Sometimes Here Sometimes There

HUGE News!

 

I have been wanting to post my great news for a little while now but you know how it is, busy busy busy! So here it is! Remember how I had sent in an exhibition proposal to a local gallery hoping to get my first solo show underway? Well..... I was accepted!!!! I will have about three whole weeks in August and September for my very own solo show! There will be 29 paintings on display, all different sizes and all but one will be for sale.  I'm SUPER happy about this news of course! We're just working out the details right now. If you're on the island this summer please PLEASE stop by and take a look! I'm unsure what day the opening reception will be but I'll keep everyone posted. I would LOVE to meet anyone and everyone willing to come out and take a look! Oh! Ha ha! I forgot to mention where the show will be held lol! My loverly wonderful super fabulous exhibit is going to be held at The Guild on the corner of Richmond and Queen Street in downtown Charlottetown PEI. I can't thank The Guild enough! LOVE you guys!!!! SUPER FABULOUS!!!!

The above image is of a very small portion of a new painting to be revealed at my show this August!

A Collage

 

This collage is the only creative thing I did all weekend. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it. I think my uncertainty stems from this being a very different sort of artwork than that which I'm normally used to and it's simply throwing me off. I've been SO inspired by the collage work of Mark Hearld lately and the other night I just felt driven to get off my bottom and create a collage of my own! So here it is in all of it's maybe possibly glory. I might do more of these if other people like them or if I warm up to this one myself. It's definitely a great way to get through some of the smaller scraps of patterned paper I have on hand! Feel free to let me know what you think of this piece by leaving a comment I could use the feedback!

New Artwork!

Close up taken with Instagram on my iPhone. I LOVE Instagram!!!!

My newest little mermaid is swimming around on an abstract mixed media background! This painting was done on a collaged 16" x 20" stretched canvas. I'm loving this combination of colours!
Notice how all but one of my mermaids so far have had red hair? They're redheads in honour of my own little redhead Elsa.
An acrylic 12" x 12" stretched canvas portrait of my sweet little bunny rabbit Elsa in one of my favorite outfits I've dressed her in so far. I painted her holding her favorite stuffed toy, a little grey monkey.  Obviously this painting will stay with me forever :) The stars are done in metallic gold paint and look super neat when they catch the light!

Another painting made specifically for our home. This one is mixed media on a 16" x 20" stretched canvas. It reads "In this family we PLAY hard DREAM big SMILE often LOVE deeply". I'm going to be adding more inspirational wording to my work in the future.

Note to Self; I am NOT a Failure!

There seems to be quite a few moms out there making it big with their own creative businesses. This tends to give me false hope. It's very easy to instantly compare oneself to someone else because you may have something in common with them. Completely ignoring the fact that your situation differs in a million other ways. When I see these other women succeeding in the way I want to succeed I immediately think I can do that too only to become flustered when I can't make it happen overnight. I am not a failure just because I have to take things slowly. I have to constantly remind myself of that one, CONSTANTLY! Most of these stay at home mums are not completely alone. They may have a paid babysitter, a helpful relative to take the kids when need be, or maybe daycare, preschool or some other program that gives them some alone time to work on their craft. I dont have those options. Right now, at least until my little ones are of school age I am a full time 24 hours a day 7 days a week mum. That doesn't mean I have to quit trying to succeed in my artistic endeavors though. It just means that my artistic endeavors will take more time than they may someone with more resources available to them. I am coming to terms with this. I am starting to relax! Starting to give myself a break. Life is too short to spend it disliking oneself and feeling like a failure. I am NOT a failure!

Another Christmas on Prince Edward Island

Christmas this year was far better than last. Last year I had just given birth to my beautiful little Elsa and was rather bloated and sore. Because of that I was far too tired to make the most of the Christmas season. This year however I did better. I still had those lingering bah humbug feelings, I'm just not the holiday celebrating sort. But with Liam being four years old and finally understanding that the 25th is something a wee bit more special than any other day I have to get over my hum buggery and be jolly with the rest off them. So Oliver baked chocolate chip cookies, I decorated our nicest tree yet and we watched all of the cheesy Christmas movies in between bouts of Bing Crosby singing Christmas carols.  I think we succeeded in making Christmas special for Liam and hopefully each year we'll do even better! I hope everyone out there had a very happy Christmas as well! Here are some pictures of our little Christmas celebration, enjoy!

 
Elsa amidst the Christmas morning chaos. Picture taken with Instagram on my iphone.

This is what I get when I ask Liam to smile nice for me!

Totally unimpressed! Boo and Mr. Bingley napping on the couch. Picture taken with Instagram on my iphone.

Oliver and the kiddos playing with Liam's new Handy Manny toolbox. When asked what he wanted for Christmas Liam would always shout "HANDY MANNY!"

Still playing with the toolbox!

Vintage mercury glass balls and the Union Jack! Just some of my pretty vintage Christmas treasures on display. Picture taken with Instagram on my iphone.

The Christmas wreath I made years ago using yarn, vintage doilies, mercury glass balls, and other vintage treasures. This is the first year I've had this wreath out. When I first made it I didn't like it so I put it in storage. This year my feelings changed and now I finally have it out :) Picture taken with Instagram on my iphone.

My vintage deer collection. These guys only come out for Christmas which makes them even more special! Picture taken with Instagram on my iphone.

More New Work

Coloured pencil on 100% recycled paper. What can I say, I LOVE bunting!

Coloured pencil on 100% recycled paper. This was inspired by Jennifer Murphy's creations :)

Coloured Pencil on 100% recycled paper.

More mermaids! Acrylic on a 9" x 12" piece of watercolour paper.

My New Endeavor

December third was my 31st birthday and it was by far my best birthday yet! I spent the day with my three favorite people, had a yummy dinner at a good restaurant called the Red Water Rustic Grille and was given a very cool gift by my lovely husband Oliver. The very cool gift was a set of watercolour paints, brushes and palette! Something I've wanted for some time now! Here is my first attempt at watercolour painting....

I have a lot to learn and I find learning a new medium to be challenging but fun! This picture was done on 9" x 12" watercolour paper for my beautiful wonderful Oliver.  I'm not 100% happy with it but hey, it's my first try! I am finding that I need more time and more concentration for watercolours than I do for acrylics.  Acrylics are SO much easier! Plus I can easily fix mistakes when using acrylics but watercolours are less forgiving. The above image is chalk full of mistakes that if I had been using acrylics would be non existent now so with the watercolours I need to concentrate on being more careful and thinking things through before putting brush to paper. I'm looking forward to the next chance I get to try my hand at my latest endeavor!

My Little Mermaids

I've been inspired by nautical wood carvings of mermaids as of late. So far I've put this inspired mood to use in the form of two small acrylic paintings on canvas but I'm also hard at work on something bigger. The painting I'm currently working on is 9 " x 12" in size on watercolour paper. Who knows, maybe I'll make a whole bunch of little mermaids! My mermaids are not at all modest and are lacking in the typical sea shell bras other popular mermaids have sported in the past. My mermaids are also not nearly as perky as most other mermaids and have what I like to refer to as 'mom boobs" lol!  Check them out below.....

 
5" x 5" in size this little mermaid sports red hair in honour of my own little red-headed angel Elsa.

Another 5" x 5" red-headed mermaid.

Elsa's First Birthday

Photo taken by my dad

I am SO slow in blogging about Elsa's first birthday! The (not so) big event took place on November 28th although we had our festivities on the 26th to take advantage of Oliver's not having to work since the 26th was a Saturday.  My parents came out from Nova Scotia and spent the weekend with us.  Below are some pictures of our lovely weekend, enjoy!

The kids, Mr. Bingley and myself. Liam is blowing out the candle on Elsa's cupcake :) Photo taken by my dad.

Elsa's first cupcake experience! Oliver made the cupcakes and they were VERY yummy but Elsa was not impressed and after tasting the icing she wanted nothing to do with her treat and began to fuss! Photo taken by my dad.

Liam had a ball opening Elsa's gifts! I'm still unsure if he really understood that they were for Elsa and not for him!

We did buy Liam a little something to help make him feel special too. Liam loves the Nintendo Mario characters so we gave him a little set of Mario figurines.

My mum and the kids (and Boo) playing with one of Elsa's birthday gifts.


My mum, dad, Boo and Elsa. Elsa didn't smile in any of my pictures, she was feeling a wee bit sleepy.

Liam and my mum playing with Elsa's new dollhouse. Don't you just LOVE our floors?! Ah the joys of living in a state of constant renovation! Photo taken by my dad.

My beautiful sweet little boy :) Photo taken by my dad.

My mum and Elsa. I love this photo! Elsa's expression is adorable! Photo taken by my dad.

The kids playing together. Well, that's not completely true, this is Liam playing with Elsa's new toy, Elsa trying to play with Elsa's new toy and mummy in the background probably telling Liam to share Elsa's new toy with Elsa. Photo taken by my dad.

The Flue, a Deadline and So Much More!

 
I've been so busy lately! First I had that art related event to deal with, then the flu hit my little family hard and nearing the end of it I suddenly realized that I literally had one day to put the finishing touches on my art exhibit proposal before the deadline. I was dealing with a bad flu, sinusitis and two sick kids while trying to write a proposal and THAT right there was quite a tall order! Luckily I managed to get things together and handed it in just in the nick of time! So now I just wait and see what happens. I'm not sure when I hear back from the gallery to find out if I got in or not so I'm trying to just put it to the back of my mind and get on with life for now. In the mean time I'm drawing and painting and painting some more! Here's some of my latest work....

 
Acrylic on an 8"x 8" canvas. This painting came about after looking through my newest interior decor book by Rachel Ashwell entitled Shabby Chic Inspirations. A really lovely and inspiring book :)

Acrylic on a 5" x 5" canvas. Tiny but so very pretty!

Acrylic on an 8" x 8" canvas. It started life as a tea cup painting, then came the strawberries and then later a bird when I felt completely bored with a cup of strawberries. Who puts strawberries in a teacup anyways? I guess I do!

Coloured pencil on 100% recycled paper.

Coloured pencil on 100% recycled paper. I made this little illustration to go on the front of my sister's birthday card. She likes owls and her favorite colour is blue so a blue owl was in my mind a must!

Coloured pencil on 100% recycled paper. This was very much inspired by my favorite artist's (Mark Hearld) work.