Second Piedras Negra with Love

Continued from the previous post...  a second group of young people completed their own Singing Tree as well.

Lolly pop art for The Ronald McDonald House

These fun whimsical lolly pops were just part of the Tolyland exhibit at the MCL Grand in Lewisville and will be donated to the Ronald a McDonald House.

New York City Collage

This one was for my daughter Courtney.  She has been to New York several times and LOVES Broadway.  Some of the scraps from theater flyers and maps from her trips were used in this collage as well as magazine articles and paper scraps.  Combining them with the paint really captures the excitement of the city.  More like this to come. Enjoy!

New York City
by Cheryl Harris White
Acrylic Collage on Canvas
24" x 36"

Spontaneous Trees I and II on display now at the MCL Grand in Lewisville

Theses two bright square paintings were a successful experiment I did with india inks. The tree shapes and blue background were done by covering the canvas with water and india inks and allowing them to become whatever shapes they wanted.  After it was dry, I saw trees... and developed their forms with acrylic paint.  I like the abstract look of the branches and trunks in front of the tree shape instead of up inside the trees, partially hidden.  They are the star of the show.  These are currently on display in the the north wind of the MCL Grand in Lewisville.  Enjoy!

Spontaneous Trees II
by Cheryl Harris White
Acrylic and India Ink
20" x 20"
$150.00

Spontaneous Trees I
by Cheryl Harris White
Acrylic and India Ink
20" x 20"
$150.00

First Place Asel Award Winner

I was honored to win recognition for one of my Posey paintings this month at the Visual Art League of Lewisville Monthly Meeting.   It is a group of such talented and varied artists whom I have had the privilege of learning and working with.  Many of them have realized amazing artistic achievements and I just LOVE the inspiration that comes from coversations I have had with each of them.  

This piece was done with acrylic and collage.  I actually tore up a hymn book for some of the flowers and glued them to the surface with mixed media adhesive.  I really liked how the old hymnal pages soaked up the paint.  

This was a mixed media technique I actually learned from Misty Oliver's Art Journaling workshop and I just tried applying it on a canvas board on a whim.  It turned out beautifully.

This painting along with 10 others are currently on display in Spontaneous II - A Three Person show in the North wing of the MCL Grand.  Free to the public and open Tuesday through Saturdays, 1-5PM from now through May 24th.  

Posies in a Pot I
First Place Asel Award Winner
by Cheryl Harris White
Acrylic Collage
11" x 13"
$75.00

Posies in a Pot II
by Cheryl Harris White
Acrylic Collage
11" x 13"
$75.00

Easter Crosses, Glorious Reminders of Life and Love

Easter to me is the most precious day of the year. It’s the day the first believers discovered the tomb was empty, after Jesus had suffered and died on the cross and had been put inside it three days earlier.  Easter is a day to thank God, who had enough love for us to allow his son to be executed to cover our sins.  It was the only price great enough to allow us, imperfect people to connect with God, Holy, Perfect, Loving, All Knowing God.  Depending on the pain and experiences humans have had during their trek through life here on earth, the cross can symbolize different things, some of them negative, especially if one only knows part of the story.  I know the end of the story.  The same resurrection power that raised Christ from the depths of the tomb  is waiting for me when my journey here on earth ends.  So, to me, the cross is not a symbol of death or pain, it is a glorious reminder of life and love.  I celebrate that here with these colorful Easter crosses.   

Acrylic Collage Easter Crosses
Various sizes, between 8" and 16" tall

“God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 NASB

 The crosses are all made of wood.  To make them I painted the back's black and on some of them had to attach a nail hanger.  The fronts are done with a collage of actual dried acrylic paint that I peeled off my palates and saved.  The palate paint would have other wise just been thrown away and wasted, but instead, I have given it new life.  I used Mixed Media adhesive as the medium which is very messy, but the end result is a smooth shiney finish that really makes the colors pop.  Enjoy!

Art At The Speed of Life Lesson 15

Arcimboldo-Style Self-Portrait

I LOVED this exercise. I included images from art and history to compose my self portrait.  I call it my Art Queen Arcimboldo-Style Self-Portrait.  I found a flower scrap that said "She most heartily enjoyed pursuing life" and thought it appropriate.  Then I thought about the times in the past when I most thoroughly enjoyed life, and it always involved some application of creativity.  Next I created an explosion of art and art supplies bursting forth from my head like ideas just popping out all over the page.  I used magazine scraps of a quilt for the hair and some of the other accents.  My favorite thing about this page is my crown. A crown for an Art Queen.

Art Queen Arcimboldo-Style
Self-Portrait
by Cheryl Harris White
Art Journal Page
Mixed Media

Art At The Speed of Life Lesson 10

Faux-toshop Collage Lesson 10 in Pam Carriker's Art At the Speed Of Life.  I substituted a photo I altered of my original Prodigal painting.  The background was done with washes and layers of diluted acrylic paint.  I found an interesting quote that seemed appropriate for the beginning of a new year.

Make no small plans, they will have no power to move men's souls and hearts. 

Unless our proposals are bold, they will be ineffective.  -Elton Trueblood

Faux-toshop Collage
Art Journal Page
by Cheryl Harris White

Art At The Speed of Life Lesson 9

In Lesson 9 of Pam Carriker's book Creating Art At the Speed of Life, we were to use the end of a pencil to create dots of color on the page with acrylic paint.  In this chapter she included a quote from Claude Monet which I love and have to repeat it here...

  People discuss my art and pretend to understand as if it were necessary to understand, when it's simply necessary to love. ”
- Claude Monet
If that is the test, then I guess this attempt was a success, because I LOVE this pretty impressionistic girl.  She is lovely.  I mixed my own colors and was very happy with how they worked together.  I also really liked how slowly the image came to life, one dot at a time.  It was the most fun I've ever had with the eraser of a pencil.  I will try more like this on canvas later.

First Impressionism
Art Journal Page
by Cheryl Harris White
Acrylic

Colors set to music: Stained Glass by Keith Green

I grew up listening to Keith Green's amazing music and much of it has inspired my painting. I am thankful for every note.  Enjoy!

Red Tree With Blue Leaves By the River

Red Tree With Blue Leaves By the River
by Cheryl Harris White
Acrylic Collage on Canvas

18" x 24"

The fourth piece in my tree series is the most whimsical of them all. There are fish making up it's roots, birds at the river and hearts carved into it's trunk.  It is happily accompanied here by the perfect quote from William Shakespeare...

And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.  ~William Shakespeare

Memories

Memories
Acrylic and Collage on Canvas
by Cheryl Harris White
3 ft x 3 ft
$200.00
In our yard in Ohio, when I was a child, there was a huge weeping willow tree.  Under it, my little sister and I used to play for hours and have tea parties.  We moved to Texas, when I was 8 years old and I have never returned,  but I remember it like it was yesterday,  and those moments were the inspiration behind this piece.  

Red Tree with Green Leaves

Red Tree with Green Leaves
by Cheryl Harris White
Acrylic Collage

18" x 24"
$75.00

 I liked the way this cool misty background turned out on this one.  I also like the idea of creating these trees with what ever color bark I choose instead of the same grayish tan bark we see on real trees everyday.  The result was in this piece, the roots ant the bark is what my eye most enjoys looking at.  These colors remind me of summer.

Intended to Grow

This is one of a series of four trees I have been finishing up.  The thing I liked most about doing these pieces, was how they grew as I worked.  Each layer became a platform for the next...until it was full and beautiful.  I just love things that grow.  There is one tree at the corner of our house that the previous owners had topped off and it hasn't grown since.  It is quite an annoyance, just sitting there taking up space, reminding me each day of it's wasted potential.  I think people are a lot like trees.   Some of them grow and it is beautiful to watch... but others are so damaged that they just sit there doing nothing.  We, and trees, were intended to grow,  and that is how I prefer it.  

Green Tree with Blue Leaves
by Cheryl Harris White
Acrylic Collage
18" x 24"
$75.00

                                                     

My hand shake with 2013

2013 Hand Shake
by Cheryl Harris White
Acrylic on Canvas
36" x 36"
$200.00


This my handshake with 2013 saying, "Hello, my name is Cheryl. It's nice to meet you."  I'm not greeting 2013 with a list of promises or things I want to change or with the ridiculous mindset that this year will be better than the others, with fewer set backs, less losses, more successes than the years before.  We don't do that with people.  When we first meet them, do we say, "Hello, my name is Cheryl, I'm not that great right now, but soon I'm  going to reduce the amount of time I spend playing video games, be a better person, give more to charity, lower my sodium intake and get really skinny."  Not really.  When I meet a new person, I just like to listen to them, make eye contact and try to find something to like about them, which doesn't usually take very long.  2013 is the same to me.  It's just like any new acquaintance I meet... It's a new door I've never walked through... An interesting new friend I plan on getting to know.

I liked exploring that idea with each square on this painting.  Each empty square was a new beginning.  I stuck with a lot of green and yellow in the color palate but loved adding in some orange and red pops of color.  Each square turned out a little different, but together they make a very interesting visual combination.  

Dripping Autumn

Dripping Autumn
Acrylic and Acrylic Collage on Canvas
20" x 24"
by Cheryl Harris White
$75.00

I'm in love with autumn, and since today is officially the first day of fall, I'm celebrating it by posting this new painting.  I used thick, stripes of texture on the background and it reminded me of rain.  I liked placing the tree off center so we could focus on some of the other colors on the horizon and shadow on the ground more.  The tree, dropping some of it's leaves, looks to me like it is dripping with color, so that is how this painting got it's name.  

Best of 2011

Fire Poppies

Mountain Poppies

Poppies for Millie

In the Poppy Paint Series....   The winner is..... Poppies For Millie!  Owned by Millie Welsh

Rose of Sharron

Something To Celebrate

Hope

Love

Peace

Three Crosses, A Story Told in  Art 

In the Cross Series....   The winner is..... Three Crosses, A Story Told in  Art  

Three Trees At Night

Fire Tree

Color Tree

Nine Birch

Six Birch

Trees On Blue and Red

Rain Path Birch

Eight Birch

June Forest

Confetti Forest

Aspens For The Olsons

In the Tree Series....   The winner is..... Aspens For
The Olsons

The Art of Gratitude

Eucharisteo

Last Supper

In the Bible Series....   The winner is..... The Art of Gratitude

owned by Ann Horner

Thank you all for participating in this journey with me in 2011. I am inspired and motivated by all of your comments and encouragement and look forward to more to come in 2012.  Up first in the new year will be more from my Four Seasons Paintings... The next one will be Spring.  Coming soon....

Re-Post of A Worthy Christmas Painting

Beautiful Star
Acrylic on Canvas
24" x 48"
by Cheryl Harris White

This is a re-post of one of my favorite Christmas paintings I have done so far.  It is currently on display at CAM Center Dallas.  I just wanted to repost it here today to wish a Merry Christmas to my blogger family. May you be filled with the wonder of Our Savior's birth this season.