1926 Cartoon

 A little bit of whimsy  for you today... this watercolor, which would be perfect for a child's room if I may be so bold.
And this darling claymation  cartoon from 1926!!
 Smile  & Have fun!

 Claymation: "The Penwiper" 1926 Joseph Sunn; Stop-Motion Animated Cartoon
 

Autumn!!

Inspiration Avenue's challenge for this week is

"your favorite season"

That is easy as Pumpkin Pie

Autumn!

all the colors

  the crisp air

the crunch of the leaves

Mixed Media Art Card

the scent of apples

and wood burning stoves

i love everything about autumn!

Hand painted Maple Leaf pendant

Autumn Watercolor Landscape

What's your favorite season?

come on over to

Inspiration Avenue 

and enter our challenge!

and even consider joining our team!

~ Vintage Feel Of Gentler Days ~

We have a new Inspiration Avenue host for this week's challenge, Shel, and her challenge for us is "Vintage Photography" to capture the feel of days gone by. Now this, I have to say, had me stumped for awhile because i'm a painter, and rarely does my work have an old fashioned or vintage feel. I tried "aging" a couple of my paintings and the results were just OK at best; but it was when i took out an old painting that things changed.

This is a watercolor painting that i did of my daughter about 18 years ago.

Below is the painting after I cropped it and put it through a few filters and this is the result, and to my surprise, i like this version much better!!

It's not too late to join the fun & try the IA challenge, in fact why  don't you join our team? We'd really love to have you! :)

the Butterfly Project

"The Butterfly"
	The last, the very last, So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow. Perhaps if the sun’s tears would sing against a white stone....

Such, such a yellow Is carried lightly ’way up high. It went away I’m sure because it wished to kiss the world good-bye.

For seven weeks I’ve lived in here, Penned up inside this ghetto. But I have found what I love here. The dandelions call to me And the white chestnut branches in the court. Only I never saw another butterfly.

That butterfly was the last one. Butterflies don’t live in here, in the ghetto.

Pavel Friedman, June 4, 1942

Born in Prague on Jan. 7, 1921. Deported to the Terezin Concentration Camp on April 26, 1942. Died in Aushchwitz on Sept. 29, 1944.

Whether it was the fact that my early childhood was in a Jewish neighborhood, or that the mother of my first childhood "crush" was a survivor of the camps; I have always held a special place in my heart for the Jewish people and especially for the victims of the Holocaust. So when I heard about the Butterfly Project by the Holocaust Museum in Houston, it wasn't a question of "if" but "what" shall I make. The inspiration for this, was the poem itself. I tried to put myself in the ghetto or a camp, & think about what seeing a golden butterfly would represent. It would represent Hope of a life outside these walls, Freedom to fly wherever without fear or cruelty, and Life instead of death.
This is the piece I am sending for the Butterfly Project. You can learn more about it here.

From exercise to art

 This began as a simple exercise in trying out some new watercolors, seeing their color & how they glaze. I was thinking of growing grass & sunshine as I was making this &  really  liked the abstract look that was developing. I added drops of acrylic paint, gave them little tails... sort of like little bugs, dont you think? The thick acrylic drops dried with an indentation in them adding even more texture.

I'm not listing this in my shop, but i thought it was so cool that even a simple exercise could become art.

even a blade of grass.....

"The moment one gives attention to anything, even a blade of  grass, it becomes a mysterious awesome indescribably magnificent world in itself." ~ Henry Miller

When i read this quote it was an instant connection, "yes!!" that is exactly how i have always felt, but never quite put that belief into words. It's akin i suppose to "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", but it goes much farther than that, putting the wonder of the object totally within us. We have to be open to see it's wonder, & then allow ourselves to express the feeling of what we are beholding.

That is how i paint, more than what i see, i paint what i feel.

This is a mixed media piece-  a miniature watercolor painting (ACEO), combined with collage. It is entitled "Even a Blade of Grass".