Marewage is what brings you to - ge - thar

What has happened since my last post? A lot.

The husband and I had our 1st wedding anniversary:

That's not actually us that is our wedding cake topper which was my late grandmother's cake topper that I got out and put on top of the frozen wedding cake we were supposed to eat. Needless to say we couldn't figure out if the cake was supposed to be carrot or coconut so we really didn't have more than a bite each.

And I got another commission! This time for one of my oldest and dearest friends who just got hitched yesterday. It's been a secret for the last six weeks because the commission was a wedding present for her new husband. Thus, this commission was very important and I learned a lot of things. My friend grew up with a family crest hanging in her parents home and she expressed a great desire to have one for her new family. After a lot of searching and secretive contacting of her husbands family members she obtained a drawing of the Stegner crest from his grandmother.

While I had my snobby artistic doubts about the design of this crest at first I actually came to enjoy painting it and tweeking it a little to make it more shall we say Stegner worthy? The painting is 30"x40" and is done in Oil. My husband is jealous he wants a crest now as well.

Why did I choose oils with only 6 weeks to paint? I like oils. I like the textures I can create and I like how I can make things look shiny or matte on a whim. I just like the ability to work things around over and over with out worrying about things drying too quickly. However, the painting wasn't completely dry when I delivered it but that's okay because the couple will be in Florida for a week and that should give if plenty of time to at least get tacky.

The best thing about this painting is I learned how to frame a canvas using an open backed frame. I didn't have time to get down to my local craft store to get the painting framed and it wasn't dry. I didn't want to risk damage so I did a lot of "googling" instead. This is what I found: http://painting.about.com/od/paintingtipsforartists/ss/tip-frame-canvas.htm

This is what I did:

It worked:

The two things I would have changed are: 1) Use a matte to frame the picture more nicely but I was short on time and it still looks nice. 2) Taken a calligraphy class with Julie Blackstone at OBU while getting my Bachelor's. I think it would have been helpful with the lettering. All in all I am pleased with the results.

Now onto more personal projects portraits of my kids Costello and Blake:

Have a great and relaxing Labor Day!

I am the lord of the tile said he!

I always like doing commissions for friends. For the most part. A few months ago I got an e-mail from a colleague asking about doing a medallion for her dad's floor. I did my research came up with some designs and here it is. Luckily I didn't actually have to place the tile in the floor because as my husband and former professor would tell you I'm terrible with grout. My patrons were pretty particular with the colors and design but I think their choices worked out pretty well. It was a lot of work getting the finished product a few late nights but I'm excited to get some pictures of the medallion actually tiled into the floor. More pictures coming soon!