I am doing an art challenge on a e-friend's facebook page. The challenge: do a portrait of Frida in whatever style or materials you wish....it goes from the sublime to the oh-my-goodness! Lots of fun! My picture is done in Copic type markers which I am playing with right now. I had never done much reading about Frida before a few days ago. She had a painful life both from wounds to her heart by her husband, and the lingering damage to her body from a streetcar accident when a teen. Because of scarring to her womb, she was never able to carry a child to term, though she tried three times at great risk to her own health. My Frida is strong but mourning the loss of her three babes, worn as day of the dead skulls on her breast.

Lordie....is anyone still out there???? it has been forever since I have blogged here! But I thought it would be cool to celebrate my new Prismacolor pens and share my scratchings. They were 50% off at Michaels, so I felt like it was ok to try a set or two....love them!! still learning how to work with them; even got some special paper that is supposedly for markers. It does not soak through, but does not absorb as evenly as I would like...

Hello to Lesley V!

be sure to check out Lesley V's new blog. Her collage work is always delightful, and she is having a very generous drawing on the site right now!


flatwoodsfolkart.typepad.com/lesley_venable/2011/09/giveaway-goodies.html

Watching the world go by....

Finally got my patio cleaned out enough that I could set up a nice arrangement of furniture and pots. Pulled my sick husband out to sit a while last night at twilight. It was lovely! We watched the hummingbirds visiting our flowers, tried to get our dumb dogs to fetch, sat and relaxed until the bugs started to eat me and it was getting too chilly for me without sleeves. so glad I got it done....very hard when you have to work in fits and starts between life demands and work...photo to be posted later after my anxious son checks his fantasy teams online....

Platter fit for a Queen!

Thinking of Queen of Fifty Cents today....
found a Winfield Pottery Platter in Pink Passion Flower today for about 75cents.....
as far as I can tell, it is a Mid-Century Modern type pattern and very pretty!

has a small chip on side, but with a bit of dark marker dont think it will be real noticeable, and I am thinking about using it outside with plants on it.p\

ps. finally got a photo up! it is so pretty and delicate! would look good with a couple of flower pots perched on top!

Puss in Boots and Gnomes

It must be Spring! The Gnomes are back in the flowerbed tossing around the pigskin, and tending to flowers. Those pretty blue bells are from some discount flower bulbs from the 99cent store that I threw into the ground and forgot about. A very pretty surprise when I looked out the window Sunday morning.

Well, I am finally getting chance to figure out how this new computer operates. Very frustrating when you can't find your old files, & have to learn how to manipulate programs all over again!! John is out at his train club, so I have had the opportunity to spend a couple of hours this evening poking around and accomplish something.
I have really missed being able to edit my photos after downloading; found the new app, downloaded it (don't tell John!) and started playing!
Photos were taken after the rain this weekend out in my garden. I have gotten some wonderful new plants from Annie's Annuals, and some are starting to bloom.
This whiteflower above, is Minoan Lace, seeds originally from Greece, natch! It is supposed to love the heat and sun, does not need lots of water, and will reseed itself (LOVE A SELF PLANTING GARDEN!!)
This flower is a Baby Blue Eyes. Small, grows sort of like Johnny-Jump-Ups, if you remember those (looking for some seeds for this season, and concerned that I haven't seen them yet.) Self-seeding, great ground cover for under roses and such, so the catalogs say. Hope so. they are a very pretty color blue, and are very perky.
John and I were out on a road trip on the west side of LA back last fall, and we found this church under construction in Hollywood. It is the Holy Transfiguration Russian Orthodox Church, and is really beautiful. It is very compact, but you can see they can put a lot in a small package! We have not been by since then, but they should have landscaping done by now, and have taken the last of the scaffolding down.
And this is a work in progress....a wee Puss in Boots for a dear friend. I used collaged napkins for the flowers and the rather unusual sky...but if it is a fairytale, what better than to show a hand writing the story? The Castle details were added in with watercolor pencils after cutting it from a scrapbook page. The Kitty was from some German punched paper images given to me. Not sure if I want to antique the background, or leave bright like this. I did use clear gesso over the original dried collage; worked out very nicely. The images are now level, and would take any more paint, ink or colored pencil well.

New painting at long last

A friend of mine who is an amazing knitter and I made a deal. she would knit a scarf that looked like a dragon for me, and I would paint a picture of her kitty, Buffy, for her. At long last, I have finished the portrait of Buffy. It is part collage and part acrylic painting. I need to varnish it, and it will be ready to go meet the real Buffy! BTW, Buffy looked at the photo that I sent to her mistress, and she was a bit distressed that it looked like she didn't have a tail. Fortunately we were able to explain to her satisfaction that in the painting she was SITTING on her tail!