Spent the day out with family, a spur of the moment change in plans led to some finds that caught my eye. Spotted this door at the playground, something I have passed many times before but never took notice. Love the color of this old door, the stone and touch of ivy.
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Blue chair! I want this! I spotted the chair from a distance, should have taken a closer look. 
Cute bird house.
A lazy summer day, a box of art supplies an idea and a few fun hours spent being creative. A homemade wreath made from coffee filters, is a simple idea using a few supplies. From a distance you won’t notice this was made from coffee filters. My daughter had so much fun making this project.
All the supplies we used.
I decorated the filters with markers and my 7 year old used pencil crayon which created a softer look. After coloring the filters we layered two filters together using a dab of glue in the center of one filter and layered the other filter on top with a little scrunching it looked more like a flower.
I used an old square cork board, and thumb tacks to hold each flower in place. We began to place our finished flower filters (not being too neat) covering entire cork board, next we attached string to the back of cork board to be hung on the door.
The end result
The finishing touch – my daughter wrote the word summer in the center of the wreath. Now she has ideas for all the seasons and holidays, its never ending!
– Have fun creating your own!
As summer was winding down I spent a wonderful time in Ocean City, MD with family. I decided to take along my travel watercolor box that I was given at Xmas. The pretty little purple box which sat on my art desk just begged to be opened, so I figured the beach would be a perfect place to try it out. I enjoyed using the paints, it was easy to transport. I was able to accomplish some quick little sketches during my early morning walks, the beach is so inspiring. I enjoyed my time alone watching the beauty of the sunrise on the beach. I would have created more paintings but I was too busy being a beach bum!
Morning sunrise over the beach.
View of Assawomen Bay.. (real name) The vivid yellows n green in the marshy area caught my eye.
View overlooking the balcony
Birds waiting for food – a mix of watercolor and sand!
My wonderful little purple box. I loved using this.
A rainy, rainy day.. Catching up on a painting that I started and stopped a few months ago. Now I have a new found appreciation and want to see where the painting will take me. I am using oil pastel on canvas with and ebony pencil. Its an interesting mix of materials, experimenting with the medium on canvas at times has been tricky to control but I am having fun with it. Trying a little creativity on this rainy rainy day, amongst other things…….
Some miscellaneous creative experimentation of the magic of scotch tape from my six year old. She who loves using tape in all unconventional ways with the help of the handy scissors. She enjoys cutting things into little tiny pieces to just re-attach it again with tape. The not so happy moment when I realized she covered my table, the ruler and 2 mystery items all in tape.
Mystery item one a seashell, mystery item two still unknown.
Is it the winter blues or is it just lackluster days, bringing me to want to hibernate till Spring. Not sure but my creativity is at a low making me feel off balance. So when I saw that bright yellow thing in the sky (the sun), and felt the warmer air, I thought it be a good day for a walk. Instead of the same walking routine, I decided to take it slow, with my camera in hand to take in nature around me. Stuff I might have normally missed, this is what I captured:
We have many huge trees in this part of the city.
Love the steeple and old houses
Hey that stone has hair.
Favorite park
What a slush mush, the only non shoveled sidewalk I encountered.
Tons of ivy not bothered by winter
My favorite, ornamental cabbage. I want a whole garden filled with these colorful leaves.
Happy Halloween. My drawings aren’t of halloween but of simple organic line drawings that I did as I relaxed after a long day. Its been a great earthy month October!.. Lets see what November has to offer
charcoal and color pencil
Some sketches that I captured on an excursion to my favorite scenic locale. Enjoyed a nice evening walk with my family, accompanied with a picnic and relaxing by the water watching the rowers. My goal is to carry my sketchbook with me more often.
Nearby a grouping of trees I didn’t get a chance to finish.
So September goes out with a bang, lots of rain and wind. Sometimes I enjoy the gloomy weather, there is some kind of comfort, coziness when its raining. I just want to relax inside with a good book and a cup of tea.
Today I drove through my neighborhood to run an errand, I pass this place a lot, but today I took notice of how the trees and landscape looked against the cool grey sky. I made a mental image and came home to do a quick pastel sketch of what I remembered.
I haven’t been keeping up with my art a day but this week I discovered some old sketches in my book and decided to re-work them.
This one was a marker sketch of a girl, I just add color using oil pastels.
So I had nail polish on the brain yesterday. Decided to use nail polish to finish a pencil sketch. I have painted with nail polish in other unconventional ways like changing the color of furniture handles but never on paper. This picture comes with a side of doodling.
jennifer barrile 