PA Vacation Musings

I had a wonderful one week vacation in Williamsport, PA reconnecting with my immediate family. One of the highlights was visiting the Farmer's Market in Lewisburg. I think Amish people are cute and dang, they grow the best veggies in town. These tomatoes tasted even better than they looked. I could bite into them like an apple.


These peaches were super juicy and sweet! I wish I could have remembered my recipe for cold peach soup. So refreshing and good for my sweet tooth.

My sister Melanee goes to this Farmer's Market every Wednesday, so we bought lots of yummy things for dinner that night. She's taken photo's like these before and she says they look at her like she's weird, but if they could see these lovely pics, they might be able to appreciate her artistic eye.

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We bought some organic sweet corn on the cob which was picked that morning. It was so good, it didn't even need butter! Truly. This Mennonite girl blushed when I asked to take her picture.

Who doesn't love sunflowers?! Looking at this pic I wonder why I didn't buy any. We removed the price tag, but I remember they were cheap. In fact, all of the prices I saw at this Farmer's Market were incredibly cheap. My sister says the sellers stay competitive to sell as much of their products as possible. Prices in San Diego are out of control, so this was a real treat for me.

The thing I miss most when I travel outside of San Diego is Mexican food.

Owner/Chef Ted Biernstein (I went to Lewisburg High with him.)

I moved out of PA in 1977 and this was the first visit where I found not one, but two, excellent Mexican restaurants! If you're in Williamsport, PA, don't miss Ozzie and Mae's downtown. Click here for details. In Lewisburg, check out Buffalo Bill's on Rt. 15. I went to high school with the owner/chef, Ted Biernstein. Don't let the outsides fool you. It looks as if it might just serve bar food, but no way. The Tex-Mex recipes are outstanding. Excellent beans and homemade salsa too. Click here for the scoop. Tell Ted that "Nina in San Diego" sent you!

Thanks for stopping by!

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.

Mixex Media Collage and Painting Class 04/09

Back in April, 2009, I took a Mixed Media Art Class in Escondido at Stampfully Yours, taught by Julie Prichard . We completed two 8x10 paintings on Wood Board Boxes. We used vintage text and music paper, the wonderful new line of studio acrylic paints by Claudine Helmuth, stabilo pencils, rubber stamps, with a stencil on one and a mask on another. It was an ambitious workshop, but Julie is an excellent, organized teacher and marched us through it so everyone finished their pieces in three hours. I'm really happy with how mine turned out.

I'd love it if Julie taught another class at Cat's again soon!

Both of these have been sold.

Layers of Love Painting Style

Earlier this summer I took an online grunge painting class taught by San Diego artist, Julie Nelson Prichard. It's called, Layer Love, but she calls her style, "Julification." She's an excellent teacher and I learned to love the look of a painting that looks old and beat up. I always liked that style, but never knew how to achieve it. I also learned the joys of polymer acrylic medium and acrylic glazing medium and how it can enhance your painting style. Julie also loves the looks of drips and expertly teaches this technique. I learned to love and enjoy the process of applying many layers of paint to get a certain look. Her style isn't for everyone, but it works great for me.



It started out as a closed class for six weeks, but she decided to open it up, so it's still available. It costs only $43 and you get access to 9 HD Video Lesson's and as much feedback as you want. More than 200 students participated in the first rendition of this class and left a lot of art to look at, with their own feedback, suggestions and encouragement galore for each other's work. I highly recommend this online class. You will enjoy it if you're new to painting or looking for some different techniques and mediums to add to your repertoire.


I'd like to show you the paintings I did in her class. Many of them are backgrounds for now and I will eventually collage over them to complete them. They were all painted on 9x12 inch, 140lb watercolor paper, except the last green one, which was done on 8x10 canvas. I have some collage in mind for it, but haven't added it yet. I finished my final project, but haven't taken a photo of it yet to show here. I'll try and remember to do that later this week.

You can use this technique for art journals, atc's or stand alone. Please enjoy and let me know what you think in the comments section. If you want to see the details of the texture's and layers, just click on each on to see it enlarged..

New Tim Holtz Products I Want to Try

If you love that distress look and enjoy the effect you get from crackle paint - there's great news. Tim Holtz and Ranger have come up with a new clear, non-color crackle. I've been using the white, called Picket Fence, but always paint some other color over it anyway, so this is perfect for me. Tim writes, "Paint this over stamped designs, photographs, canvas collage artwork, and just about any paper craft embellishment you can get your hands on." I'm excited to try it, but haven't checked for local availability yet. But I love how it dries so fast and gives a beautiful effect.

Tim also blogs about some other new products he's releasing at CHA this week. I'm interested to see the new line of Idea-ology products, especially the word sticks, film strip ribbon and mask sheets to create my own masks. His blog gives a lot more details about these and more.

I'm a huge fan of Tim Holtz - his art, his products, his work ethic, his workshops; so I'm happy to show my support for him here. I do not receive any compensation from doing so. But he's always coming up with products I lust after and have to have.

Coming Up - Chris Cozen Weekend Workshops In San Diego

I am so inspired to create original characters, but can't help looking ahead to an entire weekend of art classes taught by Chris Cozen at Stamping Details in Poway, CA.

Chris is a self taught, mixed media artist from Southern California and long time teacher. I have heard nothing but raves about her from artists everywhere. I love and greatly admire her work and also own both of her books. You can find those here.

On Friday, 07/31/09, Chris is giving a class on Monoprints and Collographs from 6-8 PM. Here's the link for details.

On Saturday. 08/01/09, Chris is teaching a class on some incredible vinyl product to paint on. Here's the class info.

Later on Saturday, Chris'will teach: Layer Upon Layer: Collage and Mixed Media Meet Fabric . This will be my first foray into the world of fabric. I've been avoiding using fabric in my art - mostly because I don't want to have to buy one more thing! But I'm very attracted to fabric art and art quilts and gorgeous fabric in general - the possibilities seem endless. Here's the great news for those of you who wanted to take this class but couldn't because it was full; Chris has added this same class on Friday, 07/31/09 from 1:30-5:00! I'll be at the Friday class! Yay! Stamping Details hasn't added this class change to their online calendar, but call the store to sign up.

Sunday, 10:00 - 1:00 pm wraps up the weekend with a class called; Making Your Mark: Sgraffito Techniques. Click here for details. I love making all kinds of cool marks, so this should be fun.

If you need some inspiration, want to learn some techniques and adore painting with a group of other cool, women artists - call the store to sign up. You won't be sorry. Let's paint!

More on Karen O'Brien's Mythical Creature Workshop

I wanted to show you some of the process that went into making our pieces. We painted on two pieces of 9X12 watercolor paper, 140lbs. We tore them in half after the initial paint and collage were done. She gave us vintage text pages and some small plants and flowers to cover some of the base color and white paint. We monoprinted two other colors and used found objects and stamps to add more color and texture. I'm showing the two torn pages I have leftover and two new images I need to copy on a laser printer. I'll show you the finished pieces when I put them all together. I love the process of many layers going over and under the creature image. I also love having no clue what the final outcome will look like. Learning to love the process is one of life's great recipe's as well as art's! 

Here are the finished pieces:

I added more paint to the backgrounds and painted details on the critters and viola!

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.