Indie Icing Winner . . .

I had a great feature about my artwork over at Indi Icing last week. So many wonderful comments about my encaustic paintings and my shop on Etsy. There was a give away too and the lovely Summer at Artful Life won. 

She got to pick out one of my mini paintings as a prize and this is the one she chose.

Congratulations Summer. Summer also has an Etsy shop where she creates some very cute baskets and paper-crafts.

Acorn and Pearl Necklace . . .

 

I've been working on some new jewelry pieces lately. I love to re-purpose vintage jewelry. This fun necklace is made using bits and pieces from my collection of vintage and estate jewelry. The acorn charm and the pearl like bead hang from a delicate sterling silver chain. I have other designs in the works and I hope to be adding more to my Red Truck Designs vintage and collectable shop soon.

Beautiful Blues . . .

This shade of blue is probable my favorite. A cross between turquoise and robin's egg blue.

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Happy Birthday Dad . . .

 

Today is my Dad's Birthday. He is 84 years young. 

 

This picture is of my dad with his father. It's interesting that my father now is twice the age that his father is in this picture. His dad died when he was 59. My dad was quite a "dapper dresser," I love this striped coat he's wearing. This picture is probable taken in the late 1920's of early 1930's. I feel very lucky to be able to have my dad in my life. Love you Dad.

My NEW Vintage Etsy Shop . . .

 

I have been wanting to open a vintage and re-purposed goods Etsy shop for sometime. I have always loved searching for unique treasures and I am thrilled to be able to share my finds with you.

 

My vintage shop, Red Truck Designs, named after our vintage 1952 Red Ford Pickup,  is a reflection of my own style.

  

 

The vintage and re-purposed items at Red Truck Designs are found treasures that I like myself and want to share with you.

 

I'm starting out small but I will be adding new items often. So come on by my new shop and take a look!

Vintage Collage Valentine Holder . . .

 

Using a collection of vintage Valentines . . .

 

. . . I decorated a tin basket. Perfect for collecting Valentines!

I have a few of these tin containers, so I covered the outside with vintage sheet music .

 

 I then dry brushed white paint on the sheet music and painted pink stripes on the inside.

 

 Once the paint was dry, I glued  on some cute Valentines and tissue paper hearts.

 

As a final touch I added a variety of ribbons in pinks reds.

You can find this cute Valentine tin here in my new vintage shop Red Truck Designs.

Touching ART . . .

Today I’m participating in a blog carnival. This is when several different bloggers combine their thoughts about a single subject. In this blog carnival, we are exploring the concept of “touching art” – how we feel about people physically touching our art. Bethany, a fantastic painter, has gathered some views and opinions about this subject. You can read about other artists and see their art on her blog, Dirksen Dabbles. 

I work in a medium that is multi-sensory and rather sensual, encaustic beeswax painting. When melting the beeswax, there is a faint honey fragrance. I paint with encaustic paints so there is of course the visual but there is definite a tactile quality to many of my finished paintings.

While photograph the paintings, I try to capture the texture, rough as well as smooth, created by the encaustic paint. Often photos of the pieces do not convey the true texture and depth one can create with encaustic beeswax. 

I have found that when people see the paintings in person they are like children, drawn to touch the pieces. 

I encourage this behavior. With this beeswax mixture unique to encaustic, fingerprints are easily wiped clean off the painting.

Buffing the surface of the painting with a soft lint free cloth can bring the shine back to the painting and remove the finger smudges. In allowing the viewer to touch my paintings, it gives them one more way to enjoy my art.