ETSY SALE and Felt And Lace
This is a 11″x14″ mixed media painting on paper covered canvas. This painting is 1.5″ deep and is painted red on the sides.
This painting is $225 and is available HERE.
OK fist ever, sale on etsy. 15% off of all ORIGINAL PAINTINGS. You can use etsy’s new COUPON system. The code word is ‘BLACK’ because this sale is good now until MIDNIGHT (mountain time) FRIDAY 26th (Black Friday).
maria@mariapacewynters.com
Bliss And The Polka Dot Dressing Gown
This is a 12″x16″ mixed media painting on paper covered canvas. The sides are 2″ deep and are painted coral.
This painting is $300 and is SOLD
Wikipedia say that “Bliss can be a state of profound satisfaction, happiness and joy, a constant state of mind, undisturbed by gain or loss.”
Bliss is blissful but honestly, how many of us can say we feel bliss often, or at least, as often as we should. Have any of your read Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach? I read it about 15 years ago and it, along with The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, changed my life. Over this last year I have been reading Romancing The Ordinary by Ban Breathnach, it is not a new book, I have had it for a while but last fall I picked it up and started reading it. It is a day book of inspirational essays and it is where I first read the poem “To Call Myself Beloved” (the name of my 2009-210 series) by Raymond Carver, it spoke to me on such a deep level and still does. I could see that THIS is where I was in my life at this time and my paintings were such a reflection of that. I was feeling really strong and confident and my ability to be able to love myself and my work without worrying about people’s opinions was rather surprising to me. It was blissful which is not a place I had ever been before. Being able to call myself beloved is still a struggle, caring what people think is a struggle, taking my iron pills so I can breathe is a struggle, exercising is BEYOND a struggle BUT being blissful, is something that is so completely foreign to me that I don’t even strive for it. Being in bliss is not something that is concrete, it really is a state of mind. Can we simply turn on the bliss switch by just choosing to do so? I wish this were true but we CAN actively choose to do things that make us feel blissful instead of denying or ignoring those desires. Ban Breathnach lists two pages of bliss blockers and sadly, I could have checked off more than half of them! So how do we slowly introduce bliss into our life? Really, when it comes right down to it, bliss IS calling yourself beloved because if you were truly calling yourself beloved, you would be doing all those things for yourself that you do daily for your family ( your beloveds).
For me, BLISS is also painting whatever I want without any restrictions or rules and I do experience THIS bliss often.
Which brings me to …
WHAT I WAS THINKING ABOUT WHEN I DID THIS PAINTING:
When I was younger I use to love my dressing gown. I loved to wear it. I loved to lounge around in it on a Sunday morning. I can honestly say I really don’t enjoy that anymore but is that because I really don’t enjoy it or because I don’t allow myself to enjoy it. I don’t even go down to the kitchen in the morning without being showered and dressed, even on the weekends. I have convinced myself it is because I don’t like it but really, I think it is because I feel like it would be wasting the day and THAT makes me feel guilty. What if I had a free day? What if I gave myself permission to do nothing but lounge around in my dressing gown all day and lie on my couch with a huge quilt and pillows from my bed reading a big fat novel, watching old movies on TV, eating homemade waffles and drinking a really good latte. All at once!
BLISS!
?
BUT I’m not convinced.
Perhaps I could start with an hour and work my way up to half a day.
Or I could wear my dressing gown over my clothes.
Does that count?
I think I need to keep reading Romancing The Ordinary, it is obvious that I need to continue to work on this bliss thing but at least I am thinking about it.
Fay Watson-24-3-28
This is a mixed media painting on 6″x6″ paper covered canvas. The sides are 1.5″ deep and are painted red.
This painting is $60 and is available HERE.
Another Australian mug shot from 1928. Fay Watson was arrested for being in possession of cocaine. Wasn’t it in Coke, toothpaste and cough syrup back then?
maria@mariapacewynters.com
November- Give Away #3- Sad Music
Sad Music has won the Poll for this month’s give away of a 6″x8″ OOAK reproduction. If you would like to participate in this draw, all you have to do is leave your name in the comment section of this post and at the end of the month my two girls will pick the winning name (HOPEFULLY YOURS! ) out of a hat.
It is easy and fun SOOOO do it now!
maria@mariapacewynters.com
The Felted Flower
This is a 6″x6″ mixed media painting on paper covered canvas. The sides are 1.5″ deep and are painted turquoise.
This painting is $70 and is available HERE.
maria@mariapacewynters.com
The Shadow Of A Hat
This is a 6″x6″ mixed media painting on paper covered canvas. The sides are 1.5″ deep and are painted red,
This painting is $65 and is available HERE.
This is another nameless mug shot from 1900. This one is from my home town of Victoria, so I have actually walked the same streets she walked … well, not exactly.
maria@mariapacewynters.com
The Pickpocket
This is a 4″x6″ mixed media painting on paper covered canvas. The sides are 1.5″ deep and are coral.
This painting is $65+ shipping and is available HERE.
This is from a mug shot from Australia Feb.2, 1922. (V. Lowe.)
I don’t know about you, but I think she is going do it again.
maria@mariapacewynters.com
She’s Just A Little Girl
This is a 6″x12″ mixed media painting on clayboard. The sides are painted red with newsprint butterflies and are 2″ deep.
This painting is SOLD
This is something that I have to remind myself often. Especially when it comes to my seven-year old, I find it much easier to remember when it comes to my four-year old. I always have. I have always expected more from Imogen. When I look back on what I expected from her when she was four I kind of cringe. I guess this the curse of being the oldest and born to an older mother who was set in her ways perhaps, and had way to long to build those expectations. You know what I mean. The times when we would see children in public and think, “if they were my kids ….” (fill in the black with all of your ‘non parent’ wisdom HERE). Or, on the other side of that, when I was trying to have a child unsuccessfully for five LONG years and I would see a mother or father completely ignoring their kid begging for gum as they were standing in the line to buy groceries and I would think “NEVER! I will NEVER ignore my children, I will talk to them, I always engage them in stimulating and meaningful conversation”. I didn’t realize that they weren’t ignoring their kids they were simply WORN OUT. They can do that, you know, after the 100th time or begging for something in the grocery store, that DOES tend to happen.
This all being said, I must remember she is just a little girl more often. I know that I am a good mother, but I could be better. Couldn’t we all? I was watching TV making dinner the other day (yes, I have a TV in my kitchen! I know, I know) and I saw the worst thing I have ever seen on TV. I am not going to mention the show but it was basically about a mother abusing her child in the most horrific and twisted unimaginable way, and this is the stuff we were privy to. And the first thing I thought of was ‘ he is just a little boy’ and then I had to turn it off because it made me ache so bad that a child would have to endure anything like this from his own mother. What hope does a child in this situation have?
And as bad as this was, I have to tell you, it doesn’t have to be THAT abusive to have long-term scaring effects on a child. How about a teacher that tells a child in front of their peers that they will be getting a bad report card if they don’t start behaving? Don’t think that kind of shaming isn’t going to have a negative effect on a child. Unfortunately for the child and teacher, probably an immediate effect.
Anyway, I was just thinking about all of this when I was painting this one and I know what I have wrote it is a bit rambling but really what I am trying to say is those words ‘shes just a little girl’ were circling around my head but what I was thinking about was ‘they are just children’ and they are really delicate and we have so much power over them. We all just really need to remember to be kind.
Precious
This is a 3″x4″ mixed media painting on wood. The sides are 1.5″ and are painted lilac blue.
This painting is $40 and is available HERE.
Last night while my children lay in bed and I sat on the little stool in their room reading them the book ‘Witches’ by Roald Dahl, two teenagers were struck and killed by a transit train just blocks from our house.
The juxtaposition of two children safely tucked into bed while only blocks away two lay under tarps was not lost on me.
Two young lives gone, just like that
Today I will hold my babies a little tighter and a little longer when I think of you.
I dedicate this painting to the girl and boy who died. I feel so sad for their families and for the driver of that train.
Young Love- Young Harlequin
This is a 6″x6″ mixed media painting on wood. The sides are 1.5″ deep and are painted turquoise.
This painting is $70 and is available HERE.
When I was growing up, I had two framed prints on my wall. They were old, even when I got them, with beautiful gold frames. I am thinking they are from around the 20’s. The were of a young girl and a harlequin in a beautiful garden at night.
I was never sure which picture was first and which one was second. I would lie in my bed and look at these paintings making up stories about what was happening in each picture.
The story would change, I would get confused: Why does he have his mask on in this one and off in the other? why does he look sad? Is he waiting for her or did she just leave him? My story was never complete before sleep would take me.
Perhaps this is why I have a fascination with Harlequins.
Perhaps this is why I always paint first and then make up the story of what is happening in the painting afterward. I am reading my subconscious. Maybe I am just trying to justify my painting by giving it a story.
I still have these framed prints hanging next to my bed but I can be honest, there is seldom a time when I lie in bed looking at them. One weekend morning, while still asleep, Imogen, who is often in my bed by the morning, woke me by saying, “That part looks like a horses head’. She had found an optical illusion within the print.
It made me smile because she must have been lying in bed looking at these prints, just as I did. Two little girls, 30 years apart staring at the Harlequin and his love. It makes me wonder if there was a little girl before me that had done the same thing.
Conversations At Night
This is a 6″x8″ mixed media painting on wood. The sides are 1.5″ deep and are painted turquoise.
This painting is $75 and is SOLD
The Old Owl is wise, but not a comfort
He seems to speak in riddles
And answers my questions with more questions
He was rather annoying, to be honest
“My Mother has sent me here to see if you can help me sleep”, I implore him.
He turns his head away from me and shrugs.
“Why would you want to sleep at this time of day?”
maria@mariapacewynters.com
Where To See My Art In November
Come out and see my art this month and support the local art scene in Edmonton!
THE NINA HAGGERTY CENTRE FOR THE ARTS
Nov 4- 27, 2010
Reception: Thursday, November 18, 5-7 PM
“Just living is not enough”, said the butterfly, “one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower”.
Hans Christian Anderson
This show features brand new paintings by myself and Deborah Cardinal,
whom I mentored this year at The Nina Haggerty Centre.
Gallery Hours:
Mon-Fri: 10-2 PM
Thursday 4:30- 8 PM
Sat: 1-3 PM
ALSO…
THE VARSCONA THEATRE LOBBY
NOVEMBER 3- 22, 2010
My paintings will be displayed in the Varscona lobby for the run of Shadow Theatre’s production of WOMEN WHO STEAL by Carter Lewis
When frustrated suburban housewife Peggy confronts Karen, an eccentric businesswoman who just happens to have slept with Peggy’s husband, this mismatched duo is sent careening through a wild night of fighting, flirting, gunfire and fishing.
With time for a little girl talk as well. And if luck is on their side there might some well earned retribution before the evening is over. A fun-filled Thelma & Louise for the stage.
“Put down those remotes, people, you’ve got to see this!
– Austin Chronicle
Show Times
All evening shows start at
7:30pm
All matinees start at
2:00pm
Shadow Theatre
10329 83rd Avenue, Edmonton
TEL: (780) 434-5564
shadowtheatre@interbaun.com
maria@mariapacewynters.com
Missing You
This is a 6 “x12″ mixed media painting on wood. The sides are 1.5” and are painted turquoise.
This painting is $110 +shipping and is available HERE.
I have missed painting my red head.
maria@mariapacewynters.com
Marvel, Dream
This is a 5″x7″ mixed media painting on wood. It is 1.5″ deep and the sides are painted red.
Available HERE
“Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again. And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel? You must work, we must all work, to make the world worthy of its children.”
Picasso
Ahhh, Picasso, you were so smart.
maria@mariapacewynters.com
November Give AWAY – You choose
Here are the three images I am considering for the November give away !
Sad Music
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Watching The High Wire Act
Imogen Harlequin
[polldaddy poll=4041229]
Waiting For Him
This is a 6″x6″ mixed media painting on paper covered canvas. The sides are 1″ and are painted turquoise.
This painting is $65 and is SOLD
I see her standing at the edge of the sea. The wind whips her hair around her face but she stands motionless.
She is waiting.
Waiting for him to come home.
maria@mariapacewynters.com
“Suspicion”- Lilly Williams
Lilly Williams, alias “Harrington” was a housekeeper arrested for ‘suspicion’ in 1901. Her mugshot is part of a traveling exhibit called Arresting Images through The OOP Museusm.
I don’t know, looking at mugshots of people from the past just sparks my curiosity. There is so much that they look like they want to say. Their eyes haunt me.
This is a 4″x8″ x4″ 3-D mixed media canvas painting.
It is $95 + shipping and is available HERE.
Daydreams (Hold On)
This is a mixed media diptych on canvas. The sides are painted electric blue and 1.5″ deep.
This painting is $700 and is available HERE
The last painting for my show at The Nina Haggerty Centre For The Arts …it is being hung at this very moment.
Very Excited!
Tomorrow I drop paintings off at The Varscona for my show there. Maybe I should try to stagger my shows a little more in the future! Phew!
Faith – In Progress (Triptych)
This is a mixed media triptych painting on wood, 6″x8″, 8″x6″, 4″x6″. The sides are painted pink ( same pink that is in the painting).
SOLD
Tomorrow I hand over my paintings so they can hang my show. I am really excited now that all the hard work is done.
But…
Part of me wants to just send Chris to drop them off. I can be such a coward sometimes. This is why I feel so comfortable hiding out on the internet. Hiding behind my blog and my etsy store. You don’t have to confront anyone face to face, it is so much easier!
But I can’t do that.
So, I will try to quiet my butterflies and fake it tomorrow. Isn’t that what Oprah said to do?
‘Look how confident I am’.
Hopefully none of them read my blog or my cover will be blown and they will know that I am just a big scaredy cat nerd and not cool, not one -little- bit.
(Although, I have a sneaking suspicion that they may all ready know this, even without this inside information!)
Hope Dreams
This is a 8″x24″ mixed media painting on paper covered canvas. The sides are 1.5″ deep and are painted coral red.
This painting is available HERE.
And The Winner For The October Draw Is…
….Maureen Boucher! Congratulations to you!
OK, when you watch this video, check out baby Franken-Lola and how she walks down the hall. It is a scream!
