New Prints

WOW!!!! Thank you so much for scooping up my originals listed yesterday. It gave me joy in my heart and totally discombobulated my day. But in a good good way. One little original is still available.
I'm sure it will be swooped up when the right person sees it. You know how I am, nothing ever happens before it is time.



In case you didn't notice, I'm now offering 8 x 10 prints and they come with matte and ready to frame.

I just had to show some examples here today how great they look in the Target black frame.

Remember

Wall Flowers and the lovely poem:
.."they stood gazing
so tall
and still and silent
waiting
standing quiet shy as a bird
their wings like lace
whispered happy dreams."

and

Her Truth

.."as

though by magic

she walked

her own solitary path

round

and round

and round

dreaming

her memory"

Also, listed 8 x 10 prints of both of the "castle" paintings.


Slowly but surely, I will get more prints listed.

Thank you for pushing me along with your kind words.

Expect,
Sharon
PS Lady Cardinal still sits.

Mail Castles

I sent these castles in the mail last week. I tell you they are so fun to build. I used black gesso on the envelope first and then took the collage papers, scissors and pens to the couch. Yep, art-on-the-couch.

I managed to list my latest originals on etsy just now. Check it out and help your self. Thanks.

Lady Cardinal is definitely now setting the eggs. Today is day 2 and she only laid 3 eggs. Had to get this shot before leaving this morning because the flower was blooming. She is watching me. OK, no more bird pictures until the hatch. Promise.

Expect a great week,

Sharon

Castles

"I am Queen of my Castle"
"dare to be a princess"

I must tell you that I have been a "stretched canvas snob". By that I mean I would never think of painting any serious work of ART on a canvas board. No not me. I guess it goes back to my oil painting days when the bounce in the canvas felt so right with the brush and oil paint. And canvas boards were just too too ......cheap...and didn't bounce.

I may be a convert to canvas boards and I guess the first thing to admit would be to question whether or not these new little paintings are "serious works of ART".

They are on 8 x 10 cheap canvas boards.
I have discovered for acrylic, mixed media, multi layer collage, and stamping, they are perfect.
Because they don't bounce.

Besides that, this size fits in my scanner so nicely.

I will be adding these originals to my etsy and hopefully before the day is over.
I have already made prints and they are beautiful too.


Lady Cardinal update: This morning I kept checking to see if she was on the nest or if I had missed her. At 7am, I ran to check again and just as I approached the window, she flew in an landed on a little branch. She peered in as though counting her eggs. I was sure she saw me because she flew to a nearby branch. I slithered into the corner out of her sight and waited. Sure enough, she returned. I stood in hiding and watched for 25 minutes. A couple of times I was sure she had laid number three but she didn't leave. Finally, I left for my camera and when I returned, she saw me and flew.
I have just checked and she is back on the nest............
Expect,
Sharon

Glorious Saturday

As I often do on weekends,

I jumped out of bed just after five O this morning.

I had wiggled my allotted time and had to jump.

I wasn't up too long and found myself cutting these fun little stamps.

I'll be using them today, I'm sure.

When I noticed the time, I ran to the back door window.

Yes, there she was on the nest. It was 6:25.

Again, we quietly watched each other.

Then, at 6:35 she flew.

Glorious!

Here is the journal page I told you about starting in this post. As you can see, I broke up the symmetry well enough. I wanted to show since I was "just telling" the other day.

Isn't it the craziest thing, I have so much to blog about and am energized to do it. I'll be back because I'm just dying to show you the painting I finished. You're gonna love it.

Expect a glorious weekend,

Sharon

Eggs

My morning house chore today was to wash eggs and turn on the dishwasher.
I don't know why, I thought you needed to see the eggs. Aren't they are grand!Yesterday when I got home I ran to the nest to see what progress had been made. I saw thin, fine nesting material had been added and thought to myself, "it must be the finishing touches". I had noticed the evening before she had added a coarse material over the leaves that lined the bottom.

This morning before starting my chores, I looked but did not see her at the nest. Then while standing at the sink washing eggs, I saw her dart around the corner. I ran to watch out my window being very still and just watching as she did a sort of slow dance. She slowly squatted into the nest cup and then stood and turned a little bit. Then, she squatted and stood and turned and squatted and stood and turned and squatted and stood and turned. I watched her slow dance in wonder. This must be how they make the nest cup so perfectly rounded, I thought. I left her dancing but did see her fly past my window again.

I reported her slow dance to dear husband and then went back to see if she was back. I'm a stalker. She was there sitting quietly in her nest cup. The dance was over. I watched. We were both still and silent. She saw me but turned away. She opened her beak a couple of time which was curious and then she hopped out and flew.

I thought to myself, "could she have possibly just laid her first egg?" and "could I have possibly just witnessed it?" I quickly opened the door, taking the five steps in two leaps and there it was at 6:48 am, the first pale blue speckled beautiful gift.

I left knowing she was finished for today. I did have time for morning art and will share that later.

Expect more eggs,

Sharon

Morning Art

Bounced out this morning and filled the bird feeders and noticed that Lady Cardinal is still working. Then I chose one house chore and that was to throw away a little stack of junk mail that was on the table near my bird watching chair.

I was anxious to go to my art desk and jump that hurdle I told you about. Well I didn't tell you what the hurdle was, just that there was one. I saw something yesterday that sparked me and so I jumped.

I never intended to show you any of these while in progress. Oh, sure. You know me if I paint I just must share it. It could be a sickness.

But anyway here is my art desk this morning after I have painted a bit and am running late for my 9am new office hour. This is the fourth canvas counting from the bottom of the picture in this post. At the moment she looks a little diabolical glaring at me with a happy-mean face. But later she won't.

When I don't have time to finish a painting, I bring it to my office and study it all day. I also do that when I finish a painting. Today, I will be thinking about how I will incorporate her into this silly little village. I have some thoughts already. And I think you will like them.

Another thing, thank you all so much for sharing your words with me. It really means so much. And at the moment, I am into blogging again. I believe that would be thanks to you and Lady Cardinal.
Expect,
Sharon

Surprise

Imagine my surprise this morning when I stepped out my back door during my extra hour of the day and frightened a Mama red bird. She has just started this nest which is eye level and five feet from my back door. She chose a Rose of Sharon that volunteered in this wrong place. For three years now I have needed to move it. For three years now I have been doing ART instead.

Below is a side view of the nest and I hope you can see the stalk of dead flowers that hang down at the bottom. And can you see the little swirl of twisted vine right there above the leaf that I have documented on? This is ART.

Minutes later while at the kitchen window, I saw her dart around the corner. Oh gracious! My heart leaped knowing I was going to get to witness this house building. And oh gracious, could I possibly get a photo of her! First I had to run get the Windex and clean the windows. There are two. One in the door and one in the storm door. Mind you I didn't clean the whole window, just the little area my camera would look through.

Just after I was all focused and waiting, she came back with more house building supplies. I think she sees me. Oh how I wish I could stay and watch the whole event. I'm sure she will be finished today as fast as she is progressing. This is so exciting.

I Hope you have a surprise today.

Sharon

Just Telling

I was talking to you in the shower this morning all about confusion and direction. And so I decided to try and tell you what I was saying. Know now, there will be no showing, just telling.

First, I will say that my feeling this way is not new. "What way is that" you ask? I don't know that I can describe it except to say I feel my passion changing. All is well in my life and home and family. At times I need change. And that is what I have been thinking about. Change. New ways. New things. Revisiting old passions. New directions.

This is very hard as now I can't remember all the random things that were spewing forth just like the shower head that I lingered under. I suppose I don't have to tell you that this has been simmering for a while now. Here are some of the changes that I share with you.

The first that comes to mind is the fact that I am compelled to blog less. By that I mean, I have slowed with posting as well as reading other blogs. I think we all need a break some times. But the fact is I feel lazy about it. Not as much ART to show and too lazy to post about anything else.

I see a little change in my ART. But that is not unusual. I don't think. If we grow with our ART, then one's ART is an evolution. It's just that I am not satisfying myself. Even though, I'm always happy with my latest painting and know it has merit, I'm left with the strangest question of "what's the purpose?". And that is when, why and where I seem to bog down.

The table shot from my last post is just exactly where every thing still sits in my studio, except a little something I did this morning which I will tell about later. Someone ask if I always worked with multiples and the answer is no. Never. But I was trying a new direction. I was excited to build these little house and wanted to do six at one time. And then offer them to you. I got them to this place and stopped. There in front of me was a hurdle to high to jump. But I will. Soon.

I miss reading books, an old passion. So I went to the library on my way home Friday and checked out Angels and Demons. It consumed me just as I remember all of my passions do. I finished it Sunday afternoon. A fabulous read.

Now this is really personal. I was in dire need of new undergarments. I bet many of you are too. So, last week I found myself in Victoria's Secret. Definitely a new direction in the bra department for me.
"What size?" she said.
"I don't know."
"Would you like a fitting?" she ask.
"Sure." and then she measured. And then I told her there was no way! I would not, could not buy that size. But I did. Change.




I have changed my office hours. I am now on the job at 9am rather than 8am. Mornings are my best time. I feel so energetic and accomplish so much in that one hour. Just doing little house chores that have patiently waited for me. You know, things like picking up that yellow headed straight pin that has been on the window seal by my chair for ages and taking it to its cushion home. Or spot cleaning that little accident on the carpet. Or reading the Sunday paper. Or filling the bird baths. Or folding underwear. Or polishing a silver tray. Or playing in an ART journal.



That's what I did this morning. I dared to start a journal page that I fully intend to mostly write on. And here is a challenge from me to you. I will tell you exactly what I did and then you can do it too. This particular journal is a book; so, first I put some color all over the page. There was a big butterfly that I had stamped onto the inside of a used security envelope using several acrylic colors. It was cut out and waiting. I picked it up and glued it right in the very middle of the page spread. I heard a whisper about symmetry. And listened. I placed it a little closer to the top so it was not actually in the very middle. I started wondering what's next and happened across some black and white prints of some of the original sister angels. I had mirror images of several of them. I heard the symmetry whisper again. "Oh, I get it, she is challenging me to make a page that is symmetrical." So, I took mirror images of one face and cut the face down the middle of the nose and mouth. The same face. I wanted to use both left sides and place them along the right and left edge of my journal page. Now what? Maybe it is a house in the making. I found some of my collage papers from the last project and found a spot that I could cut mirror images of. I cut a 2 blocks and 2 triangles. Now, each side my my journal spread has a house built of a block, a face, and a triangle roof. It is all very symmetrical except the butterfly is a little toward the top. I brought it to work for maybe some art-at-desk today. Mostly writing and doodling on the spread about from my house to your house. Ha, then it won't be symmetrical.



Oh my goodness! This is the weirdest thing and happens to me often. It is when I know I'm in the flow of things when after I have done something I realize the why of it. Have you read Angels and Demons? I have wondered in what direction that book would send me. If you have read the book then you know what symmetry has to do with it. I cannot believe that not until I typed the above sentence about the writing on the page and thinking how that would break the symmetry did I realize the connection.



With that I leave you.

New directions,

Sharon

My World

My World

10 x 10

Finally, I got back to it today and finished. I sort of wish I had painted the face a bit higher/bigger like the sketch. But I didn't and I'm OK with it.

And now for those who were inspired. Julia did a quick mind's eye sketch. Go see. And I may have already sent you to Linda's painting but now you can see how ours differ using the same sketch. I think it is great. Angie in Az was inspired by watching my face painting videos and this painting and she has an "in progress". I am thrilled when I have inspired anyone to make ART. And one more thing, thank you Marelle for the blog award. That thrills me too.

I didn't finish this project and I'm about pooped for today, so I will leave this on the table for you to

Expect,

Sharon

More Houses

JOURNAL

inside front cover

art-on-the-couch

collage and doodle

fun

Sidetracked.

Must make houses.

I stopped other ART today to take a little nap-on-the-couch.

But took collage papers and my little journal with me.

and

Made Art-on-the-couch instead.

Hope to show other projects tomorrow.

Hope to get back to my painting too.

Expect it,

Sharon