VOTE!

Due to popular demand, I've decided to make prints available of my small bird paintings. I will have open edition prints of all the bird paintings...eventually. Right now, due to costs I can only do one print, but I can't decide which one to start with. I've decided to leave it up to YOU! Help me decide. Which one should it be?

Bird in Blossoms (Top Left)
Blue Jay (Top Right)
Yellow Songbird (Middle Left)
Bird on a Wire (Middle Right)
Pretty Bird (Bottom Left)
Brown Eyed Bird (Bottom Right)

Simply leave a comment below to let me know which is your favorite, or you can visit me on facebook and tag yourself in your favorite painting. The one with the most votes will become the first open edition print available. The winner will be announced Friday July 22nd. That's only one week, so hurry!

Original paintings are available. Feel free to contact me if you're interested!

Back to the basics

For several reasons I've decided to take some time away from the computer and get back to more hands on arts and crafts. Now don't get me wrong, I still LOVE creating digital illustrations! It's still my passion and I will continue to work on the computer whether it's to illustrate or do graphic design. But I was finding that I was on the computer ALL the time. I was working almost 24/7. If I wasn't sleeping or eating, I was seriously on the computer. After several health problems started to manifest themselves, that all came to a screeching halt. I soon realized that I needed to step back and heal. But I was going crazy not having that creative outlet that I loved so much. I was missing my time on the computer. Soon I found myself creating and designing in any and every way I could. Over the past several months I've been painting, drawing, making felt pins, creating cut paper art and even decorating sugar cookies in artistic ways. Wow, it's been fun! AND, I'm back to blogging if you haven't noticed ;) so I'm super excited to share all my new creations with you soon. For today, I will give you a sneak peek at some of my newest paintings on wood blocks.

Bird Painting (so far untitled) - Acrylics on Wood Blocks

I just love them so much! I've started several more this morning in different sizes. Can't wait to share them with you!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Thank you all for the nice birthday wishes! I had such a great birthday, but the celebration is not over yet! Be sure to enter the contest for a FREE print in honor of my birthday. And then be sure to come back here and check out what's new. I've been busy working on great gift ideas for that special someone this Valentine's Day. Here is a sampling of work:

Be sure to check out everything up close in my shop!

New to the shop

Just thought I'd show what's new in the shop. These are my latest digital illustrations....they look great together or just lovely on their own.


Also, just in time to update your Fall decor, here are a couple original acrylic paintings.

Fall is Here

The leaves haven't started changing yet, but the fall colors are showing up in my studio.


The crisp air must have inspired me when I was creating these paintings. I'm not sure if they will be making it to my shop any time soon since I am saving all of my new creations for the upcoming art fair I'm showing at. More to come on that soon....stay tuned!

Art Unleashed - Art Auction

Here it is! Every year now for 3 years I've donated a piece of artwork to the Art Unleashed benefit for the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City, and here is this year's contribution:


It's called Green Pastures and it's an original acrylic on canvas painting. I love this piece and I love that it is going to help such a wonderful organization. This event is so much fun, if you are in the area you should really try to make it, for more details check out their website. If you are not in the area, please look into ways to help out your local animal shelter, and be sure to adopt the next time you are in the market for a furry friend.

Custom Art

Here is the most recent painting I did for a little girl's room. Perfect for the sweet little princess she is.

Close up images...


If you are interested in having a custom piece of art created to match your child's room, please visit my etsy shop or feel free to contact me if you have questions.

Gus' Rockets

This is a picture of a watercolor/mixed media painting I did in high school (over 10 years ago) called "Gus' Rockets". I love this piece because it is unlike any of my "usual" work. Generally, I feel like abstract artwork is very difficult to achieve, and is even more challenging than realistic work. With that said I think it's safe to say that this is one of my best abstract pieces I've ever done. Therefore, I had held on to this painting for over 10 years stuffed away in my portfolio case in the back of a closet. I never felt like the piece was good enough to be displayed but I certainly wasn't about to get rid of it. That is until recently when I visited my former high school art teacher. I see her or visit with her via email maybe 1 or 2 times a year, and almost every time she would ask me about this piece. Are you ready to part with Gus' Rockets? My answer was always no, until this visit. I FINALLY gave her the painting she more than deserved and now I know it is hanging proudly somewhere!

one down, many more to come...

It was a lot of work putting together my first art exhibition but it was a great experience and I can't wait to do it again. Thank you to everyone who made it out to see my work and visit with me! For those of you who couldn't make it, here is a shot of part of my show. I plan to get some more pics up soon and possibly some video...stay tuned!

busy, busy, busy

I'm super busy preparing for my upcoming show...hope you can make it, I think you'll be happy you did!

Here's a sneak peak...

What I did today...

I like to work on paintings on the weekends since I have more time to work on them. So this morning I woke up fairly early for a Saturday morning and I started a new painting...

Now that it's mid afternoon, I am a lot further along and I'm really excited about how it looks so far...but you'll have to stay tuned to see the finished product. I think you'll really like it!
***Update***
See the finished product at my show.

Twin's Name Art

As promised here are the pics of the paintings I did for the twins name art. Their room has an underwater ocean theme.

Name art

This is a fun way to have a personalized piece of artwork for a child's room. Here I painted my nephew's name, Noah to match his nursery. Next up will be Brianna and Dominic's name art.

Life

life being supported by another life which is barely clinging on to its own life. nature has a way of cooperating with one another that humans can't seem to understand.

Life
Acrylic on canvas
12" x 12"
$130

This piece is on display at the Upstage Gallery in Topeka KS