Memorial Day

I recently discovered owl pellets. These are regurgitated stomach contents in which you can find the remains of the little creatures eaten by owls.

I ordered the pellets on Etsy. They come wrapped in aluminum foil; you take them apart carefully (the pellets are made of hair) and find these treasures inside. Of course I had to incorporate them into an art piece.

Today I think of my father, a World War Two veteran and a member of the greatest generation. He told us stories of the war until the day he died and I’m glad he provided an oral history of that time period.

Have a good week. Nina

Weekend Work and May is here

An old building in Paterson, NJ. Here’s the photo that inspired me to paint it:

Another one done on recycled cardboard. Started out as one thing, then I cut it in half and mounted it on another piece of cardboard. It’s a good surface to work on.

Rain, rain and more rain but today is sunny and bright. Have a good week! Nina

Friday catch up

My friend sent me this picture of her Nina corner. I love that my art is out in the world. I’ve given a lot of art away lately and it feels good.

Neil in the Gulf of Mexico

I’ve started recycling cardboard boxes into painting surfaces. This wasn’t the finished version but it’s my friend searching for shark teeth. The finished one had shark teeth scattered around and I suggested we glue real ones on (he might).

One of the many Neil found as well as other cool stuff. He did the mounting on copper wire.

In other news my rocks are for sale in my friend’s boutique. They look very cute but none have sold (yet). I also did some Easter egg type rocks which I will post below:

I was messing around trying to do a picture of my parents. This is on cardboard too. It’s pretty horrible but I thought I’d post it anyway.

Thank you! Nina

March 5, 2023

This is the first painting on paper I’ve done in quite a while. I have been pretty committed to rocks. They’ve made for some nice gifts and to be honest I just love doing them.

Box of rocks

If you want to get the perfect rocks, Capcouriers on Etsy’s are great. (Kerfe found them, I’ve reordered several times). Painted in straight black gouache gives a very nice surface. The gouache colors stand out well. Then I spray with a high end gloss spray.

More art on a rock.

Best wishes to all and I apologize for my sporadic posting. I will try harder! Nina

Some small rocks

I ordered more rocks from the Etsy site where Kerfe got my Christmas gift rocks. I didn’t realize they were a smaller size.

I’m happy with how they came out although the larger ones give more surface area (I ordered a batch of the larger ones yesterday).

I really don’t know why I got back into painting rocks again. I’m going to see if my friend who owns a boutique wants to put some around and see if the there’s any interest. Or, alternatively, just give them away.

Rocks and Happy Birthday to Kerfe

Kerfe’s birthday is coming up on Monday and she’s been asking me to post some of the rocks I’ve been doing. I apologize for my absence. It’s been short staffed and they’ve given me more shifts. But I have been back to painting rocks. Kerfe gave me some beautiful ones which feel great in the hand and are inspiring to paint on.

This is a memorial piece done for my manager. She gave me permission to post it. My manager’s husband asked me at the wake to make a stone for Sam. He died young and it was good to make a rock in his honor.

These are going out in the neighborhood today.

These three I feel are special. One I’m going to give to Kerfe who has inspired me over so many years to be true to my art. Happy Birthday Kerfe!

Monday post 11/14/2022

I was under the weather this weekend. I’m posting one of my favorite paintings from a while ago. I did a few of these graffiti paintings.

I took down my outside reading tent and freed up a bunch of rocks that I was using to weigh it down. I got inspired again because painting rocks is fun.

Here’s a few more, unfinished.

And here is the cutest birthday card by my daughter’s boyfriend. Perry turned either nine or ten; we are not sure. I’ve lived with this dog for five years now (daughter too) and he has grown on me.

Have a good week! Nina

Weekend/W.I.P./11/6/2022

Beautiful day here in Northern New Jersey. I’m posting two which I’m not sure are finished. This second one:

sprung from one that never felt finished-this:

Since I’m only doing this for fun and for my own entertainment I like to cut stuff up, repaint, what do I care? No one is telling me what to do and that, for me, is the freedom of painting.

Have a good week! Nina

10/31/2022

Flowers behind a group of buildings. Just one completed with a couple more going. Happy Halloween to all the kids at heart and have a good week. Nina

Weekend Work 10/24/22

Rising

I think this is finished. A lot of layers of color here and the result looks to me like a lot of stuff ascending.

Rainy weekend here in Northern NJ.

An actual deer in the headlights. Have a good week! Nina