I know, I know, it is taking me forever to get this piece finished however, I my work is being very demanding at the present time. I have a really important software demo coming up so I have had to spend a lot of time getting ready for this demo. I am hoping that after my demo, which is Monday, April 27th, that things will calm down a little bit and I can get back to painting. As you can see, I have gotten a little further on this piece than the last time I posted, which was about a week ago. I need to get in there, sit my butt down and get started.

I have not been to class in about 3 weeks because of the demo prep. I just hate it when work gets in the way of what I want to do. We have been having some beautiful weather so I am also trying to get the yard in order so it does not look like a jungle. Last August the construction finished building our home so we have a beginning lawn and landscaping package that we hope will take hold. We have a landscape company coming out next Tuesday to plant some new things and give us a little color in the front of the house. We also have a decking company coming on Monday to build our new deck. It will be nice to go out the back door, sit on the deck and look at the horses. Anyway, that is it for now.

PS. Picture of the new house below:

A little flower arrangement we saw today and decided to buy it for the family room.

Have You Seen This Video? Absolutely Outstanding!

I was flipping through the news the other day when ABC came on with a story about a Britsh television show called Britian's Got Talent. The news article featured Susan Boyle a contestant on the show. If you have not seen this video please take a look. This is an outstanding performance. What a voice!

A New Day in Decorative Art - The Heck With Work

This morning I decided to get up and do something different than just do work stuff. So I pulled out the old brushes and started this Fusion piece from David's website. I have never done any type of fusion blending but I thought what the heck, let's give it a try. So after the mailman stopped by and left me this little package of plaques from Martha, I thought what better time than now to do something I have never done before. All I have done so far is basecoat the plaque, trace on the design, and basecoated the berries. That is a lot for me as I am usually busy getting ready for BIG demos for work but this weekend, I am going make the time to paint.

Last night I decided to get rid of the little flat screen TV that I had purchased to watch David's DVDs as I was painting. Even though the set included a built in DVD player, I thought it was just too small and not to mention I just could not get enough volume. So I went out and bought a new 32" flat screen TV and a separate DVD player to go along with it. Now I CAN SEE. I have included a picture below.




In case you do not recognize the hand, it is David Jansen, just painting away. Now I have no excuse for not getting things done. I better get back to it. Happy Painting!!!!!!!!!!!

This week as been a bust when it comes to painting. I work for a very large software company and my real job has demanded a lot of my time the past couple of weeks. By background is Human Resources so my job includes that I take customer requirements and build those requirements in my demo HR system the present back to the customer in a very formal setting. This week I had a dryrun which is where I go through my demo for, in this case, about 16 people. They comment on the demo and give me pointers as to what I should say and what I should not say (I don't deal with that too well). Anyway yesterday was the BIG DEMO day. My customer was a very large Federal government Agency with over 250,000 employees. Everything went great in the demo and the customer was very satisfied with the configurations that I had completed in order to show them their requirements live. That takes a lot of pressure off of me now so maybe I can sit down and do a little painting this week. I am still working on the strawberry plate from David's Ompir DVD. Hopefully, I can make some headway on that piece. I have also started a really nice tin storage bin piece with a pattern from JoSonja. The pattern and piece I like a lot but so far I only have the piece basecoated. As I move along on these pieces I will post some pictures. Now off to do exercises........Everyone......Happy Painting.............

Have you seen the NEW beginner's training samples posted on Jansen Art? Don't they look GREAT?






I don't know about you but I cannot wait until the new training classes are available. I know, I know, I have to wait just like everyone else. But as soon as Module 1 is available, I am there for the classes. I think as a beginner these will be great pieces to paint especially since they are so visually pleasing to the eye. That is very important to any newbie when they take some sort of classes. They want to learn but they also want to have a completed piece that they can be proud to tell their friends it was a piece they painted. I learned that from teaching Ceramic classes many years ago. Students want to see success. If their see success somewhat quickly then they are more apt to continue painting. If they classes are too confusing or difficult, it can turn off students. As you know, I am no PRO when it comes to Decorative Painting but I am so willing to learn and these pieces say "PAINT ME". The pieces look fun to paint, somewhat not difficult (to a beginner) and appear offer an absolutely great entry way into the field of learning decorative art. I see shading, comma strokes, floating (oh no), S-strokes, liner work, and much much more. I have to give the Heritage Designers credit as I am definitely liking what I am seeing.

Anyway, these are just ramblings on my part. I am just ready to get started.

Well, until the new paint line arrives, here is a little tease for you:

I have to get use to this blogging thing as it means I actually have to make the time to type something. Unfortunately, there has been a lot going on this past month that has been eating up my time. My work has me jumping through hoops daily and even on the weekends. I work for a very large software company and my job requires that I take customer requirements, configure those requirements in our Human Resources software, and then demo the software's capabilities to the customer using their provided requirements. That in itself takes a lot of time just to prep the system and the demo. On top of that, we had a death in the family so we have been coping with that, which has left very little time for painting. That brings to the plate that I have posted on this site. That is a piece that I am trying to do using David's OMPIR DVD. What you see is as far as I have gotten so far. As I am a beginner, I am finding the piece a little challenging especially when David makes it look so easy on his DVD......ha. Sometimes I feel like I have two left hands and neither hand can hold the brush correctly. I am hoping to work on it a little bit today. If I do and there seems to be notable progress, then I will post a new pic.

Now............I am just a little on edge waiting for the new paint and educational system to arrive so that I can get my hands dirty, so to speak. I am sure that everyone else is feeling the same uneasiness of waiting. Doesn't it remind you of waiting for Santa Claus to arrive on Christmas. I don't know about you but my mother use to chase us back to bed all night long as we were just too excited waiting. I don't know if I can contain myself much longer................ha.

THE WORLD OF DECORATIVE ART

FROM A BEGINNER'S POINT OF VIEW

Here I go again, jumping into an area that is just not me as I have never ever blogged. But what the heck, lets get started. Last year after returning from the Harper's Ferry Craft Show with my first purchased decorative arts piece, I started a journey to learn as much as I could about Decorative painting.

I jumped on the internet and did tons of searches or so it seemed seeking any information concerning learning Decorative Art. I actually found so much information I did not know where to begin and found it an enormous challenge just to get everything read. The information that I pulled from the web was priceless, at least I think so. I found weblinks for Jansen Art Studio, JoSonja, Maureen McNaughton and lots of other sites too numerous to mention. All of that information gave me my initial entrance into the field.

I started to order books, supplies, brushes, DVD's, pattern packets, wood and even more supplies, books, brushes, DVD's, pattern packets etc. I was ordering so much stuff that the UPS, I thought, was going to set up a depot at my home. I ended up with lots of materials but still did not know how to begin painting.

That is when I started to shoot emails to artists like David and Martha Jansen. From their encouragement and recommendation to Susan Johnson, a Traditions Teacher in Virginia, I started my first classes. I have now been painting for about two months and even though I sometimes get a little frustrated, I am really enjoying my experience.

Join me for my journey. I will post information concerning all my classes with photos, the conferences I attend, product reviews and much much more.

WON'T YOU JOIN ME?

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