Marshmallow Day and Contests :)

Hope you are all doing well and getting through winter all right!  We had a marshmallow snow fall yesterday with huge, beautiful, plump flakes.  Everywhere you looked was coated with a delightfully thick layer of heavy icing sugar.  The temperature was mild, hovering around 0oC, it was a pleasure to be out.










I can say it was wonderful because I didn't have to go anywhere, but the roads were crappy and dangerous.  My youngest son had a blast and was out playing all day.  And my oldest, who turned 15 this week (how did that happen, anyway?) helped me shovel the driveway.

Have to say we all enjoyed the hot chocolate and marshmallows after!

I can honestly say I will be so glad when winter is over.  Although I thoroughly enjoyed the snow squall yesterday, February has been a tough month.  It always has been for some reason.  Some say cabin fever?  Seasonal Affective Disorder?  Not really sure.

Seems there are lots of things that need attention...survived exams with my oldest, which was good.  Did an intense cleaning of his room, which was desperately needed.

I even got some painting in.  Stay tuned, you'll see my latest coming up later this week.  I am continuing to get ready for Pierscape!

I have my work on Fine Art America.  You can buy prints of my work here, and also enter your work into contests, which is a fun way of sharing your work and getting it out there, too.  In the two contests I entered, I won first place!   Yay!

"Railyard Blues" came in first in the contest called "Industrial Landscape"

The second was a juried contest called "Valentine Day Card or Prints". And okay, I won first but I do have to qualify that, because I was tied for first with 8 other gorgeous pieces of art :)  Okay, I am just flattered to be included in the top 9!

There  is another contest I am in in which I can win $100 in art supplies from Curry's!  YES!!!  It is open to Canadian artists only, so if you are Canadian, consider entering!  The contest ends February 29.  I hope that if you have a Facebook account you will click on the image here and press LIKE!!  I would greatly appreciate it...And feel free to share with your friends, too :) THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!

Click on the picture and press Like :)

 Thanks for stopping by!  Have a wonderful week!

Want to Win Some Art? Check out Lisa Russo!

I would like to introduce you to a dear friend of mine.  Lisa Russo and I met many years ago, when we first started out selling our artwork on ebay.  We were both in the group QAE artists on ebay, and to this day, we are still in the same group!

Lisa is an absolute sweetheart and an amazing artist and I do hope you will check out her blog here...she is having a giveaway of one of her prints!  If you would like a chance to win one of Lisa's beautiful prints, you need to act quickly!  Saturday, January 21st is the last day to enter.  She will be drawing for the prize on Sunday the 22nd.

Here are some samples of her work...

I absolutely love Lisa's florals.  She uses such gorgeous, vibrant color!

Her passion for art really comes through with her thoughtful abstracts...

My personal favorite..."Angel Tears"

"Circumlocution"

"Beyond Boundaries"

To win, you need to do one of the following:

• Follow her blog
• Follow her on Twitter
• Join her mailing list
• Like her Facebook Page

Good luck!  

Twas the Week Before Christmas...and Why You Should Never Put Something In A Place Where It Won't Ever Get Lost.

T'was the week before Christmas and all through the house,

a great mess was stirring and and chaos did rouse.

Guests were arriving, great presents and snow,

In the mail, a gift, from Magic Love Crow!

A painting so lovely, a pointsettia crow in the frost,

Carefully I placed it so as not to get lost.

Her Christmas card hung on the stairs with such care,

And her painting was placed...only I knew where!

The holidays too crazy to post in my blog,

I would wait until later when my brain cleared of fog

And soon, it is quiet, I was ready to post,

I look for the crow painting, and oh no, it's lost!

I searched in the attic, the basement, the tree...

Panic set in, "My painting," cries me!

It's time to put all the decorations away, 

I hope still to find it, I hope it's today!

With all but the last decorations remaining,

my hope of finding the painting is waning.

Just the garland atop of the mantel remains,

my heart skips a little, I feel in my veins

I lift the garland and what do I see,

but Stacy Magic Love Crow's painting looking at me!

Thank you so much, Stacy!  I absolutely love it!  Please click on the links above and have a look at Stacy's blog.  You won't meet a nicer, more generous or kind-hearted person on the web :)  And she's talented, too!

Wine Glasses, Anyone?

Since I did my last post on painting wine glasses, I thought it would be great to share with you the artwork of an AMAZING artist who also paints on wine glasses.  Her work on the glasses is beautiful, so say the least.  And yes, her work is in high demand.  This is one busy lady, people!

I met Pauline Ross through Fine Art America.  This is where you can buy prints of our artwork.  If you would like to have  a peek at her shop where here prints can be purchased, go to  http://paulineross.artistwebsites.com/   Her artwork goes well beyond painting, she quite the photographer, she also does wood sculpture and her pyrographic artwork had been shown on the History Channel!  How do you do it, Pauline?

Pauline says she follows pretty much the same method I do for painting on the glasses, though her style is quite different from mine.  She draws the images, and does not use photos.  Her bake times were a bit different, it is important to read the label of the particular kind of paint you are using and follow the manufacturer's recommendation.  If you would like to see more of Pauline's glasses, go to her Yessy shop.  It is worth looking at...she has so many more available, it was hard to pick which ones to show here!

Painting on Glass Tutorial

This year, I decided to paint some wine glasses to give for Christmas gifts.  Everybody seemed to be really happy with them :)  It was hard to take good pictures, the final picture didn't really do them justice.   They transparency of the glass made the colors so lively and fresh.

These were so much fun to paint...I tried to keep the process fun and simple.  Allowing the colors to mingle together on the glass created a pretty watercolor effect.

When I am painting on glass, I use Pebeo glass paint.  After baking in the oven, they are considered to be dishwasher safe (however, I still recommend hand washing just to be on the safe side! )

Another important point is about using these paints is that only the areas that are not in contact with food should be painted.  I left any area that would come in contact with lips paint-free :)

The glass paint comes in little jars, or in a tube.  The tube paint is thicker and is used for outlining.

Here, I have used the jar of white paint to paint the stem.  I found it needed about 3 coats to get complete coverage with this paint.  Not sure if I will do this again.  One time, I painted black and white stripes on the stem,  I loved the look, they were fun and whimsical, but really tricky to get the stripes on straight!

Once this was dry, I used the black outliner to draw out the shape of the grapes and stems.  When this was dry to the touch, I added some color.  I worked quickly for these next steps.  I wanted the colors to mix while they were wet.  I laid the glass on its side to do this part.

First some blue...

...then dropped in some red...

...followed by some yellow.

After these colors mingled together a bit (not too much!) and then dried, I painted on the leaves.  I used a gold outliner before dropping in the green.

These need to air dry for 24 hours before baking in the oven.  The oven should start out cold, once the temperature has reached 325oF, bake for 40 minutes.  After baking colors are dishwasher safe and resistant to detergents and common solvents.   Check the instructions on your bottle of paint just in case you are using something different from me.

There!  Now you are ready to paint your own wine glass!  Try it, and send me a pic!  What will you paint on your wine glass?

Glad it Over!

It's New Years Eve.   Tonight, we will be spending the evening enjoying the company of  family, friends and neighbours.  Lots of great conversation and a feast of delicious Chinese food.  For the finale, a round of spectacular explosions as the fireworks are blasted off at midnight.  The kids love it almost as much as the guys who are setting them off!

The holidays are finally winding down to a close.  I love Christmas and New Years, but I can't say I am not glad to see them sneak out the door.  The excitement and hectic craziness of it all makes me long for normalcy.

The glow from the candles in the window, the glimmering Christmas tree and the soft shimmer of  the garland on the stairs.  These all made me smile the first night I had all the lights out but, in between rounds of gift wrapping, scrubbing walls and floors and running here there and everywhere!













And what a wonderful time we had!  We had a little party for the kids, and you'll never guess who stopped by for a visit!























My awesome cousin Ron was visiting from Houston with my aunt from New York!  We had a fabulous time.  Ron was hoping to get some skiing in.  That didn't quite work out, but instead, we managed to sneak in some sledding and the Two Rivers Wildlife Park.

I had barely enough time to paint some wine glasses which were to be gifts for some of my favorite people :)  I'll post a tutorial if there's interest....leave a comment!

For me, the real finale is not the fireworks but the calm that follows on New Years Day.  Ahhh....peace and quiet!

I will be enjoying it thoroughly, since it will after that that I plan on going full speed ahead with those New Year's Resolutions.  But that's another post!

Why Not Art?

If you are like me, you are always looking for something different and unique for Christmas and Holiday shopping.  Well, why not art?

I just relisted one of my giclee prints on Etsy.  This is one of the first crows I ever painted, and it's probably the most popular, too :) Sorry, but the original is already sold...it's happily residing in the home of a crow lover in beautiful British Columbia. But the print is still available, and now I am offering free shipping on it, too :)

It is printed on GORGEOUS heavy weight archival watercolor paper which is 8x10 inches.  The actual image size is 7 1/2x6 inches.


So, if you'd like to have free shipping on ANY item in my Etsy shop, all you have to do is enter the code HAPPY HOLIDAYS when you are checking out.

Don't leave it too long to order though, especially if you would like to receive your item by Christmas!  According to Canada Post's website, parcels to the United States need to be shipped by December 8th and items within Canada by December 12th.  (This is by regular post.  Sorry, but I can't extend the free shipping to Express Post, but if you do need your parcel in a hurry and it's past the deadline, just email me and we will work it out :)