Sandi Hester

August 2, 2010

The Sketchbook Project 2011

I came across this really neat sketchbook project that I’m really excited about. Whether your a professional artist or a stay at home mom you can participate. When you sign-up they send you a sketchbook to fill and you send it back sometime in December (I think) and it goes on tour across the country and then will be displayed in the Brooklyn Art Library, where it will be barcoded and available for the public to view. If you are interested just click on the image above and it will take you to the site for more info. SERIOUSLY – you don’t have to be an artist – you can fill it with whatever – you could even get your kids involved. I think it’s going to be a fun project.

When you sign up you pick a theme – I picked “Inside/Outside” because I think that captures on a large scale what I paint – things found inside and outside. When I received my sketchbook in the mail it was dented a little on the front cover which I was thrilled about – it helped me get over “messing” the cover up – it was already messed up! The rules say you can do whatever you want to the book as long as it stays the same dimensions. So since I paint with watercolor I unbound the book and rebound it with watercolor paper. I included some of the original paper to make notes on and describe the painting.

The inside of my rebound book

I’m going to use it as a SKETCHBOOK which means there won’t be finished perfected pictures – it’s kind of like a doodle book :). I haven’t painted a single sketch in it yet – I’ve only finished the cover – but I hope to start painting in it today. I’ll do posts along the way and record what I’ve been painting in it. You can also go here to see my sketches along the way.

I thought I’d do something I’m comfortable painting for the cover – a bird. I’m not sure why I’m comfortable painting birds – I just am. I love painting them! Because I painted the cover in watercolor I’ll have to seal it with wax so moist hands don’t disturb the paint. I also got some great new letter thingies – I’m not sure what they’re called but they are made to punch/press letters into leather (my brain has stopped working – I can’t think of what this process is called – no funny comments about how my brain is never working :)). I used them to press (or whatever you call it) my website into the cover. I like how it turned out and have used this method in my sketchbooks to record the date – I like how it’s kind of subtle. Ok, enough, here’s my cover – click on it to see it larger…

Let me know if you are signed up for this project or plan on signing up for it. Here’s another artist who’s participating – I really like her blog (scroll down to her 4th post to see her Sketchbook Project).

26 Comments

July 21, 2010

Another Vegetarian in the Family???

These were taken a while back – Cooper is much bigger now but I thought these pictures were cute and wanted to share them with you.

Looking...

Sniffing...

Touching...

Tasting!!!

Today is Grady’s birthday!!! I just thought I’d take a moment and share a little about why I love my man so much. He’s the BEST husband EVER – way more than I deserve! He’s smart, insanely handsome, funny, fun, humble, selfless, loves me like crazy, always puts others first, a great provider, a great fisherman, a great skier – actually he’s great at everything he does, did I mention how good-looking he is??? I love you like crazy Grady – I don’t deserve you at all but am so thankful to the Lord that He gave you to me. May we have many more blessed years together! I hope you have a VERY BLESSED DAY!!! (He’s NOT going to like that I put these pictures of him on here :)).

2 Comments

July 16, 2010

Mr. Paul

Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime; it is the Lord who makes the storm clouds. He gives showers of rain to men, and plants of the field to everyone. Zechariah 10:1

Mr. Paul is our next door neighbor and the cutest old man you’ve ever seen (he probably won’t like me calling him old – sorry about that Mr. Paul – how about “older” – but I would love for you to be my grandfather!). He’s as sweet as he is cute. Cooper (our new pup) is quite taken with him too. EVERY time we go out to use the bathroom Cooper is straining his little head to see if Mr. Paul is working out in his garden.

These first two paintings are of harvests from Mr. Paul’s garden that he has shared with us. I’m always so excited to get something from him because not only is it yummy but it’s always something fun to paint. Like those squash above – they were the prettiest yellow and green striped squash I’d ever seen. He asked me to paint them for him. He’ll probably read this post before I have a chance to give him the painting (I still need to get it matted for him). I love how it turned out – it just speaks summer.

I’ve also painted many other things associated with Mr. Paul. Above is his house and blue truck that is always parked by his house. I’ve painting the field that’s behind both our homes (below).

And this last one was really fun to paint – his garden and shed. I actually moved some of these things around – his shed isn’t actually that close to his garden but I used my artist license and put it there :).

One of these days I’m going to have to paint Mr. Paul because he wears this great old straw looking hat when he’s out working in the garden that I just love. Mr. Paul, thanks for all the inspiration – you’ve given me LOTS to paint! Don’t forget you can click on any of the pictures to see them larger.

2 Comments

May 26, 2010

Meet The Newest Addition…

to our family – Cooper! We started looking for another dog about 6-7 months ago. Grady thought since we were buying property we needed a bigger dog 🙂 – I jumped on the chance to get another dog. So I started researching larger breeds that don’t shed (since I have bad allergies) and that are laid back – I didn’t want a large spastic house dog. We came across a rare breed that seemed to good to be true. Cooper is a Korthals Griffon – also called a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon. They are hunting dogs that are low shedding, love people and children, and are couch potatoes.

Before we got Cooper I took my niece and nephew to the pet store to pick out a toy to give Cooper (they’d never been in a pet store so they were fascinated). Of course Hannah would have bought the whole store for him. Here she’s giving love to the “snake dog” she picked out for him and Aidan liked the “snack” aisle (that didn’t surprise me :)) and thought this would be a great treat for Cooper. That’s NOT what we ended up getting for Cooper though :).

We have fallen head over heals in love with this little guy. He is a snuggle bug and a lover boy – he loves kisses, rubs, and snuggling. He’s VERY laid back! And he is beyond cute – seriously good-looking.

The breeder lives in Iowa and were kind enough to meet us half-way. So Saturday we hit the road and met up with them at a rest stop (the happy new parents below). We were on the road ALL day (5:15am – 6:30pm) but it flew by for me :). Cooper slept in my arms the whole ride home. This breeder is top-notch and has 3 more pups (it was a very large litter) if you’re interested let me know and I’ll hook you up with them. You can click on any of the pictures to see that cute little face larger. I’m sure you’ll be seeing paintings of this little guy soon – he seems to like to pose for the camera and hopefully for his artist momma. This little guy is a real blessing to us!

3 Comments

May 19, 2010

Peep Peep

Is that a bird sound? I was having a hard time thinking of another bird noise :). This wraps up my bird posts for now. The middle painting is what inspired the bird painting you saw that I did for my friend’s wedding gift. The last painting is a sketch I did on the trip I did all these bird paintings. It’s a sketch I did of the dining room table of the place we stayed. I went down for lunch one day while Grady was skiing and painted the table setting – I was drawn to the crayons, flowers and the light hitting the table.

Well, we have some exciting news… we’ve been looking for a house or some land for a little over 4 1/2 years – WAY too long in my book, but in God’s book – well, let’s just say He’s got His own plans :). So 4 1/2 years later we FINALLY found some land to build on! Yahoo!!! We are SO excited! In stretched out fashion, we’ve actually been working on buying this land for 6 months now – it’s taken forever, but we finally closed on it last Friday. It’s been quite a journey since we sold our house but well worth it for this property (I’ll tell you a little bit about it in a minute). Last summer we sold our house – in one day – which was a miracle in this market – but we couldn’t find a house fast enough and had to move into a rental. That was NOT what this “nester” wanted to do, but again, I realized we weren’t following my plans but the Lord’s. So we found a great little house that got Grady a little closer to work and we settled in… for 3 months.

The week of Christmas we got a call from the rental agency saying the owner of the rental house let the house go into foreclosure and it sold at action and we had to be out IMMEDIATELY. The rental agency said we could have to vacate as soon as 24 hours – I totally freaked (that could even be an understatement – you’d have to ask Grady). Thankfully the Lord had mercy on us and He gave us one week. But over Christmas we had to find another rental (again the Lord had mercy and allowed us to find one fast) and pack – we moved 2 days after Christmas. To make it even better, the day of the move Grady woke up with the swine flu and I had to do the move by myself. It was an exhausting day! My Mom was a blessing from the Lord because she took care of my sick husband and helped me clean our old rental.

So after all that we finally found a place to live – an amazing place – more than we would have ever thought to ask the Lord for. I’ve always wanted a little bit of land out in the country – just something private and we found just that but more. We just purchased 20 acres out in the country – but still just 20 minutes to Grady’s work (that was the whole purpose of this move – to get Grady closer to work) and 25 minutes to Hendersonville where my family is. The land is beautiful and even has a pond on it with a walking trail around it and a boat dock. We’re beside ourselves with excitement. We start the building process this week. We’re going to build a small new/old farmhouse. We’re calling it that because we want it to look old but it will be new. I’m going to use as much salvaged/vintage stuff as I can find – sinks, doors, fireplace mantels, windows, etc. It’s been a while since I’ve posted but we’ve been pretty consumed with this land thing and building and one other thing that I’ll post about next week.

2 Comments

April 20, 2010

Chirp Chirp

Since this is a bird post I wanted to take the opportunity to share another Christian artist who I stumbled upon lately and was BLOWN AWAY with – seriously you’re going to love this guy and the symbolism that’s in his paintings is over the top good. This is one of my favorites – PLEASE click on the link (the high lighted words) and check out his interpretation of the last supper – read the symbolism below the painting – go, do it now!… ok is that good stuff or what???!!! Here’s his website if you’re intersted in reading and seeing more or purchasing some of his work. I know 2 of my friends who will LOVE his work – Susan and Tina this will bless you I know!

You probably won’t be too intersted in seeing my stuff after looking at all his great stuff – I’m not even intested in seeing my stuff after looking at his! But here are 3 more sketches I did in my bird series.

2 Comments

April 13, 2010

Tweet Tweet

For every animal of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are Mine… for the world is Mine, and all that is in it. Psalm 50:10-12

I promised you more birds and here they come. I REALLY love painting birds for some reason – I’ve just taken to them. My granny was a bird lover (I started to write “big bird lover” – but I didn’t want you to get confused and think she loved big bird from Sesame Street :)) and I guess I got her love for birds – and painting – she’s my grandmother who was an amazing artist. The rental house we’re in right now is right next door to a guy who owns several acres and he has a large garden and bird houses and feeders EVERYWHERE. I love living next to someone who’s a bird lover because I get the benefit of their birds without the work – not like it’s a lot of work to feed birds but my guilt factor kicks in when I don’t refill the feeder and I just end up giving up. I don’t know how many times I’ve told Grady that I love Mr. Paul’s (that’s our neighbor) birds – they’re not really his birds but he feeds them and gives them homes so I talk as though they’re his. Every morning when I’m in my office having my quiet time Mr. Paul’s birds are just tweeting up a storm – I love it! No, these are not paintings of his birds :).

As the verses above speak so beautifully, the birds are not mine or Mr. Paul’s, they are actually the Lord’s – I love that the verse doesn’t just say the birds are His, but that he “knows every bird” – WOW! He created them, He sustains them, and He knows them and He used them to show us how perfectly and personally He created us, knows us, and sustains us – Matthew 6:26 “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

The two paintings/sketches are from a series of bird sketches I did on a ski trip we took this winter. I’ll use the next couple of posts to share more birdies with you. Hope you enjoy!

1 Comment

April 2, 2010

Spring Things

I want to thank all of you who sent e-mails and left comments on my blog about losing our dog. You were all so thoughtful and left such sweet words of sympathy and comfort. Thank you for thinking of us!

On to a happier note… Grady and I celebrated our 12 year wedding anniversary this past weekend – yahoo!!! I’m amazed at the blessing the Lord has bestowed on our marriage – it seems to get better and better each year. Of course it gets that way with work – Grady and I both work very hard on our marriage. The Lord has been gracious to teach both of us with each passing year how to be a better wife and husband. The secret is in following His Word – He’s laid it all out in the Bible on how to be a godly wife and husband and it can only be done in the power and grace of Jesus Christ.

Over the weekend I went to a wedding shower of a dear friend who is a godly young woman. I wanted to give her something special – I worked for days on this painting and was pleased with how it turned out. I did something new with this painting – something I’ve wanted to try for a while. Watercolor usually has to be framed because it has to be protected, but I did this one on paper and then mounted it on canvas. You can’t use watery based mediums to seal a watercolor painting but I found that you can use wax – wax like you use to seal furniture. I’m not sure how it will stand the test of time – it could look really bad in 30, 50, or a 100 years but you never know until you try :). The wax turned the white paper a little yellow but I like that aged look. I’ve also wanted to try adding some sewing to my paintings. I sewed on the painting itself and I also sewed all the hand-aged/hand-torn papers together. I wanted the strings to hang and show – I liked that look with the bird – kind of reminds me of a bird’s nest. I’ll be posting more birds soon – you’ll get to see what this little birdie was inspired from.

The scripture I used for this painting is Matthew 6:25-34 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear… Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” The title of the painting is “Do Not Worry”. I wanted to keep that cute little thing, but he had another home. More birdies to come soon. You can click on the pictures to see more details.

Being Good Friday I thought I’d leave you with something I pray you’ll linger on throughout the day – it’s worth lingering on I promise – http://desiringgod.org/Blog/2313_barrabas_and_me/.

6 Comments

March 24, 2010

Missing Molly…

A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal. Proverbs 12:10

Our little girl of 7 years is no longer with us – she has left a huge hole in our hearts and home. She filled a bigger spot than Grady and I realized. Most of you know that we can’t have children – the Lord has closed my womb, for whatever reason He has called us, for now, to be childless and to have spiritual children instead. The Lord blessed us for 7 sweet years to have Molly to some what fill the need (in me especially) of holding and caring for a little one – she was our “baby”. Even though she wasn’t fond of kisses or being held she “put up” with me covering her in sugars and holding her as often as I could. She eventually loved being snuggled with and that was something I loved doing with her – we both kept each other warm.

Molly is a stone making machine – a bladder stone making machine that is. Schnauzers are prone to bladder stones but Molly created them WAY too quickly. A few weeks ago she had to have surgery to remove 8 stones and 2 of them were severely blocked and stuck. Two surgeons had to work very hard on her to get them removed – it was an intense surgery. Unfortunately there were complications after her surgery – she wasn’t getting better – she was getting worse. After MANY visits to the vet they found out that there were serious complications and she wasn’t going to recover from them. We had to make the very hard decision of putting her down. We spent one last long and heart wrenching night with her to say our goodbyes. She was in such pain I was glad she wasn’t suffering any more but man oh man was it hard to say goodbye to that cute little thing. She was a great dog and she was a precious gift to us for those 7 years. I’m thankful to the Lord that He gave her to us. Ok, at this point I can’t see the screen because of the tears… I think I’ll get on to the pictures – a little tribute to Molly.

These next two are my all time favorite because we should have named her Bissell or Hoover or some vacuum name because she cleaned our floors – she worked like a little mop with that beard of hers. These two are shots I got of her after cleaning the floor and ending up with a dorito chip on her nose :).

This is Molly with her best doggy friend – her cousin Madison. Neither one of them were fond of other dogs but strangely they loved each other.

These were her two favorite places to be – snuggled up with her daddy or snuggled up in her bed.

And lastly, me and Molly the first week we got her. You sure are missed Miss Molly – we loved you dearly!

7 Comments

March 16, 2010

Still Making Up For Bad Blogging

Here’s part two of our trip to Montana. This post has lots of pictures like the last one because I’m still making up for not blogging for like a month or two. So, this was our amazing view from our room – what’s even more amazing than that is that Grady skied from the peak of this mountain – yes, see the very top point of the mountain? – that’s where Grady would ski from! If you click on the picture you can see even better how ridiculous it is that he skies crazy things like this. I become one serious praying wife when we’re on ski trips. It doesn’t make things any better when the guys Grady’s skiing with tell me things like, “your husband is a maniac on the slopes!” Great! Grady wears a helmet now because a doctor he skis with told him he needed to be wearing a helmet the way he skis. Oh brother!

Moving on… Grady thought this would be a good picture of me – one by a black diamond sign that says “Bone Crusher” – in actuality that describes Grady’s style of skiing. “Football Field” would be a better description of what I ski 🙂 – nice and flat or “Never Fall” because that’s always my number one goal of a ski trip 🙂 – I broke like a 4 year record this year when I fell – oh well, you can’t win them all.

Here’s Grady relaxing on the snow while I adjust my boots – for some reason I have to do that a lot on the slopes and Grady usually sits down to rest because I take FOREVER – sorry babe!

And lastly, this one is so you can see ONE of the great views we had on the slopes – this place was seriously beautiful!

Here are some more quick sketches I did throughout the trip. Again, they’re not show stoppers (well nothing I do is a show stopper – my point is that they are just quick sketches – not finished pieces) but they are little tidbits of things I painted while Grady risked his life on the slopes. One of us has to do something not life threatening :). This first one is a quick one I did of Lone Peak – the mountain we could see from our room.

These next two were painted from photographs taken by one of my watercolor students. He’s a GREAT photographer. You can see his work here. These were painted from Jim’s Maine series.

This last one is a little still life I set up in the room. You can always find something around to paint 🙂 – or at least I can! I hope you enjoyed snippets of our trip. Keep an eye out for a free give-away post of an original painting I have coming up!