Deeper Thinking - Abstractly Branching Out

The design class I took at Rhode Island College taught me not only how to mix colors and use my color wheel but to also creat abstract paintings.  Abstract paintings are sometimes more difficult to understand.  One thing that I love about them, is that each person can see something different, they are interpreted in different ways.  One person can see the same painting as me, but have the complete opposite thought, feeling, or idea than I have.  When an artist paints an abstract piece, their mood and thoughts at the time can change the way a painting comes out.  If I am having a bad day, my paintings may come out darker or appear sadder. That is not always the case however, once again it depends on how someone may view the painting. 
Abstract paintings tell their own story and encourage the viewer to think outside of the everyday realistic box.  They can create so many conversations!  Here are some of the abstract pieces I created in my Design class at RIC:

 The picture below shows the brush strokes over the colorful circles above.  In order to get such a clear layer, I mainly brushed water mixed with the tiniest tiniest bit of paint.

Each of these projects took hours and hours of work, I think I remember calculating one of them and it came out to about 21 hours once the project was finished.
Here are some of the abstract pieces I have worked on since that class:

 I got the idea for the picture below from a book at Kittery Trading Post in Maine.  The cover of a book had a picture of a page turning.  So then I sketched this on a page and started to use charcoal which are the black areas under the paper that is turning.  Then I wanted to use some color, so of course I used my favorite contrasting colors :)

 In this picture I was trying to convey the image of night and day in a different way.

There will definitely be more of these abstract pieces in the future because I love thinking deeper and outside the box at times.  It's a wonderful way to mix things up :)
Let me know what you think and any thoughts you have about what these pieces mean to you.
xoxo Savannah

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, and more Pumpkins

Pumpkins are one of the joys of Fall.  They are carved for Halloween, decorations for the inside and outside of houses, made into pie, muffins, breads, syrups in coffees, chais, and much more!  This time of year I join in on almost of the things above (except the coffee, I don't like any type of coffee).  The other activity I love doing is painting pumpkins!  Pumpkins are one of the pictures that I can paint and use so many shades of orange.

Majority of my colors I mix.  This can sometimes be challenging because if I stop painting before the whole picture is done, or if I run out of one of the colors that I mixed before I am done with a certain area, I will more than likely not mix the exact color again.  Even though that can be a challenge, I also find it fun and interesting at the same time.  It keeps me on my toes.  Last night I was mixing some oranges for this pumpkin picture and I accidentally added too much black to my color and the it turned more of a burnt orange/brown.  Even though it wasn't turning out the way I wanted, I still continued to paint with it to see how it would come out.  In the picture below it is the large center pumpkin behind  the 2 small ones that are going to become white pumpkins.

 Before

 After
I also painted the background a light blue but I am not quite sure about how I like it yet.  My boss Michele always tells me that if I start to get stuck or am not sure on how something looks, to walk away and go back to it to look at it with a fresh eye.  That's what I decided to do last night with the background and the pumpkin.

Whenever I mix colors, they are in different sections like this, and then I keep adding to each or moving some of it to a new area and adding more color depending how I want it to look.

The only paints I have ever worked with are Acrylic paints.  One of the best things about Acrylic paints are that you can always paint over them.  If I decide that I want the background of my pumpkin picture to be purple, I will have no problem painting over the blue.  You won't even be able to tell there is a different color underneath.  My favorite Acrylic paints to use are Utrecht's Artists' Colors.  

This is a picture of some pumpkins that I did last year, I tried adding squirrels (the first animal that I have ever painted) and changing the size, shape and direction of them.

This year I tried putting a witches hat next to one.

I am also trying to put some sunflowers behind some pumpkins, I haven't started in on this one too much but sketched out the outline.

Let me know what you think!  I will post more pictures of the pumpkins and the pumpkin and sunflowers when they are all done.  Have a good night!

xoxo Savannah

Beautiful day...for decorating and colors

I absolutely love decorating!  I cannot wait to own my own house, apartment, condo..anything and go crazy and decorate the whole thing.  I hope my future husband, whenever I get married, realizes he won't have any control over the decorating haha.  I will of course ask his opinion and let him have some say, but not too much.
Until then, I have a really nice bay window in my room and last Fall I started decorating it.  I started buying decorations at the Barn (where I work) and didn't want to put them away for my eventual house.  So the bay window it was.  My room is a medium tone of purple but I didn't pay too much attention to the wall color with the decorations because these decorations are technically for the future.  But I did buy a strand of orange and purple halloween lights to string around the bay window.  It looks nice, it ties in the orange and purple, and I am a person who likes those colors together.
Orange and blue are my favorite contrasting colors.  The color purple consists of the hues red and blue.  The color orange consists of the hues red and yellow.  Since red and blue make purple, this may be why I think orange and purple look good together (depending on the tones of each however).  But it may not be who knows!  When I took a Design I class at RIC, it taught me how to mix colors using the hues red, blue, yellow, and then black and white.  My professor told me that at the end of the semester we mixed more than 300 colors!  I highly recommend that class it was wonderful.
Here are some pictures of my decoartions :)

The leaves that are underneath everything are the same decorative leaves I used to paint and draw on.  They are wonderful!  I really like to use them or other type of mats to place underneath decorations to break up the decoration and the surface.  It will make any display more interesting.  I hope everyone enjoys looking at these and hopefully it will inspire you to decorate or work with color in your home in some way or another!
xoxo Savannah

Bracelets of Fun

When I was in elementary school my mom bought me a book about how to make friendship bracelets.  I think it was from the American Girl magazine or something to do with the American Girl dolls, I used to love them!  On a snow day that we had off from school, my mom and I sat down to start making some at the dinning room table after we shoveled for a little while.  It was so much fun and after we made that one I couldn't stop!  They were the type of bracelets that are made with knots and you can make them with lots of different colors.  I remember the first one I made on that snow day was all pastel colors, it was very pretty.

I stopped making them for a little while but in the past year I have started back up again.  Instead of only making the bracelets with just knots, I started adding in center beads.  They are so much fun to make!  I always try and think of what I would want to wear as a bracelet and what and what type of beads I would want.  Not only do I make knotted bracelets but I am trying to make bracelets with primarily beads as well.  I tend to stay more towards the earth tones and silver gray color as the center bead because those are the colors I tend to wear more of.

Here are some pictures of my newest bracelets:

So far, I have only made 4 different types of bracelet knots.  Each of the bracelets uses the same type of knot but the direction may change or one bracelet may have different direction of knots.  Even though the knots are technically the same, the direction can change the way the bracelet comes out.

Like everything, I am trying to branch out with my bracelets.  Whether it is the size of my bracelet centers, what color of string, what color of beads, only knots, only beads, trying to use wire instead of string, anything I can think of.  I love learning new things and will continue to try something different that I haven't done before.

Let me know what you think!

xoxo Savannah

What a Weekend!

This weekend was so busy and extremely exhausting but so much fun!  I am a substitute teacher during the day and I also work for a company called Mangiacotti, at nights, some weekends, and on days when I do not have a sub position.  I have worked for this company for many years and have grown within Mangiacotti throughout my time there.  The past few years I have been helping set up our Barn Sales.  3 times a year we set up our old Barn into a retail store.  Once in the Fall, once before Christmas, and once right before Mother's Day.
This weekend was the Fall Barn Sale.  It is really fun to set up and merchandise for because there is so much orange!  I have learned so much about merchandising and decorating from my boss Michele.  I wish I could have a job, without having to go to school for it, where I can just set stores up and decorate.  It would be absolutely perfect.  Here are some pictures of some of the displays I helped my boss with:

It was a great but exhausting 4 days!

Then Saturday night was my mom and my cousins' 3rd annual Shades of Pink Breast Cancer Fundraiser.   All of the proceeds get donated to the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  There was a caterer, DJ, vendors, live auction, silent auction, and raffle prizes.  It was so much fun!  I had a vendor table with my art work and bracelets.  The fundraiser was a great success, it raised just under $15,000!  Here are some of the pictures from the night:

Next year I will post all of the information hoping some of you are able to come!  I am still trying to re-coop from this crazy weekend.  But I wouldn't have traded it for anything :)
xoxo Savannah