Sunflower Painting on a Ceiling Tile

This sunflower is one of a series I painted on acoustic ceiling tiles.  It is proof that I will paint on anything that isn't moving too fast, I'll show you some more examples later. Anyway, this tile costs about a dollar at home depot, and ends up looking like stone afterwards. I like it a lot. What do you think?

Little Darlings

I am going to paint these little darlings. They are my grandchildren. From left to right is Wesley , 7, Henry, 18 months, Aemelia, 10, and Liam, 4. Wesley and Aemelia are my daughter Katy and her husband John Kott's, and Henry and Liam are my son, Matthew and his wife Janna's. I am not really good at painting people, but you know what? I am going to do this!!!!!!!!
I may have to use some of the tricks I learned in the awesome book, "Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain". One of them is to turn the canvas and the photo you are using upside down, if you are working from photographs. It isn't quite as easy to do that if you are painting live models! After a few minutes, the blood rushes to their heads, they turn really red in the face, and small children start crying, which really messes up the painting. Also their hair js all in their faces so you can't really see them very well. I don't recommend that method with live models. I may have to break down and use oils. I love oils very much, but they aren't as user friendly in terms of cleanup, etc. The awesome love seat the little treasures are sitting on is a gift from Bill's sister, Marge. That is Hines Park behind the kids. Please stay tuned to see my progress on this project!

Beautiful Things Recycled

 I can't believe I didn't mention my obsession with recycling throwaways into beautiful, useful things when I  described my palette planter and my ladder back chair planter. Bill and I retrieved the palette from a dumpster after I saw the gorgeous ideas for using them a recyling website. The chair was lurking in our garage not being used before I got a tip from a cashier at Home Depot about how she had made a planter from a ladder back chair. Now I am constantly on the prowl for things to put plants into. My grandmother was an incredible gardener. She could make anything bloom. I inherited her love for plants, but unfortunately I didn't get her knack. I mainly forget to water them.  We used to have a chain of greenhouses in Michigan called Franks Nursery. When I bought plants there, the cashiers would give them the last rites, because they were goin to my house to die. I am trying though to get better. Bill and I joined Techshop a couple of months ago, and we are learning how to design things using 3D Printers. I think perhaps that I need to design a self-watering device for my plants. My daughter has a self-feeder for her cat so she can leave the cat alone overnight, so I need the same ability for my plants. So getting back to my thread about using castaways for planters and other uses, let me know if you have any ideas. Talk to you soon, my darlings. Love you, Anne

Ladder-back Chair Planter

I am still bracing myself for the winter here in Michigan. My husband, Bill and I had to go out of state for employment for 4 years beginning in 2008. We spent the first 3 years in Phoenix, Arizona where it rarely got below 40 degrees in the winter and got up to over 115 degrees in summer. The only snow we saw was far away on the mountain tops. We liked it there a lot, but we missed our kids too much to stay. Our next year was in Newport News,  Virginia, close to the Atlantic Ocean, which makes the climate quite moderate (if you don't count the hurricanes). We got hardly any snow there. It was so great living there because our son, Matthew lives in Virginia wiith his family.  Then at the end  of 2011 my contract in CAD Design ended at the Newport News Shipbuilders, and we moved back to Michigan. Our daughter, Katy and her family live here. So back to my statement about bracing for the winter. I created a planter in a ladder-back chair last Spring, and it is thriving, so I am going to bring it in for the Winter. It may not do well, I am not the best gardener, but I really do try. We'll see, my lovely friends, we'll see. I will keep you informed. Meanwhile, the leaves are changing here, and it is beautiful! Love you, Anne.