Art by Jodie K Brown

Tiny Garden House Fairy Garden Drawing This past weekend, I had the opportunity to volunteer at Cultivate Coffee & Taphouse for their kids craft activity this past Saturday. They asked that I teach the kids how to draw a Fairy Garden. It was a lot of fun working with the children. I showed them one of my drawings and their imaginations just took off! Hannah amazed me. At only 4 years old she had drawn her own fairy house that looked great. Another young lady in third grade,whose name I have no idea how to spell, drew a fairy castle, trees, and even a lot of fairies. I helped guide her by showing her some new ways to hold her pencil and and add variation in with her colored pencil by using more and less pressure. She was pleased with what she learned. It's a shame that I didn't think to take pictures of their adorable art. I would love to see your drawings of tiny gardens. Please share. You may also print and color the above pages if this is for personal use. If

Rose in Pastel Marker Base for Oil Pastel Here's a new technique that I learned for oil pastels that really adds depth in a hurry. In this practice sketch, the black base is with marker. This enabled me to leave the majority of the paper white while add deep shadows and color underneath the pastel. At first I was skeptical as to whether it would work. What a delight to discover how well it worked. I will want to try this on more projects. Have you tried this technique and what results have you had from it? This art is property of Jodie Brown. Please contact Jodie if you would like more information.

Detail of rag time hat painting. Hi All!   Here's an update on what has been keeping me busy. I am excited, my business  JB Interiors & Graphics has been growing.  You can check out more information on my business at  JBInteriorsandGraphics.com . Also, I have been having fun teaching with  Young Rembrandts . It has been a blast going around to different schools meeting great kids and teaching them drawing basics. If you would like more information on Young Rembrandts, please go to   http://www.facebook.com/YoungRembrandtsAnnArborPlymouth This art is property of Jodie Brown. Please contact Jodie if you would like more information. Do not download or copy any of these pieces.

Red Delicious Apples at Wasem's Fruit Farm photo by Jodie Brown JBInteriorsandGraphics.com Michigan is so fun to live in at the change of seasons. It is apple and pumpkin time here. Many of our fruit orchards are open for people to come in and pick apples and pumpkins fresh off the trees or vines. In addition to selling these fruits and vegetables, they also sell fabulous fresh hot donuts. Wasem Fruit Farm,   www.wasemfruitfarm.com , let me come in create sketches and paintings of their apple orchard recently. It was a picture perfect day with beautiful blue skies, puffy white clouds, apple smell, juicy sweet gala apple taste, and kids laughing and playing. Of course, I also had to buy the tasty donuts to take home to share with my husband. For those of you living near Ann Arbor or Jackson, we will be painting the below pumpkin scene October 16th in Jackson (pending doctor approval for me to drive to that far.) If my Ann Arbor students would like to paint this as well, please

Progress is moving along on this painting of Round Island Passage lighthouse near Mackinaw Island. The lake and the clouds are starting to have more definition. More shadows and details are still to come. Come back in the future to see it further progress. This art is property of Jodie Brown. Please contact Jodie if you would like more information. Copyright 2013.  JBInteriorsandGraphics.com

Sunsphere from the Knoxville World's Fair Jeffrey Paul Prickett Wikipedia A Big Thank You to American House Carpenter in Ypsilanti for hosting me for an art talk this past week. We had a nice crowd and very appreciative and attentive guests. The subject was " Capturing Memories with Art" I shared some of my history on the farm with my family in Illinois and how that is reflected in two of my favorite subjects flowers and nature. Then we talked about memories of favorite events such as eating my first boysenberry yogurt out of a melon at the Worlds' Fair in Knoxville and how I took art supplies with me everywhere including camping trips that we went on in Indiana for my dad's canoe races. Capturing events like these with art helps us to remember happy times that we have. Some audience members lit up as they shared some of their own memories of going to art museums in Washington DC and the Michigan State Fair in Detroit. No matter how tough times are we