Paintings With Soul

"Alice Honeybuns," 12" x 12" x 3/4", acrylics on cradeled birch panel, $529 plus s&h to the first asking nicely. Inquiries may come to me - ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com . I love the story of Alice in Wonderland, especially the conflict between reality/dream/imagination that some feel they should debate. To me, the answer to that doesn't matter in the least. It's a delightfully imaginative story. What I have been thinking about, though, is what emotions Alice might have been feeling as the story unwound. I chose to paint her this time as a precocious and curious girl, stepping into the story with her stuffed bunny (The Velveteen Rabbit is another love of mine). There's more Alice's in the works - I have 4 of these little panels and plan to make a series of them. Finally, many thanks to those of you who wished me well last week. I don't usually get sick, and dang, this flu was some serious stuff. I am slowly returning to reality...

My brave crewe of painters from the Louisiana Art and Artists Guild. I've been in Baton Rouge the past week, painting alongside these lovelies, working on color, brushwork, and what it means to honor one's path as a creative. They were fearless and inspiring, each one tackling their own wish list of lessons and finding ah-ha moments. Including me! Now I'm in New Orleans with  Dianna Reilly (A.K.A. Stella Gray)  for a few days. New Orleans is the perfect setting for further discussion about the way creativity weaves itself into our lives, and how we can best feed it. There are also grits. Lots of grits.

A simple 6" x 6" study done in last week's workshop, featuring a Dum Dum lollipop (it IS Halloween, after all!). This exercise was to demonstrate simple blending techniques with acrylics, and to show how to achieve a variety of marks, INCLUDING SMALL ONES (but not brushy-brushy small ones, because those are worst than a firey rash), with a large brush. Inquiries to me , and thank you so much. "Do as I say, not as I do," say's the woman with her paint brush in her mouth and her fingers in the paint And yes, I open paint tubes with my teeth. I have lots of bad habits. But I also have a few gems of knowledge I'm happy to share with those who will listen. Tomorrow is Day Two of our color and brushwork intensive. I'm happy to report there were no tears in Day One, although there was a knitted brow or two and some most excellent questions. And I'm loving having an audience who's interested in talking abo...