"go with the flow.."

This is molding paste and acrylic paints on a 16" x 20" canvas; titled "go with the flow..". I painted this for my class for a linear perspective painting. For this, the boardwalk needed to be linearly drawn otherwise it would look off. The sunset was another linear point since 1) the sky is based off of where the sun is setting and 2) the shadows created from the posts in the sand are angled differently due to where they are in comparison to the setting sun. I had a lot of fun painting this one, and I LOVE the overall relaxed feeling I get when I look at it (and I think part of that is the warm tone the overall painting has).


I've recently been getting feedback from my classmates and others (via Art Attack) about my paintings and a lot of people have complimented me on my ability with texture. The "crashing waves" have that look/feel in this painting (as an example). Personally, I like adding texture to various things in my paintings, and hope I can continue to build on this aspect while continuing my painting adventure. In my opinion, I like what the textures bring to the painting and how each viewer reacts to the textures.

"Two Halves Make A Whole"

This painting is acrylics on an 11" x 16" canvas; titled "Two Halves Make A Whole". My sister wanted me to paint something for her and gave me a few things she wanted included in it: a random and wild background, and a broken heart. Since my sister liked the first painting I did ("Dirty Little Secret"), I tried to make the background similar to that one. For this I threw some tunes on and just let colors, brushes, and knives flow over the canvas. The heart is then split in two for the broken heart aspect --with more reasons for this underlying (that are a little too personal to share with the web).

"Best Friends"

This is a free idea painting that I did for my best friend. It's acrylics on a 12" x 12"; simply titled "Best Friends". This painting was a lot of fun to do --since most of the time that I was painting it I was reminiscing about the good (bad, hilarious, ugly, and everything in between) times that the two of us have shared. A few times while painting I would have to shoot her a text to remind her about some of these times too. HAHA! I know I should have been focusing on the painting, but I think sharing these stories with her while I was painting helped this painting evolve into its final form. It's a pretty bright, bubbly, and overall fun painting to look at (in my opinion) and that pretty much sums each of us up; along with the friendship we share. 

photo time

I've decided that it's time to venture into other areas of art... so I'm starting a PHOTOGRAPHY BLOG (you can click the link there and it will take you directly to it; otherwise you can access it underneath my profile over on the left hand side <----). Enjoy! :)

"Just Add Water"

This is the third painting I did for my painting class. It's acrylic paints on  a 16" X 20" canvas; titled "Just Add Water". For this one I didn't really follow any sort of theme as I did previously for the first two paintings for this class. Our professor had a basket of fruit set up in the middle of the room for us to paint (for the second unit of fruits and vegetables), and since I had just previously painted my own version of a fruit bowl --I was not overly excited to paint another one. My professor then told me to paint whatever I would like. I sat looking at different objects around the room before I found one.... a watering can. This painting did not look anything like this finished project when I started. Since I had no idea going into class of what I was going to paint, I felt a little like I was forcing myself to paint since I had two hours of class time ahead of me that I didn't want to waste. After leaving class and having a few days to think about what I was going to do; I came back to class and created this instead over the first watering can painting. I like how the background has things going on but they're subtly seen since the eye is drawn to the watering can. Yet if you let your eyes wandering over the entire painting you will find little things here and there. I'm hoping to get some good comments/critiques from my class (or anyone who's looking at this now) that will help me keep figuring out my painting style.

"Fruit Bowl #2"

This is my second painting for my painting class. I used acrylic paints on a 16" x 20" canvas; titled "Fruit Bowl #2". The theme for this second unit was: fruits and vegetables. Hence, the fruit (+ one vegetable) bowl. :)  The inspiration from this one came from an art work (glue and pastels on black construction paper) that I did back in my first grade year of school (1993, age 6; see photo below). After the completion of my pastel, my art teacher at the time entered it into an art contest -my piece won and was displayed at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art (located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa) for a period of time. When this unit came up, I was discussing some ideas with my mom when she said, "You need to do another fruit bowl!" I was hoping to keep the fruit in the bowl as similar as possible to what I had originally done, but at the same time still make it its own painting. I'm very happy with how this one turned out. It's life-like but not as precise as a photograph. However, I don't think this is really my style. I'm somewhat of a perfectionist so when I first started painting it, I wanted it to look very realistic (which it does, but my initial vision for the painting did not look like the end result at all). I'm still trying to figure out what my painting style is, and I think this painting helped me with trying to find out.

[[photo of 1st grade fruit bowl coming soon for comparison]]

"a world full of geometry"

This is the first painting that I did for my class. For this, I used acrylic paints on a 16" x 20" canvas; titled "a world full of geometry". The overall unit or theme for this painting was: simple geometric figures. This is what I mental created before class started, and was greatly surprised by what everyone else was making. Most students in the class did a still-life of the cube, flower pot which a basketball sat on, and other trinkets that sat around the cube. That was not something that appealed to me at all. As the professor originally stated that our paintings need to come from the heart; I stuck with what I had. Not only did a feel a stronger connection to paint what I had already mentally drawn up, but it also just felt right. 


I love the randomness of the overall painting, as well as the uniqueness of each shape. There are no two shapes or lines that are the same. Even if they look the same on here, I can guarantee that the naked eye will pick up different textures when seeing this in person.