Busy Bee

 

 

The tiny paintings are now live in the shop! I'm pleased as pie with how they all look together, quirky little things that they are. The bumble bee piece ("Escaped") just sold, but there are plenty of others waiting for new homes to fly off to!

Thanks, all! The sun is shining, I have a coffee date with a good pal, and have been making good progress on yet more paintings. Feeling both inspired and productive, which is always a hard combo to achieve. Hope your week is going well!

Shop Update!

It's true! The hooded nudibranch isn't lying: there will be a shop update on Monday, April 1st (around noon West Coast time or 3pm East Coast time). Finally! And no, I promise it isn't an April Fool's prank.

This update will be a mash of small paintings, the 4 original painting bracelets I teased you with earlier, and a special hand-colored original linoleum block print of deep sea tube worms in a limited edition of only 20. I'm particularly happy with the block print--it was my first "true" lino carved block print and I can't wait to do more.

My time in school is officially winding down and I only have one more quarter left. These past couple of quarters have been an absolute whirlwind and I know this upcoming one will be as well--but there's light at the end of the tunnel! Whew.

See you Monday!

Salty Sea Air

More new painting sneak peeks! I've been working on quite a few small pieces lately--I think because I have so very many ideas busting through the pages of my sketchbook right now, painting small is a guaranteed way of making sure my favorite ideas see the light.

This one is just about completed and will be in the shop on Tuesday, July 24th...

A deep sea arctic octopus (total painting size is 4x4"). I'm pleased with the outcome! And goodness the gold leaf really does set this guy off. It's a small painting, but packs quite a punch.

Here's a peek at a 5x7" gull painting that's really coming along. When finished, he'll be surrounded by gigantic looming flowers.

And, while not a painting, here's a sneak peek snapshot from my workbench at the Dept. of Ecology (this is a small vial of molluscs I sorted out from one sediment sample--some of those clams and snails are roughly the size of a pinhead!). I help out with the sorting/identifying of benthic invertebrates found in the marine sediment samples that our team collects from Puget Sound. The resulting data helps us to see how healthy the ecology of the Sound is.

Last month and also in April I went out with the Ecology marine sediment monitoring team to collect sediment samples (in the picture above, I'm the one in the yellow). It's so much fun to be out on the boat. Plus, seeing what critters come up in the mud from 100 feet or more below is always exciting...

The sediment is sieved for invertebrates and then bottled up to be taken back to the lab for sorting.

Lots of marine worms!

It's very interesting work. And gives invaluable data for local marine restoration efforts (some of which appear to be paying off--a few locations that were once heavily contaminated with low biological diversity are now beginning to flourish again).

Have a fabulous weekend, guys!

Awake From A Long Slumber

Hello, hello, my friends! I know it’s been far, far too long. I’ve long wanted to update this blog but the truth is, that between my long days spent in class and labs coupled with lots of fieldwork and a marine taxonomy internship with Washington State’s Department of Ecology….there just hasn’t been the time.

But! That’s not to say I haven’t been sketching, painting, and scheming. I’m on the last pages of my current sketchbook and have a small stack of paintings to be listed in the shop, with more to come! This Thursday (July 12th), I’ll be listing three tiny slug paintings {update: now all sold}:

Each one is painted on thick watercolor paper in acrylics, varnished, and comes in its own itty bitty sage green envelope (mailed inside a larger envelope to meet postal regulations).

Then on Friday (July 13th), I’ll be listing this small albino bullfrog (*update: now sold*):

He’s every bit as mysterious and captivating as you would expect an albino bullfrog to be. I thought Friday the 13th would be a mighty appropriate day to put him in the shop. There’s more a’comin’, so stay tuned!

Back in December I also moved my belongings, myself, and the cat into a miniature-sized studio apartment at my mom and stepdad’s house temporarily to help with the educational financial burden (and am ever so grateful—going back to college has hit the pocketbook pretty hard). It’s small and hidden in the woods and oh-so-cozy…

Yes, these pictures were taken in December. And it’s July (the Christmas tree was long ago packed back up, never fear!). I was a bit worried that I would have to drastically downsize in the art department to fit everything in there, but it all found a place in the end! My tiny boat-sized kitchen is located behind my art-packed bookcase (painted a pistachio green) and the dvd cabinet... 

I have an antique quilt top draped across the entrance door for privacy...

And the painting table is a bustlin’ with activity and inspiration…

And of course, this little ragamuffin is doing fine as well.

What you don't see in the pictures here is how my gigantic art printer and scanner are housed away in the hall closet with my clothes hanging above, and the "shipping station" takes up an entire linen closet.

Whew! I think that’s all I’ll bombard you with for the moment. If there are any readers still remaining out there, thanks for staying with me! I’ll be back with more paintings to share soon.

Surfacing

I'm back! Finally!

Scout's honor, I really did not mean to take such a long blogland siesta. Truly. Life sorta fell in my lap and had me in its clutches these past months. Mostly, I've just been so crazily busy with my science classes that any blog/art updates were out of the question. Also, somewhere along the way a computer died--I may have wept.

It took a while to get back into the school routine (it's been years since I've taken any college courses) and a lot of dedication and late nights studying to get myself caught up in math, chemistry, and biology coursework. I'm happy to announce, however, that I was officially accepted into the University of Washington Environmental Science program! I'm excited. And seriously looking forward to taking entire classes devoted to marine invertebrate study. Yes, please.Other than my long days in school, long weekends volunteering at the wildlife shelter, and nights having chemistry nightmares (this happened far too often), I've also had snippets of time to draw and paint. My work table is covered in finished and unfinished pieces alike. And I now have a decent enough pile of goodies to entail a shop update! Mark your calendars: I know that after such a long hiatus it's pretty short notice, but I do hope you'll check in to see and perhaps purchase a little piece of art. This particular melange of work is all ocean-themed (surprise, surprise), though there really isn't any overarching theme other than the ocean in this particular update.There will be a couple brooches...

...a series of fish head drawings....

...a new mini painting series of sea stars...
...and also a limited edition handmade accordion book.I'm particularly excited about the book, as it's a first for me to offer something like that in the shop. It turned out so good. As both book and art piece, it looks and feels like a collectible. And with only 8 copies (7 available for sale), I guess it really is one.

I have a few other paintings that need to be unveiled as well, but because they aren't ocean related, I'll wait until after this update to show and list them. One in particular is another "Hall of Mystics" piece. Yay!

I guess that's all for now! Thanks guys for hanging in there, being patient with my crummy unpredictable blogging, and for just being all around good eggs. :) I couldn't do this without your support and for that I am so very thankful.

Shop Update

A date has been settled on for the "Oceanic Explorations" online update! At last, at last. It's a bit last minute, but this coming Monday, April 6th at 2pm PST (5pm EST) the shop will be teeming with my newest paintings for sale from my most recent show. Huzzah! Quite a few in all shapes and sizes.

Like this one...

Or this one...And yup, even this one...
I hope to see you then!

Giveaway Winner!

Okay! I'm back to announce the giveaway winner. Using random.org, the random name drawn from the list was...

Sweet Pea!

Hooray! Congrats! :) Feel free to shoot me an email (located on sidebar) with your mailing addy and I'll send it off to you!

I must get back to painting (and coffee consuming). There will be a good handful of new works up for sale really soon--I'm thinking I'll upload them online on the 28th, 29th and 30th...possibly the 1st as well. That way, I can snag a bit more time to paint, take photographs and write descriptions for everything (quite last-minute, as is my way it seems). I'm really excited to show you all what I've been cooking!

Hope the rest of your weekends are marvelous!