Featured artist at Ryans Wine and Spirits, Wilmington, DE

I just installed a set of paintings at Ryan's Wine & Spirits at Independence Shopping Mall, 1601 Concord Pike, Wilmington, Delaware. The artwork will be on view for the next few weeks and all but one are for sale. Thanks to Deliah Poore and John Ryan for hosting my art! 

Autumn Wreaths DIY Craft Day

These wreaths were made from wisteria vines that were running rampant in my backyard. They are the easiest to weave when they are fresh (you can see this first wreath is still green, I just made it yesterday. It's pretty easy to do, just weave in a circular pattern going over and under, and tucking the new pieces into the existing pattern. The hardest part is getting the consistency, and making sure it actually looks circular. Mine are a bit lumpy but nothing I can't fix from bending and pressing into shape.

The red wreath was made almost entirely from decorations from the Dollar Tree, which in my opinion is the best "first stop" on your way to shop for craft supplies. Sometimes their silk flowers look good, sometimes they don't but it's always worth a shot in my opinion! 

The second blue wreath uses cut up blue burlap strips purchased from jomar fabrics, thick twine as an accent, and the leaves are from either the Dollar Store or Michaels. All you need are scissors, wire clippers, and a hot glue gun! Grape vine wreaths are between $3-$10 at AC Moore and Michaels. 

Julie made her wreath with strips of plain burlap, decorative yarn and ribbon, and silk flowers. She still had fabric from her wedding and I still had some from mine, so we put it to use. 

Trish's wreath used wooden numbers that she painted white with acrylic paint and blue silk hydrangea flowers. She decided on numbers for the number of her house address rather than the letter "L" because she didn't like any of the "L"'s the craft store. Way to improvise, Trish!  

The Druids Keep, Autumn Edition

I always have too much fun painting the windows at Druid's Keep. The city window is a beautiful thing, and I have to be mindful that the charm of it is being able to look out onto the streets and see what is going on, and who is walking by, and what the weather is doing, etc. When I paint this window, I do my best not to take that away. That's why I go with the high-low-high format, so as not to intrude on the people-watching.

The Druid's Keep has a dart team, so my original idea was to show the Druid aiming a dart at a creepy old tree.

 Then I came across their dart team logo, a skeleton Druid, and I fell completely IN LOVE! I kept the same basic idea, but instead of a flesh Druid we have a Skele-Druid. I also used glow in the dark paint to accent the bones on the inside of te window, so it looks super cool at night with the help of a flashlight app. 

(Tracing the original image- so what, I cheat) :-)

(You can see him glowing!)

(End of painting day #1 at night, from the outside of the bar) 

One of the dart team members suggested a full moon over the Druid. It did look a little bare, so after I added some pale yellow outline to the leaves, I added bats and a moon. 

(Finished window, from the outside)

(Finished window, from the inside)

The best part about this was figuring out how to make it look great from the inside and outside. You paint reverse (details and outline, then block color) and then you paint forward (outline and details again). Making it look easy since 2012.

#willpaintforhaircuts season 4- Autumn window paintings

I'm going to add to this as I make more progress on the windows, but I couldn't help but post this latest one prematurely. (Updated Sept 25!) The first is a sketch made with Paper by 53, an iPad sketch app. My inspiration was a schoolgirl's hair blowing in the wind as she walks to school, fantasizing about all the colors of the falling leaves. The second and third pictures are of the painting I started at Inner Beauty by GnL salon in Bristol, Pennsylvania. The leaves will then migrate from the hair to frame the poster. I am actually starting to get a hang of this! 

(Migrating leaf frame in progress; had to pull the banner aside so I didn't get paint all over it)

(I have figured out how to make it look cool from both the inside and the outside! Here is a view inside the store.)

(And of course my ladies Gabi and Lindz hooked me up with this sweet feathering action in my hair, which is hideable!)

#willpaintforhaircuts : Summer Window Paintings

This summer 2014 marked season 3 of window painting for Bristol, Pennsylvania hair salon Inner Beauty by GnL. I referred to some sketches I made in the iPad drawing program, Paper by 53. 

I discovered some awesome paint remover that is also non-toxic: "Motsenbocker's Lift Off 22-fl oz Liquid Multi-Surface Remover," which you can get at Home Depot or Lowe's for under $15. I had plastic paint scrapers, which worked great until they broke five minutes into the cleaning process! I will just have to continue perfecting the method of removing and applying window paint. As for my haircut, I decided to go a little bit shorter in the back and longer in the front. Gabrielle and Lindsay do a great job!

Art in the Garden

Some pics from my growing garden:

We had three canisters for flour, sugar etc that were my husband's Grandfather's that we wanted to repurpose for the garden. Turns out the lids also make excellent plant markers!! I used Sharpie oil paint markers to write on them and distribute around the garden. 

How to restore a mural

This past weekend my neighbors and I spent the first nice day of 2014 outside on New Market street fixing up a mural that had recently been tagged with non-artistic and very unwelcome graffiti. It is sad that some people have no respect for the murals that exist in this city, but it's just a part of urban living that nice things can get destroyed. Thankfully, we were able to make a huge dent in fixing the mural up just in one short day.

As you can see from the photo above, the tagging was really extensive. Restoring it was a daunting task--I have never tried to fix a mural before, let alone one spanning about 40 feet across and 10 feet high. I even researched on the internet for tips and guides on how to restore, but there really were no clear cut guidelines that I could find to reference for help. It isn't a perfect method, but here is what I found to be the best way to fix an outdoor mural painted on a concrete surface that's been defaced with graffiti. Also, it is important to make sure you have permission to fix the work up. If the mural belongs to the city or an organization, contact them first. This mural was done by a local resident years ago and is not affiliated with Mural Arts of Philadelphia. 

Before and after picture 

Goof-Off or similar graffiti cleanup spray can be effective to remove the spray paint. You can also purchase environmentally friendly paint remover in large quantities if the paint has been dry for too long and something stronger is needed. I have tried many different products to remove paint, and the easiest, safest and most effective so far is Motsenbocker's Lift-Off, which is also biodegradable and water-based. 

Materials:

Rubber gloves

Ventilation mask

Protective eyewear

Clothes you don't mind destroying 

Small Rags

Old towels

Coarse scrub brushes 

Coarse scrub pads 

Trash bags

Small, sturdy plastic trays (frozen dinner trays/takeout trays work great)

Painting Materials 

Medium or good quality acrylic brushes (Sturdy, synthetic bristles with flat or filbert head)  

A few regular sized house paint brushes 

Paint rollers and trays if needed

Drop cloths 

Buckets with warm water 

Acrylic paint - some can be the tube or tub kind you get at the craft store (these colors are brighter and the paint is thicker) some can be the gallons and half gallons of house paint (the color will be more subdued but the paint goes further--good for large areas of block color). We used both depending on the color. 

Clear sealant/non-yellowing topcoat (for easy removal of future defacing)

I decided we needed to remove as much of the spray paint as possible because we really couldn't see the details of what was underneath without at least trying to strip off a layer. There was a lot of detail on this black and white striped globe, pictured below.The bright tag with black outline on the left was done with silver spray paint, which had to have been the most annoying color to remove. It has a slimy texture and it gums up when the paint remover is applied. You shouldn't need to use a whole lot of effort to see the graffiti begin to vanish.

When you've removef all the graffiti you can, let the surface dry for 15 minutes and begin the painting process. Don't be discouraged if there are layers you can't get off; that is when painting over the damage comes in!

Mixing Color 

Starting with the closest color you have on hand, you'll then adjust the color and saturation. For this blue, I started with a sky blue house paint and toned it down with white, and added a bit of bright yellow to bring it to a slightly more sea-foam color. Paint is always lighter when it is wet, so it should look a shade or two lighter than the color you're trying to match.

(Here you can see my test batches applied onto the original color. The top right corner was the winner after I added a tiny bit of yellow)

If you can't match the paint exactly, consider painting over it with a similar tone that you have on hand. Some colors I didn't have (navy blue, brownish-maroon) so I just matched with what I had (dark blue, and as close to maroon as I could get). Look up "color theory" or "how to mix paint colors" for a basic guide. (And throw out that red/yellow/blue theory while you're at it)

The restoration isn't finished but we got a good chunk accomplished in one day!