My Sister and I Go Full Circle with Our Art

My Sister, Melanee Herrera, of Williamsport, PA, painting in her studio during my visit in 08/09.

After being estranged from most of my family for the last ten years, I reconnected with them in 11/08. I noticed how much my sister had changed, thanks to applying the spiritual principals of Eckhart Tolle's, "The Power of Now," to her life. She told me about, "The Law of Attraction," and how she is now focused on what she wants rather than what she doesn't want. I'd heard about these books before, but hadn't taken them to heart. It made me sit up and take notice, because her life had obviously changed for the good.

               Me happily painting in my sister's studio.

During the conversation, she reminded me of the oil paintings I had done as a teen. I'd taken summer art classes at Bucknell University, in Lewisburg, PA, where our Mother worked as a secretary. As a child, I had always loved art and my Mother encouraged all of her kids to draw, paint and make crafts throughout our childhood. But somewhere along the way, for reasons unknown to me, I stopped painting, drawing and creating anything. I know I was told I couldn't be an artist when I grew up, so perhaps that's why I stopped. But my sister reminded me how much fun painting was. She suggested I "just play" with paint on paper and mix some colors to see the stunning results I could get. So I did!

My sister's new Angel painting after I showed her the Julie Prichard style of drip painting. (Julie teaches this method online.)

The result was the beginning of my foray in Mixed Media Art, focusing on acrylic painting with collage. I poured over internet web sites, art blogs and Yahoo art groups; getting tons of ideas of things I wanted to try. I began taking workshops and art classes in San Diego, CA where I live. Unlike my sister, I'm fortunate so many talented artists live here and travel here to teach.

Meanwhile, my sister, Melanee, was stuck in an artistic slump. She hadn't painted anything in ages, except the Angel painting, (shown above), she was finishing up when we reconnected. I went to visit her for my summer vacation in 08/09 and we spent almost everyday painting together in her studio. I showed her what I had learned from taking classes with Chris Cozen, Julie Prichard and Karen O'Brien. She soaked it up like a sponge. Previous to my visit, her style mainly focused on Vintage and she wasn't attracted to bright colors like I was.

Here are some cool Needle Punch Rugs she made:

She had also discovered Mixed Media Art and made this assemblage for a friend of hers to help her after a painful divorce.

But it was the heavily textured, sgrafitto painting style I had learned from Chris Cozen, which really changed the way she thought about color, texture and painting in general.

Look at these!

Shortly after she painted these, she visited a few galleries in Williamsport, PA and found one where she imagined having her work hung one day. Just before Thanksgiving, that dream became a reality. They are now hanging in The Harvest Gallery on W. 4th Street, as pictured below.

She's already sold a few pieces and is busily creating more! News of her work in this gallery even made the local paper.

Melanee and I also had a blast painting Mythical Creatures as taught by Karen O'Brien. Here's what she made during my visit.

Here's what she created on her own after I left, with more of a vintage style.

Meanwhile, I showed her the web site of one of my favorite inspirations, Mixed Media Artist, Teesha Moore. Here's what she came up with!

                    These are also hanging in the gallery!

So there you see the full circle. She encouraged me to start painting, after being dormant for too many years. I didn't resist, but instead, flourished with her support. So I took a few workshops and taught her some of the techniques I had learned and viola' ... her work is hanging in a gallery, she's sold a few pieces and thrilled and happy to be painting more and more!

Meanwhile, I have applied the spiritual principals of, "The Power of Now," and "The Law of Attraction," to my own life and it's bettered my life more than anything since I got sober, 22 years ago. I would encourage anyone who wants to make some changes in their life to read these books. Changing the way you think, will change your life!

Please click on the links to learn more about the artists I've mentioned. Thanks for visiting!

Please note: ALL of the art work in this posting is the property of my sister, Melanee Herrera. She created ALL of them. None of these are mine. You can easily view my artwork in previous posts.

My Sister & I Painted These Together

My Monkey Princess

While I was on vacation, my sister Melanee Herrera I painted together. I owe her my eternal gratitude, because she was the one who suggested I start painting again after many years of ignoring my Muse. I stayed at her charming, country, farm house in the woods of South Williamsport, PA during my recent vacation. We painted together almost everyday.

Melanee Herrera in her studio, creating Mythical Creatures with me.

Boy Swan by Melanee Herrera

She loved my mythical creatures, so I showed her what I learned in a class taught by Karen O'Brien. Melanee's style is Folk Art Primitives, so this isn't exactly her cup of tea. But one great thing about learning techniques is being able to adapt them to fit your personal style and taste. Before I left, she started four more of these in more vintage looking colors. As of this post, she had not finished the images to adhere on each canvas board. I'm excited to see what she comes up with and will post them here if you'd like to see them as well.

Boy Lion by Melanee Herrera

We each completed two 9"x12" canvas boards, but one of mine didn't turn out, so I'm reworking it. Please check out Melanee's Mixed Media Folk Art Blog here. The vintage male face in Boy Lion is actually a distant relative of one of my radio listener's.



This is an 8"x 8"x 1/2" wooden picture frame with Golden paint and vintage text collage. The center is empty, but you can place any 3 1/4" x 3 1/4" photo in it. A wood peg comes with it, so it can be propped up on a desk or you can hang it up on the wall. The sides are painted, so it doesn't need a frame. My sister made two of these in different shades of blue. I'm planning to make a lot more of them in different colors. This one IS for sale. Just email me at Nreeba@aol.com if you're interested.
Since my sister, Melanee, loves things that look old, I knew she would love this style of painting. I learned it from Julie Prichard's online class, Layered Love. Find out all about her class on her blog. It's really a fun way to paint.

Me working in Melanee's studio creating the second layer of our Texture Paintings. See below what I made.



Melanee's Smile

This is a mixed media painting done with Golden paints and mediums on a 9"x12" canvas. (It's not for sale.) I named it Melanee's smile, because we were both smiling the whole time we painted together. It really means a lot to me and inspires me to keep learning and growing and most of all to keep painting. (I have one more to show you, but haven't scanned it yet.)




Textured Painting by Melanee Herrera

I learned this style of painting from the wonderful artist, Chris Cozen. Melanee doesn't usually paint with such bright colors, but loved the process of making it.

Textured Painting #2 by Melanee Herrera

Melanee does not want to sell these, because she said on her blog, that she cherishes them for the time we spent together creating them. Thanks for stopping by! Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. ~Nina/Ruthie~

Newest Mythical Creatures as taught by Karen O'Brien

Bird Couple

I got so inspired by Karen O'Brien's recent class at Stamping Details, I made four more lil' critters. You can see the first part of the process in the first photo after I pieced together my creature couple and adhered it to the background I made. Then I painted the whole thing in transparent liquid paints by Golden. I decided to give her some big hair, made it curly, then painted over it. I added some text, a stand for the croco bird and stamped on a few swirls and viola - my Odd Couple was born. The text says,"What would you like to do tonight, honey?" Check out Karen's incredible work on her blog: http://goldenrulepalace.typepad.com/ .

Panda Boy

Dancing Chicken

Pretty Bird

I hope you enjoy them. I had so much fun creating them and will definitely make more!

Mythical Creatures Workshop

I took Karen O'Briens all day workshop at Stamping Details in Poway, CA (San Diego County) on Friday 07/24/09. We created mythical characters from clip art and collaged them with craft paint and Golden acrylic transparent paints. This style involves many layers of paint, a few lalong with some stamping and using found objects to create texture. We also used stabilo pencils. It was SO much fun to do, so you will definitely be seeing lots more creation by me as I use parts of animals, plants and flowers to create odd, original beings.

There were 13 of us in the class, including my favorite art buddy, Sally. Here are her two unfinished pieces. She's invited some us over during the week to make more! Yippee!

My friend Dian Chen made these two goodies. Diane is part of the Art Posse who paints weekly at Sally's house too. Take a look here for more of Diane's art.

Here's Angela's unfinished piece. She made three incredible pieces, but only sent me one.