A Creative Weekend away…

Hello there! How is life treating you this week? Besides a pesky summer cold, I’m doing quite well and I’m so thankful that last weekend I got to get away with a dear friend for a creative retreat! We stayed at the sweetest cottage in the quaint Oregon beach town of Manzanita. Here are some shots via my Instagram…

This cottage doesn’t get any cuter right? It is the perfect place for a beach getaway.

The vintage kitchen is adorable with layered personal touches and unique collections.

Mornings (sans kids) were blissfully quiet and peaceful – sipping coffee, reading magazines and writing in my journal. Here is Katie enjoying a fav cooking mag.

After we had substantial amounts of coffee we would move outside into the “garage” which is really an amazing outbuilding that my friend Candace converted into a charming dining hall. Strung with lights and adorned with artwork, old wine bottles and other beautiful objects it feels like a beachy treasure trove. The energy in this space is fantastic and you can tell many wonderful evenings have been spent at the long farmhouse table. We were immediately inspired.

It didn’t take long for us to spread out and get right into a creative zone…

After a little bit of art journaling and playing with my watercolors…

I began a small mixed media piece…

Almost done…

And finished!

It was an amazing weekend and I was sad to leave. As much as I missed my family, having some precious time to focus on art was such a gift. Katie and I agreed to do it again soon! Thank you, Candace for letting us stay at your magical home!

Do you have a favorite place to get away and create?

xo,

Ivy

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Vintage Treasures

Hi everyone! Hope you have all had a lovely weekend.

Last weekend, I spent the days treasure hunting! A dear friend and I hit the Portland Antique Fair plus some vintage shops and flea markets. Hard work but so much fun! Here are a few of the pretty items we discovered. I will be listing them in the shop this week.

Love this sweet, Farmhouse style kitchen scale! It’s rare to find this color so I was thrilled when I came upon this one!

 

There is something so homey about these lovely soup bowls. You can imagine filling them to the brim with a delicious soup while the rain comes down outside. I paired them with these stately antique soup spoons too!

Mail isn’t as pretty as it used to be but we should still have a beautiful place to hold it right? Love this silver tone, vintage letter holder. Very Art Nouveau.

I’m so drawn to lavender glass. It’s romantic, nostalgic and looks so gorgeous when the light passes through it. This antique wasp catcher is missing its cork but still remains a lovely, rustic piece.

Okay well, these are just a few of the pretties we found. Hope you enjoyed them.

Have a wonderful week!

xo,

Ivy

Flowers in her hair: A mixed media portrait

Hi friends! How are you all doing? I hope you are enjoying summer or winter depending on your location. ;) The sun is on full-time duty here in Oregon and we are loving it! It’s been crazy busy but I try to squeeze in a little art time for myself and although this piece took a couple of months to complete, I’m very happy with the result. I snapped pictures with my phone to show my progress so I thought I would share those with you…

Using a piece of 9″ x 12″ illustration board I prepped the background with a collage of vintage papers and scrapbook paper. I try not to over think the placement but strive for a balance of color and texture. I use Golden Matt Medium as my glue.

Ah! I found my muse! I use some cream acrylic paint to block out some of the text so I have a nice background for my sketch. Sketching her face was a challenge for me at first. I’m rusty since my days in art school, so I really had to push past my own doubts.

I start filling in color with acrylic paint. She’s starting to come to life! :)

I can hear my art teachers telling me not to focus on detail yet…but I couldn’t help it, I love painting eyes – so I dive in and start to render her gray-blue eyes with washes of paint.

Instead of painting flowers, I wanted to incorporate more collage, so I found these flowers online at the Graphic Fairy, printed them out and added them to her hair. Remember to coat any ink-jet images with a couple of layers of Krylon Crystal clear so the ink doesn’t bleed when you use your glue.

The next couple images were taken with my Canon camera, just so you know. The color is more accurate in these.

Here she is – all finished! You can see I added some washi and masking tape to create some movement and direction. I loved using a white gel pen to accentuate some areas too.

The quote reads ” Let us dance in the sun wearing wild flowers in our hair.”  You can’t really tell from the pictures but I put metallic streaks of gold in hair so it shimmers in the light.

Okay, sorry for the long post but it’s fun (and scary) to share my art and process. I hope one day to be brave enough to teach an online class! I have learned so much by the classes I have taken.

My favorites are with Jeanne Oliver.  She really inspires you to get out all those art supplies and just go for it!

Have a beautiful Tuesday!

xo,

Ivy

Birthday Girl

Hello there.

Hope your weekend has been lovely so far. I was going to wait till Monday to share these but I found myself with some quiet time and thought I better take advantage of it!

Claire’s b’day was such a wonderful day. We had family in from out of town and many friends and neighbors came to celebrate our little girl. We couldn’t have asked for a better day. The sun was shining after days of rain, not a cloud in the sky and everyone was more than willing to sit outside and enjoy some food, drinks and of course, sweet Claire. Grace was incredibly excited for her sister and was helpful and supportive. She even made a “sign in” poster that she made all the guests sign as they came in. So cute!

My mother-in-law made some beautiful decorations for the house and I borrowed these great cupcake stands from a neighbor (thanks Christine!) to complete the butterfly and rose dessert table.

I got these precious paper butterflies from this Etsy shop. You can eat them too!

It took Claire a minute to figure out what to do with her cupcake…but it wasn’t long before she was stuffing her face.

She was beaming from ear to ear with all the love and cuddles she got.

So grateful for the special time I got with my family and friends…especially my Aunt Iris and Grandmother who traveled all the way from the east coast to meet Claire.

Much love to you all.

xo,

Ivy

Art to Adore

Happy Friday friends!

It has been a little while since I last posted. I’ve missed you. Life has just been crazy! Summer is speeding by and my little girl just turned one! I’ve finally finished processing the pics from her party, so I will be sharing those very soon but today – I have a collection of art for you to adore with me. I couldn’t decide on just one artist to feature so, I chose some of my favorite pieces. Enjoy.

{ kathe fraga }

{ angela stasio }

{ jill ricci }

{ judith geher }

{ kristen neveu }

Have a beautiful weekend!

xo,

Ivy