Digital Elements in the blog header from Hidden Vintage Studios and Holliwood Studios @ DeviantScrap.com

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

A Hazy July Tuesday........

As July winds down there is a fragrant haze which hangs in the air which is a mixture of flowers, cut grass and clover hay, moist earth, bird's song and perpetual sun. It promises of even hotter days which are coming in August and this is probably my most favorite time of summer......the last week of July. Today I was up early and was out the door with my camera in hand to document the last hazy Tuesday of July....

Starting the day with nature imitating art.........
And I...............I took the road less traveled.............. on the way to my mom's house.

This is an old general store which was probably operational at the turn of the century in the small village of Hadley in which I grew up in. It's right beside the post office.........just like Mayberry.I wanted to go up on the porch and look in the window but I was afraid I'd fall through the porch floor........it looks pretty rickety! The corn is as high as an elephant's eye.........
This is the farm where I grew up and where my parents still live. The sweet smell of the corn in tassel tickled my nose and made me sneeze today bringing back memories of when I was growing up I was surrounded by corn and spent most days in a sleepy Benedryl haze!

After lunch it was down to the pontoon to clean it. It's amazing how dirty a boat can get! This is my handsome first mate cleaning the back of the boat!
Then it was out on the water. I got to be the skipper today! God, I love the water!!!


A hazy view from the boat........coming up on the RR tressel.Going under the tressel.............. those are the railroad ties above us on the bridge.Ending the day with man made functional art!

A perfect hazy last Tuesday of July 2008.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Magic Wand!

Wouldn't it be nice to have a magic wand or two to slash through the air, proclaim whatever you want and it would be done? Generally, in modern language, wands are ceremonial and/or have associations with magic but there have been other uses, all stemming from the original meaning as a synonym of rod. In Egypt, weapons against possible enemies, amulets against serpents, and other goodies needed in the afterlife were left in the tomb, together with magic texts and a magic wand which enabled the ka (soul) to use them.

The wand is also a pre-Norman unit of length used in the British Isles equal to approximately the modern metre, apparently dating from an early use as a yardstick (originally as a generic term). The 'wand' survived for a time under the Normans. Then when the yard was established, the wand came to be known as the 'yard and the hand', and then disappeared, either slowly or by being banned by law. And you thought you were on an art blog.........not a PBS documentary on "The History of Wands"!

Monsier Reynaud is the name of this little Halloween candy making fairy and when pointed at an object you can turn it into chocolate (if you know how to work it........maybe!).
Now I can pretty much tell you with great certainty that the wands I make are not loaded with any magic, however I'm sure you can get a prepaid magic loaded card to charge one of these babies up at Wal-Mart. If you do load them up with some powerful magic, I am in no way responsible for people being turned into one of the following: frog, dog do-do or jack-ass. Also I'm not responsible for additional limbs, warts, missing teeth or green hair that may occur from an unruly swipe of the wand.

If you are unable to contain your burning need for one of these little gems before they appear on Spooky Time Jingles on August 13th, you can click on over to All Hallow's Evening to get one. I've got 2 more in the works that will be posted tomorrow!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Bella Boo is Back!

Yes, it's the return of Bella Boo and her crazy Halloween antics. Here she is trying her hand at jack-o-lantern sales. She is always into something! This piece measures 9 inches tall by 6 inches wide and is a mixed media piece of decorative papers on painted canvas board. Bella's face is hand painted as well as the pumpkin's faces. She is available at All Hallow's Evening, so go on over and check her out!

Bella is wearing her glittery orange mask......she's in disguise...or so she thinks!

Friday, July 25, 2008

A Scary Book........

Sometimes you come across a good book, sometimes it's a scary good book. I remember the first Steven King book I read as a teenager.....I just about peed my pants with fright it was such a page turner! This is a paper mache box that's made to look like a book. It opens to quite a suprise.....2 sister witches! It closes with a large button and black string.
The two are sister witches and the black cat are slightly raised from the background about an inch. The background is a rich collage of decorative papers, stamps and vintage ephemera. On the left side of the inside is a copy of a vintage bean bag toss board. Aren't those cats a hoot!
Opened, this piece measures 9.5 inches by 5 inches high.Even the spine of the book is decorated.
This Halloween goodie is available on the All Hallow's Evening website.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Halloween Buddies!

Even though Snooks the Kitty took all of the chocolate kisses, and left only the Jolly Ranchers for the little Devil Darla, she didn't mind because they were buddies! This 8 by 10 inch canvas is a mixed media piece consisting of painting, collage of decorative papers and rubber stamping. It's finished on all sides and doesn't even need to be framed! You can purchase it at All Hallow's Evening.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Bicycling.....painting.....scultpting.....gardening...

Good things come in fours!

Bicycling: I'm thrilled that my hip is good enough to have peddled 14 miles total yesterday.......6 in the AM and 8miles in the PM. Still hurts at night though but nothing Advil and 3 pillows strategically placed won't help!
Painting: Caught the painting in a collaging bug the other day when I did the Devil piece for Heather so I did this one last night and today and it's available on: www.allhallowsevening.blogspot.com





Sculpting: Let me introduce you to "Jake"! He is a big scupture of paperclay about 12 inches tall from tip of hat to base. He is fixed to the wooden base. He's holding a sign declaring "October 31" and we all know what that date means! He is an exclusive for Spooky Time Jingles and will be available on August 13th.

Gardening: Gary cleaned and braided the garlic from the garden. It's braided in bulbs of 10!

It's been a very productive couple of days!

Friday, July 18, 2008

Halloween Canvas.....the Process.......



A few posts ago I talked about the process of creating art. As I mentioned before I enjoy the process more than the finished project. I guess to me, the journey is more interesting than the destination. I just finished this Halloween canvas for a swap with my very talented friend in Canada. Here are a few snaps of the process........


It started with a sketch on the back porch yesterday in the scorching humidity and heat!


Next, I picked a bunch of paper for the piece knowing that the devil had to be red!

I then sketched the face on a piece of "pumpkinseed" (no joke that was the name of the color) and painted the face with acrylics and Twinkling H2Os.I then painted the canvas board blue with acrylics and collaged book text painted over with gesso and a wash of light blue paint, glued on the devil and crow and stamped on the Oct. 31st stamp and ta-da!

I hope Heather likes it!










Wednesday, July 16, 2008

It's Garlic Fest 2008!

The Garlic Bed
You know I love gardening just as much as I love creating works of art, if I had to pick one or the other, I'm not sure which one I'd pick. I've noticed on other artist's blogs, they too enjoy gardening. Most artists do have a connection with nature and if you look at the old world Masters, many of them had a deep affection for nature and painting outdoors. Well, I too have a deep affection for nature and up until recently, I've enjoyed flowers and tending to the flower beds the best..........that is until I discoverd the joy of growing GARLIC!




Here are the top 5 reasons I love growing garlic:

#5 It's insect and animal resistant (unless you have an Italian squirrel roaming your garden)

#4 It is so rewarding to plant something in October when you have pulled everything out of the garden.

#3 You get quite the yield....we planted cloves from 10 heads of garlic and got 110 heads!WOW!

#2 It nice to see something growing in the garden all winter and especially in March.

#1 It's good!!!! Fresh garlic is the absolute best roasted and spread on Tuscan bread!



Yesterday Gary and I picked the garlic.........

The Garlic King!
Amazon Garlic Girl!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

The Bat Kids.........

Stella wanted to be a bat! Her parents were not happy when she wore the sparkling bat hat her aunt got her to the store, church and to bed. She had a pet ghost named "Melvin" she kept in a corked bottle and a pet spider named "Spencer". The block is collaged with vintage/antiqued images on all sides of the 1 7/8 inch block. Both are available at All Hallows Evening.

Stella

Melvin the ghost.........


He was a very serious boy with a comical pet bat, together they made a great team!
Garret with his pet bat.......



his bat, Desmond.....

PS- I've dedicated my life to the use of glitter........you'll see what I mean by this is tomorrow's post!

New Studio Station + award

My husband is a very skilled craftsman with wood. He does it for a hobby. Last summer he made me an awesome paper cabinet and this summer he is making me a new studio station. I currently have an "L" shaped table but the space for storage underneath is open and limited so he designed a new one for me. It will be 7 feet long with a Corian top spanning the 2 towers. He made it out of quarter sawn oak (wonderful grain pattern) and each tower is 42 inches tall (I'm 5'8" and I like to stand part of the time when I craft), and each tower has 3 shelves and 2 top pull out drawers. I'm so excited! I just spent the last 2 hours staining it in the beautiful hot Pennsylvania sun. What a gorgeous day to be outside! Next he'll spray it with a precatalyst clear coat.






I got an award from Marie from the Marie Patterson Studio, check out her wonderful artwork....she is listed on the sidebar of blogs to eyeball.

Now my job is to nominate 4 blogs that I think are exceptional and let them know, which is hard because there are so many I like! But here are 4 artists that I enjoy:

The Holiday Queen - Melissa is the Queen of Halloween creations!
Creative Solice - My dear friend Heather's artistic talent is multifaceted!
Miller Cambell Designs - Rebecca creates the most amazing folk art dolls, so full of detail!
Healing Expressions - Lani's artwork is very inspirational through words and assemblage!

Now, the four people whom I gave the award to, if they choose, can nominate 4 artists on their blogs to show case their work and draw more people visit their blogs.

Smiles!


Sunday, July 13, 2008

Mr. Barnabus Salvator the Decorator

Mr. Barnabus Salvator was quite in demand from early September to late October. He knew how to decorate and throw a Halloween Party!!!!! Here he is on top of a 4 inch paper mache box in action. He holds a sparkly silver ball in one hand while the other is around the tower of pumpkins. You could say he's dedicated his life to glitter, eyeliner and raising minature pumpkins. To purchase him go to: www.allhallowsevening.blogspot.com





I'm leaving this post with pictures from my one flower garden. The bee balm is causing quite a frenzy of activity with the bumbles!


This isn't a bumble bee, it's a humming bird moth (it looks like a cross between a humming bird and a moth), at least that's what my mom told me it was! It's smaller than a humming bird but bigger than a bumble bee and very fast!