The Beaches of Summer

Summer is here, but for me - summer was here way back in the spring. It started off in early May with a few of my girlfriend's from high school. We rented a beautiful condo on Seacreast Beach just west of Panama City on the beautiful 30A scenic highway. We spent most of our days talking and laughing on the beach that was almost empty except for a few people. I took my morning walks completely alone on the beautiful sandy beach. Here are my foot prints. 

One set coming and one set going. I never met anyone while I was walking. Just a few sandpipers who I enjoyed annoying by following them.

Crystal blue waters that on some days didn't even have a wave. I picked up large seashells just by looking down and seeing them in the shallow water. 

We didn't get out and explore the beautiful community like I would love to do, but I did go to Grayton Beach area to visit Andy Saczynski's art studio. I bought this beautiful print. He's such a nice guy. Drop in and see his beautiful art if you are in the area.

Evenings were cool but beautiful. And yes, we saw dolphins.

These photos were taken from our balcony with my telephoto lense. So magical to see them.

Then a month later I went to Orange Beach in Alabama as the photographer for a ladies retreat. I got up around 5:30 every morning to see this beautiful sunrise.

Sunrise on Orange Beach

I had the most wonderful mornings on Orange Beach. I found a sanddollar, starfish and an embarrassing amount of seashells. I have never in all my beach combing days have seen so many shells in one place. I had the ladies so excited they all came out the last morning to collect shells. 

Another stage of the beautiful sunrise. 

Just example of the shells laying on the beach and if you look in the background, you can see the clusters of shells along the shore. Amazing.

I had three very wonderful ladies agree to be models for me one evening at sunset. I had to let my creative juices flow and I think people on the beach thought they were models - well, they were. It was so much fun.

I'm already looking forward to going back to the beach. I love summer.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Bayou Pelican and Repurposing a Mirror Frame

A few months ago, me and my husband were in a second-hand store in the heart of New Orleans - the French Quarter, and I stumbled upon a vintage mirror frame - without the mirror. We brought it home and had some birch cut for it and I created a painting. It was a hit, so what did we do - found another frame and did it again. :)

So - for my June mixed media challenge - I'm using my latest creation. The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Blog is having it's two year anniversary, so this month you can pick your favorite challenge. Funky Junkie is the sponsor and they are providing the random winner of the challenge with a $25 gift certificate. How fun is that? 

Here are the different challenges we had throughout the year.

I'm using #19, which is "Silver and Gold".

 "Bayou Pelican No. 2" by Melanie Douthit

It's approx 16" x 36" on birch using paint, papers, gold leaf, corrugated cardboard. Coated in resin and framed with a repurposed mirror frame (which was also sanded and painted). The beak and the foot has the gold leafing on it.

I hope you can join in the fun at the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Blog. 

Please follow these rules to be eligible for placements and prizes. Entries not following our rules will be deleted.

* You must use our challenge graphic in your challenge post.

* You must comment on at least 3 design team member's blogs. 

* Your post must link back to the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge post

* Add a link to your direct post, not your entire blog, a YouTube Video or a Pinterest Board

* You can combine with up to 4 other challenges. 

* No Backlinking allowed! Any back-linked entries will be deleted.

* You can enter up to 5 times, create whatever you want, and HAVE FUN!

You have until the last day of June to enter.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

May Flowers

April showers brings May flowers. I can't wait to see all the beautiful flowers in this great state of Louisiana. My next door neighbor has a very young magnolia tree and I noticed yesterday that it has almost 30 new budding magnolia's on it. It's going to be beautiful!

 

The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Design Team members have been creating some awesome floral creations for this month's mixed media challenge. The theme is "Butterflies and Blooms".


Our May Guest Designer & Sponsor is  Ken Oliver! Ken is offering our random winner a set of Caribbean Brights Color Burst and a Best Ever Craft Mat!!

Here's my painting. It's 20" x 20" on canvas. I used some vintage ledger papers (real ledger papers, not manufactured printed paper) from the basement of the Sugar Art Gallery which I co-run. The basement used to be a Wholesale Drug company and those old papers are great for collages. I also used modeling paste, crackle paint, scrapbook papers, stencils, paper doilies and acrylic paint.

"Lace and Paper Flowers"

This piece and several of my new paintings will be at "Blend of the Bayou" in North Monroe, Louisiana this afternoon.

I've been getting new art ready for this event as well as finish up some commissions. Then in the morning I'm going coastal with some old friends. Will post photos when I return as well as some new art. If you are on facebook - follow "Melanie Douthit Art Studio" for more current art photos.

Make sure you visit each designer's blog and leave some comment love for them... we LOVE hearing from you all!


SO - are you going to play in this month's challenge? Here are the rules:

Please follow these rules to be eligible for placements and prizes. Entries not following our rules will be deleted.

* You must use our challenge graphic in your challenge post.
* You must comment on at least 3 design team member's blogs. 
* Your post must link back to the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge post
* Add a link to your direct post, not your entire blog, a YouTube Video or a Pinterest Board
* You can combine with up to 4 other challenges. 
* No Backlinking allowed! Any back-linked entries will be deleted.
* You can enter up to 5 times, create whatever you want, and HAVE FUN!

You have until 11:55 pm EST on May 31st to enter!
Post your project on THIS POST

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

April Downtown Gallery Crawl

Our April Downtown Gallery Crawl in Monroe and West Monroe Louisiana was fantastic. The weather was beautiful and the crowd was amazing.

My husband, Jeff, debuted his photography for the first time ever in my gallery space. He sold three of his photos and I couldn't be more excited. He is so humble and would never have done this if I didn't nudge him. He is a radiologic technologist by day so we titled his show "A Difference Kind of Exposure". clever, huh?

Hubby and I (above) in front of his show, and next - some friends that came out to the crawl.

Monroe artist Sue Sartor with her husband, Walter, who was one of the band members that played with Code Blue and the Flatliners on our street during the crawl. Walter is also a physician. Sue was showing her beautiful paintings in the Upstairs Gallery.

Some of the artists and guest artists at Sugar Gallery.

The next art crawl is the first Thursday in June. Don't miss it!.

Here are some random pics of the April crawl.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

No fooling! It's mixed media challenge time...

Happy April 1! For those who love mixed media challenges - we have a fun one for April.

The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Blog has a new challenge this month. The theme is "dimension"! It's my favorite in my art - either the illusion of dimension or actually making layers. It's so much fun.

The sponsor this month is Stampers Anonymous.

This month we will have TWO lucky random winners!! Each winner will receive a fabulous Wendy Vecchi stamp set and stencil!!


Here's my painting for the challenge. I started with a layer of random color. After it dried I added thinned paint and misted with a water bottle. More dimension. I added papers and crackle medium (more dimension) and then (why not?) I added painted chipboard.  Then I created the images.

Here's a close-up view.

"Enchanted Poppies" 16" x 20" by Melanie Douthit

Our April Guest Designer is Wendy Vecchi - Ranger & Stampers Anonymous Signature Designer!!


Wendy Vecchi is a full time artist/designer/educator and owner of studio 490.She is a signature designer for Ranger, and Stampers Anonymous and a past member the Tim Holtz and Maya Road design teams. In addition to designing rubber stamps, stencils, embossing pastes, archival inks and embossing powders, she loves discovering new techniques & she loves to use those techniques to make art.

I hope you play along.
Please follow these rules to be eligible for placements and prizes. Entries not following our rules will be deleted.

* You must use our challenge graphic in your challenge post.
* You must comment on at least 3 design team member's blogs.
* Your post must link back to the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge post
* Add a link to your direct post, not your entire blog, a YouTube Video or a Pinterest Board
* You can combine with up to 4 other challenges.
* No Backlinking allowed! Any back-linked entries will be deleted.
* You can enter up to 5 times, create whatever you want, and HAVE FUN!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Spring Inspiration

I just spent the weekend with my husband in New Orleans. The weather was perfectly spring-like and I have come home full of artistic inspiration. We spent the majority of our time in the Marigny District dining and listening to live jazz music on Frenchmen Street. We always pick a different home rental in the area and "live like the locals". This time we were on Frenchmen Street in a wonderful old home with a beautiful courtyard. We brought our bicycles so we rode each morning to various cafe's for breakfast, and also rode into the French Quarter to browse art galleries. For those of you still in winter climate - I want to let you know that Spring is just around the corner.

Here we are at one of the Frenchmen Street outside art markets. It's always fun to visit because the set up is different every day.

We rode down Royal in the French Quarter and yes - that IS a guitar-playing unicorn. One night after dinner we were walking down the street and my husband asks "Do you think you'll run into anyone we know tonight?" I said - "I doubt it". Then 45 minutes later I hear my name being called and up walks an artist that used to live near me. We ended up going to an upstairs dance hall with her to see an internationally known Cuban dancer. You really just never know what or who you will see here.

So - are you here to play along with the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge? We have a fun spring-themed photo for inspiration.

Here's our photo inspiration for the March challenge.

Our March sponsor is Waffle Flower Crafts. They have donated a $25 gift certificate for our challenge winner. Our guest designer is Tessa Wise from Waffle Flower Crafts.

Here's my take on the challenge. I was inspired by the colors in the inspiration photo. I used papers, cardstock, tape, paint, ink, paper doilies, stamps and stickers on this 5.5 wood block.

You can play along at the March Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Blog

Please follow these rules to be eligible for placements and prizes. Entries not following our rules will be deleted.

* You must use our challenge graphic in your challenge post.

* You must comment on at least 3 design team member's blogs. 

* Your post must link back to the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge post

* Add a link to your direct post, not your entire blog, a YouTube Video or a Pinterest Board

* You can combine with up to 4 other challenges. 

* No Backlinking allowed! Any back-linked entries will be deleted.

* You can enter up to 5 times, create whatever you want, and HAVE FUN!

You have until 11:55 pm EST on March 31 to enter!

Thanks for stopping by!!

February and Dreaming about the Beach

It's February 1st and we are experiencing springtime weather in Louisiana! So what better to do than to create a beach themed piece - seriously - I don't even need an excuse to create something coastal. I just love anything beachy.

So - the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Blog's theme for February is - Glitter!

Our sponsor for February's challenge is Frantic Stamper, Inc.  The prize is a $25 store gift certificate! What a wonderful prize. 

For my creation, I used chalk paints from PaperArtsy. These paints are absolutely fantastic and this project doesn't show the range of colors they come in, but stay tuned because I will have more projects coming up.

The other items used include collage papers, various ephemera (fabrics, beads) stamps and glitter glue on the waves. The surface is a 20" x 16" piece of birch wood that I coated with gesso.

and a close up view. I still can't get that glitter sparkle to show up in the photos.

I hope you are inspired to play along! Please follow these rules to be eligible for placements and prizes. Entries without our Challenge Graphic or Link Back to us will be deleted.

* You must use our challenge graphic in your challenge post.

* You must comment on at least 3 design team member's blogs. 

* Your post must link back to the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge post

* Add a link to your direct post, not your entire blog, a YouTube Video or a Pinterest Board

* You can combine with up to 4 other challenges. 

* No Backlinking allowed! Any back-linked entries will be deleted.

* You can enter up to 5 times, create whatever you want, and HAVE FUN!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!