Johnny Jump Up

Let me know what you think about my latest video!

The Eyes of An Artist

I want to share with you some of the artists that have influenced my art.  Monet is at the top of the list.  I know that sounds cliche because he is everywhere but it is the truth.  Ever since I was a child I would see his work and be completely in awe of it.  I always wanted one of his posters hanging on my wall.  When I was in high school I painted a couple of pictures that I made up based on my memories of his paintings.   I have always been enamored by colors.  I even dream in technicolor :)   As Monet got older his sight got worse.  Which is why some of his paintings while being impressionistic still have well defined areas and others you can barely tell what they are.  Here are some paintings he did later in life after he developed cataracts.  He had surgery to remove one from his right eye.  These paintings he did with one eye closed.  The yellow/red paintings are from the eye with the cateract and the blue ones are from the eye he had surgery on.
Claude Monet, The House seen from the Roses Garden, 1922-1924                             I do not have cateracts but I do have poor eyesight.  I have to wear contact or glasses or everything that I see looks like the paintings above.  I even have different shades out of each eye like the paintings above, just not nearly as pronounced as Monet's.  Maybe that was one of the reasons I have always felt a connection to him.  If I ever start to lose my sight and it cannot be corrected I will still be able to paint! If you would like to see where I got the paintings from and learn more about Monet click here.

Sharper Than A Bump On A Log!

I want to start putting up videos to help anyone who is interested in learning more about art.  Today I am starting with a very basic introduction to sharpening a pencil.  I hope that ya'll will stick with me while I learn how to make awesome videos! Please comment and let me know what you think and what you would like to see in the future!  I would love to do videos that you are interested in!
Joyfully,
Amber

Know Thyself! Questions Every Artist Should Ask!

Know Thyself!
This applies in many ways to being an artist but what reminds me of this every time I paint is the palette that I use.  For years I used a handheld wooden palette that had to be cleaned right after you used it while the paint was still wet and waxed a little to keep the oil from setting in.

I had a tendency to get paint all over me when I held a palette!

 Why did I use it?  Because my first painting teacher required it for class and thought that it was the best choice.  The only reason I remember that he gave was because it was a medium value (wasn't too light or too dark) and had a warm tone.  Of course since he had been painting longer than I had been alive I followed everything he said without question.

My wooden palette will forever look like this!  I didn't clean it off the last time I used it and so it stuck!

Why did I stop using it?  After I got pregnant I stopped painting for a while but not before I used my wooden palette one last time and didn't clean it off!  So I have a palette that will have paint on it forever and ever.  I have to be honest.  I had done this once before and I scrapped off all the old paint and refinished it.  Of course I will never go through all that again.

What did I replace it with?
While I was at Laguna College of Art I bought a Masterson Air Tight Palette.  I think that might have been required but I don't remember.  I used it for a long time to store my wooden palette.  When I got back to oil painting after having my daughter I took one of my glass cutting boards and put in the Masterson palette.  Now I don't have to worry about when I clean my palette because all I have to do is scrap the glass with a razor blade and I'm ready to paint!  Another difference is that it is not a handheld palette.  So I have to have something to set my palette on because it is to big to hold.  I use an old tv tray table, it is a little bit cumbersome when I paint plein air (on location) but I would rather deal with the bulky table than a wooden palette.

Know Thyself!

Think about your personality and the way you like to paint.  Here are some questions to get you started:

Would you rather clean up after you paint or before?
Do you paint with long breaks? ie. paint in the morning take the afternoon off and continuing painting at night
Do you like to hold your palette or could you make your setup so that you can place it on a table?
Do you mind getting paint on your clothes?  (its easier for me to stay clean if I don't have to hold it)

Don't just accept what someone else has said is the best and/or only way to do something!  There are as many techniques and supplies to painting as their are different styles of painting.  The possibilities are endless so don't be afraid to try something new!

BIRTHDAY HOLIDAY!

 Hello Ya'll!  This month is my birthday!  A couple of years back we started "birthday holiday", which means you get to celebrate your birthday for 3-4 days usually with date night, girls night, family night etc.  It all started with my lawful sister, Rachel, when she turned 30.  Well, my awesome husband decided that the month of November is going to be my holiday!  How did I get so lucky?  The picture above shows my birthday card that he gave me on November 1st (my birthday is the 21st)  Its so pretty I'm going to frame it!  Anyways back on topic, the rules for birthday holiday are:

•  every Thursday I get to pick my favorite restaurant (he actually outlined of my favorites but told me I could change them if I wanted).  
• This past Thursday I got a special treat instead of dinner.  We went to Maxie B's in Greensboro. 
• 8th-Red Robin
• 15th- Greek
• 29th Jacks
• Plus I get a birthday dinner on the 17th of a surprise restaurant!  

Now the PRESENTS!  I get to choose how to receive them by 1 of 4 ways.

• largest to smallest
• smallest to largest
• pick each week (they are wrapped)
• let me decide

I choose to let Brian decide!  How fun is this?  I can tell you its really fun and I REALLY needed some fun!  I will make sure I keep you all updated on my presents because I know ya'll are curious what they are going to be!  I know I am!

This is Maxie B's in Greensboro.  We had never been but had read about it in Southern Living magazine.

 They had a good 40+ cakes to choose a slice from plus cupcakes, cookies, and pie!  It was crazy!  I wanted them all!

 There is my cute little family!  Brian doesn't know that I'm taking his picture but I think Faith does!  They had a table in the front window that is almost like having a private room and we snagged it!

I picked a piece of apple cake with caramel icing. It was UNBELIEVABLE!  It was my favorite of all the ones we tried.  There are actual chunks of apple in the cake.  It was so moist and yummy I just can't even describe it!

Faith picked the Oreo cookie cake.  The icing tasted just like Oreo's!  And Faith almost ate the entire piece by herself!  Of course she ended up with tummy ache by the time we got home.

 Faith with her cake.

 My second choice (because Brian let me choose what we would both be eating since we were sharing and its my birthday holiday!)  is chocolate chip pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing!  I have to try pumpkin everything!  It was fantastic!  It was like a pumpkin punched you in the mouth in a good way!  Just kidding, it just sounded fun to say.  The cake doesn't really punch you in the face but boy does it taste good!

 This is the view from our table.  I loved the ambiance of this great little place.  They have really gone all out and paid attention to detail for the ulitmate experience.  Now if we could just replace all the Starbuck's with a Maxie B I would be in heaven!  Brian even decided he was going to buy my birthday cake from there too!  Its going to be a whole month of CAKE!!!!! 

You can find Maxie B's on Battleground Ave.

2403 Battleground Avenue
Greensboro, NC 27408
Phone: 336.288.9811

And they have the best hours!  A lot of bakeries close before dinner but this one stays open nice and late!

Mon-Thurs: 9 am-10:00pm
Fri-Sat: 9 am-11:00 pm
Sun: 11 am-10:00 pm

Wedding Blue

Don't you just love blue glass?  I don't know what it is about blue glass but I think it is so purty!  Its interesting painting it too.  In most of my paintings I layer colors to mix them but with blue glass I pretty much only need French Ultramarine! This painting is currently listed on ebay here!

Lucky for me my mom still has a few roses blooming so when I went out to her house I cut one to bring home.  It has certainly been interesting finding an endless supply of flowers.  I think you all will start seeing a lot more pansy's and mums in the coming months.

 

 Doesn't that yellow background just make the blue pop?

This photo really represents the blue of the bottle.  I have a hard time getting the camera to get the blue right and the other colors too.  It seems its one or the other

Of course some of you may be wondering why its named wedding blue.  Its because this is a bottle from my uncle Bill's wedding.  It was a gorgeous wedding and their wedding party color was this beautiful blue!  I just loved it!  And it was such a happy occasion that I wanted to put some of that happiness in a painting.
This painting is currently available on ebay.  You can place your bid here!  All of my auctions start a one penny! 

Collector at Heart

Hi my name is Amber and I'm addicted to glass!  Early on in my life I felt like I needed to collect something.  I think a lot of us go through that.  

I collected:

• Comic books
•  Baseball cards
•  Snoopy and his gang figurines (now I limit that to Christmas time)
•  Swarovski crystal figures (I only managed to get one of those $$$$)
•  Dishes
•  China (and yes there is a difference between dishes and china) 
•  Handmade Pottery
•  Shoes

 And I'm sure if I sat here long enough the list could go on and on.  But do you know what I have found has been something that I have always collected?  Glass.  More specifically glass bottles.  Which is why I have a never ending supply of bottles for my paintings!

It all started when I was a kid.  Our neighbor was a junk collector.  What he really liked to collect was bottles.  He would comb the county looking for bottles.  I, of course wanted to join in on the treasure hunt.  I can remember digging in the woods under the leaves to see what I could find.

There were all kinds of little bottles with slime inside that smelled like molded cheap perfume that my mom would never let me keep because there was no way she could get them clean.  But my prized possession was a large Horlick's Malted Milk jar.
My mom was shocked that I had found a bottle so big after Moose (our neighborhood "treasure hunter")  had lived there for years and gone digging in those very same spots!

That milk jar was the beginning.  Now I have 30+ bottles displayed around my home.  I would probably have more but I'm refuse to pay an arm and a leg for a bottle, it ruins the hunt.  Part of collecting is the fun of the find. Going down to the local department store and buying something from China takes all the romance out of the bottle.

Bottles need stories.

• What were they used for?  
•  How many fun dates did it send a newly wed couple out on making sure the bride smelled of sweet honey?  
• How many sick children did it help see through the night?  
• Or maybe it was just sugar tabs touted as the new miracle cure!

So what is it that you collect?  What treasures do you seek out?  Have you even figured it out yet?  Are you like me and it just kind of snuck up on you while you tried to collect other things?

Of course I can't right about glass and not show you my infamous milk jug (above). It used to collect change, until we moved to a plastic society.  For years it sat on top of my tv stand as an antenna holder but this year I found something truly worthy to fill it with.  Seashells....that I collected :)