I Sold My First Painting!!

SOLD to Cookie "Chainsaw" Randolph and his lovely wife, Suzy! I'm thrilled by my first sale of my original art work! Yes, it was a co-worker who bought my collage/painting, but what the heck. Friends can show their support in many ways and buying a painting outright is certainly one of them. Thank you for your support, my friend.

If you're interested in owning an original work of art, please check out the paintings in other blog posts and let me know. You may leave a comment or email me at: NReeba@aol.com.

Some Paintings I did Earlier This Year

Those of you who follow me on Face Book, have already seen these, but I wanted them to be on my new blog, just for the record.

Hungry Eyes - SOLD

This is a mixed media collage, painting I made in the Spring. I adhered images from magazines, scrapbook paper, vintage Italian text and some numbers onto an 9x12 canvas and painted acrylics over it. I also used stabilo pencils and numerous mark makers to create the textures and patterns. I wanted to use a limited palette and love the soft look of it.


Pink Circles - SOLD

Here's one I did after reading Kelly Rae Roberts book, "Taking Flight." You can check it out
here. She has some good tutorials for simple techniques. I used bubble wrap for the small circles and a toilet paper roll for the larger circles. I really love circles a lot and love pink, hence the title, Pink Circles, for this piece.

My sister, Melanee Herrera, suggested I Google "circles," so I did. That's where I got the images of the circles on the dress. Check out her blog here, called, "Early Works." She's an artist and the person who convinced me I should start making art again after not doing it for so long. She reminded me of the oil paintings I did many years ago and helped me realize that the need to create is still inside me. She was right! It's been patiently waiting for me. You can Google "circles" here to see some incredible images you might want to use in your own art. My sister collects and sells antiques, as well as creates many different types of art.

This is an 8x8 canvas with collage, acrylics, stabilo pencils and a dress form on watercolor paper. I adhered butterfly wings to it from a collage sheet I picked up somewhere online, but I forget who sells them. I used a lil' cat eye as the jewel in her necklace, which is made of clear glittery, Stickles.

Fantasy Flower Garden

This is my first watercolor painting: Fantasy Flower Garden. I call it a fantasy, because I live in a small apartment and don't have a garden, but love flowers of all types. I painted this in a class at The San Diego Art Department in my North Park neighborhood on Ray Street in San Diego. Brian Sheperd was my teacher and showed me how to use only red, blue and yellow to create these colors. I found an image of some flowers I liked and he showed me how to draw the shapes of the leaves and petals on a half sheet of 350 lb. Arches watercolor paper. I recently made greeting cards from copying prints onto photo paper. Please let me know if you're interested in owning a set of these.

My Sgrafitto Paintings Are A Big Hit!

Today I sold this set of three Sgrafitto Paintings!



SOLD!

SOLD!!

A co-workers lovely wife was interested in the first painting shown here. I told her they were created as a set of three and brought all five to show her how they looked together. She liked them so much, she bought the set! Thanks a million, Michelle and Steve!

The two paintings you see below were also created as a set. I will sell them separately or together. Write me an email, leave a comment below or see them in person while they're on display at Hairspray Salon in Hillcrest. Click here for more info on my favorite salon, Hairspray, run by an adorable couple, Shawn and Annie. They're big fans of The DSC on KGB-FM and great people. I love spending my money there, because they create a really fun atmosphere. And of course they do great hair and brows. Say hello to my stylist, the gorgeous redhead, Ann, while you're there. She's loves the show too. Some of my sober brothers also work there.

For Sale

For Sale either separately or as a pair.

I painted all five of these during a class taught by the incredibly talented Chriz Cozen . I learned about Sgrafitto that day at Stamping Details in Poway. Chris provided numerous Golden mediums including: fiber paste, light and coarse molding gels, fine pumice and acrylic grounds for pastels. Each one was painted on an 8"x8". We started by painting two colors of Golden liquid acrylics on each half of each canvas. We mostly used our palette knives, instead of paint brushes.

Check out Chriz Cozen's website here. You can find her upcoming workshops in Southern California, see her art and read more about this astonishing artist. Please don't hesitate to take a class from her! Click here to see her two books on Amazon. Her third book is due in October 2009 and it's for fabric artists. A few of the reviews calls her books "brochures" because of the number of pages, but she packs in more information than you'll ever need. They're excellent for beginner's as well as experienced artists alike.

I was so happy making these canvases! Please enjoy and leave a comment to let me know what you think.

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!

I Popped My Fabric Cherry!

I actually did it. I created a piece of art with paint, collage, foam stamps and .... fabric! I had been avoiding using fabric in my art, because it was just one more thing to buy. God knows, I push my art budget already. But I knew it was bound to happen, because I'm very attracted to gorgeous material of all kinds. I'm thrilled I took a chance and even more excited that artist Chris Cozen was the one to bust my fabric cherry! (Can you tell I work with boys?!)

I was so happy during her Mixed Media Layering Class on Friday at Stamping Details in Poway. The process of building many layers, made up of: deli wrap paper, netting, ribbon, diaphanous materials and cotton swatches, was too much fun.

Deli paper was used as the base and a heavy piece of cotton was adhered to that. We used Golden polymer matte medium to attach the materials on top of each other and stick it down. After I was satisfied with my design, I used Golden liquid acrylic paints and painted foam stamps, which I stamped on my fabric collage. The final details were added with Golden interference and metallic paints to create depth and shading to my piece. I'm really pleased with the results.

I was so overjoyed making this collage, I made my first fabric purchase at Joanne's and picked up enough cloth to make many more. Hopefully, I'll made another one tomorrow at my weekly painting session at Sally's lovely home in La Jolla, CA.