All you need is Love

This little bit of cuteness arrived in my mailbox today. Artist Marisa Haedike creates and paints the most adorable little characters. I found Marisa's blog Creative Thursday about two years ago and instantly fell in love with her whimsical illustrations and adorable gang of cuties. Marisa's blog is full of inspiration, daily paintings and podcasts. She left a 9 to 5 world to realize a dream and has become a thriving business. Her blog is where she shares her thoughts on understanding and appreciating the creative life. She's even self published her first children's book "Who are you going to be today Olive?". I was lucky enough to snap up this last "love" Valentine card from Creative Thursday's shop on Etsy. Marisa included one of her business cards along with a personal note to me. A nice touch. I'm going to frame it up in style and hang it in my studio. Thanks Marisa for the endless inspiration I get when visiting your blog.

A Cat's Life

Ahhhh sunshine!!

Let me sleep

Worshipping the faucet God

Can somebody clean this up!

The mother ship has arrived!!

I've been neglectful of my blog lately. There's just so much to be done around here, I'm finding it hard to keep up. Actually, I haven't been wanting to write much these days. I've been enjoying the solitude of my studio, working while everyone is out for the day. Sometimes I have music playing while I paint, sometimes it's quiet. So quiet I can hear one of the cats breathing as they lay sleeping in the window on the heater. I've been working on many paintings at once. I've got canvases scattered throughout our apartment. I've also started work on Roxanne's altered book, Earth Tones. A box full of paper scraps already painted, dried leaves, bits and pieces of found treasures, all waiting to be included. I'll be posting a sneak peek of pages finished by next week, so stay tuned for that. The weekend will be spent doing the usual "weekendy" things. Shopping, housework, and organizing the studio (again). Stocking up on art supplies and photographing some large finished paintings. I hope your weekend is enjoyable, whatever you have planned.

It Finally Arrived!!

My first book in our altered book collaborative finally arrived in the post yesterday. It seems like I've been waiting so long for it to arrive, but it's really been just over a week. As I carefully removed Roxanne's book "Earth Tones" I found a beautiful card enclosed as well. Just for me. Thanks so much for this Roxanne. I'll be framing this and displaying it in my studio. Now on to some planning and finally getting to work on the delicate pages waiting for me. Check out Roxanne's blog, River Garden Studio to see more of her fabulous artwork.

Happy Valentine's Day

What are you doing this Valentine's Day?? Dinner with a sweetheart, Spending the day with friends and family?? I received a beautiful bunch of tulips and all the ingredients for some lovely pomegranate martinis which we will enjoy later.
I searched around for a "red" painting to show you in celebration of the day. "Blossoms II" 36x36. Available for purchase-drop me an email. Enjoy the day.

Edited at 5:13 So here we are at cocktail hour. 2 pomegranate martinis.
Cheers.

Spring Fever

"Birds of a Feather" 8x16 Acrylic Canvas SOLD

This is a new painting that I finished last week. It's available at Arts on King in Toronto.

I've been feeling a little scatter brained the past few days. Usually I'm very organized and can handle many projects at once. There's just been so much on my plate lately and I think I have a touch of spring fever. The studio windows are wide open as I'm finishing up on a commission today. It's really quite damp and foggy so it's taking a little longer for the acrylic to dry. Time to get out the hair dryer. I'll also get started preparing some larger canvases. My application for the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition was dropped into the post box this morning. It's out of my hands now and up to the universe (and the jury!). All good vibes and wishes for me to get into this show are greatly appreciated.

Some of you have been taking advantage of the sale I have going on in my Etsy shop right now. Thanks very much! Every piece of original art is 50% off. You can check it out here. Well, back to work. There's much to get done.

A Fabulous Friday

Another glorious sunny day painting in my studio. Well not just painting, multi tasking. Doing loads of laundry and other odds and ends while waiting for paint to dry. This is the picnic table outside my studio window. By next week all this snow will melt as we are expecting a bit of a thaw. Spring can't come soon enough for me and I'm really enjoying the sun streaming in after what seems like a very long January. Today's been a great day. Friday still has a feel, even though I'm working here usually on my own. I still get that special energy on a Friday knowing that a productive week is behind me and anticipating the weekend. And to make a good day even better, when I tuned into Radio Nigel they were playing Joe Jackson followed by Simple Minds. I'll be finishing up 3 small paintings this afternoon, cleaning up the studio and then making homemade pizza for dinner. I think I'll take some photos and show you next week. What are you doing this weekend?? Something fun I hope.

Art and Altered Books

The last few days have been a whirlwind of all things art. Hours have been spent painting with the sun brightening up both my studio and my mood. I find the frigid temperature is bearable as long as the sun is bright. Aside from painting new works for my galleries and up coming show, I've been busy finishing off an application to a juried show (more on that later), re-vamping my C.V. and biography, putting the final touches on a new postcard design, and waiting patiently for the next altered book to reach me. The altered book round robin with Inner Works is in full swing. I posted my book last week and it arrived safely at it's destination. Jill Zaheer will be the next artist that works on my book "Gift from the Sea". I'll be receiving Roxanne's book next and am anxiously waiting to see the wonderful work she's done. You can see it here. The above photos are of my book cover. I've used a lot of different media and materials for the front and back cover. I've attached some found treasures from my last trip to the ocean. A beautiful piece of drift wood with a hole provided by nature, just in the right spot. Some twine and sea shells complete the decoration and I've glued it securely onto the book. Working on the altered books is a nice change from the larger paintings that I've been focusing on and working on all the different projects I've got going keeps things interesting.