Tinker Belle

What is REAL?

                 "What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side 

          near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room.  "Does it mean having 

          things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

               "Read isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse.  "It's a thing that happens 

          to you.  When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with , but 

          REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

     Do you recognize this conversation?  If you haven't read The Velveteen Rabbit in a while, find a copy and read it.

     Before I begin painting, I ask a couple of important questions.   

     1.) What size and shape of canvas would be best? 

     2.) What's important for me to know about the subject?

After we settled on the size and shape of the canvas, this is what I got back in answer to my second question:

               "A very important feature of Tinker that I want to make sure that you 

          keep is the detail on is on her right shoulder.  You will see a definite white-ish 

          line mark.  This is where she had a mass taken out when she was a puppy.  

          We never got it biopsied because we didn't care to know... She was ours.   

          With that, her seizure episode, and a knee replacement during her first 6 

           months of puppyhood, she became our "million dollar dog."

That was it.  I fell in love with this little yella' dog and couldn't wait to start.

      During the time I was working on this project, I kept thinking how scars and flaws and raggedy edges don't keep us from REAL love.  It reminded me of The Velveteen Rabbit.  And it reminded me of the gray lump of ratty stuffed cloth that my sweet little great niece carries everywhere and calls "Sheep."  I'm pretty sure that somewhere back there it was a pretty little stuffed lamb... now... mmm... not so much... But, Sheep is loved.  The Velveteen Rabbit was loved.  And Tinker Belle is loved.

Me and my Olivia (as a baby).

Tinker Belle (as a baby) and her mama.

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:) Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

This is me... inviting you to Northwest Arkansas... (again)

Spend a day at  Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.






"Basket of Peaches" 
Joseph Decker 
1885
This is my favorite, favorite, favorite... I just imagine... not long after the Civil War he painted this.  I love it... so simple... so elegant

Like I said in the last post, we spent our spring break enjoying what our own area had to offer.  So, let me give you a personal "tour" or our wonderful art museum.

"Kindred Spirits"

Asher Brown Durand

1849

They say this is the most expensive piece in the whole museum.  Alice Walton purchased it for $35,000,000.00... Wow.

Well, it is quite beautiful.

"Rosie the Riveter"

Norman Rockwell

1943

I pretty much love everything he paints... He paints stories. (Interesting fact: He used only red, white, and blue in this particular one.)

"The Backwoods of America"

Jasper Francis Cropsey

1958

Ron's favorite.

"Summertime"

Mary Cassatt

1894

I love the subject matter of her work, mothers and children doing typical things.

"Airborne"
Andrew Wyeth
1996

Fabulous perspective... just the whole idea of feathers blowing toward the viewer... Love this one!

"Enassamishhinjijweian"

Tom Uttech

2009

How about that for a name! There are literally hundreds to birds and insects and animals in this huge painting, and there's one little owl near the bottom left corner looking straight at you.  You must look for him!

You have to eat lunch at ELEVEN, the restaurant there. It's inside that odd shaped section. (Well, honestly, every structure is oddly shaped, but that's just another part of the experience.)






"Atala and Choctus"
Randolph Rogers
1854

This marble sculpture is absolutely memorizing in detail... just... amazing.

"Standing Explosion (Red)"

Roy Lichtenstein

1966

This modern sculpture is... red and pointy...
(...Hey, trying to think of postive adjectives here...)




"Man on a Bench"
Duane Hanson
1977

Ok, if there's such a thing as "too realistic," this is the example.  It's so hard not to reach across the rope and tap it on the shoulder to see if he's alright.

"Night Zag Wall"

Louise Nevelson

1969

The art teacher at my school is doing this with my fourth graders.  They're each bringing in a box lid and some small old toys that they'll glue on.  Then they'll spray paint them and put them together to look something like this one.
I think it's kind of cool.



And a few pieces from a visiting show

"The Old Mill"
Vincent van Gogh
1868

Nice...

"Convergence"

Jackson Pollock

1952

Ok... interesting... colorful...

"Green Patio Door"

Georgia O'Keefe

1955

Really, Georgia?  All those gorgeous flowers you can do, and this is what you bring?

"100 Cans"

Andy Warhol

1962

So, they say art is in the eye of the beholder... so go ahead... behold!

We love our Crystal Bridges.

:) Buffalo River National Forest

This is me... inviting you to visit Northwest Arkansas.  

It's beautiful here.

We didn't get around to planning a trip this spring break, so we decided to enjoy what our own area has to offer.

Yesterday we hiked the Lost Valley Trail in the Buffalo River National Forest.  

Pears Reflected

Do you ever think about the power of words?

I love words.
We all use words, but some of us want to "paint" with them... create images of the mind.
I have the best job in the world... reading, writing, listening, talking, and thinking with ten year old kids all day!   We've been immersed in poetry this week, and I am astounded by their use of words. We've started each day with a "Show Not Tell" exercise to get in the right side of the brain.  I'll put a simple "telling" sentence on the board... The girl was sad. Then they have to change it to a "showing" sentence...  Helen wiped her eyes with another tissue before her grandmother's funeral began.  She sat at the kindergarten table with her shoulders slumped and her lip quivering. (Yes, those are samples of sentences my kids came up with!)

I love words.
We all use words, but some of us want to choose the best ones... there are so many available.  I'll share a secret... realizing that it will securely validate any suspicion that I am a nerd. Here's the secret. Every morning at 5:45 I receive an e-mail with a new vocabulary word. I read them all, forget most of them, remember a lot of them, and love a few... like these.
Clerisy - intellectuals who form an artistic or social elite. (Ah! My Tuesday night painting group!)
Megillah - long involved story or account. (What could be better!)
Desultory - marked by lack of definite plan, regularity,or purpose. (Blah... hate it!)
Captious - marked by an often ill-natured inclination to stress faults and raise objections.  (Ah, so there's a word for her... :)  Maybe now I can tolerate her better. :)


I love words.
I've followed a blog by Suzanne for a long time.  I love her painting, and I love the real-ness of her words as she's shared her journey over time.  And, now she and another artist have begun a painting challenge site called the Naked Artists.  There are lots of painting challenge sites, so why do I love, Love, LOVE this one?  It's not based on an image artists use to create submit a piece in their own style.  It's based on WORDS!  Each month artists will be invited to submit a piece of art inspired by a chosen word.  
Their first word was "solitude."  Sigh... I had an image in mind to paint, but I didn't get it done before the month was up... That silly job (mentioned above) tends to take up a lot of my time, so I missed out on getting to be a part of that one.
This month, the word is "reflection."
I wish Suzanne and Sandra the best of success with their painting and their new adventure. 

Original Oil Painting on 8"x 8" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

Aspens in Autumn II

Who's your biggest fan?  Who's your best critic?

Here's mine.
He's been holding up my projects for me to get a photo for 30 years.  
He just always gets cropped out of the picture.

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   ... the painting... not the holder. :)

Cardinals at the Bird Feeder

How do you create movement on the canvas?

The girls in my painting group like to work on a common theme or subject.  Recently we've been working on cardinals.  

I chose this one because of the little gal that's still in flight.  I think she's the star of the show here, not the fancy red guy on the bottom rung.

Thanks to my neighbor Mary who takes such good care of her birds.  I snapped these photos in her backyard.






Here are some challenges I faced with this one:
1. Combining two photographs and using the best of each. 
2. Determining how to create the illusion of seeds without painting a thousand seeds.
3. Making it appear that the wings of the one in flight were moving.
4. Showing the glass of the feeder.

Click "Cardinals at the Bird Feeder" if you'd like to purchase this little painting.

Coconut Retriever

What's a coconut retriever?

Well, a dog that brings back the coconuts that you send her after, of course!

I've been blessed with some amazing professional opportunities during this 30 year teaching career of mine.  One of them is that I get to represent elementary literacy for Arkansas on a committee. I absolutely love the work... but enough of that... 
I have made some life-long friends that I get to spend a few days with every few months. When we met in Chicago last month, my friend from New Mexico said, "I brought a picture I want you to paint!  Do you ever paint dogs?" I paint images that tell stories, and when I heard the story behind this dog, I couldn't wait to put her on the canvas!  

I asked my friend to write the story.  Thanks, Sheryl!

She’s a girl’s best friend.  
This precious “coconut retriever” was born at Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine on the island of St. Kitts, where she was adopted by a student who named her Smarty Jones. Why? Well, because she can run like the wind!  
Since becoming part of the girl's family, Smarty Jone has traveled the country far and wide as a loyal companion, living from Oregon to Canada to Minnesota to Florida.  
Smarty Jones is quite an amazing dog. She can “talk,” and she endures serving as a “couch” for her two wiener dog sisters with nary a complaint. She's such a well-mannered girl who loves her “cookies.” However, she does have a history of sneaking bread and even fresh tomatoes off the kitchen counter. 
  Her bark may be big, but her bite is small, Using that big bark, she saved the girl from an intruder one night. For that, the girl's family will be forever grateful.

Smarty Jones will forever be loved.

So fitting is this poem….the girl’s love of Smarty Jones.

My sunshine doesn't come from the skies,

It comes from the love in my dog's eyes.

Author Unknown

The girl is my friend's daughter.  And that girl will be receiving this painting for her birthday.  I hope she is surprised and pleased!

:) Not for Sale

As of this week, I have been a painter for seven years.

     On a Thursday night seven years ago, I took my brand new wooden art box, five unopened tubes of paint, set of brushes, and a few other items from the supply list and went to a class. I sat on the front row and tried really hard to do what the teacher said even if I didn't understand it... (She told me to put orange in my blue so that my sky wouldn't be garish. ?!?)  At the beginning of the night she said, "Painting will make you see the world differently," and she was right.
     I was never a kid who drew, a teenager who doodled, or a person with a flair for art, but I left that night with a finished painting.  During the course of seven years, I've finished 294 more.  I've loved the process of each one, and I've enjoyed them on my walls as they wait to be purchased for someone else's walls. 
     Of those 295 paintings, there are 7 that are so special that they'll always remain on my own walls.

"Summer Trees"

Here it is!
That very first one!
See that third tree in the back?  Yeah... that wasn't supposed to be there.  I dropped my brush and a blog of paint became a new tree trunk.

"Flower Girl & Her Kitty"

Hmmm...
My little sweetie who loved her kitties so...
And now she flies helicopters...

"In the Tree"

Ahhh...
My other little fella...
Looked so serious...

"My Boys"

He's as tall has his dad now.  

"Beauty and the Beach"

Lovely... I'm certain that's what my son-in-law thought last year when he snapped the photo I used for this painting.

"Aspens in Autumn"

Nope, there's no emotional attachment.  I just love it.  It hangs above my sofa.

"Sweet Blossom the Possum"

Hee hee hee... my alter-ego.  
     Bruce Wayne has Batman.
     Bruce Banner has The Hulk.
     Clark Kent has Superman.
     I have Sweet Blossom

It's a long story... 

Candy Kisses

Do you get a lot of kisses on Valentine's Day?

I do.  Teachers get more than our quota of chocolate at the Valentine's party.  I like chocolate, but I don't crave it like I know some people do.  

Here's what I do with all the kisses I get.
 1st - Lay out a bunch of  Snyder's Snaps 
         (square waffle shaped) Pretzels on a cookie sheet.
2nd - Put an unwrapped Hershey's Kiss on each one.
3rd - Cook them about two minutes.
4th - Squash another Snaps on top of each melty Kiss.
5th - Put them on waxed paper in a plastic container.
6th - Keep them in the freezer.
7th - Enjoy one when you need a little sweet & salty bite.

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Peacock

What does a peacock say?

"HELP! HELP!"  It scares the bejeezies out of you if you aren't expecting it.  You'll think someone is in real trouble, then you'll see a peacock strutting around.

I have the funniest peacock story... 

It makes me smile just thinking about it.

I have the cutest little project that is fun to do in my classroom each year at Thanksgiving. It starts with Readers' Digests.  The kids fold the first page a certain way then repeat that fold for every page after that. We spray paint that part brown and it becomes the turkey's body.  Next they create a big pretty tail to glue on the back and stick a head in between the pages.  It makes an adorable Thanksgiving Turkey.  

That's not the funny part.

A few of years ago I had a little girl whose family didn't celebrate holidays.  I wanted to have the kids do the project, but I didn't want to leave that student out, so... I had the bright idea to buy a can of blue spray paint!  I didn't want her to miss out or necessarily stand out as different, so I offered the option to the class... assuming a kid or two would join in with the alternative... 

"Guys, we're going to decorate our end of the hall for the special visitors who are coming next week. (I don't remember who or why... I  think it was the superintendent and some special team from somewhere.) You can make a Thanksgiving Turkey for our display then you can take yours home; it will be a great decoration for your holiday table.  Or, if you want to be able to display yours all year, you can make a November Peacock.  You'll make it just the same, but we'll paint the body bright blue and use blue for the tail feathers."  

Like I said, I assumed I'd have 20 or so turkeys for our display and a handful of peacocks to brighten the room.

Hmmm... nope... 

I had about 20 bright blue peacocks and a handful of turkeys. Those kids were so proud of them.  I have a memory of one of the kids explaining that these were November Peacocks and that group of dignified visitors smiling and nodding as if that was supposed to make perfect sense but they didn't quite get it.

I could just laugh out loud right now.

Original Oil Painting on 12"x 16" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

:) My Classroom Door :)

I know, I know...
It's not art, but I love, Love, LOVE my classroom door!

It's supposed to be decorated with a winter theme.
Can you tell that I DID follow the rules? 
Look really closely at the book titles...
I've never been one to break rules, but I sure do seem to enjoy bending them. :)

I love the room behind this door.  
I've got the best job in the world.  
I get to read and write with 10 year olds all day. 
Lucky me.

Butterscotch the Cow

Do cows these days get names?

In books cows always have sweet appropriate cow names names... Flossy, Bessie, Elsie...

But, my dad called them #34 or #22 or #51... or whatever number was hanging from the yellow tags in their ears.  I think they only got a name if they were a problem, and then they got a Biblical name, not necessarily a compliment... I remember him referring to one cow as Jezebel because she was mean and hateful.  I remember another that had pink-eye so bad that Dad called him Blind Bartimaeus... I'm pretty sure that any cow that ended up with a name ended up at the sale barn pretty quickly.

There was one gentle "name" that I do remember.  As he'd walk through the cows to feed them or count them, he'd softly call, "Suk.. Suk.. Sukie... Suk.. Suk.. Sukie..."  I think it was meant to calm  and comfort them.

That kind of makes me want to change this little guy's name to Sukie. :)

(I'm trying to remember, but I think the cow in Little House in the Big Woods was named Sukie.  If it's a name good enough for Pa Ingalls, it must be a good cow name. Does anyone remember if that's was it?  The cow that Ma thought she was slapping on the winter night when it was actually a bear in the cow pen?)

Thanks to Vaughn Skinner for capturing this 

photograph and letting me put it on canvas.

Original Oil Painting on 12"x 12" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]