Turnip the Beet

Hollyhock illustration

It has been quite a week that has now has come to a close.   Running the gallery on First Friday each month is always so exhausting but also energizing at the same time.  I love talking to all the visitors and other artists about my artwork or about the gallery.  This month, I took my artistic journal sketchbook with me to show some of my friends my newest page that features a Rock & Roll Beet. Several of my fellow gallery artist take the time to look through the pages.  For me it was almost like having a someone flipping through your family photo albums and have them admire your children and talking about those fond memories.  Yes, it's pretty much the same with my art journal.

So even though I was pretty much worn out from my late night at the gallery, I found myself up early and anxious to work on my lovely beet sketch.  I am pretty happy how it has turned out and the little vegetable humor here as a spoof on the Dobie Gray song, "Drift Away".

After I finished working out the details of the sketch with my color pencils, I scan it and then fix up the digital file using a little of my newly learned Photoshop magic. All week I've been working on a sticker sheet collection that I'm calling "Life Began in a Garden" and this image is going to work perfectly with that collection.

My really big plan for this afternoon, after church of course... start working on drawings of turnips and paint some rocks. I know you are envious of this exciting artist life I lead.  Who doesn't appreciate a nicely painted rock and have you really looked at a turnip?  That gradation from purple to lavender to grayish purple almost white is amazing. Won't that be a fun challenge with my color pencils and just think of all those great puns I can come up with? TURNIP THE BEET for starters.

Life Began in a Garden handmade stickers

An example of one of the handmade stickers

I'm going to close leaving you these cute images and my completed sticker sheet that is available for download on my Etsy Shop.

Julie Townsend Studio-Etsy Shop

Now wouldn't you look awesome sporting this?

A number of my images are also available to be added to an assortment of merchandise. Here is an example of what my Rock & Roll Beet would look like on a hoodie.  Just check out all the options available on my RedBubble site:  Julie Townsend Studio- RedBubble

Ladybug-Maybe Not a Lady or a Bug

It was only about two weeks ago that I did this 8 x 10 Pen and Ink/colored pencil sketch of a ladybug resting on a dew covered daisy petal. It is actually a piece that a couple of my painting students are working on and I worked out the details a head of them.  I thought I might add a few more embellishments to the composition.  Perhaps some leaves or a stem but I got busy on other projects and commitments and it sort of got buried.  You know how that goes, "Out of sight Out of mind" kind of thing.  

Well I had to pull it back out on Saturday to show my students so they could start working on their piece and that was when it hit me I should try to write a poem for this sketch also.  I scribbled down some notes and began formulating a rough draft on my computer.  I took a printout with me this morning to work on during my morning coffee ritual.  McDonalds once again proved to be just the place for the creative juices to flow.  I managed to pull the piece together and I'm rather happy with how it has turned out.  I hope you also enjoy it.

Please leave me a comment and if you like what you see, check out the rest of my work on my website gallery at Julie Townsend Studio

Excuse Me Sir For Calling You a Ladybug

By

Julie Townsend

There is much about you that is quite confusing
From your little black spots to a bright red coat so assuming
I find myself puzzled and scratching my head
Maybe you're no lady but rather a boy bug instead

I suppose you can see the dilemma I face
As I try to grasp how this may impact the whole human race
So with my naked eye with certainty I can not speak
Only with the aid of a microscope to take a peek

So no matter if a he or she you are called
I'm rather surprised to find that you're really no bug at all
But instead a beetle in the family of Coccinellidae
While no entomologist I claim to be, so who am I to say

But I could have swore that beetles and bugs were one in the same
I stand here and hang my head in shame
For this was a belief I have held onto since my youth
Now my eyes have been opened to the shocking truth

While you are an insect, to call you a bug isn't proper
It all comes down to your wings and the shape of your chompers
A friend to the gardener of roses, veggies and fruit
For many other helpful insect aren't nearly as cute

I hope you find my garden and decide to stay
You have such an appetite and will keep all those aphids away!

Creative Hyper-drive

My Journal Page

So I have a confession to make this morning....I'm in love the idea of artistic journaling for sometime.  That is where you keep a diary or journal but instead of just writing on the pages you use your creative or artistic skills to fill the pages with drawings, sketches and fancy fonts.  I belong to a Facebook group dedicated exclusively to this form of journaling and some of the posts are simply amazing.  The closed group is very large with over 20,000 members and many are so positive and encouraging that I love to share my sketching with them.  The conflict comes in because my sketching efforts are more to work out renderings for paintings or to come up with designs that I can use to matte and create a greeting card portfolio.  These sketches also don't necessarily meet the groups guidelines for posting because they are no longer inside a sketchpad.  Also, my own dear journal that I started almost 2 years ago sits on my drawing table untouched and not finished.

So yesterday the idea just hit me! I came up with the perfect solution to my conflict and I'm really excited about it.  I'm not sure why I didn't think of it sooner.  As I complete a sketch or painting, I am going to print out the artwork on a 4 x 6 card and attach it to a journal page.  Then I can add my thoughts about the piece, the date that it was completed and in this way I will fill my journal with pages that are especially interesting to me and create a fun portfolio of my work at the same time.  It's a win win in my book (Journal)!

So last night was my first entry using this format and low and behold I got so creative that I actually started writing a poem to go along with my "Resting Hummingbird" sketch.  This whole process got me so excited that I was formulating more poems for a couple of other sketches I have recently completed.  I was scribbling down a flood of ideas on a piece of scrap paper between brushing my teeth and and taking my vitamins.  If I hadn't been just drop down unconsciously tired, I might have filled several pages with madly scribbled pose.  Blow out the cobwebs!  My mind was in creative hyper-drive.

So don't you dare laugh at me but I decided I would share with you not only my journal page entry but my rough draft of the poem I wrote call "The Hummingbird Song".

            The Hummingbird Song
 The song you sing is hardly a song at all
I may not see you in the branches but I can hear your call
While the other birds fill the air with a melody so sweet
Your song is more like a sour off tune tweet
Or maybe it’s more like a chit, chee-dit or a chirp
To me it sounds more like the scolding I get when I loudly burp
 Not at all a pleasant sound to my ear
Rather it is more like I’m being scoffed and chided I fear
Makes me wonder how could one so cute, tiny and small
Have a disposition and attitude that's bigger than all?

Be sure and check out all my work on my website-Julie Townsend Studio

The First of a Flurry of Fluffy Feathers

Image as seen on my "Country Store and Cowbell" tab on my website

It always amazes me that I can spend an hour drawing a little sketch design and then spend two hours on the marketing of that sketch.   By the time you write 3 or 4 paragraphs about the piece, scan it, upload and edit the image and then upload the image to all the applicable websites, you have invested several hours of time. Not to mention the time spent writing this blog each week.

I've just recently expanded my marketing efforts by opening an Etsy store under Julie Townsend Studio.  Now that I have some smaller inventory such as art magnets and art greeting cards that feature my work to offer, I felt that an Etsy store might be a good idea.  I am also checking into putting my images on Zazzle, Cafe Press and Redbubble but haven't quite figured out how those all work.  Then of course I have been uploading my images for a number of years to Fine Art America.  I guess I should get and "A for effort" and hopefully someday all this work will begin to pay off as I brand my self and grow a group of collectors.  Well at least that is my plan and I've always heard that you make a plan and that you work the plan and marketing artwork is WORK!

Now that I have finished my 2nd Down Country Roads art card collection I'm ready to focus on a new theme or collection. Collection 1 is of my farm animal pen and ink sketches and the 2nd collection is of my five Down Country Roads paintings.  Here is the link to my Country Store.

 I was pretty excited this week to get my first order of each image in collection II in art magnet format.  The collector shared with me that the images make her remember her childhood on her grandparents Iowa farm and they make her smile.  What a touching thing for her to say.  That very much blesses my heart as an artist to know that my work has touched an emotion and in some way has lifted a spirit and made someone smile.

5 x 7 pen and ink sketch with colored pencil

So last night I got busy and pulled out my sketch pad and colored pencils.  This is what I came up with and I think this will prove to me an excellent start on a collection that features my favorite birds. Topping that list is no doubt in my mind, the feisty hummingbird.  Nothing makes me smile faster, except for maybe my grandchildren, then this tiny little winged aggressor that darts around my yard.

You had better be quick if you want to snap their picture because they only rest a few seconds before flying off in a flurry of fluffed feathers.

Original sketch is available along with prints, cards and magnets of this image at my website gallery.  Feel free to check it out along with all my other works.

Finished sketch before adding colored background

Gardens, Galoshes and Gravy

"Fence Post Rendezvous"

I am FINISHED!!!! And I finished this piece just in time to enter it in the Elks Helldorado Art Show today.  It was close, down to the wire actually, but I made it and am very pleased with the final results.

  I can say that with each painting I do, I learn so much.  This piece contained several difficult elements in the composition.  The children for one and the horse for two. This is the 5th painting in a series of pieces that I have titled "Down Country Roads".  Painting these pieces has provided such therapy to me as I recall little moments in my childhood growing up in the Ozarks of Central Missouri.

It has been my desire, with each piece I paint, to capture your imagination, strike a sweet chord with your own childhood memories or tell an interesting visual story that grabs your attention.

My mother always had a large garden plot that she put out vegetables in each spring and then we would reap the benefits come summer as we would start the harvesting the best tasting produce you can imagine.  The memory of the taste of fresh snapped green beans and tiny new potatoes cooked up with a piece of ham in mom's old cast iron skillet still makes my mouth water today.  I've made that comfort dish numerous times for my family but it has just never been the same.  Mom would tell us kids to go out to the garden and pick green beans, radishes, cucumbers, squash or tomatoes to add to our dinner that most often consisted of a fried meat of some kind, mashed potatoes and gravy.

I can also remember that I always had a pair of rubber boots to wear to protect my shoes from the snow, slush and deep mud.  For the area to be so green there must be lots of rain.  Way more rain that we have here in Las Vegas.  Most of us can barely justify owning an umbrella let alone buying full on rain gear for our children.  We also called those rubber boots "galoshes" and I remember having red ones that matched a red raincoat and hat with little yellow daisies printed on it.  I was quite stylish as I made my way to school in the rain.

In keeping with my other pieces in the series, I added the blue morning glories and tall grass along with several hidden creatures.  See if you can find two tiny baby cotton tail rabbits, a fat toad and a nest of quail eggs.  They are there, I promise.

On a personal note this piece is really special for me because I used my own grandson as model for the toddler reach in the basket to get a second carrot for the interested palomino.

I hope you enjoyed this little labor of my love and I invite you to check out the "Down Country Roads" series on my website and leave me a comment letting me know what you think.

Sweet Rendezvous

WIP-"Fence Post Rendezvous"

The past two weeks my focus has been on my 5th piece in my series "Down Country Roads" which features the series' signature blue morning glories growing at the fence post along with the lush tall grass that grows extra tall there, uncut by the mower.  With this piece,  I decided to add some farm children.  I have such fond memories of growing up in the country where I could run and play without worry.  We lived down a country gravel road, surrounded by farmers and where slowing down to greet the horses and cows with screams of MOO would be a frequent occurrence.  

Nearly every mother on the road tended a rather large garden where the best tasting vegetables could be found.  I remember my mother often asking me to go out to the garden and pick something that would be served with our evening meal.  Maybe green beans, cucumbers, radishes or squash.  There is nothing better than fresh from the garden snapped green beans, new potatoes and ham cooked up in a cast iron skillet topped off with blackberry cobbler for desert using the blackberries that you labored to pick. Speaking from experience, picking blackberries is no easy task.   

This piece that I'm calling "Fence Post Rendezvous" combines some of these elements of my early childhood memories of country life. These two little towheads have been given the early morning chore of picking carrots for dinner but couldn't help but stopping for a few minutes to share a couple of their basket bounty with the neighbor's palomino. With his head full of curly blonde locks, I used my own 3 year old grandson as a model for the little boy at the basket.    

The debut for this piece is going to be the Elks Club Helldorado Art Show and I have just a few more days to get it finished because the call for art is this upcoming Sunday.  Sorry that this is a poor quality cell phone picture of the piece, but since it is still on my easel, I haven't taken the time to get out the good camera to photograph it.   I guess I was just really anxious to show my progress this morning to my blog readers. Rest assured,  I will be providing better images as soon as I finishing painting in the final details.  

I hope you enjoy this WIP (work in progress) blog.  I would love to hear your thoughts, comments or memories about your own "Country Childhood"  To see the rest of the pieces in this series check out my gallery tab or go to my website at http://www.julietownsendstudio.com/-gallery.html