Sweet Ella Bella

 Our sweet girl Ella Bella passed away last night, she was 10 years old.  I feel bad because she passed away at the vet's office and not at home.  She was one of my first "kids".  We got her right after we got married while living in Germany.  She was just as sweet as she could be and the only other female in our house.  It is a sad day at our house, I will have a Friday Feature back up next week.

Here she is helping me paint not to long ago!

Carrie

A Huge Painting Revelation and work in progress pictures

Hi Everyone,

work in progress, original watercolor on 260lb arches by Carrie Waller 6" x 8"

work in progress, original watercolor on 260lb arches by Carrie Waller 6" x 8"

work in progress, original watercolor on 260lb arches by Carrie Waller 6" x 8"

work in progress, original watercolor on 260lb arches by Carrie Waller 6" x 8"

I'm back to my ball jars.  I like my comfort zone.  I'm having so much fun painting this one I was up until 4 a.m. last night.  A little break was all I needed and now I'm back in full painting force. 

Also this week while painting I had a huge REVELATION.  And I mean huge, as in will change my painting life forever.  You see every night I have a helper, or should I say more of a distraction.  Ella!

Ella in action

My favorite water bucket

Ella likes to supervise/sit on my paintings and loves to sneak paint water.  Which I am aware is super bad for her.  So because of Ella I bought this water bucket from Cheap Joe's.  I love, love, love this bucket it has 2 sides for water, a palette and a lid.  I recently ran out of room on my other palettes so I've been using the lid.  So as I was cleaning up I put the lid on my bucket.  The paint on that lid was dry as a bone and to my pleasant surprise today it was completely wet again, just like I had squeezed it from the tube.  The moisture from the water bucket reconstituted my paint overnight.  This is HUGE!!  I'm now going to attempt the same thing with my other palettes using wet paper towels and saran wrap, I'll tell you how it goes.  **I do know that some watercolor artists use fresh paint every time but the frugal side of me just can't do that. Plus some of my favorite color combos have come from my paint soup.

I want to give a big Thank You to Jack Richeson company.  I won a gift certificate from them as a prize from the LWS International Show.  I used the gift cert to get some extreme kolinsky brushes.  Not only were they super helpful, great on the customer service front, but they also covered the shipping costs.  Can't wait to use them:)

My Creative Space

I stumbled across a blog the other day, My Desert Cottage, and she is hosting a  3rd Annual where bloggers create party.  Anyone can put up a post of their creative space and she is sharing everyone's link on her blog.  I think this is a terrific idea.  So I'm sharing a glimpse into my creative space.

I paint in my dining room.  I have two little guys and I have to be in the hub of the house so that I can see what's going on and still be able to create.  My house is open concept so my dining room opens up to the living room and kitchen.  It can be Grand Central Station but this allows me to be a Mommy and an Artist.

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I have help in my studio.  My fellow artist in residence is my son Steven.  I always have art supplies available to both my boys.  Steven paints with me on a regular basis and he and I both post our works on this blog.

Some of Steven's work.

And I share my studio with some studio assistants.  Moose my studio mascot.  He is always by my side and a regular foot rest:)  I also have 2 kitties Bear and Ella but they're a little camera shy.

And this is what's on the watercolor board for this week.  My work in progress of vintage glass door knobs.

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse into my daily life.  Would love to see your creative space:)

Carrie