Of Vibrancy and Weddings

 I can't help but ogle over these colors.

My husband was a best man at a wedding this last Saturday. I have had the chance to get to know this couple over the past two and a half years since me and A.J. got married. A.J. and the groom Aaron have been best friends for years and years now; something that I can't even begin to imagine as I never lived in more than one place for longer than three or four years. All my childhood friends have long since moved on as I have to new adventures. A part of me really wishes for this kind of connection with people and so I find myself living some childhood dreams through my husband who gave a great best man's speech about falling in love and forgiveness. What great memories we are building with A.J's old friends and my new friends, and such vibrancy and warmth to remember such occasions by.

Making it fun!

I have not as of yet written anything about me teaching art at the Learning Foundation and Performing Art Charter School. I am their Art teacher and Bus Driver. An interesting combo but I enjoy it. The question arose when it was time to have the art students draw a still life; how to make it interesting and fun? I enjoy still lifes myself but kids in general do not. The typical bowl of fruit is what every student dreads. So then it dawned on me. It's almost Halloween, why not put Halloween objects together in a still life. We also, did the still lifes on black paper with chalk pastels for that extra awesome "pop". I drew a couple of sketches for the kids as examples to help demonstrate how to use the pastels on black paper and how to create an interesting composition. I had forgotten how much I enjoy using pastels. I kinda stared to feel addicted to drawing these pictures and I believe I am going to be dragging out my pastels more often. It's amazing how much we learn teaching.

Inspiration

My purple stripey socks are so fun I couldn't help but take lots of pictures of my feet.

Halloween is so great for the imagination.

I began to think about ballerinas with stripey socks.

So, I of course had to pull out my ballet slippers.

I think that stripey socks will definitely be showing up in one of my ballerina paintings before too long.

Peace Reigns

The next painting in my ballerina series. The goal for this series was originally 20 paintings but with all the other projects I've got going and also teaching art at a charter school, it is taking my longer than I had hoped. I have decided that in order to get a little bit of peace back into my life, as this painting suggests, I need to cut back on the number of extra projects I am taking on so that I can focus on getting....oh say.... the rest of this series done in a timely manner. Time goes by too fast and I always try to cram in too many awesome projects. Time to evaluate which projects would be good, which project would be better, and which project would be BEST!

A Young Woman's Influence

I just finished this one and entered it into the LDS Church Art Competition. Now we play the waiting game to see if I even get accepted into the competition. I will know by the end of December.

I was majorly influenced by the Young Women that I work with at church. We have such great Young Women; if you can't tell, I am quite proud of them. The theme for the competition is Make known His wonderful works. The painting illustrates how one young women's influence for good can in turn influence others who in turn influence others for good. It's a beautiful cascade that snowballs and can effect many people. I have seen this with our own girls in our ward how even small acts of service and kindness change peoples lives.

Finished.....Two Months Ago.

How does time get away from you? But the mural turned out nice and is a hit at the school!

Mini Art Show

I just opened a Mini Art Show called "Finding My Balance" at the Institute of Optimum Balancing. The show officially opened the 27th of July and its undetermined how long it will be up. I have four original oil paintings hanging and two framed prints. The plan is to have this as a sample show for a larger show sometime next year. I was really pleased to find this venue to for the mini show as it is a place that embodies much of what I was hoping to say with this body of work. These paintings are all about different aspects of life and the situations in which we are faced that may cause us to be one sided or unbalanced. It is wonderful to know though, that no matter what situation we face there is always a way to experience it with dignity and grace and smoothly move through it with balance.

The Institute of Optimum Balancing is a wonderful place that offers many different forms of therapy. They have 8-10 different therapists that work there and provide all kinds of services such as Massage Therapy, Hypnotherapy, Reiki, Life and Spiritual Coaching, and many other forms of therapy to help one become whole and balanced.

If you are interested in seeing my show or in the Institute of Optimum Balancing, you can contact:

Rebecca Brown - 480-433-5744 or

Danielle Ohlund - 480-331-0191

www.spiritlightrising.com

1400 N Gilbert Rd. Suit P

Gilbert, AZ 85234

A sketch book should have sketches!

So for being a digital sketch book, I realized that I hadn't uploaded any sketches. These are a couple ballerina studies since I am into painting ballerinas right now. The top one was just a great composition and I was excited to draw it, and the bottom one is a study for a new painting I am getting ready to start!

Building an Art Gallery in Peppersauce Caves

I'm on the back row to the right and my husband A.J. is on the front row to the left.




Cave art masterpiece #1


Cave art masterpiece #2

Last Saturday my we (my husband and I) and four very awesome friends decided to take a trip down to Oracle to go explore Peppersause Cave. I've never been spelunking before, but I do have to say that it is one of the coolest things ever. From the pitch dark rooms to the rabbit holes and muddy slippery surfaces....I can't wait to go back. As we traversed the dungeonous rooms and tunnels we took note several times of many native cave drawing left behind by the ancient indigenous peoples of Oracle that when studied close seem to take on shockingly similar characterises to gang tagging. What talent these ancient peoples possessed. As I continued to explore I began to notice the large amount of clay with in the cave and decided to create my own art masterpieces for future generations of Oracle and Peppersauce Cave explorers to discover as depicted above. My real goal is going to be to try and find these tiny sculptures again when I go back to the caves.

New Painting

Music Rising, Marlene Tays Wellard

I just finished this painting and got it wired to hang in a small show I'm doing. The show will include five of my ballerina paintings and will be called "Finding my balance". After the paintings get hung I will post images of the show here as well.

I love Giraffes. I have included giraffes in a couple of the paintings I have done so, my husband gave me as a gift a giraffe beanie. Awesome! We therefore decided to take my new beanie on a field trip rock climbing. Me and my husband have been climbing now for two months and my new giraffe officially one day.

Inspired by my sister in law who is a dancer, I had her pose for a few pictures for me. She's so talented and does just about every kind of dance but tap. I've been very interested in ballet dancers and painting them of late and she has some very graceful lines that are perfect for some new paintings I've been considering. I think I even have in mind some other pictures I would like to ask her to pose for. I love too that she's excited to have me paint her. Now I've got to get the paintings I'm working on done so I can get started on these. My studio is kind of over run by unfinished paintings right now.

Up at 4am on the 4th of July

It's been two days now getting up at four in the morning to go work on a mural at the Learning Foundation and Performing Arts Charter School in Gilbert. Not my ideal time to rise and shine, but the heat is a definite deterrent to doing it later in the day. At 4:30 in the morning it was already 85 degrees outside and by 9am it was 95 out. It's been a while though since I've painted a mural and I had forgotten how much I enjoy it. The mural is on the side of a wooden shed that's right next to the school entrance. The pictures are of before I started painting and of the progress I have made thus far.

"In Memory of South Korea"


In going through my pictures on my computer, I realized that I finished this painting the end of last year and sold it the beginning of this year but never put the image on my web-site or on my artist Facebook. It just fell through the cracks. This was inspired by my dear friend who went to South Korea to teach the little kids english and had to leave early because she became sick with candita. I've never been to South Korea, but the images she sent home where beautiful.

Hello All!!!

I guess I will start this blog as so many others have by saying that it's about time I start this blog. It's my goal to use this blog as a sort of on-line digital sketchbook complete with images of sketches, new works that I have completed, things that inspire me, projects I am curently woking on, and things within the art comunnity in which I am involved. I can't say that I will post something everyday but, it will encourage me to to be activly aware of what I am completeing and keeping this and my work up to date. I want to first make note that I am not a writer. I am a visual artist. So while I may be writing posts on this site, please to not look for correct grammer or spelling; niether one are my forte.

And now to include a little bit about myself. I grew up in what seemed to a young girl, most of the continental U.S. which included New Mexico, Utah, Texas, Alabama, and Arizona. You would be suprised the aray of cultures that exist in the United States. In 2008 I graduted from Brigham Young Universty with a Bachelor in Studio Arts. I quickly found that full time well paid jobs for artists were just about nonexistant right out of college. So, I moved to Chandler Arizona and met my amazing husband Alan (A.J.) Wellard and found a job working for Chandler School District as a bus driver. While this was a job that taught my alot, it was not my dream job. I am now however, working for the Learning Foundation and Performing Arts Charter School of Gilbert as thier bus driver and Art Teacher. I have been involved in many art shows around the valley and enjoy doing commissions and murals for people and, am currently working with local Gilbert Artist George Lenz to organize an Art Walk for Gilbert.