The Pink Felt Crown
4″x6″ Mixed media painting on wood stretcher. The sides are .5″ and are painted red.
This painting is $60 and is available HERE
IKON ART- Wear My Art
The new website looks awesome, you should check it out!
IKON ART
Starring; My Ego
This is a 12″x16″ mixed media painting on clay board. It is $375 and is available HERE. If you have any questions about purchasing this piece or about my lay away plan, please email me maria@mariapacewynters.com
I have to be honest, my ego has been giving me a beating lately. I guess it knew I would be willing to listen. When it sees an open door, it doesn’t wait around for a formal invitation. So, yes, I have had an unwelcome visitor, and it has been a really, really bad house guest … criticizing my ideas, questioning my talent, and telling me I’d never paint another good painting.
My ego even started to unpack its bag and hang its things in the spare closet. I saw its toothbrush next to mine in the bathroom, dirty clothes in the hamper, underpants hanging over the towel rack. Its presence could be seen at every turn.
What could I do? I decided to bring in the big guns.
Did you know that The Red-Head eats egos for breakfast? Me either.
Thanks Red-Head, you are my savior and you really can kick ego!
* This blog is not 100% accurate. Some things may be exaggerated or untrue, the idea of a spare closet in my house, for instance, is completely ridiculous!
Tea Leaves
This is a 6″x8″ mixed media painting on paper covered canvas. The sides are .5″ and are painted red. This painting is $75 + shipping and is available HERE.
Nanny
Read me my tea leaves
Tell me my fortune
Tell me my future
Like you used to
From your old china cups
Nanny
I wish you could read me my tea leaves
You’ve been gone too long
I can’t even remember the fortunes you told me
I can’t remember what my future had held for me
And I can’t remember the words you read me
Words I willed you to say at the time
Not even distant memories
Comfort me, Nanny
With your magic words
Tell me my fortune
A Hipstamatic View Of The Lake
Well, I have returned from my week at the lake. I am so ready to get back to work. I did plan on painting while I was away but it just didn’t happen this year. I did play around with my iphone app ‘Hipstamatic’ (the coolest app out there).
Here are some photos of this year’s week at the lake:
THE DRIVE TO THE LAKE.
“ARE WE THERE YET?”
OUR ROOM
ME
SCARLETT
OFF THEY GO
IMOGEN ON THE BEACH
MERMAIDS
CRAB GIRL
ME AGAIN
BLACK AND WHITE IMOGEN
OUR MORNING VIEW
CHRIS
A MAN AND HIS CASTLE
GOODNIGHT SUNSHINE
THE END
THE ART WALK … (and something free for you)
Well, 2010 Whyte Ave Art Walk is upon us again and I am busy, busy, busy! I have tons of new postcards and reproductions AND of course originals for sale! Stop by and say ‘hi’ and if you tell me that you read my blog, I will give you two 4″x6″ postcards for free + 10% off any purchase over $50.
I am really looking forward to the weekend but I have to be honest, I am a little afraid about the weather. It has been POURING here. My paintings do not like water very much! SO cross your fingers for me and sing ‘rain, rain go away don’t come back till art walk is done’.
Here is an article about me
A FELLOW ARTIST SHOUT OUT !
I just wanted to take this time to shout out about few artists that have supported and/or inspired me the last little while, please check out their blogs and tell them I sent you:
Summer Beauty
This is a 24″x 22″ mixed media painting on wood. SOLD
maria@mariapacewynters.com
This painting is more about how Imogen feels standing at the edge of sleep and less about all the things I do for her or give her to help her battle those fears.
In my previous paintings of her, I have loaded her down with protective garb, companions and good luck charms but in this one, she is vulnerable and alone in her cotton nightie and stark surroundings. There is no one there to hold her hand, keep her warm or protected.
Imogen feels so alone when she sleeps. I wish I could accompany her in her slumber but I guess the closest I can come to do that is to just by holding her next to me when she comes to sleep in our bed in the middle of the night. Maybe when I let her crawl into our bed, I am in her dreams. Her ‘warrior’ mommy, her ‘hold the lantern’ mommy, her ‘I am always here mommy and her ‘I will never turn you away’ mommy.
That fear is one less for her to feel, just by sliding over in bed and welcoming her tiny little body into a spot next to mine. In fact, ever since I started doing just that, she seems to be needing it less and less.
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.
Ballet Face
This is a 3″X5″ mixed media painting on canvas. The sides are 1.5″ deep and are painted pale vintage green. This painting is SOLD
I love watching the faces of new ballerinas. These are the girls that have made that shift from ‘taking a ballet class’ to ‘being a ballerina in training’. Imogen has made that shift. When I peek through the window of her class to catch a glimpse of her, unaware that I am watching (unlike parent days when she is constantly looking to me for a wink or a nod), she is so fierce with concentration that it is breathtaking. This is serious ballet business and she is serious about her business. Her eyes are so intense and sometimes, when they are doing skips or gallops, her mouth is held in a strained and unnatural way. (Something that obviously disappears as they get better at their craft, I have yet to see a professional ballerina stick her tongue out to the side of her mouth as she takes her curtain call curtsey.)
I’m Here
6″x8.5″ mixed media on paper
Back here again. Every time I take a break I have to work my way back to where I was before. I was not here but hope to be there once again. Soon. In the meantime, I will paint and hope it gets me back to that zone I was in. I am sure it will. Remember my favorite quote:
“Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working” Picasso
maria@mariapacewynters.com
The Usual Wear And Tear
This is a 6″x8.5″ mixed media painting on paper.
When I was painting this one, this expression was circling my head. I guess I was still thinking about being a single woman during the turn of the century and the possibility of marrying being a pretty slim prospect after a certain age.
Just to think about how great I am now in comparison to how great I wasn’t in my twenties make me think that men, even in this day, are kind of dumb. (Not my husband of course, he is brilliant).
Available here
White Raven
5″x7″ mixed media painting in paper.
Being Different Kinda Rocks.
Doesn’t he seem to be saying this? He is definitely comfortable in his own uniqueness.
The Roots of Wallpaper and Patterns
Crow With Art Deco Wallpaper
6″x24″
mixed media on clayboard (sides are painted red)
I have written before about my love of wallpaper. I think that it stems from the 17 room B & B hotel that my parents run in Victoria.
I was seven when we first moved into what we call the Guesthouse. There were many rooms in this three story 1913 Arts and Crafts house and most were wallpapered. My dad refreshed many of these rooms with new wallpaper (remember, this was the seventies so wallpaper was very popular). There were different textures, patterns and colours, all of which I was fascinated by.
The front hallway of the guest house has an amazing floral print with black background. It reminds me very much of the Art deco wallpaper I have painted in the above piece.
Once again, I can not help but return to the ghosts of my past. The stuff that fills our senses at such a young age, that stuff sticks with us and forms who we are with out our even realizing. The problem for me now is that I realize that and every time something happens to Imogen or Scarlett I think “How is that going to shape them? What will that do them as a forty year old woman? What will they be remembering?”
Wallpaper, back to the wall paper.
My dad wallpapered my entire room in baroque pink. It was an attic room so he even did the ceiling!
He was/is good at wallpaper. He taught me how. One winter we wallpapered all the bathrooms in the guesthouse in various stripes. It was fun and I got pretty good at it. Another time we wallpapered the ceiling of the front room with embossed wallpaper; NOT so fun.
I remember, on a trip to Orcas Island when I was around twelve, lying on my bed at The Outlook Inn, drawing the wallpaper. It was raining so hard that we had to stay in. I think that it rained all that weekend but I did have a full colour representation of our hotel room’s wallpaper by the end of it.
It is funny because I am not much for prints or patterns on my clothing. I like solids.
In my paintings, however, I love patterns. People will tell me it reminds them of Matisse. And as much as I love Matisse, and I do, it is my mother who has blessed me with my fascination of prints. Her style can only be described as eclectic. She manages to put together a hundred different prints in one room and make it looks fabulous. She loves it, so it goes. It is as pure as that. No swatches to match this with that at the fabric store. She decorates with her heart and her rooms reflect that. They are as comfortable and warm as being wrapped up in her arms, pressed so close to her bosom that you can hear her heart beat.
Collage Crow
7″x9.5″Mixed media painting on paper
This little guy has parts another painting (that wasn’t working as a whole but that I just loved parts of) collaged into it.
I might do this again. I quite like the results.
The Little Red Crow
3″x5″ mixed media on canvas
Another Painting In Progress … Girl On A Train
16″x20″ mixed media painting on canvas
I have been doing this one for awhile, on and off. It is almost done, but not quite. I am not sure, but it doesn’t feel finished. The palette is a little different for me, maybe that is why.
Pretty Bird … in progress
This is a large 48″x24″ canvas that I have on the go right now.
It has given me some grief but I think that I like the direction it is going in now.
Rain Crow
11″x14″ mixed media painting on wood.
More crows. More and more crows.
Little Crow
5″x5″ mixed media on clayboard
Rose Red
5.5″x6.5″ mixed media painting on paper.
SOLD
October 15,2009
I was asked to write about this one, so I am coming back to it a few days later.
When I was little I got this old fairy tale book that had some obscure stories as well as some more familiar ones. I don’t remember what the book was called but one of the stories was about two sisters, Snow White ( who was fair) and Rose Red (who was dark). I remember it really struck me because up until then I always knew of the classic Disney Snow White, who was dark. My mum used to say that when I was asleep I looked like Snow White because I had very dark hair, very pale skin. So when I read this new story, I once again felt a kin to Rose Red and instantly she became a favorite.
The other day when I was painting this piece, I began by making her hair dark and when I did the name ‘Rose Red’ popped into my head. The whole time I painted it I was thinking of this story, the book, and my connection to the character. I wanted her hair to be blue black ( a colour my Grandmother’s hair was often described as), her lips, cherry red and her skin porcelain (like mine used to be).
This is my version of Rose Red from that old fairy Tale.
Raven
4″x8″ mixed media painting on brick.
Trust Me
5.5x 8.5 mixed media painting
SOLD
Trust me
Just Jump
don’t look down
If you jump with honesty
you will always find yourself on solid ground
I am on my second year of jumping with honesty. I am not sure where my new paintings are taking me. I can’t stop changing but I can’t stop.
The last little while I have felt as though someone else has taken the wheel and I can barely catch my breath as I am whirled along at break neck speed.
Can’t I just stay and do these for a little while longer?
No, we have to keep moving.
Will I ever do these again?
Uncertain, maybe, but never the same way.
Hmmm, this makes me sad but at the same time I guess this would always be true and king of reassuring. This seems right. Deep down this is the right answer.
Forced to continue to grow.
OK, I will go for the ride. I am curious to see what is next.
As long as I am going with honesty, I am willing to take that jump.
