Monkey see, monkey paint

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First of all, just in case there was any doubt that my cat actually likes the romantic office desk makeover featured in my previous post, here’s the evidence:

Side note: he SNORES!

For today’s post I thought I would go out on a limb and share some of my “art.” I don’t make any claims to being an artist. From piano lessons to desktop publishing and everything in between, I consider myself a bit of a trained monkey (and I mean that in the nicest possible way – “monkey see, monkey do, sometimes with passable results!”).

One of the artistic endeavors that I’ve practiced quite a bit is the art of decorative painting. While I have never been able to re-create to my complete satisfaction the designs and strokes of published teachers such as Priscilla Hauser and Donna Dewberry, I’ve nonetheless been pleased enough with my results that I actually painted a variety of items one year as Christmas gifts – which means that I was for once not entirely horrified by my own efforts – and those items actually saw the light of day in someone else’s home.

Here are a few samples of my many painting projects, starting with one of my favorites – a brag book/photo album with roses and greenery:

Romantic Christmas ornaments (given to a complete stranger in an ornament swap!):

Another photo album, this time with geraniums and hand-painted calligraphy:

Glass creamer painted with lilacs and filled with hand-poured soy wax candle:

A curb-find cabinet that I painted pink, embellished, and then hung on my old patio, pre-flood:

Tableware caddy painted with cherries and given to my mother-in-law:

I haven’t painted since we moved to our new house, but I DID rescue my rack of craft paints so I really have no excuse. One thing I lost, though: my original sketchbook full of practice strokes and pictures, which I lovingly called “Bad Art.” Here are a couple of surviving images I had scanned out of it for other uses before it was destroyed – a “signature” graphic I used in an online forum with magnolias and my username, “Janetgia”; and below it, a baby robin I painted, then scanned and used as an avatar in another forum:

I’ve certainly got to spend some time practicing my skills before I feel confident enough to give something away again!

Have you ever tried tole, One Stroke, or any other type of decorative painting? What did you think of the results?

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