PaintWorks October 2013 Issue

In the current issue of PaintWorks (October 213)  one of my favorite artists' has a phenominal design/painting of a red  Gerbera Daisy done on black...... and it is just gorgeous....  There is a definate want to paint this design (and several of her other ones) but I don't "do" oil so I am going to have to convert her colors to Liquitex and see if there is any way I can get a similar/different finished piece rather than not be able to do it at all.

And then there is the Beatrix Meouwser by Kim Christmas.....OMG but this is just so neat... and I think I want to paint this for my granddaugher...and I LOVE the colored pumpkins.... and then we have the Sunflower-y scarecrow---Sunflower Smiles by Deb Antonick Inspired by Terrye French.... then I went to JB Wood Products and purchased 2 Sue Boerman pattern packets (Halloween Designs)....  For some reason this year I am "IN" to Halloween.....  Crazy......

SO......I guess I will be busy.....painting.  It is "IT'S" turn... and tomorrow just may be day #1.

This is a really great issue.....Hats off to the staff and artists....
************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

AUGUST 4. 2013
This weekend I started work on this design.....I have my preliminary painting nearly done and will modify for the 2nd one,  a little more sky, a bit more blue.  I don't really like the highlighting on the trees in my photo so I need to fool around with colors a bit more... and I think I might want to paint the 
final one lengthwise instead of vertically.....  Artistic license...love it.  Maybe some white lilacs??

Copyright  7-13     Diana Putnam

Dominoe Necklaces / Halloween

Over the weekend my husband purchased a 10 - 12 drawer cart type "thing-y) at a garage sale for $5.00 so I have decided to use it to store my special papers,   I am REALLY trying to become more organized but seems I am just "spreading out"....  

When I was going through a couple of "piles" I found the skeleton and raven domino collages so I brought them out to do along with the rest of the Halloween Jewelry I have been working on.  

Right before Christmas when I was in either  Ross or Marshals I purchased a box of really nice wood dominoes that were on clearance so I used these for the skeleton pieces and for the Raven Crows I will use the off white dominoes I pick up whenever I find them at garage sales, thrift stores, etc.

SO........I have a good 20 ready for the next step which is to sand and attach a bale.... then the final step of applying 2-3 coates of a finish to help preserve.  I got 4 completed tonight as I can hardly wait to see how they are going to look......and I am really pleased with my visions of completed pieces.  I will also make one for myself in each of the 2 different themes and will be pulling out some additional collage designs to work with too.

I really enjoy being able to flip flop with different arts.....and lately I have gone back to doing some writing also.... something I enjoyed years ago when I was in high school and for about 10 years after high school and haven't even thought about.....

Hovering the Futuristic Dragonfly

This little guy came out of thin air....literally.   LOL...

For the alterd art/mixed media group that I participate in we have an upcoming exchange to alter a spoon.....  In the past I have painted one, and did one altered art using Simplicity pattern paper so I didn't want to do either of these....I wanted to do something different.

Last night I went down to my work area and selected a vintage teaspoon that someone had flattened.  (The actual spoon portion only)  When I painted the landscape on one I used a large tablespoon which game me "area" to paint that also had been flattened.

The first thing I did was bend the spoon a few times and then set it on the table in front of me to look at and see if I could see anything....You ask how anyone can see anything in a bent, flattened spoon?   LOL...  I tried several different positions and finally decided the best was to use the flattened portion as the base and to do some sort of a structural piece maybe.  I went back down and came up with a package of medium size and strength wire and began to twist and turn, wrap and cut.....  The next things to go on were... A sew through button, etched sea glass, flat crystals in various sizes,  a magnet and I "THINK" that my little futuristic dragonfly is done....  It will be with me for a week or so until I get my partners name and send so there may....or may not....be future additions and/or changes.  Maybe  I need color....we will see.

Oh,  The blue and white sea glass and the crystals are meant to give the impression of running water such as a stream...with the dragonfly hovering over like a wee helicopter which is where and how I normally see dragonflys....  Last year I got some AWESOME photos of a dragonfly in my dry, dusty, driveway of all places.

So...this is one of my favorite pieces and he is going to be hard to say "goodbye" to.

Copyright 7-13  Diana Putnam

Ye' Yellow Posies

Copyright  7-13    Diana Putnam Photography

Such beautiful yellow flowers that were in a pot but hanging from a shephards hook.  The vine of this plant is intertwined around the  shepards hook and looks so natural and gorgeous not to mention the flowers thmselves.  The buds nearly look like roses and I love the lights and darks in this photo.  Thanks Theresa for letting me snap..... 

LilDawgs Etsy Shop

For  all of you pet lovers out there with little dogs,  or cats; check out the new Etsy site my sister Cindy has opened.   She is the family seamstress, lover of material, especially vintage pieces, and enjoys a little extra money.

In todays mail I rec'd 2 of the coats for Pru and they are just as precious as can be on my little Girl and when I was back in PA she made a Tie coat for a 4 month old Yorkie belonging to my Step Son and daughter in law.... although Steve says NO CLOTHES for the dawg.

So check out her store at:  http://www.lildawgs.etsy.com


Our Male Model is Taz a 4 month old Yorkie who is full of piss and vinegar.

His coat is made from mens neckties.....a neat way to recycle ...  I have some gorgeous ties that I purchased at  Goodwill so I might just have to have her make a coat for Pru using these ties.....  I have had them for ages and it is time for "recycle".....

Garage Sale

This was my husbands' find for me this past weekend as he went out garage saleing on Saturday.  I am going to leave them just as they are for right now.  It is a "should I leave them along, or should I repaint and then distress?"  They kinda just "blend in" and I would love to make them "pop" with a bright rust with some orange and gold highlights...

HEAVY DUTY pieces so they have to be older...nothing is made this sturdy anymore....lol.....  I thin that he paid $10.00 for all 3 pieces.

I have some alternative lighting coming .....  3 lanterns that hang and are solar.....and some butterfly lights that are also solar....

Coming up.....some fun with cigar tins....

Have a good week everyone.

Floral Opening

Copyright  7/13    Diana Putnam

I love having my own flowers growing so that I can go out and play with my camera.

It is a backup camera as my Panasonic is "on the blink" so just as with
everything....it is a learning process and the more I use it the better my
photography will be.  I like this Nikon as it has great detail and color quality but I don't
have the ability to get as close as I would like.  I enjoy the super closeups with the
blurred backgrounds that I can achieve on the Panasonic.....but I had
good photogenic subjects for this shot.  Different colors, degree of flowering, texture in
the bark and the flower centers....a lot is actually "going on".

The Triplets

I wish I could blow this photo up just a bit and turn it....but I  don't know how as this is a phone photo..but it is worth turning your computer for...  A set up triplets that are in "socks";  all boys...and just beautiful little guys.  Jennifer and her new husband now have a total of 10 children (another set of twins...both boys) Seth and Sam who are my daughter and son in laws nephews..  HOW PRECIOUS is this......????  

Altered Art (GLASS) (Transfusion) to be Named and Musing

 This altered "jar" is done and it is called "Transfusion".  
The skeleton head was purchased in a Smoke and News Store here in Bend, OR.  The jar body for him is an oil jar and the other bottle I picked up at a garage sale....based on its' shape. (who knows when or what I paid but I know it wasn't much).

If you note the skeleton bones are visible through the glass bottle which are bones from a plastic skeleton I took a picture of and then copied on to some Crayola clear pieces of some kind I purchased at Goodwill on one of my visits.

The ivy is rooting in the left hand jar and I simply wound it around the skeleton.  In the top part of the skeleton (where I assume a candle would go) I have added an air plant....  

This is another piece which just transpired from the two jars which were done separately and then put together as one.

COPYRIGHT BOTH DESIGNS  7-13  Diana Putnam

This is another piece I am currently working on.....it is NOT done....there is still a lot to do until I can consider her completed.  What is done; and what you see here is permanent....it is all glued down so now it is about 
                             adding components ..... accessories.......jewelry......adornment.... and will be a One of A Kind artistically unique Altered Art Glass Assemblage.  I have no idea at this point in time what it will be titled....



I am finding that I really enjoy the assemblage area of altered art....for some reason I just can't get in to "flat"...but I have learned to never say never... my next piece could be flat as a pancake....a woman artists' perogative... Mind Changing.  So maybe this is what I should call it...  

There is a new consignment store here in the area which consists of antiques and handmade so I think maybe this coming week or when both pieces are done I will take them down and see about "consigning"....  These can't be sent back to the store in PA...so I need an outlet close where I can "drive" my pieces "to sale"....

Next I am going to be doing some Halloween jewelry pieces which will be limited to one of a kinds....and mostly done in brass.  I think that they will be fun, pretty, and fashionably "in taste" for the holiday.  These I will be putting on my Etsy site for sale sometime in August.

And painting....of course.  I bought an item "somewhere" when I was back in PA and I have no idea what the piece
actually is but I am going to do a Terry French design on it....a bit differently than norm.   I believe it is her latest free design listed on her website.   I LOVE Uniquely Different.

So I am working on many different things at the same time.....and yes, I am also knitting a scarf out of alpaca yarn for a Christmas gift.  Soft but nice and warm.?

Prus Ramp

This is my husbands work of art for this week....A ramp up into the bed for Pru.....  today I went back and purchased one more piece of the blue adhesive backed heavy felt squares and I covered the additional 3 wooden rungs.  She goes up and down....simple as a piece of cake....  thinks she's pretty special; as she well is.  Still left to do is make a beginning stabalizer ... for right now it sets atop a vintage suitcase....

Who knows I may need to use it also...........

Decorating or Free Standing Altered Art ...... THAT is the question.

Antique Fun

There are several vintage, antique, unique pieces that I purchased when I was back in PA.... We went to auctions, swap meets, garage sales, estate sales, antique stores, for a wonderful month of fun....but exhausting....   I purchase what I like with nothing special in mind as to what I will exactly do with something..... But anyway to those of you who helped me pack these goodies to come home....Wayne, Theresa, Steve, and of course WHO could forget TAZ .... ( Larry had to build a ramp for her to get up and down from bed.....LOL.....and I will post photo later this week..... but we have to remember she is getting "older" also and needs some "helps"..... lol.)

I will use the wire that is on 2 winding spools towards the top of the wall.....  A neat wooden carving that is attached with suede and is made out of Yew.

Below and to the right are gold scales with the little paddles, and even a drawer beneat them...very intricate and beautiful. which my husband brought me for our 38th anniversary....  A cast iron small rooster that my husband purchased along with about 30 other ceramic roosters...(I have roosters in my kitchen but not a chicken coop) just to get this little one.... a minature sad iron and stand,  another small set of scales,

and the neatest pair of horned rimmed glasses....(I would LOVE to 

have my lenses put in them....would be so "fun"...)  

SPECIFIC.....
Then there is the Buddah type dimensional piece....  I had to replace the leather but other than that a perfect piece.  Beneath the piece was this bit of information taped to the base:  "This ichi-i Wood (named yew=tree in English which has been used as a bow) gets darker in colour with passing of the days and gets bright and shiny.  This wood is hard to crack even if it is under the highest dried condition.  This has an unrwalled beautiful natural grain that has been used practically ingenuously by provincial arts.  

Ichi-i carving which has affluent elegance has been set at a high value at the temple or shrine since three hundred years ago". 

Also if you look closely you will see a pink flamingo.  It has legs that are rods, he stands on one  foot and the base is wood.  To the bottom of this item was attached (each in a tiny little dried out piece of thin plastic). another information piece on the artist.  More about that later this week.

Since taking this photo I have added the photo of the "woman of life" to the right of my lamp and a big something I don't know what it is length wise on the wall adjacent to the wired spools. 

The table everything is setting on was my grandmothers and it was in her seamstress shop...  It was purchased by Larry's aunt Phyllis Connors and she gave it to me the last time we were down there.
It has a very "unique" patina.

AWESOME

This photo is just one of several that I bid on at an auction in PA....and is just Awesome.  Makes you wonder what her life was like, where she lived, how long she lived. etc.     This just HAS to be a photo I paint, use Liquid Graphite in Sepia, or
SOMETHING.... and hopefully I can do a pattern packet ...  she needs to be "shared" and loved by "many"..... and a story to go along with her.

I just have the photo stuck in a frame I picked up at a garage sale in PA ....  I want to find a special frame and cut a mat ... or have one done uptown.  We have a great store where they do a beautiful job with mat and frames....

This woman reminds me of my grandmother who immigrated to the USA from Germany.  The facial expression is priceless as well as the shawl over the head and the simpicity of dress....  Just a price less photo from "yesterday".....

Milk Weed

This is a weed......and I don't remember it ever blooming like this when I lived in PA but I am enjoying it this year and have taken numerous photos ....  It was neat to catch this butterfly and since downloading it appears I have also captured (in photo) some type of a silver bug/spider, unknown to me.  The flowers are very fragrant and I love the round pods before they pop open to flowers...and the double look of the flower with a front and back.  I wish I could fly home for a week this fall and take photos of this plant when it pods out and is filled with hundreds of thin, silky, irridescent white spines with a seed at one end....  I DO remember popping them open in the fall and scattering the seeds everywhere....

Soaking feet Musing

Copyright 7-13    Diana Putnam

Some of the pictures I take ... are just taken "because"as these steps were that lead up from the Seneca Creek/River onto the roadway.  My sister took me down into this area so I could take some pictures....  

What does soaking feet have to do with the picture?  Right now I would absolutely LOVE to be sitting in a comfy chair, with the cold water washing over my hot, aching, overly sensitive, swollen, feet....so my alternative is a roasting pan of ice cubes and water  here in my living room 3000 miles away from "the scene" (Westline, Pennsylvania)  where I give them a "dunk every few minutes to kinda numb them....  The cold packs melt in less than a 1/2 hour so are only useful when I go to bed at night......  RSD is NO fun.... so I must learn how to utilize down time to my best advantage until this flare up is over with.  Who would have ever dreampt that a carpet, a plain ordinary soft but nubby carpet could hurt your feet?  

I call it trigimeninal neuralgia of the feet as one just doesn't know what will trigger some kind of pain, itch,  twitch....LOL.... or when,  how bad, and the length of time till you will be able to walk again with some semblance of normaility.

Out in the kitchen I am working on a glass scupture for somewhere....maybe in my garden...or maybe I will sell it...  The entire sculpture is different shaped and designed clear glass pieces of different sizes and shapes and I am just "letting it happen" as it wants...  When I do get up to walk to the kitchen I can take advantage of a view, some thoughts, check out the unused pieces I have 
laying beside the item....and what I might use....  These glass items will be painted with Folk Art
Gallery Glass.....it is my favorite brand of Glass paint.  After it is done I am going to use an Outdoor Sealer to help preserve and will treat it like the art that it will be and bring inside for the winter months....       I feel very fortunate to enjoy so many hobbies...Knitting, crocheting, painting,  jewelry design, reading, music,  clay, encaustics, photography. mixed media, etc..... many of which help me to divert the pain, or break that chain of pain .... so art is for me is really a non chemically induced pain reliever...  

I know that I owe some emails/convos, etc. so please if this pertains to you....I am thinking of everyone and I will eventually get back into my normal groove....the ole' grey mares she ain't what they used to be...... A vacation past has become a day to day "rest period".

Porch Time

My porch is one of my most favorite places in the summer time,,,but rarely have I used the time to really enjoy it...but this year I am going to do as much as I can on the porch.  Might even sneak in a short nap on the antique swing in the furthest background ..  I just found another long pillow I can put on the bottom for a deepr cushion....  I love to shut my eeys and just use my senses...to smell the flowers, the frehly cut grass, or the smell of short shower...then I hear the birds chirping...the robin is calling for rain... then hearing the sounds...my husband pounding something in the garage, cars going by, the train on its scheduled pass through.  The gentle breeze,moving the swing ever so gently....  Maybe tomorrow.

When I was back East my sister introduced me to a CD by Chris Wilson a blues singer from Rochester, NY... This voice is calmming, jovial, spiritual, done "his way" and so I have a new musical friend and hopefully I will get to meet him....  Maybe I should add this to my "bucket list"....  it wouldn't hurt to "have one"....

I need to add some evening light...some shades for on the left hand open areas.... a rug for the main floor area, talk my husband into painting it the Dark Plum I have visualized.... and some non fu fu wall decor,  tv,  etc....  I have a vintage bookshelf out there to "alter" and since I know what I want to do....I need add it to my to do list with a star for first pieces.....

What a balloon.....

What a surprise when my friend Candace showed up with this magnificent sunflower balloon....with the fans on it blows back and forth .....  and was a "welcome back to the woods" after a months vacation.... We missed our friends and family here in Oregon.

UN - DU Label, Gum, Glue remover

This was the ultimate liquid tool to get off stubborn labels and glue from purchased items and all of a sudden I could not find it anywhere.  There were evidently "problems" with one or more ingredients and it became unavailable in some states (California) and stores began to quit carrying it.

When I was in PA my daughter in law had a bottle and I immediately asked her where she had purchased the item and she directed me to www.un-du.com where I immediately ordered the 3 bottle special.....  NONE of the other products on the market work like Un-Du does and are really just a total waste of money...in my honest opinion and for what its' worth; so I am delighted to have "re-found" this product, ordered and know it is on its way.   It is a product that makes my life a little easier and helps erase the "frustrations" ......

Flying Home

It is time to say goodbyes,  pack suitcases, mail out  "goodies" purchased and think about getting back into the groove once I get home.  I have my container garden to think about and work on,  ideas to work on for the consignment store, revamping my Etsy store....

Less humidity, my own bed, pillow,  etc. sure sounds great...but goodbyes will be hard.

  

In the eye of the "Beholder"

It is hard for me to "understand" why an artist would
berate a form of art.....be it, mixed media, decorative painting, fine art, abstract, photography, sculpture, etc.

I can almost always find one or more positive aspects  in someones' artistic license.  The texture, color, design, etc.   Even if I don't like it .... which is rare.. I respect it for what it has meant to the artist and I would never berate the artists' work....  Even something one doesn't like can be a positive help in their own art. 

TAZ

This 4 month old Yorkie is a TRIP.... and was appropriately named TAZ...... and he is MOST DEFINATELY the quickest little devil I have ever come across.  Our dog Pru is finally just now getting "Used" to Taz and will play only "to a point" and when that point is reached the yipping and yapping begins.  I have been staying 1/2 week at my sisters and the other half with my step son and family so today she has slept nearly all day long....she is exhausted......

Today Taz got his FIRST haircut so I am anxious to see him in person later this week....  He looks like he had a bad dye job as his "ROOTS" are blue white like you see on the top of his head and his ends are black.....

WHAT A DOG.....

Floral Majesty ??

This weed or flower looked so proud and majestic as the branch towered above the rest of the bush.  Right now it hosts little tiny
circular buds and there are about 4 that have flowered open.    I have to check and find out the name of this plant......  I should have known this plant.  Elderberry and back when I was young Elderberry Jelly/Jam was made.  The berries will be a blue/black, tart and not to my liking. 

Vacation is almost over and soon I have to think about packing suitcases, gathering items purchased to send ahead by mail, and saying those dreaded goodbyes.