Black Swan, Guide Me To Morning
This is a 16″x20″ mixed media painting on wood. The sides are 1″ deep and are painted turquoise.
This painting is $200 and is SOLD
“The swan is a totem of beauty and grace. As in the story of the Ugly Duckling, it connotes inner beauty as well. If Swan is your totem animal, you are emotionally sensitive, and empathic towards the feelings of others, and you draw people to you. The pure white swan is a solar symbol, whereas the Australian Black Swan is a nocturnal symbol. The swan, with its long neck, acts as a bridge between the worlds, making it an oracular bird. Being a cool weather bird, its direction is North. Swans are excellent totems for children, those connected to the Fairy Realm, poets, bards, mystics, and dreamers.” (Animal Speak, page 196)
Animal-Speak, the Spiritual and Magical Powers of Creatures Great and Small, by Ted Andrews, Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, 1994
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.
2010 in review
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
Crunchy numbers
The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 83,000 times in 2010. If it were an exhibit at The Louvre Museum, it would take 4 days for that many people to see it.
In 2010, there were 179 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 474 posts. There were 260 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 119mb. That’s about 5 pictures per week.
The busiest day of the year was April 19th with 654 views. The most popular post that day was First Frost.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were dailypainters.com, networkedblogs.com, mariapacewynters.com, mail.live.com, and facebook.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for maria pace wynters, mixed media painting, circus, circus paintings, and mixed media art.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
First Frost October 2009
2 comments
Monthly Give Away September 2010
72 comments
IF ‘Breezy’ – Girl With Red Balloon March 2009
9 comments
A Winter Day February 2010
11 comments
Me Tube February 2010
12 comments
And December’s Winner IS…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTlQtFJx3e4&hl=en&fs=1]
Maureen Ward!
Congrats and Happy New Year to you all!
Deep In The Night Garden
This is a 10″x10″ mixed media painting in wood. The sides are 1″ and are painted red.
This painting is $110 and SOLD
The day before yesterday, Turner Classic Movies played ‘Pride And Prejudice’ starring Greer Garson. I couldn’t take my eyes of the HATS! They were all so elaborate but what really struck me was the amazing black and white Tim Burton stripes! They were a delight to my senses and I just had to paint one of these divinely beautiful ‘stripey’ hats!
This is what I was thinking as I did this painting:
Deep In The Night Garden
She thinks so deeply for someone so young
The world’s troubles painfully worn behind her eyes
She would rather walk in the air of the night garden, her eyes wide open
Than be tucked in bed, her eyes shut tight
Asleep, she can no longer control where her mind wanders
Asleep, she must go where her dreams take her
Not where she dreams to be taken
She would prefer to walk deep into the night garden
Eyes wide open
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
Cheeky
This is a 3″x4″ mixed media painting on wood. The sides are 1.5″ and are painted red.
This painting is available HERE.
maria@mariapacewynters.com
The Star Gazer
SOLD
It is the time of year when we can not help but look to the sky a little more than usual. Whether we are looking for the Northern lights, Santa’s sleigh, the star of David, snow falling from the sky or , as we did earlier this week, a moon cast in the shadow of the earth, we are looking up more frequently.
Looking up feels good. Looking up is good.
When we look toward the sky, it is so limitless and huge it makes us feel small and enormous all at once. It is so empowering to look out into that and know that we are all apart of it. All of us together share that sky. We can all look to the sky whether it be for solace, reassurance, grounding, answers or for peace. It is personal, but looking up to the sky in wonder and amazement is something that we all do, I am certain.
“Why does the moon always follow us, Mama?” my children ask me as they look out the window of the moving car.
“Maybe the moon loves to look at us as much as we love to look at it” I think to myself but am speechless in it’s hypnotic glow.
Just look up, it feels good to look up.
The Snow Princess
This is a 9″x12″ mixed media painting on wood. The sides are 1.5″ and are painted turquoise.
This painting is $90 and is available HERE.
In the spirit of the weather. Happy winter everyone.
SHE HAS ARRIVED a few days early but …
…Oh boy!
SHE HAS ARRIVED!
SNOW, SNOW, SNOW!
ENOUGH ALREADY!
maria@mariapacewynters.com
Hope- Mug Shot 6
This is a 6″x8″ mixed media painting on wood. The sides are 1.5″ and are paint turquoise.
This painting is $65 and is available HERE.
Another Mug shot from the New Orleans’ archives. I think that I found her youthful self which seems to look a lot more hopeful than the actual mug shot. This is just the way it came out but maybe it can be reminder to us all that all is not lost if we have hope.
maria@mariapacewynters.com
Gratitude and December Give AWAY
Recently I started writing my gratitude journal again. I found an app for my iphone.
Love it!
It is very grounding and so important to be grateful on a daily basis.
I am grateful for all of you. What are you grateful for?
All you have to do is write a comment on this blog post about what you are most grateful for and you could win this 4″x6″ OOAK fine art reproduction (Unseen Beauty) at the end of the month.
The Little Prince
This is a 12″x16″ mixed media painting on paper covered canvas. The sides are 1.5″ deep and are painted red.
This painting is SOLD
“What makes the desert beautiful,” says the little prince, “is that somewhere it hides a well.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Even though it may feel like that the well has dried up, you must keep digging.
I have been feeling a little parched lately. (In the inspiration department). Coming off the tail of a show of 13 paintings, rather large ones, can do that, I guess. I should give myself a break.
Easier said than done.
The thing is, I am always worried about taking a break. Absence does not always make the heart grow fonder. Sometimes the longer we stay away, the harder it is to get back. I know this from experience and it frightens me.
I read a quote today from Erma Bombeck about how at the end of her life she wanted to be able to say that she had no talent left because she had used up every last bit she’d been given.
I like that.
I don’t want to waste my talent. I also don’t want to waste my life worrying about wasting my talent. I wish I could find a balance and I wish that I had the confidence to know that I will never stop painting again. Taking a break and stopping are very different. Picasso said, ‘Inspiration finds me when I am working’ but does that mean ‘painting’? Can I be filling that well and finding inspiration while I am cleaning the house or baking with the girls. I think that I can.
There are no rules.
(Except the ones I keep making up.)
( I can be very frustrating at times.)
Another thing that was on my mind was the death of Elizabeth Edwards.
As a mother I was reminded of how special each minute I spend with my children is. To look around and know that the home you made for your family, each little thing that you have picked out, each special touch, the way you fold a towel or stock a shelf could soon be absent of YOU, is sobering to say the least.
And I have been thinking of John Lennon too. I was a young girl when he was killed Dec 8, 1980, but now I am older than he was when he died. I’ve made it longer than he did in this world, that just seems crazy and so unfair.
No doubt, that man died talentless.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to write this post about three dead people (five, I guess if we count Picasso and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry).
On a more positive and less morbid note, here is another quote from ‘The Little Prince’:
“A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
My Postage Stamp Hat
This is a 11″x14″ mixed media painting on paper covered canvas. The sides are 1.5″ deep and are painted red.
This painting is SOLD
It is magic you know,
My postage stamp hat.
When I put it on, I can go anywhere…
But please remember,
Handle with care.
maria@mariapacewynters.com
The Tattooed Necklace
This is a 11″x14″ mixed media painting on 100% rag paper.
This Painting is SOLD
The November Winner Is…
…Peggy Morvant!!!! Yeah you!
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.
