February Love...Valentine's Day

I don't want to use the word "love" lightly, because I truly really love mostly people in my life, but since I am a passionate person, I guess I do "love" many things.  This month all my posts have been about people or things I love.  Since it's Valentine's Day, of course, I'm going to share a few more things I LOVE and that really give me joy.

 My sweet daughter and my funny husband...This is our past Christmas card (well one version).  We take a picture every year and I thought we needed to spice it up a bit and be a little funny.  Shane is actually wearing my mom's Christmas sweater--no he doesn't typically wear lady's clothes.  Most recipients loved it except one couple who seemed very offended...oh well...this is us most of the time, so we thought it is more fitting than just sitting there smiling nicely for the camera.

Oh, yes, I guess, that cute little lapdog Mazie I love too...most of the time!  She is high-maintenance to tell you the truth, but she has brought lots of joy to all our lives.

Aside from these two loves of my life, I have the sweetest little niece that I'm completely enamoured with---which brings me to another love--BABIES.  I am drawn to their big, smiling eyes, their chubby cheeks, chunky legs and their pure joy.  I am still sad that I could only have one baby of my own, but my little niece gets lots of love and attention by me.  How could she not?  Look at her!

In addition to these lovable people in my life, I'd like to share one more thing that brings me great joy...

PAINTING of course.  Here are a few of my favorites that I guess I do "love" either because of the intent behind them or just the feeling I get from how they turned out.

 

© Jill's Dream Artwork (this one is still for sale in my shop too!)

© Jill's Dream Artwork

Above, I really loved the process of making it because of the colors, the inspiring and motivational quote AND the leaves and flowers are actual pieces from a journal page I created, so there's a lot of "me" in it.  It is truly one of my favorites--it sold at a boutique I have things in and I wish I could've met the person who bought it because I like to meet the people who buy my creations.

I'm also taking an online painting class called True Free Spirit given by the wonderful Mindy Lacefield.  It's pretty much out of the zone of what I typically paint and I'm loving this class--it's whimsical, funky and teaching me to be free and child-like!  Here's a sample of a few things I've created or am still in the process of creating in this fun class.  No they aren't perfect...but I'm really having fun learning new techniques, using new supplies and expanding my horizons.

I hope you have tons of people, events, hobbies and "things" in your life that bring you joy and love.  Happy Valentine's Day!

Custom Paintings...Just For You

I know some artists don't really like doing custom or commission pieces, but I must say that I do...especially for a good friend or a family member I love.

A former coworker friend who moved a year ago (I wish she lived closer) is now having her third child, a girl.  When she first moved she commissioned me to paint these sweet pieces for her bathroom in her new house.

Now she is having me create two canvases for her new baby girl soon-to-be born this March.  I like knowing who I'm creating something original and special for, just for them, especially someone's sweet little baby.  I haven't started her new canvases yet, but I'll share them as soon as I can. 

Since I have custom commissions on the brain right now, I thought I'd share a few more custom pieces I've done for other friends and family.

The one above was done about a year ago for my daughter when we redid her bedroom to accommodate her Paris obsession.  This hangs over her bed so she can enjoy it every night before she falls asleep.

This is a gift I created last summer for my best friend Carrie's 40th birthday...we've been friends since first grade so she has been in my life for what feels like forever, so this piece had a lot of meaning for me while I created it.

This hand-painted picture frame was created for a friend from work for her to give as a gift to a friend she went to Mexico with.

The above three whimsical animal mixed media paintings were created for another friend from work for her sweet little boy.  Even though giraffes are my favorite animals in the whole world, I think I like the elephant one best.

Those are just a few of the commission pieces I've done in the past year.  If you are interested in a custom piece just for you, a friend or family member, I'd love to create one.  

Just let me know!

Snowman Love!

I live in Wisconsin, always have, but I'm not a fan of snow.  EXCEPT...in December!  If we don't have a white Christmas I'll admit I'm pretty sad--really sad to be honest.  Even though I'd prefer to live by the Caribbean Sea, I love snowmen.  Chubby, white, fun...I love painting them too.  I also work in a school, so of course I always am holding out for a snow day!  Since I've been painting snowmen for a few years and these past few days I thought they'd be a perfect subject for a blogpost.  December is a day away, so snow should be coming soon.

Here are a few 3x3 canvases I recently painted and can be used as ornaments.  They really are fun subjects to paint!

© Jill's Dream Artwork

This one is called "Our First Snowfall" and I painted it last year I believe.  I love their sweet hats!

© Jill's Dream Artwork

I just sent this one to an old friend from grade school who now lives in South Carolina - she must miss the snow!  This one is called "Angels we have Heard on High."

This is one of my favorite photos of winter a few years ago - Isabella and I had a snow day together and built this snowman.  Well, temps changed, she started to melt backwards, then froze again, just like that.  She stayed that way for about a week--it was great!  We said she was doing yoga.

This was our first snowfall of 2009 and our dog Mazie's first experience with snow-what fun!

Thanks for stopping by today.  Even though I'm not a cold weather fan, I found myself smiling and looking back fondly on these wintery memories.

Painting Birthday Party

I got the fun opportunity of bringing my supplies to a good friend's house and "hosting" a painting activity for her daughter Taylor's ninth birthday.  I showed them a few samples of birds, butterflies and flowers and demonstrated some fun ways to make marks using stencils, doilies and bubble wrap, but they really just wanted to get started and paint their own masterpieces.

Here's Taylor discovering the joys of bubblewrap.

 The birthday girl and her friend were ready to pose.  

Still waiting for one of the girls to finish her masterpiece, but they didn't want to wait for a photo.

All done and ready to share their paintings!

 I really enjoyed my time with the girls!  To me, there's nothing sweeter than children's art. I'm looking forward to hosting another painting party soon.

You are My Sunshine - New Painting

When Bella was a little baby we used to sing "you are my sunshine" to her as well as other songs, but this one tends to be almost a universal one that many people know and have great memories about.  Bella's four-year-old preschool teacher Miss Starr (no the teacher wasn't a four-year-old) used to take each little kid one-by-one and put them on her lap and sing this song to them...she still remembers that special time at the end of the day while waiting for their parents to pick them up.  Another funny memory of this song for me was when I was a teenager my dad would take me to his Lions Club meetings for a father/daughter dinner and all the dads sang this song at every meeting.  I thought it was such a hoot to hear all these "old" men singing this sweet song as we got ready to eat dinner.

I just finished this painting and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  Bella's getting older and her room decor is Paris-themed with dark pink and black, so she no longer has this type of art in her room, so I made it for my etsy shop.  It makes me think back to her sweet, chubby little baby days.

I hope you like this new painting of mine as I really feel good about how it turned out.  I'm hoping a sweet girl will get to hang this on her wall.  Do you have any sweet memories of songs from your childhood or your children's childhood?

Some New Girly Art

Those of you who know me well, know I tend to make art that leans toward the girly side.  Not that I'm overly feminine by any means...I probably wear maybe one dress a year to be honest.  But I do love girly, pretty things.  Here are a few of my newest creations that could definitely be classified as girly, for little girls and even big girls like me who love whimsy, pretty and color!

These sweet birdies were so fun to paint...I really enjoyed the creating the background -- it was very freeing!

Here's another one that I really loved doing the background too...hmmmm...seeing a pattern here in enjoying making these free and whimsical backgrounds.  The "dream big" flower above is actually a long narrow painting; I love painting on these oblong canvases though I can't always find them in the store.

I hope you enjoy seeing my girly creations and they put a smile on your face!  Thanks for visiting today.

This moment...enjoy it

I'm the kind of person who very easily gets trapped in the past or the future.  Whether it's daydreaming about an amazing vacation to Jamaica from a few years back, or worrying about what my relationship with my daughter will be like when she's a full-blown teenager, I'm rarely in the present moment.  I've read books on the subject; I jot down quotes to remind me, but still I struggle with this daily.  How about you?

Having something in plain-view does help me instead of jotting down some "words of wisdom" in a notebook that gets shoved somewhere on my painting table.  Since I love creating paintings with quotes on them I decided to do a little one with "enjoy this moment" collaged on it.  I'm sure there are others out there like me who need some reminders too, and why not have it be in the form of "art"?

I'm really wondering if you have any tips for staying present and enjoying the moment I am in instead of dreaming of the past or worrying about the future.  I'd love to hear them...share if you can.  Thanks so much!

Follow Your Heart

I am a girl who loves photos, color or black and white.  When we had our daughter Isabella I went nuts taking pictures and I love looking back at all the stages she has been through, especially when she was a chubby baby.  To me there's nothing like a really chubby baby to make me smile.  Since I love having photos around the house, I decided to start painting picture frames last year in addition to the canvases I create.  I know there are lots of other people out there who like unique frames to put their loved ones in.  Here is one of my recent picture frames that says, "follow your heart."

I hope that my paintings and picture frames can inspire girls of all ages to be true to their dreams and follow their hearts.  Do what makes them sing, what makes them smile, what lights them up.  This is what I'm finally learning as a grown woman.  I want to encourage my daughter who is now 11 to follow her heart and be true to what matters most to her.

Dance Till the Stars Come Down...

I found this quote over a year ago and just fell in the love with the imagery that came to mind for me:

"Dance till the stars come down from the rafters" by W.H. Auden

For some reason it gave me visions of a rustic party in a barn with holes in the roof where stars could peek through.  I also envisioned twinkling white lights strung up throughout and only white candles lit for any other source of illumination.  I've never been in a barn party (that I can remember) so I'm not sure why this came to mind--I think the word rafters did it for me.  I decided to do a little painting with this quote and someone from a dance supply store bought it for their bathroom (of all places)!  It made me happy though--my painting was going to be in a public place!  Yay!

Now almost a year later I showed the photo of the painting to the owner of my daughter's dance studio and she commissioned me to do a much larger one than the original.  It's not an exact copy--that's hard to do when you switch sizes sometimes.   I'm going to deliver it to her tonight.  I really hope she likes it and I look forward to seeing it hung where all of us parents wait and watch our girls dance.

Overwhelmed at the Moment!

Like is a bit crazy here right now.  I'm thrilled but I'm a bit overwhelmed.  I'm thrilled that I'm going to be showing my paintings in an exhibit in Milwaukee but I'm overwhelmed that I need 10-20 of them by Halloween.  You'd think that wouldn't be a problem, right?  I have tons of paintings completed, right?  Well, this show is a mini's exhibit.  All under 8x8 inches.  I have nothing under 8x8 inches.  I'm not going to turn down this opportunity, but wow, this is not how I'm used to creating I guess. 

I have three done and am working on five more right now.  I ordered ten more 6x6 canvases from Dick Blick and they should be here within a few days (I hope).  This is a picture of an 8x8 I've done, which is the smallest I've completed.  I included it because it is one of my dreams to show my work in an exhibit and that dream is slowly coming true!

If anyone has any advice on dealing with creating art under pressure, I'd love to hear it.  Please!!! 

I do have a few more artist interviews coming soon, so please stop back and check for those too!