Paintings for Livada: Romania Poppy Field and Hillside

Posted on December 8, 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.

There were many beautiful landscapes and Romanian scenery. This picture was given to me by a friend who is from Romania and held happy family memories with the flowers in the field.

Image to Paint

Charcoal Sketch on Canvas

Painting Sketch (1st Coat)

Painting Sketch (2nd Coat)

Final Painting

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” 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

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

UALR 6×6 Event

Posted on October 22, 2014 by lksukany

It all started when…

Emily Wood Facebook messaged me – “Interested in donating to the UALR 6×6 event?” – or something like that.

All pieces entered are 6×6 inches – hence the “6×6” title. I decided that prints would be the best way to go, so I tore some paper and mixed some ink (pewter, red, and white). I did test prints first to make sure the cropped images were strong compositions.

This was a happy accident from rolling out the red ink.

Once everything was printed, I stopped by Hobby Lobby on the way home from work the next day and got the pieces matted – which felt like a complete rip off at $5 per mat! They didn’t even let me keep the matboard scraps they cut from. Yikes was I mad about that.

“The Dancer”

“The Lady and the Musician”

“Dinner Guests” (which is its actual size)

I put the Paper Opera stamp on the back and signed the print.

M and I went to the UALR 6×6 event and had a nice time! It was a silent auction – where all of the pieces are placed on the tables and people walk around and bid on them.

I was happy because all of my pieces got bids.

At the end of the event, there were speeches and thank you’s and lots of clapping.

Hanging Art with Kelsey

Posted on September 26, 2014 by lksukany

Kelsey texted me to come to Grace Church and bring some art to hang. M and Ein came along to help. We looked through each others work and started placing our work against the walls to see what would look good where. The wall was such a dark brown that only certain pieces worked in the space.

We shifted and looked, shifted and looked and so on until we were satisfied of what piece we wanted where.

We pulled out the hammer and nails and just eyeballed it. We didn’t use a tape measure or a level…basically a big “hanging art no no.” Why didn’t we call Ephraim!