Akiane Kramarik is an amazing painting prodigy and poet. She picked up a paintbrush at the age of six and now at thirteen she has a résumé that most adults would be proud of. Her work is lovely, her message is all about love. Good stuff.
Tag Archives: art
artful thursday
Time to power up that inner artist! I made this line drawing of an angel on a cool website called the SCRIBBLER. You hold down the left mouse button and make a simple line drawing, and when you’re done the SCRIBBLER takes over and creates a masterpiece. If you love what you make and want to save it to your computer it’s a little tricky, but if bookbabie can do it, anyone can! I followed their directions and pasted the entire page capture on a blank page in my photo program, then cropped out what I didn’t want, and ta da, a lovely line angel!
shades of new york
Zina Saunders is a professional writer-illustrator and native New Yorker who chronicles the lives of New York City residents on her very cool website, Overlooked New York. She also interviews each subject and does a brief write up about them and about their “joyous” obsessions. Some of her subject categories are; Rooftop Pigeon Guys, Animal Lovers (like Dora above), Subway Musicians, and Curry Contestants. Wonderful paintings and snapshots of some of the colorful people that make New York the great city that it is. Check it out (and if you happen to be a book editor, I for one would buy a collection of her portraits!).
painterly woman
Mary Cassatt’s place in the history of American art is unique, not only because she was one of the few woman artists of any nationality to succeed professionally in her time, but also because she was the only American artist to exhibit with the French Impressionists. After mastering the requirements of academic painting, Cassatt broke away from tradition and joined Edgar Degas, a close friend and mentor, in the exhibition of Impressionist artists in 1879. Cassatt embraced the technique of the Impressionists while developing a highly accomplished individual style.
friday frenchmen
The Story Book by William-Adolphe Bouguereau French Painter (1825-1905)
“I’ve never known any trouble that an hour’s reading didn’t assuage.” Charles De Secondat French lawyer & philosopher (1689-1755)
artful monday
This beautiful print is from a website where people can sell their handmade items, it’s called Etsy. Aside from artwork they have furniture, clothing, housewares, needlecraft, woodwork…etc. It’s a neat site, well designed and a great place to window shop or find that one-of-a-kind gift you’re looking for.
family portrait
After feeling a little burned out from the busy holidays I decided to try my hand at a the fun, no stress art form of collage. I scanned photos of my family from a favorite trip we took to Lake Michigan about fifteen years ago and glued them onto a background I painted and layered with torn paper and a map of the area we visited. I made our clothes with material leftover from all the sewing projects I never got around to and, ta da, a family portrait like no other (Mr. bookbabie insists I write that his legs are not nearly so chicken-like). There a lots of sites online to get inspiration from, Collageart.org and the Collage Artists of America has lists of artists and their galleries.
Rosie and Claudine Hellmuth are also websites of collage artists that got me motivated to make stuff again. Thanks girls! Next up, a collage of me and George on the red carpet at the Oscars, hmmm, what should I wear?
read to me
BookPALS is a site sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild where various actors read children’s books on camera. Haylie Duff reads Romeow and Drooliet, Al Gore reads Brave Irene, and Jane Kaczmarek reads Thank You, Mr. Falker, a book based on the author’s own experience as a little girl who overcomes dyslexia and discovers the joy of reading. A fun site you can share with a child or with that child inside of you that still likes to have someone read them a story!
bookbabie 
