AEDM Day 30 and we are DONE!

I phoned it in today for sure, eager for Art Every Day Month to be done. Because it's not that I am not doing art every day. In fact this time of year I may have more art than ever to do, sometimes original, sometimes printing & assembling. You know the drill.

Today I took my son to the local art store where they were letting kids do "scratch art" on these little squares. They are coated in black something-or-other and when you scratch a design, the colors show through. It was a lot of fun and very relaxing, as they had a "David Bowie-like" Pandora station playing and the employees there (C.C. Lowell) are always so nice and friendly.

Happy Holidays, everyone! I am outta here for now. For most other art activity, see my Jen Niles Art Facebook page! 

And don't forget to visit the Etsy shop too.

AEDM Day 29 - Paint & Sip

Today I didn't have time to do a separate "Art Every Day Month" project. But I did make a large painting at a "paint & sip" studio that I was researching for a possible teaching gig. You know those places; they assign a painting for that day and you have to paint it. The painting I did came out OK, I suppose. Everyone in the class went "ooh" and "aah" about it. But I am not putting it here for numerous reasons.

The "painting du jour" was of a glass of wine next to a Christmas tree decorated with colorful ball ornaments. You can trust me when I say that I would probably never have created a painting with a glass of wine as the main focal point. (I considered switching it to a mug of coffee or hot chocolate, two other festive options, but those are short and would have flubbed up the composition.) My brand is important to me, so I am not going to put that on my site even if the colors are really pretty.

Also, it is not my style and not my best work. I usually work with different kinds of paint, on a different kind of surface (table, not easel), and in a different way. I prefer, for the most part, to put down the background before the foreground items. This teacher had us put all the Christmas balls down first and then fill in the tree around it. Although I can see why she did it. For the amount of time allotted, it made the painting go faster.

So anyway, you can all just wonder how it came out. :-)

AEDM Day 28 - Thankful

Today is Thanksgiving! We had Thanksgiving last Sunday with Grandma, but we might have it today with just the three of us. Depends on whether we are all over whatever it is has plagued us for the past few days. But even so, a nice relaxing morning is under way. The cold wind blows outside, and the sun shines in the window on the cat's toasty fur where he sits on my husband's amplifier. Maybe I should have painted him. Hmm. That's an idea for another day. For now, here is today's Art Every Day Month effort. (And of course I am doing OTHER art every day, too, like for customers)

AEDM Day 27 - recovering

I am feeling much better now. Not exactly chipper, which is why today's art barely qualifies for the name "art." More like a doodle. But hey, they say you just have to do it every day even if your spirit is not in it at the moment.

AEDM Day 26 - Lost day

Today was a lost day. I spent it in bed, sick. No art.

AEDM Day 25 - Peace

I'm not even Jewish but I was inspired by a pretty picture of a Menorah that I saw today, as well as a Jewish mom's comment that the thing she loves most about Hanukkah is the peace.

AEDM Day 24 - Trick or treating

In keeping with my new theme of "scenes from my son's life," here is one from Halloween 2013. He was an Imperial Moth and had great fun trick-or-treating in Grandma's neighborhood, and pretending to love everyone's porch lights as he did so.

AEDM Day 23 - I blew it

In all the prep and travel for our "mini Thanksgiving" at Grandma's house, I totally forgot to do any art. Or, more accurately, I remembered just before bedtime. z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z...

AEDM Day 22 - Nate and Grandma at Great Meadow

These little black and white pictures are from photographs that my husband or I have taken. Little moments of awesomeness from Nate's life. I took this picture on one of our walks at Great Meadow in Concord. What a beautiful place and what a nice way to spend the day with Grandma. Nate loves his Grandma so much.

AEDM Day 21 - son and hubby, reading

Another B&W. I've got something up my sleeve. I may or may not color these later.

AEDM Day 20 - my son in black and white

What a funny kid. Yes, those are his striped pajamas. If the weather is nice enough, he sees no reason not to go out on his scooter in his PJs. We have such a quiet neighborhood that there's no one to witness this except the long-suffering neighbors across the stress who, at this point, have seen it all, and maybe also the mailman. I drew this using Micron pen from a photograph that I took back when the weather was warm.

What frustrates me about drawing my son is that my lack of skill in drawing faces really makes it hard to capture how darn cute he really is. But still, I like the jaunty little pose that is so typical of him.

AEDM Day 19 - the view from our window

This is the view from our kitchen window (except I put blue sky where my neighbor's light yellow house would be). Today, my son and I had a great time watching various kinds of birds landing and taking off from our bird feeder with a level of activity worthy of Chicago's O'Hare airport! And then there was the chipmunk who we've nicknamed "Hoover" for the way he comes in an vacuums up the sunflower seeds. I keep chasing him away--those seeds are expensive! I keep telling him to just take one at time like the birds. No luck! :-)

AEDM Day 18 - LOVE

Sometimes designs can be doubly beneficial. They are easy on the brain; no big concepts or requirements, just fun. (Actually REALLY fun. Very relaxing, like a Zentangle.) Sort of a colorful doodle. And they can be done relatively quickly. Hence, today's little painting done while my son was in his Minecraft coding class.

AEDM Day 17 - simplistic city scene

You guys can always tell when I am super-super-busy, right? My AEDM paintings get really simple. Case in point. I did this one on time yesterday (November 17) but of course got distracted and never scanned it to put it online.

I will be painting or drawing today's image while my son is at his class. I bring all my art supplies with me.

AEDM 16 - wintry scene

This has been such a busy week. My morning art time keeps getting eroded from both ends...at night (late bedtime) and morning (out the door early). So today I did this later, at around 4:30 after a productive day of errands and a meeting with someone who wants to collaborate on a children's book. I still have so much to do, I decided to keep today's AEDM painting simple.

AEDM Day 15 - street scene

This was our view from the window seat my son & I enjoy every week at Dunkin' Donuts, before his Art/Biology class. Yes, I left out lots of cars. Oh well! :-)

AEDM Day 14 - yard stuff

Time was so short today! But while my son was at his playdate and I chatted with the friend's mom, I doodled this one. Inspired by my yard at this time of year.

AEDM Day 13 - christmas tree patterns

Some days I am more inspired than others. Today, not so much, and you can see the result is less than optimal. But I've been wanting to fool around with a Christmas tree image that was more of a design than a real representation. So there ya go. My 10 year old son thinks it's awesome.  :-)

AEDM Day 12 - snowy day

The first snow of the season inspired this one.

AEDM Day 11 - Union Station in Worcester

How do I do these things in such a short amount of time, still half-asleep? I don't know! I think it has something to do with the fact that if I don't do them then, I won't do them at all. When my son wakes up, the day begins!

AEDM 10 - two kitty friends

These guys feel like friends but I've never actually met them! Not the most exact portrait but whaddya want for 3"x3" ?

:-)

AEDM 9 - a crazy fall tree

It is really only the 9th of the month? I've got a long way to go. With several jobs, homeschooling and managing a household, sometimes I think I don't have time for these. That happened today (I ended up doing it late because my morning time couldn't happen) and yesterday (luckily I could paint "on the go"). But I am glad for the little prompt to do even just the merest doodle every day, because even though they are tiny and somewhat insignificant in the larger scheme of things, I love doing them and I love looking at them afterward!

AEDM - Day 8 - Holden's Red Barn

Today I am at the EcoTarium while my son attends his class. I brought  my paints with me and did this little 3"x3" painting of the Red Barn in Holden where they have a festival every fall.

The quality of the image isn't as good as my others, because it's not scanned; I snapped a picture with my iPhone and put it up. (I LOVE my iPhone and Macbook Pro! It's like I can take my office and art studio with me wherever I go.)

Here's my portable office and art studio!

AEDM Day 7 - polar bear sweethearts

It may be Art Every Day Month, but someday the too-tight schedule says "Keep it simple!" So, today's 3"x3" acrylic-on-watercolor-paper is very simple. It was inspired by a book I'm reading with my son (the "Seekers" series) about several bears traveling together. One of them is a polar bear and currently their journey has them in the polar bear's natural habitat. Will Kallik strike up a romance with Yakone? Only time will tell.

AEDM Day 6 - "Good friends are like angels"

Where do I get these ideas? Well, today I wasn't getting any ideas naturally, so I went to my "things to paint" file. And sure enough there was a doodle there--you know the kind you do when you are on the phone or something--which I had liked enough to save. Three little angel ladies. So I turned them into today's 3"x3" painting.

AEDM Day 5 - colorful zentangle

Today I couldn't think of any scene or subject from real life that spoke to me, so I decided to do a design and just enjoy the color and shapes. The painting (another 3"x3"  acrylic on watercolor paper) strikes me as a cross between one of my regular paintings, plus zentangle, plus Indian influence. I really love it and may make it into a card.

AEDM Day 4 - an autumn river

Driving down to Rhode Island yesterday we saw such beautiful autumn color. This season has been such a joy--tons of color with minimal rain. 

This little painting is just 3"x3" - making them tiny makes "Art Every Day Month" much easier for me. It also gives me a chance to try out new techniques, like my new acrylics-on-watercolor-paper, with Micron pen added detail. Not terribly complex or even skilled, but SO much fun to do!

AEDM Day 3 - another tree

Do you sense a theme here? I am discovering and experimenting with trees and background patterns.

It's "Art Every Day Month" (AEDM)!

I realize that I never blog here any more. It's because I have a day job (a job I have to blog for), I'm homeschooling a really challenging and wonderful 10-year old boy, and of course there's the art. But I persist! I didn't remember AEDM until today, the 2nd day of the month, but I won't let that deter me. Here's today's creation. I have recently started doing these acrylic-on-watercolor-paper pictures, accented with Micron pen, and they are really fun!