Summer & Fall 2020

As I mentioned in my last post, we visited a number of parks and nature trails near our home in Rochester Hills, Michigan this past summer and fall, while the weather was still nice. I took a lot fewer photos of flowers this year than I have in years past (my camera roll is instead naturally full of pictures of our baby) - but I did on occasion take a few shots of some flowers, animals, and scenery as we walked around the parks and nature trails with our baby and dog. Here are some of my favorite pics I took:

I'm going to miss all the nature trails and parks around here when we move to Ann Arbor - but I'm excited to explore all the new nature areas around our new house! (And hopefully finally take our daughter to new places BESIDES just outdoor locations next year... poor girl has never been to a library storytime, or inside a store, or to a restaurant, or an aquarium, or anything besides our house and these local nature spots. Here's hoping 2021 is safer, and we can finally show her more of the world!)

Interior Design - Nursery

My last several blog posts have been all about how I created the artwork that ended up on my nursery walls - three little woodland animal watercolors (two owls and a fox), and two quotation paintings with a yellow patterned background. I already teased how the artwork looks in the room a bit in those earlier posts, but today I'd like to show how the artwork fits within the whole finished room, including all the nursery furniture.

When you first walk into the room, this is your view - crib on the left (complete with a Harry Potter owl mobile I had custom made on Etsy and fox-themed crib sheets), rocking chair on the right (complete with yellow patterned cushion I also had custom made on Etsy), and a wooden dresser/changing table combo on the far wall. The two quotation paintings are hanging on the same wall as the changing table, up in the top two stripes of the ombre painted walls:

Pivoting to the right, you can see the side table next to the rocking chair, the curtains (which match the yellow patterned rocking chair cushion), a yellow storage ottoman/seat, a wooden bookcase, and the three woodland animals I painted, hung diagonally. (In the months and days before our baby was born, our dog Ginny spent a lot of time sleeping on the rug in the nursery while I was in there organizing everything.)

I'm pretty excited about our custom closet (which we got from the Container Store and installed ourselves), so permit me a couple photos to show it off too. :) On the top shelf, I bought colorful storage boxes from Bed, Bath, and Beyond to house all the larger sizes of clothes our baby wouldn't need right away. There's plenty of space to store extra diapers and wipes on the left side of the closet. In the center are drawers I organized for everyday clothing essentials - shirts, pants, onesies, sleepwear and swaddling blankets, and accessories like hats and socks. There are also several shelves and short clothes hanging areas that aren't being utilized yet (room to grow as our baby starts having bigger clothes, and more of them!).

Of course, these photos were all taken before our baby's arrival, when everything was still well-organized. We've accumulated a lot more stuff since then (more clothes, toys, etc.) so those closet shelves are starting to look a little more full! We've also made some small tweaks to how some things were organized, as we learned what worked best for us in taking care of our baby. But in general, I think we did a great job getting everything we needed and getting it pretty ready and organized ahead of time. :)

And I have to say, even with all the time I've spent in this room over the last few months, I still love the yellow walls with their ombre stripes, the watercolor paintings I created, the wooden nursery furniture I picked out, the custom (and oh so comfortable) rocking chair cushion (which sits on the rocking chair my grandmother used to rock her four children, including my mom, when they were kids), and the little fox and owl accents throughout (the crib sheets, the mobile, the toys, the toy storage bins, the owl table lamp, etc.). It's such a cheerful, beautiful room, and I love spending time in here, taking care of my baby.

Nursery Art: Three 8x10 Woodland Animal Paintings Finished

Last week I showed you the beginnings of painting these three 8"x10" woodland creatures for the nursery; today's post is all about finishing them up and hanging them on the wall!

Here are the three watercolors, still taped to the gatorboard - freshly finished, and still a little wet!

You'll remember from last week's post how I used a wet-on-wet technique to get those little white spots all over the feathers and fur of these creatures, to give them a little texture. I used that same technique to finish off the head and body of this first owl. The texture on the feathers and the little legs were created with wet-on-dry (which is why the brushstrokes are visible).

For the fox, I used the white-splotchy technique only on the lighter yellow areas, and the light orange body. For the head and tail, I kept it nice and dark. I achieved this color with a mix of brown, yellow, and red. I did go in and add a bit more pigment in some places while it was partially dry, but I did this with extra pigment, not less pigment, so the end result was darker areas (the areas still wet in the image below) rather than lighter splotches.

I added some wet-on-dry brushstrokes to this owl's wings and legs as well, plus some for its light colored belly.

Here are all three finished paintings, once they were dry, trimmed to size, and framed:

I really love how these guys turned out, and I think they fill out the space perfectly!

Next week I'll show off more photos of the nursery - the larger quotation paintings finally hanging up on the wall, and all of the furniture in place. (When I finished these paintings and took these pictures, there was only a couple bookcases, a yellow storage ottoman, window curtains, and a rocking chair in the room. It was September, and we didn't yet have our crib or changing table.)

Nursery Art: Three 8x10 Woodland Animal Paintings in Progress

As I was putting together our baby registry, I found a lot of great woodland themed items that I wanted for our nursery - a Harry Potter owl crib mobile, an owl humidifier, a fox night light, etc. So I decided our nursery would have a "light" woodland theme - among the yellow ombre wall stripes and the green somewhat-floral area rug and the wood colored furniture, there would be just hints of woodland creatures among the decor as well.

There was a space on one of the walls that was just screaming for a bit of (small) artwork - a space between the window and the closet that was just the perfect amount of room for a few 8"x10" paintings. So I found some cartoonish owls and a fox that I liked, traced those designs onto watercolor paper, and made them my own!

Below are the three paintings in progress, taped down in the order I planned to eventually hang them on the wall - with one owl on either end, and the fox in the middle. I worked on all three paintings concurrently.

I started with some lighter colors first - the pale yellow and pale orange areas, as well as the green of the far right owl's eyes. I selected areas that weren't touching, so that the paint wouldn't bleed into the next section while they dried.

I used a wet-on-wet technique to blend a sort of ombre effect on the first owl's wings, as well as to add texture to all three paintings (though especially the fox and the owl with the green eyes). I painted a section, waited a couple minutes for it to partially dry, and then, while it was still somewhat wet, used a wet brush to dot the pigment, which left behind white circles when it dried.

Once those areas were dry, I started adding more details to the already dry areas (such as some dry-on-wet brushstrokes on the owl's feathers), as well as working on adjacent areas. I painted the owls' bellies, beaks, and pupils, using shades of orange and brown to match the rest of our nursery decor. I also painted the paler orange areas of the fox - the belly and little blushing cheeks.

I used the same wet-on-wet technique I used in the first round to add texture to the bellies of all three animals.

There was only a bit left to do - the head and body of the first owl and the head of the second owl (both of which would be a darker brown), the head and tail of the fox (which would be a darker orange-red), and the dark black pupils of the fox. I did all of these in the third round through the paintings.

Check back next week to see how I finished off these cute little creatures, as well as to see how they looked framed and hanging in our nursery!

NYC Photos - Central Park Zoo

As I mentioned in my last post, my husband and I went to Central Park on two separate days of our vacation to New York City. On the last day - Friday, April 6 - we walked through part of the northern edge of Central Park and the rainy, not-yet-blooming Conservatory Gardens, before seeking shelter from the weather at a nearby Starbucks and the Jewish Museum. Then, after lunch (and once the sun started to peak out behind the clouds just a little), we ventured out to the Central Park Zoo to try to soak up just a little more Vitamin D.

Here are some of my favorite photos of the animals (and a few flowers/plants!) we saw at the Central Park Zoo:

Toledo Zoo Photos

A couple months ago, my friend and I went to the Toledo Zoo for a day. Among their many animal exhibits were some pretty gardens - which I of course took photos of. Here are three of my favorites:

Of course, I also took pictures of the animals - especially in the aquarium. It was so hot that day that we ended up spending most of our time there, and in other indoor exhibits. Here are some of my best photos of some of the animals:

I don't know if I'll ever use the photos of animals as source photographs for future artworks - but who knows? Maybe one day I'll get sick of flowers and want to take my art in a new direction instead.