It's Not Too Late!

Oops! I have had a 25% OFF SALE sale going in my Etsy shops for several days and I meant to let everyone know after I emailed my newsletter list... but I forgot! But it's not too late...

The sale ends tonight at midnight. Several of you have already taken advantage of it and I thank you so much! For those of you that want to get in on it, here's what you do:

Go to any of my shops
Lana Manis Designs - original art and prints

Simple Joys Paperie - vintage book wreaths, assemblage jewelry, and love tokens

Honeysuckle Lane - folk art and recycled wool or ribbon flower pins

and when you add the items to your cart and are ready to check out, add this code just under the payment option: APRILSHOWERS2014.

It will automatically take 25% off your product total.

If by chance you do not shop on Etsy but still want something, just email me (honeysucklelane {at} hotmail.com) your choices along with your shipping address. I'll remove the items and send you a PayPal invoice. If you are outside the U.S., email me for a shipping quote.

As for everyday things here at home, we've had rain, rain, and more rain and everything is beginning to "green out"! Hopefully I'll have some pretty outdoor photos to share by the weekend.

Thanks for stopping by!

Take care and God bless,
Lana

Happy Earth Day!

Have a blessed day!
Lana

What's My Style?

I've been painting more these last several days and most everything is saturated with color! I suppose I'm developing a style something akin to whimsical impressionist folk art. My paintings are usually fun and colorful and are definitely not realistic... but hopefully they do resemble what I had in mind when painting.

I'm also back to painting more churches. I think I'd mentioned this before: My dad was a country preacher, pastored several churches during his lifetime, and held many revivals in the rural areas of middle and east Tennessee where we lived. My series of church paintings is inspired by all the little country churches I attended as a child and still attend as an adult. The one pictured below isn't finished yet. Hopefully I'll get the final touches added today.

Have a lovely Wednesday!
Lana

Third Time's the Charm

I've been painting again!

 
I had a few hard boards that I had painted, didn't like, painted again, didn't like, and then covered with paint left over from my palette. Today I sketched and painted the hydrangeas. More than once. :)

I love painting these abstract, painterly hydrangeas! Here are a few before (or during) and after photos. You can always click on the photo for a larger view.

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What's your favorite flower? I seem to be stuck on hydrangeas and simple rose shapes... maybe I need a new flower to paint! :)

Blessings,
Lana

Not Quite Ready

This one's a difficult painting to finish. It looks somewhat naive in style, and is rough and bland, but it's very close to what I planned. But not quite. I've found that if something doesn't look quite right on a painting, I can take a photo and usually see some things right away that need to be reworked. For one thing, the background on the far left needs more depth and color. I also see few stems that I inadvertently painted over. And the three flowers on the right need to be softened around the dark centers. Maybe I'll change a little on the vases, too. I'm not sure.

At first, I painted the background a very bright orange with the intent of letting some of the color show through when all is said and done.

I sort of wish I had left the background alone. Oh well, maybe I can paint another one similar and leave it like this before I go adding layer after layer.

After laying in some color with a brush, I went over the vases and background with a palette knife. And I went over them again... and again. I don't remember how many layers are there! First I had more gray on the left and taupe on the right. But by the time I finished (or nearly finished), the taupe was on the left and gray on the right. I'd seen on an art blog that if the light is coming from the right, make the background on the right darker, and the background on the dark side lighter. This makes the highlights and shadows on the items pop. It isn't as noticeable on this painting since I tried to keep everything fairly neutral.

When you look closer, you can see that some of the flowers nearly blend in with the background. At first, I was going to change that and make them more prominent, but the more I look at it, the better I like it.

Do you have trouble deciding when your work is finished? Do you want to keep adjusting here and there until it's completely reworked? How do you decide when to stop?

Thanks for visiting today!
Blessings,
Lana

A Bit Sketchy

So... I've been painting again, thanks to a recent custom order request! I hadn't painted much at all during the winter and I know that's not good. I hope I don't go that long again without painting. Anyway, the order was just what I needed to get me going again!.

No, the painting shown in this post isn't the custom order, but it's one of the paintings I worked on this past week. If I have paint leftover on my palette or in my brush, rather than waste it, I usually slather or scrape it all over a canvas or hardboard or book cover that I have nearby. In this case it was a canvas painting that just didn't feel right last fall when I painted a still life on it.

So I covered it up.

And then sketched on it.

And then started adding color over the background with my palette knife.

Not a lot of color, just 3 or 4.

And then I stopped.

For some reason, I like the sketchy, unfinished look.
Maybe because it's like me... no, not the sketchy part!

Unfinished.
A work in progress..

It makes me smile when I look at it. :)

Blessings,
Lana

"Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:" Philippians 1:6