New Sticker Art for Eleanor

This weekend was full of special deliveries of custom Loreen work for dear friends of mine.  If you peaked on Facebook/Instagram, you may have seen me tapping back into my sticker roots.  Some of you may not know how deep those roots go.  Well let me tell you....back to bad perms and glasses deep:

At my cottage in Wisconsin, besides crafting when the weather was icky, we traded stickers.  We would take an extensive amount of time to setup these elaborate "sticker stores", trade a few here and there and be done in a fraction of the time it took to setup.  All the same, we loved it...so much that I still have my collection to this day.

Mostly this was done with a couple of neighbor girls, but we did have one boy in the group because his sister was also in the trade.  It was only appropriate that when Brian and Rachel had their baby girl Eleanor that they get a special sticker piece for Eleanor's room.

I was so thrilled to get to meet Eleanor for the first time too!

I am so lucky to be able to put my little stamp on Eleanor's life and get to watch her grow up...and eventually share stories with her about sticker trading with her daddy.

Xoxo

Baby's and Paintings and Florists Oh My!

It's July.  Doesn't seem right.  What does seem right is the long weekend I have ahead of me.  I can't wait to enjoy the holiday weekend up at my cottage with my lake family.  We'll enjoy nothing by food, sun (hopefully) and each others company.

My friend (and client), Brian, will be missed in Wisconsin this weekend but for good reason.  Brian and his wife Rachel just welcomed Eleanor Jane into their lives last month.  She is a sweet little peanut.

Checkout that painting in the back!  I love seeing my work in its final home.  I really love seeing the reactions to my paintings as well.  Amidst caring for a new baby, Brian was kind enough to send over a couple of pics of Madi receiving her wedding gift from Brian and Rachel.

I can already tell that she loves it.  That's enough for me.

And one final tie in to this cast of characters and paintings....Madi's florist!  The bouquet Becky from Beco Flowers created was absolutely amazing.  I mean, really...there was cotton AND a succulent in it! I just had to meet Becky.  So, thanks to the internet, I am able to share a bit more about Becky and more of her delightful work.  Enjoy!

1.  How long have you been in business?  

Since 1999

2.  Gotta ask...what’s your favorite flower?  

I love ALL spring flowers--everything from peonies, hyacinth, allium, daffodils, lilac, etc. But, my personal favorites are 'poeticus' narcissus aka pheasant eye narcissus and any variety of double, fragrant narcissus such as 'cheerfulness' . The narcissus flower and fragrance brings me back to my childhood. I am obsessed with them!

3.  Toot your own horn....what’s your specialty?  

We love weddings with pretty, gardeny flowers that incorporate lots of texture with beautiful color combinations. I'm great at sourcing unusual fresh flowers and fresh product to surprise and delight my bride's and customers.

4.  What would be your dream creation?  

A gigantic bouquet done in the style of a Dutch masters painting.

5.  Craziest request you’ve had?  

A oversized floral peacock for an upcoming wedding!

6.  What do you like about working in the wedding industry?  

Collaborating with bride's on their weddings. Constantly changing trends and colors keeps our design senses sharp. Plus, there is nothing better than a thrilled bride at the end of the day. I also love to see the photos of our finished work.

7.  What is something you wish your clients knew about your job?  

There's a lot of behind the scenes work to get to the finished product. Some of it is not so glamorous!

8.  When you are not working, what are you up to?  

I enjoy cooking, gardening, traveling and spending time with my 3 1/2 month old twins.

9.  Anything new and exciting coming up that we should know about? (either professionally or personally)  
My twins are new and exciting!

Beco Flowers

Kansas City, Missouri

816.472.4242

www.becoflowers.com

becoflowers@aol.com

Thank you so much Becky!!!  Have a star spangled 4th of July everyone!!!

Dualing Paintings

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope the blast of fall air has given you a fresh start to the work week.  I'm feeling pretty motivated and keeping busy.  As a wise woman I know once said, "People are their least productive when they're 'busy', meaning they have a lot going on but not much is happening."  Well Ms. Anne marie, I can safely say that things are "happening".  In fact, two things are happening....I'm dual painting.  
I've been asked before if I ever paint multiple pieces at one time, and the answer is typically "no".  Currently I have taken on this mystery of multi-tasking in order to have a couple of visual options for my upcoming photo shoot with the lovely Jennifer Kathryn Photography.


Here is an update on Argentina and Jesse's ivory bouquet:

I put the brakes on this piece in order to start another with a little more color variation for my website photos.  I introduce to you the composition for Anna and Jason's painting:

Not only is this painting full of spring colors, but it is a doosy of a composition (who volunteered this image?).  This piece reminds me a lot of Rachel and Brian's painting...remember that one?:

I think it's the sunlight, color palette and those coveted peonies that make these compositions look like cousins of each other.  What do you think?

Back to the painting...
So, I've sketched in Anna and Jason's, resulting in a very advanced, oversized looking coloring book:

Lil bit crazy looking if you ask me.  Ah, but there's no time to think about that.  Next week is the photo shoot and I need to have half of this painting finished with maybe a little more on Argentina and Jesse's.  Back and forth I'll go with a few updates here and there for you.

For more extensive coverage on my progress, follow me on Instagram.  Yes, I have added another social media platform to my arsenal of getting the Reenie Rose word out to one and all.  You can find me under the username "Loreen_Rose".  Do you believe "ReenieRose" was already taken?  Who is this impostor and how do they paint?!

Not this crazy way I bet.

Yeah! It's finished!!!

I've finally finished Brian and Rachel's painting!   It is a knockout of a painting and I'm so excited to have it in my collection of images.  Thanks Brian and Rachel!!!

Brief Update

Just a quick update on Brian and Rachel's painting.  Looking good...

Having Labor to Celebrate

It's Labor Day weekend, and I have a whole slew of work related things going on. First of all, you may remember last month when I posted about Libertyville's First Friday event. Well, it was canceled last month due to the unrelenting rain we had. So on short notice to you, I am participating today! If you need something to do this evening, I will be at Buss Flower Shop in Libertyville promoting my lovely paintings. I'll have both Ashley's and Rachel's paintings on hand.


Next on the list is the update for Brian and Rachel's painting. I'm really happy with the way it's going since I was pretty unsure as to how I was going to attack the more complex areas. Not too bad so far!


I am going to be putting a hold on Brian and Rachel's painting for a bit to start a new painting for an old grade school/high school classmate of mine. This is going to be a new approach to my paintings because Cate was married last summer. I received a photo from her photographer and am going to be working from that instead of my own images. I'm really excited to see how this goes and present it to her at our 10 year high school reunion....crazy!!! Thanks to Cate (Katy still in my head) and to her photographer for the images.


Here's the painting sketched out next to the printed out image.


And, the painting as of today!!!

Finally, I received a call the other day for a painting for a wedding this weekend...eek! Since my weekend is already carved out for me, I am going to try yet another approach to getting my images....the florist and the photographer. Near, far, it doesn't matter, I will find a way to get the images for the weddings....so keep the calls coming!!!
Have a great holiday weekend everyone!!!! Yeah to work/labor!!!

Halfway There

Another update on Rachel's bouquet as I head into the weekend. It's halfway done, but the other half looks to be a big challenge (you can see on the papers to the left of the painting what I have to paint next).
My plan for the weekend is to sketch out a new painting that has its own set of challenges. Stay tuned!

A Little Bit Here, A Little Bit There

After a long siesta, I've jumped back into Brian and Rachel's painting. Don't worry Brian, I haven't forgotten about it!

Parading Around

It has been 2 weekends in a row of promoting myself at the Bay Area Parade of Homes up in Traverse City, Michigan, and I must say that I think all the travel and smiling will definitely pay off in the end. I have quite a few leads and a visit in the works for July already. Big thanks to Tricia and Dean for housing me, feeding me, and letting me live vicariously through them for awhile. I can't wait to visit again...and maybe enjoy some r & r the next time.




Now I can get back to painting. Here's the setup for Brian and Rachel's painting. It's hard to see, but the canvas on the right has been sketched in. This one will be interesting....

Weekend Wedding

This weekend I had the pleasure of going down to Kansas City, Missouri to attend the wedding of a good family friend...Brian and his new wife Rachel. I will be gifting them a bouquet, so get ready to see this one created. Her flowers were absolutely gorgeous, so they should make for a great painting!