Two Headed Seahorse Acrylic Painting

Acrylic on watercolor board

I had a Raggedy Ann lunch box as a child, and that's what sparked this piece.... and then it mutated :). I'd like to find someone who could sew me one of these!

I have recently flaked out.... some time a few weeks back the internet in general was suddenly a very dull place. Update the blog? nah... Facebook? phffft.... Twitter? nope.... Did I go back to the real world?!?!? 'o course not, I buried myself in a couple books :) 

I read the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, The Descent by Jeff Long and am now in the middle of a biography about Eleanor of Aquitaine.

I do expect that soon I'll be back throwing my two cents into the social networking pool.

Horned Seahorse Acrylic Painting

11 x 14

acrylic on canvas

This is Earl. He's a crusty little guy who's quite put out at the recent invasion of jellyfish.

Halloween Sea Pumpkin Acrylic Painting

acrylic on watercolor board

11 x 14

It's almost Halloween!!! maybe I'll do a zombie next.....

Sea Moth Acrylic Painting

8 x 10

Acrylic on watercolor board

I've always liked the luna moth, the soft green wings, the fuzzy little body.. I figure it's about time I painted one! sort of.

Sea Giraffe Acrylic Painting

11 x 14

Acrylic on watercolor board

Companion piece to my Sea Rhino... everyone needs a friend, right? :)

Sea Rhino Acrylic Painting

11 x 14

acrylic on watercolor board

I've found myself on a seahorse kick. This guy's got a giraffe companion in the works and a couple insect themed 'seahorses' are on the way also. I'm going to be a busy girl this weekend! :)

Octopus girl and dragonfly acrylic painting

14 x 11

acrylic on canvas

I love tentacles, but I always find them challenging and half way through the painting start thinking, 'what made me decide to do this again?' :)

Patience Snail Acrylic Painting

14 x 11

Acrylic on canvas

Patience has been aptly named... I wrecked 3 canvases trying to paint her. Oddly enough she came together pretty quickly once I faced her the other way... something to keep in mind next time I spend a week wondering why I suddenly can't paint anymore :)

Polly wants a Cracker Acrylic Painting

11 x 14

Acrylic on Canvas

"Polly thought she'd very much rather have a cracker"

Detail shot

Been a busy weekend... TeeJay and I painted a pregnant belly (TeeJay posted about it here... Sara's Belly ), and then we headed off to the zoo to draw animals. I naively thought this was a brilliant idea.. I have lots of childhood memories of this zoo and the extremely lethargic animals they always seemed to have.... perfect for drawing! Nope, not anymore... in the intervening years since my childhood (we'll say 5 or 6) the zoo in question has either figured out how to keep the animals healthier... or they were all on meth. Either way the only thing there that sat still for more than 3 seconds was a hissing cockroach. I now have a sketch book full of very vague gestural shapes that somewhat resemble a tiger, a sturgeon, a wolf.... we won't even go into what I made the sea lions look like :) 

All in all it was a good day and I seem to have promised my son I'd take him back next week... maybe we'll get there at nap time! :)

Bonsai Jelly 'Shroom acrylic painting

14 x 14

acrylic on canvas

After talking it over with the collection of artists at work (and a few customers) I ended up going with Damon's suggestion of detailing the closest rock formations instead of adding critters. And major thanks to Nadia for showing me how to use my camera!

Bonsai Jelly 'Shroom WIP Update....

14 x 14

acrylic on canvas

Well, here's where I am so far... I have some tweeking to do with the colors and I'm debating on whether or not it needs a dragonfly perched on the top of the 'jelly tree'. Opinions are welcome! :)

Bonsai Jelly 'Shroom WIP

14 x 14

acrylic on canvas

 I didn't plan on doing another 'jelly shroom' again but while aimlessly wandering the internet I came across these trees....

from Socotra Island, called the Dragon's Blood Tree..... how could I resist?

Death Head Jelly 'Shroom acrylic painting... finally done!

14 x 14

acrylic on canvas

This was a great piece for me... I learned a new and less stressful way to paint and.... I looked at it once it was finished and thought "I think I'm improving!" What a rare and wonderful thing... makes me impatient to dive into the next one.

Death Head Jelly 'Shroom WIP yet again....

 fine tuning the color reflecting on the 'jelly'... and this is what the color looks like, wish I could remember under what conditions I took this :/

 'shrooms need polka dots, right?

These guys are very near done... then I get to play with the critters in the background :)

Death Head Jelly 'Shroom WIP

14" x 14"

Acrylic on canvas

Trying something different with this one... and here it is so far. This is just the underpainting, I'm not used to doing those and I think this way might make it take longer to to complete, but I think my stress level and usual 'fighting' with the painting will be kept to dull roar this way. We'll see how it goes!

Ferdinand the Bullfrog Acrylic Painting

20 x 20

Acrylic on Canvas

One of my favorite stories as a child was about a bull named Ferdinand who just wanted to be left alone to smell the flowers under his tree in the pasture.... but wound up in a bullfight ring. Being the meek and mild (and perhaps slothful) bull he was he didn't fight, bored the crowd and was eventually sent back to his pasture. Moral of the story? well, I don't know if there was supposed to be one, but it looked to me like 'if you sit on your ass, you'll eventually get what you want'. Perhaps I can blame my lack of initiative and drive on that childhood story... I do, after all, love to just sit on my ass :)

So this is a homage to slothfulness lol

Parrot Fish acrylic painting

14 x 14

Acrylic on canvas

Decided to play with larger canvases. Only drawback I had was that half way through I lost interest for a few days, probably due to the fact that I've gotten used to finishing a painting fairly quickly. Next one's 20 x 20... wonder how long that'll take :)

Chinese Crested Seahorse Acrylic Painting

8 x 8

Acrylic on canvas

This piece was determined not to be cooperative in the scanning/photographing department. The true colors are somewhere between the images above. :::sigh:::

Anyhow... This little guy's name is Horatio, and is trying to find his way back to the little mermaid's purse :)

Snail Bunny Acrylic Painting

8 x 8

Acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas

It's the Easter Mollusk, Charlie Brown!! Umm, yeah.... I've no idea where this one came from, I came across a photo of a snail and saw a bunny. I got some good critique on this from a couple friends so I think it's a bit more polished and turned out better than I was afraid it would :)

Octo Elephant Acrylic Painting

8 x 8

Acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas

Because Octopi and Elephants are way cool and playing with nature is too much fun.