simply me

the "Altered Brush project" - more brushes to share

it is like christmas at the studio everyday now...we ALL (even Bill) wait for the maillady, huddle around the packages that look like they could be brushes and ooh and ahh like kids. the best gifts EVER!!!

the bathroom was everyones first stop at the art crawl...and it wasnt to use it! so flippin' AWESOME!

keep 'em coming we got lots of wall space to fill!

altered brush by Mindy Lacefield

Mindy's original altered brush inspired this whole art collaboration...i cant thank her enough for her creativity and for contributing a brush to our walls.

altered brush by Kim Lowe - "let's go mountaineers!"

cute altered brush couple by Margo Mohney

altered brush by Ann Marie Merlino & Paula Williamson

this amazing collaboration brush was made by a sassy group of ladies that affectionately call themselves the "Late Bloomers". In the card she says she has dedicated her blog to anyone who thinks, "they are too old to be creative." OMG i love it!

altered brush by Amber Widener

altered brush by Marjie Kemper

if you haven't already, join in today!

"The Altered Brush Project"

display your creativity, market your skills, join the art collaboration and own a place in the studio.

1. Purchase one of our brushes & a spot on our wall. For your purchase you will receive one of our unfinished paintbrushes, space to display your altered brush and market yourself in the studio (price includes the cost of shipping).
2. Alter the brush anyway your creative spirit takes you. They can be as simple or elaborate as you like NOTE: do not obstruct the hole in the handle so that it can be hung on the wall
3. Sign and date the back of the brush giving it your artists’ signature!
4. Attach your personal calling card (business card size) with any information about yourself you feel comfortable sharing that hangs through the hole in the brush handle
5. Mail or return the brush to the studio:

donna downey studios
501 s old statesville rd.
huntersville, nc 28078

i will share pictures of every brush we get back and how they look on the walls as the collaborative art installation grows!

Join "the Altered Brush Project" collaboration TODAY!!

US Artists $15        International Artists $20

inspiration wednesday + video

it always feels good when i tie my art directly to my emotion.

fun simple page and i tried finger painting through a stencil for the first time...i'm a big fan!

watch the video

• inspiration journal
• GOLDEN regular gel medium
• "pot-holes" 6 x 6 stencil
• black PITT pen
• needle tip applicator bottles
• liquitex gesso WHITE
• GOLDEN titanium white airbrush paint
• GOLDEN fluid acrylic paint 
  
  • teal
  • chromium oxide green

• Gouache Fancolor box set
• charcoal pencil
• book text
• paper wings
• Helmar 450 Quick Dry
• date stamp
• stazon

puppy love...

those of you that have been following my recent posts on facebook know that our family recently lost our beloved chihuahua Paisley. it was sudden and very devastating...we were collectively an emotional wreck for the 48 hours following. i had never lost a pet before and had trouble trying to keep it together for the kids. this is the first time i have even allowed myself to look at her picture since she passed and even now it brings tears to my eyes.

as all 5 of us sat on the couch holding each other and sobbing, Payton turned to us and said through tears, "Everything happens for a reason mom, we are supposed to grow from this, Paisley would have wanted that."

out of my 10 year olds mouth came the most beautiful truth.

we buried Paisley in our back yard, said our goodbyes and marked her grave with 3 individual bricks signifying each year of her life. Somehow Payton's words changed the overall feeling from sorrow to peace...cant explain it but they did.

bill explained it best the next day when he said, "i just feel like there is a hole." he was so right, a big gaping hole in our hearts & in our family.

between games at mckenna's tournament saturday we started searching on our iphones for breeders and puppies...just looking mind you (at least thats what we were telling ourselves). Wouldnt you know it there was a chihuahua breeder only 3 miles down the road from where we were.

mckenna's team was eliminated from the tournament early (coincidence? destiny? the universe trying to tell us something?) and we gave that breeder a call...

meet Pixel

he's a 9 week old chihuahua and the newest member of our family.

he was at the studio with me most of yesterday afternoon,

i think he's going to fit right in!

Pixel will be making his first road trip this weekend to Scrapdoodles in VA (didnt want to leave grandma cookie with 3 kids and a brand new puppy) so he will get a chance to meet a few of you this weekend!

collage monday

a whole new color palette! i played with a mix of papers, ink, oil pastels and pastel pencils before it wa all said and done...i even broke out my sizzix to cut those circles!

i really like the color and texture in this one...hope you enjoy!

supplies used:

• A4 moleskine journal
• random patterned paper
• white gesso
• orange Dr Martins bombay india ink
• "empowered words" stamp set
• "art & possibility" stamp set
• sennelier oil pastels
• faber castell (design memory craft) pastel pencils
• li'l davis alphabet stickers (these are really old!)
• a vintage photo
• book text
• 2-part tag
• masking tape
• joint tape
• black stazon
• collage pauge
  
• mini shipping tag

"the Altered Brush Project" - new brushes to share...

we are starting to get altered brushes almost everyday at the studio...its like christmas every time we go to the mailbox. we have gotten so much response to this collaboration, i wanted to share with you the latest altered brushes as we receive them. i have a feeling in a couple weeks they will not be coming in one at a time so i want to make sure i keep you up to date with this amazing ART...truly, truly humbled by the creativity.

(if this is your first time hearing about "the Altered Brush Project" read here for its introduction and to see the first brushes that kicked of this awesome art collaboration.)

brush by Michelle Ward

our first international brush by one of my favorite Canadians, Karen Ellis

brush by our Studio manager, Melissa Mcclary (the locals will totally get the symbolism in her brush!)

brush by Pam Garrison

brush by local Artist Pascale Salahie

brush by Debbie Davis

this awesome drippy brush is by our shipping manager Liz Poole

even my mom, better known as "grandma cookie", has jumped on the bandwagon!

way to go MOM!

if you haven't already, join in today!

"The Altered Brush Project"

display your creativity, market your skills, join the art collaboration and own a place in the studio.

1. Purchase one of our brushes & a spot on our wall. For your purchase you will receive one of our unfinished paintbrushes, space to display your altered brush and market yourself in the studio (price includes the cost of shipping).
2. Alter the brush anyway your creative spirit takes you. They can be as simple or elaborate as you like NOTE: do not obstruct the hole in the handle so that it can be hung on the wall
3. Sign and date the back of the brush giving it your artists’ signature!
4. Attach your personal calling card (business card size) with any information about yourself you feel comfortable sharing that hangs through the hole in the brush handle
5. Mail or return the brush to the studio:

donna downey studios
501 s old statesville rd.
huntersville, nc 28078

i will share pictures of every brush we get back and how they look on the walls as the collaborative art installation grows!

Join "the Altered Brush Project" collaboration TODAY!!

US Artists $15        International Artists $20

inspiration wednesday + video

i tried something CRAZY today! check it out! a (i used the new camera today, MUCH BETTER!)

supplies used this week:

• inspiration journal
• GOLDEN regular gel medium
• fabric scraps (thanks heather!)
• 2-part shipping tags
• mini decorated tags
• SMASH black dots tape
• Dr, Martins Bombay golden yellow india ink
• black PITT pen
• paint chips
• book text
• Helmar 450 Quick Dry
• date stamp
• stazon

tussie mussies

i dont know which is more fun, making them or saying the name!

i wanted to do something fun for the studio and took home a few packages of my large banners to see what i could come up with...these are so simple and fun to make i want to make them for every holiday, party and just all 'round decoration chachki i can!

with a few basic steps you can let your creativity spew all over these...let me show you how!

i started with 2 of my 9" poppy banners (and what's perfect are those eyelets are going to come in handy later)

sew them with right sides together and then turn them right side out (make sure to snip the point of the triangle square just below your stitches to make it easier to turn out the point at the bottom)

to make a paper book-text ruffle, tear pages into 2"ish strips and crumble to break the paper fibers this will make it easier to smush them to look like a ruffle as you adhere them around the top of the cone.

i use Helmar 450 QuickDry glue - it really is the fasted and best sticking glue i have ever used

once around then finish the ruffle with a ribbon and a pretty flower

i used some 20 gage rustic wire to create the handle and added some charms to finish the ends.

this is where the pre-existing holes comes in handy! i used a cropadile to punch through the layers that covered the eyelets and began threading the wire through (it was about 1 yard of wire, but i didn't measure)

i twisted off the end once through the second side and used the extra wire to curl and hang little danglies

this took me all of 15 minutes to make...seriously! wouldn't they be cute as a hanging banner or party favors? i used the pre-printed ones but you could also use the raw canvas ones and add stamps, sprays, stencils or even have the kid decorate them as gifts for the holidays!

book text, plain canvas & poppy designs

heres some clips of the few i have in the studio.

collage monday

had a serious love hate relationship going with this page. usually i try to keep my playtime in my collage journal condensed...trying to create on the fly with scraps. this page took a dark turn, lol! i put paint, sweat and tears into this one and decided i had gone too far and needed to walk away. i kinda like the chaos now...but i just needed that all important taking a step back moment to appreciate it.

we all go to that dark, "i hate what i have just done moment" so this week lets celebrate knowing that all you need to do is walk away and gain perspective.

supplies used:

• A4 moleskine journal
• book text
• white gesso
• black Dr Martins bombay india ink
• 7gypsies gaffer tapes
• NEW large "wild Geranium" stamp
• random rub-ons
• black dots SMASH tape
• Golden fluid acrylic paints
  • teal
  • diarylide yellow
  • green gold
  • paynes gray
  • quinacridone red
  • cobalt turquoise
• size 12 round brush
• black stazon
• heidi swapp alphabet stickers (this i have been hoarding for some time)
• helmar 450 quick dry
• mini shipping tag

"lotus flower" canvas - start to finish VIDEO

i love this piece...it is the largest canvas i have ever painted at 60 x 40" and it has inspired me to work bigger more often. it proudly hangs in the studio gallery and every time i walk past it i kinda slow down a bit and smile. HAPPY PLACE!

it took many twists and turns before it ended here and i thought it might be fun to share the "lotus flower" canvas journey with you. as readers and commenters of my blog you encourage, motivate and inspire me...thank you so much!

i have just listed this original "lotus flower" piece and several others for sale and hope that they ignite the same pasionate response in others as they do me.

if you enjoyed this video you may enjoy watching my previous start to finish videos of "Inner voice" and "be the change" sister paintings

"CANVAS CREATE" series - AUGUST canvas

inspired by Flora Bowley, learn how to turn creative forward motion into pieces of art in my NEW CANVAS CREATE WORKSHOP!

take this self-paced, step-by-step workshop and transform a blank canvas by integrating layers of cool and warm colors and turning a doodle into art! no drawing or painting skills needed it is that easy!   

techniques explored we will be...

• color theory of cool and warm colors
• layered color
• building a color palette
• blending colors and mixing color with gesso
• building a design from a doodle
• and so much more...
Download canvas create august supplies.pdf (2828.2K)

  don't miss out on August's canvas art lesson!

start learning now!

BUY this months canvas original.

if you missed out on previous months canvas workshops you can download them here...

JANUARY canvas

FEBRUARY canvas

MARCH canvas

APRIL canvas

MAY canvas

JUNE canvas

JULY canvas

 

 we are taking the week off to spend with family and i did not get a chance to pre-record an inspiration wednesday, HOWEVER, i have something special for you on Friday...be sure and stop by!