SO Happy!!

Hello to the reader in Pakistan! I am constantly amazed by where this blog ends up! Not being overly familiar with blogging (still, I know) I'm not even sure how people are finding this one. I know Facebook is responsible for a lot of hits... share and keep sharing please... but otherwise, how does one even search for a blog? Well, maybe that'll be an experiment for this weekend. Every now and then I Google the name of this blog, but unless I add blogspot to the search string it doesn't pop up that easily. Oh well... I've got the next nine months to make it pop up on the first page. hehe :)

I am very happy with the way this series is turning out. It's great practice for contouring... still getting back into the swing of that so I can't swear it's fantastic or anything... but I'm enjoying it all the same. Did "Greed" tonight. I think it's kinda cute... there's a monster carrying an armful of money bags and his eyes bug out at the sight of a bill on the ground. Obviously it wouldn't be practical to try to pick it up, but Greed is all about wanting to acquire more and more all the time. So, I thought it was a fitting image. I saved the sin that would think it was the best for last... Pride. Will tackle that tomorrow and then post the pictures. Hope you like them!

On another note... I can't believe it's the last day of March already! Where has the time gone?? So much has happened in the world and in my own little piece of it. It's almost too much to comprehend. It's so great to have family and friends to help you through the hard times and to celebrate the happy times. Appreciate the people in your life! Even the ones you don't know. :) Good night!

Piano Keys!

No... I did not paint a piano keyboard... but I have painted the same number of paintings as a piano has keys. 88! Whee!

Tonight's Sin Painting is Lust. I decided to use the Greek myth of Narcissus as inspiration. I'm sure it could also be used for Pride, but since he fell in love with himself it seemed a good fit for Lust. Oh that lust... dangerous stuff to be sure.

Two more to go, Greed and Pride. I think I have some ideas for them... but I have been known to change my mind at the last minute. You'll get to see them all on Friday. They're all 8x10 canvasses.

Not sure if I'll do the Virtues or not... will depend on whether or not I can come up with a good way to represent them all. Still debating. :)

Anyway... almost to the 1900 mark... would be great to hit that before the picture post. Don't know why this is so exciting to me... but watching the numbers climb and seeing the world map turn more green as people around the world peek at this blog... it makes me feel like this project is really going somewhere. I can't tell you how great it feels to be doing this! I was telling some people about it today (while glasses shopping) and I got all excited about it again. Too much negativity is out there... and I really want to do something good. I hope it inspires everyone to do something nice for someone... big or small... doesn't matter what it is. Even smiling at people when you pass them on the street is a good thing. No need for a conversation, but it's amazing how few people seem to smile these days. Pass it along... it's free and contagious! :)

Have a lovely evening everyone and a great day tomorrow!

P.S. Hello to the reader in Israel!! SO exciting! :)

Four down, three to go

Tonight's painting is Wrath. I had an idea for it yesterday, but liked my Gluttony idea so much I did that one then, saving Wrath for tonight. Rather fitting actually... I did a bodycombat class at the gym this evening... sort of a cardio kickboxing martial arts mix... SO much fun and a great workout... and my painting is of an angry wrestling/boxing/mma monster. So, yeah... I guess that works. Thanks to all the gym monkeys who think that guys should resemble refrigerators. I used you as inspiration! Honestly though, if you can't put your arms down at your sides, what is the point?? I assume you can't hug anyone properly either... and if you can't hug someone where's the joy in that? I, personally, love hugs!

Tonight's task for all of you who read these between the picture posts, give someone a big hug. They will feel better and so will you. Pass the hug along... spread the happy!

Good night!

Who knew Gluttony could be cute?

Ok... so gluttony isn't exactly cute in and of itself... but I thought of a cute idea for it tonight. I amused myself anyway! I was flip-flopping between Wrath and Gluttony for this evening, but then this idea of a cute little children's literature character came into my head and that was it... Wrath will wait another day. :) I tried to get my friend Nikki to guess who it will be (without seeing the picture) and she came up with Cookie Monster from Sesame Street. Another cute glutton to be sure, but I did a Cookie inspired painting quite early on and didn't want to overload on that. So... it's another character. Oh, and I'm so not telling... if you can guess then points for you. I'd love to see what ideas you guys have. :)

Besides... the pics will be posted on Friday so the whole Sin Series will be available to see then. :) So excited about this! Nikki also suggested doing the Virtues after as a companion set idea... not so sure if that's doable. Maybe I relate better to sin?? Hmm... what does that say about me I wonder? I'm only human!

It's a later night than usual so I'm keeping this very short. Happy thoughts!

90th Post!

Are you tired of me yet? Hope not... there's so much more to come!

I'm having a really good day today. I went to Michael's in Dartmouth Crossing to buy canvasses and found out that there is a 50% off sale on the canvasses I like... so I cleaned them out of the sizes I wanted. Plus, thanks to their previous agreement to match the sale price on canvasses I buy for this project, I managed to pick up several others for that discount as well. Then, to top it all off, they had a pile of 25% off your whole purchase including sale items coupons at the front. Jackpot! So, I bought 19 canvasses to intersperse with the 4x6 boards and 8x10s that I had at home. This way I won't get bored or in a rut. Different shapes and sizes help with ideas.

Also, the whole day just went well... my kids are doing well even though they're both still sick... got a trip to the gym in this morning, the art store this afternoon, and cooked a pretty tasty supper when we got back. Then... I got to do sin #2... Sloth. I like it a lot... it's a green bug/monster sleeping during the day. I think it's cute and fun. Again... who would have thought the seven deadly sins could be cute and fun? How does that joke go? Heaven for the weather, Hell for the company? That always makes me chuckle a little bit.

Anyway... thanks again to the awesome people at Michael's for supporting me and my project! Everyone has been so nice to me in there. Quite helpful. :)

Well, that's enough out of me for tonight... here's hoping tomorrow is just as good a day if not better! For you too! And happy thoughts for my friend who is having surgery tomorrow! Good night!

A Reader in Panama!

I am always so excited and giddy to see a new country pop up in the audience stats! Hello whoever is reading in Panama! Hello to everyone really... it's so amazing to think about who could be out there reading and looking at the pictures. It makes me happy!

Ok, so I've decided on a theme for this week... the seven deadly sins. :) But in a fun, cute, adorable way. Because really, why not? I thought originally about doing them with a social commentary bent. Western civilization certainly lends itself to a few, pride, sloth, gluttony... but then I figured there's enough of that out there already. So I went with cute and kid accessible. Sort of. ;)

Tonight I did "Envy". It is a green-eyed monster. The monster is a purple glow-buggy sort of creature with giant green eyes. Sort of an androgynous bug thing. I was thinking more toward a girl because it's purple, Chris was thinking of a boy, so I guess it could work for either. I think it will be a fun series... and if I do decide to tackle the more serious (and potentially cynical) aspects later, well, there are many many days left in the year to do just that.

On a side, somewhat related note... if Pride is such a bad thing, how come Sesame Street has so many video clips about taking pride in yourself and what you do? Hmm... maybe I shouldn't give the rabid masses any more reasons to try to change what was a really great show. So sad... I love Classic Sesame Street. This new version is just so... well, it's not... oh I don't know. It's a disappointment for sure. Here's to taking pride in yourself and your community and not having that be a bad thing. :)

Good night world! Thanks for visiting.

Twelve Weeks of Paintings!

Oh. My. Gosh. How did this happen? How did twelve whole weeks just fly by? Oh yeah... I've got a project and it's somewhat all consuming. :) I love it!! Here is week 12! 84 paintings in 84 days.

I did another painting tonight with the gel medium because I like it and I wanted to try something a little different. It's called "Fire Flowers" and it's different in that I didn't make the background as uniform colour-wise, and I tried to swirl it up to make a flame sort of thing. Oh so technical to be sure. ;) Anyway... here are this week's paintings with blog links in their titles as usual. Wow... March 25th already!

Oh, and in a side note, my son is signed up for his first swimming lessons! Yay! All in all a good day. :)

March 19 - United We Stand

March 20 - Amoeba

March 21 - Silver Spring

March 22 - Leaves of Spring

March 23 - Daisy Trio

March 24 - Purple Passion

March 25 - Fire Flowers

More Cool Leaves!

Ok... I am so loving this gel medium stuff! I did a sort of a companion piece to the Leaves of Spring one from a day or so ago... only this time on a 5x7 board, in purple, red, and blue. I really like the way this is turning out! Chris was saying I should do a series of paintings like this, and maybe I will. :)

One thing is for sure... I want to go out to the art store again soon. I have lots of 4x6 boards still (thanks Joy!) and several 8x10 canvasses, but I really like the smaller stretched canvasses too... and want to make sure there's a variety of options. So, perhaps I'll try to make a trip this weekend and hope for a sale or something. Even just a few to mix it up would be good. Oh, and maybe I won't be such a klutz with the wider rims... I just keep dropping my paintings! Sigh... nothing worse than finally finishing up, getting all set to go to bed, and dropping the painting on the carpet, blanket, couch, palette, whatever... so frustrating! Ah well, I've managed to avoid major disasters so far... knock on wood! Personally, I think the blanket looks better with a few dabs of paint. Chris may not agree...

I am really looking forward to posting more pictures tomorrow... very excited about this week! Also, very happy about the views today... Canada, US and Germany. :) Hello! Here's hoping lots of you come see the pictures tomorrow... that's always one of my favourite days of the week. Sharing some art and happy thoughts with the world. Good night for now!

Blog Views Slowing Down :(

Hmm... have been noticing a sad trend. The number of views per day seems to be decreasing. I guess it is hard to maintain interest when there isn't a lot of day to day change. I have been thinking about trying to change my original plan for selling the paintings. I wonder if doing it as we go would be better in some ways. Probably a lot harder to track and all that, but maybe it'd get some interest going again. Or, could do several small sales, say three during the year... every four months or so? I don't know... this is the first time I've ever tried something like this, and I'll say I haven't exactly started small! After all, I have 82 finished paintings right now. I still can't quite believe that I've painted that many!

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions for improvements, selling paintings, other marketing ideas please let me know either by commenting here, or by email: jcope18@yahoo.com I'd really appreciate it!

Tonight's painting... well, I started the background yesterday but it wasn't dry so I left it for today. Then, this afternoon while my baby was asleep I started painting the daisies on (it's called "Daisy Trio"). Sadly, she woke up a little earlier than I hoped so I had to finish up this evening after a trip to the gym. That usually means I'm in for a later night... but it's only 10:30 so perhaps it won't be so bad after all. :) I touched up the three daisies and I think it looks pretty good. Of course, daisies are my favourite flower so I might be a little biased. ;)

Before I sign off I especially want to thank everyone who is coming and reading the blog. I think I check the stats every day because it's so nice to see proof that people are reading this stuff. It makes me happy! Well, who doesn't want a little 'happy' in their life? Share the 'happy' with your family and friends in whatever way seems best to you. Smiles are contagious. :) Good night!

Another Experiment

And it's not a failure! Yay! I always like it when things turn out well... even when they are not at all what you had expected! I started the painting with blue, green and yellow paint, in three spots on the 5x5 canvas, mixed with the gel stuff. I'm not sure what I was going for other than to try to play around with the texture, and I figured that blue and yellow make green, so it'd probably look pretty neat. Well, it didn't exactly go as planned and I ended up with a giant mess of mostly green. Go figure. In hindsight I guess I should have figured that out! Anyway, I used my palette knife, scraped all the goo off and thickly painted the sides and did a thinner layer on the canvas face. Then I used a dry thin brush to remove paint in a leaf pattern. It revealed blue and yellow underneath from the very beginnings of my little experiment. So, it's sort of a reverse painting. Plus, I really like the way the leaves turned out in this one. Much better than yesterday's leaves, though I like the idea I had for yesterday's too. I just think today's worked better.

Anyway... so all is well in my little painting nook in the basement. It's pretty chilly down there though... I think my blanket is getting a fair amount of paint on it! Wonder what it'll be like in the summer... That's a while away though... and lots of paintings until then! Getting close to a quarter of the way through. Very exciting!

Thanks to everyone who is reading the blog and special thanks to people who pass it along... verbally, by email, facebook, whatever. The more people know about this project the more support it will get and the more support The Children's Wish Foundation will get! Let's help some kids!!

Day 80!

Ok... so if I was a Jules Verne character I could have gone around the world in this time. :) Instead, I have 80 paintings! I think it's a slightly less insane venture... but only just. hehe

I think I mentioned yesterday that I prepped the canvas for tonight's painting with that texture making stuff. Nope, still don't remember the name and I am so not going all the way downstairs to check (I'm lazy). So, tonight I painted it with a silver wash, blasted the hair dryer at it (the only time that particular piece of equipment gets used other than to inflate air mattresses), and then painted some different leaf patterns on it in different colours. Again, it didn't quite turn out the way I had it in my head, but it's still interesting. Especially the textured background. Must try to play with that some more!

I called the painting "Silver Spring" because it's really starting to feel Spring like... although I've been told we're due for another bout of snow tomorrow. Ick. I am so ready for some warm air! Of course, I'm just as much of a hypocrite as the next guy, and come the end of July I'll be complaining about the heat. Spring is my favourite time of the year. It's getting warmer, things are growing, it's all good. I even like rain. If I could paint the smell of rain I totally would!

Anyway... off to bed with me... hope you had a wonderful day today and a good sleep to all.

It's Spring!!

The crocuses that have bravely peeked out of the ground bloomed today! Oh yeah... bring on SPRING!

I always have my birthday marked in my head as the end of winter. As it is on the calendar so it should be in Nature... at least that's what I tell myself. hehe. Sadly, I'm sure we'll have some more snow before winter is really and truly gone, but hopefully nothing major and my wee crocuses will survive.

Tonight's painting is called "Amoeba" because it's what Chris and I both thought of when looking at it. He asked if there was a particular shape I had in mind while painting, and I said a sort of star-burst amoeba thingy. So, there you go... an odd, blue/white amoeba starburst thingy on a deep brown background. It's different, but I like it. I also prepped some stuff (can't even remember what it's called now) that my friend Nikki gave me for my birthday today (she even made a cake... with m&ms!). It's supposed to add texture... which I really enjoy. So maybe now I can do it properly. Or, at least attempt a different approach. :) So, I did one 8x10 canvas with some of the stuff and will let it dry overnight. Oh, I should also mention that along with that, she gave me several canvasses and a palette that keeps your paint wet, and some knives. Yay for new paint supplies! So, thanks Nikki, Peter & Simon for the presents! They'll come in very handy. :)

Also... the blog is over 1700 now for views! So exciting... must admit that I love to see that counter climb up and up. I always check to see where in the world the views are coming from too. Love seeing new countries, and ones that have been before come again. It feels like this project might make a difference farther away from here too. I hope it'll inspire people to do something good... big or small... everything makes the world better!

And now, amazingly, I'm going to bed before eleven. It's been a wonderful birthday weekend... filled with good friends, family, and of course, paint. :) Good night everyone! Enjoy Spring!!

Today is my Birthday!

I had a wonderful day today!

My friend Jen, who I mentioned yesterday, offered to paint today's painting so I could have a day off. That was so very sweet of her... so thanks Jen! I did start an extra one yesterday just in case and finished it this morning before I read your offer, so I do have a painting for today, but I could still use another one. :) I'm sure there'll be a time when I just can't get to it for some reason or other.

Anyway, today's painting is called "United We Stand" and is in the same sort of style as yesterday and shows two trees standing close together with their tops forming what looks like the top of one tree. You'll see a smaller version of that kind of tree in Savannah. I like those trees... maybe someday I'll go see one in person!

Speaking of traveling, one of my favourite birthday presents came from my two kids... I had a cork board and I'd been saying it'd be nice to have a world map to put on it, so I could put different coloured pins on to show where I've been and where I'd like to go. So... sure enough, with a little help from Daddy (who couldn't miss my less-than-subtle hints) I have a lovely map with many a pin in it hanging in my hall. Very exciting! I ran out of red pins though (where I want to go) so had to use yellow. Then I ran out of those and moved on to white. Guess I'd better hope I win the lottery tonight!

I have only 35 minutes of birthday left, so I think I'm off to bed to sleep those minutes away. Good night everyone... here's to another trip around the sun!

Week Eleven Pictures

Phew... seventy-seven pictures. Ok, so I'm pretty impressed with myself... hehehe. Yay! Can hardly believe we're more than half way through March already!

We're done the zodiac series, so back to drawing ideas out of thin air... at least with the case of hot air balloons. Ok, lame joke I know. :)

I would like to mention Jennifer Vining in relation to tonight's painting. Also Tina Micklethwaite! These two lovely ladies posted some pictures on Facebook of Jen's paintings. They are very cool and I really liked them. So, I kinda borrowed her concept a bit. Used colour instead of black and white, but the essential idea is the same. I hope she doesn't mind... I didn't really get a chance to ask her first. Her stuff is really great so I'm hoping she might consider donating a painting to the project. Crossing my fingers! Tonight's painting is called "Entwined Vines" in part due to subject matter, and in part a nod to Jen herself.

I hope you like this week's installment. While painting tonight I got an idea for another week-long series. The seven deadly sins. Why not? Seven sins, seven days... it was meant to be.

Anyway... on to this week's pictures and links. Enjoy!

March 12 - Capricorn

March 13 - Floating

March 14 - Bridesmaid Dress

March 15 - Juggling Jester

March 16 - Lily Blossoms

March 17 - Sea Angels

March 18 - Entwined Vines

Happy St. Patrick's Day

You'd think, given the day, I'd have thought to do something with at least some green in it! Instead I did a painting based on a sketch I found in an old sketchbook. This book is several years old, but I remember doing the painting (it was for someone, but can't quite remember who) and Chris even thought it looked familiar. :) Guess I can't accuse him of having no memory after all. hehe

So... tonight's painting is a 5x7 board, and it's called "Sea Angels". It's a pair of angel fish, one in warm colours, one in cool. I like it. It's bright and cheerful.

I'd write a whole lot more about the day, the painting, and how things are going... but there's not really a whole lot of interesting stuff to say. You'll see the picture of the fishies tomorrow (Friday already??) and things are going pretty well. So... good night world. Send those happy thoughts to Japan. I haven't been watching the news really so I don't know all that's happening, but I know that not a lot of good news is coming out of there. I hope things start to calm down so that the people can salvage what they can and start rebuilding their lives and their homes.

Almost A Disaster!

Oh boy... tonight was a full night! I decided to bake a double batch of my chocolate chip cookies so as to give some to our kind neighbour who passed along a whole lot of baby girl clothes, some to another neighbour who lent us the second and third Lord of the Rings movies (and who is generally a pretty great friend), and some for the family of our other neighbour who recently passed away. I don't know the family, but I thought some chocolate chip cookies might be nice for them to have all the same. Will be dropping them off tomorrow. Anyway, in between batches of cookies I was painting. I brought my stuff up to the cluttered kitchen table (I am SO bad for clutter sometimes) and decided to do an 8x10 painting of a pond. It has been in my head for awhile and I finally decided to try it. It's a pond, surrounded by green grasses with lily pads and white flowers. I think it turned out pretty well. I started with about seven different colours of blue, dabbed them on and then tried to wash them together a bit. Then the grasses, and finally the lily pads. Just as I was painting around the rim of the canvas, finishing signing it and getting ready to turn it over and give it a name (Lily Blossoms) I dropped it! And of course... it fell, face down on my palette. Big black splotch, a white splotch and a blue splotch. Sigh. Big huge sigh, and I'll confess to a teary moment. I absolutely could not believe that it happened. Of course, I did recently drop our phone in the full sink too, so it shouldn't come as too much of a shock that I'm a bit of a butterfingers these days. I did manage to pull it together, wipe off the excess paint and repair the painting... but that added some time and it's late again. I sometimes wish there were three more hours to every day!

My mom has asked me why I didn't choose to do one painting a week rather than one a day. I figured it was less ambitious, less opportunity to fundraise, and I'd probably just procrastinate and paint it in one night anyway... so why not try to really push myself. Chris asked me tonight why I don't try to find a helper or two to do a few paintings so as to have a night off. Sometimes I think that's a great idea, and other times I feel like I'd be cheating. I made this commitment and I intend to see it through. I'd love to have some people donate some art to be sold for Children's Wish though. The more the merrier! Until I clone myself though, I think I'll just keep truckin' away. As of this upcoming Saturday (my birthday!) I will have 78 paintings. Crazy!

Onward we go... until tomorrow!

Ides of March

Ok, so it's the middle of March. It's the Ides of March today and supposedly things go wrong on this day. I don't know, I think I had a pretty good day. Hopefully all of you did too. :)

There are definitely some nights where I just don't feel like painting. Tonight was one of them. Got home from the gym and the grocery store and just wanted to collapse in bed. But, I made myself a promise and decided that if nothing else, I was going to see this project through. So... downstairs I went (so should buy a space heater) and painted a 5x7 board with a juggler. We were watching Big Bang Theory and one of the guys (I never remember their names) was dressed up as a jester. So... there's the inspiration. My husband juggles (balls as well as extracurriculars, kids, employment, etc) so I added that in as well.

I called it "Juggling Jester" as it seemed a fitting title. Not terribly original, but whatever works. It's after 11pm and I'm feeling sleepy. :)

I noticed that the reader in Singapore is back this past week... so hello again! It's always very fun to check out the stats page and see who is reading and where. Well, I guess "who" isn't quite accurate, though I do know at least a few people who are reading in the US, Mexico, and Germany. Otherwise, I don't know who it is, but believe me I'm very appreciative of the support!

Not to sound too needy or anything... but comments would be lovely. :) Sometimes I wonder if anyone actually reads my daily rambling or if it's just the weekly gallery post. Either way, it's nice to see the view counter going up. Maybe we'll hit 2000 by April!

Anyway... that's enough from me. Keeping my happy thoughts going to Japan. Hope you are too. Good night!

Seafoam Surprise

Who would have thought that blue, green, silver and white would end up as a sort of seafoam colour akin to bridesmaid dress nightmares everywhere? I added some orange to further 'beautify' it and so we have tonight's painting "Bridesmaid Dress".

I haven't worn a bride's maid dress since I was a kid... they were green satin as I recall. Actually, as dresses go they were pretty good. Have definitely seen way worse! Why do people do that to their friends?? When I got married I asked my sister and best friend to go shopping together (they were both in another province) and find something, in blue, that looked and felt nice on both of them. Not a super easy task since one is short and the other tall. However, they found something that did look nice on both of them and I think they looked beautiful. Of course, the dress didn't get worn again, a hope that never gets realized for most people... but I think it was a good try. :) I wonder what are the ugliest bride's maids dresses... there should be a blog or photo album for those. I'd go look... if for no other reason than to get some inspiration.

I feel like I'm running out of ideas. This may be because I started late again tonight and just couldn't get anything solid in my head except for the colours I wanted to use. So... I went with the colours and tried to get the different ones to poke and peek through. I probably over did it a little so it ended up more as seafoam... but I still like it. I think I need more variety though. Hoping that with Spring coming more ideas will also come. New flowers to look at, birds, critters... rain, different weather. With luck all of those elements will spark some new stuff.

Anyway... have a lovely evening!

Full of Hot Air

Sometimes I think it would be amazing to be up in a hot air balloon. Other times I think it would be terribly frightening! I'm generally ok with heights as long as there's a solid floor beneath my feet. Solid in that I can't see through it. Fire escapes are not fun places for me! Maybe someday I'll go up in a balloon and see the world from that angle. For now, I'll stick to airplanes.

Tonight I painted "Floating" which is three hot air balloons up in a clear blue sky. It reminds me of seeing hot air balloons racing. Every now and then we'd see a bunch of balloons up in sort of a line. It was incredible. It'd be like being alone and having company all at the same time. Sort of a confined freedom.

At any rate, it was a welcome change from zodiac paintings... change can be good.

That's it for tonight. I've got a big day tomorrow... starting with a trip to the blood collection lab at the hospital. It's probably going to amount to nothing... but good to stay on top of things just in case. Good night everyone!

End of Series

Tonight I did Capricorn... my most dreaded sign. Only because it's the goat and the symbol is really weird looking (to me... apologies to the Capricorns). I looked it up and found out it's a sun sign, the element is Earth, colour is brown, and the planet is Saturn. So... I let that information be my guide. :)

Anyway... now the zodiac series is done... and a bit of a relief too. Sometimes it's nice to have a plan to work with, and other times it feels a little limiting. I can't say I love every zodiac painting... but I'm fond of several of them.

Next on the agenda... to not have an agenda! I think for awhile I'll just go with the flow and paint whatever comes into my head when I sit down. It might lead to some frustration and staring at a blank canvas for awhile, but maybe that's a good thing.

Today was a very busy day, and we lose an hour of sleep tonight... so it's off to bed for me! I can't believe I've done 71 paintings in as many days. That's more paintings than I've ever done in my whole life! Crazy. :)

TEN WEEKS!!!

Hey All... it's picture day again! Who doesn't love Fridays?

Ok... so, if you've been reading as we go, you'll know that the last time I attempted Sagittarius I scrapped it as my centaur was abysmal. Ok... I did it again. I liked how it was going... and then I so didn't. So... started over and I like this one better. I am not including a picture of the centaur as it is likely to never see the light of day. Oh the joy... two difficult subjects, people (men especially, sorry guys, but I find you hard to draw) and horses (oh my)... who thought to combine them??

Anyway... enough out of me... I'm sure most people have more pressing global issues on their mind. A moment of silence for Japan and any and all people who have lost their homes, loved ones, or their own lives. Sometimes the world is tipped on it's side for no apparent reason and with no warning.

Pictures below, click on their title to go to their blog posting. Enjoy.

March 5 - Aries

March 6 - Gemini

March 7 - Cancer

March 8 - Scorpio

March 9 - Virgo

March 10 - Taurus

March 11 - Sagittarius

Anyone for Irony?

Tonight's painting is the astrological sign, Taurus. Just for fun I decided to use the Taurus symbol as the head of a matador. Complete with red flag. :) It amused me.

Getting near the end of the zodiac... just Sagittarius and Capricorn left. I'm going to do Sagittarius tomorrow night. I prepped the background for it tonight as it will need some time to dry. :)

Otherwise, not much is new. The kids are doing fine, keeping me busy, testing the limits of my patience and sanity. It seems one is capable of carrying on far past the time they thought would be too much for them. Ah the human ability to gather reserves from thin air. It makes no sense... but without it I have no idea how our species has survived. It's like the joke that if men carried the children our population would be shrinking as no one would ever have more than one baby. If we couldn't somehow carry on even when we want to curl up and cry, I'm sure toddlers would have gotten the best of us by now. :) Love them... just have to keep reminding myself that he's learning how far is too far, that I'll still love him no matter what, and that he is gaining independence. As for her, well, I just wish her teeth would come through already, and her tummy wouldn't be so full of icky gas. But oh, the smiles... it's all worth it for a flash of smile, a giggle, a hug and a kiss, an unprompted "I love you Mommy"... it's like a reset button, isn't it? If I could capture that feeling on a canvas I would... but I think it's part of the 'other' in the world. Whatever you want to call it... it's that something special that just can't be defined and if you could bottle it you'd be an instant gazillionaire. Oh yeah... it's love.

And with that thought (amongst all my ramblings) I bid you all good night. Check back tomorrow for the week's paintings. :) Oh, and tell all your friends and relations about this blog. :) Pretty please. 'Night!

Virgo - Pretty in Pink

Ok, as a follow-up to my Scorpio painting last night I did Virgo tonight... complete with pink, white and gold. Another idea I had but wasn't sure I could pull off (not in one night anyway) was a bowl of m&ms... with Scorpio and Virgo symbols instead of the regular m. I thought that would be fun. Maybe later in the year...

Not too much is new right now... just slogging away. Starting to think my life is quite full! That doesn't seem to stop me from trying to add more to it though. Juggling two adorable children who occasionally drive me bonkers, general life stuff, dance class, going to the gym as often as I can, painting daily, and trying to maintain a shred of social life does tend to tire one out. And now I'm thinking about adding a karate class? I must be certifiably nuts! We shall see... no rush on it, but it is something I think I'd like to try some day. So who knows... maybe in a month or so I'll have some karate inspired paintings too!

Now to bed... before midnight even. Yay!

Scorpio - Male?

I've often heard that Scorpio is supposed to be representative of the male symbol. This has been backed up by the upward pointing arrow that comes out from the M. Also, scorpions just seem intrinsically male. Weird isn't it? Cars and boats are referred to as "she" and yet I think of scorpions as "he". Maybe I should blame Hollywood for this since they made that movie The Scorpion King with The Rock. :P

Anyway... I decided to work on Scorpio with a bit of a stereotypically male bent. Lots of blues. Then I figure I'll do Virgo tomorrow with the counterpart idea... that Virgo is female and usually depicted with a woman. So I'll use some pinks. Personally, you wouldn't catch me wearing pink if I could help it, but what are you going to do? Having had a daughter I can assure you that it's darn near impossible to avoid the colour! That's another thing... why is it that a woman is the first thing we think of (as a society) when we hear virgin? Probably can pin that on Christianity and their Virgin Mary. Gentlemen, you all start as virgins too! Maybe someday I'll paint a guy and give the painting a name that references his virginity. Might make some people think about their assumptions and stereotypes. (Me too, I'm totally guilty as I've already said).

Anyway... still have a few more zodiac signs left... getting into some tough ones. I've got some ideas, but not sure my drawing skills are up to putting down on canvas what lurks in my head! I'll give it my best shot though. :)

Enough from me... I'm just going to say hello to our reader in China. :) That brings us up to eleven countries! Pretty amazing! I'll admit to some rampant curiosity as to how people are finding this blog. Don't stop though! Just wondering how it happens. :) Thanks to everyone for your support! Good night. :)

Cute Cancer Crabs

Figured since Cancer's animal is the crab, why not paint a couple of cute little Cancer crabs at the beach? I started very late tonight as I went to the gym and then the grocery store so didn't get home until after 9:30. Ouch. These late nights are going to get harder and harder I think. Not going to stop though! Briefly thought about not painting tonight and doing two tomorrow... but that's a slippery slope and so not the point of the exercise. So... I painted tonight while talking to my sister on the phone. I miss her... she lives far away and we don't get many opportunities to get together. I'll see her this summer for sure and hopefully at least one other time this year so we're doing ok. It's hard when family is spread far and wide. At least we have technological tools like Skype, Facebook, email, and of course, the good ol' phone! Makes the distance a little smaller. Speaking of distance... there's someone in Spain reading this blog now too! So very very exciting! Bienvenido! Maybe by the end of the year we'll be all over the globe. :)

I'm going to quit typing pretty quickly tonight as it is late and my little guy decided to wake me up repeatedly in the wee hours of the morning. Here's hoping he stays in his own room a little longer tomorrow! So hard to resist the little voice saying "I just want a quick hug Mommy". How do you say no to that??

Hope everyone is well and life is treating you kindly. Think of three good things every day and you'll see that even when things aren't perfect, there is still the potential for good. Good night!

Gemini Garden

Halfway through the zodiac series. Boy are these harder than I thought! Tonight I did Gemini. I started with a red background and painted a vine around the border with tiny white pearl-like flowers (for June's birthstone). Then I put a scroll-y Gemini symbol in the middle and wrapped a vine around it too. It's simple, but kind of sweet.

I have posted all the pictures for January and February. I started with individual pictures, but the formatting was a nightmare. Plus, they're all individual shots in the weekly summary post, so I figured I'd do a weekly compilation thing for the gallery. I love Paint. The program, and I guess also the artistic medium. ;)

Anyway, hope you enjoy seeing all of the pictures in one place. I think I'll do another gallery at the end of April, and every two months from then on. I'll still do the weekly posts with links to the blog for that day. Just in case people want to read my random thoughts. :)

Special thanks to Meredith for her donation of two 8x10 canvasses. One is partially worked on... if you don't know Meredith, which many of you will not, she is a really wonderful artist, delightful person, and a new mom (again). We got to visit with her and her littlest one (see Feb 6th's painting of Baby Feet which was done thinking of them) today. So great!

And on that happy thought, have a lovely evening everyone (morning or afternoon if you're elsewhere on the planet!) Thanks for reading and commenting (Trina!).

Gallery 1 - January and February

By Week...

Field of Sheep

Tonight's zodiac painting is Aries. I decided to go a slightly different route and paint a field of sheep with Aries symbols as their horns. I haven't got anything really brilliant to say about this... it's pretty straightforward. You'll just have to see what it looks like next Friday. :)

It's a little frustrating that the pictures don't, and can't, show all the details... or the flash from the camera makes it look funny. I'd love it if you could all see the paintings in person, but of course, that is near to impossible for many. At least I have the pictures. :) That reminds me... I was going to post the collection for January and February last night, but at the last minute decided not to so as to not upstage the weekly posting. I will post it tonight instead. It's not even ten o'clock yet!

I also wanted to say hello to all the readers in all of the nine (so far) countries that show up in the stats section. The newest country is India... somewhere I would love to go someday. So, welcome to you and to all the others who are coming and visiting this blog. I think it's pretty incredible that the reach of this project is extending. Thank you for all your support everyone!

Nine Weeks! Picture Time Again :)

Wow... nine whole weeks of painting. That's 63 paintings! I'm going to post this week's as usual... but I'm also going to make a separate post of January & February's paintings too. No idea how neat and tidy it'll turn out, but it should make it easier to see all the paintings from the first two months in one place. :)

Tonight's painting is Libra. Won't say too much about it... just that it started out being Capricorn and I hated it so I painted over it and went with Libra instead. Hate is a strong word... let's say instead that I really really didn't like how it was turning out and couldn't bring myself to try to fix it. Sometimes it's good to recognize a do-over when it's in front of you!

Here are the week's paintings with the link to each day's blog (click the painting's title). Enjoy!

Feb 26 - Aqua Frio

Feb 27 - A Blustery Day

Feb 28 - Low Tide

March 1 - Aquarius

March 2 - Leo

March 3 - Pisces

March 4 - Libra

Sad Day

Today wasn't the happiest of days. For the most part it went quite well, but then toward the end of the day I found out that a really lovely lady who lived down the street had passed away. She was so nice. We bonded over chats about gardens (she was great, I am hopeless), kids (who doesn't love babies?) and general stuff. I was looking forward to getting to know her better... it's hitting hard that she's not just in her house like normal. Very surreal and sad. We will miss you.

As can probably be expected, I wasn't in much of a mood to paint tonight. I finished up my Pisces painting, but I can't say I love it which is an extra disappointment to me as I am a pisces! I don't know... maybe if I cheer up and look at it again tomorrow I will feel differently. At the moment things just seem sort of sad all around. I'm very lucky in that I haven't had a lot of experience with death and loss. It has mostly been limited to pets... and I find that hard enough thanks. I know it's part of life and that it is necessary... but it still hurts. I can't even begin to imagine what life must be like for people who are very ill, or have a close loved one who has to spend a lot of time in the hospital. I guess that is the case for the kids who are granted wishes through Children's Wish Foundation. I hope that this project will lead to some wishes coming true.

Before I start to tear up again I will bid you all goodnight. I hope that we will all take life's opportunities to hug and kiss our loved ones and call up a friend now and again to chat. Enjoy each other... family, friend or neighbour. We are all connected.

Loving Leo

Another productive evening! I will admit to a certain amount of laziness on my part... I did not go to the gym as planned. I've been going full tilt for the past three days or so and tonight I succumbed to my fatigue. Instead I stayed home, painted a Leo painting and because I felt a bit inspired, prepped the background for two more zodiac paintings. Yay!

The Leo painting is again on 4x6 canvas board. It's got a tawny sort of background as befits a lion, and two lion paw prints with gold leo symbols on the palm pad. I think it turned out rather well and Chris said he likes it too. Always nice to have immediate paws-itive feedback. Sorry, couldn't resist. :)

I'm not going in order or anything... just sort of doing whichever one comes to mind that night. I think it's more fun that way.

Just a short note tonight... trying to get to bed as early as I can so as to jump back into crazy mode again tomorrow. Hoping to hit the gym, paint the stairwell, and finish another painting. Bring it on!

Zodiac Series Begins

Ok, so tonight I started with Aquarius. My son is an Aquarius so maybe that's why I started there. Who knows... seemed like a good place to start. :)

I like astrology as entertainment and find it fun to read up on it from time to time. Aquarius is the water sign of water signs. I used a purple and blue background as they represent the birthstones of both February (amethyst) and March (aquamarine). I'm keeping these paintings fairly simple in terms of the symbols, and more detailed in the background. At least, that's how I'm starting out. Might have to switch things up later if I feel the urge to do so. The nice thing is I can do this sort of thing more than once in different ways, so if I feel like trying new things, I can. :)

I'm doing them on the 4x6 boards that Dr. Joy sent. I'm hoping to find frames to fit them so they can be presented nicely and hung easily. Boards are very useful in some ways, but I'm not quite sure how to hang them... so with luck I can work it out.  I've found a place to get frames for 5x7 but sadly they don't seem to carry the 4x6. Not to worry... I have ten more months after all. :) I like shopping in thrift stores as well, and there always seems to be a plethora of interesting finds.

Anyway... can anyone else believe it's March already?? I think doing this project is making the year go by even faster. That, or having kids, renovating the basement, going to the gym, and doing this project... or maybe, just maybe, time just seems to speed up as you get older. Yup, my birthday is this month. I didn't have an issue turning 30, but  for some reason 31 feels a bit weirder. I'm going back to school this Fall... with a bunch of recent high school grads (weird), I'll be officially *in* my thirties (not old by any stretch, but still weird), and my little baby will be a whole year old this year too... so we're all growing up. How is she nine months (this Saturday) already?? Ah the joys of a busy and fulfilling life. :)

Well, I'm off to bed a fair bit before midnight tonight. Yay! It's 'only' eleven. :) So, hope you all had a wonderful first day of March... lamb or lion? I'm thinking it came in like a lamb so we may be in for some fun later on. Spring isn't too far off now! Good night all!