Knocking on Heaven's Door....

A group of Paris photos...I love old doors and hardware.

Still sketching, and planning more Paris paintings.

sheltongail@hotmail.com

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.

sheltongail@hotmail.com

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.

sheltongail@hotmail.com

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!!

sheltongail@hotmail.com

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!

sheltongail@hotmail.com

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

sheltongail@hotmail.com

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

sheltongail@hotmail.com

(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

stuff: www.nanaluluslinens.com

sheltongail@hotmail.com

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!

sheltongail@hotmail.com

"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.

sheltongail@hotmail.com

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.

sheltongail@hotmail.com

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

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!

sheltongail@hotmail.com

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....

sheltongail@hotmail.com

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!

sheltongail@hotmail.com

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.

sheltongail@hotmail.com

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.

sheltongail@hotmail.com

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.

sheltongail@hotmail.com

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)

sheltongail@hotmail.com

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

sheltongail@hotmail.com

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.

sheltongail@hotmail.com