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!

So I played...

hi everyone. You know I have done probably hundreds of owl ACEOs, and  realized that I have never put them on anything larger than a baseball card...so here is my first painting. I wanted to really loosen up on this, and just play. I wanted to use pretty colors that drew me, and forget about realism. Folk art is one of my favorite types of art, yet it can be tricky to do (for me at least...I tend to try and control my paintings). What fun this was!  I can't wait to do another one. 
Now I would have had more art to show you, but I got sidetracked by  Pinterest, lol! Wow, that is a wonderful tool!  It's like an online bulletin board for all the good stuff you find online.  I had to join Twitter though, in order to get access.  I'm slowly being dragged into the social media world :-)

Last weekend was a complete disaster art wise, so rather than fighting it, I sat down and sketched a red riding hood character. One of my favorite things to do is faces, so this was very relaxing. Mind you it is a rough sketch, and I experimented with watercolor crayons on the face, as well as pencil marks. It was fun to just paint without needing it to be perfect.  It's a great way to try out new things, as some of you have commented. 
Well, back to work for me -if I can drag myself away from my computer
thanks for reading!