She Talks To Angels

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Angel #1. 4 x 4 acrylic, mixed media on gallery wrapped canvas. © 2017 Sheila Delgado

Angel #1. 4 x 4 acrylic, mixed media on gallery wrapped canvas. © 2017 Sheila Delgado

Finished four mini’s and they were so fun to do. These are gifts for friends. Dedication celebration. LATE by many months. Remember the pours I worked on back in April? Well, I was not successful after a few tries. Bad idea to pour paint and hope that you get something that will look like an angel shape. I did get one. Half an angel, pretty nice surprise.

I had planned a trip to San Diego to deliver them, but the trip was cancelled. Worked out fine considering. So here we are half a year later. And I can call this project done. One each for two sets of proud parents. And one of each for the happy grandparents

Ugly phase.

I borrowed some of Laly Mille’s techniques from her recent True North Star class. I wrote on the canvas. Blessings, and on the edges these words – Love, laughter, abundance and blessing. Next, a layer of crinkled tissue. Building layers of color, adding more texture.  Came to the ugly phase just before bed one night. Perfect pause point. The dark teal was looking Christmas green to me.

Woke up the next morning and had the answer. I needed to unify the layers. Sort of amazing how it was just there. Divine spirit no doubt.

I took one of the colors, and added a bit of metallic, and some water. I scrubbed the translucent mix on each canvas. The hue on the dark canvases that looks slightly grey is the metallic.  The overall blue is muted, and not shiny, more … pearlescent. I was so pleased with the result.

The turquoise pieces are far more shiny. Which is fitting, as they are representing a girl. Both palettes chosen to compliment each child’s nursery.

Close-up.

Close-up

The scan brings out each tone, in person they are more subtle in variation.

Gown. Wings. Head, halo, stars. And there you have it.

Angel #1

The halo and wings are white with touches of metallic on top. The stars shine and glimmer. I thought I had photos of each finished piece, but here are the three remaining before the stars.

Angel #2. 4 x 4 acrylic, mixed media on gallery wrapped canvas. © 2017 Sheila Delgado

On the next two, I used a pale translucent yellow for the halo, the metallic swirls really show well here. I think I may have taken these wings too far. Baby girl angel looks like a linebacker. I goofed and made the heads too round. Charlie Brown heads. And that is what gave me the idea to add swirls. Better.

The inspiration pieces I found on the internet were more rustic in feel. I wanted rustic and childlike, and my particular skills nailed the childlike.

Angel #3. 4 x 4 acrylic, mixed media on gallery wrapped canvas. © 2017 Sheila Delgado

Angel #4. 4 x 4 acrylic, mixed media on gallery wrapped canvas. © 2017 Sheila Delgado

Happy with them all and I know they will be well received.

I am in San Diego for the next two weeks. A surprise Blessing to me. Working on posts, tonight, hoping to leave the laptop at home. My Laly canvas will be waiting for me when I get back. So bummed I was not able to finish.

There is a beachside first birthday, and 51st wedding anniversary, and lots of baby play time in my future. I am taking a few art supplies, but I am thinkin’ they might get lonely.

 

 

 

 

 

Seven Days

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Day 1.

Seven days, seven B&W photos of your life. No people, no explanation.

Another memory from the fire. The day that I drove my friends brother to see what the damage was, we walked through the remains of both houses. We took photos, so that the two families could see for themselves. Residents were still not allowed back.

We found a few angel chotchkies that had sat on his mother’s kitchen windowsill. And all the knives were sitting upright and perfectly spaced as if they were still in the wood block. Only they were now on the floor, and missing all of their handles.

Some of the adobe walls of her parents house were still standing, leaning slightly. And all along them, on both sides, was a pile of sand. Adobe that had been shed.

Ok Sheila, where are you going with this?

At my friend’s house, (same property) I found a perfect Sea Biscuit. Pristine white, just sitting there. I reached to pick it up, and it disintegrated through my fingers.

How in the world, does a delicate sea shell survive (almost) a wildfire?

 

Day 2

 

Day 3

We celebrated my brother’s birthday last weekend, HaPpY BiRtHdAy Brother! When he arrived at the house after dark, he accidentally ran over a King snake. King snakes are immune to the venom of other snakes. Including Rattlesnakes. They take on snakes and prey larger than they are, and kill by squeezing the victim to death. They are not poisonous. If you look closely, you can see that the stripes are not all perfect.

My brother didn’t want to hurt him, so he moved the snake to the other side of the street. But I, and my brother’s wife, told him the humane thing to do was to kill him quickly. It was obvious that the tire had clipped the snake’s head.

I kept getting close, to get a good picture. Everyone told me to back up, but the snake was barely moving. Besides, that was the most exciting thing to happen during this seven-day challenge!

So yeah, I am a weenie about spiders, but I can handle snakes.

 

Day 4

 

Day 5

Love the “changing” shapes of the mountains.

 

Day 6

New growth. Five or six new leaves there.

 

Day 7

 

 

 

 

 

Again, Really?

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Color Play, WIP. 4 x 8 watercolor on paper. © 2017 Sheila Delgado

Color Play, WIP. 4 x 8 watercolor on paper. © 2017 Sheila Delgado

Busy working at my desk for a couple of hours last night. Needed an art break so I grabbed a small scrap of paper, watercolor pencils and crayons, and played with color. Pulled my watercolor box from its resting spot at the back of the desk, placed the towels in their usual work area. (They sit on top of the water cups when not in use)

Colored for a few minutes then reached for a brush and dipped it in water. Started to…

Ugghh!

Right in front of me, and dime sized, black spider runs from under the towels, around the left side, and back towards the wall. I sat frozen. Sort of surprised I did not freak out actually.

UGHHH!

(Made a little graphic for presentation.)

I gingerly started moving everything off my desk. 5 canvases, a short stack of papers to be scanned, the stack of my mini’s in progress, and a stack with Lally’s class PDF’s and some odds and ends to read. Moved the art cart away from the desk.

I tapped everything first, so if the spider was there he would get the hint to move on. Threw everything on my bed. Then, when I did not find the spider, I realized that was a bad plan. Moved everything to the bookcase next to my desk.

Searched everywhere, moved the desk away from the wall. Because you know how I feel. It isn’t over until you have bug guts on your shoe. After a few minutes and no spider, decided to retreat to the laptop, and wait him out.

I purchased Karin’s recommended bug sticky pads. And am happy to report I did not see any spiders for about five days. And what galls me is that I just cleaned and reorganized my supplies and desk. Ugghhh! So yeah, I know. It is probably my fault. I disturbed the little bugger.

Watercolor pencil chart.

Oh, and I finally made a watercolor pencil chart. I had little scraps with doodles before. Now all the colors are on one sheet, and it is laminated!

After working for about an hour, and still no spider. I figured he most likely traveled over to the bookcase. Where all the desk items were moved. Oh great.

So, with my desk empty, at 11:30 I decided I might as well scrub the desk surface. Planned on doing it after I had finished these projects, but what the heck. Spic and Span now.

Put a sticky trap on my desk. Sorry to report it is pristine this morning. There is really no where he can hide, I checked the printer, back of the computer, wires, back of the desk. under the desk. I am sure he has moved on. But still, with no corpse, How can I feel comfortable sitting at that desk????? Stupid spider.

OK, as for the art. This was really just a warm up, before my painting session that never happened. It is looking blurry here, but there are some very interesting areas where the colors come together and mix and bloom. Neo II’s and watercolor pencils.

Working on Laly’s class today. I was so excited to paint last night. We celebrated my brother’s birthday this weekend, and the painting had to wait. First layer is on and the canvas is calling!

Enjoy your day everyone!