Another collage :)

 

Lou 16X20

 

Just a fun piece playing with scraps of other drawings.  This one was great because it was like a big puzzle.  Looking for just the right texture or color.  Only had to add a little charcoal, ink or white paint to bring it all together.  I have done this pic before in ink, but it's always fun to do reference multiple ways to see how it changes :) 

Bingham Town

I finally finished Tammy's playroom, actually, it's been done about a month and I am just now posting :).  It was such a fun job to work on.  While I was painting her kids would come up and tell me things they wanted.  Brody and Hazel named all the animals in the pet shop.  I would love that moment when I was painting and I could hear them come home from school, Hazy was always the first one up the stairs to see me.  Such adorable kids!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For mom

A piece I am working on for my mom, she wants flowers (roses and daisies to be specific :)) so here it is.  It may need a little more tweaking and I want to sand around the edges a little (now that I am looking at it, the petals on the left daisy need to be filled in).  It was originally going to be 3 panels, but then I realized that would be HUGE.  So, two it is.  Just not feeling the whole painting thing lately, it's all I can do to make myself paint.  Thank you mom for the motivation.

Antigua and Copan

Alfombras (carpets) made out of dyed sawdust cover the streets where the processions will come through later.  It was so crazy how many of these there were, blocks and blocks of alfombras.

A lot of them were in regard to the new pope.

This was probably my favorite, the guy was making prints of the children's hands.  So cute!

Waiting to go into the ruins in Copan, Honduras.  We were the first ones there because we had to be back in Guatemala by 11:00 am because Marianna didn't have her passport and the border agent said we could all go if we were back before her shift ended.

There are Macaws in the park, they release 4 more last year, so you see them everywhere.

Marianna and Me, we went to the park while dad and Blanca slept in.  She was teaching me Spanish and I was supposed to teach her English, but she ended up doing more of the teaching.

Hahaha, so sad!

All in all, amazing ruins.  Tikal still takes the cake, but these were really impressive and more protected from the elements so the detail in the carvings were more intact.  It was a great morning to just relax and walk around.

Atitlan

 

Atitlan is so beautiful, I can see why dad keeps coming back.  It is so quiet and peaceful, the water is still a bit chilly and the mosquitos leave something to be desired, but there is no better way to start  a trip in Guatemala. 

These are the cutest girls, Elena, the little one, is the daughter of the caretaker of Don Moises.  Dad always brings her chocolate, I would've kidnapped her in a heartbeat.

Guatemala sketches :)



These are the first few sketches from my trip to Guatemala.  It has been so wonderful traveling to new places and experiencing new things.  We started the trip in Atitlan which I had been to before, but was totally worth repeating.

The light played differently in the morning, afternoon and night,  Morning was always my favorite because the shadows play so starkly against the morning sun.

We spent the next leg of the trip  in Copan seeing the ruins, but before that we found this great little hotel called Hotel Copan.  It was right on the corner of the central park and we had a great seats for that night's procession.  The streets are filled with "rugs" of sawdust composed of images of Christ that are really quite beautiful.  That night we stayed up late to watch the procession proceed to the church right next to us.  This was the fountain in the pool area, it was such a beautiful place to stay.

Our next stop was in Coban,  on our way to the Candelarias, which are incredible caves that you walk through and float in tubes through.  The trip on the tubes was amazing, it was about a mile long underground and incredibly beautiful.  We stayed at a little set of cabins called De La Abuela, It was a cute little place right off the road.  Dad says it has seen better days, but I though it was quaint.

We stayed in a place called Cancuen after our trip through the caves.  It was a super nice place (especially considering everything else we had seen on our way to it :))  It was really hot, but that didn't matter because the experience of the caves more than made up for the heat.

Paige

so, today was a day set aside to do taxes and get some grad school applications finished, but life had other plans.  In doing my taxes I was unable to download a tax document (not too torn up to put this off) so I moved on to applications. Who knew I had to have dates from all the schools I attended, not a big deal, really-until the University of Utah application.  I had to check that I attended the U previously and that requires dates and transcripts! Ugh! that was like 7 years ago! who remembers their log in or even dates attended?  I could fudge the dates like I normally would, but I'm pretty sure they'll know ;) so instead I played in glue and ink.  I am working on a portrait of my niece Paige made with drawings she has made for me :) so much more fun that stupid taxes or grad school stuff!

a work in progress...

Fragile      2' x 4'

So, I am putting together some work for a friend's house, I am mostly just playing around a little right now because she isn't quite ready to put art on the walls :) This is an oil painting on wood panel.  I sealed the wood and painted directly on it.  I used to love dandelions, you know, before they are the flower.  This is not at all what I set out to paint, but my initial work was  quite bad, so this was the evolution.  Tomorrow I am going to go back and add detail with charcoal, maybe split up the dark left side and light right side (maybe not, I kinda dig it) and add a few wisps blowing off?  Hmmm, we'll see how the mood strikes me tomorrow.

Family Chiro Mural

A couple weeks ago, the chiropractic center next to my work asked me if I would paint an underwater mural for them, so of course I said yes.  It was fun to put together stuff I have never painted before, including dolphins which ended up looking like grumpy old men (or the eels from Little Mermaid).  The center is opening friday (today) and I started wednesday morning :) needless to say, I spent 8 hours there finishing up last night, total time was about 12 hours.  I plan on going back and adding in hidden pictures, so the kids have things to look for and they will get a prize if they find them all.  So if you're ever in the Washington area stop on by and check it out :)