Abstract Art Making Part 2

It's Friday! TGIF! I'm back with some more adventures in abstract painting on canvas! As you may recall, a few days ago I shared my first attempts at it here on the blog. I thought they turned out decent for my first try, but my favorite was this little guy which I hung in my living room:

I also had these two bigger fellas (still hanging out in my living room): 

I mentioned I wanted to do some more work on the painting on the right, especially adding more white to make it brighter. Well, I covered up some of the darker stormy colors with some white, pink, and gold, and here's where I ended up:

Still crazy and colorful but I think it looks a lot "softer" with the fluffy application of the lighter colors. I'm going to move it into my office along with the other one and see how they feel up there. The upstairs is still pretty chaotic and crazy, so I'm sure this guy will fit right in. :)

I also completed the last smaller canvas I had. (I bought 4 total). I forgot to take any progress pictures - this one went pretty fast because I had a clear inspiration that I wanted to paint this time. I couldn't get this painting out of my head since the other day when I was gathering up inspiration for all of my blank canvases:

That's right. I was in love. I LOVE the colors and pretty much everything about this piece - I even did some more research to find the artist and her other works. The artist is Maurie Hartel, and the painting above can be found here along with some more of her work. Here are even more of her paintings, and here is her Etsy shop. She uses acrylic with a high gloss, which really makes the golds in her paintings shine, and they look absolutely gorgeous! 

Of course, I don't have any high gloss, but I did use acrylics, and here is the painting I whipped up using Maurie's as my muse:

I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Pink is my favorite color, so I had to stick with it! The colors of paint I used were just red, white, gold, and yellow and just did a little mixing.

I thought it would be the perfect balance to the other painting I hung on the wall and decided to hang this one up there too! Perfect for some more pops of color in this room!

Here's how it looks with the chair, which I want to add a bright pillow to, like the Fiesta Floral pillow cover from West Elm I'm currently obsessed with.

Here is a view of the living room from the couch BEFORE I added the newest art edition: 

And here is another view WITH my new artwork added :)

This is what you see as you are entering the house and living room. It's so cheerful and really wakes up the space! That's just my opinion though. Trent tends to think the opposite - He says it's too bright and hurts his eyes. Haha. Oh well. I love the color!

And speaking of color, there is now a bright BLUE vase atop my China hutch:

I think it looks pretty spiffy :) The vase was Trent's mom's that was still in the house when I moved in. It was hiding in a cabinet, so I decided to bring it out and replace the cheapo silver aluminum vase the hydrangeas were in previously. I definitely like the blue better. I was also thinking about getting a white pitcher or glass vase instead, but we'll see. For now I'm really loving the new pops of color in the room.

Quick Update and Some Goals

This will be pretty quick since I've been busy with some other projects and stuff around the house. Just a quick update - We're one step closer with the insurance for the house, crossing our fingers everything goes well. Trent and I have also been talking about what we want to get done with the house this spring and summer. We have a few goals we want to accomplish by the end of summer this year:

1. Get the Hallway finished
2. Fix up the basement
3. Raise the living room floor
4. Fix the foundation

We'll be dealing a lot with structural issues which is kind of scary, but hopefully we can get it all accomplished and the house will be 100 times better when we're done. The foundation is the biggest thing that needs to be taken care of, and once that's all done, we can renovate two other biggies - the bathroom and kitchen. The first thing we'll have to do with that is get some quotes on what needs to be done and how much it will cost. One step at a time though...

Decor Items I'm Loving for Spring

Happy first day of Spring! But seriously...if you look outside...where the heck is it? The warm weather needs to be here already! Who else is with me here? Here in Illinois, it's still Freezing outside. This has to be the worst March weather-wise we've had here in a while. I'm still looking ahead though and thinking SPRING! Can't wait for spring cleaning, t-shirt weather, breezy open windows, and getting some things done outside!

On to decor though. I'm really feeling bright, fun pops of color this spring! I'm starting to add some more color in our living room, and bright, colorful accessories are the way to go with a bunch of neutral colored furniture, walls, and flooring. Here are a few decor items I'm loving right now for this season.

COLORFUL PILLOWS:
I'm a little obsessed with colorful pillows right now. These in particular. They are the perfect way to add a little punch of color and fun in a space.

1.2.3.

1. This pillow is from a website called Society6. If you haven't visited it, you really should. I discovered it recently (can't remember how - I think it was from Pinterest). There are so many different styles of pillows and prints, you are bound to find at least one that strikes you. I'm loving the abstract pillows. They're just so colorful and vibrant. This design is called Pie for Breakfast by Emily Rickard.
2. West Elm has the prettiest floral print pillow covers right now, new for Spring! I'm actually thinking about getting the Fiesta Pillow Cover for the chair that's right under the new artwork I made in the living room. I think it would help balance it out a little and love the watercolor/painted feel of the print.
3. This last pillow is another one from Society6 that I love. It's really similar to the first one because it's another abstract print by the same artist, but I really love it! This one is Asking for Directions by Emily Rickard. I obviously love your work, Emily!


TURQUOISE:
All of these turquoise items are from Z Gallerie. I couldn't resist their new turquoise stuff. It's just so bright and cheerful and will pop in any space.

1.2.3.

1. Faux coral as accents is big this season. I saw some at Kohls and Marshall's in the past couple of weeks that I seriously debated about taking home but sadly couldn't think of a place for them. I wish I had amazing built-ins I could style and put them in. I'm still thinking about the bright jungle green colored one I found at Marshall's...it was drool worthy. These faux turquoise coral can be found here.
2. This turquoise garden stool would make any porch pop! I would die to have this baby for our porch but almost feel ours is not worthy of such greatness. Get this garden stool here.
3. I LOVE this globe. If I owned a globe, it would probably be this one. It's just so classy and sophisticated. I want it for my office! Globe found here.

CERAMIC FRIENDS:
These ceramic animals aren't exactly colorful, but what can I say...I'm kind of obsessed. Here's a few I think would be pretty awesome to own.

1,2.3.

1. These dachshund bookends were from a Joss and Main event found here. I love these kind of bookends! I remember seeing an alligator one too. I think it might be a cool idea if somebody DIY'ed something like this, maybe by sawing a rubber toy in half or something? I don't know, I still wish I had a fantabulous bookcase I could put cool stuff like this in. So envious!
2. This sculptural sea horse is from the Jonathan Adler site here. I love that it's mounted on a silver plate. It looks all fancy.
3. This ceramic horse is from Target. I love when I go to Target and find new ceramic animals, like my beloved dog that Sherry from YHL signed. The best part is that they're cheap, and they look like they're so much more special than just a Target find!

So this is just a sampling of items I'm digging right now...wish I could own them all, but one can only dream, right? Plus, I'm not exactly sure that owning all of these decor items would be necessary or practical. What do you think? Maybe I'll just choose one...Ha.

Abstract Art Project

As I've already mentioned, I bought some cheap canvases recently because I've been wanting to create some art. Not time-consuming, planned out art, but more quick, spontaneous pieces to brighten up the house a little bit. Last week, I shared some of the art that was inspiring me in This Post. For a quick recap, here are a few of the paintings I had been drawn to (Check out the linked post for the sources of where I found them):

It seemed pretty clear I wanted to paint an abstract creation! I was really feeling the colorful, crazy, experimental vibe. So this past weekend, I laid out my supplies and got to work.

You'll have to excuse the poor lighting in these pictures, as I painted at night. And I don't have a lot of space for these kinds of projects in my house, so my work space was the living room floor with a bunch of newspapers set down because I can get messy sometimes. :)

I had a total of four canvases (2 packs of 2 each) that I got on sale at Hobby Lobby - 2 11"x14" canvases, and 2 8"x10" ones. I just used a set of basic acrylic paints that I already had. Oh, and I should mention that I was an art major in college. Except I had a graphic design concentration (with a minor in art history), so I didn't take very many painting courses! I am pretty much a beginner at paint and canvas art.

When I began the project, I actually remembered that Sherry at Young House Love had done some abstract paintings, so I immediately looked her tutorial up. (Here it is - I love how I can always seem to find inspiration from their blog for every project I take on!) I used her tips and techniques in addition to those that I had already found. Here's how my first painting started out:

I worked really small, blocking out sections of similar shades to create "clusters" of colors. I really like the white, bright look of my painting at the beginning, but I continued to add colors and layers until I ended up here:

It turned out to be quite the colorful and crazy piece! I'm not sure about this one yet, so I think I'm going to brighten it up a bit and add some more whites and light colors to it, because I'm not feeling how dark and stormy it is! So I'm calling this one unfinished for now...I think next time I will block out the entire canvas in white or gray, since I seem to be drawn to whiter, brighter paintings!

After the first one, I moved onto the second, where I tried a different technique. I just brushed on a color and scattered strokes all over the canvas. Then started on another color and did the same thing. I tried to keep the colors light and airy and added more water than I usually do, except for the parts where I wanted the bright red color to stand out.

Here's what it looked like when I started:

And here's where I ended up:

I like this one better than the first, because the colors make me happy. I like how you can see every brush stroke. I think I'm hanging this one in my office!

Here are my two larger canvases together:

For the third canvas (a smaller one), I was pretty experimental in my technique, and only used 3 colors - red, white, and blue. I added a lot of white in some places, and a lot of water to create a "washed" effect in some areas - almost like a watercolor painting. Here's where I started:

And here's the finished piece:

I really like this one! I think it might be my favorite of the three so far. In fact, I hung it on the living room wall - Sorry about the camera phone picture - I took it late at night:

It really brings a pop of color to the space. I plan on adding something else that's colorful to balance it out a little bit. Although Trent's not too fond of that idea and thinks it's colorful enough. Pssh. Color hater. :p

I haven't started on my fourth canvas yet. Not sure what I will do for the next one. Here are the three paintings I did so far together:

The first one seems too angry to me..maybe it's the black and the dark shades of green and red, I don't know. But I definitely will make it brighter I think! And share the final result. :)

This was a fun project for me. I never create artwork for fun anymore..it needs to happen more often. I have another crafty project I want to try though, and I need to buy some supplies for it. I can't wait to try it! It involves....MOD PODGE. I've never used Mod Podge before in my life. I think I found a nice easy "beginner" project though, that I'm excited about. And I just might do it this weekend. Stay tuned!

P.S.- Linked up at Tatertots and Jello link party! Check it out!

  

Where I Come From

To explain where I'm from, I think I'll leave it up to John Mellencamp (who's from Seymour, Indiana by the way - thanks, Google!):

Well I was born in a small town

And I live in a small town...

No I cannot forget where it is that I come from

I cannot forget the people who love me

Yeah, I can be myself here in this small town

And people let me be just what I want to be

Those words really hit home for me. Literally. I'm from a really small town - a township actually. I'm not even sure it has an official population. I'm from the cornfields and sunsets of Western Illinois, and not too far from Mississippi River on the border of Illinois and Iowa. This is the house where I grew up:

(Image courtesy of Google Maps)

I lived here the first 22 years of my life, and my parents still live here today. It's nice to "come home" every time I go there to visit.

I have too many memories to count from here. My sister and I used to ride our bikes around in circles in the driveway because we weren't allowed to go into the road until we were older.

Here's us in the backyard at the picnic table. Weren't we cute?

Sometimes I miss little things like the sunsets I used to see out my bedroom window....

And the leaves on the gingko tree in the backyard....

Another house that has a lot of meaning for me is my grandparents' house. My dad is a farmer. He's farmed his whole life. He grew up in this house...

(Image courtesy of Google Maps)

It's where he still farms today. It's only about a mile and a half down the road from my parents' house, and when my sister and I were younger, we went here with my dad everyday in the summer when we were on our summer break from school. My dad and grandpa would do their farming during the day while my grandma watched us. She would watch "her stories" - usually All My Children - while Haley and I would find ways to entertain ourselves by drawing, riding bikes, playing with Barbies, coloring, using our imagination, or just talking with my grandma. We would watch The Price is Right and talk shows with her. Sometimes we would all cook or make crafts together. This house is home to many memories for us.

Every once in a while my dad would give us all rides through the corn field in the golf cart. Here's me and my dad at my grandma's on the cart when I was just a little kid:

I loved growing up in the country and wouldn't change a thing. Now I live in another small town about 45 minutes away from where I grew up. I didn't move too far, as you can see. :)

(Map from here)

It's a little bigger than the town I'm from. We had a fire station, a bank, a church, a post office/feed store, a town hall, and a meat locker. That's it.

Now I live in a town of around 800 people, and a lot more houses than I'm used to living on my little street on the county line. Not only is there multiple churches, there's gas stations and a Subway restaurant, a couple of bars...there even used to be a grocery store. Not anymore though. :)

I still have views of country roads and corn fields on my way to work in the morning. In the summer in Illinois, little purple wildflowers spring up alongside of the road and it looks so pretty on a sunny day.

It makes me really glad that I still live in the country and get to see all of the beauty that surrounds us everyday.

 

Even though I like visiting big cities and always say I want to move closer to the city, I never want to leave the feel of a small town that I've had my whole life. I really wouldn't trade my life in small town Illinois for anything.