It's Give-A-Way Time!

I know, I know.  This is the moment that everyone has been waiting for, right?  So, here is what we are going to do.  I am excited.  Are you excited?

I will send the winner of this give-away a free high-quality 8x10" print ($15 value) of their choice from any of the watercolor paintings that I did this summer.   Want to know what your choices are?  Just click the link on the right hand column of my blog that says "painting-a-day".  Any of the entrees that have the label "watercolor" at the bottom are fair game.

So, here's how it works.  You may enter your name into the drawing up to 6 times:
 
1.  Post a link to this give-a-way on your blog
2.  Post a link to this give-a-way on your facebook account
3.  Post a link on goggle+
4.  Post a link on twitter
5.  Put this blog on your RSS subscriber (like google reader)
6.  Leave a comment on this post telling me 2 things: first which painting from this summer has been your favorite and why, and second, how many of the things above you have done (on your honor here)

I will put your name into a hat for every one of the entries above completed before 12:00 am (midnight) MDT, Sunday Aug 4.  That gives you almost a week!  No excuses.

Ready, set go! 

2 Fall Art Classes Starting!

For those of you interested, I will be starting two new art classes this fall.  They are filling up. So, reserve your spot while you can!

Adult Classes:
Thrusdays 8:00-9:00 pm
$10/week
Starts Sept. 1
(2 spots left)

We welcome all skill levels!  For this class we will start with basic drawing and painting skills (watercolor, acrylic, oil...student's choice!), after which each student can expect individual guidance on a larger project of choice. 


Childrens' Classes:
Ages 2-4, yeah, you read that right :)
$5/week
Tusedays 11:00-11:30
Starts Sept. 6
(3 spots left)

This class is specifically intended for pre-school age children.  They will have a wide variety of experiences in different mediums including, painting, paper-mache and other sculpture.


To sign up or for more info please email me: bridgetlsmith@gmail.com

farewell summer

It is with out much warning that I have to say this will be my last "painting-a-day" for the summer. I have had an ongoing discussion in my mind trying to decide when the "end of summer" will be for me. There are a lot of possibilities and I didn't realize when I started this how open ended I had left it. So, I have made up my mind, and for lots of reasons, this is a really good time.

Don't worry, though. I will still be adding updates regularly, including: lots more new paintings, information about upcoming art classes, as well as my first give-a-way. Get excited and stay tuned.

black bear

mountain goat

the great gallery

I know, I know. No post yesterday. Well, to make a long story short, we drove home from Washington and had an unexpected 3 hour stop in Boise to fix our a/c, putting us home really late. Too late to post. So, today I have one for today and some extras to make up for yesterday.

These are a few sketches I did a few years ago in southern Utah in 9-mile Canyon studying the cave art. These figures come from a series of figures on a wall called the Great Gallery. They stand larger than life size. Majestic. To this day, no one really knows what they mean or even how they were stained on the wall.

charlotte and thomas (rough)

what do you think, stu?

go by bike

family tree

A few weeks ago we had a family reunion in Park City with some of my in-law's family. My sister-in-law (it was her idea) and I put this family tree together as a gift for Grandpa Hamblin...he is where it all began! I painted the tree and everyone who attended the reunion left their finger print and signed the tree.

beluga whale

I finished this little guy tonight...(if you look close, the paint is still wet in the image.) and then put them all together below. I have had an interesting time learning about some of the different kinds of whales. They are very fascinating creatures.

I have to say I owe much of my inspiration to this lovely artist.

bowhead whale

blue whale

I am going camping tonight for a few days at Mt. Rainier National Park, so no post tomorrow, or the next day. Last time this summer, I promise!

sperm whale

After 12 hours of driving today, I wasn't sure if I would make it in time, but here you all go!

humpback whale

black turtle

For some reason this little guy reminds me of Lynlee. Maybe it is his head reaching up and his inquisitive look.

panda

I have been experimenting with a few different styles and this time wanted to do something simple.  I hope my friend doesn't mind me trying something along the same lines as her paintings.  (Thanks Ashley!)  Anyway, I think I like this one.

encaustic on wood

So, I have been doing a little investigation on google+ these days.  It is basically facebook, but that is where I am so confused.  I know that google is awesome and everything google does is also usually awesome.  SO, the question in my mind is why would they attempt to create a social network to rival facebook unless it is completely better?  I still don't feel like I have found the answer to that question as of yet.  I still wonder if people will actually ever make the switch from facebook to google+...

One feature, however, that I did find somewhat interesting as I was browsing today was the photo albums that I apparently already have on my account.  You see, google is connected to everything I do, including blogger, so all of the photos that I have EVER posted on blogger appear in different albums.  I put ever in all caps for a reason.  I found photos that I remember uploading to posts and then deleting for whatever reason, old bog headers, and other things that I have even removed from my blogs.  I am not quite sure how I feel about this, but I was able to find this little gem that I had completely forgotten:

It is an encaustic painting that I did at BYU.   (I guess there can technically be a debate about whether or not this is a new painting, but since I make the rules, it will function as my painting for today.)  Encaustic paintings are made of wax. 

I painted this with beeswax using melted crayons for the pigment.  It was an interesting process which included working very quickly, a muffin tin, cookie sheet and stove top. 

I painted this for an art history class as an end of the year project.  We were supposed to learn about a technique that early artisans used and recreate it.  This is a technique that was used by the Egyptians to create death masks for burial.  (Not exactly like King, Tut, but more for the common man and middle-upper class...those who couldn't afford gem encrusted caskets...so basically everyone.) 

The neat thing about encaustic, and the reason that the Egyptians used it for this purpose, is that it lasts forever.  So long as the wax is not damaged. 

****

So, I know that now, this image will appear twice on my google+ photo album under my art blog section, but this will be the first official time that the image has actually be published on my blog.  I still can't figure out why this image made it on there, but I am glad to have it now!

cup cake plate

This is the art project that I finished while I was at a family reunion for a week at the end of last month.   It is a ceramic plate that we glazed and then they fired them for us at the camp.  My sisters and I spent quite a bit of time in the arts and crafts area of Aspen Grove, glazing these plates.  They also painted a cupcake, but we did different patterns. 

I am excited to have this cute plate to take goodies to my neighbors and friends.

family reunion

It seems that my family and my in-laws are on the same wave length as far as family reunions go.  Two years ago they fell back to back, and the same thing happened this year.  So, this weekend I am in Park City with my in-laws--which explains why Abbie has been in town and why we have been doing painting lessons together.  You see we did a swap.  She took some family portraits for us in exchange for art lessons. 

This is a picture of her with her first 2 watercolor paintings ever!  I am so proud of her! and think they turned out wonderfully.  So, these are going to be my painting/sketch for today because once again, I am on vacation!

blossoming almond tree (after monet)

So I have been in love with this painting for a long long time.  And it has also been a long time since I have painted any shoes, so with that combo, these were bound to happen

oh, and p.s.  so sorry to all of you who couldn't see the picture from yesterday.  The problem is now fixed, and I know that I can't really successfully make a post from the ipad.  Sad day.

Paintings for Lynlee

I finished these paintings a while ago...a few months before Lynlee was born. I am not sure why I nevr put them up...I guess life got busy with a baby:).

So I painted the 4 block paintings that say "baby".  I also made the airplane mobile.  Her name below is a vinyl cut out from my cricut and the animal picture is a gift from my cousin. I felt a little silly when i showed these paintings to my sister and she wasn't that impressed. You see she thought that I had taped off the background and used some sort of stencil for the letters. That would have saved me a ton of time, to be honest. And when she mentioned that, I felt very foolish because I had drawn and painted each of the paintings and all of the lines by hand. So needless to say, these paintings took me quite a bit more time to do than they should have.

zebra

For tonight's painting session with Abbie, she decided to make cookies instead.  I had no complaints.  I finished a painting that I have been waiting to do for a while and partook of some delicious morsels.  It was a good day.

nemo fish (clown fish)

Another painting lesson with Abbie.  I guess I didn't really clarify yesterday.  I am posting the paintings that I finished while we painted together, not her's.

veuve clicquot

My sister-in-law is in town for a family reunion and she is a wonderful photographer.  She and I are making an exchange, family portraits for art lessons.  So for our first lesson last night, we sat down and decided to start with some basic watercolor and drawing lessons.  This is apparently a pretty fancy-shmancy kind of champagne and she wanted to draw it.  Not one of my favorite paintings, didn't finish the box, but it was fun.