Vintage Cats overtake Nibblefest!

The February theme for Nibblefest, an ebay art contest is Vintage Cats, and this month's event should be howls of fun. My piece is a mixed media (but mostly acrylic) painting on the surface of a repurposed wooden kitchen cupboard door I found at Habitat for Humanity Restore.


"You disrupted my nap for this?" sez our recently adopted cat Kitters.

Below you will see the the inspirations for 'Katze' which can be found on auction HERE Search NFAC on ebay from now til February 27th to see all the fabulous vintage cats each beginning at just 99 cents!

New Corvid Art Calendar for 2009

I admit, I got behind. The NEW CROW ART CALENDAR I had planned to leisurely create beginning last spring got pushed to the back of my mind and I had to scurry to complete it while there was still a little of 2008 left. Some of the art, I am less than ecstatic about, but perhaps the other images will make up for it.
I will be offering what is left of the original pieces featured in the calendar in my etsy shop Saraphina.
There are only a couple listed right now with four more to be added soon.





I also made a NEW HOLIDAY ORNAMENT (available with or without cherry) using the February image through my cafepress shop as well and I am pretty pleased with the way it turned out.

Reluctantly revealing my first WIP

My artist friend MJ is posting a WIP or work in progress in her blog Mary Jill Lemieur Designs. Check it out, isn't she fantastic?

Portraits are something I have always dabbled in, thanks to my mother who was also intrigued by faces, being a photo-colorist back in the day before color photography was available or affordable for family photos. High school graduation 8x10's were the staple of mom's work-at-home business. I remember as a small child seeing package after package arriving in the mail for my mother to paint and box up and return to the big studios in Detroit. Mom was a professional and she was in big demand in the 50's and 60's.

She didn't get much money for this work, about $1 or $1.50 per 8 x 10, but if you asked her why she didn't raise her rates, she would reply 'I really can't because many of the studios are switching over to natural color as the cost of it comes down and I have to keep my prices low to stay in business.'

Today photo-coloring is an fine art form that not too many people have the know-how or equipment to undertake. Mother had special artist photo-grade oil paints she ordered through the mail, a compressor driven air-brush for the background effects, assorted brushes for those desiring a 'heavy oil' portrait and lots of pure fluffy white cotton to pull and twist onto pointed sticks which she used to apply the paint and rub down to the correct transparency. And turpentine, lots of turpentine.

I would watch in awe as she worked quickly before the paint started to dry. She seemed to pull and twist that cotton onto a stick, add some detail, and flick off the used cotton and twist on a fresh wad in the blink of an eye.

Ok, so here are Cathy and Bill. Extraordinary people I have met though common interests right here on the wonderful world wide web. I chose photos where they happen to both be wearing hats and I am painting them on 6 inch textured ceramic tiles which were a salvaged supplies item that I have found to work out quite nicely in the past.



Here first are the rough pencil sketches on the prepaired tiles (a coat of white Kilz) and then my first applications of paint. I can already see that Cathy is too pink and Bill is jut too dirty looking but I will hopefully remedy this as I move along.
Comments, laughter and snide remarks are encouraged. More photos to follow.



OK, this is harder than I thought, posting pix of an unfinished portrait. Whenever I look at my own work, all I see are the flaws. My first mistake in my initial sketch was not following the slight tilt if Bill's head. It threw everything off. But it is a little late now. His forehead should be taller, I've made his chin too big, his nose a tad too short. I need to put this painting aside for a bit and concentrate on how I can mess up Cathy's...ha!

NOVEMBER 25 UPDATE: Where does the time go? I am starting to stray from the photo a bit so I am not sure if this is looking like Cathy or not since I only know her face from pictures. Also, I need to ask her what color are her eyes. I have made them blue for now.

Done!...

Octopuses, Octopi, Octopodes have hearts & smarts!

I have just learned that there are three correct words for the plural of octopus.
And while I was educatiing myself, I also found out that they have three hearts and are highly intelligent...who knew?



I think artist Kelly Guswiler knows, and she also appreciates the beauty of this fascinating cephalopod (I learned that too). Kelly creates all kinds of whimsical and gorgeous fine art from handcrafted one of a kind jewelry, to handpainted floorcloths bursting with color. She has also recently opened Beach Bum Beads offering quality beads at affordable prices. Swim on over to her etsy shops and prepare to be dazzled and delighted.

Fala, a white crow for real...

The Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley is so fortunate to have almost magically aquired this rare and spirit-like white crow named Fala, which is Choctaw for crow. Her caretaker is Trudi who manages the Outreach programs at the center. I found this article about her and Fala in the Saratoga News.

On May 30, The WCSV is hosting Jewels in Flight to help raise funds to provide critical care to injured, sick, and orphaned birds and mammals until they are ready to release back to the wild. This event will take place at the Hakone Gardens, part of the oldest Asian and Japanese estate in the Western Hemisphere.

I have created this folkart painting of Fala for the Jewels in Flight fundraiser.
It is acrylic on extra deep gallery wrapped canvas and the leaves continue around the edges. I have never had the pleasure of meeting Fala or Trudi in person but I do hope I have captured even just a hint of likeness of this extraordinary creature.