil and q-tips.

Relaxation Painting...

Long Monday...
this is what unwinding looks like for me.

 

 

Quick Sketch

Do you ever feel like you have to squeeze in some creativity time? No matter how long you work or what the end result looks like, you just need to spread some color onto some paper. Well, that's where I'm at tonight. For Christmas, my parents bought me some crayons. Not just any crayons, Neocolor11 watersoluble wax pastels. They are like a combination between crayons and oil pastels, that when mixed with water turn into watercolors. They are SWEET!! But I don't have any experience with them. So, I thought I would doodle with them for few. Here's my 15 minute sketch.