Mixed Media Artist

flowers

Red Pears

This new mixed media painting is 11.5″x15.5″ on 100% rag paper.

red-pearwm


Joy

I just finished this 11.5″x15.5″ mixed media painting.  Joy, just pure joy.

joy


IF ‘Clandestine’ – Now That I Have Your Attention

now-that-i-have-your-attention-sm

The Clandestine Meeting

Now that I have your attention

The meeting will now begin

What do two white ravens need to discuss?

They would like it to be noted in the records

They are not albino

They simply have some type of mutant gene

They like that they are symbolic of peace

And they really like the gold sequins on your hat

That is all

The meeting can now be adjourned


Little, Little Red Riding Hood

aceo-little-red

Here is a smaller version of Don’t Stray From The Path.  It is a mixed media ACEO that i finished today.

SOLD

Oh, by the way, yesterday I was featured in this really neat newsletter called Paper Street’s Catch Of The Day,  this is a family operation (even their eight year old son is involved).  You have to subscribe to get the newsletter emailed to you  http://paperstreetsupplies.com/

They also have a shop on etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5291682

Thanks  you guys!


Don’t Stray From The Path

Little red riding hood knew she shouldn’t have strayed from the path.  Her mother had told her not to.  It was just that she wanted her grandmother to feel better and  knew that the sight of wild flowers would put a smile on her face.  But now, it was getting dark and she had the strangest feeling.  You know that feeling.  Like she was no longer alone.  Like someone was watching her.

Little red riding hood stopped picking flowers and stood up straight. Standing silently she listened for movement in the dark woods  surrounding her.  She moved the freshly picked flowers up toward her face. ‘Maybe their sweet smell would calm her’, she thought to herself, but this feeble gesture did nothing to ease her increasing feeling of  dread.  The harder she tried to listen, the louder her heartbeat pounded in her ears.  She was all at once being taken over by a horrible sense of foreboding.  Like she was being  devoured,  body and soul, by fear itself.

SOLD


Alice Spots The White Rabbit


Poppies

A beauty amongst the beauties.  Don’t you think?

8″x12″ profile canvas (3″deep).  The sides are painted red.

Double click on the painting to get directly to my etsy shop.


The Pear Tree

We have the most amazing pear tree growing in our back yard. I get real pleasure looking at this tree that we planted, only three years ago, in a yard that had nothing (and I mean NOTHING) in it. Not only has this tree tripled in size but it has fruit for the first time! This in EDMONTON! Truly amazing. This painting pays homage to our pear tree. The fruit hasn’t really made it to this size but one can dream.


The Water Lilies Keep Me Cool

The water lilies keep me cool

They bob around my floating head

My hair mimicking pond weeds

I feel the little fish bump up against my legs

A dragonfly lands on me

Perhaps he thinks that I am a log or even a flower

I am so still

Maybe he is kissing me

So very gently

As I lay here

Drifting


Girl With Fox

This is a 11.5″ x15.5″ mixed media painting done on 100% rag paper.

This painting kind of strays a little from what I usually paint or at least the way I paint. I used a historical photograph I found on the web as inspiration. I usually take all my own reference photographs, but I just found this photograph so intriguing. Who is this girl holding a fox? It just looks like something from an old fairy tale. I had it pinned on my wall for the longest time and just had to paint it.


PRETEND- Illustration Friday -Looking For Fairies Amongst The Flowers

I was looking for fairies in the Garden

I left a little cottage teapot for them

So that they could set up house

Perhaps they would prefer to sleep within the flowers

If I were a fairy I’d live amongst the poppies

Their big papery petals would be my walls

and close by I would have lupins and foxgloves and hollyhocks too

Their lovely fragrance would surround me as I

drift

off

to

sleep


Horizontally Challenged

Not only am I not a landscape artist, I will take it one step further and say that I am not even a horizontal artist! I have painted quite a few paintings over the last six months and I have only completed one horizontal piece. (The above painting of Lilies). The other horizontal painting I started never got finished. This is rare for me. If I start a painting, I usually finish it, but not this one. This one was NOT good and was going to remain that way. So I ditched it.

None of this matters really but yesterday I was just wondering why I like vertical so much. I was looking at a new painting that I was working on and it struck me: VERTICAL! AGAIN! WHY?

I guess the answer is fairly obvious. I am a figurative painter (mostly) and we humans are vertical by nature. So it does make sense. Let’s just say, I am horizontally challeged. Hey, come to think of it, having two little kids makes me horizontally challenged in more ways than the way I turn my canvas! HA!


In The Wings

Yesterday was Imogen’s novice ballet recital. She did a great job. Some of the older girls were so beautiful dancing their solos. I got all weepy about it all and then right in the middle of the show, everything was stopped and a teacher came out carrying a sobbing little girl. Her parents were called and when she saw her Daddy approach the stage her little body shook and she sobbed even harder with relief. That was just too much for me. Tears were streaming down my face. It would have been very embarrassing if it hadn’t been so dark in the theatre.

This multi media piece is called “Waiting”. I did it a little while ago. This is what I wrote about it at the time:

How much time does a dancer wait in the wings? Certainly more time than actually dancing. I am sure it is true of a lot of things but I am so intrigued by the world of dancing right now  that I couldn’t help but paint this.


I Talked To A Crow Today

I talked to a crow today,

or rather, he talked to me.

I’m not sure what he was going on about

but he did go on and on and on.

I talked to a crow today,

he had an awful lot to say.

“Mr. Crow,” I said politely, ” will you please let me get a word in?”

But he wasn’t even listening.

He went on and on and on.

That is the way it is with crows,

and sometimes with people too.

Not really interested in conversing,

but rather in the sound of their own voice.

I listened to a crow today,

he went on and on and on.


A Still Moment

This is a painting that I just completed of Scarlett sitting at the dining room table. She is so still and at peace, not at all like her normal two year old self. There was just a beautiful stillness at that moment that I wanted to try to capture.


Wishing

There is nothing wrong with a little wish now and then.  There is the star wish, the fountain wish, the birthday wish and of course, we can’t forget the wishbone wish.  I’ve wished for plenty of things in my life.  The only problem with wishing is that we are always to the future,  which kind of implies that  we aren’t enjoying the right now.  I think that my next wish will be that I don’t wish anymore because I am just enjoying right now too much to even care.


The Other Visual Artist That Lives In My House

So, lately I’ve been trying to paint any chance I get and sometimes, actually most of the time, that is when Scarlett is asleep and Imogen is not. This is not good for Imogen. I try to create interesting games or better yet, give her fun crafts to do while I am painting but the other day she told me I was really boring and all I did was paint. OUCH. This is not what mummy wants to hear. Especially, when mummy thought she was doing such a great job at playing along with her make believe games. This days game involved me being the Evil Queen that poisons her with the flowers we got from the dollar store and, I just need to remind you, this is while I am actually trying to paint. So, I was a little sad and I’ll admit, worried, that my painting days were numbered.

Then, something happened: she started to paint from the same reference photos that I use. I guess she figured: ‘if you can’t beat’em, join’em’

So, here is Imogen’s version of ‘Wooly Hat’ . I think that it is pretty amazing. I know I am slightly biased, and I will admit my ulterior motive is that maybe, just maybe, if she sees her art posted it will buy me more painting time. I know, not exactly Mother of the Year, but what can I say? I want to paint.