Kaleidoscope Dragonflies Diptych On Gallery Canvas

The latest painting to sprout wings and fly out of my sunroom studio is called "Kaleidoscope Dragonflies". When I envisioned working on this painting, I wanted to create a piece of art that was brimming with lots of colors, which lead me to start thinking about all the colors and shapes you would see if you looked through a kaleidoscope. As you turn it in your hands, the images you see in the kaleidoscope keep continuously changing. That was the inspiration for this latest painting.

Each panel is painted in acrylics on 1 1/2" deep gallery wrap canvas. Each piece measures 18" h x 6" w. Although they are displayed as a diptych, they can also stand alone as the design wraps around the sides of each canvas.

The total measurements for the display I have shown are: 24" h x 14 1/2" w. They could be displayed any way the heart desires though....it is up to the person hanging this set, how they wish to arrange them.

This painting is available at Celebrations Gallery.... www.artfulcreations.etsy.com . I hope everybody has a wonderful week that is full of beautiful, ever changing colors.

Artful Pendants

I've started a new creative adventure that I'm having a tremendous amount of fun with, I'm creating glass art pendants from my paintings and photographs. I've also launched a new ETSY shop, Artful Pendants!

I have to say that making each pendant by hand is very therapeutic and relaxing. I'll be adding more and more pendants to my shop over time but for now, I feel I'm off to a good start.

All the pendants, whether they are photographs or paintings, are inspired by nature and therefore, I felt I had to do something quite special and "natural" when photographing them. I have to say, taking photos of them is almost as much fun as creating them.

Pendants are $7.50 a piece and I will always be running a buy 2 get one free offer. I hope you will visit my new ETSY shop and enjoy these new nature inspired pieces. http://www.artfulpendants.etsy.com/ .

New blooms

Quite a few new blooms have emerged in my garden this week. Among them, all of my Oriental Lilies have been opening.

The Stargazer Lilies smell so wonderful. Every time I go outside near my garden, the aroma hits me.

An upclose and personal photo of one of my pale pink Hibiscus. I have pale pink, a darker mauve, red and white.

Now in this photo, you can see from a bit of a distance, how my Hibiscus are looking as they pop open. The view from this vantage point is different every day. You never know which colors will be open at the same time or what direction they will be facing. The blooms stay open about a day or day and a half, then close up and fall off. Then the next ones start to open up. To me, these are really the glory of my summer garden, so showy and just plain gorgeous.

While I was out yesterday taking photos of my Hibiscus, I noticed I had two little visitors again so I couldn't help but get some good photos of them.

Bugs, Flowers, Technology & A Rant

I just last week, planted some Lamb's Ear in my garden. I was at a nursery 40 mins away and I only bought one. Like a dope, I realized I needed 2 so a few days later, I got back into the car drove another 40 mins and picked up the second one. My dog groomer has them in his yard and told me they were wonderful perennials.

I was out watering the other day when this beautiful butterfly above landed on my Lamb's Ear, I raced in the house to get the camera before he flew away. I kept talking to him as I was taking his photo, just asking for another minute to get some more pictures before he flew away.

A bug sitting on the new Threadleaf Coreopsis that I just added to the garden. I had a couple of holes to fill in and this seemed to fit the bill.

I love the thin needle like foliage.

Black Eyed susans that are getting ready to bloom.

Ok, this one is for my friend Dorothy who was just telling me a few weeks ago she had never seen the orange coneflowers. I remember years ago, I read in some gardening catalogs that they were available. You could only get them in catalogs at first I think, unless you were lucky enough to have a nursery that carried them locally. It took some time, but they seem to be available in stores now. Don't remember where I got this one, I think maybe Lowes.

Another shot of this pretty little Hydrangea. This time though, I caught a spider on one of the leaves to the left.

More Lamb's Ear. By this time, the little butterfly had flown away.

Now for the technology part of it all. My birthday is next week and I asked for a Shuffle iPod for my gift. We have a larger iPod, we just love it!! I specifically wanted something very small that I could work out with, something that I wouldn't feel was there, that was lighter then a feather. The Shuffle is awesome, even though my birthday is next week, I did get it early so I could start using it. It is the size of a stamp and so light. It actually holds quite a lot of music. My husband figures about 16 hours worth in this little thing. So now, I shuffle when I vacuum, water the garden and when I go walking. Probably one of the best gifts I've ever received.

Ok, here is the rant part of my post...... back in the 80's I had a Walkman, boy did I love that thing. I still call our iPods the Walkman sometimes, out of habit I guess. Anyway, I used to live in Boston and would always walk around with my Walkman blasting in my ear. One day, I was headed toward the subway down the street from where I lived and I was blasing my music and not paying attention to what I was doing. I almost got hit by a subway car...I was literally one step away from being run over. Since people don't normally fare too well after being hit by a subway, I would imagine that I would have been killed. That in fact is the closest that I've come to being killed in my life and I hope never to repeat the experience.

After that experience, I would never again walk around listening to my Walkman, I would make sure I was sitting down before I listened to it, I never walked around the city any longer blasting my music. In fact, just a few years ago, the idea of strapping a headset on and going walking still was something I wouldn't do. I believe there was a rule, years ago, where I'm currently living, that you couldn't use any type of iPod , Walkman devise while walking or running here. I think if you were seen doing that, you would be asked to remove it. I used my Shuffle for the first time outside the other day....I realize all these years later that what almost got me killed was my stupidity, not the walkman. Just this morning I used my Shuffle on a very long walk but the volume was very low, in other words, I could hear cars, people talking to me, asking directions etc.. I wasn't blocking out my surroundings, I was aware of where I was and what was around me. So if you use these things outside, be careful.....keep the volume low, don't have ear phones that block out all sound, always be sure you can keep aware of your surroundings. Ok, that's my rant....enjoy your modern day Walkman!!!!

Wild Berry Mirror

I've decided in addition to showing fine art in all stages of progress, I will be showing completed decorative pieces as well. I just finished this mirror for a customer of mine, just a couple of weeks ago. I was happy when she ordered it because I really needed to replace the photo of this one on my website. For some odd reason, a very blurry photo got listed on my site way back when. I do try to avoid bad photos, my husband Chris and I are always so careful about good photos but this one, somehow slipped by.

This gave me the chance to photograph a new version of the mirror, this time with a good photo. You can see the frame right after I'm done with it, before the glass gets inserted in the back and then, the finished piece, with glass on the last photo. I don't have this new one up on my site yet but it is in my ETSY store at: http://www.artfulcreations.etsy.com/

For those of you who don't know about ETSY, it is a great place online to shop for anything handmade. Lots of friendly sellers and buyers alike, a very welcoming envioronment to shop in.