Posted in Art Class, tagged Art Class, art lessons, daily painter, impressionism, Landscape, Virginia Artist on March 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »
“Miss Gaylor”
“Miss Bobbie”
Yesterday at The Southerlands Miss Gaylor and Miss Bobbie finished their paintings. Didn’t they do a fine job? And this was Miss Bobbie’s first painting. She loved the palm tree. (Thanks Linda C. for giving us permission to paint your tree.) Both paintings turned out great. Can’t wait to see what we do next week.
Posted in Crochet, tagged Crochet, free crochet pattern, lap throw free pattern, Offset shell crochet stitch, Virginia Artist on March 17, 2013| 3 Comments »
I’m playing again with crochet. I made a lap throw with cotton yarn and used a neat little stitch that I have heard called Offset and Block or Tipsy Clusters. I like the look and it worked up quickly. If I do it again though I would only use a solid color yarn with this stitch as it shows up better. Here’s the best I can do with the pattern: Make it any length you like using a multiple of 12 stitches plus 4.
Chain to desired length. (Mine is 34″ wide x 72″ long.)
Row 1: Turn. Chain 3 (count as first dc). Skip 1 ch on base chain, *5 dc, sk 3 chs, 5 dc in the next ch, sk 4 chs, ch 2; repeat from * across ending with 5 dcs.
Row 2: Turn. Ch 3 (count as first dc). *5 dcs in dcs, sk ch 2 , 5 dcs in the first dc of shell, sk 4 dcs of shell, ch 2; repeat from * across ending with 4 dcs and dc in turning chain.
Repeat Row 2 until length you desire. You can easily change colors in the rows if you wish to use more than one color as I did with a few solid rows and a few variegated ones.
Posted in Abstract, Art Class, tagged Abstract, acrylic, Art Class, art lessons, Blue Ridge Arts Council, daily painting, flowers, impressionism, Virginia Artist on March 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »
At our young artists class this week we painted a representational abstract of a floral arrangement. We called it Spring Explosion. We use brushes but also our fingers to get the abstract effect. And yes, they LOVED that! If you have a young artists ages 7-13 contact us and come join the fun.
Posted in Art Class, tagged Art Class, art lessons, Blue Ridge Arts Council, Virginia Artist on March 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Shelly worked on the background leaves of her poppy painting at Wednesday evening Adult Art Class. This is a wonderful painting. Great job Shelly. Anyone else wanting to paint, come join us. We have a great time and learn something new each week.
Posted in daily painter, Pet Portaits, tagged acrylic, daily painter, daily painting, Dogs, impressionism, pet portrait, Virginia Artist on March 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »
A few months ago, my friend Jen posted a picture of her sweet boy Jake with his new bed. I just loved it so I asked if I could paint it. Here is my version along with the original photo. The painting is acrylic on 12″x12″ canvas. I love working with unusual angles and compositions like this. I have painted Jake before with his sister Juneau. You can see that by clicking here. Thanks Jen for giving me such sweet subject matter to work with this week. (And this painting has sold! Yeah!)
Posted in Dogs, Sculpture, tagged daily painter, Dogs, pet portrait, sculpting dog, sculpture, Virginia Artist on March 12, 2013| 1 Comment »
For several years now I have wanted to learn to sculpt. But I haven’t had any luck finding a class or instructor in my area so I just decided to give it a go myself. Last night while watching tv I started playing with this sculpting clay that I had and just kept working til this dog came out. 🙂 I think I would really like sculpting if I had the right materials. I am hoping to get some soon and try to do a few more pieces. I would really like to have some instruction and then I just want to play with it for a while. But for a first attempt I kind of like it!
Posted in Crochet, tagged cotton tablecloth, Crochet, crocheted tablecloth, tablecloth pattern, Virginia Artist on March 10, 2013| 2 Comments »
I’ve been crocheting with cotton these last few weeks. I like the feel of it. This is the second tablecloth I have made. This one started with a doily pattern that I found on Ravelry.com. (You can see it here.) Once I started with that pattern I couldn’t stop so I kept adding on to it and this is what happened. Crocheting is a relaxing pastime for me. I almost always have a hook and yarn in my hand when I sit to watch tv. I credit my grandmothers for teaching me. Granny taught me to chain when I was about six years old and later she showed me more stitches. Then Big Mama taught me different patterns. I’m so glad they took the time to teach a curious little girl how to do something they knew. I think they would both have loved to see what I am doing with it today.
Posted in Art Class, Farm Animals, tagged acrylic, Art Class, art lessons, belted galloway, Blue Ridge Arts Council, daily painter, daily painting, farm animals, impressionism, Landscape, Oreo cow, Virginia Artist on March 9, 2013| Leave a Comment »
The kids painted a nice landscape this week with a Belted Galloway. It’s from a photo I took when in Newport a few years ago. I love these Oreo cows. They looks so cool. 
Good job kids with your paintings!
Here is my painting (right) along with the reference photo on the left. I swear these cows don’t even look real with their funny coloring!
Posted in Crochet, tagged Crochet, Virginia Artist, yarn project, Yarn wreath on March 8, 2013| 2 Comments »
What to do with all those little left over bits of yarn? That’s the question many of us who crochet or knit ask ourselves. Don’t you just have a huge box full of them? I did. So a few weeks ago I took them along with some little styrofoam balls and wrap them to make this little wreath. I added the knitting needles as a finishing touch. (Crochet hooks just didn’t look right.) And here it is. It turned out to be a cute little wreath.
Posted in Animals, Dogs, Pet Portaits, Small Town Life, tagged daily painter, Dogs, pet portrait, Shenandoah Valley, snow dog, snow sculpture, Virginia Artist on March 7, 2013| 1 Comment »
Snow Dog
Mamie with Snow Dog
Well, we got a total of 15 inches of snow at our house yesterday. They were calling for 12-24 inches so I consider us lucky! They were so certain it would be a great deal of snow that we had both The Weather Channel and The Today Show’s Al Roker broadcasting from our little town of Front Royal, VA. 
Lincoln kissing Snow Dog’s nose
The Studio 