Monthly Archives: February 2014

Little time, lots of inspiration.

Hello friends,

I know I promised to share more art so here are some pics of what I’ve been creating lately. I’m on week 6 of my Jeanne Oliver online art course. Its been an incredible ride! So much to learn, so much to create and SO little time! I’m trying to be patient with life and accept that I can’t paint all day while managing a household, two little kids and a very busy husband. Patience is not one my strengths.

I also have to really watch myself. You see, I get a little competitive. My fellow students are constantly posting all the beautiful art they are creating and I want to KEEP up…but alas, I simply cannot.  Luckily, we have access to the class for two years!

Here is a little Cézanne watercolor/charcoal study…this was a fun and relatively quick exercise. He was a genius at layering color with watercolors! Something, I’ve yet to master.

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Next, I attempted to paint one of Cézanne’s favorite landscapes…Mont Sainte-Victoire. He painted this scene over 60 times! This was a tricky one. SO many colors but I really enjoyed the challenge.

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Here’s a close up of my version.

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Painting Cézanne landscapes, inspired me to try one myself. Although, I’m not in love with this piece it was good for me to do something outside my comfort zone. This is an Irish landscape, depicting O’Brien’s tower.

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Then we went on to study Botticelli. I have not done my painting yet but I loved sketching from his work. His faces are brilliant and so beautiful.

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Okay, and lastly, I wanted to recommend this book to all those creative Mama’s out there! I kinda horde art books but this one is my favorites right now. It gives me hope that if I plan a little better, I can find more time for my art and not neglect my kids!

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Alright…well I best be going. I hear little Claire bear waking from her nap. Back on the job! ;)

Hope all is well in your world. Try and take time for yourself to create, read, cook or whatever makes you happy – you won’t regret you did! Also, I would love to know any tips on carving out this time – since I’m kinda struggling! Let me know what works for you!

Much love,

Ivy

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Filed under Art, Books, creativity, Learning, painting, Thoughts

Love for Minted.

Hi lovelies!

I don’t often post on the weekend but this couldn’t wait! I just discovered a treasure of a site full of beautiful artwork, stationary, journals and other paper pretties. I’m in heaven!

These days, curating is a serious business on the internet, with a plethora of endless choices it’s so refreshing to see the cream of the crop all in one place isn’t it? Well, that’s what I love about Minted. They support creatives all over the world by selecting gorgeous designs and artwork and then make it easy for us to get our paws on all the goods! Love that. Sure they do custom photo cards and all that but what I really adore about this company is the stunning collection of artwork and stationary that is available! I literally spent a good chunk of my morning perusing all the paper goodness – my favorites list is rather long…

So, here are just a few of the things I had to heart!

minted collage 2

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

So pretty right? If you are a sucker for lovely paper products and unique artwork like me – go check them out. I’m off to go order some custom journals! :)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! It’s a rainy one here!

xo,

Ivy

6 Comments

Filed under Art, decorate, Love, Shopping

Happy Valentine’s Day

Hello friends! Happy Friday and Happy Valentines’s to you. I hope you are surrounded by the people you love. Hubby and I are going out for a much needed date night. Can’t wait to get all prettied up and sip a fancy cocktail.

I did splurge yesterday on a little gift to myself – this book – and I’m so pleased I did. I’ve already devoured half of it and I’m loving every page. If you were a fan of Eat, Pray, Love then you will LOVE Paris Letters by Janice Macleod. I’m so tickled with the book that I just subscribed to receive one of her magical, illustrated letters from Paris via her Etsy shop. Anyways…had to share this with you!

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Okay I’m off to get ready for my date….it takes a while these days! ;)

Much love to you all,

Ivy

P.S. I’ve been doing a ton of art so I promise to share more of it next week! More vintage treasures to show you too!

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Filed under Books, favorite things, Love, News, Paris, photography, Still life