A Very Lucky Landscape.

I call it lucky, because it reeaally, really is! I think this is the very first landscape I've completed that has made it into a frame instead of quickly being covered up with whatever color of paint I have nearest me [because I can't bear another moment of looking at it]! So this is indeed a major accomplishment for me.

We took a trip out to Kenosha Pass about a week ago to see the Aspens starting to change colors. We knew we were hitting it a liiittle early, but we wanted to make sure we got the chance to see at least SOME of it before this baby comes and all of a sudden those pretty yellow leaves were gone. Luckily, it was still gorgeous. And we're hoping to take another drive sometime in the next week - as long as labor isn't kicking in.

All that to say, the Aspens have inspired me to NOT throw away this latest landscape painting.

I actually used a lot of plastic bags to texture over the whole canvas - starting with the dark background colors, and moving on to the yellows of the tree tops.

After my hands were completely covered in paint and I was satisfied with the 25% that actually made it onto the canvas, I added all the tree trunks. I started with a pretty fine brush to do the narrow trees in the background, and moved on to bigger brushes as I came into the foreground - making the trees slightly lighter at the same time.

I added lots of branches, knots, and lines to the tree trunks - trying to make them look a little more 'Aspen-y.' After a little fine tuning and a few added details to the tree tops, that was it!

Can't wait to go back!!

Kara Spicuzza Welborn

Colorado Aspens

16x20 [20x24 with frame]

framed and ready to hang

acrylics by BASICS

brushes by Princeton Art & Brush Co.

contact user email address for purchase

$179

Maybe It's Familiar.

Right off the bat you might think, hey, I've seen this one already. Buuut ya haven't. Not exactly, at least! This was actually the first New Orleans/jazz inspired painting I ever worked on. It was gifted to my in-laws a couple of Christmas' ago, and they so graciously let me steal it back recently to have it reframed - and I figured I'd take the opportunity to snap some photos and post on the blog about it.

 This painting was actually done when I was still living in Louisiana, so it has a lot of memories and sentimental value tied to it for me. Lots of late nights with the roomies, hangin' out, makin' stuff.

I'm thankful to have this one hanging nearby where I can still go and see it! I know you've seen similar paintings from me lately, but hope you still enjoy!

Kara Spicuzza Welborn

Jazz #1

20x26 [24x30 with frame]

framed and ready to hang

will re-create upon request

price varies upon size requested

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Nursery.

After this post, I swear I will be going back to talking about more of my paintings! This child prepping stuff has had me pretty busy, and I love it too much to not share. So.. here is the 90% completed nursery!

Husb and I talked about not finding out the gender of little babe for about... mmm.. 30 seconds. Props to those who can stand it! But there was just no way. In fact, Ryan secretly researched online how to tell for yourself on an ultrasound what the gender is. So, even if I HAD decided to not know, that little sneak would've secretly known the whole time! Haha. In the end, I think you would have had to be looking at the screen cross-eyed to not see that it was a boy! He's already a little show off.

Once we knew that it was a boy, we quickly discovered that the idea of keeping our baby name ideas a secret would be loved by some, and hated by many, many other somes. It has been slightly fun torturing certain people, but slightly not fun hearing him called by his nicknames - J.R., Bill Cosby, It, etc. I'm excited for him to be here so I can say it out loud whenever I want! [and to never hear him be called Bill Cosby ever, ever again - Sorry, Bill.]

So finally, here is the nursery! Sans a few things that will be hanging on the walls - some of which include his secret name. But I will show you what I can!

Our crib was a thrift store find, if you can believe it! Of course if I had been on the hunt to find one, it never would have happened. But I just walked in one day for a little browsing, and there she was.

My mom spent a lot of her last trip out to Colorado working on the chevron quilt you see hanging over the edge of the crib. We couldn't find something in the store that we really loved, so she whipped this bad boy up for us! We'll also have a bed skirt to add the next time she comes back to town!

 

The shelf to the left was a find from Habitat for Humanity's Restore for $7! I took that bad boy home, slapped on a new coat of paint, and it worked perfectly for the space that we had left in the corner.

I thought the framed quotes were hilarious. So they had to fit somewhere.

This right here is pretty much the ONLY reason I am hoping that the weather slightly cools off before baby is born. I love this outfit so much! But I think it might make me a terrible mother to stick him in his first outfit and make him drive home from the hospital sweating in a hot car. So, fingers crossed!

This chevron blanket was made by baby's Great Grandma [my Boo Boo] and given to me at our shower! I love it, but she claims that it's not right, and insists on making us another one. Fine by me!! Thanks, Boo!

This fantastic dresser was a steal from an amazing antique shop [Patina Antiques & Home] that my wonderful friend, Rachael Green, introduced me to. I wish I could decorate our whole house with this store!

This is actually one of my old dressers from growing up that I repainted [for probably the 47th time]. We found the handles - elephants, airplanes, and dump trucks - on clearance at Pottery Barn, and I love them.

These cuties came all the way from Africa! Ryan took a work related trip to Uganda a month or so ago and came back bearing many gifts. These included. They're pretty adorable. I'm thinking about sending him back for more.

And, the whole thing together! We'll get the rest of the little guy's art up before long, but who knows, he might be here before we get the chance! We are pretty excited. He's welcome to come any day now! :)

Kara Spicuzza Welborn

DIY Baby Mobile

I don't usually spend very much time on Pinterest, but I happened to find a post to another girls blog who has made all kinds of cool things out of paint chips. I had to steal this one, 'cause I loved it.

I headed over to Home Depot and got TONS of paint chips. I know they're free - but I felt slightly guilty walking out with my monstrous pile.

I cut the paint chips into strips so that none of the labels or names of the colors were showing, and then folded them across the white lines, making little cubes [they had to be 4 colored paint chips to work this way]. I put two separate strips of paint chips together, using little dabs of hot glue, to make them into full cubes.

After all the cubes were finished, I used two different sized embroidery rings from Joann [less than $3.oo each] and an old spool of yarn from Goodwill to attach it all together.

I laced the yarn through the corners of each cube and attached them to the rings with a little bit of hot glue. 

We couldn't decide if we wanted it suspended from the ceiling or not, so I ended up finding a mobile that was on clearance at Babies R Us [with a couple coupons it was less than $10!]. We took off all the cute dangly things and saved them as toys, and attached ours instead! I made a little cover for the ugly plastic arm, and done!

Now it spins and plays slightly creepy music, which we would have missed out on if it had just been hanging from the ceiling. So all we need is a little baby in there to enjoy it!

I know this is a little different from my usual post - so hope y'all still enjoy it!

Kara Spicuzza Welborn

Baby Bloggin'

Yet another long, long delay - whoops! 

I have come to find that being pregnant makes everything slightly more difficult - one thing in particular is standing for long periods of time. So, there hasn't been much painting going on here lately.

Husb and I have been hard at work on the baby's room. It has been quite a serious ordeal. Ripping up carpets, replacing windows, installing lighting... Yikes. It was a mess.

However, I think it looks pretty amazing now! We're not completely finished yet, but there's a little sneak peak at the bottom of this post :)

I knew I wanted to paint some new things for the baby, it just took me a while to decide exactly WHAT. Here is the first one we decided on, and I've got a second in the making!

And here is one corner of the room where the new painting is hanging. This used to be a pretty beaten up closet, so we took the doors down, refinished an old dresser, and made it into our changing table. I also hung my old "Where the Wild Things Are" painting inside.

This picture was obviously taken in the evening, so the coloring is slightly off. We've got grey, white, and baby blue going on as the main colors, and a bit of green and yellow here and there! I'll definitely have more posted as we finish up in the coming weeks.

Can't wait until this little guy is out here! 5 weeks and counting!

And.. We're Back!

So, it has been a while since my last post. Luckily, I have a pretty good reason as to why! As many of you already know... We are havin' a baby! (wow, still crazy to hear/read myself say/type that). Over the last few months, the nausea has kept me pretty far from my easel and quite near my bed. Thankfully these last couple weeks have turned around and I'm finally feeling like myself again. So, with my brother-in-law's birthday coming up, I got back to work!

A couple of years ago, I painted something similar for my in-laws as their Christmas gift. Since then, I've had a few requests for more New Orleans style jazz pieces (i.e. the painting from my last blog post!) So, with my brother-in-law being one of those requests, I had to make up excuses and come up with reasons as to why I hadn't started on his painting yet - that is, until his birthday finally came around!

The cityscape was done with knives and the sky and musicians  were mainly with my brushes. Coming up with some new instruments to throw in there was fun, and of course, I'm a sucker for the color. Hope you guys love it!

Kara Spicuzza Welborn

Jazz

18x24 [22x29 with frame]

SOLD

New Orleans.

Lucky for me, I was born in this crazy city! I have a great big cajun family that loves to play, cook, and curse. I moved away as a kid but took trips back and forth a few times a year until I moved back for college. Since I was a lil' gal, New Orleans has been close to my heart.

The culture in Louisiana is unlike any other throughout the rest of the country - no exaggeration. And if you've never been there, it's something to see for yourself. The warm weather, the fried food, and mainly, the jazz. You don't have to pay for a show to get it. You just have to go outside and walk around. You're bound to run into somebody, somewhere, who's playing some kind of awesome music.

And you won't only see it in person - circling Jackson Square you'll see hundreds of different paintings of New Orleans that artists are selling, and many of them are based around jazz. That little walk to see all the art is one of my all time favorite things to do in the city.

I've done a New Orleans themed piece before, and before I even started, I knew I wanted it to be crazy colorful. I also knew I wanted some crooked buildings, just because I wanted some crooked buildings.

I decided on two musicians with some really big instruments, cause that's the whole point ..right?

I wanted their instruments to be much bolder than their bodies, so the musicians themselves stayed semi transparent.

Now, she's all framed and ready to hang somewhere musical! I plan to do more similar pieces, because people [my family, haha] seem to love them! And because I have a lot of fun with all the color and the variety there is with the different instruments.

I love this city, and if you haven't gotten there, get there!

Geaux Saints!

Kara Spicuzza Welborn

New Orleans

18x24 [22x29 with frame]

framed and ready to hang

will make you Saints fan

contact user email address for purchase

$230 SOLD