Sapphire Falls ~ This was originally a photo of the Drakes Creek in Kentucky but I did some digital magic to it.

More Surreal Tree ACEO's ~ I've been doing more of my little trees and listed them in e-bay today. Each tree has a story, emotion, or tale to tell. These are so much fun to do! I guess I'll keep doing trees for now till I get inspired by something else. Well the third one has more wildflowers and a birdhouse, but there are twisty tree branches on the ground down there. These are acrylics on canva-paper.

Willow Tree and the Circle of Life ~ Recently some of my on-line friends have mentioned circles and 'the circle of life'. It got me to thinking that life really does seem to go in a circle. My daughter has grown up, become an adult and moved out and my mother is 80 and more like a child every day because of the alzheimers disease. It seems that life is ever-changing and you can't stop the circle no matter how hard you would like to sometimes!

I finished up this one last night and it's ACEO size and acrylics on Canson canva-paper. It's going for auction in e-bay today. I'm really happy that I've sold 2 of my little trees in there this week! I love this new Canson paper I recently bought, it's nice and thick and smooth with a nice canvas texture, wonderful to paint on. I also bought some heavy gloss gel medium which I used in this one to give it a rich shiny appearance, love this stuff also! Well my Michaels gift certificate is all used up now, but I got some nice art supplies this week!

EXQUISITE!! ~ That's the best word to describe what was in the letter I got from Janet today. She recently opened up her own Etsy store and has made a wonderful new web site too. Read the news about her new site, Etsy store, and free notecard offer in her blog: http://aplanetnamedjanet.blogspot.com/ Janet currently has a promotion going on to give away (for free!) some of her beautiful art on printed notecards. OK, I've been dying for her to start selling some of those gorgeous fish designs she does and to get one as part of her free promotion was just awesome! Thanks Janet!! I am not mailing this beauty out, I'm keeping it and framing it and it's going on the wall in my art room! Thank you also for the smaller little aceo size freebie, it's gorgeous too and also going in the frame along with the notecard. The colors and print quality are just fantastic and the red envelope makes a wonderful mat behind the card!! BTW, this is a photo I actually took of her cards today! I layed them on a sheet of white watercolor paper, took them out on the back deck and got a digital photo of them. I seem to have gotten the photo a little crooked though but you can see how gorgeous the colors and detail are!

TREE TRIO ~ Of ACEO's. (from right to left, The Secret Tree of Mirth, The Little Tree Picker, and The Tree of Hearts. I had already finished and listed the one on the left on e-bay last week but I finished up 2 more last night and today to list. I've been having lots of fun doing these and the tiny details were painted with a pointy toothpick and little sliver of paper because my smallest brush was too big! Yes, The Little Tree Picker is one that I cut off from a larger work (posted below) because I wanted an odd number of trees in there plus, it made for the 3rd one in the trio!

The Secret Tree of Mirth ~ I don't even know what that title means but it came to me as I was finishing painting this one last night. It's an ACEO and it's acrylics on 140 lb. watercolor paper. I'll be putting it up for auction soon on either artbyus or ebay. Did you ever have a strange title pop into your head while you are painting something and you weren't sure why or how it came into your mind, but you knew it was perfect for what you were working on? This one is currently listed on e-bay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=010&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&viewitem=&item=200067157337&rd=1&rd=1

Rocky Mountain Sun Shaman ~ This is a digital painting dedicated to my friends who live out west near Denver, Colorado. It's a sun shaman to melt some of the many, many inches and feet of snow on the ground out there! It's just unbelievable how much snow has fallen out near Denver and I read on the internet news the other day that there was an avalanche which injured some and buried the highway. Hurry up spring! Wishing good thoughts and sunny days for you out west!

My daughter, myself ~

I'm feeling sentimental tonight because I feel like such an empty nester...my daughter has moved out and is living with her boyfriend for the last couple of months. I hope they have many, many years of love and happiness together, and possibly even marriage in the future. I had one old photo from my High School graduation and I put my daughter's senior year photo with mine in a picture frame. I had always thought that she looked like my husband, but the older she gets I can see that she really takes after me! :D Anyways, my husband and I love and miss her a lot! I told her I am going to use her empty room for storing the Christmas stuff I just took down and hey, I can see a room to place all my art stuff in! I guess time marches on and this is just a part of life to see your children grow up and make their own homes and ways in life.

Southern Lights ~ Digital painting I did tonight. I took most of my Christmas decorations down tonight...it's a relief to get some of the clutter out of the house, but kind of depressing too. It's time to look forward to a new year!

More Ring Around the Moon Photos~

1. This one turned out OK with the moon halo showing faintly.

2. Orbs showed up in this one but the halo didn't?!

3. I moved the camera when I took this one but got some interesting light effects.