Aspirations
This is a mixed media diptych on wood.
The sides are 1″ deep and are turquoise.
SOLD
Painting, painting, painting….eating it, breathing it, living it …. these are my aspirations…but they are tiring.
Girl On A Train
This is a 5″x7″ mixed media painting on paper.
This morning as Imogen ate her hot cereal I realized that appearances are starting to matter. Scarlett requested the curtain closed because the sun was in her eyes. I closed half of the curtain and left the other half opened. Scarlett asked me why I did not just close both curtains and I said it was nice to still be able to see outside. Disgruntled, Imogen stated that I should just close both curtains as a passerby might not only see her wearing the bib I made her put on so she didn’t drip on her clean clothes but also that Mickey Mouse Club House was on the TV. I hadn’t even realized. To be fair, I think she even found this humorous but I bet that would be different in a few years.
(OK, OK, I promise right here right now to never make her wear a bib again. A tea towel or a napkin would have been more appropriate for a six year old).
This painting makes me think about being clueless to her growing up. Sometimes I think I only really see my kids in photos. Look how old she is getting. She looks so young when she is sleeping or standing next to her 6′ 2 daddy. But in this picture she has some sort of wisdom I guess I miss when I am dealing with her on a day to day basis.
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!
Give Us A Kiss
Here is a new Circus Girl painting …
5″x7″ mixed media painting on paper.
The Balance Beam
7″x5″ Mixed media painting on paper.
I am thinking that I would like to have some two colour black and white drawings to accompany the full colour images. This is me playing with that idea.
Stage Fright
This is a 5″x7″ mixed media painting on canvas. A new painting of circus girl.
In the new painting, we see a frightened circus girl being comforted by Harriet the circus elephant.
SOLD
Innocence – SOLD
This is a 4″x8″x3″ mixed media painting on canvas.
My first baby girl turns 6 tomorrow. How did that happen?
Wow. She is amazing to me.
Cat Dancing
This is a new 8.5″x11′ mixed media painting on rag paper.
I once had a book on cats that paint. It was pretty hilarious. So, if cats paint, surely it is not that much of a stretch to think that they could dance as well. If Beijing did dance, Imogen would definitely be his partner.
Concentration
This is a new 8.5″x10.5″ mixed media painting on paper. I was going to name it ‘Girl With A $500 Cat’ (grrrrrrrr …)
But
‘Concentration’ really seems to sum it up.
SOLD
8.5″x10.5″ mixed media painting on paper.Heidi Hair and Polka Dots- SOLD
16″x20″ mixed media painting on canvas.
When I was a little girl my favorite hairstyle was ‘Heidi hair’. I remember a book I had by Judy Blume (I think?) with a girl on the front, who had dark hair (like me) donned in a ‘Heidi doo’ with a big red gladiola on the side. I loved this paining, I think because I thought it looked like me. I remember I loved the book too but I just can’t remember the title … ???*** Boy haven’t thought about that in awhile.
Well here I go again, living vicarioulsy through my kids. I love putting Imogen’s hair up this way. She thinks she looks like a princess but hates all the pins it requires. It does takes a lot of pins! Boy does that kid have thick hair!
**** It was “Starring Sally J. Freedman As Herself”
Friends
This is a new mixed media painting I did on paper. It is 11.5″x15.5″.
Funny enough, well, not funny at all, Beijing tried to jump on top of the fridge today and fell and hurt his leg. He is at the vet right now, under observation. Ching, ching (that is the sound of money …booooooo hooooo).
SOLD
IF ‘Theater’ – My Fancy Shoe
Last night we took our 5 year old to The Wizard of OZ. It was a huge production made even larger by the fact that we were in the second row.
I have always loved Dorothy’s ruby slippers, I definitely have a thing for red shoes. (Well, shoes in general, to be honest.) Last night I wore my three inch, T-strap, Kate Spades. They have tiny coral details that I just love. Imogen, who also loves a nice shoe, wore her gold ballerina flats.
I wish people dressed up more to go to the theater. I mean, if we no longer dress up to go to the theater, then when DO we dress up?
This is a little painting I did of one of Scarlett’s favorite shoes (Kenneth Cole). It is mixed media on paper and is 8.5″x11.5″.
Striped Socks, Yellow Hat and An Orange Cat …Finished
This is a 3’x5′ mixed media painting on canvas.
SOLD
Girl With Argyle Socks
Finally! A new painting! Get ready ’cause I will be working like a fiend for the next little while and you will be bombarded with new images.(Fingers crossed). I am having a show in Grande Prairie on May 9th and I need to work my butt off to make sure I have enough pieces. Yeah!
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).
As Free As A Bird
Just a little mixed media painting I did today. I am working on a larger painting, also with a bird cage. I have been wanting to include this wire birdcage in a painting for quite awhile now and I finally got around to it.
SOLD
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.
Drifting In And Out
I finished this painting today.
The title refers to the way our memories fade in and out. Some memories are so clear while others are foggy and transparent. The memories that are clear are not always the most important, often we wonder why we have held on to that memory at all. How can we remember things so vividly from long ago but barely remember things that happened to us last week?
The memory can be selective and often distorted. What is really true, what is fabricated, what is embellished? I often wonder these things. And I often worry what memories I am creating for my children. What are they going to remember? Mommy keeping the house clean? Our walks to the library? Ballet class? Our endless photo sessions? Watching too many Barbie movies? My limited patience? My reclusive tendencies? How will my choices effect them in their adult lives? Did I give them a feeling of entitlement?* And on and on. It sure can be exhausting.
I remember somewhere I heard/read of a woman ( I think it was some film star) saying she had absolutely no memory of her childhood. It was like she didn’t exist before a certain time. I wish I could remember if I had read it or heard it on TV but there you go, my memory fails me. I found that idea fascinating though. No memories of being a child. That would be so odd. I wonder if she ever had children of her own. What kind of Mother was she? How would she relate to their childhood? Surely the memories of our own childhood shape the way we raise our children. For good or for bad. Isn’t that why we hold on to traditions? To try to relive our childhood through our children’s experience of the same things we did when we were children.
I’ll stop now, I could go on and on.
*I am currently reading ‘Outliers’ by Malcolm Gladwell
This painting is available on etsy
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.
IF ‘Instinct’ Little Red Riding Hood
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.
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.
