The Blue Monarch

Turns out, I've been on a bit of an insect kick. Perhaps it was the summer season. Or maybe it's just that we live in the country and are constantly surrounded by bugs.

Let me veer off on a tangent for a moment and just share this right here:



That, my friends, is a caterpillar. He has shaggy fur-hair that reminds me of pipe cleaners. I found him eating our milkweed late in the summer. After much research I learned that he is (very appropriately named) a milkweed caterpillar.

But back to my latest painting.

8"x8"
Oil on board

This, along with the praying mantis I just finished, have been fun little paintings. I don't normally work on these smaller sizes but somehow I've accumulated quite a few of these small canvases. They are perfect for painting little insects like this butterfly :)

I also did some experimenting here with the board. I've had issues using store-bought boards in the past where they seem to absorb the paint inconsistently. So before starting, I coated the board with gesso... which I've never used before. I'm amazed by how smooth the surface was! Almost too slick. But I do like the effect it has and I can see preferring the appearance over canvas for certain projects.

So why did I choose blue? No good reason except that, as I stared at my paint options, blue seemed more fun than orange.

Mantis

I almost forgot to post this little guy:

5"x7"
Oil on Canvas

This is sort of an end of summer painting. This praying mantis was hanging out on our deck one day. I can remember being a kid and thinking it was such a special thing to see one. But now we see them all. the. time. They're still neat little bugs though.

Prints are available here: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/praying-mantis-caroline-serafinas.html?viewall=true

Sketches of the Month

I made a new resolution.



I wanted to create more art. But time is hard to find around here. So I bought myself a small sketchbook and a travel pack of drawing pencil. So now when I'm sitting on the couch watching tv I can multitask.

And so far it seems to be working.

Baby M passed out on my chest

 

A toy marble

 

Baby M in her toy glasses

This last one if my favorite <3 It took me a bit longer than planned. (But people are hard to draw!) But I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out.

Three drawings in the last three weeks ain't bad. Although funny story... I first titled this post "Sketches of the Week" before realizing my mistake. Ha ha ha...

My true goal would be to get back to painting more. So if someone knows how to make oil painting more portable, please share!

 

A Painting for a Cause (Please Help Me Raise Money!)

Posting on the blog has been slow these days. (I blame the babies.) But conveniently, the last thing I posted about was this painting I did to raise money for a charity. So you only need to scroll down to the previous post to view :)

To recap:

I finished this painting last year with the intent of using it to raise money to support the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. In the past I've walked in PurpleStride Washington DC to help raise money. The team, Team Hammertime, was started after pancreatic cancer took my best friend's dad- a man I had known pretty much my whole life.

There are babies in those bellies!

So this year I'm doing something a little different. I am a virtual walker (because I have a conflict that weekend). To raise money for the team I'm going to raffle off this original painting:

HERE'S HOW TO ENTER:

1) Simply go to my page to donate: Click Here

2) Make a donation! 

**Make sure you donate to my personal page and fill out all required information. This is the only way I can track your name, donation amount, and have an email address with which to contact you later should you win.**

You will receive one entry in my virtual raffle for each $25 you donate. 

$25=1 entry. $50=2 entries. $75=3entries. etc...

This is my first time attempting something like this, so let's hope it goes smoothly! The DC walk is on June 11th. So after that date I will randomly select a winner for the painting and contact the winner via email. I can ship (within the contiguous U.S)! So please share with your friends.

ABOUT THE PAINTING:

It's a 16x20" oil on canvas. I hope you're a Ravens fan. See this post for details.

And if you do not win you can still feel good about yourself. From the PanCan website:

"It is estimated that more than 53,000 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year, and more than 41,700 will die from the disease. In 2016 it will be the third leading cause of cancer death, with a five-year relative survival rate of just 8%. Pancreatic cancer has the lowest five-year relative survival rate of any major cancer.
Historically, pancreatic cancer research has been underfunded. Only approximately 2 percent of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) budget is allocated to this leading killer. We know from the relatively high survival rates associated with breast cancer and HIV/AIDS that federal research funding levels matter in the fight to find new cures and directly relate to improved survival rates.
Your donations will help to change these dismal statistics by funding research grants, advocacy efforts, patient support, and awareness activities coordinated by the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network."

Painting the Purple

16"x20"
Oil on canvas

I finished up another one.... probably my last painting of the year. I started this painting earlier in the year... like March/April... and never finished. 

So, obviously there's a Raven's theme going on here... the raven... the football... the purple.

But I actually painted this with something else in mind. For the past couple of years I've walked in the PurpleStride to raise money for pancreatic cancer. The walk in DC is usually around the June time frame. Purple is their color. My original intent was to sell or raffle off the original painting or do something to raise money. But then I had a conflict and couldn't do the walk this year. So then the painting never got finished. Until just a few weeks ago.

I'd still like to keep my plan. Even if it's a year later. So once I get my act together and figure out what I want to do, I'll post about that. Stay tuned.

A Portrait of Toy Cars

I finally finished up M's painting!

Completed 2015
24"x48"
Oil on Canvas

I had no shame hanging it unfinished in his room, but it is nice to finally finish. All that's been lingering was the window for the bus. I first posted about his painting back in September. I think ultimately it took me about three months. For some reason I initially thought things would go much faster. But let's be honest... they never do. I can remember making fun of my mother for projects that would seemingly last her forever. Now I completely understand :)

I guess next up I'll owe a painting to the baby girl. But I figure I have at least two years before I need to worry about that :)

I'm on a bit of a streak here finishing up projects, and even have another painting that I've finally finished and signed. (That will be three for the year!) Pictures of that one will be coming sometime soon.

Baby Girl's Argyle Nursery

Continuing with the room decorating....

I think I'm about done with the nursery. Like everything else, it's been a work in progress. This weekend we bought replacement hardware for the crib hardware that we lost. So from a functional standpoint, the nursery is now ready to go! And tonight my butterflies arrived. Mike rolled his eyes. I however was super excited and hung them immediately :)

I

I do have a couple details to clean up still. Like finding some art for the picture frames on the ledge. Not a big rush though. The pictures of Baby M are still cute :)



I didn't really have any plans going into this project. All I knew was that I wanted to keep the original argyle pattern but change out the colors.

Here's a little before and after:

 

I also decided to get rid of the accent wall:

From there I found the hot air balloon idea on Pinterest (of course). Then saw the world map print on Etsy and thought it was a good match. You know... hot air balloons... travel... maps...

So that's that.
I have at least one fan...

A New Room for the Big Boy

I finally finished the car painting!! But I haven't taken pictures yet so instead I'll share pictures of M's big boy room.

It feels like I just finished decorating the nursery for him. It's hard to believe it has been more than two years! And now we have moved our little guy into a big boy room. <tears>

With the impending arrival of baby #2 we decided to move M out of the nursery and into the former guest room. And luckily we had already painted the guest room a blue color, so the move didn't involve much painting :) (I'm patting myself on the back for that one.) I did end up painting a white border along the ceiling of the room. The room doesn't get much sun during the day so I thought this would lighten things up a bit.

 

As you can see I've already hung the car painting. It's actually not quite complete in these pictures but I was using it as a place holder.

 

It seems like this transition took a couple months. Between moving out the guest room furniture, painting, acquiring a bed, and adding some accessories it took me awhile. I'm moving slowly these days...

 

The dresser was recycled from me. It's actually a piece that I bought second hand about two years ago. We decided that rather than buying the kid new furniture we would finally buy ourselves some adult bedroom furniture :) Actually a lot of things in this room are recycled. The dresser. The bed we got from M's cousin. The orange side tables are recycled and painted Ikea tables. And the little desk and rocking chair came from M's grandparents. Pretty much the only thing we moved out of the nursery was the rug.

And what's a room without a tribute to our favorite dog breed? 

I bought the print from Etsy and had it printed. The only thing missing is a blue eye ;)

Up next is the new nursery. Then I can take a break from redecorating!

Prints!

A few (many) months ago I embarked on an effort to start getting my paintings professionally scanned. They were starting to accumulate so I decided that I needed to do something with them. I found a semi-local place that does an excellent job scanning and color correcting.

Its an ongoing process. I've only gotten four scanned so far. But I'm a slow mover. It's pretty fun to see copies though!

After this little project I started reading about printing options. One thing led to another and I decided to upload some of my work onto a print on demand website because, why not? And because who wouldn't want a picture of Meatball on a throw pillow? :)

So I'm happy to announce that I now have prints available through Fine Art America. Here's the link to my profile page: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/caroline-serafinas.html

For those who enjoy my random paintings, prints are available in various sizes but pretty much limited to no bigger than the original. 

Fun, right? 

I've also added a "Shop" page to my blog main page. 

If you haven't heard of Fine Art America before, there is a TON of art available on the site. So at least enjoy the window shopping :)

New Painting for the Kid

Back before M was born I had false expectations of how much free time I'd have after he was born. When I was working on his nursery I left a blank wall for a future painting. Silly me. That wall is still bare two years later.

Luckily things have calmed down a bit since the newborn stage and even since he turned one. And I'm managing to do some painting again. I'm finally working on a painting for M. I'm actually kind of happy that I waited. Instead of painting him something that I thought he might like, I'm painting something that I know he likes: cars. Or as he calls them, "trucks."



This is a portrait of four of his toy cars. They are all different sizes in real life but I've scaled them so they are roughly the same size in the painting.

Here are a few more progress shots:



Things aren't feeling quite as daunting now that I've made some headway on the police car. I may actually finish this year :) Of course this will probably never hang in M's actual nursery. We'll be switching him to a new "big boy" room in the next couple of months.



If you're interested in more frequent updates, I've been posting them to my new Instagram account.

Mushroom Trio

I've been trying to get back into painting. The last painting I had done was the pair of golden retrievers back in 2012. More than two years ago! This was all prior to M being born. After he turned one I think I started getting the hang of things and adapting to life with a child. Yes, it took a year. Actually, who am I kidding, I'm still adapting.

But around March I decided I really needed to get back to doing some of my hobbies. So I resolved to 1) start running again and 2) start painting again. I'm happy to report I've been pretty successful at both! Since March I've been pretty good at setting aside some time in the evenings for painting. Not every night. And not very much time. Usually I just work for about an hour. But hey, its something! I'm actually working on my third painting of the year. (More pictures to come.) Not bad considering I've always been a pretty slow painter to begin with.

Around April was when I finished my first one. This little group of mushrooms:

Completed 2015
14"x18"
Oil on Canvas

If I'm being honest, this painting came about because I, on a whim, decided to pull out my painting supplies and need a quick subject. So I raided the fridge, and found mushrooms :) I always have produce on hand.

And that's how it began. Hoping to keep this up.

*** UPDATE: prints available here ***

New Instagram Account

So... I've been pretty terrible at posting anything here lately. But I have been working on stuff! Just in short spurts. Usually between the hours of 9-10pm when the child is in bed. After everything from the day has been cleaned up and everything for the next day has been readied. Of course some days just involve plopping down in front of the tv and doing nothing.

I decided to start an official Colorful Engineer Instagram account to post progress pictures when I am actually working on something. It's much easier than posting to the blog :) You can follow me @colorfulengineer.

I am hoping to get better at posting here too. But we'll see. Baby steps.

Silhouettes

Oh hey there. I'm a month shy of it being a year since my last post. Yikes! I don't care what anyone says... life gets super busy after having a kid. Projects are far and few between but I do manage to work on some things occasionally.

And I managed to do a painting! That will be the next post.

For now, my silhouettes of the kids...

I actually finished these a few months ago but hadn't gotten them printed. My initial plan was to do the whole family. But... well... 2 out of 4 isn't bad. I think I'll just keep them as the kids. Nobody cares about the parents anymore anyways!

The exciting part about these is that I actually had them printed on art paper which is something new for me. Obviously you can't tell this through the screen. I uploaded my images to fineartamerica.com and ordered prints through the website. They turned out pretty good actually. I'll have to keep them in mind in the future.

A New Year, a New Garden

It's that time of year again... when we pretend to have a green thumb. Last year we skipped the gardening. We had signed up for a full CSA share. And with being pregnant and all, we decided we didn't need the additional responsibility of taking care of a garden. But this year we've decided to give it a try. I'm not expecting too much success our first year, but we'll see how it goes. All I really want are fresh tomatoes. This year we've gone much bigger than we have in the past. We are no longer in a townhouse. And we no longer have cute garden boxes. We've gone much bigger.

20x30 feet to be exact. This could either go really well. Or really bad.

The plan is to not go crazy this year. Again, all I really want are fresh tomatoes. With the abundance of stinkbugs in the areas, I'm not sure how successful we'll even be. Mike wants hot peppers, so we'll be planting a bunch of those. And herbs. Because I need fresh basil with the tomatoes. The rest of the stuff, I don't care as much about.

This was the original plan:

I used this handy garden planner to help plan things out. Well we've already abandoned the plan and just started planting. :) The raspberries are no longer located in the garden because apparently they can get unruly. We are skipping spinach. We are skipping peas, but possibly doing beans. And everything is moving locations. We will see how much actually gets planted.

So far we have some nice broccoli plants in the ground.

Zoom in? Sure.

We bought broccoli plants from the store. We had started some seedlings but they haven't been doing so hot. And since it was time to start the cold weather plants we just decided to buy plants. We're not ashamed.

We've also planted some kale and spring onions. We planted those seeds directly just this week. So... time will tell.

The rest of the plants are still incubating in the house.

The seedling got off to a bit of a rough start. We started seeds in egg cartons and they were doing great. Then we thought they'd need more space so we tried transplanting them and they did not like that at all. Only a few survived so we've basically started over. When it comes time to plant we may just end up buying more plants :)

Fingers crossed this goes well.