Varla Bishop Dogs and Cats, portrait, Watercolor Paintings

The Smile of a Child

One of the things I enjoy in making art is in giving art to others. Isn’t that what we do with our talents? Aren’t we meant to share it with others? In this case I painted portraits of two little girls. Future artists who love to create just like me. They asked “what art project are you working on now?” “We need to do some art together.” Grown up questions from one artist to another.

As grandparents or family elders we have a tremendous influence over the younger generations. They listen to everything we say and believe that what we tell them is a truth. It is responsibility I do not take lightly. These young girls believe that I can do anything with a paint brush and canvas. If only that was true. But I do love to work on projects with kids. From magic wands to acrylic pours it is all messy and fun.

I have my good days and bad days as an artist. Sometimes everything comes together just like I imagined. Then there are the days when I feel discouraged. It’s on those days that I remember the faces of my young future artists and I can’t help but smile. I smile in their belief in me. I smile because in their eyes I am capable of greatness. How can I not pick up my brush and try again.

I suspect the paintings will hang up in their rooms. I hope they will think of me when they look their pictures. I hope they know it was painted for them with love. ❤️❤️❤️

Varla Bishop Acrylic, Dogs and Cats, Fun and easy, Fun with Grand Kids, life lessons

Coming of Age

The terms bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah “bar” is used for a boy, while “bat” is used for a girl. It is the coming of age for 13 year old boys and girls. I’ve been to a bat mitzvah, a niece of my daughter in-law. I so enjoyed the readings, rituals and overall. ceremony. The food afterwards was pretty awesome too. So why am I talking about this coming of age event? It’s why I was asked to do this commission.

This commission felt like “meant to be” kind of thing. So one day a few months back I had stopped at a medical supply store. Not my favorite type of store, but while I was there a woman came up to me asking about my shoes. You see I was wearing my painted Sylvester and Tweety bird canvas shoes. She noticed. She asked who painted them. Me!!!! I tell her, I painted them. She said she just thought of a painting idea but didn’t know any artists to ask. Then here I am working into her office.

She explains that her son loves basketball, loves Space Jam and this June he will have his bar mitzvah. They are throwing a party and she wanted something special. I get special.

She describes a 4’x3’ clear plastic panel that she wanted painted. She has a huge light box to put this panel in. She wanted the Space Jam logo in the center and instead of Labron James she wanted her son Henry. On party day, guests will autograph the panel with well wishes. I have never painted on a big piece of plastic before, but I love a challenge. I did some searching on the internet and putting acrylic paint on plastic is a common thing.

Like any new endeavor it turned out more challenging then I expected. It takes several coats of paint before it looks right. The more I painted on it the more I loved it. At the end I was excited to see what Henry thought, what his patents thought of what I did. I felt joy at the end of this project.

That’s why I paint. It’s for the rush. It’s for that feeling I get when I put my heart into a painting. I feel all warm inside and I’m smiling. 😎

Henry
The light box sitting in my basement.
Varla Bishop Acrylic, Fun and easy, Fun with Grand Kids, Landscape, Mixed media

Art in the Backyard

We noticed on Pinterest that pinecones can be turned into flowers! We thought this was a cool idea and we decided to try it. So off we went walking and gathering our supplies. We did need to make a pit stop at Michaels for some craft paint and now we have what we need.

Sometimes all you need is a spark of an idea. That described my granddaughter and I, we had a brilliant idea. We decided to make art from pieces that we found in the neighborhood. In her neighborhood there are a lot of pinecones, acorns, leaves and sticks. Surely we could make something creative with that. I know my granddaughter has a glue gun so anything is possible. We went hunting and gathering.

Painting and glueing was the fun and easy part. The challenge came when we started to cut the pinecones. We wanted to turn pinecones into flowers using only the bottom portion of the cone Has anyone ever tried to cut a pinecone? It isn’t too easy; in fact it’s almost impossible.

Here’s what we did and here’s what we learned: *craft scissors don’t work * mom’s scissors from the kitchen drawer doesn’t work and we knew we would be in BIG trouble if we used the sewing scissors* dad’s saw didn’t work but it did get the feeling you might actually be making progress-not *tried a saw with deep teeth which only scared us at the thought of losing a finger….*we then tried wire clippers which only cut the pinecone petals like toe nails which now were flying everywhere in the garage * finally we learned that clipping the petals and twisting the core with pliers finally got us a pinecone that looked like a flower!!!

We painted and glued and glued some more. In the end we liked what we created. Each backyard is full of possibilities so go and be creative. Make something that has never existed before and have fun.❤️