More folk art, and a great link for Health conscious people

hi folks, well I finished the second primitive style painting a few days ago. I like how she turned out even though this isn't my normal style. It's nice to try different things to keep you fresh. At one point I was ready to just give up, I had white paint on my brush and was going to eraser her, but I pressed on, until I got a face I was happy with.  So now, maybe it's time to incorporate this loose, and colorful style, with my usual big-eyed girls I am used to doing...?
I'm starting to find that I absolutely love doing backgrounds now! that used to be my weak spot, but now it's so relaxing to glue bits of paper down on a canvas, and cover it over, add more paper, add more paint, and on and on. This is the sort of thing you can always do when you are not in the mood to paint. Just put 3 - 4 canvases on your table, rip up various bits of paper, and start gluing. Then put them aside, work on them when the mood hits you, and when you finally feel the urge to do a full painting, you've got part of the work already done...no need to wait for stuff to dry either! 

I also wanted to recommend to anyone who is interested in their health, to join this free 'summit'.
You simply sign up with your email, and will be getting links to these really great interviews which you can phone in to, or what I do is listen after the event, through the internet. Each interview is available for 24 hours. I just finished listening to one by a Dr. Michael Kloper which was really fantastic, and wanted to link you all up before it's done.
this is the link to the Food Revolution Summit:
http://www.foodrevolution.org/summit#.UYJtQ8rotJQ

I've listened to many of these type of broadcasts in the past, and gain so much knowledge from each one.  Sorry I didn't get this post up yesterday when I wanted to!
thanks for reading!

My medinilla plant, and some Art

hello fellow bloggers, yes I am still around, and I feel so bad for neglecting my blog! I've wanted to update many times but felt I had nothing really to say. On top of that, I haven't been creating much art lately, in fact, this one above is the second painting in a few months. Just haven't been in the mood.  This winter has felt like the longest one ever, so depressing and dreary. For some reason, the sky has been white, overcast and grey, rather than the clear blue skies I am used to seeing.
No matter, it is almost May, and today was a gorgeous day, so here I am saying hello to my blogging friends. I am so looking forward to the warmer weather arriving.
It gets even harder to create when you want to be outside, but if I can get organized, I'd like to take my art journal outside with some supplies, and just play. I've been reading some of my fave blogs all along, and am happy that I am not the only one who has slowed down on posts, I don't feel so bad now. Hopefully I can at least be more consistent. The secret for me, is to look at this as just an online diary, rather than feel I have to be clever.
Now I would like to show you a gorgeous plant I picked up at a home show called a Medinilla. I believe it is only grown in Ontario right now, and is shipping around North America. This plant is stunning! and after it almost tipping over a couple of times I found the perfect pot. This is definitely a centerpiece among all my plants, and I do have lots, lol!

Click on the pics for a closer look.

Well folks, that's it for now. Next post I will show you some of the journal backgrounds I've done.
thanks for reading!

An early Halloween painting

hi friends, I'm making an effort to be more consistent with blogging, we shall see how it goes, lol!
As I write, the winds are howling outside my window, and it gets dark much earlier. .My favorite time of year!
Makes me want to drink coffee all day long, And I just noticed on the calendar that our Thanksgiving is on Oct 8th??? WHAT? that's pretty early, normally it's mid October. Oh well, that means I get to enjoy pumpkin pie earlier, and there's nothing wrong with that :-)

I finished 2 Halloween paintings on the weekend, including the one above. I like the other one too, but the scan is crappy so I don't want to show it until I can figure out why my computer doesn't like my camera's memory thingy. It's very liberating to paint looser than I am used to. I love folk art, but normally am too controlling...this time I let things get messy. Hey! what the heck is that 3-eyed thing doing at the bottom of my painting???
just kidding, it's a sticker, lol! I love stickers, and other fun embellishments, they add an extra bit of whimsy to your art. You can't tell, but there are lots of various papers underneath. Normally I do lots of layering before I paint the main image, but I think I overdid the paint bit, because you can't really see the papers anymore. Next time, I will make sure I add some acrylic glazing liquid to the paint, to make it more sheer, so that you can see the backgrounds. So the viewer may not see all the layering, but the artist knows it's there, and that makes me happy :-)

That's it for now, I'm going to watch the Voice, one of my favorite tv shows. Hope you are all doing well.
thanks for reading.

New Art

hi friends. Did you remember to turn back your clocks? This is so much better than in the spring when we lose an hour. However, be prepared, because it will now get dark a little after 5,  lol!

I've always loved painting shabby folk art girls, but never used beeswax as a finish. Normally I use a nice satin varnish, but for the next few, beeswax will be the way to go. It smells divine! and it really does give your paintings a glorious, dreamy finish.   I see these little canvases as experiments, where I get to play, and try out new things. 
The first one I did yesterday  looked great,  until I added the beeswax. I must have scraped off some paint, because there was dark smudges on her face, and there is no way to fix it. I should have known not to experiment on the more expensive wooden canvases,  she is now heading for the trash...oh well, live and learn.

 This angel painting is more my usual style. She was made  for an auction for charity. I can't seem to get away from putting little kittens in my angels' arms though, lol! She turned out pretty good, that I will be offering prints in my Etsy shop. With all the craziness of this world,  we can all use more angels.

I hope everything is good where you all are, thanks for reading!

New folk art princess

hi friends. Hope your week has been going well. It was so nice to wake up to a sunny day, I even managed to get some color!  Thought I'd show my latest painting. After my last post, I sat down and finished this little princess. The girl was drawn out weeks ago,and since I wasn't too crazy about the drawing, I let it sit. Finally a couple of days ago, I thought I'd start painting and see what happens. So she is now a little blonde girl, and the teddy she was originally holding turned into a kitty, lol! She is  listed in my Etsy shop. (Sold)

Can I just say that bloggers are the nicest people? You are all so sweet and supportive. I'm always struck by how close the blogging community is. This is from reading the comments on my blog, as well as other blogs. People truly are ready to lend support when they can, and it helps us all grow.  Thank goodness for this wonderful forum for us to share our lives and our art.

thanks for reading!

Today I got dirty....

Hi friends, now don't get any ideas.....I got dirty with paint. 
I know many of you love to paint using your hands, and don't mind getting messy, but not me,
In fact I can be a bit of a princess, and head to the sink to wash off the slightest paint on my fingers, lol! Well, this little painting got me messy, and there was nothing I could do about it. There was no plan, I simply sat down and put some colors down on a canvas and played. The green bits looked like flowers, so I went with it. Normally I tend to over control things, to know in advance what I will be doing, so this was very freeing!  I got sick of the excuses I kept making for not creating art larger than my ACEOs (not including my journal pages from the previous post).  I love painting whimsical girls, and my sketchbook has been filled with these little folk art ideas for several months. It's about time I let them out on the canvas to play :-)

I don't know about you, but lately I have made a conscious effort to appreciate every moment, to be grateful for each day I am given on this beautiful planet. We have so much to be grateful for, and we mostly go through life without noticing. I guess maybe we are waiting for the big moments to come, but life is made up of small moments, every single day. Life is in the yellow tulips from your garden you bring inside, it is in that first delicious cup of coffee in the morning, it is spending time with people you love.
There is so much going on in the world right now,  to help us keep our balance we need to make the effort to be present in every moment.
Something has changed for me last few months, and for the first time in my life, I am paying attention.. And it has made a world of difference.
Many blessings to you all and thanks for reading!

Illustration Friday - Chicken

There once was a little girl, who loved animals so much! One summer, she went with her family to grandma's farm. Grandma had recently gotten four new chickens, but they had yet to lay any eggs. She said to the little girl's mother, "if they don't start laying soon, they're going to become our dinner". Well, this would certainly not do! thought the little girl. I have to do something to save the chickens!

So she devised a little plan. Every morning, she would sneak some eggs from the house to the barn, then she would come running inside saying 'look what I found!'.
Mother and grandmother were pleasantly surprised that the chickens started earning their keep.
This went on for a few days.  How strange though,  that the amount of eggs  in the bowl on the table never seemed to increase, considering 3 or 4 new eggs would be brought out from the barn.

Ahhh, finally the women got wise to the trickery of the little girl!
So were the chickens safe? well, they were while the little girl was there. She would throw a crying fit if anyone even mentioned having them for dinner. What happened after she went back home? who knows, but at least for a few weeks, they were safe......

and that my friends, is the basis of my Illustration Friday painting, called 'Save the chickens'. I know it's Thursday, but I had to get it finished before the deadline. As soon as I heard this week's theme, I knew I had to illustrate it.
Oh, and the above story is true, I'm sure you know who the little girl was, lol!

thanks for reading
xoxo

Mother's Day Art and a WIP

hi everyone! I thought I would show my latest folk art painting. You may have seen the rough sketch for this last week.
What a relief to finally finsh it. I changed the background 3 times!  nothing seemed to work, so after adding some nice vintage papers for texture, I ended up gessoing over it, and trying another color. That didn't work either, it was the wrong shade of blue. So out comes the white gesso, and then I came up with this one which I am happy with. I wanted the mother and her kids to stand out against a shabby background. Now if you can't tell, the kid on the left is a boy, lol! and my very first one. I think he's kind of cute :-)

Next up, is a work in process I am doing for the Gut Art class taught by the awesome Mystele. Working with this much color and this loose is very new for me, but I'm loving every second of it. Can't wait to get back to it. This may not look  like my style, but I really enjoy learning new things. There are so many online workshops out there, and I believe in learning all you can about something you are passionate about. Art should also be fun. I realize I never play at art, I am too serious, and spend countless hours trying to make sure a painting is 'perfect'. It feels good to let go of that, and let a painting go where it wants to.
thanks for reading!

A Mother's Love

My latest painting for Mother's Day. I didn't realize how quickly it was coming up so I had to do at least one with a mother and daughter.   I used various papers to add texture to the background,  and then went and covered them! For some reason, I can't do a painting without layers, even if I am the only one who knows what's hidden underneath...it's listed in my Etsy shop.

The bunny girl from yesterday's post  is already sold! Does anyone else miss their paintings when they sell?
I have a few that I can't part with, which is silly because they are tucked away in an archival box for safekeeping.  How crazy is that?? I think they need to be appreciated, and hanging on a wall somewhere. One day I may decide to finally let them go. Maybe  I will photograph a couple and show them here.

Next on my to do list is a painting of a mother with a boy and girl. I've never painted a whimsical boy, so I'm a bit nervous about it. We shall see how it turns out.
thanks for reading!
xoxo

Bunny Girls and Sketches

hi everyone. In my last post I mentioned needing to work on lots more original folk art girls, so here is the first one, called Bunny Love. I used the sketch I created on my Easter post, and had fun with the background. This took many hours to complete. Originally I used blues, especially on the border, and I felt it just didn't look right, so I scraped on some gesso for texture, and re-did it. I'm much happier with the pink and creme as the main colors.  She is now in my Etsy shop.
Tonight I will be working on something for mother's day.

For this weeks Sunday Sketch, I drew another big-eyed girl, are you all surprised, lol? This is my 5th week doing these sketches, thanks to Blue Chair Diary. Since I committed to join in, it has kept me on track.

A Page from My Sketchbook

Continuing my own little show and tell, here is a page from my sketchbook.  

It's nice to see other artists starting to show pages from their sketchbook. Feel free to join it, it would be fun to see the sketches behind the art.

My Little Grungy Girl

It has been such a long time since I made a folk art painting, I thought I should do something a bit different. It was interesting working on this, I didn't quite know what to do with my background, so I dirtied it up, and gave it a shabby primitive look. If you were to see how many sketches of folk art girls I have in my folders, I think you would be shocked. Dozens of them waiting to be born, but alas, they will have to wait. Too many things to do, so little time!!!

Meanwhile, I just finished my newest mixed media Alice painting, after many, many hours! One day I should keep track of the hours I spend on each painting, it would be interesting to know how long they take. If I could stop being so finicky about every little detail, I am sure I would get more done. Anyway, I will show her either tomorrow or the next day, once she is scanned.

Newest Art

Quite a while ago I was asked to do a painting of this beautiful white cat. I was told I can do anything I like, because I am not exactly known for painting animals :-) Well I worried for a long time, not quite sure how to proceed, and this past weekend I was inspired to finally sit down and complete the job. I decided to make her into a fairy princess, and this is the result.

Well, time to go play with my new supplies!