Happy Thanksgiving to my US friends!

Even though our Canadian Thanksgiving was Oct 13th I would like to take the time to thank my dear friends that I have met through Etsy, as well as other artists forums. Thank you especially to all my wonderful customers over the past year. Anyone who has ever loved my work enough to put down your hard earned cash for. I truly am grateful to you all, and wish everyone a blessed Thanksgiving.


Thanks also to LDPhotography for putting one of my ACEOs in this fabulous treasury! Check out her Etsy shop, this is one very creative lady!

Painting from the Soul

I just finished reading an interesting blog post someone wrote, about creating from your soul, and it got me thinking about this. What exactly does that mean? and do I do this? The author wrote that we are drawn to those that listen to their souls' voice. I believe this is true, I have come across artists that are special, they may not necessarily be the best 'technical' artist, but they have something extra that you perceive, even if you can't put your finger on it.

An artist I admire is Mystele, I have her on my blog list to the right. With everything she does you feel like she creates from her soul. She is a self taught artist, like myself, but there is a beautiful innocent feel to her art. There are many other great primitive artists, but I am drawn to her.
Another artist I love is Suzi Blu, an absolute creative genius, in whose work you can see her passion. She listens to her soul.

So, how does one do this? I feel like my work must be perfect, and I set about making sure there are no mistakes, sometimes scrutinizing a painting for days, looking for little flaws. What if the flaws are the things that would make it perfect? All I know is that I am happiest when I am in the midst of creating, and each of my paintings is a part of me. Sometimes I cannot bear to sell them. Am I painting from my soul? I can't answer this right now, and maybe it isn't up to me to decide. I can only continue as I am, breathing life into each new painting. Finding joy in the process. And hoping, that others feel the same.

My Weakness....

My weakness is books! (and sweets, but that's for another day) I Love Books! can't get enough of them, as my poor wallet can attest. I have a wonderful selection of art books and feel the need to buy everything that comes out. There are colored pencil books that I have had for years, without doing a single exercise in them!

I have been doing mixed media paintings for a little while now, ever since I discovered it. Before that I was making ACEOs which I still try to fit in. Now I am starting to see assemblages online and really want to try this too. Oh, there are so many things to do, how can anyone be bored?
And if I had more time, I would go back to sculpting dolls, which I was doing many years ago. Back then, there really was no instruction on how to make your own polymer clay dolls, and I wasn't very good at figuring it out.
Yesterday,I picked up some books at my library on painting your own fabric, as I have some ideas in mind for my art. Stay tuned!

I ordered a book called Mixed Media Self Portraits and it should be on my doorstep any day now, as well as Art Journals and Creative Healing. My collection keeps growing :-)

Now I must get back to work, I spend way too much time on my computer.

Winter Magic

I thought I would add my latest painting, she was woodburned on wood first, then I used various media. I love snowy scenes, and have so many ideas for paintings sketched out, that I am so overwhelmed with the options, and end up doing something else....

This is my busiest time of year, working to get art ready for Christmas, and this year I am off to a slow start. I thought I would start selling a few of my newest paintings as greeting cards in my Etsy shop. So far this is the only one I listed. I tested one out, and found that the card turned out gorgeous! I had to make sure before I sold them that it was a good quality product I could offer.

This whole art self promotion thing is a lot of work! how do people do this, and still manage to create? I'm exhausted thinking about it! I think maybe I will go watch a Christmas movie instead :-D

Be back with a better update and more art soon, I promise!

My Newest little Angel

I know I don't paint many blondes, but I hope to change this. I am so pleased with how this little girl turned out. She is the blonde version of a previous painting I did a few months ago, with a few changes of course...

I have been so busy painting mixed media girls on wood that I neglected just regular painting on canvas. I felt fearful, like I do before each painting, wondering if I will like the end result. Can you believe how intimidating a blank canvas is? One day I will show a work in progress, to show people the 'ugly' stages of a painting. There are many times I just want to give up, but make myself continue. Sometimes it works, like today, other times you end up with crap.

I have several unfinished canvases waiting to be worked on, including a new fairy tale painting to go with my series, and a Frida Halloween painting...from last year!
Oh, if we could only have a few more hours in a day!!! So many paintings, so little time.

Some 'Bountiful Sale' Treasuries

It is always a thrill to find my art added to an Etsy Treasury. This time I am in 3 treasuries! These are all promoting the Bounty Sale I blogged about earlier...take a peek, lots of great sales in case you are like me, and are thinking of Christmas already ;-)





Look at the gorgeous fall colors of this one!

Happy Election Day to my American Friends!

In honor of todays historical election, I thought I would offer up a mixed media painting I finished a few weeks ago. I didn't want to part with this, but then I want to keep all my paintings :-)
This was wood burned first on 6 x 12 birch plywood, then I went crazy with all sorts of materials. I love how she turned out.
I just put her up on ebay and if she doesn't sell, she will be placed in my Etsy shop. I titled her American Beauty.

May I just add that, no matter which way the election goes (although it seems pretty apparent who the winner will be) may it be the best for all Americans. I hope this new government results in a stronger, and more united country.

Blessings from this Canadian gal :-)