Ella's Art

Head-cleaner anyone?

2009-09-04T05:32:00.000-07:00

I am in serious need of a head-cleaner...no, not for my video machine, but for the head that resides between my ears! I have way too many thoughts running rampant in there and I can't seem to get them to stay in one place. It always amazes me that there seem to be people who can actually think nothing. I don't know how they do it. If I ask someone " What are you thinking?" and they say "Nothing", my next question is usually "HOW?!". Don't get me wrong ~ I'm a thinker and I like it that way, but sometimes I wish I knew where the off-button to my brain was. So, I am teaching a little girl and designing her curriculum, planning a painting, thinking about dinner and cleaning my house, wondering about all sorts of philosophies, stressing about my kids' school stuff and marveling at the stupidity of man-kind ~ all in the space of an hour! All of this seems kinda fruitless in the light of the fact that I'm not actually DOING anything about it! Oh well, maybe I should just take a nap and see if that helps....

Wifey Wednesday: How he brings peace.

2009-07-15T07:27:00.001-07:00

I am a typical artist! I am always running about doing a little of this and a little of that with equal amounts of intensity. I do not, for instance, often differentiate between a crises in my head and an actual real-life crises. Both will be handled with equal amounts of drama and emotion, because both feel very real to me. I also don't always differentiate between my problems and the next person's and have often found myself tossing and turning about other people's issues. Now, add to this mix a healthy (?) dose of ADD ( real, not imagined) and you may feel like calling out a week of fasting and prayer for my poor husband. Depending on my current obsession, he might be equally as likely to come home to a SPOTLESS house as he might be to come home to a house with 3 separate paintings being painted at the same time and a pile of dishes ( not to mention the pile of laundry!).

So, here's the thing: Without my husband to bring some balance, I would surely be bonkers by now. He insists ( to my irritation) that I follow some sort of routine and finish one painting before I start another. He tells me when I over-react and when I need to get a bit of distance from a situation. He explains me to those who would misunderstand me and then turns around and moans at me because he knows I can do better. He is stable, sure and trustworthy.

Now, I wouldn't want you to get the impression that he's perfect! He certainly isn't... he never picks up his own socks, to name but one of his shortfalls. It's just that I never have to wonder about him or doubt his loyalty. I can always depend on him to speak the truth and bring perspective. Oh...and he loves me to bits. That gives me peace too!

Christian art?

2009-07-15T06:43:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about the purpose of my artwork allot of late. I never wanted to be a "Christian artist", because I don't want to be limited to painting pictures of an overtly spiritual nature. I can't see the need for delivering a sermon with every painting I do, but somehow I wanted my work to be "different". I have been looking at dozens of websites and looking at many works by different artists and I have discovered something...something of the Spirit of God comes through in the paintings of artists who serve the Lord! I looked at the work of 2 specific guys. Interestingly, I saw their work on websites that were exhibiting the works of several artists. Their work just sort of popped out at me. I don't know them personally and of course, I don't know what's going on in their lives, but both of them mention working for God on their sites and their work had that "something different" I wanted in my own.

What a comfort! I love the thought that Jesus will be seen in my work, even when I don't specifically paint a picture of Him! I like that He will shine through and speak to the hearts of those who are viewing my paintings.

You can take a look at the artists I mentioned here:

http://stock-space-images.com/index.html

http://www.danschultzfineart.com/information/statement.html

There are also some free art lessons and demo's for budding artists here:

http://www.artinstructionblog.com/
http://www.creativespotlite.com/

Enjoy!

New flavour!

2009-06-22T02:47:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged for soooooo long! This is mainly because of all the changes that have been taking place in my life. My kids have, by their own choice, gone back to public school. It's not easy to make such a radical change so quickly and I found myself in limbo. What's more, is that the kids have so much homework! I don't feel as if I have stopped homeschooling ~ I'm just doing everything in the afternoons! Anyway...we are giving it a try. The eldest ( 16yo) will have to stay in school until he finishes Gr 12 but we'll see about the youngest. He adapted well to school life, but school WORK is another matter altogether!

So, for the time being, this blog will contain mostly art stuff. For my homeschooling friends... I intend to add lots and lots of art info, links and demo's to help you with your art lessons. I hope you enjoy them!

2009-04-09T13:00:00.000-07:00

I have shamefully neglected my blog! I am supposed to use this as a way to order my thoughts, but I don't seem to get them ordered enough to sit down and write!
My only reason (excuse???) is that I have been very busy and thus, very tired. My first unit study is being published on CurrClick next week! I am very excited. And I sold a painting on one of SA's biggest art festivals...also very excited! I have re-discovered lapbooking and notebooking, so school is not going to badly either. My son is still off the meds...all in all a very tiring, but productive month. :-)) At the moment, I am sooooo tired that I am typing this by faith. It might be better if I try again tomorrow....

This is the painting I sold...sorry, not the best photographer... I got double the price I would normally get, which isn't much...yet...but I'm not moaning~ it's keeping me in paint and canvas! ;-)

Homeschool Memoirs # 30 Get up and go. - sortof

2009-03-18T23:04:00.000-07:00

Hmmmmm...I want to write about this, but I'm not sure what to write! Maybe some mom out there can identify, so I'll just be honest.:-)

I have always found field trips scary. From the time we had our youngest to very recently ( as in, some months ago) it was just such a huge effort to go anywhere on my own with my kids!

Let me explain...You know, how when people tell you that their kid has ADHD and you think: "Where???" or you want to grab the lolly from his hand and say :" Stop feeding him junk and he'll be better"? That's not my kid!! My one is the one where you either think "Can't that mom control her kid" or ( if you are at all decent and kindhearted) you feel very, very sorry for the mom!LOL! Trust me...the mom is feeling very sorry for herself!

So, whenever we had one of those days ( which you can imagine, is pretty often) we would just each do his own thing, but at home where we couldn't bug anybody else or break someones stuff or get hurt...you get the picture.

It's been getting better of late and about a week ago, I took my youngest of his ADHD meds. Now, we've tried this before and it was, to say the least, traumatic!!! This time, though, we had a minor miracle ( maybe a major one, depending on how closely you relate to us ) He has been off his meds for a week now and nobody has threatened murder yet...in fact, he's better without it than he has been with it the last few months. I can only believe that God is busy healing him. :-))

Luhan and I had coffee and juice in the restaurant.

Yesterday, we took our books to a nearby botanical garden and we did math there and IT WORKED!!!!! Praise the Lord, Hallelujah! We had a nice morning AND we got some work done AND I did not go home with a splitting headache! Mind you, that's all we did...just math, but he actually said he wanted to go back and do his work there again! Aaahhhhhh...now that is a MAJOR miracle.

This is a picture of one of the trails in the garden.

Maybe this post, for me, is more about future possibilities than it is a memoir. For the first time in many years, I have hope! How awesome is that? Ain't God good?

"B" is for Bliss

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

This is a photo of our (then) kitten. He used to fall asleep like that all the time! It was really hot at the time. :-) He made us all want to stretch out and fall asleep next to him....that or kiss his tummy ...

Arty gripes and moans

2009-03-14T08:05:00.000-07:00

Today I attended a farm market where I exhibited some paintings. Now, let me first say, that I only found out that I would be able to exhibit there on Wednesday and even then it would be outside and not inside the building where the real business was, but I thought...what the hay...let's give it a try.
I ended up sitting way out of reach all on my own ( the people who were going to sit next to me did not rock up!) and selling absolutely NOTHING! :-( The few people that did actually come and look, made all the right noises, but they bought NOTHING!
All I got for my troubles, was a mean sunburn! The sunburn was my own fault, mind you...I started painting some shells and I didn't want to move until the painting was finished. By that time it was afternoon already and I looked a bit like a lobster. :-0
God is so good to me, though. I met a gallery owner in our town yesterday, who is only willing to exhibit the works of "career artists" and she was very encouraging. She was actually willing to exhibit one or two of my works. I was very excited, because she really only has established artists in her gallery. If it wasn't for that conversation, I would have been really discouraged, but because of it I am disappointed but not heartbroken. Also, all of the feedback I get from the art community is very positive. Unfortunately, they are also buying NOTHING!!! AAAARGH! LOL!
Never mind...I know the breakthrough is just around the corner. I just have to be patient.
My darling husband made a very nice business card for me. I can't seem to get it uploaded, so you'll just have to trust me on the subject ~ it's way cute!
I haven't given up. I am going to another market on the 28th of March and if they have space inside, I will go to the same one I went today on the 25th of April.

Homeschool Memoirs #29: Sick Days

2009-03-11T13:02:00.001-07:00

Oh man...I just did the most ridiculous blogging -thing yet ( plse keep in mind that I started blogging the day before yesterday ~ this has been one of many ridiculous things I've done since then!) . I wrote a whole post and then navigated away without saving and lost the entire thing!!!! So here I go again...

We don't get sick much in our house. When we do, we tend to be very grumpy and just want to be left alone. When one of us are ill, we stay in bed and other than bringing them the occasional piece of toast or cup of tea, everybody else in the house gives the sick person a wide birth. You don't mess with a lion in it's den! Sickness is only tolerated for one day, though...we're not very good about being patient with a sick family member the next day! Yup...you guessed it ~ we're not very good about patient-care in general. :-))

Burn-out is quite another matter, though. Teaching a deaf kiddie with ADHD means I suffer from burn-out at least once a month ( no prizes for guessing which part of the month!) and I have yet to find a way to deal with this in a positive fashion. The "treatment" does closely resemble the treatment for flu, accept that as much DVD watching as possible is added.

My sick-day/ burnout philosophy basically consists of "Tomorrow is another day and what doesn't get done today will just have to get done tomorrow". Not very inspiring, I know, but it's my philosophy and I'm sticking to it! ;-)

Feeling the heat!

2009-03-11T13:02:00.000-07:00

Phew...Summer has well and truly arrived in the fairest Cape ~ it's a bit late, but it's here. We've been battling through long hot days and only slightly cooler nights. Usually we get this type of weather in February and by March it starts cooling off some, but Winter lasted a long time this year. It was raining well into January! We spent last week at the coast and we explored all the little towns up to Agulhas...the Southern-most town in Africa. Here are some pics:

This is Luhan and myself standing in front of an old wreck at Agulhas. The next photo is of Iain and Ludi in front of the same wreck :-))

We visited a cave called "Waenhuiskrans". Roughly translated, it means "waggon house cliff". It got it's name from being large enough to make a u-turn with an ox-wagon in it. It's a stunning view, but there were bats in the cave, so I took a quick peak and then escaped. I don't like bats... You can see my youngest making the sign for "scared". They were all laughing at me!

The last two images are of the boys standing at the Southern-most point in Africa and the Aguhas lighthouse. This plaque is also officially where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet.
The Lighthouse is a lovely old building. We climbed up about 300 steps ( really - I'm not exaggerating) to get to the top of the tower. The view from up there is breathtaking. The view and the height...I certainly would not advise climbing up there if you have vertigo! :-)

How's that for a field-trip, eh? We will have to go back again, though, because there were quite a few things we did not have time for.

Oof...it's well past my bed-time now. I need to go to bed! Sigh...how I miss the sea!

First Post!

2009-03-11T02:45:00.000-07:00

Sooooo....You have just entered the crazy space that is my life. It's full, it's busy and it's sometimes a bit overwhelming. Pretty much the same as yours?

I spend most of my days homeschooling my two sons ( 15 and 13 yo). My eldest has just entered Grade 10 and the youngest is doing Grade 6 and 7 this year. He has special needs ( he is deaf and has ADHD) so teaching him takes allot of time and effort.

My "free" time is spent cooking, cleaning, reading and painting. I love painting and have just gotten to the point where people actually want to buy stuff from me! Not many people yet, but it's a beginning.

I fall within the category of "Pretty-radical-Christiany-type" and Jesus forms a HUGE part of my life... actually, He is my life. Without Him I would not survive or thrive in any way.

I'm off to go have lunch and then continue our schoolday. Tell you all about it later!