Dear friends, sometimes I get carried away into the artistic arenas of decorating and just beautiful things I see in every day life.  That is one of the points of this blog: to catalog what inspires me.  But my outlet is painting, and painting is what the things I see inspire me to DO.  So here’s a little process for you.


Find pictures of butterlies on internet. Doodle some butteflies in sketchbook.  My butterfly will definitely be blue, I decide.


Ooh, here’s some pretty paints.  Never mind that two are acrylic and one is watercolor.  The watercolor may not be strongly pigmented enough to compete, but they’re all water based so it won’t hurt anything.  I told you we’re a mixed media family.
I notice my watercolor pan lid sitting out, so it becomes my mixing tray.  I think a lot of people think artists are really precise like the painters on Public Television, but not this one!
Hmm, what’s this paint?  Fluidacrylic?  Sure, I’ll take a drop of that.  If you’re wondering why I don’t know all of my paints by name (Hank, Sally), it’s because I have a lot of new-to-me paints.  My father in law and my grandparents shopped some killer estate sales recently and got me a lot of good-quality stuff for cheeep!  They support my habit.
I kind of swoosh and swirl the paint around with my brush, and then slide an old credit card across it.  Eric Carle has had a profound influence on me, as has teaching pre-school through first grade children how to paint!
Okay, back in a bit with the rest of the picture!  Update:  Sorry to leave you hanging all day. Someone woke up from his nap yesterday and that was that.
Draw butterfly half on regular paper, fold over, cut both halves the same.
Trace butterfly.  I realize that the one on the far right has to fat of a middle so I adjust my template and try again.  The left butterfly has a small center; the wings form deep Vs around the butterfly’s middle.
Sharpie some details on.
Sorry to skip a billion steps; I hate when they do that on cooking and painting shows.  I already had a canvas Mod-Podged to death with old newspapers, then gone over with a mixture of Mod Podge and white  paint (mixed with a bit of yellow for age).
                There she is!  Frame is from Michael’s but I painted it with chalkboard paint!