Jen's Art Additions...love print

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a quick one today-I'm supposed to be putting together my pirogi casserole-it's gonna be so yummy! We are having a big T-day this year at a hall. I know it sounds so-uncomfortable right? But, actually it was so fun last year! The "hall" is situated on Lake Huron and has a big stone hearth. We had karaoke for the kids and a crafting area, ping pong table and "hang out" spot for the older, cooler kids-lol and everyone brings a dish to pass! Then all the younger women pitch in to clean up while the men watch football and older folks play cards! We invite everyone-related or not-I think we are at about 60+ people this year! I can't wait-the boys have a ball playing and then pass out early just in time for momma to have a glass of wine and relax!

Anyways-I made this print for myself because I just LOVE (love) art prints. I showed it around a bit and  found that other people really liked it too, so I put it in my Etsy shop today (click here).

Hope your holiday is lovely!

Have a look...

Jen's Art Additions...some sketches

Usually I post my artwork on Thursdays but yesterday was a little busy, so I figured Friday would be just fine. Actually I was working on a piece of Michigan art that was shaping up well and my program froze and I lost some unsaved changes. Unfortunately, I haven't been back to it yet. I know, I know-save button. Today is busy too. We are leaving to go out town in a few. Little guy #1 Ez has a doctors appointment with the University of Michigan today. :(  It might be surgery for him- we'll find out today. (Don't worry) it's a totally non-life threatening thing! So-Today I'm posting some sketches I did a while back of some cute little animals. I've been thinking about doing a collection of some sort but haven't really worked out what exactly that will look like. So, here's some pencil and ink sketches, a digital color preliminary version, and some art from Ezzie (age 5).

have a look...

 

ezzie art wih some digital editing

Jen's Art Additions and Print Contest Giveaway..YAY!

If you didn't already know, I follow a little format on AF where I pick a weekly topic and explore it further. I find shops, home stuff, artwork, etsy things, rooms and anything else that strikes my fancy-all centered around the weekly topic. This week was geometric shapes and patterns. Every Thursday I post some kind of art piece or craft I've done relating to the weekly topic and today is no exception. This week, however, I'm giving away 2 art prints from the "geometric" artwork pieces I've created
Here's what you do. 

Scroll through and pick the piece you like best and leave a comment telling me your choice.

You have until Friday at 8pm when I close the contest.

Then I'll choose the winner at random-and by random I mean I'll put a bunch of numbers in some sort of vessel and let my 5 year old choose the winners! It doesn't get any more random than that right! haha

2 winners will be announced Monday-Good Luck!

Each piece will be pencil signed and date on front. You DO NOT have to pay shipping-it's 100% FREE!

OK Have a look...

8 x 10 "Geometric Deer"-part original watercolor combined with a digital drawing of the triangle shapes, then layered with a deer silhouette, and digitally altered again.

8 x 10  Art Deco Woodgrain ABC-digital

8 x 10 Geo City original illustration combined with a digitally altered  original watercolor then layered together.

8 x 10 Contempo Bunny digital drawing with a digital edit, layered with a bunny silhouette.

Jen's Art Additions...linen owl

I was really inspired by the textile art of Abigail Brown. Her owl print and textile creations were featured as part of this week's feather study. I'm most comfortable painting, drawing or doing some sort of graphic art, but this week I thought I'd work with some fabric for a change. Hmmm. I haven't yet decided if this is art or just a craft!!

First I found an owl to draw here are the instructions. However I cheated a bit and just grabbed the owl and printed him onto some paperbag-like craftish paper. Then I gathered my supplies which included: good scissors, modge podge, glue brushes, super fine sharpie, super glue, twigs, buttons and some linen fabric (I tea stained to different shades the day before).

 I used a linen fabric because I wanted a good fray. Then I started from the bottom and layered my way up, cutting strips to fit his body and always rotating the fabric colors to create depth. I used the fluffy edges of the fabric for the bottom tail feathers and the ears. Once I had the body done, I cut/glued on a mask and the circles for the eyes. Then I glued on all of the embellishments with super glue and used the sharpie to add some last minute details.

 I like it. I framed it and hung it in the office even. However I think that I will stick with drawing and painting and leave the textile art to Abigail Brown! :)

Here it is...

some pics of the process...

What do you think?

Nothing would be right if I didn't do some sort of digital manipulation...:)

Jen's Art Additions...

One of the reasons I started this blog was to give focus to my creative goals and to find inspiration. It's my hope that others are inspired by the things I collect, create and post here.

Today I'm posting something I've been working on for about a week now. I really like this piece and added it to my Etsy shop today in fact. Not everything I post here on the blog makes it into my shop. Right now my shop consists of children's art-mostly ABC prints of all kinds. Pretty soon Etsy will let us change our store names and this one will become Area Fare Kids. When I'm ready with some "grown up" pieces I'll open a second shop with that stuff. I tend toward naive style art anyway so I'm not sure how grown up it'll actually be! :)

Anyway I think this piece I call "Pretty Worlds" is perfect for grown-ups and kids alike. It began as a watercolor painting. I then took sample circles of it digitally and manipulated them independently as I added them to a new page. When they were all in place and positioned properly, I edited them again as a whole.

Printed on Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper, this print is soft, textured and bright. The original color is the mixed hue-but you can get it tinted in blue, warm, or pink too.

Have a look...

8 x 10 "Pretty Worlds" textured mixed media art print $15 in my Etsy shop

This ABC print is in the works-so look for it soon in my Etsy Shop!

Jen's Art Additions...

I've been running around like a crazy person lately! I'm doing things I like at least. A while back I told my readers that Area Fare is  on kind of a lightened vacation mode and when school starts up I'll be blogging again most days of the week. I've really been missing all the home fashion things I've not been reading up on...sigh. In the summer I just wanna have fun outside with my boys. It's hard to think about home decorating too because I've been running so much-to the beach, camping, BBQ's and trips out of town. I can barely keep the house clean much less decorate it! :) I've found that taking the two tornadoes (Ezzie and Roo-Roo) out for the day is the best strategy.

The mural at All Saints is really coming together. Open house is Tuesday so it's got to be done this weekend for sure. Then I start painting the windows over there and after that (hopefully) I'll be able to dedicate more time to my Etsy shop and some new artwork and designs.

Here are two things I've accomplished recently...

Modern ABC-this one is mostly finished-just have to do some practice prints to make sure the colors are true after being printed. Then it's going to be in my shop. Have a look...

And this one is conceptual right now but I like it. I'll probably do a variation of this one with some different fonts. I painted the background on this one. Started out black-and I kind of like the whole B&W thing. Added some color later-It's turning out cool don't you think?

Well I'm off and running again...checking out a resort in southern Michigan.

Have a lovely weekend! Bye-Bye!

Jen's Art Additions

Posting a quick little something from me today. I just added this ABC print to my ETSY shop. The tree and house are my original illustrations, you may remember them from an art additions post I did during my Scandinavian influence week. Check it out...Anyway, I think they are simple with a touch of modern and a bit of whimsy. I'm working on a numbers print to coordinate with it as well so watch for that. You can customize the colors to match your child's room--for FREE!

Have a look...

Something from me...

I feel like I've been really out of touch lately with all things blog related! If you missed my announcement last week about Area Fare being on a kind of summer vacation, read about it here. I've vowed to a least post a few times a week though until fall when I'll be back in full swing! 

Whew-it's been beautiful here in Northern Michigan lately. We had a garage sale yesterday, goodness-someone remind to never do that again! hahaha I'm actually happy to have done it because I've been holding on to things that I just need to let go of. I also got a chance to work on my tan a little and hang out with some friends-- and that is always nice.

Anyway, I thought I'd post a little something today really quick that I worked on last week. It's a new spaceship ABC print for my Etsy shop and a little companion piece of nursery art. The spaceship art print started out as an acrylic painting on canvas. I then did some digital editing to it. Next I added digital color to my spaceship illustration and layered it onto the background.

Hope you like...

JEN'S ART ADDITIONS...

This week I worked on lots of artful things. I found the topic very inspiring indeed! In case you missed earlier posts, it's all about Scandinavian influences!

 I really like the use of bold colors and simple designs. I kept reading different artists saying that they had a "naive" style. I had not heard it put quite that way before but it makes sense. A formal explanation of a naive style in the case of artwork dictates that the work is primitive: of or created by one without formal training; simple. Primitive art such as that by Grandma Moses is often colorful and striking.

 Yes! This describes me too! I am without formal training, gravitate toward simple designs and colorful things. I had fun anyway and I hope you like the things I've created. I'm sure not all of the things I'm posting this week would be considered a "Scandinavian" style- but hey, I'm from Michigan not Denmark right? :)

I started the week out sampling some simple watercolor designs and incorporated those into some other pieces. Most of my artwork ends up being a blend of illustrations, paintings and digital editing and color. I'm also adding some new things that made it into my Etsy Shop this week!As always-please don't copy my work or use it without permission! Thanks!

Hope you like...





 


MODERN HELLO CHAIR



ONE HORSE SEWDISH TOWN




SWEDISH FIELDS



SWEDISH FIELDS WITH BUTTERFLIES

 



 




pink brushstrokes-acrylic on paper






"Triangles" original drawing layered with paintings and other drawings





 

"Little Bus"custom nursery print-from an original acrylic painting

another example with different colors and fonts

"Little Bus"custom nursery print-from an original acrylic painting-different colors available coming soon to my shop!

"Pink Owl" customizable nursery art print available now in my ETSY shop

"pink owl and polka dots" ABC poster print 11 x 14 $15-available in my ETSY shop!

        HAVE A LOVELY DAY!

THURSDAY ART ADDITIONS.......TEA TIME!

Just a few little tea party themed images I did this week for you today-plus I'm doing some different things this week on AF and today is no different. So-I'm posting some other tea party art things I've come across this week from other artists. I've been only posting my own art on Thursdays but I thought why not share the love sometimes-especially when I have a busy week and need to work on other stuff!

So-I'm including an illustration with digital coloring layered on an actual painting I did that also has been digitally edited-you may remember it-I'll post it too-whew-you got that-lol

also posting a little drawing I did of some tea cups with a digital edit and a new girls ABC print that went into my Etsy shop this week.

The last FIVE images are from other artists whose afternoon tea images struck my fancy!

Hope you like...



cherry blossom cottage painting on canvas with digital edit



jackie oh no! illustration with digital coloring and layering

Tea Time-illustration with digital color

Pretty Birds and Butterflies-ABC print available in my Etsy Shop!

artist Laura Amiss

found via my heartistry blog

found via my heartistry blog

found via Tumblr

found via flickr...www.swj.spb.ru is on the painting but otherwise ?

SEE YOU TOMORROW FOR FRIDAY TEA PARTY PRETTIES!