ORC linking participant-art day

Thanks again to Linda of Calling it Home, for lighting a really big fire under me and about 70 more people.

If you missed my progress on this guest bedroom/ college son's room, here are the previous weeks

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

You may remember one of my inspirations for this room included a gallery of portraits.

Well I thought I had it covered, the wall that is. I took my photos on Tuesday afternoon and got around to uploading them around 10 pm. Panic city! I had not noticed until I looked at photos that the wall looked half dressed, a waist up situation. Where the heck was I going to get more portraits in time? The answer was in my studio. I was up until 3 am creating.

I generally don't paint people but this was an emergency.

I worked from photos and this guy was loosely based on the statue of David.

This was just a random man with glasses.

It was late and I still needed one more so I did a simple gestural self portrait from a blurry reflection. I had it on Instagram and someone commented on my beard. Funny, very funny.

These are linocut prints by my grandmother and the portrait of the gentleman in blue is a painting she did of her father. There is also a portrait of my great-great grandfather too.

Under the baby portrait is a linocut of a man playing guitar and I found it particularly apt since my son (Mr. Death Metal Maniac) plays guitar.

Earlier this week, I posted about this commissioned portrait of my son as a baby. The very talented Sam Kimura painted it. 

"Mettle" oil on canvas by Kerry Steele

I painted this 36 x 36, titled "Mettle", specifically for the room.

I found a spot for one more of my paintings above this bookshelf and tucked a small landscape by Sally Kelly in too. Our house is a revolving gallery. Things move from room to room, get sold, I paint something new and it starts all over. Don't be surprised if you see one of these in my shop in the future.

My to do list is looking pretty good. Its funny how things get tacked on as you go, like painting three portraits in an all night frenzy.

To Do List

 1. Throw away box of Mike's Hard Lemonade empties in the closet and scrub everything including carpet.
2.Paint walls
3. Source vintage furniture and accessories
4. Move Queen bed in
5. Install new light fixture
6. Trick out the bed with cool pillows
7. Hang curtains
8. Hang art including 2 custom paintings, wait let's make that 5
9. Final zhush

Come back next week for the whole enchilada and all of my sources!

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New artist spotlight- Sam Kimura

Its funny how you run across things on Etsy that are just what you were looking for or better.

In my search for portraits for my son's room redo, I found Sam's Etsy shop.

It dawned on me to commission something and I liked her loose style. This was for the ORC linking event so I was a little terrified, but the commission exceeded my expectations. Sam mentioned to me that she is a student so I assumed that she is an art student but that is not the case.

Her work is really wonderful. Here is what she told me about her background:

"I am a painter from Louisville, Kentucky and a current student at Western Kentucky University. I major in religious studies and minor in psychology and I do art on the side. Ever since I can remember, I have loved to draw, paint, and sketch. If it's creative and it involves color, I'm all over it. I work primarily with oils and acrylics and I specialize in portraits but I also dabble in landscapes."

Here is what she painted for me.

It is based on a photo of my son (now 18) when he was about 7 months old wearing a Tibetan hilltribe hat. I asked her to exclude the fabric in the background.

Children are very hard to draw or paint without looking a little stilted but I think she captured that baby cuteness that I love.

Come back on Thursday to see the painting in situ and more of the art in my room redo for the ORC linking event.

Let there be light...and fabric

Thanks again Linda of Calling it Home for hosting this ORC linking party.

Fill your coffee cup this is going to be a long one.

I felt bad for the lame update last week and promised a two-fer this week with lots of meat...er, light and fabric.

This darling vintage number was an Etsy find with no lampshade or working socket, I discovered. I went everywhere around here looking for a shade. I finally remembered Commonwealth lighting in Old Town Fred and hit pay dirt. The nice man found me a shade and replaced the socket for $15.

The funny part is that I really wanted a vintage brass lamp. I looked online and in antique and vintage stores locally but had no luck in getting the right thing for my budget. I went down to my basement yesterday to put something away and there was a vintage brass lamp, laughing its brass off saying, "You don't know what you haaaave"

It was my husband's and I feel OK about it because I think its too big. Just let me think that, OK?

The ceiling fan had to go. I got the semi-flush mount at Home Depot. 

Here is my rant for the day:

 Builders, is it too much trouble to paint that last inch around the hole before you hang that fugly ceiling fan? Apparently it is. That is why I had to buy the medallion. It was either that or paint the ceiling. Like that was going to happen! I think this was a happy ending problem because I like it better with the medallion than without. Yes?

Last is this cutie on the desk from Homegoods. No story, just chrome and Lucite goodness.

Here is a sneak peek at the bed. I will post all sources at the end but I just want to talk about this awesome Kantha quilt.

I love it! I found it in this Etsy shop. It was a bit of a splurge for this room but worth every penny.

Set backs this week? Why yes, just a little one that had me ironing for days.
Can I just talk about the sheets for a minute? You know the ones you can't even see *sigh*?
I have quite a few very nice quality sheet sets for this bed but none just the right color and after ironing not just the bedskirt (12 inch drop very hard to find), the duvet cover, curtains and one set of wrong colored sheets, I decided I needed different sheets. I did have a older set of white sheets that were about to be retired to the drop cloth pile but the top edge was fine. Out came the iron again and I realized that they were sheets made before mile thick mattresses and were too small to even tuck in. So I panicked and went shopping. After ironing more sheets, turning down the quilt and top edge just so and placing the pillows, it dawned on me that they could have been pink with purple elephants. Crap. Next week I am going to fold them down real far.

The other main fabric is the linen curtain from Ikea.

The quality has vastly improved on these since I first saw them five or six years ago.

They are actually hemmed now. I think I would like to shorten mine but its fine for now.

The curtains have a generous rod-pocket and back tabs but also gathering tape.

If you pull and tie these gathering tape strings you can achieve an even gather that will stay gathered.

The curtains are a nice weight and slightly sheer.

Got a ton of stuff done this week. Next week...ART!

To do list:

1. Throw away box of Mike's Hard Lemonade empties in the closet and scrub everything including carpet.
2.Paint walls
3. Source vintage furniture and accessories
4. Move Queen bed in
5. Install new light fixture
6. Trick out the bed with cool pillows
7. Hang curtains
8. Hang art including 2 custom paintings
9. Final zhush and fold down top sheet so the pristine ironing can be enjoyed.

You can catch up on my previous posts HERE and HERE 

and HERE 

 

Thanks Mom!

Yesterday I received two giant boxes of the most delightful family heirlooms from my mother.

Many of the items belonged to my great-great grandmother but some are older than that.
I had just been thinking how much I want more blue and white porcelain to display.

You had me at Greek key

It was like Christmas in October.

there was quite a bit of Wedgewood jasperware, both light and dark.

There is one piece of Wedgewood that has fascinated me from my earliest memories.

As a child,I imagined it must hold a very narrow, tall and certainly delectable cake but it is, in fact, a cheese dome.

It is one of my very favorite things that my great-grandmother had on display.

Mom also sent along a set of these small, fetching plates. They make me want to bake a cake and have a party.

This isn't even the entire haul of goodies.

Thanks Mom!

The worst wall

I am about to show you you the worst wall in my house, the TV wall.

Its not just a TV wall as you will see. 

My apologies if you have a burning desire to gouge your eyes out after this.

I did recently score this groovy curved, mid century rosewood cabinet but it doesn't fix this...

Watching Dora

Its also a staircase wall and an ugly one at that.

I have some ideas.

I really think the TV should be hung on the wall so that I have at least a tiny bit of real estate to style with something.

Some TV wall/gallery walls are better than others.

Especially ones without orange wood railings behind them.

Mr. DesignduMonde is adamantly opposed to hanging the TV for some crazy man reason like nail holes or something.

What do you think? Any ideas?

Maybe a few of you could come over and help me tie him up so we can hang this thing.

New work

"A romance in lower mathematics" 42 x 60 oil on canvas by Kerry Steele

Last year I had a commission for a 42 x 60 painting and the framer ordered the wrong stretcher bars so I had a 42 x 60 frame just sitting around that I had every intention of painting. I just finished it this week and got it hung in my kitchen.

I have been spending more effort on the backgrounds of my paintings with sheer layers of color. I feel like that was missing from some of my work.

Here are a few detail shots of those layers on this painting.

This may end up in my shop but for now I am enjoying it in my house.

If you are thinking, "That's ALL you have done?!" No. I have been working on commissions including one the lovely Jennifer of The Pink Pagoda, will be showing off in the One Room Challenge.

I can't wait to see it in her daughter's room.

 I even did a bit of color matching for it.

I think a few people have been confused about my Etsy shop. Its still there but I only have works on paper there now.

#121

Like my page on Facebook or follow me on Instagram to see paintings in progress and as soon as they are finished.

Must haves--ORC linking participant

If this is your first time here, this is a linking party courtesy of One Room Challenge genius, Linda.

See all of the participants HERE

Here we are at week 3! For me that means panicking about the things that are not done and not delivered yet. Panicking about not being able to do a post on fabrics because one stupid item has not been delivered.

I thought it would be helpful to show two products that were indispensable in reviving some of my vintage pieces so they look vintage as opposed to crappy.

I had my doubts about this Pledge revitalizing oil. I have used lemon oil on wood and it can absorb unevenly, looking really messy. My son's vintage dresser had seen some hard use and after cleaning it thouroughly with Murphy's oil soap I wiped it down with the revitalizing oil. It made a huge difference.

I ran around the rest of my house trying it on other antiques too and I really love it.

This antique mirror was in my basement still packed in the box from our move three years ago. I was really glad it was not broken but the gold frame was chipped and beyond acceptable.

I whipped out my Krylon gold leaf pen and began the touch-up.

This is perhaps the simplest DIY ever. I did use it on more than just the chipped areas. The gold leaf was noticeably brighter than the old gold finish so I made a continuous ring around the inner perimeter and highlighted the leaf pattern on the outer edge for a more uniform appearance.

Thanks for following along! 

Anyone else panicking?! My to do list says it all. This week was a bust but next week you'll get a two-fer with lighting and fabrics.

To do List:

1. Throw away box of Mike's Hard Lemonade empties in the closet and scrub everything including carpet.
2.Paint walls
3. Source vintage furniture and accessories
4. Move Queen bed in
5. Install new light fixture
6. Trick out the bed with cool pillows
7. Hang curtains
8. Hang art including 2 custom paintings
9. Final zhush

 

You can catch up on my previous posts HERE and HERE