Lona Paintings

Still working on the book

2012-01-14T12:00:00.000-08:00

I have completed a lot of paintings of the little girl but there is one verse that gave me the opportunity to paint the mother.

Book Illustration Project

2011-11-20T12:42:00.001-08:00

I've never illustrated a book before but my friend Nikki wrote a cute children's story that I am working on the pictures for. I think I need about 12 pictures so the challenge will be to not burn out! My granddaughter has already burned out with posing but next time I will use real cupcakes to make it interesting! She posed for this one with a fake cupcake.

Mermaids

2011-11-06T08:37:00.001-08:00

When someone gave me some naked Barbies for my grandchildren, I decided that they all should become mermaids. At the fabric store I got two mermaidish types of fabric and proceeded to sew tails for each doll with a small Velcro closure at the back.

Homemade Lip Balm

2011-11-04T12:17:00.001-07:00

I've been wanting to make my own healthy lipstick ever since I read that the average woman eats four pounds of it a year! The recipe I used was 20% beeswax, 25% coconut oil, 15% cocoa butter, 40% olive oil and small amounts of dried red wine (for color), argan oil and rosemary oil. Just melt the beeswax, coconut oil and cocoa butter in a can in a pan of boiling water and add the other ingredients when these get melted - then pour into chapstick containers. I thought I was making a small batch but I ended up with 44 tubes! I will say my dried up wine was not totally successful as a colorant so now I am drying a beet for the next experiment.

En Plein Air

2011-08-10T14:15:00.001-07:00

I had to get at one plein air landscape in this summer. This was painted down at the newly renovated boardwalk at the mouth of Accokeek Creek. The boardwalk is plenty fancy - time to check it out if you haven't been down there yet!

Quilt Square

2011-08-06T07:20:00.000-07:00

Years ago, my friend Francis told me about the easy way to make a quilt square. You sketch out a picture, then make fabric cutouts of the picture, then glue them together using iron on "stitch witchery" glue, then use a tight zigzag stitch around the fabric edges. It's so easy to do it this way! In this square, the Owl and Pussycat are actual little stuffed animals, attached by a ribbon to the inside of the boat.

Willow in Straw Hat

2011-05-25T07:57:00.001-07:00

Every time I see a painting I am familiar with acted out in real life I feel like I have to paint it. The inspiration painting is Mary Cassatt's Girl in a Straw Hat. I know I'm kind of in a grandchild painting rut - will try to break out soon.

Handmade Camera Case

2011-05-22T15:34:00.001-07:00

My two cameras before my current one both broke and I finally caught on that keeping a camera in a case is the way to go. My current one did not come with a case, so I traced the camera outline on paper and added about 3/16 around the edge. Using my paper pattern, I cut two pieces of leather, one with a extension about 2 1/2 inches for a closure flap. I measured the widest part of the camera and cut a long leather strip that width plus 3/8 inch. The embellishments were cut out of leather scraps. All the seams were glued first with contact cement. Then I used an awl to punch holes about an eighth of an inch apart. I stitched up the seams and put a magnetic snap on the flap and I was done. I have a nice case that exactly fits my camera!

Shoes for me

2011-05-18T04:57:00.001-07:00

I made this pair for myself in about 2 days. It went so quickly because I had already gotten my basic pattern right - and its a pretty simple design. I learned about a free photo editing site at http://www.picnik.com and had a lot of fun making the collage.

Julia Waits for Dance Class to Start

2011-05-06T15:08:00.001-07:00

Well it wasn't a recital; it was called "Observation Day" where we got to see what goes on in Julia's dance class.

Bracelet

2011-05-04T12:48:00.001-07:00

This is my Mother's Day craft. Does everyone know about Ink Jet shrink film? This is special paper that you can draw or print on then cook for 3 minutes and it shrinks and firms up. With this method I was able to make a Mother's Day bracelet for my mother commemorating her favorite book/film, "Pride and Predjudice". I made another one for someone in my book club using images of books we had read and I think color pictures work even better.

Tiny Handmade Books

2011-05-01T08:21:00.000-07:00

I've gotten many compliments on my little book necklace so a step by step tutorial follows.
Cut 25 small pieces of paper for the pages. I used paper pieces about 1 inch by 2 inches. Fold these into 5 page "signatures" and sew them together as shown below with regular needle and thread. Make a stitch that goes in and out of each group of pages, starting by going in the first signature, ending with going out the last signature and tie a square knot in the thread and snip it off.
Take the sewn signatures and clamp them in a little vice. I made mine out of two small vice grips and 2 pieces of cardboard. Put glue along the spine of the book.

Cut a little piece of cloth, longer than the book spine and make little ridges at the ends by gluing inside some heavy duty thread.
Glue the cloth piece to the spine, pressing down to make sure there is contact with all the signatures.
While the glue is drying, cut a piece of leather out of an old jacket or something that is somewhat bigger than the size of the pages that are used for the book
Punch two little holes in the center of the leather piece to put a "jump ring" finding in. I bought these findings in the bead section of A. C. Moore.
Squeeze the jump ring closed with you fingers or pliers.
When the glue on the cloth on the book spine is dry, remove it from the vice grips and trim as shown below.
Cut 2 pieces of marbelized paper the same size as your page size. You can make your own marbelized paper, or for a short cut, just print some out from the internet.
Now glue the book spine and the excess cloth to the leather book cover, placing the spine over the jump ring.
To cover the cloth, glue marbelized paper on the first and last page extending to the leather cover.
Get ready to put this back in the vice grips and cardboard but slip some cellophane in between the folds of the marbelized paper so it won't glue to itself.
When the glue is dry, take the book out, trim up the leather to match the page size, and run a ribbon through the jump ring. That's all there is to it. By the way, binding a real book isn't much different, except you need a bigger book press and the cover usually has cardboard in it.

Pirate Boots

2011-04-23T10:53:00.001-07:00

Some time before his birthday, Soren sent a link out to hint that he wanted some very pricy boots. I realized I could buy many hides for what they wanted for the boots so I bought one hide and decided to take a stab at making them. Since I had not really done boots before I got some poster paper and made a tenative boot with that first. After Soren tried it on, we made a couple of adjustments, then I launched into the leather version. Not so hard, really, but a lot more stitching!

Tea Party for One

2011-03-27T08:56:00.000-07:00

Black and White

2011-03-23T05:09:00.001-07:00

I saw this scene along the Indian Head Rail trail, a great place to walk, run or bike.

Baby Ballerinas

2011-03-11T11:51:00.001-08:00

My ulterior motive when I gave my granddaughters matching tutus for Christmas was that I might get a painting out of the deal. The result is above with the Degas inspiration below.

Hold on tight, Willow

2011-02-05T12:54:00.001-08:00

This is yet another grandchild inspired painting.

Archie

2010-12-28T14:28:00.001-08:00

My sister-in-law kept urging me to paint Archie, her dog. I kept thinking I've already done it! (joint portrait with Archie and Kathleen). But for Christmas I decided to go ahead and now I concede that, yes, Archie is worthy of his own portrait.

Purses

2010-12-26T05:38:00.000-08:00

My friend Debs, who made an extraordinary red ostrich purse, inspired me to try to dabble in making purses. I made 2 as Christmas presents for my nieces. For purse A (above), I went to the thrift store to find a purse to cannibalize for the hardware. For purse B, I realized that the cannibalized purse had a nice zippered pocket feature remaining - so I built a purse around that.

Dem is dancin' shoes

2010-11-30T14:56:00.001-08:00

When my wonderful friend Erin said she quit dance class because she didn't have any comfortable shoes I was inspired to try to remedy the problem. I didn't think the white leather would hold up so I ordered some blue dye - which turned out very bright.

Foxy!

2010-11-26T07:46:00.001-08:00

For less than the cost of some "real" shoes I now have a huge grey hide. Let me know who wants to be in the shoe workshop to make a pair of grey shoes. I saw the fox design on a pair of baby shoes and thought it was so cute, but then I thought, why not put it on my next pair of shoes.

Julia and Blanky

2010-11-17T11:36:00.001-08:00

Shoes for my Dad

2010-11-03T12:38:00.000-07:00

For my whole life I have been the recipient of numerous beautiful handmade objects crafted by my Dad, so he was high on my list of someone I wanted to make a pair of shoes for after I learned how. His "QC" logo is on the vamp and my mother made the shoelaces on her braiding machine.

Becoming a Shoemaker

2010-10-17T18:23:00.000-07:00

These are my latest handmade shoes that I made for my oldest granddaughter. I first got inspired by my youngest granddaughter showing up without shoes multiple times. I bought her a few pairs but she still showed up shoeless, so I looked on the internet and found a pattern for making soft soled baby shoes. After a making a few pairs I started to wonder how hard would it be to make regular shoes. The book that taught me everything I needed to know is called "Crafting Homemade Shoes" by Sharon Raymond. It is now out of print, but I was able to find a copy on the internet.

Waiting for the Parade

2010-10-08T13:22:00.001-07:00

This is a painting of my granddaughter, Linnea, sitting on the curb - waiting for the Greenbelt Labor Day Parade to pass by.

Dorn

2010-09-02T17:55:00.001-07:00

My Dad turned 83 today. One of his numerous hobbies is creating a family portrait gallery in his basement. Some of the portraits are by him and others are by me. He was bemoaning the fact that he did not have a picture of my brother Dorn, so I painted him one for his birthday. This is necessarily small (8x10) because he is running out of wall space down there.

Clouds Over Accokeek Creek

2010-08-25T10:01:00.001-07:00

I hadn't painted a landscape in a long time but today I had the day off with no grandkids to babysit and it was beautiful outside so I took my paints down to Piscataway Park. This scene is from an observation perch looking down Accokeek Creek out to the Potomac.

Willow

2010-07-10T11:19:00.001-07:00

A rainy day left me wondering what to do so I decided to make a quick painting of the one grandchild that I hadn't painted yet.

Kitchen Sink Art

2010-06-30T13:06:00.000-07:00

When my kitchen was redone by the amazing Wilbur, he reused a cabinet which had had drawers, which, for a while, left a blank spot under the kitchen sink. After Wilbur made the missing piece I decided to make a painting on it. The subject is my granddaughter and my dogs. The artistic inspiration is Swedish painter Carl Larsson who also decorated his home with a lot of paintings. My Dad had a book about his amazing house. Also, a great house on the Moyaone Homes Tour, the "Flying Pig Cottage", had a painting under the sink.

The Flower Girls Hit the Dance Floor

2010-06-27T04:42:00.001-07:00

The event inspiration was the wedding of the lovely Corinne with my granddaughter and great-niece as enthusiastic flower girls. There was beautiful light in the oceanside reception area. The artistic inspiration is Degas.

Painting Customized

2010-05-29T19:01:00.001-07:00

This painting originally had a plain background - but my friend got me to personalize it to give to her son's violin teacher. Thus, a black and white cat, a StarTrek reference and the stained glass window were added. And now the background is light instead of dark.

Cousins

2010-03-27T11:46:00.000-07:00

This is a painting of some of the Carlson family cousins. Hat tip to Innes for taking the reference photo at Thanksgiving. As soon as I saw it I thought it would make a good painting - I think because it reminded me of John Singer Sargent's painting Daughters of Edward Darley Boit (1883) (which in turn is thought to be inspired by Velazques' Las Meninas (1656)). It seems like every time I do a multi portrait, I have a lot of trouble with one of the figures. In this case, the Haven figure was very difficult for me.

Skateboard Park

2010-02-21T09:03:00.000-08:00

I went to an art demo by Rogers Naylor yesterday and I thought I would complete a painting using his technique before I forgot what it was all about. I cheated a little here and there but managed to finish this one of a skateboarder at the Greenbelt Skate Park. Rogers has an ongoing art show right now at Susan Calloway gallery in Georgetown. People should check it out!

The Parade

2010-02-15T13:35:00.000-08:00

This painting commemorates the only time I ever saw a parade go down the main street in Accokeek. At the time it was pretty exciting! I think the inspiration for a painting featuring flags comes from this Childe Hassam painting:

Naturally, the Accokeek version is a little scaled down.

Snowman

2010-02-11T15:45:00.000-08:00

I'm sure I would have done some great paintings during the mega snow storms if I had had some canvases of the right size. Instead I worked on a snowman.

Emily

2009-12-31T08:43:00.000-08:00

Since I was Erin's "Secret Santa" I painted this picture of Emily and kids for her especially to go in her pink room. I was having some trouble with this and time was getting short, but then there was a giant snowstorm giving me an extra day off before Christmas so I was able to pull it together - another Christmas miracle!

Arrangement in Orange and White

2009-11-29T05:22:00.000-08:00

When visiting the family portrait gallery I noticed that there were no portraits of the matriarch - so I painted one. The title is just a play on Whistler's Mothers painting which he called an Arrangement in Grey and Black.

Lona Art at Oktoberfest

2009-09-27T05:31:00.000-07:00

I have donated my "Bee Yard" painting (seen a couple of posts ago) to be auctioned at the Hard Bargain Farm Oktoberfest silent auction, in Accokeek at Hard Bargain Farm, on October 10. This event is lots of fun so if you haven't been to Oktoberfest before you should check it out.

Accokeek Creek

2009-09-13T10:32:00.000-07:00

I found this older painting that I had forgotten about while I was cleaning up so I decided to post it. The scene is Accokeek Creek just after sunrise. My art show is down now and it is taking me a little while to figure out my new direction.

Bee Yard

2009-08-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

I hadn't painted a landscape in a long time but this morning I went out and painted the Bee Yard at Hard Bargain Farm. Below is my setup.

Opening a Success!

2009-07-11T03:33:00.000-07:00

Leo demonstrates accessing this blog on his iphone while at the event. Leo, you don't need the blog - you are there! Many thanks to all the notable culture lovers who showed up from far and wide:

Thanks also to John Massey whose sculpture was a great complement to the art on the wall and to Jon Powell and Bill Winter for the great entertainment and to John and Cristal from the center.
I think 'have an Art Show' was on a list I made of 50 things to do before I die. I lost the list a long time ago which allows me to totally wing it. Where do I go artistically from here? I am thinking of a smaller series that will be suitable for Artomatic. Stay tuned!!!!

Art Opening July 10

2009-07-05T05:01:00.000-07:00

Blog followers should mark their calendars for the Art Show opening reception! Details are below:
Lona Powell and John Massey Art Opening
Opening reception and art show
Host: MNCPPC
Type: Music/Arts - Opening
Date: Friday, July 10, 2009
Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Huntington Community Center, second floor art gallery
Street: 13022 8th St
City/Town: Bowie, MD

Phone: 3014643725

Please join us for a fun filled evening with live music (performances by Jon Powell and Bill Winter), poetry, visual arts (paintings by Lona, sculpture by John) and refreshments. Art on display through August 25.

Art Appreciation

2009-06-12T06:45:00.001-07:00

I love this picture that Piri snapped when we were hanging the show of Linnea admiring her portrait.

Art Show is UP!

2009-06-04T16:26:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I hung the show with the help of Piri and Linnea. A couple of the walls are shown, but there is more! Plus John Massey will be bringing in his work in a couple of weeks. Because the gallery was empty I went in a month early. The opening reception will still be on July 10 from 7 to 9. I will post the directions and address soon. The show stays up until August 26 th!

Princess Sofi

2009-05-09T12:17:00.001-07:00

This is from a photo I snapped at Erin's wedding. I can't believe it took almost a year for me to turn it into a painting. Now that I think about it, a lot has happened in that year!

The Group Painting

2009-05-02T14:44:00.000-07:00

This group painting project turned out to be a lot of fun. The finished work is shown above, in progress is below.

Julia, again

2009-04-19T17:29:00.000-07:00

I did another small portrait of JuJu today, trying to remember what I was taught in the 80s by Danni Dawson. The inspiration is a portrait by Thayer that I see often since it lives at the Freer Gallery which is across the street from my work.

Group Art Project

2009-04-12T09:14:00.001-07:00

Lately I've been preparing a large canvas for a group art project to be completed at the Spring Farm Festival at Hard Bargain Farm on May 2. Blog readers should come by and help see this to fruition! The inspiration is a large 'Oceans' mural that was briefly set up on the Mall outside the Smithsonian, with one section being completed at the time.

Pops Teaches Julia how to Draw a Goat

2009-03-28T08:20:00.001-07:00

I like that this captures a starting point to becomming an artist - learning from a master.

Annie

2009-03-14T09:13:00.000-07:00

Luckily, I have no shortage of beautiful nieces to practice on as I work through the Klimt thing. For this one, the fun was in taking progressive photos along the way so I could make a movie of the process, but then the computer crashed and I can't start up my movie software anymore. Maybe this will happen later.

Tara final

2009-02-28T11:41:00.000-08:00

So I did end up putting more color in the background.
Below is the inspiration picture from my Klimt calendar.

Tara

2009-02-25T14:12:00.000-08:00

After painting Andelle in a Klimt style, it seemed like fun to give Tara a similar Klimt-like treatment. I'm not sure if this is done or not; I'm debating whether to put some more work into the background.

Andelle

2009-02-07T09:30:00.000-08:00

Now that I joined facebook I have new source material. The portrait of Andelle is from her facebook photo. My treatment of it is inspired by this Klimt portrait in my 'Klimt's Portraits of Women' Calendar.

Shooting Gallery

2009-01-31T14:37:00.000-08:00

What I liked about this kid is his red hair and that he was shooting at clowns.

Kids

2009-01-18T11:25:00.000-08:00

This is the second picture I've painted of the kids at Simon's wedding.

Young Violinist

2009-01-12T07:38:00.000-08:00

I actually painted this once before but this time the background is a simple burnt umber/ultramarine mix. Last time there was a room interior and I think I even threw in a teddy bear.
The model is Ysa several years ago.

Check this out

2009-01-06T07:22:00.000-08:00

My friend has started a painting blog at http://grnaylorpaintings.blogspot.com/ . His work is really lovely.

Soren with Duckling

2009-01-04T13:16:00.001-08:00

Soren with Duckling used a pre-dreadlocks reference photo. Everytime I paint Soren, I am sort of striving for something like the Henri Fantin-Latour self-portrait below. That is where the gold background came from anyway. Because my only gold paint was acrylic, the background was done in acrylic with the forground in my usual medium: water soluble oils.

Tribute to Corn

2008-12-28T13:37:00.001-08:00

I did this one when the corn in Soren's garden was ripe. I got Chrissy and Julia to dress in their Native American Halloween costumes.

Tribute to the Tee Shirt hackers

2008-12-25T09:49:00.000-08:00

I wanted to paint a tribute to our family/friends Project Runway competition where we made haute couture designs out of old tee shirts. Hat tip to Innes for posting the reference photo I used for this painting on the http://tshirthackers.blogspot.com blog.
On a side note: We showed Farmer Jon how to start a blog today: http://hillbillytechnology.blogspot.com. Blog world look out!

Art Show Collaborator John Massey

2008-12-25T03:58:00.001-08:00

My upcoming art show is now set for JULY. This will be a joint show with my friend John Massey. I got a tour of John's studio last night. I also got a sneak preview of some of the stuff John is working on and it is really neat. His work is sculpture so it will fit nicely with my stuff that hangs on walls. It reminds me a little of the work of Martin Puryear, if anyone saw that great show that was just at the National Gallery. For the Art Opening we will be having poetry readings and music from our friends so start working on your poems now!!!

Kids at Simon's Wedding

2008-12-17T14:54:00.001-08:00

I'm not working on anything right now (I explained to Innes that my Christmas tree has taken over the spot where I usually paint!) so I am posting one that I completed before I started this blog.

Julia as Baby Frida Kalho - Finished

2008-12-06T06:55:00.000-08:00

Finished. The butterflies are from my Reader's Digest North American Wildlife book. The leaves are from my houseplant. Now Chrissy wants me to switch Art Shows with her. That would make mine in July instead of November. Since mine will be a joint show, I am not sure yet if we will switch.

Seated Figure

2008-11-22T10:14:00.000-08:00

I love this chair. I had the idea of posing many different subjects in it, but so far Linnea is the only one that I have painted.

Torren

2008-11-02T05:08:00.001-08:00

This was done quickly. I tried to use just large brushes to keep it fresh and sort of masculine but I ended up overworking some of the parts that I was trying to keep loose. The background birds come from a picture of swallow wallpaper that I like

Kathleen and Archie, finished

2008-10-26T09:45:00.000-07:00

K & A in progress

2008-10-18T07:30:00.000-07:00

It occurrs to me that feedback early in the process may be useful. This is my current project, Kathleen and Archie. I am wavering about a Klimt like treatment of the background. Comments?

Fix to sweater

2008-10-18T06:51:00.001-07:00

Original sweater demushroomized.

Girl in the Bear Hat

2008-10-17T14:56:00.001-07:00

This picture that I did of Lynnis was inspired by a banner I often see at lunchtime of Vermeer's Girl in the Red Hat. We got the bear hat in Alaska. I started out trying to do this with glazes but it didn't work out so I had to paint most of it over the regular way. The picture is very small, 8x8.

Life imitates Art

2008-09-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

I did this yesterday from a photo I took of Linnea at the Greenbelt Skateboard park. I felt that the pose Linnea struck up was very reminiscent of Manet's Chemin de Fer painting (1872). So as soon as I saw it I knew it was a painting.

Cow at the Gate

2008-09-25T10:39:00.001-07:00

This is not for my art show. Hard Bargain Farm called me and asked for a painting donation for their silent auction at their Oktoberfest. I really didn't have anything appropriate so I painted this today, from a photo I had taken there a couple of years ago. The cow is standing at the gate of the Hard Bargain Farmhouse. I have taken this week off work and had the goal of completing two paintings (among other things) so I am half done. After I clean up I am thinking of going to a taxpayer revolt march to protest the proposed $700 billion bailout for the crooks on Wall Street.

Julia

2008-09-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

I did this picture of Julia from a photo of her wearing my hat. Lynnis says it reminds her of Freida Kalho.

Innes Playing the Cello

2008-09-20T20:16:00.000-07:00

This didn't photograph especially well, but I think I am done. In one respect, I have one-upped Dewing (discussed in the Innes Cello in Progress post below). Dewing hired models and posed them with musical instruments while I have a real honest to good musician (or darn close) as my subject.

The Victorians

2008-09-17T14:41:00.000-07:00

The Haven painting below is not the only one inspired by the Victorians. When I saw Sofi and Julia playing with lanterns in Piri's back yard it immediately reminded me of John Singer Sargent's Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose. I call my version Sofi, Lily, Lily, Julia. I got the flowers from another beautiful garden near the Smithsonian. When Sargent first did his picture the reception was not good. I think it was voted the worst picture of 1885. After a while the public and critics changed their tune!

Innes Cello in progress

2008-09-14T18:23:00.000-07:00

There are some great little paintings of women playing music in the Freer Gallery.
These inspired me to take some photos of Innes playing the cello, which is my current work in progress. She is playing at Jerry's memorial service. It is very unusal for me to start with a white canvas. I have almost never done it since Danni Dawson said back in the 80s that a white canvas "kills" your painting! Just writing that makes me cringe...what have I done!!

Glazing

2008-09-14T18:07:00.000-07:00

I finished this portrait of Haven today. It was experimental for me. The picture was done monochromatically at first, then the colors were added in by glazing. The subject matter concept is left over from an art show called The Victorians. There was a George Frederic painting called Choosing, with young Ellen Terry sniffing Camelias. Since they don't have a scent, it was supposed to signify the transitory nature of sensual pleasure. The hibiscus type of flower that Haven is sniffing, likewise did not smell. I took the photo of Haven and the flower in the Haupt Garden by the Smithsonian Castle.

Great Gamma Gang Gang

2008-09-14T18:04:00.001-07:00

Piri says that Guy calls Dottie, Great Gamma Gang Gang, which I realized was the perfect title for my painting! This painting was from a photo taken at Torren's graduation party, sometime in the summer of 2008. Linnea is the baby. The subject is my mother holding my granddaughter.