My Art Journey....Part II

Well....you might ask "where have I been"?  The short answer is life has gotten in the way.  The long answer.............. I am at the time of my life where losing loved ones is epidemic.  Parents, In-Laws, uncles and yes...even one that died way too young.  One right after the other.    Yes, I have been painting through all of this and have been running my Yankeegirl Art business but a LOT of things have been placed on the back burner.....like my blog.

I am happy to say that I am back and ready to go!  I'm leaving 2014 behind and committing to making the rest of my life, the best of my life.  Now I know stuff happens.  Believe me...I know stuff happens but for now I am going to concentrate on what makes me happy and what I hope makes others happy by sharing my art.  

It's the middle of a pretty snowy and VERY cold winter here on the Jersey Shore so what am I dreaming of????  Flowers and my gardens....another thing that makes me happy.  I started this painting of some daisies today by first sketching it out on 140# Fabriano watercolor paper and then laying down a mask to "save" the parts of the white paper that will become the flowers and stems.  Next I saturated the paper with water and started dropping my paints into the water and stood back.  Aaaahhhhhhhhh.....the magic of watercolor at work....................

To be continued..........

Wordless Wednesday....

A Little Sunflower Painting that drove me NUTS!!

After I sketched out this little sunflower painting I took paint brush in hand and said "WHAT"?????  See all of the little petals and green pointy things around the base a the sunflower??  Well.....I couldn't figure out what was supposed to be green and what was supposed to be yellow.  I mean really....  They all looked alike in the sketch and and I was painting leaves yellow and petals green.  Sheesh.   After MUCH redoing and redrawing and cursing I think I tamed the beast.  I'd like to introduce you to...."Sunny Flower".

  Click here to view or purchase...

          My love of animals is no secret.  My friends know.  My family knows.  My Facebook friends CERTAINLY know from all of the photos I post of our fur babies....  I have always admired painters who could paint animals especially dogs and horses.  Me....I paint flowers.  I gave myself a goal, a  challenge 
if you will, to practice painting animals.  Of course I practiced on
my own gorgeous Golden Retriever, Madison, first.  First 
couple of tries...not so good but I kept practicing and I am now happy with what I am coming up with.  Then my next goal was to master a horse.  Again, not so good in the beginning but with
perseverance and a couple of ripped up paintings I am proud
with my last attempt which is seen to the below.  

      I am happy to say that I am now offering a listing in my shop for pet portaits done in beautiful watercolor.  Immortalize your own fur baby or give the animal lover in your life a gift that they will absolutely love...         

 Follow this link...
 Fine Art Pet Portraits in Watercolor

 Ok...I joined another website where I can sell my art.  Well...not really my art but cool stuff that has images of my art on them.  It's called Zazzle.com and it's so fun!!  You can get absolutely anything made with so many different choices of images and styles that it will make your head spin.

This pillow is a great example...

http://www.zazzle.com/pillow_live_love_laugh_by_the_beach-189541605553563036

The background is my watercolor painting of the ocean and I added the text that says "Live, Love, Laugh...By the beach" on it.  Love it.  Perfect for you beach loving friend or for your beach cottage.

Stop by my new shop and Zazzle a bit...

 http://www.zazzle.com/yankeegirlart

New things being added daily!

 I am now a full time artist and wanted to fine new ways to reach more people and yes....make more money with my art.  I recently opened to new online shops and thought I would share them with you.

The first one is....
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/carol-bruno.html
where you can order from a selection of prints and mountings to get exactly the look and price point you want.

The second is...
http://www.zazzle.com/yankeegirlart
where you can order any number of fine art gifts with the images of my paintings and photography on them.

So wish me luck and come visit me in my new shops!  The doors are always open!

 I started painting something new last year.  I lovingly referred to them as "The Girlfriends".  Nothing more than big blobs of gorgeous watercolor paint in bright, crazy colors that are all blended together so the colors run together and do the wonderful things that watercolors do.  Next....the magic happens.  They become your friends, daughters, sisters or any other female in your life.  I give them hair color and hair styles and props (mostly alcoholic beverage related) like animals or balloons and they are brought to life.  

I mostly do themes that I come up with but I will happily do customized "Girlfriends" too.  I have done a 40th and 25th birthday celebrations, five daughters, family portraits with sisters and mothers with their kids.  Yes....sons too!  


Please visit "The Girlfriends" section of my Etsy shop for original paintings, t-shirts, cards, tote bags and more with the "Girls" on them.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/yankeegirl?section_id=10909010

If you don't see something you want....just ask!

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