Painting an Apron for OurHouse

Posted on December 5, 2014 by lksukany

It all started when…

Emily Wood Facebook messaged me – “Interested in painting an apron for the OurHouse apron auction event ?”

Tie One On is a live and silent auction (of aprons designed by Little Rock area artists) to benefit Our House, which is a shelter for the working homeless in central Arkansas.

I got my aprons from Emily and started working.

I used “The Lady and the Musician” linoleum block to print the patterns on each apron.

I then mixed gesso and acrylic paint and went over the prints

These are what the aprons look like when worn.

I met with Emily to give her the aprons and she gave me two invitations for the event. I invited M of course!

M and I went to the event and it was super fancy! It was at Pavilion in the Park and everything was covered in Christmas decorations.

Both of my aprons sold!

Paintings for Livada: Fairytale Romania

Posted on October 27, 2014 by lksukany

When I was on the missions trip with Grace Church serving the Livada Orphan Care ministry in Romania, the beauty of the country inspired me. I had the idea that when I got home to Arkansas I could paint these Romanian scenes and donate the paintings to Livada to raise money for orphan sponsorship.

Our group went to the restaurant called Restaurant Pestisorul de Aur.

When we arrived at the restaurant, there was this beautiful scenery. I posted one of these pictures on social media and one of my friends had commented that where I was looked like something out of a fairy tale. This was one of the first images that started the idea to paint scenes of Romania.

Image to Paint

Charcoal Sketch on Canvas

Painting Sketch (1st Coat)

Painting Sketch (2nd Coat)

Final Painting

A Studio Day

Posted on September 24, 2014 by lksukany

My studio day was spent working on the Romania paintings. I approached my studio space and knew I needed a fresh space to work in. I rearranged my studio, moving everything around to make a new space for myself.

View from the window

View from the door

With my fresh space, I put on my audio track, and set up my paintings. My goal for the day was to cover the 13 charcoal sketched canvas in paint. I placed all of the canvas around the room in a line.

I approached my easel and worked on mixing my color palette (oil paint).

When covered in paint, the canvas was moved on top of the drafting table and flat file cabinet. The uncovered canvas would all get to move one space forward in their little line.

I was covered in paint and pretty tired by the end, but it was a job well done!

Romania Paintings for Livada

Posted on August 26, 2014 by lksukany

When I was on the missions trip with Grace Church serving the Livada Orphan Care ministry in Romania, the beauty of the country inspired me.

During one of my morning quiet times with God, I felt like He gave me the idea to paint scenes from Romania to raise money for orphan child sponsorship. It would serve a double purpose to paint the scenes. On one hand, someone would purchase the painting for the suggested donation price or fundraiser auction. On the back end, when the said person looks at the painting, they are encouraged to pray for Livada and the orphans in Romania.

I was originally going to purchase a large canvas roll and stretchers and stretch my own canvas. Though time consuming, stretching canvas is much cheaper than purchasing pre-stretched canvas…unless there is some sort of deal.

On a random day of the week as I was driving home from work, I had a God moment and turned into Michaels. They did indeed have one of these “deals.” There was buy 3 canvas for the price of 1, so I got 15 canvas for the price of 5, which was around $50.

I mixed gesso with acrylic paint and covered each of the canvas. I like to add a color to the white gesso to create a light or mid-tone, so that when I paint I can add lights and darks.

After the canvases dried, I sketched (from photographs) each of the images using willow charcoal. Because I am working with so many images and mostly landscapes I had to have a way of organizing them. I created a list numbering and naming each piece with the canvas size. I put the names on the back of the canvas on the stretcher bar and also on the photograph source.