Blog Posts

Why not try new things?

5/27/2023

I have a friend who works in a gift store nearby where I have greeting cards. She contacted me to see if I would be interested in painting on some fabric that she could then quilt and turn into pillows. Sure! Why not?

Pretty cool, eh? She is very talented! She got one pillow for her to keep and then she made me this one in trade. THEN she made a bonus gift for me that I adore!

She uploaded my image I painted to Spoonflower and had it printed there and then made me this super cool zippered bag. I am a lucky gal!

I have been busy the past couple of months selling things I have collected over the years. I have been an eBay listing machine! I have been a reseller for a very long time and now parting with things that I no longer need. Now that does not mean I do not still have/need LOTS of stuff. haha!

So, while I have been busy selling things I have been thinking about what to paint next. I started with an idea last week and painted a couple of them.

I am also going to try listing paintings for sale on Ebay. Why not?

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For the Birds

4/26/2023

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I like birds. I like little villages. I like trees.
Bingo!
I put all those ideas together and painted a series of 10"x20" brightly colored paintings.

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AI and me

2/5/2023

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I like technology. And it seems that AI is going to be a good tool to get ideas from.
It is an interesting process to learn and I have barely got my toes wet so far.

My prompt was - An orange cowboy

I uploaded a photo of a bug painting I did and the prompt here was to make it look realistic. Hmmmm.

This is the painting I used for the AI program.

I used a photo of me as a kid and the prompt was to make me a robot in space.
Rather eerie that it does have the essence of me that I can see.
AI is an interesting tool for sure!

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January 15th, 2023

1/15/2023

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I like to paint BIG paintings and just need to get back to that for a break from smaller works.
So I snipped off a big piece from the bold of canvas I have and got busy.

That was SO fun, that I had to make more.

I think there are more of these to come forth. Then I am wondering if maybe I can do this kind of toothy person, but make them a cat. We will see.

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Won't you take me to Funky Town?

11/24/2022

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Sometimes I just have to wait and wait until the next thing comes to mind to paint.
So I painted the town. And since there is nobody here to tell me what to do, I just do what I do!

These and others are heading to The Gallery at 10 Oaks in McMinnville, Oregon soon.

I have an old TV antenna on my old house and when I look around, I do not see many TV antennas on houses anymore. So I honor the old technology on rooftops in these paintings.

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The World is my Oyster, or something like that...

7/17/2022

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I have been helping someone downsize and I brought home a BUNCH of globes
from their place.
I had my kid go into the attic of their house and bag up the globes.

What am I to do with so many globes?
I will do a LOT!
Here is what I did with the first one:

Here is the second one.

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Cats Cats Cats and more Cats and More

5/26/2022

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I like cats.
I like painting.
Well, there ya go!

These are all 4"x4" squares with a one inch deep side.

STICKERS!
I had some stickers printed and I found them so fun that I am now awaiting 200 more with different images. Stay tuned for those. Priced at $4 each.
These are 3" square fishy stickers.

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April 10th, 2022

4/10/2022

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I am working on figuring out how to post videos to Tiktok.
Eventually, I will get the hang of it.
For now you can see what I have created.
www.tiktok.com/@helvismith

I am planning on expanding my working studio space to accommodate making MORE art!
Not sure when this will happen as I will need to lay down some linoleum over the the floor and move a lot of stuff from here to there and back again.

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Inspiring myself

1/5/2022

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I am still working on a theme from a painting I did years ago and ran across in my VAST photo library. I looked at the older painting and thought that it would be fun to revisit that style with a few more years of painting under my belt.

Most of these went to Valley Art, a local gallery in Forest Grove, Oregon. There is a opening on Saturday, January 8th at 2pm and these will be available at that time.

I have used a specific app on my iPad for years to create art and it has been big time revamped and I am trying to learn the new tools. These are in progress. Fun to try out new ideas!

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Finding my own inspiration

11/27/2021

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I was looking through some older digital paintings that I did on the iPad and decided that I really liked some of them and decided to try to paint them on canvas.