Saint Catherine

There's a funny thing about this painting. I was sitting out on my deck waiting for my next painting to come to me. I got an urge to look at my photos from when I was in Italy last September specifically the photo of the statue of St. Catherine located near St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. I found my photo and fell in love with the imagery all over again. I decided to look up St. Catherine before I started painting and it turns out she was canonized and recognized on the day of her death - April 29th which turns out was the same day I thought of her and started the painting. If you believe in odd coincidences then I guess that is what you would call it - I personally believe in synchronicity.

This lovely lady just sold to an Etsy buyer. She has a great website called www.shamanstar.com and you might want to check it out.

I am really glad she has found a good home. One of the things I really love about this painting is that her hair is shown and flowing. That is a little daring for a Saint!

Have a great Saturday everyone!

Carrie

Gardenias

This is another painting up on ebay this week. This is 11 x 14 Canvas. There is a huge bush in the backyard of the house we rent and just this last week it bloomed big, white, fragrant flowers. Gardenias everywhere and they are so pretty and smell so good. I am not sure how long they will last so I was inspired to paint them into my Open Window Series.

Van Grow

This painting was done on 9 x 12 hand crafted wooden cradled canvas. I buy these from Mountain Laurel Folk Art . I have struggled with the wood for some time now. The wood is so much thirstier than canvas which is what I have a lot more experience with.

But now I have finally gotten the colors and textures where I want them. I layered lots of paint which really gives the colors a lot of depth. I used a matte gel medium which I just love. It's made by Stephen Quiller and the products are great. This particular medium can also be used as a photo transfer medium. You can paint it on a photocopied image and then wash off the paper when it dries and have a film of the image. I haven't had a lot of success with that yet but when I get the hang of it I will put it on the blog.

I wanted the image to be about growth and flowers reaching to the sun and the sun reaching to the flowers. My fiancee said it reminded him of Van Gogh and that I should name it Van Grow. He thinks he's so funny :)

See you all soon.

Blessings,

Carrie

Open Windows

These are my listings for this week up on ebay tonight.

I did a theme this week - I am calling it the Open Window Series.

Except for one painting they all have a window frame incorporated somewhere within the painting.

I aimed for five paintings this week - mainly to pay the bills to be quite honest - and I did it! Whew. Wine tonight - yeahhh!

Hope you all enjoy these and have a great week.

Warmly,
Carrie