Annika's Angel

My sister passed away over 2 years ago, not a day goes by that I do not think of her.  Earlier this year her eldest daughter and her little girl came by to visit and brought a favorite photo of my sister hugging her granddaughter ... when I saw the photo it reminded of an angel hugging onto a little loved one.  Or perhaps it was the saying my niece had written under the photo "Annika's Angel" that made me see my sweet sister as an angel hugging her granddaughter.

Whatever it was, it helped to produce this colored pencil painting ...

"Annika's Angel" completed on 5/20/2015 ...

I hope you enjoy looking at "Annika's Angel".

Take care, God bless,
Karen Anne

It has been awhile ....

The first part of this year has been what I would deem as NOT routine.  We lost our little min-pin due to liver cancer; hopefully we will have a little min-pin puppy to fill the void left by Danny Boy in late summer or early fall.  One of the few pieces of artwork I have completed this year included the one below with Danny Boy as part of the subject matter.  Actually completed shortly before he crossed over "The Rainbow Bridge".  It doesn't quite look like him, but enough so that I know it is him.

"Storytime" (February CPM Art Challenge) reference photo by Sally Robertson.

My hubby has been having a really rough time, health wise, and has spent a considerable amount of time in and out of the hospital.  We have been married for over 47 years, and I have found this to be very hard to experience.  At times I wish I had a magic wand that I could wave over him and make him healthy and happy. Instead, I pray ... a lot.  Guess you could say I am using a magic wand of sorts, it just happens to be called prayer.

One thing that has helped to keep my hand in art, during this time, are the monthly art challenges issued by the Colored Pencil Magazine.   Here is a link that will take you over to the entries:  Colored Pencil Magazine (CPM Challenge Pool) 

If an artist is able to enter each month's challenge for 2015, those artists will win a free subscription for one year to the Colored Pencil Magazine.  My goal is to complete each monthly challenge for 2015!  The above colored pencil painting is one of those entries.  Following are the others for this year:

January 2015
"Snow Baby" reference photo by Sally Robertson

and "Snow Babies"

March 2015 "Rust and Stuff" reference photo by Sally Robertson

April 2015 "Spring Daisies" reference by Sally Robertson

Currently I am working on the May Challenge (deadline is 6/10/15), the photo reference is a "White Peacock", already there are several magnificent entries!

Oh!  I did have fun recreating the clown I did in acrylics in December 2014, this time I did it with colored pencils for an entry in a "Nibblefest Art Challenge", this was a fun piece and ended up with a lady who really likes my artwork.

"Clown" reference photo by unknown photographer

Earlier this year I thought it would be fun to try out a few pieces using white colored pencil on black paper ... the results were actually better than I anticipated!

"Horse Silhouette" by Hannah Garrison

"White Monarch Butterfly" reference photo by Jacqueline Crawley

"Racoon" reference photo by Tim Bredow

This pretty much catches you up on my art activity for 2015, not much but at least it is something!

Take care and God bless,
Karen Anne

Nibblefest Art Contest for January 2015!

The Nibblefest Art Contest begins in one week! (on the 20th) January's theme is "A Subject Beginning With the 3rd Letter of Your Given Name (real first name)".   Nibblefest Art Contest (NFAC), is the fun and friendly, monthly-themed art competition that begins on the 20th of each month, and is open to all. Hosted via Ebay, all Nibblefest art entries start at just .99 cents -- fun for artists AND collectors....!

The subject I chose, beginning with the third letter of my real first name of KaRen, is a Red Cardinal proudly perched on the head of the statue of St. Francis!  He won't be posted on eBay until January 20th, 2015 so I thought I would give my Blog Followers a sneak preview of my entry ....




















For this painting I used a reference photo by Gillian Floyd posted on the site, Paint My Photo, of a cardinal perched on the St. Francis statue in her backyard.  I loved the photo and thought it would be perfect for my entry in this month's Nibblefest Contest!  On the 20th of January you will be able to go to eBay and put the word NFAC in their search engine and you will be able to find it and many of the other terrific entries in this contest.   Remember, all entries start at an opening bidding price of $.99!  You could win a piece of terrific original artwork at a lower price than expected!

Here is a link to her photo: http://paintmyphoto.ning.com/photo/cardinal-15
And here is a copy of her photo:

Take care and be happy!
Karen Anne

"Christmas Clown"

In the 1980's I completed many acrylic paintings, then circumstances changed and I needed to get a full time job so my painting fell to the way side.   Over the years my paints dried out, eventually got tossed into the garbage, and brushes just seem to have disappeared.  In 2014 I thought I would try my hands at acrylics again so I purchased some acrylic paints and brushes and attempted a small little painting on 6/19/2014 ...

"Three Hedgehogs in a Row"

Well, I wasn't really impressed with the results so I packed all the paints away until a later day.  A later day came about in December 2014 when my daughter-in-law asked me to paint a picture of a clown for my son for Christmas.  Now, my son is terrified of clowns so I really wasn't too sure about this request; finally I decided "Why Not?", pulled out the paints and brushes and tried another little hedgehog painting ... to get a feel for the paints ....

"Three Hedgehogs at Christmas"

I liked this one a bit better and kinda got the "feel" for working with acrylics again.   Lisa wanted a vintage type clown that wasn't so freaky that she could frame it and hang it in their home.  I finally came across a vintage clown that I loved and thought would fit the bill!

"Vintage Clown"

I looked all over the internet and found this photo posted on several sites; sent messages to people to see if I could learn if this was a copyrighted image ... but no one answered my queries.

Eventually I deduced there probably was no copyright on this photo but not wanting to tread on anyone's claim of ownership decided I would paint the clown for personal use only and not sell any prints of this piece.  I think that is in keeping with copyright laws, if not ... I am sure someone will enlighten me.





With that in mind I began working on an 8 1/2" x 11 1/2" painting of my version of the clown in my son's favorite colors ... green and red!  He is a major celebrator of Christmas!  Over a period of several days/weeks I managed to create my version of this clown which I have titled

"Christmas Clown"

My son wasn't too sure about the subject of this gift, but stated that he loved it and would get it framed and hang it in their home.    We'll see!

"Christmas Clown" turned out well enough that I am encouraged to try my hand at more acrylic paintings in 2015.  Maybe experiment with different types of acrylics to learn which best suits my style.

2014 ended on an encouraging note and I am hoping that 2015 will bring along some over due blessings for my hubby.  HAPPY NEW YEAR to one and all!

Karen Anne