Danielle Calabro

There is a place in Orlando, FL called Leu Gardens , it has been well over 10 years since I have been there but I remember it like it was last year. It is magnificent, I remember walking around there for hours. When I was younger I would go there to photograph the flowers. Sadly I have lost touch with it, talking about it makes me want to go again, take my kids to one of the movie nights they have there. Go during the day and photograph some of the flowers all while listening to my children tell me how hot and bored they are, it's great to torture your kids with a little fresh air. Honestly I'm not sure how they will act bit hopefully they would enjoy it. I sat down last weekend and started this sketch and I finished it up last night, it reminded me of the times I use to go to the garden. I sketched this out in pencil then went over the sketch with my Micron pens and color was added with Copic markers. I am sure you have heard me say this before and I am going to say ...

My goal today was to do a nice little Mothers Day painting with gouache. We had a busy day planned so I got started on it this morning before we went anywhere. I didn't draw it out, I wanted to go free brush. Part of me went into this thinking, "OK, I can do this", this other part of me said "you need more practice with the faces and the gouache."I figured what the hell, lets give it a try and see how it comes out, the only way we learn is through our mistakes, right? So this is what I started with before we started our day: I though, "Not a bad start, I can defiantly work with this", unfortunately, It was time to head out so I found a stoping point and we went about our day. Got home and went right back to work, and I can honestly say I am not happy with the end result. I am still trying to get past this learning curve with the blending of gouache. Sometimes I can get it to blend ok and other times I want to throw my paint brush across the ...

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...