Bus Line

"Bus Line" by Ann Tuck 6"x6" Oil on Canvas

This will be my last painting to be auctioned for a while.  The kids will be out of school next week and I won't get as much painting done.  I'll spend the summer taking reference pictures for more paintings instead.

This painting is of the bus line at our school.

Remember Teacher Appreciation Week this week and make sure to give a big 'Thank You!" to any teachers you know who are great at what they do.

Nandina by a Blue Wall

"Nandina by a Blue Wall" by Ann Tuck 6"x8" Oil on Canvas

Ooops!  I forgot to blog this one when I put it up for auction.  The auction ends this evening.

I painted this one plein air (outdoors on location).  The nandina bush was growing next to a wall of someones ceramic studio that was painted a delicious blue color.  I should have asked what color  of paint that was.

Click here to bid

(I'm new to auctioning my paintings and I'm trying to figure out the best starting price for my work.  Please bear with me while I try a few different ways.)

"India Ink Bees" by Ann Tuck

I made the semifinal round of the Fabric 8 contest chosen from over 750 entries!

If I'm one of the final 8 chosen, I’ll be asked to make a collection of 8 designs that coordinate with my entry and if I win, I’ll have a contract with Robert Kaufman Fabrics.

Here’s the contest page.  There is more than one contest being held.   This is the “Fabric 8 Semifinal Round”  They are looking for bold modern designs using pen and ink with watercolor.

http://www.spoonflower.com/contests/134

There are some other great designs there too.  If you like mine.  I hope you’ll vote for me.  Voting closes on Wednesday the 9^th.  

Wish me luck! 

Guinea Pig Fabric

Guinea Pig Applique Fabric by Ann Tuck

I entered this fabric design in Spoonflower's design contest.  This week's theme is "What's the New Owl?".  My immediate thought was guinea pigs.  Lucky for me, I have friends with an adorable guinea pig named Summer who was happy to model for me.  Click here to vote for my design.

Thank you Summer

Kumquats in a Blue Pot

Kumquats in a Blue Pot by Ann Tuck 6"x6" Oil on Canvas

I bought a kumquat tree, planted it in a pretty blue ceramic pot, and marveled at how well the colors worked together--so of course I painted it. 

I just put this painting for sale on a DailyPaintWorks auction.

Click Here to Bid

Kumquats are fantastic in chocolate fondue, by the way.

Rock Point

"Rock Point"  by Ann Tuck 30"x40" Oil on Canvas

I spotted these two bright and shiny water towers in Arizona during our "UberTrip" (family car trip).  I love the pinkish reflections on the bottom of the tanks from the red earth below.
  

This painting is available at the Lagerquist Gallery. 

Personalized Flat Note Cards

Personalized Flat Note Cards Designed by Ann Tuck

When we moved into our house, our new next-door neighbor came and introduced herself and handed me a beautiful flat note card with her name embossed on the top. “Welcome to the neighborhood…” and her contact information were written on it in beautiful cursive.   I remember thinking how elegant that was, and I still have the card after all of these years even though her number has been programmed in our phone all this time.   She, of course, turned out to be the best next door neighbor anyone could have.

Her card inspired me to make note cards of my own and, even though most of us don't sit down and write letters the way we used to, I found them to be very handy as a nice way to write a quick hand-written note to a teacher, a thank you note, or a card enclosed with a gift.  Then I realized what a nice gift they would make—something that would actually be useful, and wouldn’t take up much space in the house.  Instead of making batches of fattening cookies to give to neighbors and friends during the holidays, I order a big stack of these note cards and personalize them for friends at home with my printer and they’ve always been a big hit.  At the end of the school year, I give a set to our children’s teachers because I know they can always use some personalized cards to send a quick note home to parents.  They would make great Mother’s day or bridesmaid gifts too.

Now my note card designs are available online to be shipped to you with your name on them--Just enter your name in the “Personalize It” box to the left of the note card and you can see how it will look with your name.  There is a nice selection of papers to choose from, but I find that the “Basic” paper choice looks great.

Find my stationary shop here.

Technical Stuff:

If you’d like to customize your name with a different font or color, just click the orange “Customize” button under the note card.  (Tip: to raise or lower the name by small amounts, hold down Ctrl while you click the up and down arrows).

Bulk Printing for the Holidays:

If you would like to do like I do during the holidays and personalize a bunch of note cards yourself at home (they are cheaper bought in bulk), just order some cards with no name.  I've provided name templates for lining things up correctly and a practice print guide that you can use to make sure that you get things right before printing on the real thing.

See below for instructions:

A stack of blank note cards to be personalized at home for gifts.

Instructions:

These are instructions for printing names on a batch of blank note cards to give as gifts during the holiday season. If you only have a few names to print, it is much easier to just order the cards with the name already printed on them. If you have several people that you want to give cards to though, it's less expensive to buy blank cards in bulk and print the names yourself.

Once you set up printing for your note cards, all of the personalization will be a breeze and you can use the name template for another batch next year as well. I suggest not doing that the night before you want to give your cards out though because sometimes the process is a little frustrating. You may even want to experiment with these print guides before you order.

1.  Print out the print guide I provided.  Make sure that no scaling is selected (make sure that the practice cards measure 4.25" by 5.5" after printing)

2.  Cut out the practice cards.

3. For most printers, you will load the card upside-down.

4. Adjust the paper guides to fit the card size.

5. Open the Name Template that I provided.  Select the text box and type in the name (I suggest trying the longest name first).

6.  Try printing the name on the practice card and see how it looks.  Select the text box (at the edge, not the sizing boxes) and move up or down as needed.  It may help to change the font or size to make a better fit.  If you need to try again, just print again on the same card because it may take a few tries.  When you think you have it right, try again on a blank practice card.  Make sure to save your Name Guide—now each name should be easy to print.  Save the guide to use next year for another batch of gift note cards.

          

Small Bee Painting



"Bee" by Ann Tuck oil on canvas 8"x8"

I did this little 8"x8" painting of a thirsty bee that I found drinking water from a paper towel that was placed in a drinking fountain at Sunset Crater Volcano in Arizona. 

I did a large painting of four bees earlier this year and I received such nice responses about it that I decided to make this small painting for those who like to purchase from www.DailyPaintWorks.com 

The painting is oil on canvas (staples are hidden on the back) and is 8"x8".  I'm selling it on a DailyPaintWorks auction.

 Click Here to Bid

Nasturtium Ditsy Print - Vote

Okay.  Here I go again entering another Spoonflower contest.  This time they're asking for small prints "Ditsy Prints" and I just happen to have a nice one of nasturtiums that I made a while ago.

It has been by far my most popular design, ranking as one of Spoonflower's "All Time Fav's" and in the top 30 or so in their "Floral" and "Vintage" categories.

There were a lot of entries this week, but I made the final cut.  We'll see how I do.  I don't have a huge blog following like some of the others.

If you would like to vote, you can do so here: http://www.spoonflower.com/contest_voters/new?contest_id=102
 I could use the help.

Thanks!

Joined Daily Paintworks--My first auction!

I just joined Daily Paintworks and put this little painting up for auction on their site.  http://www.dailypaintworks.com/buy/auction/16630 It is oil on canvas and just 5"x7".  With a starting bid set at $10, you should get a pretty good deal because no one has heard of me there yet.

We passed through this city on the first day of our "UberTrip" (as my daughter likes to call it).  We traveled across the country and back in our minivan this summer, camping and staying with family.  We enjoyed lots of National Parks and traveled through 19 states.

This was Nashville as the sun was starting to set.  We hit a little traffic then and I was all over this beautiful haze.

Back from Summer

My mother used to paint while carrying me on her hip when I was little--I can't even paint while the kids are around at all (it turns into a collaborative project).   I'm always so delighted to get back to work after the summer.  This year though, I have even more reason to be anxious to start--both of the kids are now in school full time.  No more rushing back from drop off at preschool to get a measly two hours of work done as I've been doing for years--Though that taught me to be very efficient with my time and kept my paintings quick and fresh (I guess I'm not really in the habit of  dwelling on paintings anyway, so perhaps that suited me well)

Even more cause for excitement are the 2,700+ photos that I took during our "UberTrip" (as my 5 year-old calls it) in which we drove across the country and back through 18 states.  I think there are a few great paintings in those photos.

Best thing to do after a long period of no painting is to warm up.    My students and I spent a whole class just slopping paint around on a scrap of canvas after the long break, and I made some nice sloppy studies on my own.    This one is of rush hour in Nashville.  I think I can make a nice painting from a crop of this study.

Super-Easy Girl's Trumpet Skirt

Hello!  Just back from a month-long road trip across the country and back.  I took lots of pictures which will keep me busy painting for a while.  More on that later.

Here's a cut-and-sew skirt that I created from my butterfly designs.  The fabric is purchased with the pattern pieces already printed on the fabric--you just cut out the pieces and sew it up.  I made the design just a little while ago, and when I came back from my trip I was pleased to see that Spoonflower was holding a skirt design contest this week.  So, of course, it's time for me to pester you again to vote for my design.

http://www.spoonflower.com/contest_voters/new?contest_id=91  (or just go to the "Contest" tab on http://www.spoonflower.com/)

This is a super-easy skirt to sew, and it fits great.  In knit, two skirts come on one yard of fabric.  I also offer it in plain quilting weight fabric.  Fabric shrinkage is accounted for, so you can wash and dry as you like. 

Available soon in other colors and sizes--adult sizes too!


Knit version: (buy 1 yard, knit only) You get a yellow graphic flower skirt as well.
http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/215485

Plain quilting weight cotton in watermelon pink (buy 1 yard, quilting weight only).  http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/578770




In Knit



In plain quilting weight (skirt displayed is not my fabric)

 To Vote:  http://www.spoonflower.com/contest_voters/new?contest_id=91

Thanks!

The Chapel Done Four Ways







Watercolor

 This was just one of those things that I felt I needed to work through.  I don't always know why I do that, but I never regret it.  In this case, I sent myself into a chapel painting do-loop of different mediums and styles.

What started all of this was that a few years ago I did another little painting of this local chapel and struggled with it.  I tried painting on clay board for the first time and it slurped up my paint more than I had expected.  That wasn't the only frustration though.  The subject itself gave me some trouble and I never really knew why.  I ended up selling that painting for just a small amount and never thought that I'd see it again, but since then I've been tickled to see that the people who run the chapel like to use the image for their note cards and things.   So, when it was time for them to order more cards again, I decided that I would treat them to another image.

Acrylic - Funky

I had only meant to make one painting, but then I did another in another medium and style , then another, and another.  I was working through whatever it was about the subject that I had found so tricky.  And you know how it is, once you work through something, you don't always know what the problem was in the first place.  But I think I know now--It's those eaves!  I start to get all free and sloppy painting the trees--which are lovely, the way they sit in front of the lake and make such a nice screen with nothing behind to clutter it up--but then those white eaves cut across and slow me down.   Then I get concerned about keeping them straight and properly angled and such and that breaks my flow. 




Oil - Traditional



Oil - Messy



Even if the chapel is a bit of a road bump for me, I'm glad I took the trouble to paint it.  I know it as a symbol for our community.  Its front lawn is where everything in town happens--where our kids will hunt for Easter eggs this Sunday.

All of these are 8"x10" paintings.  My favorites are the watercolor and acrylic even though those aren't my usual mediums.  

Happy Easter.









Cat Herd



"Cat Herd" by Ann Tuck.  15" x 60".  Oil on Canvas.

I may have thought of the idea for this painting as I was herding my two busy little kids around the grocery store...I don't know, but I ended up painting the background to show these cats heading off to a conference room.  Perhaps that's where this painting belongs.

It's all dry now, so I'll bring it to the Lagerquist Gallery on Tuesday.  Please contact them if you are interested.





My "Sheep" are on the cover of JAVMA.

My painting "Sheep" made the cover of JAVMA (Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association)!  Click here to see. http://avmajournals.avma.org/toc/javma/237/8 

Moths and Marigolds Aqua Now for Sale.

A photo of my Moths and Marigolds Aqua fabric--I love how it came out.  See more at: http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/334123

Moths and Marigolds Cyan for Sale.

Here's a photo of my Moths and Marigolds Cyan fabric that I just received.  I'm really pleased with how the colors printed out, and I put it up for sale today.  See more at: http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/333884  It's also available with an aqua background.  I'll post that next.

Moths and Marigolds entered in this week's Spoonflower contest.

Detail of "Moths and Marigolds"

I just entered my “Moths and Marigolds” fabric design in the Spoonflower design contest. This week’s contest is for border prints (fabric with a separate design on the edge).  Since I have been planning some border prints to make into tablecloths, shirts, and bedding for a while, I got out my watercolors and painted some nice juicy marigolds to go with some moths that I had already painted. I think my time spent living in India has definitely influenced me to use marigolds in this piece.

I plan to make a caftan and a blouse out of this fabric.  Then perhaps I'll blow up the design a little and make a bedspread with Spoonflower's cotton/linen blend fabric.

If you would like to vote in the contest, just follow this link. You can vote for as many designs as you like--I'm sure there will be a few other very nice ones there. If you happen to like mine I could use all the help I can get because my design really doesn’t display very well on their site—it looks very yellowy which make my blue and green backgrounds look kind of gross.  When it is printed on fabric though, it should like like it does in this image because I already tested these background colors by having Spoonflower print a pallette for me.  I had a chance to see the moths printed on the Spoonflower fabric as well and I'm really happy with how they came out too.  I'll put this fabric up for sale after I receive my test swatch and make sure that everything looks right.

Wish me luck!

1 yard of "Moths and Marigolds"

I'm in the fabric business!

Nasturtium fabric in 4 sizes + polka dot accent fabrics.

I've wanted to design fabric for years, but the cost of having small portions of fabric printed was pretty expensive.   Since Spoonflower came along though, I've been having a great time making things with my own fabric.  Thank you Spoonflower!  I hope you have a long and prosperous life.

Spoonflower recently started a program to let fabric designers sell their fabric to others, so I put my Nasturtiums fabric for sale and then forgot about it for a while until I needed to upload a design for a baby blanket that I was making for a friend.  When I logged on, I was delighted to find that lots of people had been buying my fabric!

That was inspiration enough for me!  I designed more fabric to sell and have lots more in the works.

Spoonflower prints each fabric order on demand-- just specify the amount of fabric and type of cloth you would like to have and Spoonflower makes it and sends it to you.  I love that there is so little waste involved in the process--no unsold inventory.  I've been extremely happy with the extra-careful printing quality, the quality of cloth and how it stands up to washing and other abuse I subject it to.  You can choose basic cotton (quilting weight), stretch knit, cotton-linen blend (my favorite), upholstery fabric, sheer cotton lawn, and more.

You can find my fabrics at http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/anntuck.  Since my Nasturtiums design is so popular, I decided to offer some polka-dot accent fabrics that go with it (I love polka-dots),  I'm also offering the Nasturtiums in different sizes.  Nasturtiums (great size for everything from quilts to garments), Nasturtiums Petite (nice smaller print with a Liberty of London feel--for smaller applications like doll clothes, or shirts, or anywhere you would use a calico print.), Nasturtiums Bold (use where you would like a bolder print--perhaps a skirt), and Nasturtiums Jumbo (could be used for drapery or bedding).

I've also finished some other designs that I really like.  More on that later.

Basset Ring Square

I just posted this for sale on ImageKind.com.  It's a cropped version of my "Basset Ring" painting.  That's the nice thing about prints--I don't have to chop up my canvases to enjoy my paintings in new ways.  I like the square format of this painting and I think it pairs really well with my "Dog Pile" painting this way.

See it at:  ImageKind  Check out the framing and canvas options too.

Maidenhair Fern Necktie

I had fun making this necktie for my husband.  I used a textile pattern that I made a while ago, and just removed most of the flowers and changed the background to gray to make it more masculine.

My husband tends to be picky about neckties, so I was a little concerned because Zazzle (the company that made it for me) doesn't print the image on the narrow end of the tie (which you can't see when you wear it).  That didn't bother him at all though.  He loved it and said that he received lots of nice compliments on it at work.

I just set up my shop at Zazzle http://www.zazzle.com/anntuck  and I'll make sure to add some new designs eventually.   I can design skateboards and tennis shoes there too, so I won't be able to resist.

Pretzel Gingerbread House

Just as I was digging out my gingerbread house pattern and recipe, my husband came by with a bag of pretzels and said, “how about using these to make a log cabin?”  "What a great idea", I thought.  And "Oh, did I marry well!"--My heart goes pitter-pat when he comes up with nifty ideas like that. Since it meant that I wouldn’t have to roll out cookie dough, we gave it a try.

To hold everything together, you will need to make some icing that dries rock hard. I used to make it with egg whites and cream of tartar like my mother taught me, but now I just use Wilton Meringue Powder mixed with powdered sugar and water. You can find Meringue powder in craft stores—follow the recipe for Royal Icing included inside the can.

I constructed the walls and roof pieces separately and let them dry before building the house, instead of building the house Lincoln Log-style.  I also added pieces of Rye Crisp to the insides of the walls for extra structural support.

 
 
 
 
 
 
The roof is made of graham cracker pieces.  I added gingerbread cookies to the roof  for a nice German look.
 

 

I constructed the house on a foil-covered piece of cardboard.  My mother taught me to lay down a good-sized blob of icing in each corner before placing the walls, then put a generous amount of icing in the inside seams.

 

After attaching the roof, let the icing dry and have the kids decorate the house with candy, add some icicles, and top with a dusting of powdered sugar.

Stupid Cabinet - How I Wasted my Summer Vacation.

Behold stupid cabinet! One day I will add some artsy fused glass or something to the cabinet doors, but for now, I’m calling it done!

It all started when someone who was interested in buying some of my paintings came to the house. We use our computers in the living room, and had been using some very functional, very baby-proofable, very ugly white cabinets to contain them. I knew they were ugly, but I was able to edit them out of my vision most of the time. At this moment though, when I was showing my paintings to a potential buyer, I realized that this was just not good marketing. Who is going to want to buy paintings from someone with cheesy taste like this?  It turned out that my potential buyer was kind enough to overlook the ugly cabinets—I’ll make sure to post the paintings that I made for her. She did have to wait a little longer than usual to get her paintings though, because I thought that I would just quickly whip up this cabinet and then get on with my other work.

I really didn’t want to take on a woodworking project, I just wasn’t able to find anything suitable to purchase. I made a thorough search, and just came up with nothing. The only thing that made sense was to order some custom kitchen cabinetry and modify it to work. Then the very naive thought came to me…”Well, I’ll just make it”.

“We’ll, I’ll just make it”, always turns out fine for me even when I don’t have a clue what I’m doing—which I didn’t in this case. I’m a master of winging-it and I also work very fast, so I have never regretted taking on projects like this.

Building cabinets is not difficult. Because of all of the right angles, it is much simpler than sewing. But I must warn all of the seamstresses out there, that cabinet making just…takes…a…l..o..n..g…time.

Had I known how long I would need to spend on Stupid Cabinet, I would have saved myself a lot of frustration. Instead I thought, “Oh, I’ll just whip up the cabinets this month and then get back to work”. And then I said, “Oh, I have the carcasses done, so now it’s almost done. I just have to build the doors, sand, and stain it!” And I just kept saying, “Oh, I have that part done. Almost finished!”. And then I was waking up early to work before the kids got up, and staying up late to work when the kids went to bed, and working on the weekends while my poor husband watched the kids. That is how Stupid Cabinet got its name—I started saying “I need to go work on that stupid cabinet”.

Stupid Cabinet was completed at the end of the summer, and I eventually caught up on my backlog of work. I’ll eventually think up some beautiful thing to insert in the cabinet doors, but for now it’s kind of convenient to be able to just reach into the cabinet without opening the doors. Our kids are old enough now that we no longer have to worry about them inserting sandwiches in the disk drives…knock on wood.

Father's Day T-shirts

It started a couple of years ago with this shirt. (Who does this guy's laundry?) We went from "what should we give Dad for Father's Day?" to grabbing a T-shirt and some acrylic paint. (which works great on T-shirts, by the way. No need for fancy fabric paint--the inexpensive craft acrylics that come in bottles work great for T-shirts)

The kids didn't spend much time of this shirt. With a couple of drips of blue paint for eyes, the blobs quickly turned into creatures. Dad loves this shirt. LOVES it. He wears it all the time.

This is a great project for very young kids. Just remember to protect their clothing, because the paint will never come out. I find that limiting the palette prevents muddy colors. Other than that, just stretch the shirt over a board, give the kids a brush, and let them go.

Now... how to top that last shirt! I have been itching to do some applique--I never dreamed it would be for something for my husband. Keeping the creature theme that worked so well before, I asked the kids to draw some monsters. Our six-year-old drew a one-eyed monster straight away, but our three-year-old just made some scribbles--No problem, the scribbles looked very creature-like. We found a flying creature and a mushroom-headed lizard creature in them.

I dug out a precious scrap of my Spoonflower fabric (can't waste those!!!) and we used Steam-a-Seam2 double stick fusible web to make the creatures into fabric "stickers". We slapped them on the shirt and then I pressed them with the iron and sewed around the edges. We added some button eyes and we were done!

He'll get the creature drawings as a Father's Day card.

Shhhhhhh! Don't tell him what he's getting!