Latest Updates on Art Work
I participated in the Hyattsville Arts Festival on September 17,2022 in downtown Hyattsville Maryland.
It was a great event because I was able to share my gift of creativity and it was the type of art event I had always attended in the past for fun. It felt really cool to be on the other side of the tent selling my art to everyone.
One of my goals was to become more involved in the art community. I was among 100 local artist and vendors during the annual festival. This year was the first time the festival returned since the pandemic and there were over 5,000 attendees.
During the event I met a lot of new friends and my art found new homes. I’m looking forward to returning next year.
I’m excited to share I’m expanding my Functional Art items. For example I am now offering drink coasters as well as water bottles. To learn more check out this page.
In early March 2022 I took a fluid art class and it’s the most freeing style I’ve created with so far in my art exploration.
I love creating with the fluid acrylic paint. I’ve recently purchased pouring medium which will allow me to mix my own colors using paints I have in my studio. I originally bought “ready to pour” acrylic paints so I could start working on making new pieces without having to mix colors. I think I’m going to enjoy making various designs with even more color options.
My latest new projects will include creating fluid art designed custom earrings and other jewelry pieces.
My latest new paintings have been focused on using acrylic ink. I created several art using acrylic inks and water spray bottle to create various effects with water mist and an air blower. I’ve been enjoying experimenting with the new fluid art media.
Created “Light Shine Bright” painting on 2/10/2022 on 5.5x 8.5 mixed media sketchbook paper. I created this art using my catalyst wedges by Princeton brushes. I really just enjoyed adding repeating lines to the page using various bright colors. I’m learning to use my sketch book to practice different color schemes on a small scale.
Created “Praise Through The Storm” painting on 1/8/2022 on 9x 12 linen acrylic canvas paper. I’ve had fun for the last few weeks creating with my newest art tools; catalyst wedges by Princeton brushes.
I named this piece after one of my favorite Christian praise songs, “Praise You Through The Storm,” by Casting Crowns. Sometimes I create while playing music. I really liked the movement and the bold blues reminded me of a storm.
I created “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” landscape collage on 1/3/2022 on 9x 12 art board with scrapbook paper. I started off with an inspirational photo I found online and slightly modified it to work with the colors and layout I wanted.
Sometimes I have a hard time coming up with a “catchy” title but this time I kept focusing on the verse from my favorite hymn. “Great is Thy faithfulness, Morning by morning new mercies I see, All I have needed Thy hand hath provided, Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.”
Every day God gives new mercies. I am grateful for the gift He has given me to create art. It’s one of the most relaxing things to do for me. I enjoyed making this collage and hope to continue to find ways to improve the process.
My latest art piece “Undercurrents” sold a few days after I created it. I created the 12 x 12 abstract art on 12/7/21 with three different materials (water soluble wax pastels, markers and acrylic paint).
I really enjoyed making the “swirly” lines and the different color combination. I was happy to hear the buyer say she could see movement in the art. When I finished creating the art it remind me of waves or something dynamic happening under the calmness of the lighter colors in the top part of the piece.
The highlight of selling this piece was knowing that my abstract art style was going to be enjoyed in a new home and that the buyer encouraged me to reflect on God’s awesome gift of creativity through art.
“Not Just Black and White” was created on 11/12/21 on 9×12 art board paper. I took one of the lessons I recently learned in my “Sketch to Paint” art class. The lesson included using a photo or magazine page for inspiration. Since I’ve always loved zebras I created an abstract collage using three colors. I chose black, white and used different shades of blue as the accent color.
The hardest part I found was adding the white paper to the collage. I thought it would make the final art piece look more appealing if the black lines were surrounded by white scrapbook paper on the same eye level instead of just allowing the art board background of white to show through. This piece took a little longer than most of my previous collages because I took the time to first sketch the zebra pattern and then I slowly added in the scrapbook collage pieces.
“I Want To Get Away,” created on 10/11/21 on 9×12 watercolor paper. I used my newest art supply find – watercolor creams. I really like the watercolor creams since they create a rich color when you draw and add water to them. I’ve discovered it is fun to find a photo of a scene and try to recreate my own version of it when I am looking for inspiration. I also had fun adding water soluble pastels with the watercolor creams.
“Sending You Spinning” created on 9/20/21 on 12×16 art board paper. I used over 20 different styles of scrapbook paper. I took my time with this design. I started with a sketch and took two days to finish up the design.
“Lighting the Fuse created on 8/23/21 on 9×12 watercolor paper. I used two of my newest art tools – Caran D’Ache neocolor II and woody 3 in 1 stabilo water soluble wax-pastels.
I love basic shapes. Decided to revisit a painting idea, where I repeated circles and curved lines to make an art piece. My favorite part of this piece was experimenting with adding water to the pastels to make a watercolor type artwork. My husband helped me name the piece. I often ask for his help when I get stuck trying to determine the name after I’ve finished my art.
“Repeating Seasons” created on 8/18/21 on 9×12 watercolor paper. I found two new art tools – Caran D’Ache neocolor II and woody 3 in 1 stabilo water soluble wax- pastels. These were very fun to work with. These art tools are like crayons.
By adding water they give a watercolor appearance. I learned about these pastels in one of my recent online art classes where a fellow student was using the woody three in one wax crayon that reacts very differently when you add water.
While searching for this new art supply I decided to also try a water soluble wax pastel that had really high customer reviews. Very happy with this new purchase that was delivered this week. For this art piece I decided to add repeating patterns by adding various colored curved lines with markers.
“Inner Refraction” created on 8/9/21 on 9×12 watercolor paper. I learned you can water down acrylic paints to have similar behavior like watercolors.
I really like the pigment more in acrylic paint than watercolors. I called this piece “Inner Refraction” because of how the colors were added to bend and blend in different sections on the watercolor paper. I liked how easily the fluorescent acrylic colors blend with the other acrylic paints I used. Every day I try to apply something I’ve learned from my classes.
I created this art piece “On The Horizon” on 8/8/21 on 9×12 canvas paper. I enjoyed trying to blend the colors more a new technique I learned in class. The regular photo doesn’t really pick up the colors as much, but this piece sparkles under the light with the metallic acrylic paint I used.
Designing with Painters Tape is fun. I love hard edge paintings and geographic shapes. I started this painting during the 10th anniversary celebration at Art Works Now. I tried to rush through the design, but the instructor reminded me I could always continue more at home.
Using painters tape allows you to make straight lines. I also was inspired by the work of artist Odili Donald Odita, who I learned more about during the paint and sip. I enjoyed going back to the art piece and finalized “What Are You Thinking” on 8/2/21.
Enjoyed creating this landscape based on a photo I found. Created “Peaceful Reflections”on 16×20 canvas paper on 8/2/21. It took four weeks to get all the elements included.
My instructor reminded me how important it is to take my time with the details and how it makes a huge difference with the final results. I tend to rush to finish an art piece as I love the feeling of completing a task. I definitely want to try more landscape designs in the future.
Created these two collages on 6/10/21 and 6/3/21 on a 8 x 10 art board with scrapbook paper. I enjoyed making these two collages during my adult collage art class.
One of the exercises was to create peaceful feeling in a design (“Calm Through the Storm”) and the other exercise was to focus on a tropical peaceful place (“Gratitude in Green”).
I liked making use of the ripped paper in one of the designs focusing mostly on the things that make me feel peace (e.g. beach, ocean scenes, the sky and sun).
For the “Gratitude in Green” I tried to focus on one major color scheme of green with some small highlights in blue and other complimentary colors.
Created this collage on 6/1/21 on a 8 x 10 art board with scrapbook paper. I decided to call it “Under Their Wings” to reflect angel wings. I originally started the art piece with a sketch of the pattern.
I love curved lines in my art work and have tried this wing-like shape effect with acrylic paintings and thought it would be fun to try the same type of shape in a collage. I decided to use four main colors in this design (orange, purple, pink and blue) with highlights of gold.
Created this painting on 5/23/21 on a 9 x 10 canvas paper with acrylic metallic paint and metallic pens. I’m experimenting with painting more with layers and learning more about painting with different style brushes to achieve the same marks I can make with a pen using a specific brush.
I love a passage in the Bible in 2 Kings 4:8-37. My favorite part is how the woman uses positive words – “It Is Well” – so I named this art after that statement. I don’t often listen to music while I create (because sometimes I find it distracting) but this time I listened to praise and worship music while making this art piece.
Created this collage on 5/22/21 after seeing a color scheme during a women’s conference. I love seeing the purple, green, deep pink, black and teal colors together during an interview during the conference and wanted to capture it in a design.
The women’s conference was about becoming closer with God so I wanted to name my art piece what I had learned about having a daily “Renewal” through reading the bible and being intentional about making time to be close with Him.
Created this collage on 5/20/21 based on an idea introduced in my collage art class to use text to create a design. I alternated with text on a white background with black text and a black background with white text.
I added the color from an older practice page I did with blending acrylic metallic paint colors. The actual text in the art piece is from the May issue of an Essence Magazine.
Part of the collage has an article about “Black Wall Street remembered” and as a nod to the picture I saw in the article of a couple that owned a black theatre called Dreamland I decided to name my art piece after their theatre.
Created this collage for my friend Jamila Logan’s new Navah Physical Therapy business on 5/4/21. I tried to capture the colors in the top left of her business logo.
My goal was to make something that showed movement and growth. I enjoyed making this 8 X 10 collage. It is framed and currently in the lobby.
This collage was created on 5/1/21 based on a landscape design I found in a photo online.
My goal was to mimic the color scheme from the photo and try to capture the bold contrasting colors with the mountains and the sunset. I decided to call it “Be Still” based on the scripture reminder to Be Still and know that He is God (Psalms 46:10 AMP).
This collage was created on 4/29/21 from my art class assignment to create a project with a radial design.
The project started with a black circle in the center with the blue lines which I continued to build upon with additional contrasting colors in the design.
The first thing a lot of people see when they view the art is a Kaleidoscope – I originally thought it would be neat to call it “Outburst.”
I asked my husband what I should do if I had two different ideas for a name, and he suggested that I combine the two ideas for a title for the art into something fun “KaleidoBurst”.
This collage was created on 4/24/21 with an idea I had to repeat a circular pattern. I love creating collages with new scrapbook paper (ink art or gilded ink) for my designs. It has been neat finding new scrapbook paper in my favorite craft stores.
This piece was created based on a collage art assignment on 4/8/21. I enjoyed creating this second version as a custom request. I really liked the champagne background against the colorful cutouts from scrapbook paper to create the final design.
This piece was created during my Spring collage class assignment on 4/8/21. The assignment was focused on capturing different size variations of flowers for an interesting layout. This was my second time making a floral collage as a collage class assignment.
I was able to use the earlier art (“Floral Horizon”) as a guide on how to cut out the shapes for the flowers in this art work. I love using various ink scrapbook paper to make collages.
Created this collage using a silhouette image of Superman. I added the waist belt and boots to address his costume instead of leaving the design in all black like the original print out. Made this piece for my Superman (aka Jeff).
To see more of my past art work, check out my Art work categorized by Month
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