Saturday, June 27, 2009

Knocking on Heaven's Door....









A group of Paris photos...I love old doors and hardware.
Still sketching, and planning more Paris paintings.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Poodles and Paris


Just sketching a little...trying to get some ideas for
some cute Paris paintings. Have seen lots of stuff like
this...with pink, black, and white patterns, zebra stripes,
etc. Will try to get some color on these sketches, and
firm up something.
Would still like to give away a photo collage..just leave a
comment or email me. You can send me the photo, and
I will do a custom job for you. You can see the example
a few posts back. I will draw a winner on July 4th.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

ShowTime Again....



There is a juried show hosted by the Natchitoches Art
Guild every summer. I have entered this show for a long
time. I always look forward to it. I have won some prestigious
awards in the past, and the show has been very good for me.
These are my entries this year. The two watercolors are from
the Paris trip, and the New Orleans jazz player is a colored pencil.
I am still giving away a free custom photo collage, just leave me
a comment or email me. I will draw the name of the winner on
July 4th.

Monday, June 22, 2009

500th post...Giveaway Time

This is my 500th post on my blog! wow! So in honor of so
much "Art of the Day", I am going to give away a photo collage
on canvas. The winner will provide a photograph, and I will
do the collage for free! This is an example of cutie Mattie Claire.
I will combine decorative paper, paint, etc, and the photo on a 9 x 12
canvas ready to hang. To enter, simply leave me a comment or
email me. I will draw the winning name on July 4th.
I taught a collage class today, and my students did really well.
They enjoyed cutting and pasting all kinds of paper, photos,
beads, shells, etc. to their canvases. If I get a chance, I will post
some photos of them.
Remember, leave a comment or email me to enter the give-away.
Good Luck!!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

One Step Closer




As most of you know, our daughter is getting married in
the fall. We just had a weekend together in Dallas to find
a flower girl dress for Jessica, and shoes for all! Our
mission was accomplished...with style. Jessica will be a
beautiful addition to the wedding party, and she is very
excited. And we are all one step closer!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Good Day in the Gallery



"Collage" is French, and I believe it means to piece
together/glue down. I have enjoyed doing some
collages lately. The top two, the sunflowers, sold
today in the gallery. They were framed nicely, and
will make a nice addition to the woman's home.
The other collage is a page from my Paris sketchbook,
that I pieced together when I returned. It has ticket
stubs, labels, magazine photos, etc. Anyone can do this
genre of art...if you can cut and paste, you can "collage".
I am teaching a collage workshop on the 22nd of this month.
It will be at the gallery in Winnfield, from 5-7 pm in the
evening, after work. If you would like to come and enjoy
a simple and rewarding artform, create something for
yourself or someone else, enjoy the company of other
potentially creative people, call the gallery and register!
Collage Workshop Monday June 22 5-7 pm Pea Patch Gallery
Winnfield, LA 318-628-3560



Tuesday, June 16, 2009

To flip or to flop








I have abandoned painting Paris for the beach...or
at least beach-wear. After I did the cute little flower
canvases, I thought these colorful flip flops would be
fun. They are 12 x 12 on canvas, and I am planning
to hang them with some funky ribbon. Anyway, they
would look great in a kid's room or sunroom...or at
the beach house.
That is the trouble with us creative folks. We get
inspired by lots of things, and go off in all kinds of
directions. I think I have mentioned this here before...
difficulty staying focused. I will be back with the
Paris stuff for the show in the fall soon....now that I
have square bright colored canvases out of my system.
Maybe I will paint some Paris ones...that would be
best!
Original Flip Flop Canvases 12 x 12 $45 each
(check out the comment on the Cafe post...
hilarious)


Here's Looking at you, Cafe









We have been working this spring on sprucing up
our cafe at the gallery. We are about finished now,
and I thought I would post a couple of pics. Our
building is 101 years old this year, and was originally
a hardware store. We have been open 17 years this
August, and the cafe has been operating for 15 years.
Yes, that is a truck in the cafe...it belonged to my
brother, and we put it in the shop about 4 years ago.
We just moved it into the cafe, and we love it there.
The back is full of kitchen merchandise and cookbooks;
it is a great conversation piece.
If you are in or around
Winnfield, you need to come by and eat lunch with us.
We are open from 11-2 Monday thru Friday.
As for the rest of you, we package up our famous black-eyed
peas (the dry peas + seasoning) and we can ship them to
you for you to cook at home. Only $3.00 a bag!
Bon appetit!
A shout-out to Nana Lulu's linens...we bought the
vintage tablecloths from them. They have really neat

Monday, June 15, 2009

Quilted Flowers

A little escape for me...I have had this colorful quilt
in the shop for awhile. I was not busy at all on Saturday,
so I did these 3 little canvas paintings to match this
quilt. I used flowers I found in the fabrics. Anyway,
I can do this sort of thing, if you have a quilt, or some
fabric, or just a color scheme, I can do paintings to
match it. These are on the 9 x 12 deep canvases, and
are decorated on the edges, too. I think they would be
really cute hung with ribbon. Anyway, I am planning
to do some more, some Paris motifs, flip flops, etc...
Let me know if I can do something custom for you!

Saturday, June 13, 2009

"Tiger Woods"

This is the finished "Riddle Pic" titled "Tiger Woods".
It is headed for the Colored Pencil Society of America's
annual convention to be held in Atlanta, GA in early
August. It will be auctioned off there.
I debated about the wood names at the bottom...I asked
my husband what the three most common woods were
and he said: oak, pine, and cedar. Then I went online, and
looked at some more, and decided they needed the word
"wood" in them, so viewers would be saying the word
when they read them...to give them a better chance at
guessing the riddle. So I named them Maplewood,
Cottonwood, and Rosewood. Those names happen to
mean something to me. Maplewood is the name of the
street where one of my favorite aunts lives; Cottonwood
is the English word for the Spanish word Alamo; (you know
I grew up in San Antonio) and I have another relative whose
last name is Wood, and when they knew they were having a
little girl..they joked around about naming her Rose.
So, just some more added fun to the pun.

Winner, Winner, Eiffel Tower

As my first official give-away, this original watercolor
goes to Karla Milhollen! We drew her name today at the
gallery, and I will make sure she gets it.
Congratulations, Karla!
I will plan to give away some more art soon, so stay
tuned.
I will have some more of the Paris Sketchbooks for sale,
too. They are $60.00, and I will ship them to you free.
Just let me know if you would like one.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Tiger by the Tail


Still working on this tiger for the CPSA convention.
I just have to add the wood grain boxes across the
bottom, and we will have "Tiger Woods" (ha!)

I haven't gotten any suggestions for any more
"Riddle Pics": word puzzles with an animal
Example: Bear foot, horse cents, baseball bat,
spider lily, goose bump, elephant ears, etc.
I have a list of about 35 possibles, and I have
drawn over 50 already.

This one will be auctioned off in a silent auction
in Atlanta, GA in August at the CPSA convention.

sheltongail@hotmail.com

Thursday, June 11, 2009

A Tiger Break from Paris

I started on this tiger drawing...it will be a
"Riddle Pic" when finished. "Tiger Woods"
will be the title. I am going to add some strips
of different types of wood across the bottom.
Welcome to Karla, my new follower! She was
a student of mine back in the day...and quite
an artist herself. Bonjour Karla!

Tiger Woods

As many of you know, I do a series of colored pencil
drawings I call "Riddle Pics"; they combine an animal
and an object to form a word puzzle or pun. I am a
signature member of the Colored Pencil Society, and their
annual convention is in Atlanta this summer. I have been
asked to donate a drawing for their silent auction to be
held at the convention (not really an honor...140 are
donating!) Anyway, I am going to do a "riddle pic":
Tiger Woods. this is the tiger photo I am using, and I
will draw some wood grain sections: oak, ash, pine, etc..
I have to have it finished soon, so will start on it tonight.
If you would like to suggest some ideas for a "riddle pic",
I will send you a "Riddle Pic" calendar for 2010. (I had
them printed in 2003, but they will be good again next
year!!ha!) Anyway, just leave me a comment and a
shipping address. Remember, it has to be an animal,
and the object needs to be a noun...something I can
draw! Get to thinking....

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

More Metro...

I am still working on doing some elaborations to
the existing sketchbook. This is one of the remaining
two Metro stations with the original Art Noveau,
wrought iron and glass canopy entrances. They were
designed by Hector Guimard. This one is the Abbesse
station, in the heart of Montmartre. The organ grinder
was already done in the sketchbook, and I added the
watercolor. Still have a few more pages to do.
There are 6 names in the hat for the watercolor
give-away...we will draw a name this Saturday.
It is not too late to enter...with those odds, you have
a great chance!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Another page for Virginia

Still working on pages in the little sketchbook for my
friend Virginia. On this page, I did the watercolor;
the line drawing was already there.

Art from the Heart

One of the ladies that travels with me is very special.
She is well into her eighties, and as spunky as ever.
I adore her, and she always brightens my time on the
trips.
One of her friends bought this little sketchbook for her
before the trip. It is a published book of Fabrice Moireau's
lovely drawings and watercolors of Paris. And she
wanted me to add to it as an additional gift to her. So,
tonight, I added this bicycle drawing to one of the
blank pages (it has several throughout, to let you add
your thoughts and artwork). I plan to do several more
little original snip-its to personalize this keepsake for her.
Don't forget to register for the give-away; the Paris
painting will be given away this Saturday during my
watercolor workshop. That reminds me...I have a
workshop schedule for the summer art classes. I believe
it is on the website: www.peapatchgallery.com or you
can let me know, and I can snail mail one to you.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

the Bosque Conservatory show





In the little town of Clifton, Texas, there is the Bosque
Conservatory. They sponsor a very prestigious juried
show every year. They have several catagories: drawings,
watermedia, pastel, etc. These are three of my five entries:
a pastel ("Rock and Roll"); a pencil drawing ("Retirement");
and the watercolor ("Road Warrior"). Will have to let you
know if any of them get in.
I am still planning to give away the Eiffel Tower painting.
You need to leave me a comment and tell me you would like
to enter. We will draw the winner on June 13th.
Go to www.bosqueconservatory.com to see info about the
show.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Sketchbooks are Here!

When I return from my painting trips, I do a
printed copy of my sketchbook journal that I painted
during the trip. This one is from my Paris trip. It
is brown leather, and 42 pages. It includes many of
my watercolors, pen & ink drawings, and photographs
from my journey to France, as well as some thoughts
and observations. I am selling them for $60.00, and will
ship them to you free! Please let me know if you are
interested.
(I also have a really neat one from the Costa Rica trip if
you would like that, too! It's $45.00)


Thursday, June 4, 2009

Show Time



There are always a lot of juried shows in the Fall that
I usually enter. The deadlines are approaching quickly.
These two photographs are going to be in the Contemporary
Artist's Guild show at the Alexandria Museum this summer.
The top one is a photo of some huge leaves that had fallen
in a pond in Costa Rica. I stood on a bridge over them and
captured the reflections in the water as well as the leaf
patterns. The second one is taken from behind a huge
waterfall that I managed to squeeze behind. The water
was roaring down just a few feet from me, and I was
damp from the spray. I can still hear the roar when I
look at this photo. I had a visitor in the gallery awhile back,
and they were from Costa Rica. He told me that an
earthquake had struck the area around the waterfall, and
the entire face of the cliff had fallen off. The waterfall had
completely changed, and the event killed and injured
several people. It makes me very sad; for the people
and for the circumstances. But I am glad that I was able
to take some of the last photos of this beautiful scene.
Photos on Canvas 30 x 40 $400.00 each

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Eiffel Tower Giveaway

I was talking to a friend today, and she suggested
I ought to do a giveaway on the blog, so here goes.
This is an original watercolor that I painted while
in Paris. It is matted in a 8 x 10 mat, ready for
framing in a standard frame.
To be eligible for this free painting, leave me a
comment with your contact info, and I will have
my employees at the gallery do a drawing from the
names on lucky June the 13th. I will send the
painting to the winner!
I will try to start giving away something every
couple of weeks, so keep coming back! I look forward
to hearing from you.
Original Watercolor Free! Post a comment to get your
name in the hat.