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Welcome to Happy Abby Designs where you will find happy art and happy puppies.

 

It's Been a While

It's been a while since I've painted or posted. It's been busy, busy, busy getting this house in shape. I did play around with some watercolors and did this frog a while back.

Image of my watercolor - Frog

Happy Abby End-of-summer Sale

I'm not attending the Farmer's Market anymore so I'm having a sale to give everyone in Helena an opportunity to shop and see new pieces that I are new this year.

When: September 5-6, 7am-2pm.

Where: 511 Geddis Street

What: See details

Another Watercolor

I certainly have a bit to learn about painting trees and grass with watercolors. It's the layering thing. But I keep trying new things.

Image of my watercolor - Fishing from Shore

My First Watercolor Flowers

Oh, I think I'm going to enjoy painting flowers.

Image of my first watercolor flowers

Parrot

My parrot doesn't have a name yet. I'm accepting ideas.

Image of Parrot

Watercolor Girl #29, Patti

Inspired by St. Patrick's Day. She was named not just for the day, for my friend Patti, who suggested her look.

Image of Watercolor Girl #29, Patti

Tuki, the Toucan

I finished Tuki a month or so ago, but it's taken some time to get him photographed so I can make prints, journals, magnets and cards.

Image of Tuki, the Toucan

Pixie's Birthday

Yesterday was my little Pixie's 3rd birthday. I did this painting in her honor last year. My little Pixie angel, although more pixie than angel, but I love her to death.

Image of Pixie, the Spotted Angel

Who is your favorite Watercolor Girls?

Now that I'm done with all of the watercolor girls I'd really like to know which ones everyone likes the most. So I've created a poll so you can tell me. Once I've established the favorites I'm thinking about giving away a print. Hmmmm. So tell me what you think.

Jump over here to take the poll.

Image for Watercolor Girl poll and link

Watercolor Girls #28

Well I said I'd paint one girl each day in February and I did it. I finished this one right at midnight on the 28th. As she is my last girl in this challenge I decided to name her Abby, after one of my adorable Yorkies; the same Abby that my business is named after. I learned so much from this challenge. I'm really liking watercolors now, although I'm not done with acrylics.

If you would like to see the step-by-step process for Abby, you can see the series of pictures on my Tumblr page.

If you would like to see all the girls in an album you can check out either my Flickr or Pinterest page.

Watercolor girl #28 - Abby

Abby

Watercolor Girls #27

Watercolor girl #27 - Madi

Madi

Watercolor Girls #26

Watercolor girl #26- Kylee

Kylee

Watercolor Girls #25

Watercolor girl #25- Bella

Bella

Watercolor Girls #24

I named her Lemon because I made "lemonade out of lemons." I used some new watercolors on her and am not happy with how they worked. So seeing as I considered her to be a flop anyway, I decided to try out something new. No loss, right? I have wanted to try outlining in a real loose manner, kind of sloppy, which often, done correctly, looks pretty cool. I think it actually made her look better than she did. So Lemon isn't a complete loss. And I learned a bit about my new watercolors so I won't ruin a more important piece. It's all about learning.

Watercolor girl #24- Lemon

Lemon

Watercolor Girls #23

Watercolor girl #23- Sara

Sara

Watercolor Girls #21 & #22

Better late then never. I didn't finish #21 on the 21st because I was just too tired after a long day at work. Oh well, I'm getting caught up.

Watercolor girl #21- Frannie

Frannie

Watercolor girl #22- Taryn

Taryn

Watercolor Girls #20

Watercolor girl #20- Ashley

Ashley

Watercolor Girls #19

As usual, there are things I like about each piece, in this case the baby penguin, and then the things I don't like, more that I don't like. I really need to practice fabric. I love all the shadows and shapes as fabrics hangs or flows around objects. I will definitely work on that more in the future.

Watercolor girl #19 - Anastashia

Anastashia

Watercolor Girls #18

I thought it would be fun to add a duck on a leash, instead of a dog. I like it, but a bird loving friend advised me that people actually do put leashes on their pet birds. Who knew? Certainly not me. What I also didn't know, as I was really just making up the idea (or so I thought), is that one should use a harness if leashing a bird. I collar, as I depicted here, would break their neck. Oh that would be awful. So if you have a bird that you would like to take for a walk, please be sure to use a harness, not a collar.

Watercolor girl #18 - Becky

Becky

Watercolor Girls #17

I kind of overdid the stripes on this one and I made a couple of mistakes, but nonetheless, I think it's my favorite so far.

Watercolor girl #17 - Shelley

Shelley

Watercolor Girls #16

I did some cool new things with this one, but I also kinda screwed up some things that I know better (hair, collar...) That's why I'm praticing.

Photo of a watercolor girl - Susan

Susan

Tuki, the Toucan

Tuki is my 6th (arcylic) bird. Clearly birds take considerably more time to paint then the watercolor girls.

Tuki, the Toucan

Watercolor Girls #15

The whole idea behind this challenge is to get practice and find my style. This is as close as I've gotten. I like these eyes better than any so far. Still working on hair (styles and colors), body posture, and adding other things to the painting.

Photo of a watercolor girl - Lily

Lily

Watercolor Girls #14

Oddly enough, I find that the girls that I feel most comfortable with don't come out as well as I expect. And yet, those that I lack confidence in often are the ones that I am happiest with. Hmmm. Lots to learn.

Photo of a watercolor girl - Lucy

Lucy

Watercolor Girls #13

A pretty little girl in a pretty little pink dress for Valentine's day, tomorrow.

Photo of a watercolor girl - Valerie

Valerie

Watercolor Girls #12

Photo of a watercolor girl - Heidi

Heidi

Watercolor Girls #11

Photo of a watercolor girl - Delilah

Delilah

Watercolor Girls #10

Photo of a watercolor girl - Eep

Eep (The Croods)

Watercolor Girls #9

Photo of a watercolor girl - Mitzy

Mitzy

Watercolor Girls #7 & #8

A feel like I've redeemed myself after yesterday's girl. I like this one much better. At first I named the one in jeans Lane, but then I had a request to rename her to Berkley, after my great niece. So the next one is named after my other great niece, Brett.

Photo of a watercolor girl - Berkley

Berkley

Photo of a watercolor girl - Brett

Brett

Watercolor Girl #6

The Olympic opening ceremony is on TV tonight. I've been sitting in front of it, painting my 6th Watercolor girl. I guess I was a bit influenced by the Olympics. I'm not really thrilled with this girl, but this challenge is to get practice. Not every one will come out so great, but I will show them all.

Photo of a watercolor girl - Nina

Nina

Watercolor Girl #5

If you follow my art you probably know that most of my paintings have some story behind them. This watercolor girl is no different. I woke up today to a balmy 24 degrees BELOW zero. My truck wouldn't start so I had to walk to work (it's only a mile, ha). I have the gear to walk in these temps safely and this is pretty much how I looked this morning. Yep, I looked like a fuchsia snowman, but I was warm. This girl is named Dawn.

Photo of a watercolor girl - Dawn

Dawn

Watercolor Girl #4

Photo of a watercolor girl - Lisa

Lisa

Watercolor Girls Challenge

I painted the first watercolor painting of a girl February 1st, then I painted the cheerleader on the 2nd (Superbowl), and a couple of days later I decided to challenge myself to do another girl every day for a month. Practice makes perfect, right? So stay tuned for a lot of girls this month.

Photo of my first watercolor girl - Alice

Alice

Photo of a watercolor girl - Karen

Karen

Superbowl Sunday!!!!

Enough said.

Photo of Broncos cheerleader. Go Broncos!!!

Dancin' Puffin Raffle

You could win an 8"x10" Giclee print of this cute little guy.

Check it out.

Photo of Serenity Prayer, Coffee and Wine version.

Serenity Prayer, There are SO many variations

I saw yet another version of the serenity prayer today.

  • God grant me a vacation to make bearable what I can't change,
  • a friend to make it funny,
  • and the wisdom to never get my knickers in a knot because it solves nothing and makes me walk funny.
Photo of Serenity Prayer, Coffee and Wine version.

Happy New Year

My New Year’s Resolution is to clean out and reorganize my creative spaces. That means clearing out some inventory and having a sale, many sales actually, throughout January. I'll have a different sale every few days so there will be many opportunities for some after the holidays savings. Keep checking back to find out about the latest sale.

More Birds

These birds take me a tad longer to paint than my Paisley Cats, but it's worth the extra time. They are quite rewarding.

Photo of my Dancin Puffin. Photo of 2 European Bee-eaters

Birds

I recently started a series of birds. I thought it might be fun to paint a different kind of animal, one where I have LOTS of colorful choices. My first bird in the series was the Lilac-Breasted Roller. I know this now, but I didn't know what it was while I was painting it. It took some googling to figure out what beautiful bird this was. So lesson learned, the second bird is a Western Tanager, a bird that lives right here in Montana. What bird will be next? I'm not sure yet.

Photo of a Lilac-Breasted Roller. Photo of a Western Tanager.

An elephant, an ostrich, and a lady bug...

They're finally done, but they don't have names yet. I really want something like Ozzy and Harriet, or the Three Stooges, etc... You get the idea. Jump over to my Facebook page and see how you can help me name them and possibly win an 8"x8" matted print of these three friends.

Photo of large painting of an elephant, an ostrich, and a lady bug.

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