So, I have a very good friend that has enjoyed looking at my work. In fact she has one of my most memorable pieces. My friend has been talking to me constantly about using a watermark for my art work. Of course I was procrastinating and kept making excuses!

She finally got through to me and I started searching for a site that I could work with. It was like I was supposed to find this web site as it was the first one I saw. It gave me a few free days to play around with it and I discovered a whole new way to protect my paintings.

I love it! I do have to work on my transparency as some of my try's are a bit too dark. It is very important to protect our work as much as we can from scammers who will take your paintings and use them for prints. That is our hard work that they can steal and use for anything they want.

Please , to all of you, who read this, get your stuff watermarked. Yes it did cost me a bit for the use of the software but it wasn't much. It is totally worth it. 

Goodbye winter! I can't be more happy to see it go! it was long, cold, and miserable! It was time to think about color, spring time, sunshine!

So down in the studio I go. I brought out purple, red, orange, some white. I have a blank canvas staring at me. Sometimes very daunting. What to do? Where to start? Start at the beginning, squirt some paint on that canvas and get going.

Using just my paints, my rollers, water and a blow dryer I go to town. After all is said and done a new abstract has evolved! Something colorful, something warm, and definitely resembles nothing of winter!

I have named this abstract " Sundog". I was checking some photos of Sundogs and they are so cool.

So if you are sick of winter like I am this painting is for sale on this website. Something to remind us that summer is here! :) 

This Abstract is called the Year of the Horse. How it became that way is still a mystery to me as I was using some very different colors and manipulation in where I wanted my blending to begin.

But what fun when , after it was dry and I went to have a look, there was this incredible horses face! As this is the "Year of the Horse" on the Chinese calendar I decided to give it this name.
It is such fun to be able to see things in my abstracts that I don't really know at  are going to be there! It is like they insist they must come forward and make themselves be known. many of my pieces, people say they see things, or animals, or people in them. It is truly in the eye of the beholder as to how individuals see an abstract. What I may think is great, someone else may think it is terrible or vise versa. As an artist , once we put our art out " there" we become vulnerable to all sorts of comments. I believe these comments can give us a strength of sorts to just go with the flow. Don't feel insulted, just carry on, and do what you do best! There will be one day when that same person will absolutely love something you have painted. As my " Sista" says, Paint On! :)

The year 2014! Who would have thought that little ole me would have sold over 45 paintings already! How exciting is this!

I have many new plans this year for showing my art. I am joining some new groups, having a spring gallery showing, ( hopefully) , I plan on doing some new art works and using some new techniques and mediums. This is going to be exciting.

I showed my art work to one of my favorite co-workers yesterday and he made me feel so good about what I am doing. It keeps me going , when other people see my work and tell me how good they think it is. He was so generous in his comments and made me feel like I was doing something worth while. He even asked me if I was famous! I told him I wished I was. LOL But still my work looked that good to him that he thought I was. He is a very kind soul and I enjoy working with him. I am so fortunate in my life to meet such good people and am able to call them friends.

When I started abstract in 2010, this painting you see before you was my very first attempt. We were to pick three colors and just start! I was very nervous as I am a very detailed painter. This is what transpired.
It was so much fun, grant you not as bold as what I do now however fun still the same. I decided to name this tequila sunrise. I actually was given the name from one of my son's friends. I like it immediately .
Now, my dilemma, do I keep it or do I change it Does it want new life breathed into it? Does it want to stay the same? I walk by it several times a week, stop and look at it, stare for awhile, and walk on by.
I am just so undecided as to what to do. I want to change it, but it is my very first one! It shows me how far I have come, it shows me how different my work is now, it shows me how much fun I had with it for the first time. So, for now, it stays the way it is. Maybe hoping someone will take it home with them and love it like I do. :)

When I started my abstract art, I had been taking classes for well over two years. My instructor has painted a series of painting and one just caught my eye! I asked her if I could buy it? She said she would be honoured. So I did.
Well my husband couldn't figure why I would want to buy someone else's art work when I paint myself and have so many of my own?
 Art is a very personal choice and I feel if you really like someone else's work it is important to have their work around you for your own enjoyment and also for the inspiration it will give you each and every day.
I have just purchased a painting from an artist I have been following for at least three years! He has inspired me to do my work. Although our techniques are very. very different , his work still inspires me!
He has had a December sale and I saw a painting that I just had to have! It isn't huge but it is beautiful!
Even if you are an artist yourself, I believe it is important to have other art work around you from artists you really enjoy. Their energy is in their work and it will help you become inspired!  :)
This picture you see here is just a picture I picked off of the internet and I have no idea where is came from. I believe it may be just a photo but I thought the look of it was very cool.

This picture beside here, it is called the spinning of life. That is exactly how my day was today! I started out for a swim this morning at 9;00 and swam for at least an hour. Left the pool and rushed home, got cleaned up and my friend came to pick me up to go into the City. I had a specialists apt at the dentist and has asked her to please come with me.
She was asked to drive as my grandson needed to go to hockey and my husband took him with our truck. So we leave early enough and decided to go have lunch, left there and shopped around the Mall for a bit and then took off to go to another Mall to be close to the apt I had. 5 minutes before my apt time, I got this big jolt that I wasn't even at the right place! I had made a mistake or call it 'old-timers"  but there we were running out of time and still had to find the place. I called my husband quickly, he gave instructions and Thank goodness we were like maybe 10 min away!
What the hell was I thinking! All of a sudden at the very last minute, I realize I am not at the correct place! All I can do is chalk it up to being too busy, too much on my mind , or like I said before " old-timers!"
This picture "The spinning of life is just the way some days go! I painted it and when it was done, I said to myself, this is totally how I feel some days!
Sometimes a painting just come to life with it's character and title. Sometimes a painting just says it all! Today, this painting surely lived up to it's name, or I guess I truly lived up to it's name. :)
Tomorrow is another day!

When things don't happen, what do we do? We try to forget they are there! We get lazy, we get impartial, we say we don't care. In fact we do care! We care so much that it sometimes seems easier and better if we just don't bother.
This is how I have felt the last little while with my art. Today I suddenly decided that the reason things have slowed down is because I have slowed down. I have been lazy, and impartial! I haven't been down in my studio for weeks!
Grant you I was away for two weeks but what about the other weeks. Laziness is all. The " I don't care attitude" crept in like a black cloak. 
Today, I finally stepped into my studio. It felt strange at first, but then I got the spark, the wanting to paint something . I did not get the chance to paint today but with a few days off I will be in there painting a masterpiece!
I have been asked to donate one of my painting to a Xmas party. I wonder which one I will give? :)
I love to paint so I just need to go down and " Getter Done!" 
The picture you see here was done with my spray paints. I can only use these in the summer out in the garage. Ventilation is very important. It was a fun project to do and I gave it to my Grandson for his room. I think I will do more of these next summer.
It feels good to blog again. I am ready and raring to go

Things are happening this weekend! We have a "Big " show going on in Marda Loop on Saturday the 17th! Four of us are showing our art from 12 - 4:00 in the afternoon.
This will be held in Tammy Winterhouse's Back yard. She runs Limelighter and is happy to have us there doing our Art show. We are please that this has come together well so far and all of us are ready and raring to go!
I have done a few new art pieces for this occasion and of course I am hoping that others will like them.
The artists are Mary Frost, Brent Schuerman, Steven Brent Campbell, And of course myself Darlene Moore. Please come check us out!