What hope looks like...

What Hope Looks Like

7.5" x 8"

The Company I Keep

6.5" x 8.5"

Hi there.  I finished up these two pieces over the weekend but had a bit of trouble photographing the black backgrounds over the past few warm, grey and stormy days.  This morning the sky is clear and blue and the sun is reflecting off the sparkly white snow that is now covering everything.  I am totally loving black backgrounds right now but they are tricky to photograph because a flash tends to create a glare on the surface and so the natural light has to be bright enough to capture the detail.  Anyways, these pictures I took this morning are pretty good but in person the paintings are slightly less milky looking and read a bit darker. I played around with the skin tones in both of these pieces and really like the depth and life the bits of color give to these women. I think it adds a warmth and energy which plays off the pink dress and the grey and white dresses equally well.  I have been thinking about hope a lot these days and the butterflies in the top painting seem to capture exactly what hope feels like to me.  Hope can be breathtaking, beautiful and delicate, fleeting and often appears when it is least expected.  That's really all I have for today...thanks for reading and have a lovely rest of the week and weekend.

keeping on and keeping busy...

keeping on and keeping busy over this past week 

new pattern and yarn given to me for Christmas

commissioned work (In and Out of Years)

thunder, lightening and torrential rain

sixty-five degrees here today

nineteen tomorrow

and Snow

::

Off to sea...

A rare evening post to share a bit of new work that has me smiling.  A friend from my son's school recently contacted me about creating a special piece of art for her upcoming anniversary. I agreed to meet with her to discuss some possibilities and today she stopped by with these amazing shells that she and her husband had collected on a recent family vacation.  All three shells are absolutely gorgeous and rather than picking one I decided to incorporate all three in a larger piece.  I'm thinking that they will really shine on a black background but they are so perfectly perfect next to my mermaids that I am already thinking up ways to do a little shell seeking myself  : )

oh and...made this for dinner and it was sooo good!

shimmery new work

These lovely ladies are the shimmery stuff of dreams.  I didn't go into the studio planning to paint a mermaid (in fact i'm not sure i've ever thought about painting a mermaid) but last week, early one morning, I picked up the long block in the center, noticed a scrap of white in my stash, saw an image in my head and started to paint.  With the 1st mermaid as my muse I created two more over the next couple of days (while I should have been working on many other things...ahem.).   I love the black background, the bit of shimmer and the 2" thick wood blocks.  I plan to create a few more mermaids and have another image from the sea in mind too...stay tuned.  Wishing you a week full of unexpected inspiration : ) 

workin'

this week in the studio:

a pair of paintings which found a new home for Christmas

(they have come back to visit and be framed)

lots of messy gorgeous color 

a silver lining

shimmery new work

(that i will share next week)

paintings in progress for 'stella'

the stash

the palette

music

peace-

The Magic Hour (new work)

The Magic Hour

6.5" x 8"

I think I've mentioned how much I love the time between dreaming and waking.  That time in the very early morning when the crazy and abstract ideas that fill my dreams step gently aside and then then mingle with real world goings on.    That magic hour is the best time for me to see the fuzzy issues that fill my daytime brain in a new way.  It's also the time that this images like this come together.  To me this piece is about self acceptance and patience and the never ending   back and forth of 'love me' and 'love me not'.  More new work soon...thanks for reading : )

Cheers!

and the winner is nacherluver!

Last night we raised our glasses to toast 2013 and enjoyed an amazing meal with good friends who are like family.  We ate, drank and made merry until well past midnight thanks to a rousing game of Pictionary.  And today, after a slow start, we joined friends and neighbors for tamales, chili and football.  The winner of my 2013 give away is Nacherluver (yay!) but I want to thank everyone who shared a hope, dream or resolution on my last post. As for me, I am hoping to face this new year of unknowns with my arms and heart wide open to possibility.