New Painting: "Afternoon Walk", acrylic on canvas

There hasn't been much art on Artistta as of late. I've been working on small projects and mostly practicing over the last two months. Prior to that, my full time mom job was consuming my time and leaving me with little energy or creativity to do much else. Plus, cooking is a creative outlet for me. I love working with my hands and I enjoy experimenting, whether that's with food or art.

"Afternoon Walk", acrylic on canvas, 3 panels each 18"x36", ©Therese Asmus 2011

I am not an artist that can spend every waking moment creating on canvas. For me it's more of a release point. I have had a lot of heavy issues on my mind recently and in order to not get too weighed down or overwhelmed by depression or simple sadness, I begin to feel the need to grab a paintbrush and start taking some of my internal energy and put it forth on canvas. It's when I paint my best and am the most loose with my work. The more I force myself to be creative or perhaps "be an artist", whatever that's supposed to mean, the worst my work gets. Creating shouldn't be a burden, but a time to relax, to release and to enjoy what unfolds before you, no matter the medium or outlet.

Pastel on Paper "Salvation and Sin"

Here's my latest piece of art. I completed this for a new sermon series on salvation and sin at my church, First Baptist in downtown Minneapolis. This is a pastel drawing on paper. My husband scanned the piece into his computer and then designed the type to go over top.

Interested in checking the sermon series out? Click HERE to listen to the sermons, they're wonderful!

New art to you, but it's from my past.

I just pulled out a couple of my older paintings and decided to list them on my Etsy store page. It only made sense that I share them with you too!  I completed all 4 of these a couple of years ago. Click on the image to go to it's Etsy page for more information like title, size and price.

A New Painting: "A Touch of Color with Flowers"

The name of my blog is Artistta, however there hasn't been a whole love of art as of late. Partially because cooking and taking pictures of the results is a great creative outlet for me and partially because having a 2 year old and a baby is just plain time consuming. I tend to go in creative spurts with my artwork and I'm feeling the grove to get more art done as of late, however, I then tend to not spend as much time in the kitchen. There is only so much time in a day and until I can figure out how to go on no sleep (anyone figured out that secret yet?) my blog posts will have to slow down while I work on some new paintings. :-D

Here is one of my latest pieces and hopefully I'll have several more to show in the next several weeks or at least by early fall. I am also hoping to featuring different artist starting this fall. Are you an artist? Send me a link to your work and I'd love to check it out. There is no better inspiration to me than seeing how other people use their creativity.

My pieces are for sale through my Etsy store http://www.etsy.com/shop/artistta and I also do commissions. Email me at artistta@gmail.com if this is something you are interested in.

Making a "Train Table" for My Son!

This is a project I've wanted to do for awhile, especially with how much my little guy loves playing with his train set. I know I could have gone out and purchased a new or used table and done it for a pretty good price if it was used, however I didn't want a train table sitting out all the time. The only place we really had decent space for it would be in my son's room. However, we have a hard enough time with keeping him in bed during nap times, so I didn't think putting his favorite toy in his room would help us any! Instead I decided to create a temporary train table that goes on top of the coffee table for playtime and could be put away behind the couch when it wasn't in use. That's how I like toys – it's fine having them out when they're being used, but I'm not a fan of maneuvering around them or looking at them all the time when they aren't. Plus, I find my son plays much better when things stay picked up and I can rotate what toys he plays with on either a daily, weekly or monthly basis. It keeps things more interesting! We can have a "let's go shopping in the toy closet" morning and he can pick out items that look fun to him.

This was a pretty easy project if you have a little creativity and if not, no worry, that's what the internet is for or reading people's blogs! : - )

I went to my local hardware store and purchased two pieces of 1/2" thick particle board. I wanted something sturdy enough that when it overhung the coffee table it wouldn't bend.
I think the pieces I purchased were approximately 30"x5' and only about $8 each. They were a little longer then I wanted so I cut off about 8" of the length. All I used was a ruler and black marker to mark a straight line and a handsaw to cut the board. Once you start cutting, a handsaw will naturally stay in a pretty straight line and with a black line as a guide this is fairly easy to do. I might mention I did this all in our family room on the coffee table and yes there is carpeting on the floor, but no big deal I just vacuumed up the mess after I was done. The only other place I could have gone was out to the garage, but with sub-zero temperatures outside that was just a NO for me! I prefer warmth thank you! : - ) One other thing I did was round the corners with some sand paper. They don't need to be rounded much, but you don't want someone getting scratched on a sharp edge.



I placed the two boards next to one another and then began to draw out a very basic design to paint. This is where the internet can be helpful if you need a little boost in the creativity area! Just check out some train tables on-line. There are tons of different designs. Everything from the super-simple to over-the-top. Since I'm making this for a two year old, I wanted simple. We have a play rug that has a bunch of buildings and winding roads on it, but he doesn't seem particularly captured by it at this point, so simple seemed to make more sense.


I only drew on a basic idea for the streets, which helped give me some structure to my design. After that I free handed everything and honestly I didn't have an end design in mind. That's just my preference for doing things. By all means if you decide to try this project go ahead and plan or even sketch out a design. Do whatever feels most natural to you.

From there it was like painting in a coloring book. I filled my large spaces in with color. I used basic acrylic paint you could get at your local craft store. Some hardware stores have small containers of sample paint colors and you could use them too, especially if you don't want to make two stops.


Once the paint had dried, I went back in and added some extra detail to make it a bit more fun. One thing to note, the particle board likes to absorb the paint and I found I needed two coats in some places to even out the color. If you have to do this, just make sure your paint is dry between each coat. If you make a mistake, no worry—just paint over it. If you can't achieve perfection, don't be hard on yourself, perfection is for machines. Little flaws aren't a big deal and just add character to your project, and character is great! One helpful hint, when I was doing the road it can be hard to keep a straight line with the paint brush so I outlined my road with a black permanent marker, using a ruler of course. This gave my road a little more solidness and was more appealing to me. It doesn't need to be done, I just preferred it this way.


Finally, I added two butterfly hinges to hook the boards together. I put them a couple of inches away from the edges so they wouldn't "get in the way" of playing. The hinges allow me two fold the boards together, protecting the paint and then I can easily slip them behind our couch when we aren't using them. Plus, it helps with the stability of the boards on the coffee table. It wouldn't work very well if one board would slip or move with a train track on it. The track would fall apart and then you'd have a very unhappy kid. You might also consider adding a couple of low profile rubber grips to the back of the boards to make sure they can't slip of the coffee table and accidentally hurt someone or something. The boards I purchased were heavy enough that this wasn't an issue so I didn't need any type of grip. You could also put down a carpet/rug grip on the table. This would help protect your table and keep the boards from moving.

When it was all said and done, this is what I ended up with. My son loves it!

A Little About My Artwork

©2010, Therese Asmus, "Trees 1"
Acrylic on canvas, 48" x 36"

My first reason for wanting to create a blog was to begin to display my current artwork. I mostly work with acrylic on canvas and focus on nature and color and not necessarily nature as seen through your eyes or a photograph, but playing up on texture, detail and color. This gives me the creative license I love and most often enjoy painting. If there is one thing I've learned through the creativity of my Creator, is the creative license He's taken and that exists in the world. You think you've seen the way a tree should look or how a sunrise should be and before you know it your stunned by the vast differences that can be exhibited in both. A tree can turn every which direction or be covered in who knows what, creating a great variation in color and texture and the sunrise is continuously changing in every imaginable way. It's fascinating and beautiful. I'm also intrigued by the lines and curvature of the woman's body. They're beautiful and lend themselves to being drawn. The curves follow through into much of my other work and leave endless designs to be discovered. The images displayed here are of my most recent paintings and have all been completed in the last 4 months, except for "Woman" which was completed in 2008.

©2010, Therese Asmus, "Dandelion"
Acrylic on canvas, 48"x36"

©2010, Therese Asmus "Dandelions 2"
Acrylic on canvas, 12"x36", 12"x36", 12"x36"

©2010, Therese Asmus "Woman"
Acrylic on canvas, 30"x40"

©2010, Therese Asmus "Red 1"
Acrylic on canvas, 12"x12"

©2010, Therese Asmus "Red 2"
Acrylic on canvas, 12"x12"

©2010, Therese Asmus "Blue 1"
Acrylic on canvas, 12"x12"

©2010, Therese Asmus "Blue 2"
Acrylic on canvas, 12"x12"

The following three images are of works I have completed in the last couple of years. The first two are my continuing exploration of layering canvas and burning through the layers to reveal new color and texture. When you burn canvas you have less control of the outcome, but you can also have the most beautiful color and texture come through, which would be hard to duplicate in any other way. Metal and earth are always an inspiration for me, especial how they both erode away from various elements. This was the inspiration for the quadtych below.

©2010, Therese Asmus, Untitled Quadtych
Acrylic on canvas, each panel is 20"x20"

©2010, Therese Asmus, Untitled Diptych
Acrylic on layered canvas, panel 1 48"x11", panel 2 48"x14"

This final painting was completed for my newborn son. I wanted something fun with a touch of fantasy and this is where I ended up.

©2010, Therese Asmus "A Bit of Fantasy"
Acrylic on Canvas, 48"x9"