Merry Day #3....

 ~ Welcome to my ~

Merry Day #3!

Today we will learn PART of the rest of the story....

So I liked painting. My Granny painted. My Mom even painted:

"Rudolph" my 1st year in college..

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Then when I married Keith...I was lucky to have a sister in law who painted these gorgeous glass ornaments. . . THEY are among some of my favorite, most cherished ornaments. Sad to report she doesn't make these anymore (and I sure don't know why because they are gorgeous) but here are a few of the ones I have... (remember you can click on them to see better detail)

Then cross stitching and my online activities brought me legions of friends and fellow creators. I am so blessed to know each and every one! One of these friends is Joanie from New York. She is such a beautiful painter. Last year she sent me:

She also has a little retirement business where she creates pretties and sells them - if you'd like to know more about that - please email me (link by mailbox photo top right)

This sweet gent tipped me over the edge. How cute is this darling santa peeking at me? So freaking cute that when I received a generous Christmas gift from my mother in law....I decided that I would put it toward paint and a brush and learn how to paint finally. 

So on Dec. 19, 2020....

I went to Michaels and bought my first bottles of Americana acrylic paints. I went on YouTube and found a lady by the name of Sarah at My Serenity Crafts HERE 

Sarah does LOTS of crafts...and I am mostly interested in her painting tutorials/paint alongs/learn how to paint, videos. So I watched and I watched and I watched. And I made my first Santa ornament:

I thought I was just the cat's meow after I painted up a legion of these....and I'm sort of a little embarrassed about it now, but I made several of these and sent them as gifts (ha ha ha!) to some of my friends. Oh they are NOT that well done. But I thought they were.

Anyway, I was on my path to teaching myself to paint. Thanks to Sarah - thank you Sarah! 

And I became obsessed.... like most things I do. I did lots of Pinterest searches and photo hunts and exploration and I'm pretty much tuned in to three different artists who works I love. I collected acrylic paints.....and you haven't lived until you tried to collect paint and paint brushes during a pandemic - there was a worldwide shortage and DecoArt based in Kentucky went to a less than 10 person, one 8 hour shift operation to close to 50 person 24 hour production! (now I may have the numbers wrong on that, but it was a small company only running one shift to running three shifts and hiring lots of people!) Painting has enjoyed a renaissance, much like cross stitching has in recent years.

See painting designers are essentially the same as cross stitch designers. They make the patterns, put them out, you buy them and then reproduce them. They give you close ups of their work and you essentially mimic their models as much or as little as you want. But you ALWAYS attribute back to them, just like we ALWAYS attribute back to the designer in cross stitch. 

Here's my top three painting designers:

1. Renee Mullins of Plum Purdy HERE 

2. Tracy Moreau of Tracy Moreau Designs HERE

3. Lynne Andrews of Lynne Andrews Folkart HERE

Each one of these talented ladies has something that dings my bell. Renee has "plum purdy" designs, sweet, country-ish, cutsey, seasonal designs. I'm a seasonal decorator inside and outside my home. She has THE best designs for doing that. I love her style, I love the colors she uses. I pretty much love everything about her (that I know of her of course) I buy A LOT from her, I bet she knows me too! LOL!

Tracy Moreau, Canadian - love her accent! She is generous with her time and gives FREE TUTORIALS of painting on her YouTube Channel - check her out. She's one of those read the pulse of the trending things types. I love her style, wish I could be better at creating her style. She's a natural. When you watch her videos she makes you think you can just whip your brush around and there you go perfect. Of course I have come to realize that is FAR from the truth. 

Lastly Lynne Andrews...oh let me count the way I love Lynne Andrews....She's primitive, folkart-ish, obviously religious and I love, love, LOVE that! She does it for me, Lynne does.

I've told you a lot about my newish obsession and there is more to this story to tell....but I will tell it another day. 

Let me leave you with my second ever painted piece I did:

Snowman from Plum Purdy ~ Renee Mullins

this one is OK, I did rather good on my floating (a technique for shading) but the scarf is supposed to look like there are two parts to it and I failed there...the wispy of the evergreen boughs on his head - not so wispy - and I still struggle with that technique...but you know it's a process, learning. 

Here is my 3rd painted piece:

Santa Claus from Plum Purdy ~ Renee Mullins

now this one...THIS one I finally thought: well I CAN DO THIS! I am going to say this myself. This guy...is FANTASTIC!

I was afraid about doing his glasses and I nailed them. The hat cuff was difficult - nailed that and I was rather pleased with my floating and wispies of the hair and eyelashes. I was pretty chuffed about this one. This one gave me the self confidence that I COULD be a painter.

Tomorrow we will see the next step of my painting obsession (and we will have some cross stitch to look at too...thank you for indulging me and my hobbies of all kinds)

Merry Day #3!

Merry Christmas!

All my love, 

Vonna xxxx