So again the light here is not so good, I took a few of these pictures, in the cold icy wind and tried not to shake. I then gave up when the camera started to freeze up and I went back inside, hung it on the drying wall and turned on the flash.
This was really fun to work on. Using some of what I am learning with the 'Perception' Series, I painted this whole painting with the blocks of color in mind for forming an image. I was deconstructing the work after it was blocked in with the colors and their values. I left the girls smooth and well blended, with much detail given to the creases and folds of thier almost white robes. I think they were playing in the field before sunset, and now are a little dingy, tired and in full awe of nature. There are tiny silver stars (not really they are ummm, dots) that just catch the light in the room and sparkle for them. Because of the layering of colors, there is a lot of depth and texture in this work.
They are sweet sisters, out past their bed time, that lost all track of time when the stars came to life in the patchwork sky.
When we look inside to our inner child, we find that seeing the world through that spirit can move mountains. We can heal any old wounds by just loving that child and taking him/her out at night to see the sun set, the moon rise and the stars that shine; unknown worlds, light traveling millions of light years to reach the eye that seeks it. We are the stuff of stars. We can love ourselves back to health, through the good, bad and the ugly of this reality and only have a happy life left in the memory bank.
The key to a happy life is editing. Some things need to end up on the cutting room floor. Feelings of not good enough, memories of old pain and hurtful people, thinking that fear is a bad thing, the physical limitations of our bodies, the acts of choice we have made. Splice what's left together and you have no room at the end of the reel for regrets.
***
I hope you have a wonderful, insightful day.
Stay warm! OMG, I hate the cold, I hate the cold, I hate the cold.
*grins*
Heather
***
the fine print:
'Under stars that shine' from the Choir Series #9
24" x 18"
Oils
ready to hang/needs no frame/gallery wrapped canvas
$125.00 + shipping
Please contact me HERE for purchase or for a free shipping quote to anywhere in the world.
finished sides, ready to hang I hope you like it. The little black dot on her arm in the pictures is a bug that flew into the wet paint and I didn't see it til I was looking at the pictures, he came right off though so that's not there in the finished work...I kicked him out of my painting...no cameos!
***
Here is the quote that I was working with:
" The most difficult thing about finding salvation is determining whether the path to it lies within or without ourselves." ~Levi True
*** Salvation, it's about my path to redemption...I had grown uneasy with my own work, questioning my ability and purpose. I was fighting a months long artistic block [at the time]. I chose to do something about it...I chose to learn something new, change my style, change my perspective on life and find a new way to paint my story. I settled on my own style of impressionism, and this is what it looks like. She is reaching up through a deep light filled veil of deep violet, madder lake deep (dark deep red/violet), crimson reds and brilliant yellows. Her form is in the same colours just glowing and light/life filled...as it should be. I hope you enjoy.
Thanks for being here today. Heather
*** the fine print:
"Salvation"
18" x 24"
oils
$125.00 USD + Shipping
Please email me HERE for purchase or a free shipping quote.
*** I offer a no questions asked 7 day return policy. (7 days after YOU get it IN your home) If you don't like it, let me know and then wrap it back up, and send it back, I'll refund you the sale price, minus the shipping charges. No problems, no hassles, no waiting. Art is subjective I get that, so just relax. And for the love of art, take a look, you never know what you will discover! *************** Shipping is NOT free, but I will happily give you a free shipping quote to anywhere in the world. Just send me an email with your zip code or country and I will get a free professional shipping quote back to you ASAP! *************** All Artworks are signed front and back, also they come with paper COA's and documentation about the works.
Check out this weeks ART AUCTIONS only two days left!
Mist Fairy is from the Fairy world series it's #18.
This work started out really slow.
I painted the background
(at the time, I used every single color I owned just to see what would happen)
about a year before I finished the work.
Finally, one morning I woke up and knew what this canvas needed.
It took another week to finish her, one because she is a huge work and two because she took a while to fully form in my head, she is mist you know. :)
I added the flat backed marbles and mirrors at the last minute and then felt like she was really done.
I love painting in very large format.
It's just too darned expensive to get to do it often.
When I get the chance to have the supplies to do a work this large, it can take a month or more to complete.
Working in a large format means even more attention to form, detail and balance than in smaller works.
Get something a little off in a wall sized canvas...and well, you tend to notice the mistakes, first. She has great balance.
This work seems to move on it's own, close up or across the room it has a presence and quiet power.
It has won two international top awards for mixed media work and it won an honorable mention as an oil painting, here nationally.
It hangs in the studio because I like watching the light play across her and change her all day long.
Yes, she takes up a lot of valuable wall space in my small working studio...but she talks to me, she shows me new things about herself, and she continues to inspire new works with her soft presence.
I enjoyed working on her,
I hope that shows through in the work.
***
Have a wonderful day everyone.
Heather
Thanks for reading today.
***
the fine print:
Mist Fairy #18 from the Fairy World Series
36" x 48" x 1.5"
Gallery wrapped, finished sides, ready to hang
$345.00 + Shipping
Email me HERE for purchase or a free shipping quote.
'Flotsom and jetsom' From the perceptions series #3
***
Here is the quote that I was chuckling over while I worked:
Insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops. Cary Grant (1904 - 1986) Source: Line from Arsenic and Old Lace.
***
'Flotsom' ...well what can I say? I had a bunch of left over paint on the pallet so I used them...waste not want not.
I had no plan nor direction...just flipping and flopping and playing with the colors.
It's just a little creative insanity from yours truly.
Hope you like.
Pssst, not everything has to have some deep meaning, ya know? ***
NOW...drum roll please....
the Surrender Painting Is Done
*imagine announcers voice here*
(echo in the background....done, done, done)
Ta-Da!
Surrender full painting
close up
Here are the two quotes for this work.
(it's a big work, it needed more words before
it would shape up and fly right): *** Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.Henri Frederic Amiel (1821 - 1881) *** Everything is on its way to becoming something else, and therefore, nothing can be held onto. If you see this clearly, if you consider and examine this deeply and fully, then letting go is the only thing left to do. How can you hold on? What is there to hold onto? So the art of spiritual surrender is really the art of not knowing. Then it doesn't make any difference at all whether you are walking down the street or eating lunch or responding to your email or making love or sitting alone on your couch. This is the first and last time you will ever be doing this. If you truly understand that, it changes everything.
oils Painting extends around sides of canvas, no frame needed.
This is a work in progress.
***
Good Wednesday!
This is my newest large artwork that I have been slaving over for the last few days.
Before I start blathering on about it, here are the two quotes for this work. (it's a big work, it needed more words before it would shape up and fly right):
***
Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us.
Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender. Henri Frederic Amiel (1821 - 1881)
***
Everything is on its way to becoming something else, and therefore, nothing can be held onto. If you see this clearly, if you consider and examine this deeply and fully, then letting go is the only thing left to do. How can you hold on? What is there to hold onto? So the art of spiritual surrender is really the art of not knowing. Then it doesn't make any difference at all whether you are walking down the street or eating lunch or responding to your email or making love or sitting alone on your couch. This is the first and last time you will ever be doing this. If you truly understand that, it changes everything. Scott Morrison
***
So, I am not done with this work yet, I am still waiting on it to dry some more so I can finish out the details. 'Surrender' is an act of submitting to my own self. Not submitting to the world, authority, society or religions. Allowing myself to just be, and continue to become. I surrender my resistance to my own eternal flow. I am what I am, I am what I think, I am what I am becoming, I am what I believe I am.
I am an artist.
No formal training? Yup no formal training.
Can you still be an artist of International caliber if you don't know what the hell you are doing?
Yup, it seems you can.
Or at least I can, and not even think twice about it.
If I had known going into the art world what I know now ten years later, I would have still gone in head first anyway.
Rules don't apply to me unless I say so.
(You know what I mean, I don't eat babies or run stop lights)
I was encouraged at the beginning by professionals (galleries) that I hit up just months into being an artist, to treat this as a hobby.
To not think I was going to make it, because truth be told, most artists don't.
It would be a one in a million shot for someone with my background (or lack there of) to become a income producing artist.
At the time, I poo-pooed them and said that doesn't apply to me,
I am a one in a million person. I make things happen.
I was wrong.
They were right, for a time.
You can't be a realist unless you believe in miracles.
If you don't believe in your dreams, who else is going too?
I just stuck out my neck (and my families income earning potential, Mate Man fully agreed to do what needed to be done to cover the family) and kept on going.
I surrendered to my own inner directive.
I have always been an artist.
That isn't going to change.
This January marks my tenth year as a full time, self-representing artist.
I have learned so much, and failed more than I care to remember.
I have also found my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Surrender is homage to that small choice I made to risk it all and let myself become what I was born to be. No one can twist that up, tie it knots and take it away from me. I am art.
I surrender to my creative insanity.
Ah-Ho!
Let it be.
Let the art flow!
***
What in your internal life do you need to surrender to?
Email me Here for purchase and/or a shipping quote (free).
International/outside the USA? Email me here for a free shipping quote to your destination.
***
Here is the quote I was reading while doing the work:
The term ideal, herein is not used in the sense of an abstract, unattainable perfection; but rather it means a worthy goal that has promise of attainment through appropriate efforts. The gap between where you are and where you desire to be creates a mental and emotional conflict, "a holy discontent" - often called stress in today's world. Normally the first response to stress is to mentally and emotionally run over the outward indications of the conflict - anger, fear, disappointment, resentment, embarrassment, or other such negative feelings. In doing this one's mind is trying to fill the gap between his expectation of what he desires and what actually exists. Loyd J. Ericson
***
This was my first work completed after a long dry spell last year. I remember how good it felt to just be at the easel again, and that I really am an artist...what else would I do? I can't even begin to imagine what my life would be like if I was Not living up to my own inner potential. I am an artist, it's what I do.
Oils on canvas with finished sides (No frame needed)
Painting is done is deep, rich jewel tones, the background is rich yellows,vibrant reds and warm violets. The figure is done in violet, burnt reds, and medium yellows.
*****************
Here is the quote that inspired the work:
Wherever you stand is holy ground.
Wherever there is life, the ground is holy, and life is everywhere.
The question is, are you in it?
While money can lead you to feel rich, feeling rich can lead you to money.
While you may be very careful about what you pay for with your money, you are probably less careful about what you pay for with your attention.
How you spend your attention affects your life far more profoundly than how you spend your money.
Your attention is the strongest currency at your disposal.
While you may believe that all kinds of things have to happen before you can have what you want, you can have it quickly by recognizing you deserve it.
Who would most like to know you love them today?
Who would you be if you dropped your complaints?
Whoever you think you are is smaller than who you really are.
Why get rich quick when you can be rich now?
Why live in a soap opera when you can star in a great love story?
Why mess up your career with training?
Why wait for your ship to come in when you are already on it?
With but a shift in perception, what you thought was miles or lifetimes away may be but feet and moments away or right in your arms.
Words are the least part of communication; energy and action speak far more truly.
You do not need to import greatness from another; you just need to act on your own.
You already know.
You always have enough energy to do the things you love.
You always have enough time to do the things that Spirit would have you do.
You are doing better than you think you are.
You are in integrity when the life you are living on the outside matches who you are on the inside.
You are lovable not for what you do.
You are lovable for who you are.
You are not desperate, so don't act as if you are.
You believe that if you had more time, you would have more peace.
But it's the other way around: if you had more peace, you would have more time. Creating more time is not logistical, but attitudinal.
You can tell what you believe by what you get.
You can afford to be generous because you have access to an unlimited supply. You can be helping many people, but if you are not helping yourself, you have missed the one person you were born to heal.
You can never love too much.
True loving only multiplies itself and returns to bless us many times over.
You can tell what you believe by what you are getting.
You can't get a right brain answer to a left brain question.
Ask your heart, not your mind.
You can't get to heaven by putting other people through hell.
You can't prepare to be great, because you already are.
You can't worry love.
You cannot achieve perfection.
You can only discover it.
You cannot fix yourself because you are not broken.
The more you try to fix, the more you find to fix.
Only wholeness heals.
You cannot gain worth by achievement.
You can only claim it by self-recognition.
You choose, you cruise.
You deserve only love because you are only love.
You do not need to gain or import powers,
for you were born with infinite power to create.
You simply need to claim and use the power you already own.
You don't always need to know beforehand.
You don't have to make anything happen.
Just line up with what wants to happen and let it.
You don't have to make someone else wrong for you to be right.
You don't need to beg for what you already deserve.
You don't need to get anyone else to agree with your truth.
You just need to live it.
You don't need to make good things happen.
You just need to let good things happen.
You don't need to punish yourself for love.
Or sex.
Or money.
Or your past.
Or anything.
You have more options than you recognize.
You know where you belong.
You need not wrestle for your good.
Your good flows to you most easily when you are relaxed, open, and trusting.
You only live once but it's forever.
You own what you own not by money or force, but by your love for it and your inner connection to it.
You were born a genius, and you still are.
Claim it and it will work wonders for you and the world.
You were born to enjoy your life, not repair it.
You will be paid for your services in proportion to the depth of your passion to offer them.
You will find truth more quickly through delight than gravity.
Let out a little more string on your kite.
You will help more people through your delight than through your suffering.
You will not get rid of your pain by glamorizing it.
You will not solve lack by getting more.
You will solve lack by recognizing abundance where you once saw lack.
You're not a realist unless you believe in miracles.
Your attention is the strongest currency at your disposal.
Whatever you invest it in will yield significant returns.
Your core being is your pure being.
Your entire world could open up with one expansive thought.
Your fears of oblivion are unfounded.
Your first and greatest contribution to world peace is your own.
Your future isn't what it used to be.
Your gift to the world is not what you do.
Your gift is your happiness.
Your history is not your destiny.
Your inability to adapt is not a sign of your weakness, but the strength of your inner guidance to remind you where your passion lives.
Your issues do not retard forward movement; they propel it.
Your journey of relationship is an adventure to reunite with yourself.
Your thoughts do not create reality, but they do create your experience.
Your thoughts do not create reality.
They either permit it or not.
Your true power lives in acting with a whole heart. ***
While working on this painting, I was going to change the mouth, and my kid came into the studio and said,
"Mom he looks like he is saying his prayers or something..." Hence the name and the mouth staying the same, because I think so too.
I was going to give him two eyes to, but it seemed more right for him to have only one visible eye, the other is in shadow, the eyes being the doorway to the soul. I wonder myself what is behind his eyes, what he can see that I can not, or will not.
He is whispering to the heavens, to the Gods of love... prayers for the living. This is the Theme Song for BAD! Kitty Art Studio until further notice:
I hope you like! I have stared more new work already, I'll share more soon! Have a great day Heather http://www.badkittyartstudio.com/ What's that? You want to buy him or another of my works?!
Well...just email me and I'll take care of you ASAP!
but rather, ”I have found a truth.” Say not, ” I have found the path of the soul.”
Say rather, ” I have met the soul walking upon my path.” For the soul walks upon all paths.
The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals. Khalil Gibran
***
Good Friday to you all.
These are my two newest works and the beginning of my newest series.
I've discovered that exploring what I find fun to do/paint is so much freaking fun. It's probably illegal to have this much fun while you work, some where.
Don't tell anyone, it'll be our secret.
The First one, 'Dizzy' is just me having fun with my two favorite colors and looking for light in the form of tone on tone. This is how I start many a work with just fun flowing colors, the difference being that I wanted to go some where else with this first work. I had big plans for the layers of image I was going to lay on top. Funny thing happened, I was looking high and low around my mess of an over crowded studio, and I could not find my little bag of leaves. I looked everywhere!
Literally until I felt dizzy.
So I was steamed, and on the knives edge of fit throwing when I dropped my brush and it hit the canvas, unexpectedly.
I was instantly taken out of my state of mind, my current perception of the moment, and transfixed by the accident.
I got the message pretty clear.
Bloom where you are planted.
Do with what is at hand, it is enough.
Make it work, block head.
Ta-Da!
Enlightenment.
And a new series was born.
Simple, and left up to the viewers perception and current state of reality.
*Mile wide grins*
The second one was playing around with a different set of colors and values and also the last two clean brushes in my (enormous) stack of (now all dirty) brushes. Big stiff round tipped things...scrubbers is what I call em.
I used the exact same technique, but with a different tool and palette and Bida-Bang-Bida-Boom... A new perception, a new level, a new layer.
(Ogres are like onions, and Hell no, I don't like parfait!)
I really am having a bunch of fun.
I wonder what this will turn into?
Where will the next layer be?
Will there be images at all?
Who knows!
Wheeee.
The Thrid one is on the easel now...
so, I gues,
We shall see...
Have a great weekend everyone.
I may not be back til Monday, we have a few things to take care of, and I have a new show to put together for an opening that's happening soon.
Well, that's the BAD! Kitty Art Studio art auctions for the week!
I hope everyone had a nice weekend, we did.
It's been very cold for this warm weather artist (I am so not used to this), but I am still keeping up in studio and have several new works to show this week.
The kids are home from school and we plan to just kick it after I get done with my coaching clients this morning.
I wanted to have something meaningful planned today to do and show the kids what this holiday is all about, but they beat me to it.
We had this really long talk about equality.
It was great, the boys were explaining to me about what civil rights means and what MLK did for the nation. I let them tell me what they have been taught in school...then I started talking about how civil rights are about every ones freedom in this country, not just people of color. They were like...WAH, Really!?
Really, really.
Yup, civil rights are about every single one of us. The right to speak, vote, pray, marry, love and be happy. Those are the rights of all human beings...we didn't need anyone to tell us that. I was telling them that what I think MLK was talking/teaching us about was freedom from the human condition of suffering. I mean people of color are suffering, and the rest of the people in the world are suffering too. He was talking about the healing power of freeing yourself from hate in all it's forms, self hate, bigotry, fear of the unknown or different, and really bad (or taught) judgements that we make about the humans we share the planet with.
I mean really...we all bleed, breath, love, play, hate, worry, give birth, learn, and die. So what does the covering we wear (skin, religion, sexual orientation) have to do with being a human being?
A big fat nothing, that's what.
Who you are should be what's valuable, not where you live, what you wear, how much money do you have; or the color of your skin or the gender you love. We are all equal in the creators eye...so why not just go with love out into the world...and put the rest of that baggage behind ourselves.
It was great to be able to talk to the boys about how this family sees the world...the youngest ended the conversation with:
"Mom, people are just people then...some are good and some choose to be bad, it's all about learning how to do that then. [tell the good from the bad and choose for yourself which you want to be yourself] It has nothing to do with the color of skin, money, what God they pray too or who they may love, right?"
"Yup, that's it son, that's the ticket. Every Human has the right to live free."
"OK, can I have a cookie?"
"yup, you sure can, thanks for talking with me you two."
Oldest son in the house: "Oh, your welcome Mom, we just want you to be as smart as we are, you know your old and not going to school anymore, so we want to help you be your best."
The blue of her robe is much deeper and has darker shading than these pictures allow for (Prussian blues and deep purples). The background and hair are well represented in tone, the hair is Prussian green, Ivory blacks and ultramarine blues as well.
There are also shadows of deep plum under her hair (on the robe) that are being washed out in this lighting.This painting looks foggy. It is supposed to look that way, she is in the world in between...between what we know and what we struggle to understand. Hence she is in and out of the fog that surrounds her.
***
'The Key' #6 in the Choir Series
18" x 24"
oils
Painting extends around sides of canvas, no frame needed.
PS. A big Thanks to Cynthia who was my muse for this work. Her recent series of unfortunate events made me think of this subject again. So, thanks for the inspiration Cynthia...I hope you found your keys!
It is what you think it, what you make of it, and what you desire it to be. Therefore...working towards one definition is a futile process for me as an individual.
I want to explore and learn and fail.
That's what makes me feel alive.
I used to think it was some kind of failure inside myself that I could not just pick one thing to loose myself in.
Not one subject matter has been able to hold my passions forever.
The discovery of new things is what fuels the journey I am on as an artist and a human.
I am saying I want to create my own world and I no longer believe that is pie-in-the-sky thinking.
Maybe I can do it all and that will be my personal style...to not have one at all. Well, that's not true about style,
I have a style that is all my own...I understand that I am always going to do things my own way.
Hmmmm, I wonder what I will think of this tomorrow?
As I search for meaning in my humble life I have fallen into several pits that threaten to trap me in a tar like form of living.
The biggest Beast by far is my own Ego.
Meditation on the subject of how to have
Less Suffering and Torment
in my everyday living has led me to come to understand the important role that Ego plays in the discomfort of living at 100%.
If I am truly giving 100+% to my life and work, then I must learn to push aside the Ego.
Creating room inside my soul for the beauty of success and failure.
I must create a space where judgement and fear do not live. I must make room for my true self; make room for the lightness of being.
That is what this work is about.
Making room for the beauty of living a whole life with a whole heart.
This is a work of manifestation; of the life I am leading and the life I am leaving behind.
Here is the quote that inspired the work,
***
"If you want to reach a state of bliss, then go beyond your ego and the internal dialogue. Make a decision to relinquish the need to control, the need to be approved, and the need to judge. Those are the three things the ego is doing all the time. It's very important to be aware of them every time they come up."
~Deepak Chopra
***
This work is done in five colors: Ivory black, french ultramarine, titanium white, Payne's gray and brilliant turquoise. I look forward to releasing this emotion and lesson into the world.
