Painting Archives - Page 11 of 41 - Ashley Hackshaw / Lil Blue Boo

Painting A Day – Week 2

January 15, 2017 by Ashley Hackshaw

It feels good to be back in the studio. It’s so true about the importance of establishing a practice for painting but I never know what I’m going to paint each day…it just kind of comes to me when I sit down at my little work table:

Here are all the paintings I painted last week:

A watercolor with a quote:

“Wandering Planet” (Sold)

A winter birch tree scene in watercolor (although a few people said they see elephants):

“First Snow” (Sold)

These tiny watercolor scenes of the Smoky Mountains in lockets:

“Mountain Midnight” Lockets (Sold)

A layered painting with vintage embroidery stitched onto the canvas:

“Enjoy the Little Things” (Sold)

Another watercolor scene of the Smokies:

“Mountain Midnight” (Sold)

Another layered painting with vintage embroidery stitched onto the canvas:

“Sunshine” (Sold)

Yesterday I decided to paint on something other than a flat surface and made this little ceramic steer skull:

I’ve been working on these two reclaimed wood pieces for a while now. I ended up finishing them this week (outside of the daily paintings)…finally stitching up the cracks. I love the Japanese practice of Kintsugi…the art of repairing broken pottery by filling the cracks with gold. It treats the crack as part of the history of an object rather than a defect. I painted these paintings on reclaimed wood knowing that existing cracks would only get larger as the paint dried and pulled. Instead of filling the cracks with gold I used gold thread to “stitch” them back together…highlighting the cracks instead of trying to cover them up or fill them.

“Grow” 15.75 x 20 on Reclaimed Wood

“Bloom” 15.75 x 20 on Reclaimed Wood

And one last layered painting with the vintage embroidery:

“Wild and Free”

I think I might try a theme next week: animals. We’ll see how that works out! I’m still stitching a button/bead a day too…here’s how that looks as of today:

Who else is doing a 365 Challenge?

Painting A Day – Week 1

January 7, 2017 by Ashley Hackshaw

I decided on January 1st to try and paint at least one painting a day this year. I’ve never lasted more than two weeks on a 365 project but I hope to make this one last! I think if I post a roundup of all seven here each week maybe that will help keep me accountable. I’m also posting them on Instagram each day here.

Here are all the “daily” paintings I made this week:

A mixed media painting with a quote:

“A Work of Art” (Sold)

A collaboration with Boo. She drew the chicken for me and I painted the designs onto the shape:

“Kaleidoscope Chicken” (Sold)

A floral watercolor:

“Peonies” (Sold)

An abstract landscape of the Smoky Mountains. Painting on reclaimed barn wood:

“Smokies” (Sold)

A floral watercolor with a layer of pen illustrated on top:

A watercolor and colored pencil rendition of Foshizzle as Frida Kahlo:

“Fo as Frida” (Sold)

An acrylic painting with vintage embroidery stitched on:

“Open the Window” (Sold)

Every few days I’ll be listing some of the paintings in my Etsy shop along with other work I’m working on simultaneously. I’m always complaining to myself that I can’t find time to paint but I’m determined this year. When I’m painting I’m at my happiest!

I also started this other project inspired by Hannah Claire Somerville…a stitch a day for an entire day. Instead of an embroidery stitch though I thought I’d add a button or a bead to this fabric and see what it looks like once it’s filled. Here’s what it looked like yesterday (since I haven’t added my button for the day yet).

It’s never too late to start a yearly project! You only have just one week to catch up with the stitching or button!

Painting on Driftwood – Trout and Fly Fishing Art

January 2, 2017 by Ashley Hackshaw

I’ve been painting on driftwood recently…resulting in some trout and fly fishing art. This fall I moved a little desk into our living room and made a little painting nook for myself:

Since then I’ve gotten a lot more painting done because I can sit down here and there to work on various projects:

I’m not a fish person but I love the colors in the rainbow trout and so that’s been my muse for now:

This one is a pretty large piece:

Another piece with a vintage fishing lure on it:

This piece of driftwood had the ripples of the lake in it already:

I made this piece of wood into a tin full of flies:

I love how it turned out with the variety of colors:

This is a tiny piece of wood I could and I added some flies to it as well:

This piece of driftwood almost had the grain of a feather in it already so that’s what I painted:

Someone asked me if I could include a little note with her piece, with the story of where it came from. I loved that idea so I’ve just been included it with every single piece now:

Most of these have already been sold but I’m constantly adding things to my Etsy shop each day. My New Year’s resolution is to try and paint something every single day, no matter how big or small!

A quick note about driftwood: it takes a while to prepare the driftwood for painting. This is a really quick overview but basically I scrub each piece and then soak it for at least two days in a solution of bleach water to kill any bacteria, fungus or bugs that might be living in the wood. It bobs…so I usually have to use a cinderblock to hold it all under the surface of the water!

After I’m sure all the icky stuff has been removed I drain the wood and set it out to dry, categorized by size. Once it’s kind of dry I set it in our basement with the dehumidifier until all the moisture as been removed.

I usually prepare the surface of the painting with white or gray gesso so that it will keep the paint from separating over time. Driftwood is very porous and the pigment of the paint will separate from it’s binder over a long period of time. I also seal each piece with a polyurethane after it’s finished!