Excuse me, but I Arted!

I found this T-shirt on Pinterest...I'm addicted (to Pinterest), what can I say?

Last week I shared a few of my watercolors with you (and I will today), but I just wanted to give you a little background on myself. Art, drawing and painting, has always been who I was. I could draw as soon as I could hold a Crayola in my hands, and I drew on everything--including the walls. I must have drove my poor mother nuts!

I was known as "the artist", even though my older sister was also an artist, but I can't recall if she had any influence on me, but I still remember the painting of a deer she'd painted in school. There was argument as to which side of the family I got the gift. Mom's side or my father's. Doesn't matter. Maybe I got a double dose, that's why I dabble in writing, art and everything else. I'm no good at math, and such. I had D's & F's in school for the basics. I couldn't follow the teacher, I learned so much later I'm ADD, and dyslexic. No one understood those things back then. They would have put me into special ed classes.

As I said, I didn't get good grades, unless it was in art. I couldn't wait to go to college, thinking I could learn how to become a better artist. I went to a small, community college, which was fine. However, when I proudly showed my art and what I could do, I was discouraged to draw realistically. I was told by one art teacher "You might as well take a picture of it" - meaning realism was dead. Or so they said. When I went to college, I was using acrylic paints. I was encouraged to use oil paint. Which is more expensive, but it is an easy medium to work with. The teacher I had wasn't really knowledgeable in all areas. I seem to recall I'd wanted to work in watercolors then, but he talked me into oils, because that's what he worked in. 

My favorite medium, actually was pencil or ink. I went into details more than I care to now. My eyes were much better then. I don't have anything to show you from then, but I do have something from a 1992 vacation out west. This is the Grand Tetons. 

colored pencil sketch/Tetons Nat'l Park/June 11, 1992

It's done in colored pencils. I remembered taking my sketch book with me. Had a number of sketches I did from that vacation, but this was more finished, I think.

Well, that's my story. Now you know that my first love was always art. Writing came later, and it was an up-hill battle with learning that, since I had to work on spelling and so forth.

Here are some paintings I did over last weekend. I call it my "Flowers, Frogs & Butterfly" series. As stated above, nearly all of my paintings are done from pictures I find on Pinterest.

Blue Morpho butterfly/watercolor 7x10"

red-eyed rain forest frog
watercolor 7"x10"

purple flower/watercolor 7"x10"

I may have to start selling my paintings. What do you think?

Have a good weekend. I'm going to do another series.