Children Growth Charts

My latest adventure is making these growth charts for children. They really are fun to make and I'm working on several other orders now.

They are one-of-a-kind, unique designs to fit your child's room and will have their names put on them. The kids get so excited to see how much they've grown and the memory will last a lifetime.


If your interested, send me an e-mail: erindrez@yahoo.com


(Thank you to my 2.5 year old daughter for taking this picture of me:) Perhaps a photographer in the making?!?!? )

Painting Exploration

I've been experimenting with outdoor watercolor painting in my journal - it's fun to be outside and do rough painting/sketches just for fun. And I find I'm learning a lot about this new medium. And it's a fun way to document a memory....kind of the artists way of taking a picture without a camera.


Caroline (my 2 year old daughter) painted the background of this one and then I added a flower on top...it's messy but a fun memory of our experience together.

More Watercolors

Two watercolors I did in my class:


This one was done by one of my classmates and I really liked it:

Dry Brushing - Watercolor

This week we learned a new technique of dry brushing -- basically, you use very little water on the brush and "scrub" the paint onto the paper to create a rougher effect. Watercolor paper is very rough/bumpy and basically what happens is the dryer paint sticks to the tops of the bumps in the paper and doesn't sink into the valleys, so you still see the color underneath.

This was my first layer -- typical wet-into-wet watercolor:

For my second layer I did a lot of drybrushing on the tree itself:

I received positive feedback from my teacher and classmates - we all agreed that my style on this painting is very illustrative, it would go well in a children's book. I am probably being influenced by all the children's books I'm reading with my daughter - I never realized this before I started this new medium, but the majority of children's books are done with watercolor illustrations.

Layering - Watercolor

Last week in my watercolor class we learned about layering colors - so, instead of pre-mixing the colors you want to use, you put one color down, let it dry and then paint another color on top and as it dries to forms a totally new color.
(ex. first layer: ultramarine blue + second layer: alizarin crimson = purple)

Here is my first attempt at layering - not my best, but I'm learning and I love learning!

Might Mountains

"Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the skies.
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
your justice like the great deep."
Psalm 36: 5-6

These are the mountains I see every day from our home. When I came across the verse above several days ago, I haven't been able to get it out of my head (or, more specifically, I haven't been able to get the song by Third Day out of my head - see video below).

This verse makes me feel loved and I am really enjoying the visual image of God being like the mountains - strong, firm, present, always there, with me every day, unmoving, unwavering, indestructible. When I see mountains, I see God..........perhaps this explains my recent desire to pack up and move to Colorado so I can be surrounded by such majesty. A girl can dream!

A video of Third Day's song based on this verse: "Your Love Oh Lord"...

"Caroline at the Beach"

"Caroline at the Beach"
Oil painting, 16x20.

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I took a picture of my daughter at the beach last month and I thought it would be a nice painting and a sweet reminder of a wonderful day we spent together as a family.

I often take pictures of my work throughout the process to help me see from a different perspective and see how things are progressing. It helps me to step back and analyze my work in a new way. Another technique I use is to look at the paintings in a mirror -- it helps our brains see the painting from a more "abstract" perspective. You can really start to see where the values, proportions, etc. might be off.

Here are some pictures of the painting as it progressed throughout the week...

Watercolor: Wet-into-Wet

Another watercolor homework assignment from my class. This was a wet-into-wet technique....meaning, you wet the entire paper with water and then put in the color. It spreads like wildfire! I definitely need to practice this technique more - it's much harder to control the paint and for my semi-realistic style, it proved to be very stressful.

Wide Open Spaces - A Little Piece of Me

Last night I had a wonderful date night with my husband. We can talk for hours and never get tired, I love it!! On the drive home he told me that every time he hears the Dixie Chicks song, "Wide Open Spaces" he thinks of me. I so appreciate him telling me this because I think it is a wonderful example of what I am discovering about myself, and something he recognized about me a long time ago...

I need to be free! I need wide open spaces - not just physically but emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

There is a verse in the Bible that says: "God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Gen. 1:27).

This says that God created all of us in His image, but I feel like that is especially true with me on another level --- I believe God is the Great Creator, the Greatest Artist there ever was, and that he created everything we see and when God created me he gave me a Creative Spirit, an Artist within, just like Him!

I am so thankful for this gift and for the first time in my life I'm trying my best to let this sweet, innocent, creative person inside me out - I'm setting her free. I'm learning that to do this I need freedom, I need space, I need to be surrounded by nature, I need to breathe fresh air, I need to feel the sun on my face, I need to splash in the rain, I need WIDE OPEN SPACES. And when it comes to my relationships with the people I love, I need freedom there too - freedom to be who I am, freedom to explore, freedom to follow my heart and freedom to surround myself with people who encourage and want what's best for me.

I am a person who likes and needs alone time, time by myself to think, to breathe, to feel, to create. I need wide open spaces emotionally to help me process life and then be able to fully re-engage with the world/people around me.

I love wide open spaces! I need wide open spaces! And I am so grateful that I have a God who walks with me, as a friend, in those spaces!

Here are the lyrics to the song if you aren't familiar with it...

"Wide Open Spaces"

Who doesn't know what I'm talking about
Who's never left home, who's never struck out
To find a dream and a life of their own
A place in the clouds, a foundation of stone

Many precede and many will follow
A young girl's dream no longer hollow
It takes the shape of a place out west
But what it holds for her, she hasn't yet guessed

[Chorus:]
She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes

She traveled this road as a child
Wide eyed and grinning, she never tired
But now she won't be coming back with the rest
If these are life's lessons, she'll take this test

[Repeat Chorus]
She knows the high stakes

As her folks drive away, her dad yells, "Check the oil!"
Mom stares out the window and says, "I'm leaving my girl"
She said, "It didn't seem like that long ago"
When she stood there and let her own folks know

[Repeat Chorus]
She knows the highest stakes
She knows the highest stakes
She knows the highest stakes
She knows the highest stakes

Peacock Fun Fact

This little friend wanders around our neighborhood from time to time. I was reading up about peacocks and I came across this Fun Fact and, as an artist, I really appreciate it:

Peacocks see a deeper, more complex range of colors than humans can perceive!

Wow, I wish I could be a peacock for a day so I could see the world like they do - fascinating.