Goodbye 2014 Hello New Year

WOW! 2014 was probably one of the best years ever! So many good things happened for me and my family...I count my blessings everyday and am truly grateful for all the love and support from family and friends near and far...There are too many stories to share in one post, so here are a few pictures to recap a great year...

much needed vacation in Hawaii (march)

trip of a lifetime in Ireland (july)

Koi in H2O in Times Square (july) 

beautiful bountiful garden (summer) 

the Sangres 

our cats 

see you next year! 

UpCoMinG SHOWS

and 

Fire and Ruin 

 HELIKON GALLERY 

in February

These next couple months are going to go by super fast. I'll be showing work in the 12x12 show the first week of December in Denver as well as in Art Takes Miami with See.Me. Then in February, I'll be joining nine other amazing artists at the Helikon Gallery in the Rhino Art district in Denver. I'm super excited and look forward to showing off some new, never seen before works! 

moths + winter

siblings © samos 2014

I've been itching to paint for days now and finally had time to sit down. It's been awhile since I've posted anything new. Time is slipping away, but its all good...This has been one amazing and busy year! Seasons have changed and the snow is blowing once again.

Winter has always been one of my favorites. I love warm socks and slippers, sipping on a cup of hot green tea, listening to my favorite Pandora station...painting, drawing, glazing... Life couldn't be better.

moth ii © samos 2014

The other night I was checking out some other artists on Instagram, and found a New York artist that is just phenomenal! Anyways, she inspired me to look into moths and those native to Colorado. I found the Hera buck moth to be quite beautiful. I started out by painting the background in watercolor, drew the moth and then painted in the wings with white titanium acrylic. I then made a couple photo transfers of the same moth and strategically placed them around the first moth. And then added more texture and color. The second image is digitally altered, both are available on RedBubble. 

the beginning of a painting

Stay warm everyone! Winter is here!!! ~samos

growin' like weeds ii

grown like weeds planter

inside

drain dish

Dandylions + Lemons

dandylions and lemons 

Last week I made this print using my dandelion bowls. You can find it on RedBubble. And if you really like it, you can get it made as a pillow, tote, or cell phone case! 

                                             

You can also find the original bowls in my shop, HERE...

dandylion bowls

dandylion bowl

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are off to a great start for the week! ~ samos

Fresh from the Kiln

chocolate monsoon mug

red pod vine planter

Spotted Kaleidoscope mug

a muggy day

a drying mug

big handled mug

another drying mug

Pickles + Jam

bread and butter pickles

Pickles + Jam. 
Quite the combination, I'd say! Well, it wasn't exactly planned that way... Besides putting up fresh produce from the garden, I had an abundance of cucumbers from my last bountiful basket. So I decided to make some bread and butter pickles. That was yesterday's project. 

plum jam

And then a couple nights before, I decided to make some plum jam from all the plums I had. Boy, am I glad I did! It is y u m m y if I do say so myself! 

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! 

Enjoy your week and I'll check in again soon. ~ samos

H O R S E LOVE

Appaloosa LoVe

I've loved horses since I was a little girl. I remember asking my parents for one for every birthday and Christmas until they finally gave in. My first horse was Gypsum, a short but stalky bay. We spent a lot of time together, that horse and I. You see, we didn't live on a ranch or a farm. Dad built a beautiful home on the outskirts of town, but we were still in the city limits. So we had to keep Gypsum somewhere else. Dad leased some pasture from Mr. Paquette that lived up the  highway. Gypsum came to us in February. Actually it was Valentine's Day if I remember correctly. Anyways, when summer came, I would sneak out of the house about 6 every morning and ride my bike about two miles to where Gypsum was. I'd catch her, groom and saddle her up and a way we'd go. My best friend lived on county road 140, so we'd head that way to see if she wanted to ride. More than not, she did and we'd ride all day...Ah, the memories...

Besides the love of horses is my love for art. I was always drawing and drawing horses was no exception. To this day, I still enjoy painting them. And lately, I've done quite a few. Here are a few of my latest works, I'm sure you've seen some of them, but I felt like sharing again. 

Qianili Ma

Painted Horse 

the Run

Running Free

Warrior Paint

Hope you all had a wonderful week and enjoy your weekend! ~ samos

transformations

transformations © samos 

the beginning of a new abstract

I've been painting abstracts since high school. I remember Mr. Farney, my art teacher, teasing me sometimes by asking what I was smoking. Of course, I wasn't smoking anything! I just like being different in what I created. And looking back, I am indebted and most grateful to my teacher for the independence he gave me in his class. I was able to explore my creativity without limits.

Today, I'm still painting abstracts. They have evolved quite a bit from my younger years, but I still enjoy painting them. 

I was reading a post earlier on the Mind, Body, Green blog by Susie Moore. She talks about unleashing your creativity and it inspired me to dig into my stash of older unfinished works and break out the paints. 

It's not unusual for me to do this. Especially when I feel like painting and don't have the right size canvas that I really need.

I also decided to do something a bit different in my approach to working this particular painting. First I took a picture of it and then started adding different filters in Photoshop. I found one I liked and started to paint. I won't make the painting look exactly like the image I manipulated, but it has given me a direction that I wouldn't have normally taken.  

in progress...

detail

Feeling Blue...

cobalt blu planter

white peacock planter

G O L D + S P L A S H

© samos 

© samos

© samos

A Book Review: The Happiness of Pursuit by Chris Guillebeau

The Happiness of Pursuit by Chris Guillebeau

If you haven't heard of Chris Guillebeau, you have now. He is a world traveler (been to 193 countries before he was 35 years old), an accomplished writer (The Art of Non-Conformity, the $100 Startup and The Happiness of Pursuit), blogger and head of the WDS(World Domination Summit). 

I am just finishing his third book, The Happiness of Pursuit which is about finding a quest that brings purpose to your life. In his book, Chris talks about his travels and delivers the stories of other adventurous people and their quests. Sasha from Tulsa cooked a meal from every country taking her a total of 195 weeks. Josh is on a quest to visit every baseball stadium in the country. And almost 30 years later, a magnificent symphony was played in Brisbane, Australia. 

This is only a glimpse of what Guillebeau has to share in his new book. If I were you, I'd grab my copy now! Chris is traveling to 40 cities promoting his book and I'm excited to see him once again at the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Highlands Ranch. If you're in the area, stop by! 

E A T YOUR V E G G I E S

zucchini, spaghetti squash, tomatoes, & bell peppers

Fall is officially here! Well, I'm a couple days early, but does that really matter? Leaves are changing, temperatures are falling and its harvest time! I've spent the last couple days canning and freezing veggies from our garden. Tonight I canned 9 jars of homemade salsa made from our tomatoes!

homemade salsa

spinach and tomatoes

You know how most people do a good spring cleaning every spring? Well, I'm doing it now that its fall. And by cleaning, I'm talking about my 9 day cleanse with Isagenix. I started a couple days ago, and I am still excited about doing it. I don't mind the shakes at all and I really like the Fiber Snacks AND I've lost 2.5 lbs in just two days! I'm looking forward to seeing my overall weight loss, but that's not the only reason I'm doing this. For me, it's about getting rid of the toxins that we ingest and breathe everyday. What about you? Do you cleanse? If so, is it all natural or do you take supplements too? I'd love to hear about you! =) 

Have a wonderful week! ~ Stephanie

Second Time Around: the Hubcap as Art

I may have missed the opening but we're still planning on seeing the show before it comes down March 1st! 

Supplements vs. NOT

My first cleanse! 

Have you ever heard of Isagenix? It's a company that specializes in healthy, safe, life changing supplements. I first heard of it when my friend Amanda mentioned it on her Facebook page a couple weeks ago. First of all, let me tell you that I personally am terrible at taking any sort of supplement, vitamin or pill of any kind. Now here comes the BUT... I try my hardest to eat healthy. I look at labels, I am working on avoiding processed foods and trying to eat very little meat. I don't drink soda and have quit drinking cow's milk for about a year now. And let me tell you. That was tough. I love my milk! But I know I can do better for my body. So after I heard about Isagenix and how they use only natural ingredients, I decided to give it a try. Now, one of the other reasons I chose to try Isagenix is because it offers two different cleanses and I had been thinking about doing a cleanse anyways. There is a 9 day cleanse and a 30 day cleanse. I decided to try the 9 day cleanse first and see how well I do. I'll be honest, the part that scares me is that you don't eat very much food. And I love to eat. But I also believe that we fill our bodies with toxins everyday, whether we eat them or breathe them. And that is why I am going through with this. It's a gift to my health. I haven't been very good to my body physically over the years and I figure its the least I can do! If you're interested in joining me in a cleanse, let me know! I'd be more than happy to share more information and get you started. I just received my 9 day cleanse and will keep you posted on how it works out. 

Have a wonderful week! ~ samos

S A M O S + I M A G E K I N D

the Dark Hedges © samos 2014

 I added a new print to my ImageKind gallery. The Dark Hedges was taken when my husband and I were traveling in Northern Ireland this summer. Pictures don't do them justice. They're breathtaking! 

Balanced © samos 2014

Inside Zenia © samos 2014

Painted Horse © samos 2014

Koi © samos 2014