Fall Paintings

A Couple of posts ago I mentioned I was taking a class from Christy Tomplinson on Halloween and Fall painting (you can read about it here)http://www.foodwineandcreativemusings.blogspot.com/2012/11/halloween-paintings.html

The first week was all about Halloween, the second is all about Fall. There were over 7 projects to do. I did three of the seven and luckily for me I have access to the class for a year. Plenty of time to go back after the holidays and work on some of the projects I couldn't get to.

Here is the first one I worked on

This was the first time I worked on a canvas this big it is 18x24. At first I was a bit intimated by the size.... could I fill the space... would it look as cute as the smaller pieces I've done. I love that I went simpler on the background it made the pumpkins really pop. The technique for the striped pumpkin was so simple but I love the way it turned out. You just glue strips of paper and then cut out your shape. The pumpkins really came alive when I added the shading and bits of detail.

The next projects I worked on was this cute owl. Christy had said to go out to the stores and get inspiration. I saw a metal owl and I used that as my inspiration for this piece.

 

 

The second Owl was from the project Christy worked on. I did mine simpler than the one from the project. But I love the three dimensional eyes.

 

I signed up for her Winter Whimsy class can't wait to get started on that one.

Thanks for stopping by!
XOXO
Esther

Watercolors and Sketching

I had signed up for a class on Sketching a few months back. I just got started on it. Talk about over booking myself. LOL I completed week one of the three week course. This week was about Sketching and ideas. I just loved the idea she gave of. First you pick a word and then you think of a bunch of things that word means to you or you pick an object. Then you section off your page to give you thumbnails. Then you fill each little square with sketching. The first assignment was for radishes

I came up with 11 ideas. She said she did over 24 mini sketches. I would have loved to see her sketch book. The second assignment was to sketch owls

 

I wanted each of the owls to have a very different personality showing through. Our third assignment was sketching peas in a pod. And to add watercolor to our sketches. The one in the middle is one I made to reflect my little peas in pod. I really love the way it came out. One because I did the technique she taught of wet on wet and the other because it really does look like Clary and Gus hang out there. I still can't believe I did it. 

Our fourth assignment was to sketch cupcakes and also to add the watercolor.

I also incorporated her splatter technique. Just to cute. Her teaching style makes it easy to learn. and really cuts through my fears of messing up with watercolor.  I'll show you more when I complete week 2.

Thanks for stopping by...

XOXO

Esther

Halloween Paintings

 

I took a Halloween and Fall painting class from Christy Tomlinson. I've mentioned her before she is so funny and I really enjoy all her classes. I did the following 3 canvases

The Girl Bee was so much fun to create. I really think she came out so darling...

Bat Boy was a bit of a challenge for me. I never painted a boy before. I wanted him to appear much younger then he came out. 

Pumpkin man looked so simple when I watch Christy do her's. But getting the circle sizes the way I wanted was harder than I thought it would be. I'm so happy with the end result. Love them all!

There were at least 5 other projects for Halloween section alone. And she gave tons of ideas on how to create a bunch more.  One of the things she said was to go to stores and take pictures of what you like. Then sketch them out. I did exactly what she said. I will be sketching a few more ideas before the season is out. I will show you my creations for the Fall section soon!

Happy Halloween

Halloween here on most of the east coast was cancelled due to the Hurricane Sandy. I'm sure all of you have seen news so I don't need to go into it. A week or so before the storm I had taken a couple of picture of some cool decorations I thought were pretty amazing. Enjoy the show

Isn't this great! It sure looks like you are going to enter a haunted mansion. So simple but so effective

This house is so cool! So many life size figures. The owner was there while I was taking the pictures securing everything for the storm. I sure hope they made it through.

Isn't this just creepy.... I just love it.. Yep I was grinning from ear to ear.

I got so many ideas from this house. Maybe next year I'll try my hand on create more of a scene. My house you ask... my tenants kids decorated. I meant to take pictures, they did a really nice job. But on Saturday I do so caught up in securing everything outside before the storm hit it slipped my mind. I had already taken most of everything down by the time I remembered.  There were many more houses I wanted to take pictures of as well. Next year. Hope your Halloween was fun!!!

Thanks for stopping by
XOXO
Esther

Vacation Part 3

 My finally adventure on my vacation was going to Vermont. I always wanted to go to Vermont and see the fall foliage. I had heard it was beautiful and I was not disappointed. Here are some photos

 

Yes that is a covered bridge but unfortunately not a working one. A friend told me that most of the covered bridges that still exist are not working ones. What a bummer! I was so looking forward to this romantic scene of driving through the bridge just like you see in the movies with the leaves flying into the air. Oh well, I just had to settle for walking through it. So I got it... just a little. 

 

 

The next few pictures are my view as I drove around Vermont.

 



 

I did stop by a really cute town called Brattleboro. There was so many super cute shops. I didn't let myself go inside any of them for 2 reasons. One I didn't want to go spending crazy and the other I wanted to see the foliage. And these shops looked like I could get lost in them for hours. I
had tons of drools just from looking at the window displays.

I do plan to go back I hope really soon. I never got to go to the towns that sell antiques. That I'm sure can be dangerous.

Thanks for stopping by..

XOXO

Esther

Vacation Part 2

On my last post I talked about my vist to Montauk point.

While I was out in the Island I thought I would take advantage and go to the Lavender by the bay farm that I had read about in the NY times a few years ago. It was so beautiful to see row after row of lavender

Here are some of my favorite pictures from my visit to Lavender by the bay.

 

 

 

Another thing I did while out on the Island was to go to some of the winery's. I mean why not I was out there already it would be a shame to miss the opportunity. I knew you would agree with me. Here are some of the place I visited.

 



One Woman winery. The place was adorable. The little house was the tasting room. And yes the place is basically run by one woman. She does nearly everything from tending to the grapes all the way to making the wine. The tasting room has only one man hee hee hee on staff. The rest our woman. It is the only place where the One Woman hires help.

 

My next stop was the...

 

 

Sparkling Pointe  vineyard. Where One Woman was rustic and homey, Sparkling Pointe was elegant with chandeliers, Italian music and a new glass given to you for each pouring. They are the only vineyard from what  understand that does champagne on the Island. They do it traditionally as will. with the fermentation done in the bottle.

 

The last vineyard I went to was Vineyard 48. I had been to this vineyard before.The reason I went back was because they had a outstanding Cab Franc. I really wanted another bottle. The place had changed dramatically. They turned into mainly a party place with frozen sangria. Yep you can cringe right along with me.  And yep you guessed it there was no Cab Franc. Sorry forgot to take pictures..my Freud came out.

 

Stay tuned I have one more adventure to share from my vacation in my next post.

 

Thanks for stopping by

 

XOXO

 

Esther



Vacation Part 1

Hi Guys I had two full weeks of vacation at the of September. I haven't taken 2 weeks at one time in a long time. So it felt super special. I had decided to do 2 day trips to places that I have been longing to go. One of the places was Montauk Point. I heard about how beautiful it was and that inspired me to go. I imagine myself going to the furthest point of Long Island. standing on the sandy beach with the wind blowing in my hair.

Well it didn't quite turn out that way. No sandy beach at least not were the light house was. But it was still very beautiful.

At the point it was very rocky and the beach was mostly fisherman. I believe it was call surf casting. From the photos on the museum walls some big fish have been caught from those very shores.
The lighthouse was one of the first ever built in the USA.

The museum itself was very nicely done telling the story of the point. I was very surprised to see how much of  the land the lighthouse stands on has been eaten away by the sea and preservation efforts  taken place to keep the rest of it from washing away.

I stay over night at the Sole East resort. The room was awesome!

Everything in the room was white except for the curtains and pillows. It was very tranquil and Quite. Oh my god it was so spectacularly quite just loved it. I wish I had taken photos of the lobby. It was also all white with brown sink and hug you chairs. Really loved it. And of course dinner at the Backyard restaurant. Which was part of the resort. Yep forgot my camera in the room and kicked myself for it. But at least I can tell you what I had. Butternut squash soup, pasta with roasted tomatoes, chickpeas and peppers. Super yummy and for dessert a chocolate torte to die for. If I go back to the point I will most difinetly be going back here for dinner. Yummmmy!!
More of my adventures on the Island in my next post.... stay tuned

Thanks for stopping by
XXOOO

Esther