paintings

A quick fix on a torn watercolor but still bad marketing

paintings
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After the July juju sale, I saw that this painting was torn at the top.   Each month, there are various damages I find – jewelry with stones missing, chipped glass, broken pottery.  Often they are hidden under something.

Or possibly they were just knocked off and rolled underneath?  I’ll give people the benefit of the doubt, it’s easy to break fragile items in a crowded space.

In the case of this cow, I know how it must’ve happened.  I clip the paintings to a string with a clothespin and the wooden pin probably just tore the paper when someone took it down to look at it.

Luckily, it was an easy fix, I still had more pages in the chapter of the book I’d used to paint this.  The heading at the top of the page is “Old England” which might not really seem right for a cattle picture, but this is a Guernsey cow and her breed is from Britain.

I try to make the heading relate to the art.  Often it’s the words that inspire the work, but often, it’s kinda generic.  Like using a book about nature to paint any type of animal I want.  Or this geography book with a chapter on England to paint a gurnsey.

For this, I scraped off the raggedy bits of paper, and tore off a matching scrap from a new page, glued it down, let it dry, and repainted it to match the background.  It’s not perfect, but if you don’t inspect too closely, it worked.

But the biggest problem with my painting?  I thought cows would be a good fit for Kansas City.  Which, yes, it is an ideal subject.   So… why did I think an English title would be better than using a page about prairies, the west, or something actually about Kansas or Missouri?  Hmm, just bad marketing, huh?

Around town

paintings, Travel
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My adopted hometown is  a charming place, and I am so proud that some of my murals are still on display.

They actually look even better with some age and wear over the decades.

Downtown can be packed, with KU’s various activities. Parents’ weekends, big games, those sort of things fill the sidewalks and restaurants to the brim.

But on a quiet, Sunday night mid July?

Purely peaceful.

With a dollop of quirkiness.

And a smidge of funky.

It’s filled with art and atmosphere.  Lush flowers for all of the warm months.  Then twinkling lights line the streets for the holidays.

With a variety of traditional spots.  I don’t know how old this merry go round is, but it’s been spinning for the decades I’ve made Lawrence, KS my home.

New additions are some inviting, outdoor seating.  (The one good thing that came about from Covid lockdowns. ) There are quite a few choices to enjoy dinner while soaking up the local ambiance.

And I’m honored to be a part of it.

A Denver retreat

family, paintings, Travel
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We had a family get together in Denver at a relaxing resort.  While there, I spent some time painting.  Mostly in the room between times when we had plans.

But do you know what was even better?  It was when the sisters-in-law gathered poolside to craft and chat about what is going on in our lives.  We simply do not see each other nearly enough for as much as we enjoy being together.

The hotel had a spa and a golf course.  And I actually spent some time out on the greens!  Ha, NOT golfing, nope, never ever.  At sunset, when the players left, we used the course as our private walking trails.

That delightful spa got used too.  The three of us met there for treatments, then kicked back a couple hours in the lounge to sip tea and crunch on some snacks.

I cannot picture a more relaxing time.

Our visit was filled with love and laughter.  Stories, jokes, family updates, and delicious meals too.

Throw in a few minutes here and there to dabble around with my paint brush, and it was an ideal vacation.

Thanks for working your travel planning  magic, Terry.  You are the best.

Door prizes

Books, flowers, paintings
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I offered to make a door prize for my class reunion.  Then ended up making two necklaces,  three bracelets, and three hand painted bookmarks.

They are packaged on old book covers, with a note about being inspired by my love of our high school art and literature classes, and my friends from there.  Each includes jewelry and a bookmark.

A class with Jen

friends, paintings
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During my shoulder recovery days, I’d planned to use my down time productively.  I was going to take advantage of having less responsibilities at Good Juju to see more movies, go shopping, visit friends, and experiment with loosening up my painting style.  Maybe trying to add an element of abstract into my work by learning to paint left handed.

Well, I’m glad I signed up for a class my friend was teaching at the Mulvane museum in Topeka because I needed that incentive to give that last to do item a go.  Because my weeks off weren’t as free and open as I’d dreamed they would be.  Instead of having nothing but time on my hands, I felt like crap, and my healing period was needed for healing.

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It was mostly spent watching 15 seasons of ER while dozing in a recliner.

Since I wasn’t feeling as chipper or motivated as I thought I’d be, I wasn’t doing much at all.  If I hadn’t signed up with a buddy and paid in advance, I wouldn’t have gone to that workshop  and had such a nice day, learning about my friend’s art process, and attempting to smear some paint around with my good arm while using a couple of her techniques.

Jen’s work is inspiring and each canvas is full of surprises.  It’s far away from my own territory when I paint, but her ideas were just what I needed to loosen up my own illustrative style and try to be more painterly.

Also, my recuperation scheme of learning new skills and enjoying myself wasn’t playing out as I’d hoped.   This class was a welcome nudge to get me out of my recliner and be  creative while mingling with friends.

I have tried to get something around the house or studio done each day, and at the beginning my tasks were simple.  As the weeks have progressed, I’ve been adding more activities daily, plus trying to walk 10,000 steps, weather permitting.  I also am working on my booth at Juju more than I’d expected.

Originally, friends and coworkers were going to redo my space each month for me.  But after arranging furniture in advance, into mostly shelving that was easily filled, I did not require friends to pop tagged items into empty spots for me, I could handle it one armed.

The dealers are all pitching in during sales to do my job, but I have surprised myself by being able to refill the booth between events with minimal help, mostly from Rich.  So quite a bit of my allotted “free time” hasn’t been as free as I’d expected.  This two hours of painting has been the entirety of my time with brushes.

But as the doctors tell me, this is a long, slow rebuild and I can’t be impatient with it.  There is a long stretch of time ahead of me, maybe I’ll still do more creative things from my plans.

A surprising find full of forgotten memories, a coincidence, and a gift from Beth

collections, cottage, paintings
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When I took down the holiday displays, I didn’t change much on my buffet.  Mostly the main pieces stayed as is while Christmas glitz was exchanged for flowers.

 Instead of Shiny Brites, the swan was filled with coffee filter blooms.  I added floral pictures, tucked fake pink flowers and larger coffee filter roses here and there. Sugarwings placed her Lego bouquet into a depression glass parfait cup and we put it on a small pedestal.

That pedestal is actually a lamp base that I’d painted and glued a round mirror onto.  I use it a lot, I feel like it shows off anything you set on it.

The biggest addition is this reclaimed painting.  On a mini thrifting day, I popped into a Topeka flea market, and was attracted to the frame.  I thought it was $12 and figured I could resell it, then noticed my own signature on the bottom!

Yep, this is one that I probably sold at Mission Road Antique mall in Kansas City 20 years ago and it’s made its way to a Topeka mall.  I did not remember this piece of artwork at first, then once I thought about it overnight, it came to me.  I’d painted a number of things in my mom’s hospital room as I sat with her in her last weeks.

This was one of those.

At the register, I discovered it was $42 not 12 and was a tad bit iffy on the purchase, but went for it anyway.  Now I’m glad that I did because it has stirred some precious memories and I think it has earned a spot in my home.

Oh, and at check out I was chatting to the salesperson and told her the story of finding my own painting.  She looked closer at the signature, and told me that she used to buy hand painted Christmas ornaments from me and recognized the name.

As we chatted a bit, I completely forgot that I’d just came from the Medspa and had microneedling done.  And was wearing comfy, pj-ish clothing.  This photo was taken a couple days later so I looked much, much worse that day.  My face was bright red, more like Deadpool.  I have to wonder what she was thinking?

“Poor Karla used to sell artwork and do well, now she has a ravaged face and is finding her art tossed aside to show up at flea markets.”

Maybe not, I enjoyed our talk and I don’t think she was too horrified by my raw face.  And I’m so glad that I found the painting.

Another sweet addition to the buffet is this china frame from Beth.  I haven’t decide what to put in it yet.  A vintage photo?  A picture of my grand fairies? An antique print?

The frame itself is pretty old, you can tell from the back.  I feel like it probably should have something of an equal age, but I might be drawn to the idea of the kiddos framed in it.

Our annual Bookclub holiday party

paintings, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party
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I have no idea how long we’ve held this tradition, 20 years, maybe?  Hmm, Sugarwings is 19 now, so maybe not quite 20.  18 or 17?

I tend to date events by the ages the kids or dogs were at the time.

It’s an evening I always look forward to.

Each year I try to make a gift to set at each place setting.

This year, it is hand painted book marks.  I thought of doing Christmas ones, but I thought flowers might be more practical. 

This is what I wrote for the backs.

Since they are watercolor, the paint needed protection.  Originally I’d planned to laminate the tags with clear packing tape, but oops!  It was too narrow!

The party was that night and I didn’t have time to get extra wide tape.  So I experimented by using an acrylic clear coat.  It went on fine, no smearing.  I was surprised and happy.  I hope they hold up.

A haunted cottage painting

Good JuJu, paintings
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Before we even had August’s sale at Good Juju, I was making big plans for September and October’s events.
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The back wall of my space is brick, and I cannot hang anything on it, so I had previously hung a big Karla’s Cottage banner down from the ceiling beams to fill the space.  Well, I got to thinking that I need a Karla’s Haunted Cottage sign for Halloween, but the spot is pretty hard to get to,

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After consulting some people whose minds think in a more engineering way than mine does, we came up with a pulley system to hang seasonal banners without going to much fuss to change them!

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I immediately got to work painting a 6’x8’ canvas drop cloth with a spooky theme.  Now that it’s done, I’ll flip it over and paint a gingerbread cottage on the back of it.  I’m excited about all of the possibilities. 

A drop cloth is nine bucks, I need about 8 hours to prime and paint it, and can do artwork on both sides.   Heck, I’ll be wanting to switch them out every month!  

Hmm, my time might be better spent making things to sell, not just display.  But dang, this was fun to do.

 

 

My shoes got a floral paint job

paintings
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I painted my shoes.

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Not because I wanted to, but because I blopped a chunk of coconut oil on them and couldn’t scrub it out no matter how hard I tried. I’d only had them a couple weeks, they were warm, cozy and worth saving.  

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They needed to stay neutral, so I could still wear them with most things.  So I  kept my palette monochromatic.

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I’m not sure yet if they are exactly what I wanted.  The white might be too bright?   I’ll give it some time and see if I enjoy wearing them.  I do know that I’m very happy to get them back on my feet with no oily blotch.

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