Another Marie Antoinette Style Painting!

Well here she is! My lovely Josephine :) . Josephine was done in acrylics and colored pencil, the pink background is scrapbook paper and the whole thing was done on a 9x12 wooden plaque. I painted some trim gold and hot glued it around the front to look like a frame and then I painted some paper flowers gold as well and glued them over the spot where the two ends of the trim meet. Don't you think it's pretty? Oh, the flowers in her hair are victorian scraps I bought at Michaels.

New ATC's!

I've been busy! I felt the need to do some ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) so here they are! Some are hand drawn, some hand painted, and some are both :) . These will eventually be available for trade just as soon as I have my new scanner. I want to have printed copies of them all :) More to come, I'm on a roll!

A Little Bunny Hopped up on my Couch

Liam says "My mum thinks I don't receive enough attention when we go out so this is her solution." Over the weekend I happened to be shopping for paint at Michaels when I came across these adorable bunny ears. Liam was peacefully sleeping in his car seat atop the stroller and not being able to resist I carefully slipped the ears over his head. The incredible cuteness of my sleeping bunny was too fantastic so I just had to purchase the ears. After making my purchase I set off (with my little bunny) next door to Future Shop where my husband was browsing and surprised him with our new pet :) . Now all we need is a hutch to keep our bunny in and some carrots :)!

If all goes as planned today I will have new artwork to post tommorow. I've been working on some new projects including another Marie Antoinette type piece and some other little things sure to delight!

A Cow, Chicken, Lamb and ......

Okay, just one more today! I wasn't going to post this till tommorow but I love it sooooo much that I just couldn't help myself :)! This is a country themed collage on watercolor paper I did over the weekend. The artwork is done in colored pencil and acrylics with scrapbook paper used for the little squares. I really enjoyed making this one! I hope you like it :)

A French Theme

I thought I'd post some more artwork today. Two of these are actually older work of mine but the painting featuring the sunflower and stiching is new as of this morning. I love painting lavender fields and French themed art :) . The oval painting is on canvas but the others are on watercolor paper. Enjoy!

Little English Cottage

I've had the urge recently to paint a cottage and while I've never done so before I think my attempt is quite cute :)! I'm the first to admit that it's nowhere near perfect but I still like the results enough to keep this little lovely for myself. I think a fancy little antique gold frame will do nicely! The edges were trimmed off in photoshop because the picture I took was a bit warped looking so there are some missing elements to this view but you get the idea. This is a very small painting done in acrylics and colored pencil on paper. I think I'm going to keep painting cottages every now and then, this one was fun!

Jill

Some new work, this is "Jill". Jill is not my usual more realistic looking person, she has a rather strangely shaped body and an odd looking face. But don't tell her that, you'll give her a complex :). Jill was done in acrylics and colored pencil on water color paper. The background consists of many layers of paint, colored pencil, decorative papers and ephemera, and a lot of crackle medium. Click on the picture to see a larger view.

My Little Bug is Getting Big!

I am now the proud mum of a baby that can sleep all the way through the night without waking! And if that weren't exciting enough he is also eating with a spoon (with his mummy's help of course)! Liam has added fat free vanilla yogurt to his diet and he likes it so much that he gets very excited when he see's me coming container and baby spoon in hand :). The above picture was taken today in his bouncy chair that my mum and dad bought him. He loves his bouncy chair! Okay, enough proud mum talk, had to get it outta my system :). Unless of course you want more, I could go on for days about this little guy!

My Dad's Photography

Today I'm missing my parents who moved to Nova Scotia not too long ago so I felt like posting some of my Dad's photos here for all to enjoy. While he's not a professional photographer I think his photos are fantastic and I'm very proud to be the daughter of such a talented person! The first picture shown above is of a bird in my parent's old back yard. He has a beak full of what looks like horse hair for his little nest. The second picture is of Diesel, my paren't Chihuahua sitting on their couch and the third was taken on the way to Nova Scotia. Aren't these pictures lovely? If you'd like to see more of my fabulous Dad's fabulous photos you can see them on photosig here....

http://www.photosig.com/go/users/view?id=204218

I'm a Rockin Girl Blogger!

I got a surprise today when I went to answer my e-mail! Cindy over at Yapping Cat Studio http://yappingcatstudio.typepad.com/my_weblog/ awarded me the Rockin Girl Blogger award! How sweet of her, don't you think? Anyway, I'm very flattered that my blog is enjoyable enough to win an award! Thanks Cindy! I believe that I'm supposed to nominate someone now so my nomination is ....

Marjorie over at My Cozy Little Whimsy Nook http://www.marmeecraft.typepad.com/

Her blog is as enjoyable to read as it is to look at! And if you like adorable artwork then you may just love her creations as much as I do :). I only just recently discovered Marjorie and her lovely art and I'm so glad I did :)

I'm on a roll! Finished another painting.....

So after that last Arabian horse painting I just had to do another. This is what I came up with (above). It's a grey Arabian stallion wearing a native Arabian halter. I painted it using acrylics and colored pencil on an 8x10 canvas. Enough mane on that horse? I was so in the mood to paint that I got a little carried away and gave him a really thick mane. Oh well, while there aren't alot of Arabs with that much hair I have seen a couple so it's not like it's impossible :) . Just pretend he's a member of the hair club for men, er, horses, LOL!

New Horse Themed Painting

This is a new painting I finished off today. I think I'm happy with it but at the same time I'm not completely sure I love it. The subjects of the painting are two Arabian horses, a foal and a stallion. You may be wondering about the foals face, how part of it is very smooth and the cheek and neck are fuzzy looking. Sometimes if an Arabian foal is for sale or is being featured in a magazine the owner will clip the hair on part of the face to show off the foals bone structure, leaving the rest of the foal fuzzy. The reference photo I used for this particular foal was clipped in such a way which I thought looked rather cute so I decided to paint him that way. I used a crackle medium on the background to give it a nice sort of country look and the rest is done in acrylics, colored pencil and some decorative papers. This one is on an 8x10 canvas.

My Boy's Duckie

I thought I'd share another one of the paintings I did for my son's room. He's very fond of ducks so this one is a perfect addition to his bedroom decor!

The Best Part of my Weekend!

These fabulous little fluffies were the very best part of my weekend! When pulling out of the flea-market parking lot my husband spotted a man selling these three puppies out of a laundry basket on the lawn. He pulled over so I could go take a look. I could have spent all day on that lawn cuddling puppies if it weren't for the fact that my husband was waiting for me in our van. I did get some quick cuddles though! These little guys were so sweet! I received many wonderful puppy kisses and enjoyed every second of it! Two were boys and one a girl. They were Pomeranian, Chihuahua, Papillon crosses if I remember correctly. The daddy was there as well and he was a very well behaved and cute little dog.
This little sweetie is a Chihuahua that I spotted at the Saturday Blueberry festival. Isn't she lovely?!

My Flea-market Finds

A lovely framed painting purchased for only $10!
An old wedding photo, one of many old wedding photos I found in a box of vintage photos I purchased for $20.
Another lovely old photo purchased at the Saturday flea-market.
This one I especially like!

Bluberries, Cars and Flea-markets

What a busy weekend! Saturday I woke up at 4:30 in the morning to make sure we (my husband, son and myself) arrived at the flea-market right when it opened. I managed to walk away with some nice treasures, including a lovely framed painting of a vase of roses for only $10! I also purchased a couple of old photos. After the flea-market we stopped in the town of Cloverdale where they were having their annual blueberry festival. The festivities included a fabulous car show where we enjoyed viewing beautiful vintage cars in bright colors. There was also a small art display featuring one particularily talented sculptor whose charming pottery was not only lovely but cleverly imaginative.

Sunday was equally busy. We decided to attend another flea-market this time closer to home. I was lucky enough to find someone selling a large collection of old black and white photos for only $20 which I immediately snatched up making my own collection so much more impressive! After the flea-market we headed to Ikea to purchase some frames for my artwork where I also came across some lovely white lace curtains priced at only $14 for two panels! The curtains are very long and once hung will puddle on the ground just like I like. Needless to say I'm very happy with my purchases!

Some lovely home decor....

These are some of the projects I've done in my spare time. The cone is filled with bits and peices of nature from the acreage my husband and I used to own on Vancouver Island. I used to take long walks up into the woods on the mountain at the back of my property on a daily basis looking for bits and peices for my art projects. My cone contains twigs, moss, dried grasses, a dried leaf skeleton and some dried tree fungi. This cone is very special to me as it reminds me of those happy days trekking through the woods no matter the weather conditions :).

The other project shown is made of scrapbook papers, lace, trim, buttons and recycled horse show rosettes. I had a huge box full of rosettes that were just a waste of space so I thought I'd put them to good use. This now hangs in my bedroom :).

New Work!

These are the latest paintings to be finished. On top is a cute pink cake on a cake stand decorated with roses and under that is a lovely little duckling in a teacup. The cake was done on canvas and the duckling on watercolor paper.

More baby projects!

These two paintings were done while I was pregnant with my son Liam. I wanted his nursery to have some original artwork in it and I wanted something highly detailed. This is what I came up with :). The lovely silver dappled horse isn't any breed in particular although it is a mare I've decided. Unfortunately my photography skills leave something to be desired and the tree painting photo came out blurry but I still wanted to share it as it's a definate favorite! I'll try and get some better photos of it tommorow when my camera battery has charged.

All for the love of "Bug"

Here are some of the projects I've made for my little Bug's nursery. The shrine was my Mum's idea. We made it together . The picture of Liam is kind of funny looking, sorta like Jabba the Hut :). When I was in labor I was given three epidurals and four shots of morphine, because of this Liam came out looking quite round and swollen. The little clover leaf in the top of the shrine is there because of Liam's Irish background.

The collage I actually just made last week. It consists of scrapbook papers, purple trim, some ribbon and some of those little cardboard decorations from the local scrapbook store (I can't for the life of me remember the name for these).

The bears were actually Mcdonalds toys at one time. Back when Mcdonalds did the Build a Bear themed toys my husband picked up a couple because he thought they were cute and I customized them. I painted the bodies with acrylic paint, added some ribbon, trim, beads on wire and made cute little glittery hats for them.

Some hopefully helpful art related tips and tricks

• Tea staining but not getting a dark enough stain? Try coffee! Coffee gives a nice dark rich colored stain that looks great and is easy to apply. I like to use instant coffee. Just put the item you wish to stain in a shallow pan and sprinkle some instant coffee grounds on top, next slowly pour hot water on top and voila! Doing it this way will leave little dark brown marks where the coffee was sitting as well as staining the whole peice. If you don't want the little marks on there just make your coffee in a seperate container and pour it on the item.
• Beware the bad reaction FolkArt waterbased varnish can have on artwork! Recently I covered a painting in this product with horrible results! It appears that this particular product does not like purple colored pencils :(. My painting had three purple birds done in colored pencil that turned hot pink when I applied the FolkArt waterbased varnish! Needless to say I won't be using this product again on my purple birds!
• I've discovered a product called Pearl Ex Pigments. This product comes as a powder which you can either add to your paint or you can dry brush it on. I LOVE this stuff! It has a gorgeous metallic sheen to it and comes in some really fantastic colors. I purchased mine at Opus but I'm sure it could be found online. Give it a try, you might just like it as much as I do :)!
• Ran out of white paint did you? If you've run out of white paint and can't get to the store but you happen to have some white gesso handy, use that instead. I've been using white gesso instead of white paint for some time now and actually prefer it. It covers alot better and mixes well with other paints.

Some Favorites

Sooooooo Busy!

Wow! I've been so busy today! I spent the first part of the day working on a painting and then switched over to doing some updates on the computer. There is some new artwork on Flickr and I finally got around to putting my artwork on DeviantArt. You can check that out here....

http://countrybird.deviantart.com/

My ID is countrybird.

My Friesian mare is off to her new home, she left this morning. How sad, I'm no longer a horse owner :(. In a couple of years when I have more time to dedicate to horse training I'll have another though so I just need to remember that when I'm longing for horsey love.