Category: Tiny Paintings

Valley of Fire, The Fire Wave Trail

One of the most colorful places we have visited in Nevada is Valley of Fire State Park. My little family and I frequent this magical place filled with sandstone creations. Each hike has a different pigment of the stone and variations in the sand. A trail we particularly loved to run on was the Fire wave trail. We first came across this path while hiking. My husband sat to relax and I painted. Later, we both grew to love it for our run. It has a nice balance of flat terrain and hills to push ourselves. I am glad we always took the time to stop and appreciate such a beautiful place! This is on our list of places to explore again with our daughter.

Valley of Fire, Fire Wave — AVAILABLE CLICK HERE

The trail is quiet and peaceful in the early hours when the sun is just starting to rise. The flowers bloom alongside the sandy path. Our dog loved to stop and smell the flowers when they were first starting to wake up. We were all intrigued by the cactus flowers. My husband liked to try and figure out if the desert tortoises had eaten any of the paddles and I liked photographing them for future paintings.

The trail came to a downhill slide into a wash. The wash was filled with sand and stone where we could spend hours exploring. The erosion and lines in the rock are captivating. The run was very tranquil and afterwards we hiked for a while so we could take photos of what we really enjoyed. I was thankful that I was able to go home and paint our memories and then share them with everyone. Recently, I have really been excited about painting the many different species of flowers in the desert. The Fire Wave trail was filled with so much beauty and it was hard to see it all in one trip. The desert is ever changing with wind, sands of time, and glorious rain storms. We see something new each time we visit the park. We are grateful that we live so close to this wonderful place.

Valley of Fire Series 2 Number 3 — AVAILABLE CLICK HERE

Valley of Fire Series 2 Number 2 — AVAILABLE CLICK HERE

The hike can get really hot in the summertime so be careful and always remember to bring a water bottle! I hope you enjoy this post and are able to find an amazing hike where you live that you truly love. Please contact me with any suggestions, or leave them in the comments for everyone! Have a Marvelous Monday and Thank You for Reading!

-Karen Hilliard

Also, if you would like another way to show support, I have a few options. “Buy me a coffee” which is a way for anyone to contribute to the creative process behind the paintings. Fuel the artist so to speak. Here is the link if you are interested. The funds go to supplies and gas to get out to the trails. I truly appreciate the support and the fact that you are liking these blogs, as well as my art posts. I am working hard to bring you all fresh content! Here is the link to my Instagram where I try to post daily. You can also find me on Facebook at my art page Karen Hilliard Art.

Please leave your Social Media handle on the “Buy me a Coffee” page so I can thank you in my Instagram/Facebook Stories! If you would like to 🙂

Thank you again for all of your support!

Tags New Blog, watercolor painting

Snow Days

While writing this blog in my mind for the last week and not knowing where to begin, I found a lovely song on Instagram available for reels. As I looked over my videos to inspire this post and decided on tapping into certain moments of the hike…the song choice flowed with our daughter walking around in the snow. The band is Inland Sky and the song is linked here, “Little Hands.” Have a listen if you will. This song is heartfelt and sums up not only the hiking expeditions or her joy, but motherhood along with hopes and dreams for all children. I immediately thought of her tiny hands finally touching snow and building her snowman, person, woman, yet she calls it “snow..ma.” I can close my eyes and remember the smells from the trail and how different the butterscotch of the ponderosa pines drifts up my nostrils compared to the heat of summer. Not as strong of a scent. All three of us pressed our noses up to the trees to see if one was stronger than the last. They all pretty much smelled mild.

Hearing the snow crunch beneath our feet was another sensation and it was interesting to feel myself sink further into the snow due to the tiny human on my back. She could not wait to get out of the backpack this time. Adventuring is about to change and a transition is coming for sure. As she grows, so do we as parents, and our trekking takes interesting turns. The dog was running around in certain sections where there were no travelers around and he had the time of his life. My husband and I both looked at each other and said, “well, he will sleep for about three days after this!” Um…nope, it was about a day and a half. This is the deal anyone signs up for if they get a herding dog. He is high energy and keeps us on our toes at all times…perfect for a toddler running around. I posted two videos on social media. One video of our dog running up the mountain chasing snowballs and the other of our daughter carefully navigating her movements around rocks through the snow. This week’s blogs will be all about this family excursion. Thank you for reading and I hope you had a Marvelous Monday!

-Karen Hilliard

We hiked Fletcher Canyon again. Although a completely different time of year, it reminded me of hiking with our daughter when I created the tiny paintings below.

Karen Hilliard Art Blog | Fletcher Trail | Mt. Charleston — AVAILABLE CLICK HERE

Also, if you would like another way to show support, I have a few options. “Buy me a

If you would like to, please leave your Social Media handle on the “Buy me a Coffee” page so I can thank you in my Instagram/Facebook Stories! 🙂

Thank you again for all of your support!

Tags New Blog, watercolor painting

Play Time

Traveling from California forests to Nevada deserts was a huge climate change for our little one. Not only were there vast topography changes but also stimulation and shifts due to weather differences. In California we had the cold, wet, damp, and dewy mornings combined with rain. This led to luscious forest growth and green all around us under the redwoods. In the desert we shared moments of sand running through our fingers and staying in the crevices of the lines in our hands. Both climates were cool, however, California had a bit more of a chill due to the coastal midst. Hiking in the desert is also magical how quickly the temperature can drop once the sun sets behind the mountains. Both states shared a winter chill that our daughter and I enjoyed. We both love wearing hats so it was nice to be able to share fun memories with our knitted wear.

Karen Hilliard Art | Blog | Day Hike — AVAILABLE CLICK HERE

Today we hiked the beautiful Red Rock Canyon here in Nevada. This place used to feel like our backyard as we were a bit closer and now it is a journey. Luckily, it makes the hiking there all the more wondrous and enjoyable. Sharing these moments with a toddler is a completely different experience than how my husband and I used to run 4 to 6 miles in a short amount of time. Now, the time is still the same, yet the distance may not even equate to a mile. Immediately out of the backpack, her hands glide into the sediments below her feet and around her being. The smile on her face illuminates everything and everyone on the trail. I love how when people see a baby they immediately smile and wave, or say hello. At least, out in nature this has been a welcoming experience. While greeting every human and dog on the trail, we were also fascinated by animal poop, wild plants, and above everything…rocks. More will be shared this week in future blogs so stay tuned and stay safe out there! Thank you for reading and I hope you all had a marvelous Monday.

-Karen Hilliard

Tags New Blog, red rock canyon, watercolor painting

Forest Love

Canopies of California Number 3 | Karen Hilliard Art | Tiny Paintings — AVAILABLE CLICK HERE

Canopies of California Number 2 | Karen Hilliard Art | Tiny Paintings — AVAILABLE CLICK HERE

Back at the root of my inspiration and depths of my creative awakening in the heart of California, I walk into the forest and take a deep breath. The fog rolls in all around me and I look down at my feet to see the small seedlings bending with dew drops. The heaviness of the weather may weigh these small plants down, however, one day they will be mighty and taller than myself. The smell of fresh rain travels through my nostrils and my eyes light up with the cool morning temperatures. All of my senses are awakened in the forest. Traveling around with my little family this December has been wonderful as always. The roots beneath our feet remind me of my own family tree and the memories we made on this trip. The baby lasted a wee bit in the backpack and then chose to run around splashing in puddles. So much fun was had in this forest.

If you ever get a chance to visit the Grove of Old Trees in Occidental California, I highly recommend it. Also, the town has lovely artisan shops to peruse. Make sure to dress warm and bring a rain jacket as well as boots to be safe. Totally worth the trip! We were in the hunt for a new coffee mug and found a wonderful piece by a local artist. This mug took half an hour to choose and I went with the one that reminded me of the splashing puddles. Overall that was a huge memory. The dog drinking from every puddle and stream was also joyous. Every rain drop that fell on my husband’s shoulder and coated his sweatshirt with patterns were also fun to watch. Looking up at the canopy above reminded me to slow down and enjoy all the tiny moments. Have a wonderful weekend and thank you for reading!

-Karen Hilliard

Tags New Blog

“Juliet’s Fall”

Here they are! The new Tiny Painting Series, “Juliet’s Fall.” I wrote about these little color wonders in my previous blogs “Fall Season,” and in “Chestnuts” I gave a glimpse of one of the other paintings with Fall foliage. The colors of this series brought such joy to my studio and warmth to my home. I wrote in my Newsletter about how I envisioned knitting sweaters, hand warmers, and scarves while possibly sipping tea or coffee. Going from the “Pumpkins 2024 Series” to “Juliet’s Fall” was a wonderful transition from October to November for me. These new paintings focusing mainly on leaves and season changes reminded me of our last days at the Pumpkin Patch at Gilcrease Orchard. Watching the vines and leaves descend due to people choosing their pumpkins and also because of heat exhaustion, was an interesting change to experience from the year before. The pumpkin Patch was much cooler last year than this one and we could really see the difference in pumpkins this year from the year prior. They have been ripening sooner than expected and many meals have been made already! The Pumpkin paintings have filled my home with new colors thank the year before and inspired those deep orange hues for the new Fall pieces as well.

I released the paintings in my Newsletter as well along with the New larger painting I have been working on, still a work in progress. You can find out more about that painting by signing up for my Newsletter…just an email from me to you every month with new artwork, and a friendly hello! In this blog, I am diving a bit deeper into the inspiration for these smaller works. Juliet, the photographer, is a wonderful person who fills the world with color and light. She is also an amazing mother with fantastic children who bring light to this world as well. Juliet is honest, hard working, brilliant, and has a warm glow about her. She can talk with anyone and treats everyone with respect. I wanted to honor her personality in these Tiny Paintings. It was a challenge to create smaller bits and pieces of this beautiful lady’s persona and hopefully you can feel her light shining through to all of you. I will be adding more paintings to this series, and they will all look different than the ones posted. Wishing you all a Fabulous Friday and thank you for reading!

-Karen Hilliard

Tags New Blog, watercolor painting

Trials and Tribulations

I have been through many trials and tribulations throughout my life and I am a huge fan of the trials. Focusing on the trying aspect of many ventures has helped me through any type of discomfort. If I am writing about art, since this is an art post, I would focus on the many attempts for each painting, drawing, sketch, etc. There is such a joy in the build up of what an art project will eventually turn into. Most of the time, I love to just start with a dot or a line and see where it will take me. There are many mess ups, mistakes, or as Bob Ross put it, “Happy Little Accidents.” Life boils down to how we look at things and what perspective we are seeing each moment with. The movie, “The Choice,” adapted from the book by Nicholas Sparks, explains this in a lovely way. Life comes down to choices. The mom in Bridgerton spoke to her daughter about love being a choice, which I find to be a wonderful description of life and love. We choose how we perceive everything that comes our way. How long to give it space in our thoughts, bodies, etc. A hard concept to wrap the mind around most of the time, but an amazing concept of confidence non the less. Sometimes working through things daily, hourly, minute by minute, can become a necessity. So…back to how this relates to art.

Karen Hilliard Art | Redwoods - Lighting the Way | Watercolor and Ink — **SOLD**

My mind can get caught up in details and lost in them at the same time. In the past, if something did not look just right, it weighed on my thought process. Now, I don’t really have the time for this circle or merry-go-round so to speak. With such a limited amount of time, I have to focus on what I want to accomplish minute by minute. The most important part of my day is now a tiny human and I do not have the luxury of getting lost in certain mindsets. I am grateful everyday for the new perspective of “slow down, enjoy it!” Each painting has now become more free and has a bit of air to them. Now, I let the paint tell me where it wants to go…even on a portrait which could be quite scary or nerve-wracking. A whole new thought process of choice. Choosing to let go and find comfort in the uncomfortable. I love my tight style of detail oriented pieces as well as my more recent loose ink and watercolor paintings I have been creating. They are still highly detailed as well, just a bit more play with water. Smaller works are more suitable for the time I have allotted presently. While I long to work on larger pieces, I am grateful for any moment at my art table. I had no idea where I was going with this post when I started to write. Trying to keep up with the consistency of my blog and social media is a whole different story for another time. As for now, I enjoy the trials of everyday life and look forward to lessons I can learn. Thank you for reading and have a wonderful Wednesday!

-Karen Hilliard

Tags New Blog, watercolor painting

Chestnuts

The title, “Chestnut Grove,” makes me think about a grove of chestnut trees in the middle of a beautiful field, sparkling and colorful in the fall. The leaves are moving in the wind and changing color, yellow with hints of brown creating a glitter of natural wonders. Along with chestnut trees, another that pops into my mind is a field of maple trees, oak trees, and birch, all changing color and losing their leaves this fall. Chestnut Grove Tea reminds me of being back in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan, and seeing the beautiful trees along the roadside as we drive, changing colors along the Fall Color Map. These beautiful states attract visitors from miles away just to drive the picturesque trails through valleys of color. As I sit here in Nevada, sipping this marvelous black tea, I am dreaming about Wisconsin. My new Tiny Painting Series is titled, “Juliet’s Fall,” and it will be released on my website this Friday! These paintings are a series of colorful wonders representative of the photographs taken by our cousin, Juliet. She loves the season of Fall and sent me lovely foliage photos as painting references. When I think about this time of year and the chill forming in the air, I quietly sip my tea and appreciate the changing of the season.

“Chestnut Grove,” black tea can be found at Sheffield Spice and Tea Company here in Henderson, Nevada. It is an adorable little shop filled with smells to awaken the senses any time one sets foot inside the doors. I chose a black tea of medium caffeine levels for this week’s blog and am combining it with my Monday blog about my new paintings. This glorious tea has kept me awake and the fires of inspiration have been burning as I smell the lovely chestnut aroma sifting through my studio. This tea contains ingredients such as Ceylon Black Tea with Natural Chestnut Flavor. The Antioxidant level is High and the description says to enjoy it in front of an open fire. Their words make me think about Frank Sinatra and my Grandfather singing, “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” as he would roast chestnuts for us in his kitchen. This tea brings me back to fond memories of my loving grandpa once again and I am so happy to have these pictures in my mind, ears, and heart as I paint some fall foliage. I hope this blog entices your senses and I linked the tea if you are not local and would like to purchase it from their website. My paintings will be available soon and if you would like them sooner, please contact me here! Thank you for reading and have a Marvelous Monday.

-Karen Hilliard

Fall Season

Fall is a wonderful time of year. The weather starts to cool in the mornings and hopefully stays throughout the day. If you live in an area with changing seasons, then you can see some amazing variations of colors in the trees. Here in the desert we are lucky to have some oak trees which release their leaves and give a nice yellow hue before they blanket the ground and change to brown. My husband loves the smell of decomposing leaves and it reminds him of his childhood growing up in Wisconsin. His cousin recently sent me lovely photos of the changing leaves throughout the town where she lives and it has sparked my next series of Tiny Paintings. “Juliet’s Fall,” will be released in my Newsletter on November first in a little over a week. This series is about slowing down and taking time to appreciate everything around us. Nature is such a wonderful teacher in this retrospect as well as teaching us many other lessons to learn.

All things in nature take time to grow and develop, then run their course of living their individual existence. This series is about the leaves and the changing of the seasons, also reminding us that as humans, we go through many transformations in life. These changes become chapters in our book of life and our novels expand as we evolve. Trees are fascinating and see so much life pass around, above, inside, through, and beneath them. What would they tell us if we could listen or understand? These small pieces are meant to bring light and color into this world through the cool seasons leading into winter. Fall is a remarkable season filled with warmth from fires lit in the hearth of homes, soup made on people’s stoves to sip with merriment, hot chocolates, teas, and coffees consumed by many. The food of Fall brings everyone together and reminds us to give thanks for everything we hold dear. I love the constant reminder that where I am today, right now in this moment, I wished for it to happen in the past. This colorful series I am about to release heightens all of my senses and brings awareness for everything that is important to me. A very grateful feeling. I hope this Fall is a magical time of year for you as well. You can sign up for my Newsletter on my website or click this link and you will be directed to it. Have a Wonderful Wednesday and thank you for reading!

-Karen Hilliard

Click Play to watch me Painting the New Series, “Juliet’s Fall.” Releasing Soon!!

Pumpkin Patch

Days at the pumpkin patch have been filled with happiness and wonder. Walking into Holvrease and getting greeted by the staff with such joy is a great experience and sets the mood for a fun filled day! Meandering along the path to the pumpkins and choosing a wheelbarrow to collect our treasures also brings a smile to our faces. From the moment we enter to the moment we leave the Patch is full of possibilities. I love watching our daughter run her fingers through the dirt, collect it, and watch it float in the air through her fingertips. Children truly are fascinating. These years of wonder are filled with whimsy and a sparkling personality is being formed.

Karen Hilliard Art | Blog | Pumpkin Patch

Karen Hilliard Art | Pumpkins 2024 Number 10 — AVAILABLE CLICK HERE!

The pumpkin series holds so many meanings for me. Each one wrapped in my memories of where we picked the pumpkin, the weather during the day as it has been vastly different, and the people we were with upon choosing the pumpkin. We think of what good we will create when I finish a painting and the pumpkin is ready to carve. We have made soup, gnocchi, bread, and scones so far. Last year we attempted chocolate chip pumpkin cookies which came out nice but way different than the recipe. So each pumpkin in the “Pumpkins 2024 Series” holds a special place in my mind. Every painting I create does actually since most are from nature and an experience in my life. The memories of going to the Pumpkin Patch with sisters, nieces, friends, cousins, and our loved ones will live in these paintings for all time. I hope these pumpkins bring you joy and a bit of whimsy. What a wonderful world we live in. Thank you for reading and have a marvelous Monday!

-Karen Hilliard

Tags New Blog, Pumpkin Patch, watercolor painting

Apple Cider Cookies

The cookies were a big hit!! Children and Adults loved them! The aroma filled our home with the scent of fresh picked apples right from the farm. Sheffield “Apple Pie Spice” is a lovely blend of Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Allspice, Ginger, and Cloves. This was our free gift when we purchased our teas a couple of weeks ago. The shop owner also gave us a little recipe card for their “Caramel Apple Cookies” which would have made three dozen cookies if made correctly. The recipe is linked above which is free on their website, and I also linked their pie spice which you can order if you would like to purchase it. I used one rounded teaspoon instead of maybe two per cookie and they were a bit more bite sized than the picture showed. My brown sugar was all clumped (afterwards I added an apple slice to help fix this situation) and I think I ended up using one cup of Brown Sugar instead of the Cup and a Quarter Cup the recipe called for. Everyone seemed to like the smaller portions that added a nice pop of flavor to all of our palettes. I think I will use one rounded teaspoon when I make these cookies in the future as well.

Karen Hilliard Art | Blog | Apple Cider Cookies

Karen Hilliard Art | Pumpkins 2024 Number 6 — **AVAILABLE** CLICK HERE

My family was in town to go to the Pumpkin Patch at Gilcrease Orchard with us and I wanted to make something special for the kids. Pumpkin Soup was a give in and some sourdough with pumpkin added to it accompanied the soup nicely. The cookies were an afterthought because the Orchard also makes delicious apple and pear cider which we had on hand in our fridge. I thought the cider would go nicely in the cookie recipe and substituted it for the apple juice. Each cookie had the delicious flavor of the cider and the kids ended up enjoying the apple cider at the orchard the next day as well. I did not make the Caramel frosting for the cookies but will definitely be trying this next time. If you end up frosting the cookies with the Sheffield recipe, please let me know in the comments, or by contacting me, how they turn out. I would love some feedback. Baking sure does bring everyone together and warms the home in such a wonderful way. I hope you all have a Soulful Sunday and thank you for reading my blogs!

-Karen Hilliard

Tags Apple Cider, New Blog, Pumpkins, watercolor painting