Summer Beach Scenery Painting

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Abstract Waves Painting by PRISARTS

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Viva Las Ruched Bikinis!

It's summer time in Las Vegas, which means POOL PARTIES!!! At one of Las Vegas' newest hotspots, "The Beach Club" at Encore hotel, there's a new bikini in town. Ruched Brazilian bikini bottoms! They are super cute and super sexy, made with only one purpose in life, to flatter. With its specially designed cut and make to enhance and lift your bottoms, this will definitely be "the" investment swimsuit.

Have a fab San Diego summer,

xoxo- Addie

TROPICAL ISLAND

This is a commissioned piece for Larry and Lyn B. It was done in acrylic and oil using 24 x 36 inches stretched canvas.

Day of the Dead "The Fisherman"

Painted on 11x14 canvas board. Day of the Dead "The Fisherman" on the ocean with his beau. Check art on Ebay

Loving Hawaii

Here is a painting i made inspired by the beautiful beaches here in Hawaii. There are so many art galleries here too and hundreds of great artists. Visiting different galleries of marine artists and seeing their artworks makes me want to run back our place and start painting.

This is painted on 11x14 inches canvas panel board.
Check art on Ebay

Snow Geese

This morning mother nature treated us to a rare sight ... a flock of snow geese bobbing in the waves.
Through the years we've occasionally seen these regal fowl flying along the shoreline in their migration north.
This is the first time we've ever seen them in the water. There is a strong wind from the northwest. I guess they got tired of flying headlong into it and decided to paddle north for a bit.
I kept waiting to take a photo of them taking off the water, but they just kept paddling.

Adding to the Flock

By the end of the day, Tuesday, there were six birds from my pattern adding to the flock at large. Five are pictured here ... the sixth one flew home with its maker, Helen.
My husband's two cousins and their wives were visiting the cottage for a few days. My friend, Helen, came to spend the day playing in the studio with us.
Just before Helen left I took this photo of her and the cousin's wives birds. My bird had not progressed very far during the day due my hostess duties and helping each of them with unfamiliar machines as well as some of the steps involved in creating their birds. Poor thing had no feet, wings, nor eyes.
By the end of the day he got his cow bird wings to become the MaCowCowa bird. He found his roosting place on the ledge above the wood-burning stove in the living room.
My husband and I created the tile mosaic in 1999 to make a fire proof barrier for the heat generated by the chimney. Elvis is peering out of the top of Big Red, the lighthouse.

If you'd like to add to the flock at large in the world, the pattern and instructions are downloadable PDF files that you can print. They are found here (pattern)and here (instructions). To see a lot of other birds and more instruction photos click on the "Birds" label at the end of this post. If you make a bird, please share it with me.

Weird Weather Brings Wonderful Sunsets

There were rain storms and high winds coming off the lake up through 7:30 this evening. The bright sunshine at the horizon brought me to the livingroom window.
I took the above photo from that window. Stepped out the door and took this one less than a minute later.
By the time I got down the steps and the path to the deck overlooking the beach this part of the world was treated to a glorious sunset.
I love the horizon clouds reflected in the big shoreline puddle that is created by the extraordinarily high water table in the ground. Every once in a while I have a concern that some of my lake series quilts are too colorful. Sunsets like this are a confirmation that they're not "over the top" unrealistic ... that my memories and feelings about the lake are grounded in real moments scattered through many years of visual experiences.

Those big thunderheads in the distance will most likely bring more severe weather during the night. Time for an extra blanket. Last night even just a sheet was too much cover.

Strange Weather

Since we had arrived a week ago today, there have been the strangest weather systems coming from the west across the lake. There most definitely are a few lake series quilts that will result from the tremendous storms we've experienced.

Several of us took photos trying to capture the magnificence and feeling of this approaching storm on Sunday.
Our son, Kemper, was the most successful with his new, wide angle digital camera. There was much lightening in this fast approaching rolling wave of clouds. Of the many shots taken, this is the only one that captured a streak.
At the point in the photo below we vacated the deck overlooking the beach with a fast retreat into the cottage. We thought surely there would be water spouts (tornadoes over water) dipping down from these rolling cloud banks, but we didn't spot any.
Soon after getting inside the cottage we were under the edge of that storm. It took about twenty minutes from the time we noticed that strange bank of clouds on the horizon until this point.
This photo was taken that same Sunday morning after the huge thunder storm the night before.
The inner lake that connects to Lake Michigan via the channel with the big red lighthouse had flooded the road. My husband has been coming here for over seventy years and has never seen this phenomenon. Once in a while there has been a big puddle over one side of the road, but never a flood.

It has rained in every twenty-four hour period since we've arrived. The temperatures have varied greatly, too. One minute it's so hot we can hardly stand it. The next we may be looking for sweaters, socks and long pants to keep warm.

I just finished getting my studio in order and machines set up. I may even get some work done on the mountain lake piece today. But first, I've got to go find some socks and put on a sweat shirt.

Macatawa

Thank all of you for the comments about our fun cottage furniture. There is one painted piece in our Tennessee condo. It's an art piece by Jan Miller, a funky tiered end table from the 1950's painted with lizards.

We have fun painted furniture here at Macatawa because this is a summer cottage. Most of the furniture is cast-off by previous generations of family or purchased at thrift or resale shops. It would be mighty dreary if these pieces were not jazzed up. Besides, my husband and I want to present a fun summer retreat to our family and friends. This greets our visitors. It is hours of driving to get here from anywhere. Our sentiment is printed over the bank of windows in the livingroom.

This place is filled inside and out with whimsy, humor, and art. We encourage all who come to play and create. We are most pleased that our nephew, Peter, has honored us with a number of painted surfaces. Here's the storage closet doors he painted just after he returned from years in Poland where he received his masters in art from the University in Warsaw.

"The Baba Cupboard"

Then there are ongoing projects, such as this mirror. It is decorated with found, broken, or left over objects from projects.We consider ourselves to be this generations caretakers of a place that has been magical for so many people throughout the years. Our grandchildren are the fifth generation.
We invite you to view an album of photos about the cottage and our typical activities. It is posted in the sidebar. Just click on the photo of the cottage quilt. Pictures are worth a 1000 words. However, I've included captions.

Painted Furniture

Several days ago Martha posted about a delightful piece of furniture painted by her sister. The polka dots prompted me to write about the sideboard in our cottage dining room.My friend, Alicia, and I painted it last summer. First we applied a hand-made paper and then had fun with acrylic paints, sponge brushes, and marking pens.In the fall I decided to add polka dots and stripes to the ten dining room chairs.My husband, Lee, had painted parts of them various colors about 20 years ago.
To view other pieces of furniture painted by Alicia and me in my studio go here. All the painted pieces are finished with two coats of acrylic medium.

A Real Sunset

These photos were taken less than an hour ago. I noticed the sky was getting more beautiful and intense after the sun had gone down at 9:30. This first picture was taken through the trees as I walked down the stairs from the the livingroom.
When I got out to the deck overlooking the beach ...
and then it kept getting more intense.
So, the many colors I put into my lake quilts are not so far fetched. It's the culmination of seeing hues like this on the lake for 40 plus years that I draw from within myself when making each quilt in this series.

Lake Series, The Beginning

I've been pondering with awe about Paula creating 100 clocks for Art Socket. It's difficult to comprehend making that many art pieces of the same thing. But it got me to wondering and has made me curious about what I could learn from that sort of experience. Consequently, I've begun a series of lake scenes using my ortwork technique.

Lake #1 - 13"x8"- 2007

This is a personal challenge to see how far I can go before feeling burnt out on the subject. A number of pieces, about 30 or so, featuring my beloved Lake Michigan have already been made in the sunset, beach scenes, and Postcards from Michigan series. In this one I want to portray the lake in its many moods ... just as every day it's different from the one before ... as is every hour ... and every minute.
There will hardly be a dent made in the bags of scraps I've saved and gotten from other people. I'm also purposely using recycled materials for the whole project. I have old drapes and lots of home decorator fabric samples from interior decorator friends for backings. The batting is cut from old army blankets that we no longer use at the cottage. They were brought back from the war by Lee's uncles.

This brings me back to my initial intent when I first began quilting. I intended to use only fabric samples of which I had a lot from my mother's-in-law shop and recycled fabrics. At the time I wondered why fellow quilter's looked aghast and hooted at me. It didn't take long to find out why. A quilter in a fabric store is akin to a kid in a candy shop. For the last two years I've been pretty good about resisting the temptation to shop. If you've looked at the posting "Studio South" you've seen the supply that's been purchased and read about the containers full under the cutting table. If I lived another lifetime, I wouldn't run out. So, here I am using scraps/orts ... not just mine, but other peoples as well.

Beach Ball Shoe

Making shoes began as something fun to do in the studio while my friend, Alicia, was here in Tennessee for a visit. We had decided to make small quilts as Christmas presents for our mutual friends. Both of us made contributions to each of those six quilts. They were much like the boot one that I had made for my sister.

They were such fun that I continued making a bunch more. All were based on the silouette of a shoe designed by Christian Louboutin, a Parisian shoe designer. He paints all the soles of his shoes red.. The first shoe I made that ended up in the large quilt, "Imelda's Dream" was this one.


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Postcards From Michigan

Initially, I wasn't going to partake in this project of exchanging postcards within my Thursday Bee group in Tennessee. I didn't want to "jump on the bandwagon" of the so many quilters making postcards. However, I had a ball making six series of 4 featuring differing kinds of days, or time of day for the lake that I live with in Michigan.
The beach scene at the top was my inspiration to feature Lake Michigan as my subject.
I used the layered curves technique that I have previously described in this post.
I created four in each series for two reasons. First, because I needed so many (only 10 for the exchange, but then there were friends I wanted to share these with). Second, I set a personal challenge to see how I could vary each one within the limitations of using the same fabrics for each series. Plus, I kept getting inspired by the lake or by discovering a fabric in my stash that I hadn't even considered previously.
Here I was working on a stormy sunset. Or maybe it's the reflected sunrise effect that we woke up to one morning while a storm was over us, but not way out on the lake.
TADA! Here's my collection of postcards from the exchange that took place today.
My plan is to make a mobile of these little gems to hang in my studio. I like having the creative energy of my friends in my space.

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Art Share Meme

I'm participating in this fun way to share art among bloggers. I was the fifth commentor on Albedo Design's weblog and will be receiving an art piece from "arlee".
I don't know where this idea originated but if you'd like to partake, be one of the first five people to respond to this in my comments section and you will receive a piece of my artwork. It will be one of the postcards I made of my beloved Lake Michigan.

If you are one of my friends who have already received one of these, please restrain from being among the first 5 to respond. Also, if you respond you have to post this to your blog too and continue sharing the art.

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The Land of OZ

Frank Baum summered in our community, Macatawa. He had a cottage just down the beach next door to a little girl named Dorothy. It is said that this area was the inspiration for the land of Oz in his story "The Wizard of Oz". There were many, and are still a few, brick walks and roads that reflect gold when the sun hits them just right. The brick path to our deck overlooking the beach is gold only a few days in mid-September when the sun sets directly in front of us.
I don't have a digital photo taken in any of the woods of this area in which you really do feel you are in an Emerald Forest. The canopy is very high, the floor is quite open and the light is greenish. We have many huge old Beechnut trees as well as a lot of Maple and Oak trees. I think the undergrowth is limited because this sand dune country, meaning that the sands shift and the young growth has a difficult time getting established.
Our bedroom reflects the "Land of Oz". It's on the third floor and the peak of the roof is our ceiling. To lighten it up I had painted a sky on foam core and decoupaged hot air balloons to it. This gave my husband the idea to float paper balloons from the ceiling. Each one is themed. There's the ol' coot balloon (includes Santa and Ghandi), Garfield and his friends, blond-blue-eyed-bimbos (not saying who all is in that one), old bags (Queen Victoria and Mona Lisa are two passengers), Elvis has his own, and of course there's one for Dorothy and her friends, as well as a number of other balloons that have flown out into the hallway. The room is also decorated with Oz figurines and cows (our cottage is called MaCowCowa).
The quilt I made for our bed looks like it belongs on a bed in the Emerald City. Sorry I couldn't get a full view photo of it. I hung it on the curtain rod for the large window that overlooks the lake to get this one.It features many of the stack'n wack pieces that were made from the border fabric. I had purchased just one repeat (6 layers) and made about 150 various sized circles that have been used in quite a few projects and I still have some left. Note the curved corner. The quilt has a knife edge finish. I chose to make circles out of the hexagons because I love (and have collected) kalaidoscopes.
The hand quilted stitches in the circles and border are wrapped with metalic thread. I had written about the this technique in a previous posting, "The Whipped Quilting Stitch".This is as much of the back side of the quilt as I could get in a photo with it on the bed ... about a quarter of it. As you can see, I like to piece the backs. Quilts are sculptural to me and the the back is just as important as are the fronts. Also, I had thought maybe I'd display this side up once in awhile, but never have.

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