The Patrick Project

oil on canvas 8 x 10

Better late than never, right! This week I'm late posting because we were out of town last week. We got the opportunity to go with Brian on a TDY to Charleston. It was a nice excuse to go visit my Mom. We had a great time. I was able to frame a couple of my paintings at my Mom's frame shop. Okay get ready for shameless promotion. My Mom has a terrific frame shop, Imperial Framing in Summerville, South Carolina. She does amazing work and only with the highest quality materials. You can check her out on Facebook, so take a minute and visit and become a fan. Also I thought I would share that the big box stores that do framing send their work out to get it framed and then it is sent back to the individual store. I wouldn't want my original works being mailed back and forth. So support your local frame shops!!!

This week I am starting a gift for Baby Patrick. Ryan, Julie and Rylie are welcoming a baby boy into their family in June, so I wanted to paint them something for their nursery. I decided to paint 6 "still lives" of stuffed animals for the nursery using their color palette. So I'm starting with this cute little puppy. Not only will the paintings be part of the present but the actual stuffed animal will go along with it. This also happened to be my first oil painting. I like it and I don't. I'm used to things drying faster, so that is frustrating, but on the flip-side I can work with it longer. I think this was a good painting to start with.


watercolor 5 x 5

Here is Steven's painting this week. I like his use of color. He was smart and painted several paintings before we left. I think he gets his time management from his Daddy.

See you next week,

Carrie

Sotterley Gardens

Sotterley Gardens 16" x 20" watercolor Copyrighted Carrie Waller 2010

I have completed my painting! Yay! I'm posting a little early because I will be out of pocket for a few days. This painting is of Sotterley Plantation's Gardens. Sotterley Plantation is in Maryland and has a lot of importance for our good friends the Marce's. I was fortunate enough to visit during the summer of 2005. The Marce's invited me along on their family trip while Brian was in Iraq. It was great to go with them because I had heard so much about Sotterley. Melleive's Grandmother was a caretaker of the plantation. Melleive spent her childhood on the grounds of this beautiful house. It was also the where Dave and Melleive got married. The house was gorgeous but I found the grounds to be just as impressive. I took a photograph of the gardens and from that picture comes this weeks painting.

Here is the link to their site if you would like to read more about the plantation http://www.sotterley.com/

I also completed our Master bath. I am so happy to be finished. It was difficult all the way through, from the wallpaper that didn't want to leave it walls to the swiss cheese walls that were an end result, to the patching and sanding, leaving a coat of dust everywhere, to the priming, taping of stripes and finally painting the last coat. I love the end result!! I was hoping that the horizontal stripes would help to make the bathroom a little more cohesive. It is a large bathroom but it is chopped up with a lot of walls. I think it looks great and I do not miss the wallpaper at all. I still LOATHE wallpaper!


bathroom before and after


So happy to be finished:)

Steven's painting this week in my opinion is terrific. I think that he is an artistic genius. He painted a fish jumping out of the water, so I'm calling this one "Fish out of Water". I love the colors, I love the fish, I just love it!!! I'm so proud of him! He's the best! I love my boys.


11 x 14 watercolor

Work in Progress

watercolor 16 x 20 In Progress

This week, obviously my painting is not complete. It is taking a very long time. It has a lot of details and I don't want to rush the process. So I will post the completed one when I am finished with it later this week. Since it is in progress I decided to show you the entire process from the beginning.



Steven did a lovely painting this week, which he told me was a very beautiful roller coaster. Very creative!!

A Vase of Sunshine

watercolor 16 x 20
This week was a struggle. These daffodils caused me some trouble. I saved these guys from a snow storm a week or so ago. I brought them in and put them in my favorite German crock. They were so pretty I decided to photograph them and then paint them. I had the hardest time figuring out my pallet. This is actually my second attempt. The first one I used a paint that was too opaque. So on try two I went with a much more transparent yellow. I'm glad they're finished:) They did turn out pretty sunny, so I guess I'm happy with them in the end.

Steven doesn't have a painting yet, he's a little under the weather. Hopefully tomorrow or sometime this week.

I am happy to report that Brian took a few days off this week and the wallpaper is down, Yay! We ended up renting a steamer, so worth the $20!! I have the walls patched and I will be priming them this week, in between taking care of sick babies.

We took advantage of the good weather and worked on the backyard also. We weeded the beds and Brian mulched and mowed. It's starting to shape up. I am also thrilled that two hydrangeas that we had in pots are actually starting to bud. Hopefully they will bloom this year. Spring is in the Air!!!

See everyone next Monday.

Carrie

Sunny Palms completed

watercolor 8 x 10


both paintings together watercolors 8 x 10

This week I have the second painting in my Sunny Palms series. I think that last weeks painting is more dynamic, but I do think that this one goes nicely with it. I'm going to do a few more botanical pieces since I'm on a roll. I'm excited about next weeks painting but I am having trouble getting motivated. My goofy master bathroom is looming in the back of my mind. The wallpaper removal is a tedious task. Those are some botanicals that I don't enjoy looking at. Oh well one inch at a time:(


mixed media 5 x 7ish

Steven did another painting this week. He has turned a corner and has gone from abstractly putting paint onto paper into trying to make a more realistic painting. I wasn't sure when that would happen. I love the innocence of children. They have no fears they just paint. They aren't worried about the outcome it's more about the process. I knew from teaching art classes that eventually their self consciousness starts coming through in their art. They become more worried about making a picture that looks like something and then eventually they become frustrated that they can't get it to look exactly like it and aware of others giving negative criticism. So when I was teaching I always had a policy that only constructive criticism was allowed. I do think that hearing what others have to say about your work is important but in a positive manner. So back to my point, I found it interesting that Steven is starting to do this at an early age. When I asked him about his painting this week his description took about 3 times longer to explain than I think it did for him to paint.(wonder where he gets that from) Steven says his painting is a tornado-inator (Inspired I believe from Phineas and Ferb his favorite cartoon--2 brothers constantly inventing and building things). So his tornado-inator sucks up all of the tornadoes in the tri-state area (Phineas and Ferb reference). There is also a lizard in his painting? He also discovered crayon resist all on his own--he's so smart:)

We'll see you next Monday!