Bella Dulce Chocolat

1 pd variety chocolates

1 pd. Chocolate Truffles

Bella; beautiful, Dulce; sweet, Chocolat; chocolate.  Beautiful Sweet Chocolate!
I have loved chocolate my entire life and was told as a child I would someday outgrow my sweet tooth, I don't know if anyone else out there is like me, but that has not happened and at this late date doubt it will :).  At the end of a hard day, there is nothing better than a glass of wine and a piece of decadent chocolate.  I have played with making chocolates as gifts for years and have decided to share my creations with the world.  We have had a few mishaps along the way, like powdered sugar bags exploding and covering everything in a sweet blanket of white and fighting the temptation to taste one to many but overall the process is going well.  I am up to several flavor creations now and continue to experiment as I go.  The varieties available are:   Semi-Sweet English  Walnut Fudge,  Chocolate covered English Toffee, Chocolate Mocha Truffle,  Peppermint Bark,  Maple Cappuccino Truffle,  Irish Cream Fudge,  Death by Chocolate,  Lemon Truffle,  Strawberry Fudge,  Coconut Truffle, Candied Pecans,  Chocolate covered Apricots,  Orange Truffle, Chocolate Covered Pineapple,  Red Wine Truffle, Black Walnut Balls, Maple Nut Fudge, Fig Truffle, Peanut Butter Truffle, Apricot Truffle. Makes your mouth water doesn't it?  Enjoy.

Blue Elephant

Blue Elephant

The third in what I hope will be a series of zoo animal prints for kids.  Fun.

Pink Flamingo

Pink Flamingo

Loved pink as a girl, like lots of other girls and the brighter the better.  One of my favorite zoo animals was the pink flamingo because of its grace and of course, pink feathers.  One of my group of zoo animals, through the eyes of a child.

Pink Giraffe

Pink Giraffe

What colors go together and why.  I know that there is a color wheel and all the talk about certain colors go together and other don't, but I find that it is far more fun to just go with what feels right.  I know Giraffes are not generally pink, orange and gold but thought it would be fun to make them so.   My goal was to create the "feel" that I had while visiting the zoo as a child. Seeing through the eyes of a child make life anything but boring!

Books: Collected Art Works of Tamyra Crossley

Daughters of Eve

The Sea Beckons

Wine and Travel

Compiled three different Art softcover books.  12x12 about 20 pages each.

The Sea Beckons; a collection of original art works that have a seafaring theme.
 Daughters of Eve; a celebration of women.
 Wine and Travel; a collection of wine and travel themed art work.

Travel Photography Books by Tamyra Crossley

Greece

Lakeside 

Seaside

Romania

Have just created four new travel photo books (12x12 softcover 20-26 pages each) of my original photographs while experiencing new places.  I have been blessed in being able to have seen some unique places around the world and am thrilled to share these with others who love to travel and have a desire to see the world.  They are available through my etsy site: viewfinderphoto.

Fall Creek Winery

Fall Creek Winery

One of the featured wines at the Autumn Art and Wine Festival held in Spring, Texas.  This winery is located in Tow, Texas.

Pleasant Hill Winery

Pleasant Hill Winery 

Decided to try some new colors on this wine themed piece.  This winery is another in Texas and featured at the Autumn Art and Wine Festival in Spring, Texas this year.  It is located in Brenham, Texas.

Calais Winery

Calais Winery

Had a show at the Autumn Art and Wine Festival in Spring, TX.  It featured lots of local wines so I wanted to create some new pieces in their honor. This winery is in Dallas, Texas.

Out on the Town

Out on the Town

Wanted to see what I could do with only black watercolors.  The finished result has a timeless, classic feel to it.

Lady of the Forest

Eyes of the Forest

Love the deep color and mystery of this piece.  It was done in watercolor and was happy with the intensity of the color.

Sheer Blue

Sheer Blue

Was after a sheer feel to a fabric and loved the effect of being able to somewhat see through the material.  This was done with watercolor and ink and I had to be careful not to overdo the watercolor washes at the bottom of the skirt.  Liked the light feel to this piece.

Fashion Statement

Hibiscus

I've been challenging myself with portraits   I liked the floppy hat and the idea of only putting color on the flowers.  I call it Hibiscus.

Pixie Sketch in Progress

Add caption

Pixie

I have determined to conquer my fear of drawing people.  I think that it is because there are little or no right angles but then again, most of my work does not have right angles so maybe the fear is a bit unrealistic.  I actually remembered to take photos as the work progressed, something I usually forget to do, so that others can see the process and perhaps not be as intimated as I have been.  I know there are formulas, eyes three widths apart, ears between eyebrows and nose and the spacing rules.  Of course each face is slightly different, which gives us our own unique look but the rules do help unless you are trying for a Picasso.  Personally I think just diving in and giving it a go is what works for me.   This drawing started with pencil, then progressed to charcoal and then watercolor.  Hope the stages help someone out there.      

Pencil Sketch "Perrrrfect"

Perrrrfect

I am trying to draw daily, sometimes I do well and others......life just has other ideas!  I usually take some time each morning, when my household is still quite, grab my cup of coffee and get out my pencils.  I am working on people, they are the most intimidating to me, so that is the area I want to practice the most.  This image was done with pencils and a few lines of charcoal.  I had fun with the hair and her pose made me think of a cat, thus the name Perrrrfect.  

Charcoal and Pencil Sketch Midnight Escape

Midnight Escape

 I got my first charcoal sticks and decided to give it a try.  I have loved the loose drawing other artists have done and thought that is what I would end up with.   As you can see, the finished product did not turn out very loose.  The nice thing about the sticks is that you can get a very dark value and they smear nicely. I did also use some pencil as it is hard to get any fine detail with just charcoal sticks. The woman in the image I imagine fleeing into the night under the cover of darkness.  She is alert and has a frightened look in her eyes.  What is she running from?  That is up to you, imagination is a wonderful thing.  I will try these again and see if I can come up with a looser image.

Circle Quilt

Now and then I get a desire to work with fabric.  My grandmother used to quilt (one of her artistic endeavors) and I have one of those quilts that have pieces of fabric from grandpa's shirts and grandma's dresses.  My grandmother had to care for her family  during the depression and saved every usable scrap of material. She would even cut buttons off of shirts and unwind the threads holding those buttons, then carefully wrap the thread around a small piece of cardboard.  Today, in our disposable society we are so spoiled.  It never occurs to most of us to use items we already have to make a quilt.  Like most people, I go to the fabric store and buy the fabrics I need.  This quilt I decided to do a little differently.  I had a child's dress in pink, orange and gold and used that color pallet to create my quilt.  I cut out as many circles as I could, using different sized bowls and bottle caps as my pattern.  I then went to a second hand store to find a nice big piece of fabric or sheet to use as the backing.  I found a pink striped fabric that worked perfectly and saved me money.  I used a plain muslin for the front backing and did buy some small pieces of coordinating fabrics for the additional circles.  After I cut out the circles I used an iron on fused backing to adhere the circles to the muslin then did a tight zig zag around each circle.  Once the quilt top was finished I used a batting in the middle and used a random stitch pattern to put it all together.  Running my wavy lines down the quilt vertically so that I could fit up to 1/2 the bulk into the space beside the needle and the machine. Overall, it is a fun quilt and a bit out of the box from the traditional quilt patterns.

Back from Vacation / Maureen's Wedding

Maureen and I 

Maureen's Wedding Painting

Had a wonderful trip to California with friends and family.  A dear friend of mine just got married and I decided to paint her something that would have meaning to her.  I was shocked when I arrived at her home to see she still had some of my original artwork from 20+ years ago.  The wine bottles each have both her maiden name Kennedy (and yes she is related to THE Kennedy's for all of you that have to know) and Cain (her name to be).  The date on the house is her wedding date.  I have such fond memories of our girls together and as I helped her pack found lots of things to bring tears to our eyes.  Congrats Mo.

Circus Parade

Circus Elephant

Flamingo Circus

Circus Parade

Flamingo Circus Mixed Media

Flamingo Circus Postcard

Baby Shower Invitation

Just completed the second in what I hope to be a series or circus parade prints.  Each print has an element that shows up in the next print making it ideal to hang together as a set.  I only have two completed at this point and the next will have the elephant's trunk incorporated into it.   I have also include additional works I have created from my original watercolor of Flamingo Circus (a mixed media work a postcard and party invitations) to illustrate that once you complete a work it is not necessarily done!

Making Postcard Mixed Media from Original Art

Original Mixed Media

Lower Portion for Postcard

Upper Portion for Postcard

You can start one of several ways.  I usually start with a piece of card stock paper, watercolor or acrylic  paper (something with some bulk to it that will hold up to paint).  I will gather items that look appealing together, bits of scrapbook paper, notes, paper ephemera, old postage stamps, stickers, etc.  I arrange my paints and rubber stamps and start a huge collage on my dining table until I see an idea starting to form.  I then try to position my original artwork (bear in mind that you can use only a section of a piece or the whole) on the piece adding in the other elements.  The areas that are still white is where I add in paint.  After everything is glued down I used any rubber stamps or handwriting.  When I finish the design I scan it and it is ready to print on card stock paper for your postcard.  I use a rounding tool to round the corners and place a line down the middle of the back separating the address side from the message side.  I happen to have a rubber stamp that looks like an old postage stamp that I will put where the stamp will go if it is ever mailed.  

Postcard bulk

Pick any four

Pick any six

Ok, went a bit crazy with the postcard fun and plan to have a few more crazy moments!  Warning, this will make a mess, a big mess.  I took up the kitchen table and every available chair with paints, brushes, paper ephemera, stamps, postage stamps, bits of photos, lined paper, pens, ink.....you get the idea.  Created over 20 in less than a day, that is if you don't count the previous day that I was busy printing, and of course if you don't count the day after to scan and list all of these.  Putting all the pieces together is a bit like looking for the perfect puzzle piece.   Some took more thought than others but the overall process was really fun.  I used gel medium to glue the pieces on to the card stock (for those of you who do not know what this is, it is usually found in the same area as the fine art paints and reads "gel medium".  It works great as a glue but I would imagine plain old glue would be fine too.  I am always on the look out of images I like, they can come from magazines, old books, family photos, etc.  I even go through previous read books to find phrases that I like.    If you have really nice penmanship, use your own creative hand.  The key is, don't be afraid to try your hand at something new and your friends will think you are wonderful when they receive one of your creations in the mail and as I side note you are adding a little eye candy for the mail carrier!  To take a look at all 20 plus go to my etsy site www.etsy.com/people/studioquest or click the link at right.

Two Birds Postcard

Two Birds

Two Birds Postcard

This sweet watercolor was perfect for some mixed media work. Once the postcard is printed on cardstock paper then the edges rounded it is ready to ship.

Raven Postcard

The Raven

Took my original watercolor "the raven", added some scrapbook paper, stamps and I now have a new mixed media postcard.

The Raven Postcard

Postcard Art

Dreamed of in a Girl

Always looking for new ways to market existing pieces of art and decided to create some new pieces from both full works of art and parts of an existing piece.  I took my original work "Dreamed of in a girl" and added some scrapbook paper to the bottom to create a different postcard.

Dreamed of in a girl postcard

Then decided.....what if I cut into two pieces, one to highlight the eyes....

Blue Eyes

One to highlight the red lips...

Dreamed of in a girl

What I ended up with is four potential postcards, each a bit different and unique.

Wine Themed Art

Texas Wine

Bernhardt and Retreat Hill Wineries

Lazy Creek Vineyards

Blackstone Wine Mixed Media

Bernhardt Wine Mixed Media

Lost Maples Mixed Media

It's a whole month of wine themed events at the Woodlands.  The Woodlands Art League is displaying a front window of wine themed art.  I have just completed several pieces.  Two traditional and a total of four mixed media that have a bit of a contemporary feel.  The process of creating mixed media work is very liberating, you really don't have to do much thinking, I just go with what feels right.   On these I used an acrylic paper for my base, put layers of acrylic paint for a backdrop then adhered my paper ephemera with gel medium.  I then went in an added the vines, grape leaves and bordered and finished up with the pen and ink.  I used some metallic acrylics for the first time and like the bit of shine it gives the final work. The point is, don't be afraid to just jump in.  There is no right or wrong and each time a learn a bit more.