New Painting!

If you can believe it, I just finished a new watercolor painting! It's called "Almost There." This is my first watercolor painting in over a year, which is completely ridiculous. School keeps me so busy that there isn't much time for anything else but I've been trying to paint for at least an hour a day. I also recently finished a new miniature watercolor. It was a fun challenge. :)

I've been posting quite a bit to my Instagram page (@angelasexpressions) if you want to see more. :) Hope you all are well!!

Sale Item for the Week

"Purple Whimsy" is this week's sale item on Etsy. Regularly $75 plus shipping but this week it's only $60 with free priority mail shipping. 

Have a great week!

Blooming White Rose

"Blooming White Rose" 8 by 10, Original Watercolor Painting

 

My latest watercolor painting is this beautiful white rose. I was drawn to the photo because of the contrast of the white flower and dark background, and shadows. I just loved everything about it, and I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

 

 It's available for purchase in my Etsy shop if anyone is interested.

 

Have a great weekend!

Purple Whimsy

"Purple Whimsy" 5 by 7, Original Watercolor Painting

 

"Purple Whimsy" is my latest painting. I originally thought the flower was a Cosmo, but now I'm not sure. In any case I was drawn to the photograph I used as a reference because of the soft purple petals. It was just so beautiful.

 

This painting is available for purchase in my Etsy shop if anyone is interested.

 

Have a great week!

May Lily

"May Lily" 5 by 7, Original Watercolor Painting

 

I finally got a good scan of this painting. I used my new light tent and I think I like it. I did a comparison between the light tent and the scanner. For making reproduction prints, the light tent is definitely the best.

 

This painting is available for purchase in my Etsy shop if anyone is interested.

 

Next, I think I'm going to work on some larger paintings. Maybe 16 by 20? Should be fun! :)

 



New Scripture Paintings

 "Fruit of the Spirit"

"Psalm 139:14"

 

I know there is nothing complicated at all about these scripture paintings, but I'm having a lot of fun with them. Doing the lettering, and masking it out is incredibly tedious, but I'm loving the outcome. "Fruit of the Spirit" is 12 by 16, and "Psalm 139:14" is 11 by 14. I want to do some even larger.

 

I was inspired to do these paintings from a love of wood signs done in a similar style. I was looking into making my own signs (which I still may do at some point) but got the idea to do paintings instead. I just love them. And they look spectacular framed. So, they can be more of an elegant addition to home decor, compared to a wood sign. It just all depends on what style you like.

 

Here's an example of one I framed for myself:

 

Anyway, I have prints available of all 3 of these paintings, and I will list some originals soon. I may even take some custom orders.

 

Hope you're having a great week!



New Watercolors

I've been having some fun with some new watercolors. I was somewhat inspired by all these wooden signs I saw on a recent trip to Duluth.

 A few watercolor cards I did to test out my new ideas. I may put some of these on Etsy.

I absolutely LOVE this painting! It's one of my favorite verses and I'm just so pleased with the way it turned out. Honestly, it doesn't look good on here at all. It was tough to take a good picture and then change the colors to get it to look as close to the original as possible (original watercolor paintings, or paintings in general, always look a lot better in person). This painting is 11 by 14, and I painted it for myself but I might make prints. I may even do another one to sell.

 

For a long time now I've been planning to make embroidered wall hangings with scripture, but I think I like this idea a lot better. Any excuse to paint. :)

 

I realize that this new style of work isn't exactly complicated or even considered "fine art," but I don't care. I really enjoy producing these types of paintings, and am happy to bring glory to God through my work. After all, this is a gift given to me by Him, no matter how small it might be. You can be sure to see many more of these in the future. :)

 

Have a great weekend!

Back in Bloom

"Back in Bloom" Original Watercolor, 5 by 7

 

If you can even believe it, I've finished a new watercolor painting! I started it about a week ago, and forgot to post a WIP photos. I thought I would ease back into painting slowly with a small piece (5 by 7) and with a subject that I'm comfortable with (flowers of course). I had so much fun working on this, even though I was slightly worried that it would be a disaster and that all my painting skills have gone out the window. I'm rather pleased with the way it turned out though. The pencil lines are a little dark though, and because of the fixative I used, I couldn't erase them. Oh well, now I know for next time. :)

 

This painting is available on Etsy if anyone is interested.

 

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Cheesecake Anyone?

"Drizzle" 5 by 7, Original Pastel Painting

 

 

This week's sale item on Etsy is this original pastel painting, Drizzle. It's $10 off with free shipping.

 

It feels like ages since I last blogged... School has been keeping me incredibly busy, plus my brother and sister were visiting this past week. Time to get back in the swing of things.

 

Have a great week!

Bleeding Hearts

"My Bleeding Heart" is my sale item of the week on Etsy. It's $15 off and shipping is free! (For the U.S. only please).

 

I hope you all have a lovely week!

Available Kitties

I'm not quite sure how it happened, especially with all my kitty collectors out there, but I still have 5 original kitties left.

 

"A Visitor"

"Bird Watching"

"Can You See Me?"

"Hiding Spot"

"In the Garden"

 

Each of these paintings are size 5 by 7 and are done in pastel, which means they will last a very long time (longer than an oil or watercolor). I hope someone can give these kitties a home! :)

 

Have a lovely weekend! God Bless!

"New" Original Paintings For Sale

"Sunset Beach" 11 by 14 Original Pastel

 

"Sunset Pier" 11 by 14 Original Pastel

 

I made the decision to put these two original pastel paintings up for sale. I painted them for myself a couple years ago and have had them in my private collection. I hope that someone will fall in love with them and hopefully purchase them as a set. They go quite nicely together.

 

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Beautifully Imperfect

"Beautifully Imperfect" - Watercolor Painting, 8 by 10

I've been working on this somewhat larger watercolor painting for the past few days. I think "Beautifully Imperfect" is a perfect title for this piece. Sometimes we artists only paint perfect and flawless pictures of nature, but we forget to include the imperfections. This rose was striking to me even with those discolorations and spots. In fact some of those spots were accidents, but they work with this piece.

This painting is available on Etsy.



Falling Hearts

"Falling Hearts" - Original Watercolor Painting - Size 5 by 7

I've been working on this painting the past couple days. It's not a mini, but it was supposed to be. I just thought it would be too difficult to do that small. I'm thinking about doing some larger paintings too. Perhaps some 8 by 10's 11 by 14's and maybe bigger! Eek! :) I'm not sure why I always paint so small. I guess it's because it's just easier with realism. But I want to branch out and try something new.

"Falling Hearts" is available on Etsy.

Perfectly Pink

"Perfectly Pink" - Original Watercolor Painting, 5 by 7

I just completed my first watercolor painting of the year! Isn't that terrible? :) Although, I have done a handful of pastel paintings. I've been working on this painting for a few days and I can't tell you how good it felt to be using my watercolors! I simply have to make more time for painting even if it means getting up earlier or staying up later (which I have been doing). Painting is my one true love and quilting has been just taking over around here (but I enjoy that too).

This painting is available in my Etsy shop if anyone is interested. Meanwhile.. I'm still working on that painting challenge. I will post about that in a couple days! :)



Etsy Item of The Week

"Shades of Pink" 5 by 7, Watercolor Painting

This small watercolor painting is my item-of-the-week on Etsy this week. I'm offering it at the sale price of $55 with free shipping. It's the only tulip painting I have left! It's actually the first one I ever did. I like it a lot and it makes me long for spring! :)

Along with my "items of the week" I've decided to offer an item of the month to donate to charity. I'm working on a list of charities and I will post more about this tomorrow.

Happy Monday!

A Pugs Life

"A Pugs Life" 5 by 7, Pastel Painting

Available Here

In an effort to get my groove back I've been working on this painting the past couple days. I'm very happy with the way it turned out. I was however, disappointed with the way that it scanned. This particular piece looks so much better in person. The overall softness has not been captured in this photo.

This painting is 5 by 7, and the painting surface is Ampersand Pastelbord. I used all pastel pencils for this piece.

I'm thinking about a landscape for my next painting.

Have a great weekend!

Item of the Week & New Years Sale

"Pears" 5 by 7, Pastel Painting

"Pears" is this week's item-of-the-week on Etsy. It's on sale for $45 with free shipping. So many people have shown interest in this little painting, I would like to find it a good home. :)

I'm also have a New Years sale on Etsy. Free shipping on all items until Sunday at midnight. To receive the discount use coupon code "newyear" at checkout! Please keep in mind that you must use the coupon code to receive the discount, it will not happen automatically.

Hope you all had a great Christmas! I can't believe it's over already!

New Quilting Machine

So, I've been talking recently about a huge investment that I've made in my business... Well, here it is! I've bought a long arm quilting machine. I'm so super excited about getting it but nervous as well. And I say "nervous" because I could have bought a small car for the amount of money I paid for this thing! Yikes!

It's a Tin Lizzie 18, and I purchased the 10 foot wooden frame seen in the picture. It's being delivered tomorrow and it will be going out in my sunroom. It's just the perfect place for it and I'm excited to try it out. The men delivering it are even going to give me a training session so I won't have to worry about figuring that all out on my own.

The purpose of purchasing this machine is first and foremost so I can branch out and quilt larger items. Every table runner and baby blanket I've made has been quilted on my sewing machine. And that works just fine for small projects but makes quilting a larger blanket next to impossible. I also plan to offer quilting services once I become proficient enough. I don't imagine it will take long since I have been quilting on my sewing machine and understand the concept. I plan to offer long arm quilting through my Etsy page and perhaps even through the gallery who represents me (The Stillwater Art Guild Gallery), as I have some quilted items there.

I'm discovering that growth is so scary and exciting at the same time. But I think I'm more excited and optimistic that I can really create something.

On a side note, I recently marked some paintings down on Etsy to $1!! There is absolutely nothing wrong with them, I'm just trying to make room for new work.

Hope you're having a great week!

Huge Art Sale!

I'm having a crazy sale on Etsy right now. I just significantly marked down paintings that were already at a reduced price. All of the paintings are original and most of them are $20 with free shipping! I know what you're thinking, "have I lost my mind?!" Not quite, but I'd like to make some room for some new work. I'm only offering this sale for a few days. See some of the paintings below. Check out my "Reduced Art" section to see more.

"Pink Sky" 5 by 7 Pastel
"Apple and Pears" 5 by 7 Pastel

"Grow" 5 by 7 Pastel

"Christmas Poinsettia" 5 by 7 Pastel

These paintings will only be available for a short time and whatever doesn't sell on Etsy will be going to the Stillwater Art Guild Gallery to be a part of the November and December trunk show. I know it seems a bit early to be thinking about Christmas gifts but this might be a fabulous way to start your holiday shopping. You can't beat these prices!

Have a lovely weekend!