The Crow Keeper
prints available in my Etsy shop

The Crow Keeper has always considered herself a bit of an amateur ornithologist, drawn particularly to crows with their inky black feathers and all-around cleverness.

A bit of a strange bird, she keeps mostly to herself. She’s had little luck developing friendships over the years (possibly due to her longing for a “murder” of friends). Instead, she turns her attention to her feathered friends – and gazing up at the sky.

She’s done! I finished the painting I’ve been working on over the last couple of weeks, The Crow Keeper, and now have prints listed in my Etsy shop. I haven’t listed the original for sale yet because I think I’m going to have this one framed first. At 16″ x 20″ she’s much larger than my usual paintings and is just begging for a big black ornate frame. And possibly to hang on my own walls a wee bit longer!

The painting studio will have to shut down for a few days as I get prepped for another day at the market this weekend. I’ll be selling my wares at Portobello West on Sunday, so if you’re in the Vancouver area, please drop by and say hello!

Rocky Mountaineer Train Station
1755 Cottrell Street
Sunday, October 25th
noon to 6 pm

While I’m a busy bee making new pendants, printing prints and otherwise getting organized, here’ s a peek at the painting that is sitting ALMOST finished, but not quite, in the studio. She’ll have to be patient with me.

As much as I miss summer’s warm weather, I do love this time of year. The leaves are changing and look like they’re positively glowing when the sun hits them just right, it’s acceptable for me to break out my knee socks again, plus I can curl up with a good book or an episode of Mad Men (*swoon*) without feeling guilty about not playing beach volleyball or ultimate frisbee or whatever it is the beautiful people are doing. I love living in Vancouver, but it does make me feel like I’m living in a brochure for Active! Living!! some days. You’re still in bed at 10 a.m. on a Saturday? Jeez! I’ve already hiked Grouse Grind and cooked a week’s worth of dinners with the organic veggies I picked up at the farmer’s market. Haha! Off to an open house!

For those of us who prefer receiving candy with our cardio, Halloween is just around the corner. And just after that is the Day of the Dead, a slightly darker, but truly beautiful holiday that I’m glad to see more North American people adopting. In Mexico, families will traditionally gather on November 1st to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. But unlike funerals, they’re celebrations. Lots of food, parades, festivals – they celebrate the people they loved.

The Gem Gallery here in Vancouver has invited me to particpate in their Dia de los Muertos gallery show running from October 16th to November 2nd. I still have a lot of work to do, but the painting for the show is coming along. And since my mister is oh so helpful, he bought some Crystal Head Vodka so I could use it as a model. That’s what he tells me anyway!

While I’m pimping my new gallery show, I may as well use my new super cute magnets to do the job, no?

For the month of October, all orders in the shop get a free magnet tucked into their package. I really love the teeny tiny critters. So cute!

The studio has become a regular zoo this past week with all sorts of critters popping up on the tip of my paintbrush. Excuse the terrible pictures – it’s already too dark to get good natural lighting, but they were too cute NOT to share.

The new gang will be up in my Etsy shop soon & I’ll also post the Paypal link directly on the blog for folks who don’t want to create an Etsy account. They are all 6″ x 6″ on beechwood blocks that are 3/4″ thick. These guys are thinner than the other critters I’ve painted which means they won’t stand as easily on a window ledge or bookshelf, but they also don’t stick out from the wall so much. Potato potahto.

And now? Off to catch a breath of fresh air before it gets completely dark outside! Have a fantabulous weekend lovelies!

I’ve been working on 5 little paintings all week and am finally done. Yay! I signed up to do The Canvas Project 2 weeks ago and have been struggling with what exactly to paint. This is how it works:

1. artists sign up with the lovely folks at Atlanta’s Art House Co-op
2. they send you 5 random words that have been submitted by users plus 5 tiny canvases (3″ x 3″)
3. you paint your interpretation of the word & then mail the canvases back to be displayed in a big group show

It sounded like fun, plus a great challenge. That was, of course, before I got my words in the mail. Um…bioengineering? Viaduct??? Are you freaking kidding me?!

I knew I could’ve just painted each actual object in a very literal way, maybe played with an abstract style, but then…what’s the point? If anyone does look me up after having seen my work, they’ll see my girls and critters and art that looks nothing like what I’d submitted. No good. But how exactly does one integrate the cute with the word “cannonball”? Well, take a look!

bioengineering

slander

Viaduct

country

cannonball

OK, so I caved on the viaduct one and went for a literal painting of a viaduct, but I’m really happy with the rest of them. A squirrel cannonball? Love!

If you feel like getting your own creative juices flowing, Art House Co-op has lots of other projects coming up. And if you do sign up, don’t forget to add me as a friend! You can find my Cagey Bee page here.