The Lost Key

I'm back!

Indeed, it was a long, long work week. No time for painting or fun things artsy at all. But I have today and tomorrow off so I can catch up on that itch to paint and sculpt and all that fun jazz.

The lonely peppermint tree painting sold on Saturday (thank you Martha)! I'm buckets of happy, and just a wee sad. It's always hard to let go, but just the thought that my painting will soon be hanging on some one's wall over in Illinois is enough to push it out of the nest. Here it is, all lovingly packaged and ready to be stuffed in a padded mailer (I wish I had thought of taking a picture BEFORE wrapping it in bubble wrap, which kinda takes away from the elegantness and all...):

And, I'm thrilled that I started and finished this dandy of a painting today as well:
It's done in the same fashion as the Peppermint tree (collaged background paper on glass with painted layers on top and oodles of varnished layers and aging). The neato newspaper background is a snippet from my 1930s newspaper pile, which my aunt gave me a long, long time ago. The papers were saved from a basement of a firehouse in San Fransisco and all the front pages have glorious Amelia Earhart articles ("Amelia Earhart: FOUND!!"). They are just so, so cool, though all are in fairly bad condition, hence my cutting up of them. Anyway, I think this may be my favorite small painting to date (4x6"). I watched Pan's Labyrinth last night and I think you can see that it influenced the painting a tad. It too shall have one of those spiffy frames and ribbon hangers and yes, it WILL be for sale in the shop (for just a smidgen more than the last because I love it so). I'll probably add it tomorrow or Thursday, so keep a keen eye peeled.
Just to prove that I haven't been neglecting the clay either (because I know it looks like that...), here's a quickie snapshot taken from my table of a smallish pile of charms I'm readying. I have my eyes firmly set on a big craft festival the first week of December in Seattle and I'm currently in stockpile/display/festival mode right now. I still have to apply, as it is juried so there's no guarantee my stuff will be accepted in, but I'm super excited about the possibility of selling my stuff in person for the first time! I applied for my WA state business license yesterday so I can do the show, something I'm embarrassed to say I haven't done--and I established my business well over a year and a half ago.

Well, I'm off to run to the post office and Target so I can snatch up the Miss Potter dvd (Netflix, dang you for not having enough copies on hand and making me wait for so long). Hope you are doing well! Stay in the shade, kiddos...