Tag Archives: video

They’re Back!

See this oil painting of a painted bunting come alive in under 1 minute (time lapse)

Today was a horrible day- seeing a painted bunting was one of the few good things about it, so I’ll focus on that. Painted buntings are migratory birds so their presence is relatively brief. It’s always a delight to see them! See the 3 short videos I took of a painted bunting from past seasons. Ours is smaller and rounder than the one I painted. The last video shows him with his buddy a red cardinal, and a hummingbird flits in at the end.

A painted bunting at the feeder
Longer footage of a painted bunting making a mess at the feeder
Painted bunting hanging out with his cardinal buddy

They’re Back!

Watch this hummingbird oil painting come alive in about 1 minute (time lapse)

The hummingbirds are BACK! LOL, I’ll tell you how I encountered their return. I was preparing for our unexpected move, and taking down the garden hose holder by unscrewing the hose clamps with a screwdriver, while wearing bright colorful floral gloves. Well, the hummingbird must have thought my hand was a flower and he tried to land on me. I didn’t see him until I moved my hand and he blitzed away making a loud buzzing whirring sound that I thought was a bee’s buzz. So I jumped a mile and yelped, as I saw the little bird flit away, seemingly annoyed at the drama and disappointment that I was not the flower he was looking for. 😀

Do you remember when I shared this video I took last year of a hummingbird in our tiny bird swing? I always feel happy looking at this. Here you go! Happy Sunday!

46 seconds of bliss, video I took of a hummingbird using the bird swing

Never Before Seen

See this oil painting of angels come alive in 2 minutes (time lapse)

This footage of “We are the Angels that He Sends” (<-visit page for story) has never been seen before in its entirety because I’d lost it. I only had an edited version that was missing some of the painting sessions, whereas this is now the entire painting (time lapsed to be slightly over two minutes long). I finally found the raw files by doing a file extension search on my old portable harddrive and wading through all of the unnamed files until I found the lost footage. This was from my old camera, which is why only the photographs of the final completed painting is in HD. But, even though the video is grainier than I’d like, it’s still good to have the complete video. I’m happy I found the lost files!

  • Happy Mother’s Day!
    Our church had a wonderful photo op display for Mother’s Day this morning [above photo]. My two daughters posed with me (Cassie in the blue striped dress on my right, Savannah in the white and navy dress on my left). My son wasn’t there but if he were, he’d have towered over me, as he’sContinue reading “Happy Mother’s Day!”
  • “Jesus in the Garden”
    Here’s the short (2 minute time lapse) version of my latest oil painting of Jesus called “Jesus in the Garden”. If you missed the full length video, or want to see it again, the Easter show is posted here. The lighting effects you see- where it looks like cross shapes of light or other washesContinue reading ““Jesus in the Garden””
  • Happy Easter
    Blessings to you on this day! Today I’m sharing things that are stripped bare and honest. No formal gowns. Nothing fancy. Just authentic sharing from the heart. First, a clip (in the video below) that I’ve shared here before of a regular day at home when my daughter agreed to sing the hymn “In ChristContinue reading “Happy Easter”
  • The Old Rugged Cross
    Sharing a few clips of favorite Easter shows and events from the past few years – the above was from Easter show 2021, singing beloved hymn “The Old Rugged Cross” with my two daughters. Scroll down for highlights and short clips of previous painting and singing specials. 2 minute time-lapse in the above video (movesContinue reading “The Old Rugged Cross”
  • EASTER SHOW 2023! New painting of Jesus
    My Easter show is done early this year (the video above), plenty of time for you to please share it with your family and friends. The new oil painting is called “Jesus in the Garden”. The hymns my daughter and I are singing have the lyrics on the screen and you’re invited to sing withContinue reading “EASTER SHOW 2023! New painting of Jesus”
  • Easter Painting Show
    I’ve started working on the 2023 Easter Show. The painting is planned, the music is chosen, and I’ve ordered this year’s dress. The art will be powerful. I hope you will remember to tune in. Here are my past shows: Painting Shows if you’ve not already seen them, or if you want to watch themContinue reading “Easter Painting Show”
  • Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
    Watch my Irish art oil paintings come to life in 2 minutes or less (time lapse videos), or watch my full St. Patrick’s Day show with live painting and surprises. Three of these paintings were inspired by living in Ireland, and one of them was painted while I was there. Click the images to seeContinue reading “Happy St. Patrick’s Day!”
  • New Painting – “Piano Portrait”
    Just finished the next project in the new 2023 collection “50 Oil Paintings Inspired by Joyful Living”, for the first section called MUSIC. These are quick projects to kick things off. “Painting Portrait” (in the video above) was done all in one session, about an hour or so. As the collection progresses, the paintings willContinue reading “New Painting – “Piano Portrait””
  • New Painting – “Celtic Harp”
    I sold my Celtic (Irish) harp when I knew my husband was losing his job and we decided to move to Ireland. I was supposed to have a month long solo art show there, but we couldn’t extend our visas long enough to stay. I was unfortunately unable to get an earlier time slot andContinue reading “New Painting – “Celtic Harp””
  • New Painting – “Ballet Shoes”
    This is the third oil painting in my new series for 2023 “50 Oil Paintings Inspired by Joyful Living”, for the section called MUSIC. The first painting was “Mountain Dulcimer“, the second was “Tap Shoes” and now this third one is “Ballet Shoes”. I’ll share videos of me playing the dulcimer, tap dancing, and teachingContinue reading “New Painting – “Ballet Shoes””
  • New Painting – “Tap Shoes”
    Here’s the second oil painting in my new 2023 collection “Inspired by Joyful Living”. For most of my life I’ve been a dancer (student, teacher, choreographer, and in recent years online classes/shows- although not very often as painting takes much of my time). My main genre is tap dancing. Those tap sounds you hear inContinue reading “New Painting – “Tap Shoes””
  • New Painting – “Mountain Dulcimer”
    My first oil painting of 2023 is done! “Mountain Dulcimer” kicks off the new collection called Joyful Living, for the category of MUSIC. This year, my focus is on things that make me happy, and are universal to human happiness in general. Even if you aren’t fond of the dulcimer, or don’t even know whatContinue reading “New Painting – “Mountain Dulcimer””

Back to Work!

See this owl oil painting come to life in under 2 minutes (time lapse)

The past few weeks I’ve been preparing for the new show series “Inspired by Natalie” vlog, uploading my painting videos to YouTube (not done with that yet, still have many more to go- I added this owl video today), re-organizing my space, learning new video editing software, purchasing upgrades, etc. But finally, I got back to work today on the actual PAINTING part of what I do!

I’m finishing the holiday themed painting I started before Christmas and set aside when work was intruding too much on family time, baking treats, etc. Since the holiday break ended weeks ago, it was a bit hard to get myself motivated to finish that one, but this afternoon I managed to put myself into the cozy and sentimental holiday mood to work on it. Tomorrow should be the final session.

After that, I’ll be on track to resume work on the 2022 collection, beyond Christmas related art. WHEW! Having that leftover holiday painting sitting on my easel is a bit like leaving the Christmas tree out too long!

It feels good to be back to work and making progress in 2022. LOL! I had to edit this blog post because I typed 2021 everywhere that 2022 was supposed to go! Hopefully winter will go by fast and we’ll soon be in a more positive season (meaning that spiritually as well as weather). Tomorrow is the middle of the week. Let’s make it a good one!

A Stone’s Throw Away

Watch this Ireland Coast oil painting come alive in 2 minutes (time lapse)

Here’s another painting video that I needed to change the music I’d originally used, to avoid copyright claims. I like how the new music works, but I also like the Irish music I had at first, so I’m keeping it the original way here on this site.

It feels like a journey looking into the past, going through these older painting videos. This was inspired by when I was living in Ireland in 2016 after my husband lost his job and we wanted to start over in a very big way. I’ve been thinking about Ireland a lot lately. Looking back is bittersweet.

We’d given up nearly everything we had to start over in Ireland, but even though I landed my month-long solo art show and my son got a partial scholarship to University College Cork, alas we couldn’t get our “permission to remain” visa and I had to cancel my art show (it was scheduled past our temporary visa expiration date), and the kids each canceled their school enrollment. It was rather crushing, as there was a process to get accepted for both them and for me, and our work to earn the money to go, by selling most of our possessions, and, well… it just wasn’t meant to be.

So, back we went, and by that time my husband was homesick and then the rest of us felt it too. We were born and raised in America, and no matter how much my dad’s spirit was calling me to Ireland, he was gone and I was not allowed to be an Irish resident. I will never really fully stop being sad about this, but I accept my place in life and I bloom where I’m planted.

However, when we first returned to the States, we went somewhere that quickly made us miserable, and we did not bloom! We were again landlocked and cold, and nothing we did was successful. But we didn’t let our journey end in such a crushing failure.

Even though we felt crazy to try yet again, we made one last long trip to somewhere beyond the rainbow where the dolphins roam wild. And now… if I were to stand at the coast near where I currently live, and throw a stone that could magically fly in a North Eastern direction across the ocean shore to the other side, it would land at the Celtic Sea Coast. I think of this whenever I stare across the ocean, imagining that it runs into the sea, and it reaches Ireland. I am just an ocean away. And this is where I belong. I will make a good life for myself here.

As I’ve been sitting here talking to you, the sun has come out. While it’s been cold here in Southern Georgia this January, today it is beautiful. It is currently 71 degrees F, with a high of 72. I’ll “see” you again tomorrow. I’m going outside!

Heaven Again

Watch “Flying to Heaven” oil painting come alive in 2 minutes (time lapse)

I’ve been telling you about my ongoing project to upload my oil paintings to YouTube. This has resulted in editing some of my older work, changing copyright-claimed music, and/or tweaking a few things that could be improved. In this case, I found the original footage (the raw files from the camera) and I re-did the video from scratch, adding a little bit about the context of this painting (why it was painted and what it was for), a painting used as an illustration in children’s book “Grandpa Smiles” about grief, the loss of a grandparent.

The footage is more grainy than you’re used to seeing from me. That’s because I still had our old home camcorder then. I wish I could go back in time and give my past self a better camera, but what’s done is done. I had no way of knowing that it would be important to me in the relatively near future to have clearer (HD) footage of my work (not that I have a fancy camcorder now either, but it’s much better than before). When we start out, staying within our budget is sometimes not only important, but we may not have any other choice at the time. As we change and grow, we can upgrade how we do things. But it makes for a bit of a mess if we’re hoping to have a consistent look and feel to the collection of our work. And here’s where today’s metaphor for life comes in…

We may wish for our lives to be nice and tidy, consistent, with clarity from the start. But that’s not usually how life goes. We may be out of focus, living on a shoestring budget, taking one day at a time- not knowing if what we do today matters for the future, not knowing which things will succeed or fail, and not able to secure anything with absolute certainty. We never know what tomorrow may bring. The best we can do is live our lives one day at a time.

If at some point in the future, we wish we’d had it all figured out sooner, then we are truly blessed. It means that we’ve lived long enough to look back. It means that we learned how to be better.

God bless and keep you, this day and always. “See” you tomorrow.

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Preview! Sneak Peek

On set for Vlog Premiere of “Inspired by Natalie” Show 1

Whoa! Isn’t this cool? Here’s a sneak peek of my new show- just a still shot though, the video would be too big of a spoiler! That’s one of my painting videos (my wolf oil painting) running via green screen technology behind me, while I’m standing in front of the green screen.

I have a few bugs to work out. I’m thinking I should use a different backdrop (right side of photo) other than the one I have now that has text on it. A plain solid background would be better. Also, I’m using a free trial of video editing software and it has a watermark across it. I’ll need to purchase the pro version. I have a few other tweaks to make, but then I’m ready to launch! Below is the video I am referencing in the vlog show sample:

See this oil painting of a wolf come alive in 1 minute (time lapse)

It’s one of my painting-on-black-canvas projects. I plan to talk about the stories behind my paintings, techniques, and turn some of my older blog posts into vlog episodes. The show will be a fast moving format geared toward short attention spans (like my own, 🙂 ) and entertainment, rather than a legacy media format that honestly isn’t likely to be viewed. I’m hoping to film at least one new episode a week. When I’m feeling ambitious I can film more often. When I’m too busy with painting projects, less often. I’ll need flexibility to make this work.

It’s still a work in progress, but I aim to have something to show you by the end of the week! Maybe even tomorrow if all goes well.

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CHRISTMAS SHOW 2021!

Enjoy 45 minutes of Christmas holiday sentiment, merriment, and JOY!

Painting, singing, and dancing ~ so much JOY! Please share my special 45 minute show video with all of your connections. It is free, with no paywall or advertising. I hope that you will find this event so unique, fun, and uplifting that you’ll want others to see it. So, grab a cup of your favorite Christmas drink and a good round of snacks. Settle in, and be prepared for sweetness, laughs, and a positive experience. May you feel the Christmas spirit warm your heart and carry you through the next year!

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Keeping my Cool

See this oil painting of a Puffin come alive in 2 minutes (time lapse)

I felt a bit of panic, but I willed myself to keep my cool, as cool as this puffin. Today I was working on the new painting and at the end of the session I decided to compile the video footage I have thus far and I was horrified to see that an important chunk of the painting session was missing! It skipped from one part to another in a big jump. Oh no, no, no, no! It was an important part of what I hope will be a special painting.

But, no need to panic. Yes, it could have been a terrible incident that has happened to me in the past: I think I’ve hit the record button, but I’ve really hit the stop button from a session that was still running. Then, I paint while the camera is OFF, and then when I go to shut if off, my stomach sinks as I realize that it was never on! However, it was possible that the camera recorded the whole thing, but the clip was somehow missing from the video file. In which case, the footage was there. I just needed to find the clip. That could have happened easily.

And that’s what DID happen! Whew! I found the missing clip. All is well! Whatever your day was like today, I hope that you too were “puffin cool” even if there were some highly stressful moments. Most things are really not worth getting anxious over, especially if there’s a chance that it will all work out in the end.

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New Painting – Campfire

Watch oil painting “Campfire” come to life in 2 minutes (time lapse)

Relax for a couple of minutes and sit by the fire.

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