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Started my new CafePress store!

Original Art Work by Tisha

Welcome! 

Thanks for visiting my online shop! I am a 4th generation quilter and artist, and I have been quilting and creating since I was a small child. I made my first quilt at 11 years old, a sampler pieced and quilted by hand. I am a compulsive artist and have taken numerous courses in color and design as well as drawing, painting, sculpting, fiber art, color and design and more. I'm looking forward to uploading more of my original work here and transforming those into items for sale. If you have something specific that you are looking for, don't hesitate to contact me. Cheers!

Here's my profile.

I started with quite a few different pieces and products:

Zentnagle on canvas.

Skulls and Starts fiber art

Zentangle Love on watercolor paper

Charcoal drawing

Charcoal drawing

Graphite, pen and colored pencil Bleeding Rose

Black and white photography

Zentnagle quilted tree with graphite and pen

Zentangle girl

Zentangle owls.

Blog with an Identity Crisis

Still not really sure what I want this blog to be.....

It started out as only a sewing, fiber craft and fiber art blog.  I've incorporated art in general (what isn't art?!) and specifically my painting, which I have enjoyed.  I find myself however, posting the same thing here that I do in other places.

What's the point of that?

I actually have multiple FaceBook pages:  my personal page, which is private, a page for my long-arm quilting business and a page for my Zentangle stuff (since I'm a Certified Zentangle Teacher).  I post mostly pictures on FB and short updates, if I update at all.  I'm really not on FB at all as much as I used to be.  It's just too draining for me and too full of drama these days.

I also have an on-line journal through DreamWidth.  I was with LiveJournal (and do still cross-post to that), but with all of their servers being moved to Russia and the weirdness that came along with that, I switched to DW.  That is a private space where I write mostly unfiltered. 

I do write a lot about my art there however. 

So, what makes this blog different from all of that?

What else do I have to say, that I'm not already saying somewhere else?

Is this blog to promote my art ventures mainly?  (Oh, I also have a website for my long-arm quilting)

Is this blog to promote selling my art?

Possibly......

Magritte's Scheherazade

Finished the Magritte's Scheherazade piece!

He did so many versions of this piece and I was just fascinated by them.  It was between the beach scene and this one.   I really liked the Dark Tower in the background and the surreal aspect of the landscape on this version.

I started with a to scale drawing to get the facial features and proportions right.

Then started the painting in class.  I wanted to leave space for the three dimensional aspect of the beads.

I took a picture of it in class when the beading was done and immediately saw one that I missed.  See it?

I couldn't resist taking this picture.  We put up our pieces around the class when they are finished and mine happened to be next to this painting.  Love the contrast!

There!  Now the beading is fixed.

Klimt's Golden Tears

I've never been a huge Klimt fan.  His most popular work is of course The Kiss.  But when surfing some of his other work on-line, I came across the painting Golden Tears and knew that I had to paint that.

Definitely had to do the drawing first to get the proportion.

Drawing was done with chalk pastels.  She definitely looks happier in the drawing than the painting.  But then again, she's missing her tears.

Finished painting.

Monet Water Lilies

I started off in one directions with this and have changed it, but I'm not sure if I like it or not.

This is what I started off with.  I started over, re-gessoed the canvas, because I felt the background color needed to be vertical, like Monet's, instead horizontal.  I do like that change.  The other change was a suggestion from the instructor that the different panels change colors.  I've attempted that, but not sure if it's working or not.

First attempt

close up

Progress on next attempt with individual colored panels.

Adding more depth and color.  Also I didn't like that circle of lili pads in the blue section, although now I'm seeing a zig zag in green.

I'm thinking that the purple needs to move over farther into the red on the top and the bottom of that panel needs to be darker.  Also the green zig zag needs to go.

Do you undervalue yourself as an artist?

I think most of us do.  I recently ran across this saying:

I would like to think that's true, but I'm not so sure.  People seem to always be looking for a bargain or wanting something at a discount.  When it comes to hand crafted items or original art, that saddens me.  

I you are looking for someone to quilt something for you cheap and fast, don't come to me.  My time is valuable and my creative skills are worth more than that.  If you are looking for a portrait done while you wait, that's just not going to happen.  Creativity isn't measure in dollars or hours, but in inspiration.

How do you price your services or creations?

New Paintings

Just finished two versions of Georgia O'Keefe's Black Iris.  One is on a white gessoed canvas and the mirror image is on a black gessoed canvas.

I'm loving rotating them and seeing the different ways they connect.

See the mushroom in this one?!

This one looked like a shy owl to me.

And Angry owl.

I get to paint today!

I always wake up on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and think, "I get to paint today!"

I need the motivation and disciple of going to a class to find the time to paint.  I'm the same way with yoga.  Our little fitness club closed and I literally haven't done yoga since.  There are too many distractions at home!

I did end up leaving the two Georgia O'Keefe Black Iris paintings in class today.  In the window this time and NOT on the floor!  If they are messed up again when I come into class on Thursday, I am not going to be happy.

Worked on the Klimt Golden Tears today.  Got it mostly where I want it before I add the gold leaf. 

Then I did the back ground for the large Monet Water Lilies piece I'm doing next.  It will be, by far, the biggest painting that I've done. 

Excited!

Photos will be coming shortly!

Snow Day

Although it's actually raining out right now.....It's supposed to snow again later today and all day tomorrow, so teenager stayed home.

I just put the second coat of white gesso on a large-ish canvas that I got at the thrift store for free. 

Stretched canvas is so expensive so I talked with the owner/manager of our local thrift store.  He frequently has canvases that he can't sell, so I periodically check in with him to see what he can give me.  :)

There has been one that I actually didn't gesso and paint over.  I really liked it and it's currently hanging over my TV. 

It makes me wonder who painted it and how it ended up in the thrift store.

Not Happy

Brought a large custom canvas to art yesterday that I found at a thrift store.  I'm contemplating Monet's Water Lilies on it.

I was all excited to start on that when I walked in to class and noticed my two Georgia O'Keefe Black Iris paintings had something splattered all over them!

WTF?!

Seriously.  It's not like my work was a masterpiece but it was MY work.  And I don't want it trashed.

So I set them both up on my table easels, practically in tears, to attempt to fix them as best I could.  The teacher wasn't as upset as I though she should have been.  Basically she told me a story of a painting of some one's that she inadvertently messed up and then proceeded to tell me that it's not a great room to have art around (even though she puts every one's paintings around the class).  WTF, again?!  The room is shared with the ceramics people.  The teacher thinks it was the person who mops the floors.

Whatever.

I just said that I won't be keeping my art out in that room any longer.  Which kind of sucks.  I was enjoying having my art out and having my friend who takes the ceramics class attempt to guess which one was mine.

Accomplished

I got it done! 

I was racing to get two quilts done by today as there's a big storm coming in tomorrow and then another a day later.  Supposedly it's going to snow down to 2000.  Here at 4500 feet elevation, we're supposed to get several feet of snow.

Getting those two quilts finished, and delivered, is a relief.  Particularly because I'm already stressing about the car situation, or lack there of.  It's going to be a busy week and we may possibly be staying home with these storms.  I have art class Tuesday and Thursday and a portfolio review on Thursday.  Kids to get to school.  One kid has two doctor appointments and a haircut scheduled for next week.  Quilters guild meeting on Monday.  Zentastics get together on Friday.  And I'm going out of town for a party Friday night.

Whew!   Definitely don't need the car stress or anxiety of getting around in the snow right now.  But I do love the snow (i love the snow, i love the snow, i love the snow).  I just have no confidence driving in the snow and ice after my accidents.  Plus the fact that my car isn't running well and really needs tires.

Bleh. 

I'm going to keep saying it:  I love the snow, I love the snow!

And if I need to, everything else can be put on hold and we'll just hang out at home.  And be safe.

I could use a couple of days to sew, knit, crochet, read, draw, Zentangle, cook. 

No problem!

Cold Studio

Sometimes it's hard for me to get motivated to be in my studio because it's so cold down there.

I turned the one car garage into my art studio with all of my fabric, long arm, several other domestic machines plus a serger, my paints, easel, art books and art supplies.  But it's chilly down there these days!  It was 18 degrees out this morning and got up to about 28.  Brrrrrrr......

Almost finished the mirror image Georgia O'Keefe Black Iris paintings in class today.  The circles are just different enough that it bothers me, so I'm going to fix that on Thursday along with one corner.

The next painting I'm doing is going to be Klimt's Golden Tears.  I did a chalk pastel drawing of this already.  I'm planning on adding the gold leaf detail as well. 

Inspiration

What inspires you to create?

One of the things that inspires me is being around other creative types.

I have this amazing group of women that I get together with twice a month to Zentangle.  The group has been meeting for years now and we end up doing so much more than just art.  We talk, laugh, cry, inspire, joke, do tai chee, breathe together, listen to music, support each other, connect, have amazing conversations, share our latest creations, learn from each other and bond as women.

This what from our last get together:

I brought the sketch of the rose I did in prep to paint Dali's The Meditative Rose.

These are some of the tangles that we did.

We all did the tangle Diva Dance.  I love how they all turned out so different!

O'Keefe's Black Iris

I'm attempting to paint my interpretation of Georgia O'Keefe's Black Iris in class.

I've never been a huge O'Keefe fan, but I do like this painting.  I have two square canvases that I want to use.  So the first thing I did was change the proportions on her painting to square.

I'm not sure if it looses much in translation or not.

Then I gessoed one canvas white and one black.  I want to paint the first one on the white square canvas (which I started on Tuesday), and paint the mirror image on the black canvas.

The idea is that you can hang the two in several different configurations, creating new shapes each time.  What took me the longest so far was getting them the same on each canvas so that they will  match up.  Still not sure if I got that right or not, but we'll see!

Painting

In my series of exploring paintings by famous artists, I painted Edvard Munch's The Scream.

I've always loved this image, but never painted it.  I frequently have to work with the image a bit first before attempting to paint it so I did do a smaller colored pencil sketch of this piece in my sketchbook.

I had been looking at this piece for a few days as it was propped up against a chair in my living room.  There were a couple of things that bothered me about it, so I did some additional work on it today and I like it much better.

I made the facial features darker and did some work on the railings.  The last one just didn't look right.  It's not perfect, but much better now.

It's infrequent that I can look at a piece that I've finished and not see a section that I 'messed up' on or would have done differently.  But I'm happy with my interpretation of The Scream now.  

Inspire

Wow.   Haven't been on here in years!  One of my intentions lately is to revive this blog.

I do enjoy writing about my creative and crafty stuff.  It seems like I've gotten more into the sketching and painting lately and less into the fiber arts.  So, since this is MY art blog, it can be about all medium of creativity!

I am taking a painting class this semester.  I took my first painting class in college, which was now about.....20 or so years ago.  Yikes!  Painting is not something that I do frequently, but something that I want to do more of.

The first assignment was a monochromatic primary color still life.  Not easy for a first assignment.  My first instinct would be to do blue, but I've actually already done this assignment in blue for another class.  So, I went with read.

I don't like it. 

I could have really been done after the first class, as I'm a quick painter.  But I decided to continue working on it the second class and I think it got too worked.  Knowing when to be finished is something that is instinct.

The second assignment was to be analogous colors.  

I've worked with this image of Cezanne's Skull Pyramid before and done a crayon sketch of it last summer.  

When I asked her if I could paint this image, she said yes.   She told me that the assignments in class are more guidelines for the beginning students (there's a wide range in this class), and if I had a direction that I wanted to go in, go for it.  Very cool!

I really like how this one turned out and currently have it on my wall.

I hate to waste paint.  I've been keeping a small canvas or two on hand and at the end of class have basically taken all of the remaining paint on my pallet and just put in randomly on a canvas.  

That was the background for this piece.

I think the top lotus needs more depth, but I really like the lower one.

This was also a canvas that I had used up paint on for the background.  

I was playing around with a portrait of my daughter.

So here's to creative inspiration!  And more paintings to come!