Art at the Chicago Children's Museum

I dislike museums. They bore me for the most part, however I do love a clever display.

This white Christmas tree is made with mop heads.  How great is that?

 Horses made from trash :)

 This is a bench.  I love how painting the street on the seat makes this look 3 dimensional. GREAT IDEA!

Baby at the Shedd

I've been wanting to paint this picture for nearly two years, and I finally worked up the nerve to do it. I took snap shots of it at different times in the process.  It's fun to see the progression.  

Homemade Watercolor Stationary

Chicago River Boat Architecture Tour

Here are some beautiful pictures taking of Chicago from a river boat tour and three things about me

1. Hate sight seeing
2. Hate tours
3. Love being in down town Chicago 

Beach Scene

My friend/ art partner in crime and I were asked to paint a back drop for a beach scene. The scene was for a fundraising event for a Chicago urban non-profit. The request was to paint sand, water, and sky.  It was my first-ish landscape and diffidently my first painting of that scale (5 panels of 4'x8' + a palm tree).  The collaboration was a blast.  The mutual friend who asked the two of us to paint the backdrop, did all of the props and had the overall big picture.

It was a big undertaking but a blast.  My body still hurts from 9 continual hours of painting (over a week ago), and I'm pretty sure I pulled my hamstring.  There are obvious mistakes such as the water line is supposed to be level all off the way through the painting.  DUH!  Also, the sky shading has much to be desired.   Next time I paint anything of this scale I want two 4-5 hour time block in order for my mind to rest.  Taking a break allows for seeing obvious mistakes like water lines not being level.
Supplies

• Inspiration
• primer
• six 4'x8' foam boards- The boards were primed before us painters jumped in to work which was a huge time saver!!!   
• tempera paint- I have never used this paint before and loved working with it.  It dried a lot slower than acrylic, so we didn't have to worry about our brushes or paint drying mid use.  Also the paint was a little over a dollar a bottle nearly a tenth of the acrylic price.  
• colors bought- yellow, red, deep blue, cerulean blue, green, white, brown, and purple.  These were the base colors.  The rest of the hues and shades were mixed.  
• drop cloths
• buckets for mixing & rinsing brushes
• plastic lids for pallets & mixing
• brushes
• towels for mistakes and messes 
• water for rinsing brushes & thinning paint

Water Colored Lamp Shades

Remember my old paper lamp shades

• Paint brush
• Spray Bottle containing water
• water colors

Homemade Chinese Lantern Mobile/ Sculpture

A nursery in the bedroom did not work for us long term.  Baby was out in a month.  I wanted to make a fun mobile for my baby's nursery.  However mobiles are really sculptures.  I went to a party store and bought Chinese lanterns.  They were plane white with a dirty, tacky white ribbon holding them in a single horizontal row.  This bored me.  

• I painted black stripes on the sides
• Painted the bases and tops of the lanterns a yellow/gold
• I removed the white ribbon from the lanterns and thus separated each one 
• The structure held using bonsai wire.  
• The top piece of the structure are paper plates with the center cut out 
• The center of the plate is suspended just above the outer rim of the plate
• There are four plates glued and stapled together for added strength
• I hung the mobile or sculpture from a curtain rod
• The pictures explain better than words 

Anthropologie Inspired Buttons on a Painting

I walked into Anthropologie today for the very first time.  It was like walking into my friend's bedroom.  I did get inspired by a few decor items.  One being a painting with buttons on it. As soon as I got home I glued buttons on a not so favorite very mediocre oil painting that I did in college. I love the result

Homemade Watercolor Calendar

Got inspired at Oh my deer to make my own homemade watercolor calendar.

1.  Took watercolor paper and taped off squares 8.5x11

2.  Painted the squares to my liking 

3.  Cut out the squares

4.  Ran the squares through the printer using a free downloadable calendar 

5.  Broke the plastic off of a cheap clothes hangar 

6.  Twist a thin piece of wire around hangar.