New Christmas Angel painting

                                                      

                                              My latest painting called:   A baby changes everything. (SOLD)

Have you ever heard a song that was so beautiful that you needed to illustrate it?  I listen to all Christmas music radio these days, and I heard this song by Faith Hill called 'A baby changes everything'. I didn't pay attention to it at first, but once I did and really heard it I knew I wanted to make a Christmas Angel, and include words this time. I started it last night, and worked away until it was done. When I find inspiration  in a song, I play it over and over again while painting, hoping to convey the right feeling. I honestly don't know if I succeeded. Sometimes the image in our head is difficult to bring to fruition.
It's listed in my Etsy shop if anyone wants a very sparkly Christmas painting :-)

So are my American friends enjoying their Thanksgiving weekend? Did you all hit the malls for Black Friday? I can't even imagine what that must be like, I read about the chaos in the papers, lol! I think I'd rather stay inside and shop online. I love going into stores, but it's the line ups that drive me crazy. As I age, I find my patience wearing thinner.

This last Thursday I went to the last craft show of the season, it's called the One of a Kind show, and it features over 800 vendors. Fun, but tiring. My feet were killing me after all that walking...and as you get to the end you find yourself passing by the booths much quicker. It's hard to maintain your excitement after seeing so much. Luckily you can pick up a pass to go back later on - it's a 10 day event.  I would love to go back a second time for another look.

That's it for now, I'm off to do a bit more painting
thanks for reading

New ACEO, and A glimpse of my crazy tree

hello friends. Do you see the ACEO painting above? that's what I plan on doing for the next little while, haha!
I went to 3 craft shows the past week. The one in my city had really nice, hand crafted, and more higher end items. I fell in love with a hand painted fox pendant, and thought I'd return in the evening, and point it out to my sister as something she can buy me for Christmas. Well, just my luck, he sold it, as well as many other nice pendants. So folks, when you fall in love with something, you better pick it up right away.

Yesterday we went to another couple of craft shows, and I mostly bought cute ornaments for me 'crazy tree'.
I said I would show you some photos, so I took a few, but you really can't get a good idea of how wild it is until you see it in person. It is quite the spectacle, lol! So here are some pics... I had a hard time getting the whole tree in the photo, it's pretty tall, but this will give you an idea. It is on the hall landing as you walk up the stairs. I have a more traditional tree in my living room.

 I had to photograph it in the day time so you could see some of the decorations. At night it is lit with deep blue and purple lights.

This is a close up of some of the ornaments on the tree. I've been collecting them for years.

This is one of my favorite ornament, it's a masked mouse flashing you, lol!

That's it for today, I'm working on another Christmas painting which has been giving me trouble for the past week.
Thanks for reading!

Wee fox illustration

 

The human spirit is not dead.  It lives on in secret.... It has come to believe that compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.  ~Albert Schweitzer, Novel Peace Prize address, "The Problem of Peace in the World Today

hello friends, this is a quick post of my latest illustration on a vintage book page.  Way back in September I happened to see 2 foxes in one day. I was going shopping with a friend to Toronto, we saw a man on a tractor of sorts, cutting hay. At the edge of a field was a wooded area, and that's where we saw a fox, standing still looking at the man.  For some reason I felt a great sadness when I saw it, maybe because I see daily more and more land being developed, leaving wildlife with nowhere to go.
On the way home driving down a country road, we saw another fox on the side of the road. I have never seen a fox in person, so imagine how strange it felt to see 2 in one day. I knew I wanted to draw them, so here is my first fun one.

I've been putting the finishing touches on my Christmas decorating as well as working on some art. The decorating is done, so I can finally relax, and get caught up on my blog reading. I will be posting photos of my funky little tree soon, it's quite the spectacle, lol!

thanks for your comments on my snow angel last post, I did a test with a sheet of clear paper with the words on it and decided I would leave it alone. I will be visiting your blogs soon :-)

Snow Angel

hi everyone, here is my first 'winter' painting for the season, the first of many I hope. Sorry for the bad photo, it's evening, and I have a crappy camera, lol.
I had to stop myself from creating too much texture which is not an easy thing to do. I love texture! but unfortunately, if you want to make prints of something, the surface needs to be relatively smooth.
Do you think I should add text to the painting? I was thinking of the words 'let it snow'...or should I leave it as is? I'm on the fence right now...

Thanks for all the sweet comments on my mermaid journal page from my last post! You've inspired me to keep at it. When I posted that page, I didn't think it was all that creative but now I know that there is room for all types of pages. It's those darn expectations that we all have to deal with. Let's keep reminding each other to just go for it, create for the sheer joy, and stop expecting our work to be like everyone else's.
My blog friends are the best!

thanks for reading, have a blessed day
betty

Mermaid Journal Page

And it only took a month to finish, haha!  This is the mermaid I showed on my blog on Oct 3rd, the plan was to add something to the left side. The problem is that I'm not too good at this journaling stuff, unless I follow someone's instructions...in the end, I added a bit of blue and white paint, and wrote some words down that I thought went with the drawing.  Not particularly creative,  but hopefully if I keep playing around in my art journal, I will get the hang of it, and be able to produce lovely, interesting  pages like a lot of you do.
This is from my portrait journal, the one I use to practice drawing different faces.

My decorating is almost done, one tree is up, the next will go up on the weekend. If I can get a good photo of my funky crazy tree I will post it. It's quite unusual, lol!
Once the decorating is finished, I can sit back and concentrate on holiday art.
Hopefully some Christmas fairies or angels...

thanks for reading!

Hang on Kitty Illustration

hello friends, here is my latest illustration on a vintage book page. The moon has a red hat, do you think I may be dreaming of Christmas already, lol? I added it to my Etsy shop, which I am slowly starting to stock up for the holidays.

Next weekend I will be bringing all my boxes upstairs, and start decorating. It is a long and tiring process, as they are stored in the basement and I'm on the top floor, yuck!

On a postive note though, once it is finished, I can sit back and create holiday themed art. It's time to start folks, if you expect to get it all done. It's only the first week of November, but time has a way of getting away from you, and before you know it, Christmas will be here.

thanks for reading!