Bloghop Winner!!!!

Thank you to all who posted on my first ever blog hop with ColourArte.  It was a true joy to read all of your comments.
I do hope to see all of you in the future and hope you have subscribed to my youtube channel, so I can share future art tutorials and art events withg you.

CLICK HERE to subscribe to  my YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC84lipWz8oYs3pCUpfK3w8A

Be sure to check all the blogs...there's a winner on each blog!

And the winner for the Altered Shoe Bloghop on my blog is. . .  

Suman Pandit
Congratulations, Suman!

Complete list of winners and instructions for claiming your prizes can be found here:
http://www.colourarte.com/blog/?p=3715

From Canvas to Frame

by Linda Ann Smith

Take a canvas from a "bad art day" and turn it into....

. . . a 3-Dimensional Picture Frame!

See how this frame was created. . .

. . . with Radiant Gels Dimensional Paints . . .

and Primary Elements Artist Pigments!

  To view the tutorial:                                         Go to http://www.colourarte.com/blog/?p=3323

You will find a video tutorial there also!  

Cinderella goes Cowgirl! Altered Shoe Blog Hop

 

The first bloghop from the first ever ColourArte Design Team!!!!!  You won't want to miss a thing! 

Read the fairytale below

and

don't miss the video !!! (link here and below)

Once Upon A Time. . .       

Cinderella longed to go to the Prince's Rodeo, but her boots were a disaster!   This was a job for her Fairy Paintmother . . . . (who just happened to have a magical brush and a fresh stock of  ColourArte Silks Acrylic Glazes!) 

 The Fairy Paintmother waved her magic  brush over the boots and said the magic  words: "Perfect Paints!"  

   and PRESTO! 

     SHIMMERING BOOTS!     

Cinderella galloped away on her mare and found her two ugly stepsisters at the rodeo fighting over some silly pair of glass slippers. The Prince was bucked off the bull, but recovered just in time to return the boot that Cinderella lost during her Barrel Racing Event.  He proclaimed that from that day forward Cinderella would be his Rodeo Queen!  The Fairy Paintmother rode her paint pony into the shimmery sunset!           

And they all lived happily ever after! 

Be sure to leave a comment on this blog so I can enter you in the ColourArte giveaway!  A prize on every blog on the hop!  Prize:   Each blog on the bloghop will choose one winner who will receive a $25 gift certificate to shop at ColourArte!  To win you MUST comment on this blog and on the ColourArte blog at ColourArte.com/blog.  You have until Aug. 6 to do this, but there is no time like now!!!  I will announce my winner on this blog on Aug. 7.

VIDEO:
Don't miss the end of the video! 
A photographer with a wicked sense of humor took these boots on a photo shoot.  

Oh, Baby!!! Let's all do the HOP!  

(The Altered Shoe HOP!)  

 Click here: An InLinkz Link-up for other ColourArte Designers in this hop!

Announcing . . .

Announcing...

I was charter member of ColourArte's very first design team . . . but my term  expires at the end of August.  Am I sad?  

Not at all! Now there is not only a ColourArte Design Team but also a brand spanking new 

ColourArte Video Creator Design Team !!! 

And now I am a charter member of that team!!!  

I'm so excited to be part of this new team!  I am as happy as a monkey with a new banana!!!

 

Click here to see all the members of ColourArte Design Team and ColourArt Video Creator Design Team!!!!

YOUTUBE Free Demo Videos

I created this post to list the videos I submitted for the recent artists' collaberation art show on youtube.  Here is the list.  I hope you will watch these and subscribe to my channel!

90th birthday celebration canvas


Paint stained paper towel collage - (part1)


Paint stained towel collage - portrait (part 2)

Birdhouse Follow-Up

Remember the Steampunk Birdhouse that I made to donate to Habitat for Humanity's Silent Auction?  Just as a reminder, here is my donation:

Time Flies Steampunk by Linda Ann Smitth

The auction was a very successful fundraiser.  I want to share the variety that artists submitted for this worthy cause.  So take a look!

Crocheted Birdhouse by Tonya Smith

Handmade Clay by Misty Hendrix

Longbranch Saloon by Jerry Carlson

Swirls by Tana Washington

Spread Your Wings with Copper Roof by Tonya Smith

Flower Power with button roof by JoAnn DeShong

Climbing Flowers by Paula Hefley

S E Eagle by Kim Foster

Copper Flowers by Josh Bell

Whimsical Cats by JoAnn DeShong

Woodland by Jeff Polaseh

OU by Mary Horsechief

Trailing Flowers by E J Berry

Sequoyah by Mary Horsechief

Wood Nips by Jerry Carlson

Flowery Night Light by Virginia Stroud

Greedy Birds by Cat Lamb

I did not capture the name of this artist but it is a beautiful woodburned  Native American style birdhouse with a hummingbird on front.

NOT your Everyday Birds! :-) A ColourArte Tutorial

It annoys me that people carelessly discard their garbage across our country.  I often reclaim abandoned car hoods, children's rusty bed headboards, old pieces of tires, broken glass, and anything I can remove from the environment that clutters our land to tote home. In my studio I bend, twist, glue, melt,  paint and manipulate the found objects into art pieces.  Studio A B See is always full of objects awaiting their transformation.  

The point is that it is a rare ocassion when  I buy something to alter.  This was an exception.  This book flew off the shelf, grabbed me, and begged me for a  new beginning!  I spent a whole $.25, a quarter of a dollar!, to free it from its dusty home in an antique shop.

Inside the book I found a familiar scene from my childhood . . . an abundance of blank space around text and a seriouos lack of color!

BEFORE

I have altered many pages from the book using ColourArte paints, including Twinkling H20's, Radiant Gels, Radiant Rains, and Silk Acrylic Glazes.  The unending shimmer of these paints is almost impossible to capture on camera, but in real life the pages below almost glow!

AFTER

There are many more BEFORE and AFTER pages of the book in the video below.  I hope you will view it and give it a thumbs up.  I would also like to invite you to subscribe to my youtube channel while  you are there!

BIRDS OF A FEATHER YOUTUBE VIDEO

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oYTg-AGvjWM?rel=0&amp;controls=0&amp;showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I post a projects at ColourArte.com/blog twice monthly, on the first and third Mondays of the Month.  See you there!!!

Visit ColourArte.com each day for new tutorials by other Design Team Members!

Also please note that ColourArte conducts a Scavenger Hunt twice monthly.  It's easy!  It's fun!  And you can win beautiful art products like the ones I used in this project.

Stretch Paint!; Minimize Inner Critic!

Not sure that I would call this a finished canvas but I enjoyed the journey and will return to it later to decide.  My main focus was to show how to stretch your paint dollar, but as an added reward I found myself quieting my inner critic!

See the video and details on the ColourArte link at the end of this post.

Above:  Real Feathers on Canvas Background

Below:  Canvas after Feathers were Misted with Radiant Gels and Removed.

If you watched my video about Fancy Paper Feathers on Youtube, you know that I misted real feathers with Radiant Gels on top of a canvas.  I rarely rinse a brush without brushing it across a canvas or paper to rid it of most of the paint. It just makes sense! I don't waste the paint.  I simultaneously create new backgrounds that I plan to use at a later date, and that is the case with this canvas that was created when I misted those feathers.   I also save the paper towels where I clean brushes or lift paint.  They make awesome additions for collage work.

See how I created this canvas at ColourArte.com/blog on a project that I titled Stretch Paint!; Minimize Inner Critic

Enchanted

ENCHANTED     Mixed Media on Canvas

A new box of goodies from the magical land of  ColourArte.com   appeared on my porch yesterday.
I think my Fairy Paint Mother delivered it!

 Most of you are probably aware that I am one of the very first members of the ColourArte design team.  (And very proud of that!)  :-)

Yesterday was my first experience with powdered pigments that I mix myself to make my paints.  Once I started, it was so difficult to quit.  You can mix Primary Elements with any water soluable liquid to turn it into a liquid paint form.  I played with water for a bit to make watercolors.

 Just so happens that I had some Mod Podge on my studio desk when these arrived.   So I spent the rest of the day, into the night experiementing with Primary Elements, Mod Podge, and water.  This composition "magically" appeared over an old canvas that I did not like and painted under.  I think I will keep it now!

As I painted I kept thinking, I should take some photos as I go, but I could not break myself from its mystic spell long enough to do so.

Needless to say, Primary Elements will become one of my staples in the studio, and I haven't even touched the surface of what they can do.

Oh my goodness.....I LOVE these pigments...so shimmery, and I can control the intensity!

NATIVE SKULL

This is a skull that I painted for a Keetoowah Cherokee Native American veteran.  The gentleman is one of several who serves as an honor guard for the Keetoowah Nation.  

I used mostly the colors from the Keetoowah flag. And I misted it with Radiant Gel Shimmering Mists from ColourArte.com.  Really added a nice little kick to the painting, though that never photographs well.  Wish you could see how much spark the Radiant Gel Pearl Mist  gave this skull.

Feather Flames Watercolor for ColourArte

Here is my next project for  ColourArte.com/blog that will post on Monday, May 4, 2015.  It is called FEATHER FLAMES.  You will find a tutorial video there explaining how I drew and painted this watercolor.  I try to keep my tutorials short and to the point, so click on it and watch.  If you have any questions email me at studioabsee@yahoo.com

I had so much fun with Twinkling H2O's  from ColourArte.com that I immediately placed another order so I can have more of these lovely shimmering watercolors.  One thing I like about them is that they are activated with water about 5 minutes before you use them, thus they are travel friendly!  No spills in the car!  That is an incredible PLUS for me.  I like to have easy access to my materials whether I am going across country or to a sporting event. Twinkling H2O's (sometimes referred to as "Twinks") are easy to carry, and I can choose my color scheme before I leave home eliminating extra bulk of unnecessary supplies.  LOVE 'EM!

Updating Vintage Children's Books Tutorial

 Here is a vintage book that I used to test Twinkling H2O's 

The page below is printed with only two colors, green plus a black outline.  Typical of the times, there are only three colors (green and turquoise, with black outlines) in the entire book.

 I'm going to jazz it up with a makeover!

Painted the photo and margins with Twinkling H2O's with crisp edges on the bird, but using a wet into wet technique on background

Wo-ha-li (Eagle)

"Wo-ha-li" (eagle) was rendered first in India ink and then painted with Twinkling H2O's from ColourArte.  I was saving it for a future post, nearer Independance Day, but am posting the eagle today because I just learned that four bald eagle nests in our area were destroyed by the tornado in Sand Springs, OK last Wednesday, March 25, 2015.

 Bald eagles are migratory birds, and Oklahoma is an important wintering place for the species.  It is reported that since the tornado eagle parents are circling River Park with piercing calls, looking for their nests and 7 chicks that were killed.  They will not find their young this year, but next year they will be able to renest in the same area.  

In the 1700's the bald eagle was chosen as the United States national symbol representing, strength, freedom, clear vision, and determination.  But it's history of importance in America dates much earlier than the 1700's.  Many Native American tribes consider eagles to be religiously symbolic, carrying prayers to God.  

I did not realize the full impact of the eagle's symbolic meaning amongst Native American culture until I stumbled upon its importance at a Keetoowah Cherokee event.  An eagle feather was accidentally dropped to the ground.  The people gathered around the feather and prayed.  The feather is considered a sacred symbol and it could not be retrieved without this cleansing ceremony.

We see these honored and protected birds often in this area.  I recently missed a prime Kodak moment when I was driving from Tulsa to Muskogee.  I noted an eagle hovering and diving almost in front of the cars ahead of me.  I thought he was ill or injured because his movements were so erratic.  But as I came nearer, slowing down because I was afraid he would fall on the road ahead of me, the eagle suddenly dived down in front of my car, swooped up a small animal from the bypass and soared away with his tasty treat. These are the best areas to view eagles in Oklahoma, (and I frequent them in the winter time just for that purpose!) :

• Lake Eufaula
• Fort Gibson Reservoir
• Grand Lake (Twin Bridges State Park)
• Great Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge
• Kaw Lake
• Robert S. Kerr Lake (Sequoyah NWR)
• Keystone Lake
• Wister Lake

CLICK HERE TO VIEW LIVE CAM OF EAGLE NESTS IN OKLAHOMA

Here are also some feather paintings rendered in flat acrylics and embellished with Radiant Rain Shimmering Mists