Angels

The last post that I did, I spoke of a new piece that I am working on.

Last year, at one of the (many) baseball games that I went to

with my sweetie (who is a college umpire), I came across an old cemetery in Forest City, NC.

It's not too big, off the beaten path

and has several graves of young children in it.

The first thing that I noticed were the angels.

There are oh, maybe five or six of them.

Small, yet striking in their sentinel poses,

as they stand guard over their tiny charges.

Quiet and unimposing they garner all the grace

needed to soothe the hearts of the grieving

and the souls of the lost.

They really touched my heart.

I just couldn't get them out of my mind...

they made me sad yet, at the same time, I felt a subdued joy for the lost little ones.

They were welcomed into the arms of their eternal guardians...

safe through time.

We all should believe in something...

Don't you think so?

And believing in angels in a good place to start...

Here is the original photo, with the contrast and brightness pumped up so the shadows would be darker.

I love the way that the rosary and cross cast shadows on the arm and dress.

If you notice, the right side of the angel (her left side) has very few shadows.

Her right side has very crisp shadows.

This is an example of what I talk about when you're drawing faces (or anything ftm).

You have a light source on one side, casting shadows on the opposite side.

You really need to pay attention to that when you're drawing/painting.

I'll be posting a photo of the piece in a few days.

I'm really enjoying working with this new transfer type technique that I happened upon.

It's so, so easy and the results are just fantastic!

Random Arts Store

My friend, Paula and I went to Saluda NC this past Thursday on a Retail Therapy Expedition. My primary focus was this tiny little art / mixed media shop in town called Random Arts. I had read about it in Cloth Paper & Scissors and visited their web site...but NOTHING prepared me for the veritable feast that had been laid out when I arrived!

Here you have a small, picturesque mountain town with beautiful views, shops that carry local artisans work, scrumptious restaurants (The Purple Onion...a MUST try), and rather quiet old-timey grocery stores...The streets are bumpy, the shade from the trees a welcoming site as you stroll along the main sidewalk, shopkeepers wave as you pass. Things feel slower, um, more laid back, you know ...relaxed.

Then.....

you turn to the doorway of Random Arts. Open the door slowly please because the sound will blow you away...

Sound?

What sound, you may ask?

Why, it's The Sound of Music ...as in Music To My Ears...My Eyes...My Senses...This place is AWESOME! I can honestly say that I have never been in a shop like this before...never had so much fun just visiting in a shop as this.

Jen was there (Jane, the owner, had a yucky dental appointment) and man, was her excitement contagious! She ia so cool, from her sparkly green eyes (right Jen?) to her handmade batik bracelet , right down to her tiny little toe...this girl is The Bomb. Lol! She has more talent in her Little Toe than most people have in their whole head! And judging from what I saw of Jane's artwork, she is afflicted with the same malady.

The walls, the ceiling, most of the floor is covered with a plethora of mixed media goodies that by the time I left, I feared I would swoon. I couldn't focus on one thing before darting to another and another...and so on.

It is, without doubt, The Store Of My Dreams. If you could add Random Arts to Fiber On A Whim you WOULD have The Perfect Store.

I could have stayed there all day, laughing, talking and learning from Jen but we had two other places that we had to go while in NC. I WILL go back! I will make sure that I have lots of time next time though.

They had all kinds of ephemera, found objects, art supplies (Golden products! Yeah!), rubber stamping supplies and notions, papers...oh, the handmade papers are to DIE for! Ribbons, tags, charms, buttons, patches, books, paints, lions, tigers and bears, oh my!

You MUST go!

I had had several Golden Products on my "list" that I carry about with me. You just can't find them anywhere around here so when I can upon them , I started lining them up on the counter. Jen demoed most of them for us, the rest she talked us through. The paint is awesome! I wondered why everyone always said that their paint was the best...now I know. The pigment is so bold, so concentrated that if you mix water with red paint...it doesn't turn pink like most paint does, it just gets a bit thinner...the color stays the same. How cool is that?

Anyway, I had to share this with you all. Oh, I didn't even mention that they have awesome workshops with really well known and talented artists! This is one time that "Too good to be true" is just not true. It's real. It does exist.

Random Arts at http://www.randomartsnow.com/ or visit their blog at http://www.randomartnotes.blogspot.com/.

Ahemmm...

The Blue Ridge Quilt Festival is in Virginia...for some reason I thought it was in NC. Soooo, I probably won't be going. Unless any of my NC quilting friends want to go...we could all go together for a long weekend of relaxing, learning and , ummm, driving...