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

Happy Memorial Day Everyone! I have been living in apartments since I have been out on my own. This is the first time I have had a house and was able to hang a flag for Memorial Day. I found this very exciting!

We have been following all the rules- taking it in at night - no touching the floor etc. It's quite an event here - lol.

I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday.

Warmly,

Carrie

Godspeed Flora!

I was thinking I wanted to paint a woman with flowers so I looked up Flora. She was a little bit overlooked as a Goddess but of course, Boticelli gave her credit. This is my version and with the dark background and the colors -- I was really thinking about Boticelli for this one.

She sold to a bidder on ebay last night and she is on her way to her new home. Godspeed Flora!

P.S. You can click on the picture for a better view.

Mother America

I guess I am on one of those kicks - this time it's America.

I went to see the movie The Soloist last week and it was really very moving. There was a lot of American iconic imagery and I came home with so many images swimming around in my head.

This lady on the left is what emerged and she went up on ebay last night.

I put the owl next to the eagle since I still have Athena in my head and I think the Goddess of democracy works well with the American theme.

Well this is how she turned out... The yellow part of the tree is decorative paper which I spiced up a bit with some paint. The background is the sheet music (it's dated 1917!). The celtic symbols in the foreground are also made of paper. I knew I wanted to use the red ribbon with gold stars but I added it later because it was so delicate and subtle. As you can see there is an owl in the tree which is a common symbol for Athena - signifying wisdom.

This piece is a visual prayer for democracy, wisdom and America and I really enjoyed creating it. She will be available at http://www.primandwhimsy.com/ probably by midnight tonight. She was my contribution for our May Gallery Hop.

I kept the sides sort of rough and distressed looking to keep with the feel of the painting. I used a dark blue and then loosely painted some white stars all around the edges.

Don't forget to check out our Gallery Hop!

You will be able to buy handmade art directly from our artists.