Fun In The Studio by Leada Wood

Everyday is a happy day when you can spend time in the studio painting, especially with friends. The arts bring people together, it’s a language anyone can speak, whether young or not so young. We are  all young at heART!

I sure enjoy my special time with my kiddos as well as my friends. I hope this new year brings new and exciting things for you to look forward too. Dare to be creative and learn something new! 

And support the ARTS!

I did catch up a bit on my blog and hopefully next year I will keep up. I enjoy sharing the things I am doing with you and I hope you enjoy seeing a little of what I do in the studio. You can find more of my posts on leada_wood@instagram.  Instagram makes it so easy that I find I am using it more and more but I do enjoy my blog, as it is another way to journal.

Happy New Year!



Furry Friends by Leada Wood

All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all. Nature inspires me both in life and in art, but life is an art if lived well.

As the end of another decade comes to a close and a new one begins, I feel very grateful for all the wonderful things I have experienced, the beautiful people in my life that I love and most of all the life I have been given. I am thankful for the gift of creativity and strive to use it in all areas of my life, to bring more beauty into the world. What a wonderful world indeed it would be if everyone chose to be a little kinder and use the talents they have to enrich our own lives and the lives of others. To let our light shine in the darkness and light other candles along the, yes it would be a better world indeed.

Here are a few of my favorite furry friends painted  in watercolors. I have so much fun painting critters. I have been fascinated with animals since I was a child. We always had birds, cats, rabbits or turtles around, might of had more but we lived in town. Now that We live on the ranch we have llamas, cows, sheep , five cats, one dog, raccoons and birds. The wild rabbits hang around and mr Roadrunner and his family, a family of fox come and go and an occasional Peacock wanders through when he escapes the neighbors and is a free bird for a while. Now you see with all this inspiration all around me why I enjoy painting them!

Artist Trading Cards by Leada Wood

Artist Trading Cards are fun to create and a challenge as the surface in only 2.5 x 3.5 inches. I used collage, stencils, gold leaf and ephemera to create this series. Kelly Hoernig hosted the exchange and I am looking forward to the mail next week as I will get some art mail! It is enjoyable to participate in the different art exchanges I do, as I now have art from around the world. Artists are so generous to bare their souls and share their work with us, don’t you think?

This little Abby is the one I kept as I always keep one for myself and send others to friends during every exchange. This one was special to me as I experimented in hammering copper and wire to incorporate into the design. I also added Swarovski crystals to it to give it a little more sparkle and gold leaf. 



Mixed Media Collages by Leada Wood

I enjoy doing mixed media, it transports me to my happy place. Arranging papers, photos and ephemera to create a meaningful piece of art. Something about this photo of this little girl reminds me of myself. I used found objects to create a fall composition around the painting. Hearts are meaningful to me as they represent love. Love for God, love for family, love of nature love of animals. When I see feathers I always pick them up. They remind me of the angels watching over me and I am grateful for their protection and love.

This mixed media collage represents my mama and me. Yellow was her favorite color and she loved butterflies, birds, flowers and gardening. There were  always flowers blooming in her yard.  She also loved autumn as do I...I guess the acorn didn’t fall far from the tree after all.

This mixed media collage represents my daddy and me. He was an Horologist and could fix anything! He was also a musician and could play a lot of musical instruments and tinkered with cars. the gears and clock represent him as he made his living fixing watches, clocks and jewelry. He had more patience than anyone I’ve ever known. You can see my mom is represented in the background by the yellow butterfly. These paintings are intuitive and evolved as I go. It’s like a adventure that I discover and I never know how it will turn out.



Van Gogh, by Leada Wood

For goodness sakes...it is me again! I hope you are enjoying seeing some of the things I have created this year and I will try to keep up next year!

We took the four oldest granddaughters to Houston to see the Van Gogh exhibit. Among other things we also went to a Renaissance Faire. A great celebration for two of the girls birthdays!

I was so moved by the exhibition. Van Gogh was a prolific painter. He painted everyday objects from his life including his hat, pipe and shoes. Very touching to see ordinary things made extraordinary by the brush of a genius. He only sold one painting in his short lifetime.

Here is my little painting of his shoes.

It was a wonderful exhibition and included his drawings, sketchbooks and tools as well as paintings. 

First Friday Art Trail, by Leada Wood

This a series I created for one of the FFAT in Lubbock. They are mixed media.



“Play” by Leada Wood

Play was inspired by one of my kids Little People some scrabble tiles and a crossword puzzle. It is a mixed media piece 12x12.





Playing Catch Up! By Leada Wood

Here it is the end of 2019 and I am so far behind with my blogging that I considered not catching up but I never was a quitter so here goes! These are from a zig zag journal that I made in June inspired by a beach trip with my son, Adam and his family.



The journal was small only 4x4. I really like working in the small square format. I am desperately trying to post all this years work so that I can include it in my 2019 book. I may not get it all included but I will try!