My Art

This is where my interest in art started for me. In high school I started doodling with permanent marker on some old jeans at girls camp, and before I knew it everyone at camp was asking me to draw a cartoon character on their pants! On the last day of school, my friends and I all wore our jeans I drew for them. I so wish I had a better picture of all the pants I drew on, so I guess this will have to work. I drew on so many pants, I knew exactly how to best hold the permanent marker at an angle to let the ink all the way into the pants. I had specific colors for everything... even skin color. Apart from these disney princesses, I have also drawn: the Flash and Gogeta (a Dragon Ball Z character)



I found this picture of Fawn (a fairy off of the Tinkerbell movie) that I have also drawn.

This is one of my favorite paintings I have ever done, and one I am most proud of. I did this in college in my painting class. The project was to find a famous painting and copy it exactly. But we also had to add in an anomaly (deviation from the normal or usual order, type, etc; irregularity.. something that doesn't belong). I chose this Vincent van Gogh painting because it wasn't my style of painting, and I wanted to try something new. Not only did it take about 40-50 hours to paint, but it also took hours and hours to build! As a class we had to build our own canvas. During the process I kept thinking, "Why on earth am I doing this, I'll never need to know how to build a canvas?!" Now I am quite proud of all the work I did. I went to the Home Depot and bought all my own wood, canvas, gesso primer, staples, etc... all on my own.

Anyways, like I said I am quite proud of this painting! Not only that, but a year after I took this class I went back and visited my professor. Our class had an open gallery showing all the work we did that year, and she told me she still had people asking about my painting! I was BEAMING when she told me that, probably one of the best compliments I have ever received.

This was the first self portrait I have ever done, so I feel ok about my technique. Her name is Marie, and she is an inspiration to me, so I wanted to paint her. Marie has a beautiful determination to live life. Anyone that knows Marie personally, they know how strong, courageous, determined, and positive she is.

I painted this for a dear friend of mine. Her name is Denise, and she put in so much effort into helping me and my mom plan my goodbye party/reception before I moved to Sweden to get married! I painted this as a thank you gift for her, and little did I know how this would be the beginning of many flowers I would paint!

This painting I saw as a picture in one of my best friends college apartment. She went to BYU and I was up at Utah State, so I was visiting for the weekend. As soon as you walked into their apartment, this tiger was a HUGE picture that took up almost a whole wall above their couch! As soon as I saw it I immediately thought, "I NEED to paint that." After Joel and I got married and life settled down a bit, I decided to finally paint this tiger. My 'art studio' was in our teeeeeny first apartment, and you walked into my easel one you entered our apartment. Not the most ideal painting space, but it worked! My goal of this painting: I want the viewer to feel as if that tiger is staring into your soul and about to pounce at any minute.

This is the second time I painted a flower, this time for my sweet mother-in-"love"'s birthday in April 2013. 

I painted this for my cute sister and her new husband as a wedding gift! After they got engaged, my other sister took some pictures of them as a newly engaged couple. I took one of those pictures that she had edited in black and white, and decided to paint it. I made sure the measurements of the canvas would fit inside a suitcase, so I could bring it over without having to ship it. ;) This is the third time I have ever painted portraits, and I feel very satisfied with how this turned out.

After I painted the flower for my mother-in-love, I put it out on facebook. Shortly after I received an email from a lady requesting a painting of the typical Swedish ocean, and she said she would pay me for it! My first painting ever sold. I am really happy with how it turned out as well, especially since I usually tend to stay away from painting clouds and water. I now know I can do it though, so I am more comfortable painting it. 

I decided to give it a go again, and to try repainting the same flower I painted for Denise. That's right... this is the SAME flower! Looking back and comparing the two now, I can't believe how much I have grown. I am going to this this beauty off to my mom as a gift to her for being awesome! ;)

This sunflower is the second painting I have sold! After I put out the previous flower on facebook, I got this specific request for a sunflower. I really enjoyed painting it, especially with the bright colors.

Third painting I have sold! You can read the details about it HERE