Category: Family

Ginger…

Lab

Ginger
Graphite on Bristol Smooth

About the drawing:
Isn’t she just the cutest!  This is the first commission of a puppy I have able able to draw in quite a while.  I have missed drawing pet portraits.  Drawing animals gives me all the feels and I was very excited to draw this one. She loved it! 

Things have been pretty busy around here.  We bought a new home, sold our primary home and been working from home.  Its been pretty chaotic!  So for some reason, I thought it would be the perfect time to change my domain name back to carolottaway.com. I had to change everything on social media too and it took forever! My account on Bloglovin’ is still listing my site as wordpress instead of .com and I can’t seem to change it.  Not that it is a big deal or anything but I pay to use the .com so I should be able to utilize it but this is an issue that I will save for another day.

Speaking of moving, I can’t wait to share my office studio with you!  Still have a lot to do before everything is set up and my husband is still in awe and amazement of how I fit everything in our little house, lol….(Where there is a will there is a way).  It feels weird being in a different home, but it has really worked out with all three of us working from home during the self isolation. We aren’t on top of each other and I am sure if we were in the other home it would be like War of the Roses at the Ottaway household.

I hope everyone is staying safe and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

signature

 

 

Springer…

Springer Spaniel
Graphite in Bristol Smooth

Hello!  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I did!  I spent some time with my little pack of 3.  We didn’t do all that much, I cooked and we watched some TV and laughed a lot, but it was more than enough and I’m very thankful.

On Friday, we went to the movies and watched Creed II.  It was a great movie! Although,  the movie did make me realize that I was around during the old Rocky movies and getting on up there in years, lol  Strange that a movie can bring on angst regarding my mortality, but there it is.  Seriously, if you like Rocky movies, you won’t be disappointed.

I am hoping to get back in the studio this week.  I have a commission that needs to be completed and a few pieces that need to be started.  I won’t mention the box of misfit works that need tending to, that have me stumped! But such is life 🙂

Do you have a box of misfits that you can’t throw or won’t away?

Be Well and Happy!

signature

 

 

 

Life is just Beachy!

“Blue Waters”
Copic Various Ink on Yupo

A BIG event happened in the Ottaway household recently… Our daughter graduated college!

I can’t tell you how good it feels to have my little chickie home and how proud we are!

                                                      Look at that happy face ❤️

After graduation was our yearly trip to Hatteras. (Thank you Chris and Vicki!). It was so much fun to get together with the family.

              We spotted this Raccoon carving on a nature walk on Ocracoke Island!

I guess it’s fitting that I am posting “Beach Waters”. I want to do another piece like the one above, but since each piece is unique and has a mind of its own so we will see how close I can get!

What have you been working on lately?

signature

 

A Puppy for Brittany…


“A Puppy for Brittany”-Commission
Graphite on Bristol Smooth

Hello Friends!
This portrait is almost too cute to send to its new home.  Seriously, I wanna keep it, lol 
But I guess, I won’t…my client has been waiting long enough for her portrait.  I think I am so attached because it has been a while since I completed a pet portrait and I really missed it.

Drawing this subject matter again was not like riding a bike.  I had gotten pretty good at drawing animals, but in experimenting in other medias and different subjects, I was more than a little rusty.  In the end, I figured it out and she loves it, but it wasn’t without patience from my client and my stubbornness.

That’s all that is on my drawing table, but on a personal note, things at home are going great!  My daughter is home from college and I have missed her terribly!  I am going to be a great-aunt to a baby girl and the family is so excited! ANNNND I will be celebrating 22 years of marriage to the Mister on July 14th.

I hope your spring/summer is great and you are enjoying sunshine, flip-flops, cook outs and laughs!  Don’t forget the sunscreen  😉

Be Well and Happy!
signature

Checking In…

Just for my benefit let’s pretend that there is a picture of a piece of art or at least  W.I.P. LOL

I don’t know if you would classify my life as of  late blog worthy, or exciting but it’s all I got and I don’t like being M.I.A. for long periods of time. So I thought I would check in and say HI! and fill you in on recent events.

❤ In September, I was the make up artist at the wedding of my  youngest niece.  I had a lot of fun and was extremely honored to be a part of such a special day.  For a bride to trust her face with you on one of the most important days of her life? I was touched.  The day was beautiful and made even more beautiful when I was able to spend some time with my sweetie, Alana.

My goodness, I miss my girl so much and I feel like I have this huge chunk cut out of me.   As a parent, I guess this is the sort of thing that we sign up for but man, it’s hard.  On the other hand, she is having such a good time coming in to her own and who doesn’t want that for their child.  I am trying to suck it up and I am certainly not going to lay in the middle of the road, but it’s a sad adjustment.

“Thank You God for Skype!”

❤  I have few short-term goals and personal situations that have me pretty stymied.

#1.) …..

#2.)  I’m in serious need of time management.  Yes, I am one of those girls who writes it down old school.  Now, I don’t write down,

12:00 /  Take Break

12:15 /  Pee

but  I have so many things in my life that I love doing.   I refuse to give anything up for the sake of anything else.  I just need to figure out how to have it all.

#3.)  Yep, saved the best for last.  Finally!  I have come up with 2 sets of series paintings that I want to do.  One is still an idea, but the other is ready to go, if I can figure out the scale.  Do I want to paint it on large canvas or smaller for prints?  Or two versions of the same painting?  Unless I do both sizes I will be limited either way, huh.  I have no idea if these pieces will be for competition, sale, show or print.  See what I mean?  I still have way  too many unanswered questions… (which is why you get to look at a sentence instead of art at the beginning of my post) but I guess this is a good problem to have.

I know this post, like most of my posts kept you on the edge of your seat.    If you stuck it out to the end then you are truly my BFF4L 🙂

Be Well and Happy

Christmas Commission #2….

Pet Portrait

Graphite on Bristol Board

       I had forgotten to post my commissions and since I am in the middle of a painting, I thought this would be a good time to post one of them.  This was actually the final commission, but I can’t seem locate the other picture.  It’s in my computer somewhere, but I can’t find it.  The two with the paw prints have sadly passed on to that great rainbow bridge.  I had heard that when she opened this she was so happy and overwhelmed that she cried.  I don’t know how I feel about the crying part.  I can’t stand to see someone cry, it just gets me all upset.  Yes, I am filled with goo, but I also remember how I felt the day we lost Sam.  It’s still just horrible if I let myself think about it, so I can’t even begin to tell you how difficult it was for me to draw these portraits.  I hope I get to the point where I can draw a pet and I will fondly think of him with a smile, but so far I just can’t seem to shake the look of helplessness in my husband’s eyes and the hurt in my daughter’s.  It just makes my hair stand up….See what I mean?  I had no intention of bringing him up…and there it is!  When I least expect it, it comes and slaps me in the face.  Soooo…let me move on to something else.

   The painting.  I have been working on 3 16 x 24 (I think) museum wrapped panels for my living room.  Right now, it has so much paint on them that I had to put them outside to dry.  Outside it’s in the 60’s with a breeze…really nice.  I just hope the creepy crawlies don’t decide to crawl, jump, fly in, run, or walk on them.  I’ll post a picture soon (hopefully).

Be Well and Happy!

The other one:(…

Here is the other necklace that I made a while back and I think that I don’t care for this much.  You can’t really tell,  but the beads on this necklace are so small that it took me days to string and vary from the lightest to the darkest of colors.  This necklace would match my whole wardrobe.  So why don’t I like it?  Well, the toggle clasp is way too bulky and it’s made to look even more bulky by the cone findings.  I don’t like the layering of the 4 strands either.  I wasn’t going to post this, but I really like the look of the beads and I believe it would make a beautiful necklace, but there is something that I’m missing that would make this necklace really pretty! Right now, it’s boring, bulky and looks just thrown together.  I welcome any ideas.

On a better note, I finished my last commission..yay!  I just need to sit with it a few days to make sure that nothing needs tweaking.  This one has three dogs on a 14 x 17 sheet.  I’m also still working on mini me’s blanklet…it will probably be ready sometime after 2017 and with my luck it will be the summer of 2017, lol

I guess that’s about it for me, and I hope everyone is keeping warm.

Be Well and Happy!

 

New Tangle Pattern…Brix

After a weekend of cold, rainy, dreary weather it is so good to see the sun out this morning. I hope you are enjoying sunny skies too.  The weekend wasn’t all bad.  My mom came in so that was fun.

Not much going on but I do have a pattern for you.  It’s called Brix.  It’s really easy and not too far off the mark from real bricks that you would see in fine art.  This pattern would be great incorporated with Graffiti style letters and perfect to use if you were drawing a Zentangle for a boy.

ENJOY!

Be Well and Happy!

Hand lettering…

In my last post I mentioned Joann Fink’s Zenspirations.  I really enjoyed playing around with her techniques and her take on hand lettering.  What you may not know about me, is that a long time ago I used to be a hand lettering artist.  Of course at the time I didn’t know that the “hand lettering artist” label even existed, I just did it.  I would hand letter  invitations, certificates, signs, buildings, banners and even race cars.  I just loved writing fancy and manipulating letters.  But that was so many years ago…and I’m so rusty..Hand lettering is not like riding a bike, if you don’t use it, you lose it.  So, let’s just say I lost it, lol.. but I’ve been practicing and below is some of my efforts:

As you can probably see, my spacing is a little off  but hey, I haven’t done this in like 18 years.  So I’m  not going to beat myself up over it.

After I finished Joann’s hearts and drew the letters I really wanted to do something cool with these.  So, I decided to make these for my daughter and of course a set for myself

These are just transfers from my printer and ironed on reg. white t-shirts.  I think they look pretty cool.  Oooooo, if I had a screen print press I would be dangerous!

I guess I was Zenspired!

Be Well and Happy!

A Tour…

We have a really small bedroom and trying to figure out what to put in there was really difficult.  But I think we did a pretty good job maximizing our space and I love it.  As promised, I’m posting the results of our labor. Beware!  There are a lot of pictures:)

 This is our new bed.  We have been wanting a leather headboard a LONG time, so this is a real treat.  The beautiful handmade quilt was a gift from Mrs. Ottaway. 

We wanted nightstands on both sides of the bed but there just wasn’t enough room.  So David bought shelves with some polished silver floating shelf brackets.  Presto!  We have night tables on both sides of the bed:) Above the bed is more storage with reading lights that David installed under the cabinet.  The lights are on a dimmer which is great.  Loving to read like I do, this is perfect because now he can sleep and I can read.  And the curtains?  I didn’t make them.  The fabric I wanted was more expensive than just buying some panels.  The curtains touched the floor, so I did shorten them. 

This is at another angle to show you the shelves on both sides of our bed and cabinet.  We also installed an outlet so we can charge our phone and use our computer in the bed if we want:)

This rug inspired a lovely argument.  I loved it and he hated it!  We went to Home Depot and Lowes a half a dozen times with me being irritated and David praying that I would like something else.  It never happened.  I won.  And now that the room is put together he likes it as much as I do and had to admit defeat. hee hee

This wardrobe fit perfectly inside the inset of our wall and replaces a dresser, chest, TV stand and jewelry box and it’s huge!  On the left side there is three cubicles with fabric boxes, a shelf for sweaters, a jewelry drawer, a wire rack drawer, and 6 long drawers.  Below is with the right side open to give you an idea

See how long the drawers are?

This is a very tall and narrow unit.  It holds my perfumes,  make up and other crap.  It will be a great place to store books too.

 

 These are the paintings that I managed to complete over the weekend.  I had no idea what would look right so I just grabbed a bunch of tubes that matched the colors of the room and I painted stripes in metallic and the bright colors of the quilt and rug.  I like it, it’s simple and colorful.

     Also, I believe these paintings meet one of my creative resolutions, I did say that I wanted to paint an abstract.

Through this whole experience I learned a valuable decorating lesson.  If you have a small room, the more free floor space you have the bigger the room looks.  It doesn’t translate in the pictures much, but our room looks alot bigger even with the huge furniture. This is very handy, because my other rooms are small too.

That’s it for the virtual tour.  I did warn you that it was going to be a long one. 

I hope you enjoy your day:)

 

Be Well and Happy!