Painting for Nathan - Proverbs 23:7

My oldest son is a junior in college this year (Hard to believe, I know.  And yes, I did have him when I was 12).  Anyhoo...he asked for a painting of Proverbs 23:7 for his dorm room.  My instructions were to keep it simple and do it in reds & black.  I just ordered a bunch of new acrylic gels and mediums so I decided since this is a pro bono job I could do a little experimenting.

I first painted the background with black gesso.  Then, I used Golden's Fine Pumice Gel applied with my finger and a credit card to make some textural circles and lines.  Once that dried, I loosely painted over the textured areas with Pyrrole Crimson Red and dry brushed with some grey and black.  For the lettering I used a font called Will Robinson in grey (chalked it out and painted free hand).  Then to finish, I used a splatter brush (which is actually like a bunch of flexible plastic sticks on a handle) to add watery grey splotches over the whole canvas.  I love the overall look.  The texture turned out to be really fun and easy.  I will definitely try it again.  It worked really well for the geometric look I was going for.  My son loves it too so it was win/win for me!

Free Spoonflower Fabric Swatch Today!

Today is free swatch day at Spoonflower.com!  You can order any fabric you want in an 8" x 8" swatch.  Enough for a potholder maybe.  The sale ends tomorrow, Friday August 19th at noon EST.
Here is a link to my butterfly fabric if anyone is interested. 

Books! What Do You Recommend?

I thought I'd share some of my favorite books and see what others recommend. 

Top of my list would have to be Jane Austen's books.  (Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Persuasion, Emma, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey)  There is a reason they have been made into countless movies.  Her stories always have happy endings, and who doesn't love that!  But she is also incredibly witty and each story has it's own personality.  I love them all. 

Along the same lines as Jane is an author I just found called Georgette Heyer.  If you love Jane, you will love Georgette.  She wrote in the 1920's-70's about the Regency Period (in which Jane Austen lived).   My favorites so far are The Black Moth, The Grand Sophy, These Old Shades, Faro's Daughter, The Devil's Cub, and Cousin Kate.  They are short reads (a couple of days at most) and thoroughly entertaining, funny and sweetly romantic. 

Other favorite books:

Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon (Time travel & kilts, what's not to love?  The whole Outlander series is great historical fiction/romance.  Jamie is my favorite all-time male hero.  The love story in this series is almost too descriptive so I wouldn't recommend it for teens.)

The Help by Kathryn Stockett (So great!  One of my favorite books ever!  Read it soon, before the movie comes out.)

The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins (I really liked the first and second book, didn't love the last.  Still a fun read.)

Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyers (I know, I know!  It's not exactly literature, but I love a good, clean romance and this one delivers.)

That's all for now.  I've got lots more to add but I have to make dinner...