Spring Cleaning!

It may not be much, but I start most workdays with a broom. It generally has to do with having wood floors and not liking dust anywhere near my paints, brushes, or tools, but I kind of like the feeling of it, like I am raking an imaginary rock garden before I get started at my easel.... but yesterday started the big studio spring clean.... I hope you enjoy the peek into my world!

If you visit I will send some of my ivy home with you from the wall :)

I found many things including tiny panels and extra painty paints I could use on future projects. *note: any paint you see in that studio photo is the tip of the iceberg that is a wall of buckets and cloth rack of tubes. (I keep them until I scrape every last bit of usable paint!)  I usually have a few things going at once too, so those tables are never in the same place. I like to move things :)

With some of the panels found I started working with more limited color palettes (a great way to achieve a pleasing look throughout) and made this little 5x7 cutie as well:

You can see mostly Phthalo Turquoise, Alizarin Crimson,Payne's Grey &White were used.
Unbleached Titanium was used in parts of the hair/birds and heavy-body "portrait" pink was used to soften her
skin/dress and bird feathers. Only her eyes have Cerulean.

Here is the finished piece: "Miss Starling" you can purchase her via my Etsy through this link.

I hope to have more little pieces like this listed soon! The big clean always leaves me feeling refreshed and ready to create more <3