No Parking

   I tried to go back to the Botanic Gardens last Sunday and learned my lesson. The weather was beautiful and perfect for being outside so I figured I could go paint. The problem was that everyone else in Fort Worth thought it was a perfect time to be outside too so there were zero parking spots anywhere close. Although there is a satellite lot for weekends, there was no way I was going to be able to carry all my things to a good spot and back to the car. I decided to go home and paint from my "studio."

   A few weeks ago I built a canvas for a specific painting. I did a watercolor of an orchid back in the fall and I wanted to do it again only in oil. Since painting at the Botanic Garden was no longer an option, I figured I could work on that. 

   Part of the reason that I like plein air painting is that it makes me finish a piece in on sitting instead of agonizing over it and tweaking it for weeks. With that in mind, I set a time limit for myself to finish my orchid painting. Two hours was my goal. It ended up being about two and a half hours, but it's okay because I did in fact finish it! Anyway, here it is! What do you think?!

Here is the original watercolor that I did last fall.

Hope you like them! Be sure to "like" my page on Facebook, Ellen Van Treuren Artworks so you can see more of my updates. Also, visit my website www.ellenvantreuren.com to see prices and more work information.

Happy arty day!

Ellen

Shame on Me!

Well I must admit I have been seriously lack in posting on my blog. How shameful! If you find yourself having withdraws from my art and musings on the occasion that I go ten weeks without posting, be sure to follow my on Facebook at Ellen Van Treuren Artworks. I am way more dedicated to Facebook and post things at least every week.

In the several weeks between now and my last post so much has happened! I have discovered that I truly love plein air painting, and have been two more times. This entry is dedicated to my new found love. Enjoy some photos from one of my recent experiences!!

This is at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens.

This was in the middle of March.

Here's my set up!

And here's the finished product!

I hope you enjoy these photos! You can find prices for my work on my website www.ellenvantreuren.com if you are interested. In the near future I hope to do some prints of my work, so stay tuned!

Colorful hugs,
Ellen

Plein Air Friday

Last Friday I had the day off. It was glorious! I love having the weekends off, but sometimes it's nice to have a weekday where I have the apartment to myself to get things done and lounge around.

On top of household chores, last Friday I painted for the first time in several weeks. Husband and I had driven over the Trinity River on our way home one day and I noticed what a pretty painting that particular spot would make. As some of you may know, in Fort Worth there is a trail that runs alongside the river for bikers and joggers. In my head it made sense that there would be a place to park right next to the trail, but when I drove back to the spot we had passed, I had no luck finding a place to park much less a spot to get close to where I originally wanted to set up shop.

I drove and drove and drove but couldn't find a way to get next to the river and trail. I finally consulted the map on my phone (something I probably should have done before I set out on my excursion) to find a different spot. I headed toward the green patch on my phone and ended up down the street from the Fort Worth Zoo and the Botanic Gardens (I have big plans for painting there!).

The weather was so beautiful! Crisp, cool and sunny. I spent almost two hours painting and then packed up to head home. 

Here are some photos I snapped while I was "on location":

What a fun afternoon! I'm titling the painting "January Afternoon." It's a 10x10" canvas. Can't you feel the cool air and see the bright sun on the bear trees? Ahhhhhh. Makes me smile to think about it!

It's not the best quality photo ever, but I'll get a better one and post it on my website. Speaking of which, have you visited my website yet?! Check it out at www.ellenvsntreuren.com.

Wishing you many beautiful days!

Ellen

Support the arts!

This pretty much sums it up.

Support the arts!

The Winter Show

This month I am privileged to be part of the Fort Worth Community Arts Center's The Winter Show.
The show was open to anyone and there was no jury. I entered Once Upon a Time, a piece I did from a photograph from my four-week trip to Mexico a few years ago.
It was so exciting...and intimidating...to have my artwork hung next to such beautiful and diverse pieces of work! Here are some photos I took at the reception, which was held last Friday.
Enjoy!

If you are in the area, the show is up until January 30, 2014. The hours of the FWCAC are Monday-Friday 9-5 and Saturday 10-5. If you go, take a photo and tag Ellen Van Treuren Artworks on Facebook or @ellenvt_artist and #evtartworks on Twitter!


Happy New Year!
Ellen

It's Time!

I have been working at my "real job" A lot. That has made it very difficult to fund the time to work seriously on my art. However, I have found a little time to enjoy some holiday crafting. It's nice to take a break and get in the holiday spirit! After making two Christmas stocking without a pattern, I'm not sure I'll ever be good at sewing. Haha! The wreath is similar to one I found on Pinterest. You just need a grapevine wreath, some plastic ornaments, ribbon and a hot glue gun.

 I've got some plans for baking, so stay tuned for more holiday cheer coming soon! 

On a side note, brand new shiny and bright Christmas lights make me so very happy.

Happy December to all!

Change and Taking that Leap

Life changes. You can't avoid that. Sometimes all you can do is take a leap of faith.

I've been thinking about that for a couple of days because of a painting I was working on. It started out one way and became something so much more vibrant, rich and energetic than I had planned.

I've been trying to break out of my tight, photo-like style and into a more loose style.This painting might be just what I needed. I got to the point where I was stuck at, "technically this isn't working for me," and "this painting is Boringville," when I decided to risk the whole thing and take a leap of faith with a new idea. I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I did it, and I couldn't be more excited about the result!

Here are some photos that document this painting's transformation:

Could I have stopped here? Probably. The stems just weren't working for me or my "studio assistant" who doubles as my husband. This is where I decided to take a leap and embrace a new idea.

And from there it evolved into this:

I'm thrilled with how this turned out. I hope you like it too! 

While working on this I learned that some risks are worth taking, and sometimes change is a good thing.

Ellen

Twitter

Okay, y'all. I got a Twitter account today for my art endeavors. 

Why is it that I feel so old trying to figure out a new social networking trick? I was very comfortable with my Facebook-ing ways and then I think I did pretty well with Instagram. Let's hope that I can catch onto the birdy quickly!!

Enough beating around the bush! Follow me: @ellenvt_artist

Cooler Weather and Fall Refreshments

It finally feels like fall here in north Texas! With a ten-day forecast of upper 60's to lower 70's, the cooler weather may actually be here to stay until spring.

I don't know about you, but the cooler weather definitely lifts my spirits. I think the word that best describes is "refreshing." There is something so pleasant about not sweating every time you walk outside...go figure.

Since the weather is now actually fall-ish, I can let myself have a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks! Pinterest has lots if recipes for different fall drinks, including the Pumpkin Spice. What's your favorite fall drink? Apple cider? Hot chocolate? Homemade or store bought?

Let's have some fun and share fall drink traditions!

ARTWORK GIVEAWAY!!!

Just so you know...I'm holding an art giveaway contest! I'm attempting to get more "likes" and spread the word about my art in general. What's a better way to do that than to hold a contest?!

Here's the official flyer: 

Here are photos of the three pieces the winner will be able to choose from:

To see close-up photos and see specifications you can go to the Fall 2013 Giveaway album on my Facebook page. 

 If you have already "liked" my page all you have to do to enter is "share" the page or giveaway photo. If you are a newbie to Ellen Van Treuren Artworks, you need to "like" and "share."

Don't delay! This contest ends October 7th! 

 

Ellen

Tourists

Sometimes it's fun to be a tourist in your own city...especially if you just moved there! 

Last weekend Tim and I took a little trip to the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens and visited the Japanese Garden. It was a fun little adventure and way less expensive than the Dallas Arboretum. Some of the gardens are actually free, but some (like the Japanese Garden) cost a little bit. 

I took my camera and was hoping to get some reference photos for future artwork. I'm not sure how successful I was since my camera really doesn't take great photos, and since everything was one color--green. It was a little disappointing that there wasn't a bigger variety if colors in the garden. Maybe there will be in the springtime.

Here's one of me and Tim. I'm such a lucky girl 😊

Tim was the official map reader. He wasn't happy with me that I wanted to see the sites out of their numerical order on the map.  

Btw...he wasn't really mad. I told him to pose like that.

Until next time...

Life Since the Move

Two weeks ago Tim and I moved. We are now enjoying a more pleasant area and 200 more square feet.
While he started graduate school, I started a new job at Hobby Lobby.

Moving means lots of new changes and it also means the opportunity for new decorations!
We had plenty of those old ugly, laminate book cases so to spruce it up I added some color.

Nice, huh? This was loosely based on a Pinterest project that I saw.

This next decorating project was directly based on something I saw on Pinterest.

 

This I had seen on Pinterest. It's a photo of me and Tim during out first dance with the lyrics of the song to which we danced.

 

This one I thought of all by myself! Here he are exchanging vows and rings. The words are the actual vows that we wrote for each other. It was very sweet and sentimental to look at them again. I am very glad that they will now be up in our apartment where we can see them. I think it will be a good reminder to make sure that we are actually honoring those promises through the years to come.

 


P.S. Being married is the bomb.com!

Turning Back into Humans

In my last post, I talked about how my husband and I had gone on a seven-day cleanse diet. Well, that lasted about 1.5 days.

The second day I was irritable and just didn't feel good in general. Also, I was hungry.

We ended up quitting the diet and had a delicious dinner of breakfast Pita bread which usually includes scrambled eggs, bacon and cheese broiled on top of Pita bread.

Come to find out, it wasn't necessarily that I lacked will power to complete the seven-day diet. Tim discovered while talking with a friend that we probably did not have enough protein in our diet and this was making me so moody and feeling weak.

I guess a cleanse like that takes more research than we did, and it takes a better plan. There is hope in our future for a cleanse-diet, but we might start out with a three-day trial and than graduate from there once we find meals that contain all the nutrients our bodies need to function properly.

Until then, I will enjoy my cheeseburgers and chicken fried steak.

Turning into Rabbits

So if you've missed the memo, "cleanse/detox" diets are the new fad. I generally try to steer clear of fads, but this one has the promise of being healthier. That being said, I jumped on the band wagon.

Tim agreed to join me in this mini quest and we did a little research as to how exactly you do a cleanse diet. We decided it basically boiled down to cutting out processed foods, dairy, sugar, and meat (with a few exceptions such as lamb, organic chicken, etc.) Detoxing is like exercising though: everyone has their own way to get the "perfect arm muscles" that they swear by. This link seemed to be a pretty good source of information so we are basing our diet off of it: Detox Diet Plan.

Sunday we had to eat all the "bad" food we had in the house that would spoil before next week, so our diet included half a box of cookies 'n cream ice cream, Kraft Mac 'n Cheese, a bag of candy and other frozen TV dinners.

Monday we had fruit for breakfast (I had made a smoothie to take with me to work but I did the 'ol mug on the car trick and drove off with it on the roof of my car...oops), a huge salad with homemade salsa for dressing for lunch and stir fry for dinner.

I'm not going to lie. It was rough for both of us. I would consider us to be pretty healthy eaters, but we do LOVE food. Turning into rabbits is hard when you're hardcore meat and dairy eaters. Poor Tim was gung ho about the cleanse on Sunday, but less than twenty-four hours later said, "You know what I miss most...?" No, Tim. What do you miss most after twelve hours of being on our diet? His answer, "Cheese." He subsequently listed all the things you could do with cheese--kind of like the scene in Forest Gump where Bubba informs Forest of all the ways to cook shrimp.

The stir fry turned out to be pretty good even without the salty soy sauce we love so much. We used brown rice (not the speed cooking kind) as the base and then added carrots, cabbage, celery, red bell peppers, sugar snap peas, green onions and broccoli. As seasoning we used some sea salt and fried it in sunflower oil.


We do have some things on our menu coming up that we are excited about, so stay tuned for those! Cross your fingers that we make it that long.


Only six more days until a McDonald's double cheeseburger and greasy French fries...

Caddo Star Cabin

I was commissioned to do a map of a ranch a few months ago out in Caddo Mills, TX. I had never done anything like that before, so I was excited to take on a new challenge that could turn out really neat!

Since the ranch is about 100 acres, there was no way I could have seen everything. I used Google earth to get a general idea of the layout of the land and my husband and I were invited to stay overnight at the vacation cabin. It was a really awesome place! The cabin is absolutely idyllic as a rustic ranch cabin, but it also had the modern conveniences of two flat screen televisions and a basket full of DVD's. We watched the Hugh Jackman version of Les Miserables. I'm not sure if I laughed or cried more. Don't get mad if you love that movie, but seriously, who can be sobbing and still be able to belt out this opera-style song....? I have never been able to do that when I'm beside myself. But that's really not the point...

The Caddo Star Cabin is very cool! As we went on the property tour with the owner, he told us a lot of the upcoming additions they have for ranch itself.

Here are some of the reference photos I took for the map:

Caddo Star Cabin

                                          

The fire pit next to the catfish pond.

My cute husband who carried my drawing pad around so I could make notes.

The loft-soon to be another vacation rental on the property.

Cute little cows next to the catfish pond.

And without further adieu, here are some pictures of the map! It's acrylic paint and ink on watercolor paper. My husband and I put together the frame from an empty wooden frame we bought at a garage sale and two panes of glass we got a Hobby Lobby. The back pane is removable so that as things get added at the ranch, I can add them on the map!

Be sure to check out the Caddo Star Cabin on the Caddo Star Ranch! www.caddostar.com

-Ellen


P.S. I wish I was more dedicated when it comes to blogging, but since I'm not...be sure to "Like" Ellen Van Treuren Artworks on Facebook to stay up-to-date on my projects!

Free Art Videos

The other day I discovered the coolest thing! Jerry's Artarama has free art lessons online!
You can search by medium, skill-level, artist or subject to find tutorials and ideas. There is even a series of videos on how to make money as an artist.

Yesterday I watched a video by Nicole Kennedy on how to paint sunflowers and then a couple watercolor lessons by Sterling Edwards.
It was really fun to learn something about watercolor. I think that might be my next big undertaking. 

Pretty much all I want to do now is watch all the videos. It's cool stuff.

Hope you enjoy it!

Recycle and Reuse

We went garage saling this morning with Tim's parents in Colorado. We ended up at a elementary school that had an entire gym filled with people...and stuff.

I like buying frames at garage sales because usually with a little TLC they can be reused to frame artwork. Also, it's tons cheaper than buying a frame from a store or getting a custom frame made.
I had some great luck today because I got several frames, some for photos and some for artwork. I got two for $9 that even had canvases in them that I can paint over and reuse. Pretty sweet!

The only problem is that it's hard for me to see art in garage sales, thrift stores and other discount places. Someone put themselves into creating something, something they felt good enough about to sell or give as a gift and then years later it becomes "junk." People don't want it anymore. It's not valued. That makes me sad.


I thought it was fitting to post the paintings I bought today so that even though I'm going to use the canvases for myself, the artist's work can still be documented and remembered somewhere by someone.

Here's to you H '87 and Walters, wherever you are.