This And That.....

While some of you might have thought I fell into an abyss somewhere, I have not.....I stiill live on. It has been a while since I've blogged and the break that I took really did me some good. I was able to finish up some art projects I had going and embark on some new ones, coming up with lots of new ideas for future paintings.

I thought I would share some of the colorful photos I recently took at the botanical garden. It was an Emily Dickinson display, a lovely re-creation of her childhood home and surrounding gardens. I'll share more of those pictures another time but for now, I hope you enjoy some of the close ups of what might have been blooming in her garden over 100 years ago.

I've finished up some new pendants and in addition to that, just purchased a new mannequin to display and photograph them on.....isn't she lovely and very chic looking?? She also has a pierced ear which will come in handy for some earring photographs I might like to take in the future.

I'm working now, just today actually, on finishing up a very large canvas. I think after this I will be ready to work on some smaller pieces. I love these large paintings, designing and working on them is fun but there is so much to do and even when you think you are done, there are always more details to go back and add in the end. ARGH, it feels like the never ending story at times.

To give you a clue on the subject, the new painting is called "Monarchy" and before you picture the royalty of yesteryear running around with their crowns and holding court, this painting is more connected to the royalty of another species and might be somewhat related to the painting you see in my last post. Hmm, you probably get the idea now.....

I thought I would leave you with a quote I just heard recently that happens to come from one of my favorite artists of all time.....it is so true, especially for us artists.......

"I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it."

Vincent Van Gogh

Until next time!

Puzzle And Wooden Pendants....

Now that the weather here in NY is getting so lovely, I've been very inspired to do a lot of painting these days. Besides working on a very large painting I'm trying to finish up, I've been creating quite a lot of pendants.

I've made many journeys into my basement to collect specific pieces from my stash of puzzles. Even after a couple of my large puzzles fell on the floor during a mishap months ago, I still have a very good selection to choose from.

With many of the puzzles, the shape dictates to me what needs to be painted on it. That was the case with the tree above, once I saw the pieces together, I got the idea of what I wanted to paint.

I've also been creating some wooden pendants for the musically inclined .....

You can find some of these pendants on my ETSY site: http://www.artfulcreations.etsy.com . I hope beautiful spring time weather inspires everyone to get creative in some way.

Painting More Pendants.....

I truly don't know where the time has gone this week....I had really meant to post earlier on in my week and it just didn't happen the way I planned it.....you know what they say about the best made plans.

I've been working on more glass pendants and puzzle pendants as well. I love the fun shapes and angles I get when I work with the puzzle pieces.

I keep rotating the pieces until I get just the right shape for my creations, puzzle pieces are bit more work to turn into pendants but are well worth the effort.

Now I just have to get myself back into the studio to finish a painting I've had in the works since before the holidays. I seem to be running way behind this year, I actually just took all of my Christmas decorations down yesterday.

A snow capped flower scene above might be the perfect thing to cheer up a cold winter's day. A customer of mine from Hong Kong asked me to create a painted tiger pendant on glass for her celebration of the Chinese New Year.... I have yet to start on it but I think it will be a really interesting and challenging art pendant. http://www.artfulcreations.etsy.com/

Puzzle Pendants

Just the other day I finished my first puzzle pendants of the new year. I have 2 huge puzzles that we put together years ago, sitting down in my basement and this is a great way to recycle them.

I was looking at these huge puzzles just a few months back wondering what in the world we should do with them. I hated to throw them away, yet why save them and have them collect dust when we are never going to do anything with them again. This was the perfect solution...now when I need some new puzzle pieces, I just go check out my stash in the basement and select the ones I want to use.

Some are comprised of two pieces and others are made up of four. It is so much fun to twist and turn them to decide which side should be the top and which one the bottom. I just finished my second batch yesterday....I'm coming up with lots of new designs and ideas for these pieces. Available through my ETSY shop: http://www.artfulcreations.etsy.com/