Pretty Nest and Treasure Chests

This was my evenings work from yesterday. It really looks better in real life! Need that scanner! Or need to figure out my camera's settings.


Just so you don't think I'm a one trick poney, I'm adding images of my other projects. Pretty pretty little packages...I keep odds and ends in these first two, on my bedside table.

This one is a project my daughter and I worked on together to save our treasures from the sea. Turquoise and all it's permutations is my favorite color!

This little gem is showcased with some beach sand and a pearl necklace but is really my little boy's. He keeps his LEGO skeletons hidden in it!

 It's true bounty:

Ahhh....If I'm being honest, I think at this very moment I take more pleasure in art that I've created with glue, glitter, paper and paste rather than the drawing. I think it has to do with esthetics.  I don't feel any compunction tearing off a piece of paper that has been mis-glued -or sanding over an area where I had a heavy hand with the glitter. I feel like my drawings are not quite perfect yet but like my children...perfectly imperfect and wholly loveable as they are.

Fairy Tale Dreams

I definitely need to get my scanner up and running. Taking photos of my cuties doesn't produce the best image but you get the idea.  I will draw, draw and re-draw this image until I get it juuuust right. Right now the apple blossoms look funny and the baby a bit flat. Oh well! I do like the subject matter.  When I feel like I have the image the way I like it, my obsession with that subject is done and on to the next!  A graphic artist aquaintance told me I should find a niche and stick to it; for example to make my art marketable, I might make my specialty little tea cups or pastries or somesuch. I guess I haven't found what strikes my fancy. I would probably get MUCH better if I stuck to one image or category of images.

I've read that Van Gogh painted 102 versions of his Sunflowers.

Last night I woke up dreaming of a sparrows nest with four perfect eggs in it. My brain seemed to be studying the light, looking at the nest up close, from far away, this way and that. I was marvelling at the four tiny perfect eggs.

I love dreams like that! I have them often. They used to be stressful dreams of work related problems when I worked in Social Services. Those dreams were anxiety provoking, prompted a bout of insomnia that would last for days and often ended with a migraine. The dreams I have now feel the same only in the sense that my brain is working on a "problem" but they fill me with happiness. They are like a gift that wakes me up to notice it and feel like fairy tales; so colorful, sparkly and welcoming. I can snuggle right back into sleep with my brain working on detail, shading, or a new technique to try so easily.  The dream last night was not so much about technique but subject matter.  Beautiful, perfect little eggs in a perfect little nest. 

I feel better than I have in years! I think my brain is thanking me for not abusing it anymore with left brain tasks and work that never suited me.  I adored the people I worked for so many years to help but never flourished with the deadlines, To Do lists, micro-managing supervisors, the musts, shoulds and have to's.

I am SO much happier now.

Baby Sparrows

Today's project is Mama Sparrow feeding a baby sparrow amongst a nest full of eggs. I went to Google Images for some inspiration. While most of my art isn't supposed to look realistic, I prefer cutesy...I still want it to look like a sparrow's nest with eggs and baby/babies.

I have been so infatuated with sparrows lately. I'm drawing little engaged and married couples! I don't have a scanner at the moment so I came up with a low tech work around, using my digital camera to snap some quickies. Artistic and clever she is! (Talks like Yoda she does!)

This little couple is Henrietta and Stu with a change in head gear. Too Cute!  

I had a career change this past September, not my choice but it turns out to be one of the best things that has ever happened to me. I have had time to nurture my true self, the silly me, the artistic me that had been put aside for so many years.I have been working as a nanny which has allowed me lots of time for playing with pencils and paper, crayons, colored pencils and paste!

I've worked full time my entire adult life and finding myself unemployed left me a lot of time on my hands. I began again with simple collages and then transitioned to pencil sketches. I am having so much fun exercising my right brain again!

I absolutely love creating beautiful things. l