Suitcase Saturday

 A repro of a retro from Ross. 
Home to artificial flowers and greenery.

 Some new from Michaels and Beverleys

 Some from thrift stores and gifts from friends

Some vintage and found on-line and at antique shops.

Buttons and Blooms  11x14

I've found them to be the perfect touch for many of my shabby chic pieces.  This piece on its way to Somerset Studios, a submission for their Aqua challenge this coming January.

Spotlight Artist!

Easy Being Green  11x16

The new edition of Somerset Gallery is on the newsstands and my piece Easy Being Green is featured in its pages.  I had received word that I was accepted, but what I didn't know until I began perusing the magazine was that I'm a Spotlight Artist!  That means that an entire page has been devoted to my artwork!  Needless to say this is quite exciting!  This is my first Somerset acceptance since May 2010 and I've already been notified that I'll be in their  Sept/Oct issue as well.  Woo-Hoo!

A Midnight Dreary - Halloween in April

A Midnight Dreary - Poe's Graveyard 8x10"

I haven't submitted to Somerset Studio in awhile, but how could I pass up their latest challenge - A Poe Halloween? I took a piece I'd made for my steampunk collection last fall and with some tweaking here and there created A Midnight Dreary - Poe's Graveyard. The piece is done in the opening on the reverse side of a 8x10x 2" canvas. This opening creates a shadowbox-esque effect and allows for the inclusion of rather thick embellishments - in this case - a resin gravestone (stamped with a branch of ravens) and a pile of various sized skulls, coloured with brown and olive acrylics.



The background is a xeroxed copy of a cemetery photo. Cheesecloth, rubbed with paint and stamped with ink, surrounds the frame and is anchored with skeletons and bones. A curled piece of parchment reads "nevermore" and one of the graveyard's crosses reads Edgar Allan Poe.



I've sent it in and now just have to wait until the Halloween issue comes out in September - wish me luck!

A Palette of Palettes

Eugène Delacroix

This is fun - Retronaut.co gathered these marvelous
pictures of the palettes of famous painters.
Many are works of art in and of themselves;

Georges Seurat

See the row of spectators - in the park perhaps?

Paul Gauguin

And the colours of sea and sand.

Edgar Degas

The swirl of tutus,

Vincent van Gogh

splashes of golden flowers.

Eugène Delacroix

Rank and file marching for liberte!

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Here's my interpretation of Monet's paintbox.

Buried Treasure -My First Article!

Every year Seth at The Altered Page sponsors a "Buried Treasure" day when bloggers across the world re-post one of their favourite entries that may have been missed at the time. He lists everyone on his blog that day (today) and then we all have a chance to see the best of dozens and dozens of wonderful blog posts. Here's mine-

The May/June issue of Somerset Studio will be on the news stands this coming Saturday - and - I am proud, and faintly amazed, to say that I have an article therein.

The challenge was the Impressionists and I responded with Monet's Paint Box. Click on the title to read the blog post about how it was made.

After seeing the article, Lynne Perrella said "I love the paintbox. The close-up photography really makes me feel that I can smell the paints, like maybe the artist himself has just left the room." I was pleased that they did very little editing on my writing and that the pictures came out so well. Two things I enjoy immensely are my art and my writing, and it's a wonderful kick to see them both recognized in this way. Originally posted 4/26/10.

Easy Being Green

Easy Being Green 11x16

Somerset Studio's latest challenge is Chartreuse and my entry is this "all things green" type drawer. From Italian lire to tiny leprechaun shoes, from jumping jacks to jumping frogs -it's "easy being green.

This challenge is for the January/February 2012 issue -

if it's accepted you'll be the first to know!

Christmas in June

A Jolly Old Elf

A little early? You bet, but not if one is submitting for the holiday issue of Somerset Studio, artwork due by June 15. For once I'm actually ready a bit ahead, this will be in the mail and on its way sometime this week. The vintage postcards are part of a huge collection left to me by my maternal grandmother, splattered with green, red and cream acrylic and embellished with Santa faces in opposite corners, top and bottom.

And now I don't have to think about Christmas for 5 more months!

My First Article!

The May/June issue of Somerset Studio will be on the news stands this coming Saturday - and - I am proud, and faintly amazed, to say that I have an article therein.

The challenge was the Impressionists and I responded with Monet's Paint Box. Click on the title to read the blog post about how it was made.

After seeing the article, Lynne Perrella said "I love the paintbox. The close-up photography really makes me feel that I can smell the paints, like maybe the artist himself has just left the room." I was pleased that they did very little editing on my writing and that the pictures came out so well. Two things I enjoy immensely are my art and my writing, and it's a wonderful kick to see them both recognized in this way.

Alas, Nevermore

Alas, Nevermore - A Literary Halloween

Even though it's April, Somerset Studio's Vintage Halloween challenge is due in just a couple weeks. No matter how many ideas I came up with, I kept going back to the idea of ravens and skulls. And this is the result. The combination brought to mind Poe and Hamlet - hence the title.

An old printer's tray spattered with cream and rust acrylic. I used scrapbook paper for backgrounds on the left. A raid in my Skulls & Skeletons cigar box turned up plenty of material. I used rubber stamps on the back of dominoes and found a vintage cigarette card of a jackdaw.


The bone pile in the bottom right consists of tiny carved skulls and badger toe bones from Necromance in L.A. I'll be sending it off today and in 5 months or so, maybe we'll be seeing in it in Somerset Studio.

In Vogue - Encore

The next spread features vintage cards of tiny white buttons, a decorative lace ornament and a large ceramic floral button all on a background of lace drawings. Pink and green ombre ribbon is tied through eyelets.

Oriental style - old Chinese coins, stickers of fans and vases, and pictures of colourful fashions. Vintage ivory Mah Jong counters add the perfect touch.

Simple, classic dress designs topped with printing plates from old patterns. A fun piece of work, now in the mail off to Somerset Studio. I'll keep you posted.

In Vogue

In Vogue

The latest submission for Somerset Studio magazine. The challenge this time is all things fashion, fabric and style - "In Vogue". A little book, with a young girl's dreams safe inside. Dreams of beautiful dresses, wisps of lace, pearl buttons and the lure of Paris and the Orient. A place to make a note of yearned for haute couture and hide a picture of the dress of her dreams.

I started with a pre-shaped book that mimicked a woman's silhouette. Glued pages together to create 5 spreads, then gessoed them and dabbed on acrylic paint using a sea sponge.
The first spread features a stylish hat and bustier in black and silver, pastel fabric flowers and a library card pocket filled with vintage fashion drawings.

Next, pictures of ruffled blouses, a Paris slide mount, an enameled fan, a miniature cabinet card and fabric and beaded flowers. This was a project I'd had in mind for awhile so when the challenge came up, it was perfect. The rest of the story - er - book, on Thursday's blog.

Monet's Paint Box

Here's my entry for Somerset Studios' latest challenge "The Impressionists". I call it Monet's Paint Box. I was lucky enough to find - and win! - a vintage metal paint box on ebay. I splattered and dripped several colours of acrylic craft paint on all the surfaces.

Then I delved into my cigar box stash - the one labeled Art Stuff - and found old brushes, really old tubes of paint, palette knives, etc. I attached these in their various compartments using E-6000. I printed out several Monet paintings and then collaged them to canvas board using matte medium. On the fold out flaps of the box I adhered stickers of Monet's paintings and dabbed acrylic around the edges.

Viola! You can almost see the ripples on the pond and hear the late spring breeze as it kisses the wisteria on the Japanese bridge. The paint box silently waits for the master to return from his midday meal in the Giverny dining room, to pick up a brush and capture the afternoon light on the water lilies.

Art Day

photo courtesy Destiny Carter

We had a Creative Urge Art Day at our house at the beginning of the week. Margot and Destiny spent the time going through shoes for Sassy Feet and playing with the above- Shiva Oil Paint Sticks. Lots of luscious colours.

I'm working on the next Somerset challenge - The Impressionists. I hope to use my weekend getting it completed and ready to send off.

I'm In!

The Winter 2010 edition of Somerset Gallery will be hitting the newsstands on December 1 and if you turn to page 97 you'll see my piece entitled The Perry Girls Ride the Range.

It's made in a wooden cigar box that I painted and papered and embellished.

That's my 4 year old self in the Hoppalong Cassidy shirt and my older sister Becky, looking like she might rather be somewhere else. Every Christmas when I was young I got new six shooters and a new cowboy hat - but the addition of the shirt was extra special.

This was an extremely fun piece to work on as it brought up wonderful memories of a very happy childhood.

Nevermore - again

I posted about this piece back in April when I finished it and sent it into Somerset Studios for their Vintage Halloween challenge. I'm posting it now because... it made it! Page 106, big as life - well not quite that big, but it's there! I was very happy with this artwork and I'm tickled that it's now published.

Somerset Studio Sept./Oct. hits the newsstands on September 1st.

I'm In!

I had set a goal for myself to enter the Somerset Studios bimonthly challenges for a year. I started last August with artrwork that would be in their January/February issue. Well, you know how it goes - you send it away, seemingly off into the ether, and then you wait and wait for the magazine to come out so you can eagerly flip the pages, hoping and hoping that you'll see your submission. I dutifully sent in a piece every two months as each challenge came along.




Nothing in January, nothing in March and nothing in May - but yesterday in the mail I received the Somerset Gallery Summer 2009 issue AND there, in living colour, on page 148 is "An Evening at the Opera, Box #5"! I had done this one for their Andrew Lloyd Weber issue in May.

I did it, I have my artwork published in a major magazine. I have to tell you - it feels mighty fine.

$10.00 Score!

Up early and to the swap meet and brought home the goodies above for less than $10.00. A nicely worn little vintage suitcase, old ruler, pipe, 2 vintage fuse boxes(including fuses), a fishing lure, a "headless" George Washington figure (the silly seller seemed to think this made it less valuable!), a rusty hinge, a bottle opener, porcelain hot and cold handles, and a metal name plate.

And here's what I found on the street on the way in: rusty wire, worn piece of wood with white paint, cigar band, crumpled metal and a big heavy piece of industrial metal -all for free! Good haul.

On a note of ever-increasing consistency -the latest Somerset Studios has arrived - without my artwork inside. This issue did not feature my An Evening at the Opera Box #5. But hope springs eternal, I have three more entries already awaiting their decision for the next three issues. And I have until August to decide if I'm to going to go on doing this for a second year. It does get rather frustrating when people keep saying "Oh, what's your art been in - you should be published!" and then when you try ... The two things that keep this in perspective are; 1.) I know they get hundreds and hundreds of submissions for each issue and 2.) I know there are lots of people who are just as frustrated as I am.