The Plaid Pierrot
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 $65 and is available HERE.
Enter January give away.
First Give Away Of 2011- Marvel, Dream
I like the question idea from the last give away. We all have a lot to be grateful for, that is clear.
I’ve been thinking about what my January topic should be. I was going to ask what your resolutions for the new year are or what you want from this upcoming year but instead, I am going to ask for a name of a book or movie that has inspired or effected you in some way.( Or Perhaps, it just made you feel warm inside. ) I have been watching the TV lately and everything seems so glum and dismal and I don’t don’t want to start the year off like that. Let’s exchange inspiring and uplifting books/movies to one another. Wouldn’t that be fun?
My first offer is non fiction:
“The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. Read it, do it and change your life.
My second offer is fiction:
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Just such a great story. I could read it again and again.
My Movie recommendations is:
Alice by Woody Allen. This movie is such a wonderful fairy tale and a real reminder that living authentically is the only way.
I will offer up some more as the month goes on.
I’d love to hear from you and if I do, your name could be drawn at the end of the month to win a 5″x6″ OOAK reproduction on canvas of the below painting.
Write your suggestion(s) in the comment section of this post. I am really looking forward this!
‘Marvel, Dream’
Looking Beyond
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.
The week after Christmas is a time when we look back at the year that has just passed. The media are filled with these type of memory stories.
Best movie of the year.
Person of the year.
TCM’s remembrance montage.
And so on…
This year was a good year. We are all healthy and happy. But boy, did it ever fly by. I really can’t believe how fast it went! My three-year old turned four and grew up over night. My six-year-old turned seven and turned into a long-necked, beautiful ballerina. My husband wrote a whole musical which was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe festival. My mother had her knee replaced, pretty much a life changing experience for her and those around her. And me, I had several shows, magazine features and surpassed 130 thousand hits on my blog. This is huge for someone who, only three short years ago, painted very infrequently and only for her families viewing pleasure.
I can only imagine (dream) what this upcoming year has in store for me.
Here is to looking beyond.
Dreams are set in motion everyday by taking tiny baby steps.
Cheers everyone, thanks for making my dreams come true and for your ongoing support. You allow me to be an artist, something I have dreamt about being since I was a little girl.
So grateful to you all…. speaking of which, don’t forget to enter the give away for December. There are only a few days left.
maria@mariapacewynters.com
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
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.
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
To Catch A Glimpse
This is a 12″x16 ” mixed media painting on a wood stretcher. The sides are 1.5″ and are red. This painting is $280 + shipping and is available HERE
There is something about this poise that I love. I have painted it before and called it Waiting.
He is watching her. She pretends not to notice but holds her breath in anticipation as she attempts to look back over her raised shoulder to catch a glimpse of him watching her.
You Are The One
This is 3″x5″mixed media painting on paper covered canvas. The sides are painted red and are 1.5″ deep. This painting is $50 and is available HERE.
In Earnest …
12″x6″ mixed media painting on clyaboard
$200 US + $5 shipping
‘Dew’ (my three year old named her).
‘She wasn’t use to be being told no. Not ever and certainly not now.
How dare he! Well, he would be sorry. He was not match for her big liquid eyes, parted lips, porcelain skin and soft curls.
Watch out! Stand Back! She was just about to get her own way.’
The above is describing my painting but could easily be describing my three year old as well. Go figure!
This Big
This is a 9″x12″ (2″ deep) mixed media painting on wood.
I painted this same image last year, an ACEO. It may have been the first ACEO I did. A couple of weeks ago I was going through my images, looking for inspiration, and I came across this photo again. It was taken when Imogen was almost three, I was pregnant for Scarlett. I think I asked her how big she was and she stood as tall as she could and stretched out her little neck. At three, it was really important to be ‘this big’. Come to think about it, I guess it is still important at six. Imogen had a big cry the other day because I made her get the size 13 shoes instead of the (big girl) size ones. Let me tell you, the 13s were even a little on the big side but she cried and cried and said ‘I am just a baby!’. It was hard not to laugh, if she could only realized that in a few years she will be wishing her feet were smaller so she could fit in all those fabulous size six shoes on the sales rack!
Bravo …
… although, she wasn’t really THAT impressed …
or was she?
5″x7″ mixed media painting on canvas.
SOLD
New Treasury – Silent Garbo
This has been included in a new etsy treasury, check it out:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=52408
SOLD
Girl With White Crow (I Will Protect You)
This is a 11″x14″ mixed media painting on wood from my Too Small series.
SOLD
Free As A bird ( I Wish I Could Make It All Better)
This is a 18″x24″ mixed media painting on wood from My Too Small series.
The image of a bird cage just keeps popping into my head and on to the pages of my sketchbook but, I until now, I have not included it in an actual painting.
I love the see-through quality, and delicate wire bars of this Victorian birdcage. As a sculpture, a birdcage is rather beautiful and decorative. (Indeed, many people collect birdcages just for that reason.) However, I can’t help looking at an empty birdcage without feeling a little sad. Like something is missing. (Well, a bird obviously!) Perhaps I just need to try thinking about it differently; that the bird has escaped its captures and is free. This would make me happy if I was not so sure that a bird that was once caged would most likely not fair so well out in the wild.
I worry about being over protective with my children. How will they fair if I never let them fail? I constantly try to protect them from any hurt or nastiness that this world may bring them. Will they be able to make it all better for themselves? Comfort their own hurt? How can I teach them these skills? And, indeed, is it already to late? If I keep them caged up now, what chance do they have? At the same time, I want their childhood to be magic, innocence and joy. Childhood should be paradise. It should be free of worry and sadness. It is the only time that we are truly allowed the freedom of those feeling. When I see children that are deprived of those things my heart aches.
It is such a balance isn’t it? Just finding that perfect balance is a life’s work. A mother’s work. (And father’s too, of course).
Pillow Art by Sandy Mastroni
This is the cutest pillow in the whole world! It was created by Sandy Mastroni and when I saw it on Etsy I just had to have it! I think I am going to frame it in a shadow box frame and hang it in the girl’s room …so they don’t fight over it!
In The Moment
Here is a new 8″x10″ mixed media canvas that I did today.
Capturing a moment. Mid giggle.
Usually I gravitate toward the static , moody pose but occasionally I like to challenge myself with this type of image. Not unlike ‘Joy’.
Spring Dreaming
This is another mixed media drawing that I did today. She seems to be in a meadow. I wish I was in a meadow. A way from this frigid cold. I am so done with winter. Perhaps I have spring on the brain. I wish spring would sprung already.
Also, you can read an interview I did recently about blogging and my art by checking out this fabulous blog : Art of Humongous Proportions.
IF ‘Breezy’ – Girl With Red Balloon
Every time she held a balloon she couldn’t help worrying that it just might blow away.
I did this 8″x10″ painting this morning. She looks to the future, I see the past. Somehow we both have to try to enjoy our moments together right now without letting these thoughts get in the way. Somehow, as a Mother, I need to teach her these skills so that she can be content and happy with what she has right now.
Available on etsy.
ACEO Easter Bonnet #2
This is a new 2.5″x3.5″ mixed media painting I did today.
This piece is available on etsy.
ACEO Easter Bonnet
This a new painting I did today. It is a 2.5″x3.5″ mixed media painting on 100% archival rag paper.
SOLD
Scarlett and The Blue Hydrangeas
This is a new painting of Scarlett in Nanny and Grandpa’s backyard. Kind of reminds me of ‘Alice in Wonderland’, which really, when you think about it, describes Victoria perfectly. It truly is a wonderland.
This is a 16″x16″ mixed media painting on a 1″ deep wood stretcher. The sides are painted red.
