Light In My Darkness

 

It has been a very long time since I've written in my blog... over two years, in fact. Life has been filled with family illness and the homecoming of my sweet Dad. Now my Mom is declining rapidly. I'm trying my best to care for her well, while my heart is grieving. It is the circle of life... We are only given so many days on this earth, and then we return to the Lord, which is a blessing! But this ending of life!... It is so very very hard! I need God's grace to make it through each moment of every single day.

I've written before that I struggle with depression... and during this difficult time, it's been hard to find my way out of the darkness at times. My physician has changed my medications, and that has greatly helped me cope on this journey I've found myself on. I am truly grateful to be feeling so much better!

And painting has helped soothe my soul. I don't claim to be a terrific artist... but somehow in putting pencil to paper and then paint on canvas, peace and joy have come into my heart. This winter, as the afternoon sun has been shining in the windows of my studio, I've experienced a calm, quiet place of healing and comfort as I've painted and listened to soft, soothing music. My studio has felt like a sanctuary... and art making has felt like communion with God.

Thank you Lord, that you meet me right where I am... even when I'm in the darkness. You come to me and comfort me. You shine Your light on me and fill me with joy and gladness! I am so very grateful!!

Snowbound in Carolina

"Winter Friends"

Late last week, we had a winter storm blow through my home state of North Carolina. It's not so unusual for us to get a really good snow sometime during the wintertime... but I think this storm surprised even the meteorologists with the amount of snow it left behind! We had about six inches of snow... but with ice on the roads and our house perched on a hill, we were snowbound for several days 'til the temperatures rose.

So, while I was inside, enjoying the snowy view out my window and giving thanks for a warm house and a full fridge, I spent some very happy hours in my studio, creating this happy snowman! I did some experimenting with 'floating color' (read here... lots of trial & error!) to give the snowman and cardinal a bit of shading and depth. This is a growing edge for me. I had watched some YouTube videos that made the floating technique look so easy... but I'm going to need to keep practicing, that's for sure! 

I hope that"Winter Friends" brightens your day today!  :)

'Tis The Week After Christmas...

...and somehow, in all the travelings afar and gatherings at home and tree decorating and cookie baking and present wrapping and talking and laughing with the ones we love and dog-sitting for my son's Great Dane and eating waaaaay too much delicious holiday food and doing a thousand loads of laundry and about the same amount of dishes....

... I'm just now getting around to showing you the paintings I made for my Etsy shop to celebrate Christmas this year.

First up is "Jolly Old Saint Nick." I had never painted a Santa before, so I was really excited about creating him!  :)  I used an original sketch I'd drawn and painted him with acrylics on a 5x7 inch canvas panel. The background is a soft gold I mixed up, with gold dots on top. I really like the contrast of his dark red suit and hat against the background. Wonder what could be inside that present he's holding???... I'm kinda in love with his cute little grin!

The second Christmas painting I made was based on an illustration I'd created several years ago... "Away In A Manger."

This one was also painted on a 5x7 flat panel canvas. It's simple and a little "quilty" and sweet... just the star that led the shepherds to the baby Jesus, who was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger.

What an amazing event!!... Who could ever have imagined God's gift to us!!???
 

Finally, this is the canvas I painted for an Christmas tree ornament this year.

I never did get a photo of the ornament on my Christmas tree before the season was over... so this scan will have to do! The background is a 2x4 inch flat panel canvas that was painted bright white and flecked with gold. I hand lettered the word "Rejoice" with a black fine point water-based Sharpie paint pen, and painted the heart a deep red inside the letter "O". I finished it by gluing white string to the back of the canvas, covered the back with white cardstock and signed it.

So that's it!... My Christmas 2017 RoundUp of Etsy paintings!!  :)

And, since today happens to be January 1st of 2018, I'd like to wish YOU a very Happy New Year filled with Love, Joy, Hope, and Creativity!!

Learning To Add A Pinterest Board To My Blog

I've been wanting to share some of my Pinterest boards here on my blog... but, I was unsure how to go about doing that. I knew it was possible, but for some reason, I couldn't get it to work. As always for me, I learn by researching and a whole lot of trial and error!

Today I stumbled upon a YouTube video by Ana Maria Menezes on How to Embed a Pinterest Board to Blogger. I watched the video a couple of times and it cleared up the issue I was having about where to add the extra small piece of HTML code that is needed to make the board show up.

As I'm writing this post in the "Compose" mode, I can't see the Pinterest board that I've added using HTML. However, when I preview  what I've written... Voila! There it is!  :)

Another cool thing I've found in this process is that, once I've published my post and the Pinterest board is 'live'... you can scroll up and down on the board. If you click on a picture, it will take you directly to that Pin.

Pretty nifty neato!

I hope you enjoy my I {Heart} Etsy Pinterest Board! My collection of all things handmade will keep growing... It is such a huge part of who I am and what I love!

Happy Halloween!!

 (This is one of the doodles from my sketchbook!)

Halloween is coming up next week!... I always look forward to seeing the little Trick-or-Treaters who come to our door for goodies! It's the preschool-aged children who tickle me the most!... the tiny Supermen and princesses, the wee pumpkin babies in their parents' arms.

Last year we had an amazing butterfly visit us, with gorgeous sparkly wings! And, of course, there are bound to be a few friendly ghosts, a pirate, a robot, a zombie and a gypsy too. I always love to see the creativity of homemade costumes! (by some very loving parents putting together crazy outfits for their kids in the late night hours!).

This year, I've managed to hide the 'treats' from my husband, so (hopefully!) there will be plenty to go around!  :)

What does YOUR family do for Halloween?... Do you carve pumpkins? Make your own costumes? Go to Trunk-or-Treat parties with friends?... I'd really LOVE to hear what YOU do!

Wishing you a Fun and Safe night of Trick-or-Treating with YOUR family this year!!

"Little Ghost And Bat In The Pumpkin Patch"

Showing Up On Etsy

"Every Child Is An Artist"

I thought it was really very simple... I just wanted to create my kinda fun, quirky, whimsical, colorful, silly art and offer it in my (very cute!) Etsy shop to people who like fun, quirky, whimsical, colorful, silly art too.

No big deal... right? But as it turns out, it's not quite as straight-forward and easy as that...

What I quickly discovered after listing my whimsical little pieces of art on Etsy was that I couldn't find them ANYWHERE when I searched for them later! And if I couldn't find them... then it followed that nobody else who might like to find them was discovering them either...

My heart felt soooo discouraged!!  :(

So... I started to research. And I began to learn about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how to optimize my Etsy shop.

It didn't take long before I found out about Danielle Spurge-Swavely from The Merriweather Council! She offers a free Etsy Lessons Email Series that contains a 20 minute SEO training video that was a HUGE help to me! After implementing Danielle's suggestions, I was so happy to see my artwork showing up in Etsy's listings so buyers can finally find them!... YaY!!!  :)

I highly recommend The Merriweather Council Etsy Lessons Email Series to any Etsy seller who is trying to get their products to show up in searches on Etsy. Danielle explains the process of titling and tagging your products in a very clear and helpful way. I was thrilled with the results that I've had from following her advice... and I think you'll be happy with your results too!

From Sketch to Painting

About a week ago, I drew this sketch of a boy and his dog, thinking it could be a fun autumn scene... but I only had a vague idea at the time what the background might look like or what colors I might use in the final painting.

After transferring the boy and his dog onto a 5x7 inch canvas panel, I sketched in some trees in the background, and started to paint the sky a bright blue, the leaves on the trees vivid orange & yellow, and the grass two tones of bright green.

It was at this point I suddenly realized that my painting was going to be super colorful!... and I wasn't quite sure how to choose the colors for the 'main characters', the boy and his dog. Hmmm... This would be challenging!

"A Boy's Best Friend"

After a bit of trial and error, this is what I came up with... and I'm happy with the final painting! A bit of a wispy white cloud helps to balance out all that color!... and some outlining with a micron pen gives the painting a little dimension.

I hope you like this little autumn scene of a boy and his dog!... I sure had fun creating it!!  :)

"A Boy's Best Friend" can be found in my Etsy shop, PholkartStudio.

My Very First Mixed Media Pumpkin Project

"Harvest Pumpkin"

A few weeks ago, I was browsing in my favorite local craft shop... and discovered the PERFECT pumpkin-colored piece of scrapbook paper! I knew right then and there that that orange polka dot paper was coming home with me, to be used for some future pumpkin-y project.

I've been painting for a while now and have gotten pretty comfy with my self-taught technique... but I'm a newbie to mixed media and I've been wanting to try my hand at it. So I printed out an enlarged version of one of the digital stamps I used to design, "Folk Art Pumpkin"...

...and modified it so it would fit on my 5x7 inch canvas base. I had to crop one of the 'swirlies' and flip another 'swirlie' around to the opposite side. I also decided to delete the heart on the pumpkin for this project.

After base coating my canvas panel with black paint (it took two coats!), I flipped my printed pumpkin over and transferred my pumpkin design onto the back of the orange paper using dark graphite paper. I did the same thing with the leaf design, transferring that onto a textured green paper. It took no time at all to cut out my pumpkin pieces, since this is such a simple design.

Next step was the Modge Podge. I carefully brushed the back of the pumpkin with a thin layer of Modge Podge. Then I adhered it to the middle of the canvas panel, making sure to smooth it from the center toward the outer edges, so the edges were glued down firmly. I eyeballed the placement of the green leaf and Modged Podged that too.

Last of all, I transferred my 'swirlie' pattern to the black canvas with a light colored graphite transfer paper, and penciled in 'harvest' in the upper left corner. The rest of the design was finished by painting the lettering and the 'swirlie' freehand using a small round brush. A couple of coats of Krylon matte acrylic spray and my Harvest Pumpkin was done!  :)

Now that I've created my first mixed media project, I've definitely caught the bug! Can't wait to figure out what my next project will be!

(...and of course, now I have an excuse to collect all that gorgeous scrapbook paper I've been resisting! *wink!*).
 

A Little Update on My Newly Re-Opened Etsy Shop...

"Mermaid Treasure"

It's the end of August now, and I've been happily working away most of the summer in my studio, painting little canvases. So far, most have been just 4 x 6 inches like this little mermaid above... but a few have been as large as 5 x7 inches, like this sweet angel below:
 

  "Whimsical Angel"

I'm still not quite sure as I've been working along if what I'm painting has an overall theme or feel... "Whimsical Folk Art" is hopefully there; but also, "Playful Childrens' Art," "Happy Family Art," "Family Friendly Art." I don't know yet... Hopefully all of the above! *wink!*

 "Enjoy The Simple Things"

However my artwork ends up being characterized, I hope it ends up making you SMILE!!!

Hello July 2017!

Photo Credit from Pixabay: Workandapix

Happy July Friends!... Here I am, once again dusting off my neglected blog. It's been a year and a half since I've written (insert emoji with eyes rolling here!). After taking a looong break from Etsy while my husband Joe & I were helping to care for his mom, I'm now gearing up to reopen my shop again (hopefully pretty soon!).

"The Lemonade Stand"

Last time my Etsy shop, PHOLKART*STUDIO, focused on digital stamps for cardmaking. But this time, I'll be offering something completely brand new! I have fallen in love with acrylic painting!!... and I'm having the best.time.ever drawing my cute little illustrations on canvas panels and painting them with yummy, colorful acrylic paints!  :)

I'm also experimenting with creating hand painted ornaments. The tiny yellow house in the upper right corner of my blog is one of those ornaments! I've got that one hanging in my studio right now for inspiration. And I made the "quilty" star below for a sweet friend who is a quilt-lover just like I am!

As always, my blog is a work in progress (like I am!). I'd be honored if you'd like to follow along with me on my art journey. If you'd like to receive email updates about my new blog entries, there's a little form at the top where you can do that. And as always, I'd LOVE to hear from YOU! :)

Blessings & Happy Creating!!

Patti

Keeping Christmas Simple At Our House...

We're keeping things simple this year at our house for Christmas...

A large green wreath with a big red bow welcomes visitors to our home. The artificial tree we bought years ago when Ben & Jesse were little has been 'fluffed' and decorated with lights & shiny Christmas balls & years of accumulated ornaments.... Makes me smile every time I walk by! 'Handprint ornaments' we made in Jesse's kindergarten class are hanging in the kitchen windows above the sink. And the 'folk art' nativity scene I love has a place of honor on the piano in the dining room. Last of all, a gorgeous pointsetta I bought at the grocery store sits in the middle of our dining room table. Instead of the pre-holiday frenzy I often dread, in our home,

All is calm, All is bright.

2016 has been a very challenging year for me (more on that another time...). But as it closes, I'm grateful for the growth and the lessons the year has held for me. God is indeed faithful and kind and good.

Wishing You A 

Very Blessed Christmas

And A

Happy New Year!! 

Waiting For Spring

"Waiting For Spring"

We got the call one evening last February... Mom was in the hospital again and things weren't looking good. My husband & I immediately went into emergency mode, packing clothes, food, and doggie needs, gathering up hats, gloves, scarves and winter coats, getting ready to travel first thing the next day. We were on auto-pilot...

Once we'd arrived, the waiting began... At that point I realized I had forgotten to bring any art supplies along with me. I was surprised that, during this period of stress & uncertainty, I really wanted to quietly sketch and then color what I had created.

So... my husband took me to Walmart, and I bought a child-sized box of Crayola colored pencils. I started with one quilt block, and then another, not having a plan in mind, just designing one thing & then the next. I chose the Crayola colors that looked most like Spring to me, that felt most like hope. And then I filled the waiting hours with quiet prayer & happy colors. They soothed my soul.

Thank you, Lord, that you met me in my time of anxiety in a way that I could understand... through the quietness of sketching, through the hopefulness of color, through the power of answered prayer.

An Unexpected Snow Holiday

"Snowbound" ACEO

Here in the Piedmont of North Carolina where I live, we don't often get major winter snow storms... but last week, Winter Storm Jonas paid us a visit, leaving behind more sleet than snow. My husband & I were thankful that our power stayed on and that we had plenty of food in the house. After checking to be sure that our parents & grown kids were safe & warm, we settled in 'til the snow melted. And so, being the introverts that we both are, we each dove into the books we'd been wanting to read & the creative projects around the house we'd been waiting to do... loving this unexpected Snow Holiday in our quiet home.

Fast-Forward to Wintertime...

Photo Credit: Sharon Ang on Pixabay

Last time I wrote, it was July and I was exercise walking in my neighborhood, happily taking iPhone pictures of purple cone flowers by my neighbor's white picket fence. And then... well Patti, what happened after that...???

I'd like to have a really incredible story to tell you about being abducted by aliens or being marooned on a deserted island without my computer to keep my blog up-to-date... but nothing that bizarre or amazing has happened to me in the past six months. The fact is... Life Simply Happened, and I'm just now getting back to this blog that I love (*wink!*).

If you're wondering about the penguins... we're experiencing a bit of a Polar Vortex here in North Carolina once again. After a balmy Christmas Day, today's temps crept into the low 4o's & tonight will head back down into the 20's (not quite penguin weather, but hey!... pretty darn close!).

As for me... I'm trying to re-establish my arty routine & looking forward to filling the shelves of my Etsy shop, PholkartStudio, with lots of whimsical new art in 2016!  :)

"First Snow"

In The Neighborhood...

I've just started walking 30 minutes first thing in the morning... and, in order to encourage myself to keep at it each day, I'm taking iPhone pics of beautiful & interesting things I see in the neighborhood while I walk.

I saw these purple coneflowers today & thought they were lovely, planted against a simple white picket fence background... Made me smile! :)

Tell Me A Story . . . .

I like to write... and if you're a regular blog reader of mine, you'll know this is so very true! I can also be kinda, just a little bit, overly wordy (*wink-wink*).

I don't have any aspirations to write books... My hat is off to those who are called to put deep & inspiring thoughts or delightful characters who have amazing adventures down on paper for others to read. That's such a great calling!... but it's not my calling.

Lately I've become more aware that I want to add words to my illustrations. Not lots of words... just a small taste of a story or a peek at what's going on 'behind the scenes'.

Mini-Stories For Tiny Art

And so... I thought I'd show you today what I mean by posting this silly doodle of mine. The illustration style is all me, the mini-story mine too... and so is the lettering. No downloaded fonts here!... It's all done from start to finish by hand... my hand. And I kinda like that!  :)

I'm sure as I play with this 'tiny pictures with mini-stories' idea that things will eventually evolve. But for now, I have no idea what will come of this... It's just another fun avenue to explore as I keep putting my pen to paper & doodling my little heart out!

Moore Doodles

One of the talented artists I enjoy 'following' is Stephanie Ackerman, whose colorful doodles & lettering style are whimsical & straight from her heart. As a Christian artist, Stephanie has been an encouragement to me to combine my faith & my love for color & illustration & journaling in a fresh new way. You can take a peek at Stephanie's Doodle Gallery here.

Just recently I decided to take one of Stephanie's online classes... 'A Whole New Doodle'. Honestly, I've had the BEST time playing with my pens, doing some 'freestyle doodling' and learning some basic lettering... and I'm just beginning!

While I was at our family's farm recently (and away from all my internet distractions!), I got out some basic supplies... a stack of plain old lined notebook paper, a pencil, an eraser, a medium sharpie pen, and a box full of Prismacolor markers... and I doodled my little heart out!  :)  I drew the borders 'freestyle' (no pencil sketching first), but the alphabet required a little more pencil & erasing!

Above is a little 'freestyle' border doodling...

...and some decorated capital letters below. My capitals are 'embellished' using Prismacolor markers... but you could use colored pencils or paint, really whatever you want!

I left these 'little' letters simply colorful, but they could have had some funky doodles in them too, just for fun.

The last Sunday afternoon of our farm visit, I sat at the kitchen table next to a sunny window, spread out all my art supplies, and colored a whole page of borders I'd inked up on Saturday. You would have thought I was a little kid with a brand new box of 64 Crayola crayons!... I was one happy 'colorer.' (that's a word, right?).

Color Me Happy!

If you like to doodle like I do... then I totally recommend Stephanie Ackerman's 'A Whole New Doodle' online class! Before you know it, you'll be doodling your heart out too!

Spring Has Sprung!

It always seems to happen this way... temps are in the 40's, I'm wearing my turtlenecks, fuzzy socks & fleece... and overnight SPRING suddenly appears! It teases at first with a crocus or two in my neighbor's front yard... and then unveils itself with drama & flair.

This year the cherry trees that line the streets in our neighborhood were truly spectacular! And now the dogwood trees are beginning to blossom... and yes, the azaleas are not very far behind. So far, I've watched out my kitchen window as a mama starling built her nest... and I was entertained by a squirrel very carefully filling a notch in the big oak tree to make her cozy nest. All the baby leaves are unfolding, making the whole world green again.

NEW LIFE!!... Just when it seems that winter will never end, along comes HOPE, and the whole world sighs in relief.

Thank you so much Lord!... for the gift of beauty, for the promise of hope, for new life that springs up when we least expect it. We can see You in all You have made... The whole world is praising You!!

Find Me On Flickr

"Animal Kingdom"

For a long time now, I've wanted to create a 'gallery' of my illustrations so I could share them here on my blog. But Blogger ...which I love 'cause it's so easy!... good old Blogger just doesn't have an 'app' for that.

So... I went back to my old flickr account, which was dusty & neglected... did some major housecleaning... and set up new PholkartStudio albums to show off my art, especially art I'm creating for the Doodle-a-Day challenge (having so much fun with that!).

"EIEIO"

Right now, I have some "Oldies But Goodies" illustrations there from my first blog (circa 2006!), along with a bunch of ACEO's (Artist Trading Cards) I created to sell in my Etsy shop, PholkartStudio (currently on an extended vacation to some undisclosed tropical paradise or other exotic location... haha!). No doubt this little 'gallery' will evolve over time. But for now, I'm just happy to have a little 'home' where my art can stay... and you can visit. And I really do hope you will!  :)

Apples vs. Oranges

See Photo Credit Below

From time to time I can really get myself into a creative 'funk'!... and unfortunately, February has ended up being a very 'funky' month for me. As much as I love having access to so much arty inspiration & creative community online... if I'm not very very careful, I start comparing my abilities with other artists & end up feeling blechh about me! (...and yes, I'm sure that blechh must be a real word and not just something I'm making up!).

So... it was interesting that I stumbled on this quote yesterday:

"Comparison is the thief of joy."

- Theodore Roosevelt

Hmmmmm... Well, thank you Theodore... I really needed to hear that! In my mind, I know that this is true... but my heart forgets from time to time.

When it comes right down to it, I have a choice to make every time I enter my creative online community. I can hold my arty talents up against the talents of others and evaluate how I measure up... or I can choose to embrace joy by refusing to compare. Instead, I can appreciate how uniquely the Lord has made me while also appreciating & encouraging the giftedness of others.

Thank you Lord for reminding me once again to trust my thoughts, my talents & my heart to you.


photo credit: Apples & Oranges - They Don't Compare via photopin (license)