Happy Thanksgiving Canada, and some art

Hey friends, it's the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, and it fell on a much earlier date than we are used to!  We had our big dinner today, and I overate of course. That's ok, tomorrow I get back on track with healthy eating. It's amazing how much better I've been feeling when I stick to a natural diet. I tried one of the most delicious juices I've ever had a few days ago, and have been making it every morning since. I copied the ingredients from Youtube, where you can find the video

 Recipe for Kristina's FullyRaw Fall Beet Juice Cleanser:
5-6 Honeycrisp Apples
1-2 Large Beets with Tops
Thumb of Ginger
Half of One Sweet Potato

I've been working on more Halloween painting, and the one above with the wee owl on the pumpkins is my latest. Inspired by Christy Tomlinson, as I would never think to make patterned pumpkins.! That woman is a genius and I just love watching her work.

It sure feels good to get working back on my art again.  I had taken several months break from blogging, and while I don't paint as much in the summer, the truth is I couldn't seem to make myself create at all. It felt like
my creativity vanished, and all I felt like doing was watching tv, or reading novels. Thank goodness the slump is over, and now I'm back to thinking about art all the time :-)

Just a quick note to my fellow bloggers, I was catching up yesterday, and was trying to leave comments, but there must have been problems with Blogger, because I kept typing in the correct word verification, and.it would say the word was incorrect, so just keep in mind that no one would have been able to leave you comments.

that's it for now, hope you are all feeling inspired, wherever you are,
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.

Here come the witches!

It's hard to think of Halloween when we are still in September (well not true, I think of Halloween year round, lol!), but I thought I'd better get a head start on my paintings, otherwise I find myself scrambling to get some art done. I finally finished this one, which I started 3 days ago. She is my first in a series of little Witchlings, and I named her Nina.In my initial sketch, she was supposed to be a red head, but she had other plans, lol! For my next one I will try to do red hair, but that is not a promise- my fellow artists know how a painting will tell you what it wants, and there is nothing you can do about it, lol!

I love doing these kinds of paintings where you use so many layers, and keep covering stuff, adding even more layers on top. It just makes it more interesting, rather than a plain background, which although is easier, there really is no mystery in it. I was lucky to find a book on the history of magic that was being discarded from my library, which I used for the tree. It is from 1854! How cool is that?
Nina can be found in my Etsy shop. (Sold)

hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. It's very chilly here, perfect weather to stay in and paint, and drink lots of coffee :-)
thanks for reading!

Illustration Friday - Beneath

It's Halloween night, and two baby owls fearlessly move through the forest beneath the candle light.

 Hello Friends. I really wanted to illustrate this week's topic, and had a mermaid in mind, but alas, I was afraid I would run out of time. So here is an ACEO I just finished today which fits the topic perfectly I think.

It's now official, I am a terrible blogger. I keep meaning to update, but when I get here I feel there's nothing interesting to say. I'm still reading my favorite blogs, just not updating my own, lol!

The above sketch is what I was hoping to add to Illustration Friday, she is  a mermaid, but she is not done yet. I pictured in my mind a murky background, with her face obscured with color, but not sure when I can get to it. So many other things to do.

Today I started decorating for Halloween. I brought out my skeleton and ghost tealights, and a pumpking which lights up when you plug it in.. There is fall garland, and lots of seasonal candles for display. Can't forget the purple and orange lights!
In one month, the Halloween stuff gets put away, and I start preparing for my favorite holiday of all, Christmas! Would you think I was strange if I admited that I played Christmas music yesterday, haha! I stopped after 2 songs, I didn't want to get sick of them already :-)

Coming soon will be some witch paintings for Halloween.
Thanks for putting up with this absent blogger (yup, that's me).
xoxo

Hi Fellow bloggers!
Thank goodness you can't see me... I'm in my fuzzy pyjamas, drinking coffee and watching the Vampire Diaries. I have a face mask on ( imagine making a batch of oatmeal mix for muffins, then smooshing it on your face, lol! then you will know how it looks and smells, ah, but it leaves your skin soft).

Work has been crazy busy! Some co-workers are off sick, so it's been hectic. I've been washing my hands until they're raw, so many people are walking around sick. I will not get the H1N1 vaccine though, there is way too much controversy over it. I will be taking my vitamin D, and C, and have a supply of Oregano oil just in case. Let's see if I can avoid this flu naturally.
I know some of you have caught it already, please take care of yourselves, and do whatever you can to make yourself more comfortable until it passes.

artwise, I've mostly worked on journal pages. I'm taking Kelly Kilmer's Prompt a Day class with hopes of being more comfortable with art journaling. I love it! I will show some pages a bit later.
I've started working on some ACEOs too, the girl below is one of them, and they are done on vintage book pages.

Are you all looking forward to Halloween? I bought a few packages of chocolates and chips to give out to the kids, unfortunately, I've opened the packages and have been snacking away on them - oops! So I will have to pick up some more tomorrow. Darn snacks, they are my weakness.
Have a safe and fun Halloween everyone! and don't be sneaking your kid's candy when they're not looking, lol!

Walking after Midnight

What a lovely night to go walking. But what on earth is wrong with Kitty? She is so restless, and keeps climbing on Jessie's shoulder, digging her claws in, and trembling......

This has been on my 'to do' list for a long time, I thought it's now or never. It took me several days to do, working on it a bit at a time. I like the story behind it, but I wish I could say the same about the goofy looking witch on her broom, lol!


Now for you fans of horror movies, I just saw Trick r Treat, and it ranks up there with the original Halloween, and Friday the 13th. The first thing I noticed was how beautifully shot it was, gorgeous cinematography, and fall colors. They weave 4 short stories together, and there are some very surprising moments. I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves scary movies.
Apparently there has been a lot of anticipation of this film for a couple of years. I have no idea why it was not released in the theaters, but check it out if it is your kind of movie. But don't blame me if you get scared :-D

I had the YOUTUBE clip here for you to check out, but the video was so large, it was messing with the side of my blog, so here is a link if you are interested in seeing the trailer: Trick r Treat

Latest Kids that Creep painting

Hi fellow bloggers! I finally had a productive weekend, thanks to the miserable weather. I stayed in my pajamas most of the day too, lol! First off, here is the latest in my Kids that Creep series. I am very happy with her...a few weeks back I showed a photo of another creepy kid painting I couldn't get right. Well, after letting it sit for a while, I didn't think I could salvage it, so I painted over it, added some vintage paper, and created this latest little girl. I hope it's not too morbid...after all, I can't paint pretty girls all the time :-)

I also am working on a Halloween painting on a larger canvas, an idea I had planned out a while ago. It is proving to be tougher than I thought. The girl is no problem, I am stuck on the background again. I will figure it out though, and post it here once it is done....

I'd been thinking that it would be a good idea for me to do a detox before winter gets here. I am addicted to sugar. This is not an exageration, I really crave it. So I began last weekend. There are instructions that for 15 days, I should try to avoid coffee, sweets, fruit, anything with flour, tofu, condiments, etc...
I've been waiting for possible symptoms, like headache, nausea, or moodiness that occur when the bad stuff is being removed from your body, but nothing is happening. I re-read the pamphlet, and think I messed up. I thought eating cake and having coffee wouldn't affect it but it looks like it did, so starting tomorrow, I will follow the instructions. So next blog post, I may be very cranky, lol!

Has anyone had any experience with detoxes? Did it work for you?

Time for the witches to come out and play! It is October, now I can get rid of my shabby chic living room, and bring back the fall colors. What a big difference it makes. My halloween paintings don't look silly anymore. Now if I could only find my skull lights, lol!

The painting above is from 2007. I should be working on some new art projects, but instead I am on the computer, reading some of my favorite blogs. I find it hard to get away from distractions these days. Makes me think that 'resistance' has reared it's ugly head again.
I feel like I move 2 steps forward, one step back. On the bright side though, I get to visit my blogging friends :-)

Witch's starry night

Hello friends! As promised here is my first witch of the season. She is part of my series of winking girls, with very big hair. I can't believe I haven't yet thought up a name for this series! I was thinking of 'winking divas' or 'party girl's but neither sounds right.
I have a few more planned before I finish. Coming up is a Christmas fairy, and an ice princess. I can't wait to work on them!

This weekend I had such grand ideas about all the work I would accomplish. Well, let me tell you, what a waste of time! I couldn't manage a single painting! First of all, I started work on my second creepy kids painting, and it's just not working out like I planned. I think I may paint over the whole thing...and if that weren't bad enough, I wanted to do this week's challenge over at Melange Team. The topic is 'wee witches' and I thought, no problem! You should see the disaster I came up with!
It is so frustrating, since time is so valuable, that you want to make good use of it.

Ok, I decided to include a picture of the two paintings I was working on, even if I am embarrassed by them, hahah! I think it is good to show people that not everything you do as an artist works out. Sorry for the bad photo, but it is evening, so I had to photograph them on my kitchen floor. Believe me, daylight wouldn't make them look any better. So, what do you all think? Should I try and save them, or start over again?
(I can't believe I am showing you this, lol!).



Ok, before I forget, my birthday is coming up the end of this month, and I am doing a giveaway. Haven't decided on the prizes yet, so stay tuned, I should have details shortly.

Kids that creep

I am already thinking of Halloween, thanks to some of the blogs I follow. It's all your fault, haha!
This creepy little girl painting took me many, many hours to do. It looks like it would be so simple, but it wasn't. I wanted it to look very primitive, and shabby, and it went through many changes until I was pleased. I tried using the one step crackle, which was crap! I don't know if maybe my bottle is bad, but I have used it in a few paintings, and I can't see any crackle. I ended up using the Tim Holtz Crackle paste, which I love.
Anyway, I am not giving up so easily, so you can expect more creepy kids (oh sure, I can say that now, but if another one takes me this long, who knows, lol!).

This next painting I took to work to show a friend, and someone snapped her right up. I have mixed feelings about selling my originals, especially when I just finished and haven't had a chance to enjoy them yet. On the other hand, it is going to someone who loves it, and getting paid for something I love to do is a bonus, lol!


Last week I took part in a 'flash mob'. I work at a University, and my workplace was doing it and looking for volunteers. It sounded fun so I signed up. If you have not heard of a flash mob, it is when a bunch of people freeze in place. You may have seen this popular video on Youtube of the one that took place at Grand Central Station. We had to freeze in place while reading a book, to promote the library, and it was funny to hear the students reactions.

Ok, back to work...I am painting a witch portrait :-)

Happy Halloween!

I love halloween, and had all these great ideas for paintings planned for months. Of course, before I knew it, it was almost the end of October, and I only managed 2 new witch paintings. Time seems to be speeding up, you think you have so much of it, then find it has slipped away once again. I may add them to my Etsy store anyway. I did sell one of my favorite paintings last year after Halloween (the one my avatar is based on).

I spent last weekend re-arranging my tiny little art room. I have a large bookshelf on one wall filled with books I planned to read 'some day'. It finally occurred to me that this space would be more useful holding my art supplies and canvases that have been stacked on my floor. So I spent a full day weeding through books, and deciding which to give to goodwill. Isn't it funny that books you may have had sitting unread for 10 years would be so hard to get rid of? I figure if I haven't read them by now, I never would. So off they went. And what a great feeling that was!
Now my mixed media supplies are neatly organized on 2 shelves, beside my desk. I find it very hard to create when everywhere you look is cluttered. I always say, if you are feeling stuck, clean, organize, and you will see how quickly your muse comes out to play. The next day, I sat down and created another mixed media girl, in black white and pinks, which I love! I will post her here once I decide on a name :-D