A little Birdie told me SATURDAY MARKET is coming up December 3rd,

These feathered friends are ready for Saturday Market. 

December 3rd @ 1021 Bolivar in Denton!  9AM to 4PM

Come by and say hello.  We will have adorable vintage restored furniture, art work, gifts and festive wreaths for sale.  Come by and find that one of a kind Perfect Christmas gift.

 Vintage Farmhouse  Furniture,  Art and rain don't  mix, so our Saturday Market has been cancelled. We hope to see you at our Spring Market. Have a blessed Christmas.

4 " x 4" song birds, framed

Birds On A Wire

30" x 10"

Inspired from

Ephesians 4:3 Let Peace keep you together.

Mixed collage, framed

, 

Polka dot Posies

12" x 24" 

Acrylic Collage on canvas 

Second Piedras Negra with Love

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

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"

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 12

Lesson 12 from Pam Carriker's book Creating Art At The Speed of Life introduced me to an interesting new word.  Ephemera - written or printed matter not intended to be retained or preserved, junk mail, receipts, brochures, etc.  I found an article about the world of color and pages from my old passport to create this page.   I liked how monochromatic and cloudy this page turned out.  The key to this one was lots of layers of diluted washes of gesso diluted with gel medium.

Passport To A World of Color
Art Journal Page
by Cheryl Harris White

The quote on the bottom left page is from Renoir.  It says, " An Artist must have confidence in himself, and listen only to his real master; Nature."

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

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.  

Courtney's Tree Collage Video

A Tree For Courtney
Acrylic Collage
3' x 4'
by Cheryl Harris White

My daughter wanted a large collage of a tree and one of her favorite poems by Robert Frost to decorate her bedroom.  She wanted it to be whimsical.  This video shows the steps as we progressed through the project.  I painted the background and the basic sketch of the tree and she chose words from magazines that she liked.  The words she chose were... 

"Learn,A fresh start, Brilliant, Friends, New, Sport, Bloom, Green, Original, Unleash, Fairy tale, Sweet, Fresh, Dream, Love, Fun, Together, Life, Imagine, Your moment, Hearts on Fire, Adored, Rhapsody, Real," and of course, the poem itself.  The tree is a collage of both scraps from magazine and dried acrylic paint.  This was the result. Enjoy!

All Together Now! Four Trees Series

Autumn, Spring, Summer, Winter (left to right) 
Four Trees Series
Four canvases 12" x  24"
Acrylic Collage on Canvas
by Cheryl Harris White
Not For Sale

Autumn Tree - Painting 4 of Four

Autumn Tree
Acrylic Collage on Canvas
12" x 24"
by Cheryl Harris White


The words inspiring this tree are worthy, love, beautiful, color, believe.  Strong sturdy long lasting autumn words. I love the different colors of leaves I found for this one and all the red I found for the trunk. This one is my favorite one out of all four.  Which one is your favorite?

Summer Tree - Painting 3 of 4

Summer Tree
Acrylic Collage on Canvas
12" x 24"
by Cheryl Harris White

For Summer Tree, the colors on the tree are much warmer at the top and cooler at the bottom.  The words of summer are... Magic, Experience, Home, Gift, Abundance, Design and True.  The dark purples and blues at the roots  invoke the feeling of laying in the shade of the tree on cool damp grass .   As your eye follows the branches upward toward the top, the crimson, red and hot pink leaves set the tree afire, glowing in a blaze of summer heat.

Spring Tree...Number 2 out of 4

Spring Tree
Acrylic Collage
12" x 24"
by Cheryl Harris White

This is the second in a series of four pieces illustrating the seasons.  All four will be trees with the words that inspired my creativity worked into the roots and trunk.... Paint, Garden, Replenish, Everlasting, Journal, Understanding, Imagination, Artistry, Transformational, Creating, Tree, A symphony you can see... these are the words and phrases that really spoke to me about spring.  

The next one will be Summer... and I can't wait to share it with you.  

Winter Tree ... One of Four

"Winter Tree"
Acrylic and Paper Collage on Canvas
12" x 24"
by Cheryl Harris White
Not For Sale


This piece is one of a set of four I just started.  It was also a specific answer to a prayer for inspiration.  I combined words and colors from magazines along with acrylic paint to create this one.

"Of all the moments we gather in our lives, Those we cherish are the moments shared." is on one of the roots.  Wonder, Color, Lush are on the others.  Spreading up the trunk are the words Kindred Spirits and Understanding.  I liked the idea these concepts are the foundation of something lasting and beautiful and that is what I tried to re create in this painting.

Stay tuned for the next three.  Each one will illustrate a different season.

Bloom Like a Rose

Long-Suffering

by Cheryl Harris White

Acrylic Collage 

on Canvas

8" x 10"

Bloom Like a Rose

by Cheryl Harris White

Acrylic Collage 

on Canvas

5" x 7"
SOLD

Here are two more crosses I just completed.  I call the left one, Long -Suffering because it was one I started and then didn't finish until much later after a lot of time and struggling and "do overs".  Some pieces are just like that. When I look at it, I'm just glad it is finished.


The one on the right is called Bloom Like A Rose. I did the whole thing in about 30 minutes and it just seemed to almost come together by itself.  It almost felt alive and I just had to watch it grow. When I look at this one, I feel happy.  


If I had to choose one painting to be like, I'd choose to bloom like a rose.

Faith

   

Have you ever really thought about faith? It's mind boggling.  What is it really?  Just believing? In something?  In what?  I hear the word used in conversations where it could be interchanged with the words "positive thinking"...like in the phrase "have faith" meaning "believe in yourself and you can do it."  I've seen it defined as believing that something is true without seeing it...that just sounds foolish really.  I've also heard it illustrated with a chair analogy...if you go up to a chair you have never sat in before, and just sit down without examining it first, that is supposed to illustrate that you have faith that the chair will hold you up.  I have a problem with this one, because unless your name is Goldilocks, you have probably had a pretty positive experience with sturdy well built chairs.  Also, the fall from the height of a chair to the ground is not that far.  I know, because I've done it before, and all that happened was a little soreness and embarrassment.  It was pretty funny actually, but that's another story.  


Faith is different.  I've never seen God in human form, lying in a manger.  Nor, an innocent man hang on a cross, raise from the dead and ascend to heaven...but I believe Jesus did those things.  I've never seen a transaction between God and Satan where Jesus' sacrifice paid off the debts I owed, but I know that happened as well.  I've never seen God crack the sky open and carry someone to heaven, but I am confident that will happen to me someday.  This is my faith.

While I'm at it, lets go one step further...If you were raised anything like me, having faith that God  is God, is a non-issue.  It is pretty easy for most of us to believe God is REAL.  I think what we all seem to struggle with from time to time, myself included, is believing that God is GOOD, when everything around us is going wrong.  That's the rub... where I really start having to exercise my "faith muscles" and have to pluck up the courage to ask the tough questions...This is where faith really gets hard and messy.  I thought about all these things while I painted this.

Faith
by Cheryl Harris White
Acrylic Collage on Canvas
8 1/2" x 11"

Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.