Danielle Calabro

As a Mother I try to encourage my children to do what they love to do. Sometimes I will, of course make them try something even if they are too scared to give it a chance. Sometime they love and other times it's a flop. So what is my point? As a parent, sometimes we scared to push our kids a little or a lot in some cases. My two children are so different in so many ways. Since I have started painting again both of my children have slowly become more interested in what I am doing, sometimes it is a pain in the neck, most of the time it makes me so happy. I do not push art on them, however I think any type of art (music, dance, painting or drawing) is important for children to learn. Both of my children assumed its so easy to paint or draw but when they can't get a drawing to come out like they want they get so pissed off. I try to explain to them it takes time and they have to practice, and I try to show them a different or new way of doing something. As my husband always says...

"Palm Trees at Sunset" 16" x 20" Acrylic on Gallery wrapped canvas painted be me One of my favorite places to go is the beach, it is so relaxing listening to the waves break and taking a nice night walk and letting the wind blow in your hair. We live in Central Florida so we have our pick from the East or West coast. I have put together my favorites. My Top Florida East Coast Beaches: These are the beaches  that we go to for a day trip nothing to far away Cocoa Beach Cocoa Beach - Very close only about 30 - 45min away, No parking on the beach. You have Ron Jon Surf Shop and they have a great little Pizza joint too, you can actually get a 26" pizza it was huge. Best parking in my opinion is across from the Air Force Base, there are no life guards so you need to be careful. Not as many people either, so you don't have to walk another half mile to find the perfect spot because if you are like us, we bring the lunches, towel, cano...

Still feeling like crap today, actually took the day off from work because I have lost my voice, I am on the phone all day so it made no since to go in anyways.  This is an update from the last post I did, I have finally finished my little Zentangle® art.  It only took me about 3 days because I was sick but I am trying to make sure I make time everyday to create, even if it is as small as finishing a small painting. I have learned over the course of a year (when I first started to get back into art) that I can not get any better with out the practice and that is the one thing I have not been giving myself time for.  I am still having some difficulties with the blending, of course I don't think this was the right piece of art to test it on, the areas were to small. Well I hope you all enjoy. 

As I have said before when I have painters block I will doodle, sketch or Zeltangle®. Well I have had painters block for a few days because I have been under the weather, of course that doesn't mean I haven't try to throw some paint on canvas, just means I don't like whats on that canvas...:) So between the coughing, sneezing and everything else that goes with a nasty Florida Cold I have been working on this: As you can see it is unfinished, I am using gouache to put color in it. I love Zentangle® it is a great outlet when painting isn't going my way. I would really love to incorporate it in an actual drawing of a landscape or something along that lines.  At the moment the only thing that is finished is the orange going around the outside. I am hopping a feel a little better today to at least get half of it painted. I can't wait to update this when it is finished.  Tell me what you think? 

I will warn you now, this blog entry has nothing to do with art what so ever.  Today on my drive home from work I was almost side swiped 3 times in a matter of 15 minutes (absolutely no exaggeration, actually it was probably less time), and what was going on?? Nope I didn't have a giant magnet on the side of my car, I was driving by a couple of jerks texting and driving. What pisses me off the most is that twice it was the same lady with a child in the car. She was so focused on her phone she didn't even noticed I honked the first time, I had to lay on my horn to make her pay attention. After getting past her little bug I looked back in my rearview mirror and she was literally in between two lanes. What is so important that people have to put everyones life in danger? Why can they not wait until the next traffic light? I am not the perfect driver, but I will not put my life or my families life in danger to answer some stupid text. I even had a new radio installed i...

It is a known fact that "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." So what qualifies as art and who has the right to determine what is art and what is not? I have seen plenty of paintings that I thought, "wow" my daughter could do that, but does that mean it is not art? absolutely not, it means I have a different opinion. More power to the artist that can put a few paint strokes on a canvas, call it art and sell it.  I have seen even more paintings and art and thought, "wow, that is beautiful or interesting." That is what art is to me, something that will catch my eye, make me look at it and even question what is going on.  One of my all time favorite artists is, Salvador Dali , his art has always intrigued me. It's odd and makes you look at it, makes you search the painting for the meaning or the story behind it. To me, he is a great artist, I have even subjected my family to the "Salvador Dali Museum" in St. Petersburg, FL t...

I follow a a blog called  "Skinny Artist"  and read this wonderful essay that someone wrote called  "The Awakening" .  Take the time to read this, it makes you stop and think of how you want to be, it did for me. I have had my awakening, and reading this makes me believe in myself enough to keep moving forward. I know everyone can use a little encouragement sometimes, this is my way to encourage you all to keep moving forward to reach your goals. The Awakening (Author unknown) A time comes in your life when you finally get it. . . when, in the midst of all your fears and insanity, you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere the voice inside your head cries out–ENOUGH!  Enough of the fighting and crying and blaming and struggling to hold on. Then, like a child quieting down after a tantrum, you blink back your tears and begin to look at the world through new eyes. This is your awakening. You realize it’s time to stop hoping and waiting for something t...

With two kids (7 & 9) we have seen our share of Disney Movies, I'm not complaining, most of them are good movies. One that is not too old is "Wreck It Ralph", this is a cute movie. Vanellope Van Schweets is adorable, she reminds me of our daughter. I decided I wanted to sketch her and use my new set of Gouache paint, so I did. I am finding that there is a larger learning curve then I thought, so much different than acrylic paint. I think my biggest problem is the blending, this paint dries so fast. I have decided I will continue to work on my sketching for the time being until a painting idea comes to mind. I figure I have to keep the creative juices flowing, even if it is sketching something from a movie. I am having such a hard time with painters block. I am pretty sure it has a lot to do with stress but I can't do anything about that, A full time job and 2 children will drain you. I will give props to my husband once again, he is a trooper, when he sees I ...

I received my new gouache paint and paint brushes today and of course I couldn't wait to try them out. This was a small set as you can see to the right of the painting it is only 5 mixing colors. I have never been one for mixing colors unless it was a color I didn't have but this is a nice set to start with, the paint brushes I also ordered are great, a set of 6 Red Sable (Wesel Hair) mix filbert brushes by  magic touch , I got both of these off  Amazon.  However I have some  Turner Acryl Gouache  coming on Tuesday from one of my favorit places to shop,  Jerry's Artarama,  they had an awesome sale on their site. I love doing large paintings but it does get a little price to keep buying the canvases so I have desided to take a little break from the larger paintings and scale it down a bit. I am not one for creating realistic art, I plan on working on faces for awhile in my quest to creat more artwork and as you can tell it is not proportionate, I...

Every artist knows you have to keep your creative juices flowing, I can not always find the time to paint so I doodle or draw. I have been interested in Zentangle for a while, I think it is a very interest form of art. Now I can't say I dont use an earaser (you are not suppost to) I am too much of a perfectionest not too. Anyway, for me this is a great way to get your creative juices flowing. I would like to share some of my skeching tools with you. When I find a product that I love and I know works I want to share them. I will admit, some of my tools can be pricey but I have used trial and error and found that spending a little extra money on a great product makes a big difference. These are my go to sketching tools: Blackwing Pencils - they are so smooth to draw with Copic Multi liner pens - Great to use with my next tool, they do not smear when used with markers. Copic Sketch Markers - they are alcohol based so the blend beautifully Prismacolor colored pencils - these ...