More wild and weird trees ~ I just listed these two on e-bay. I had painted 'Evening Dew Tree' (acrylics on 140 lb. watercolor paper) several months ago but I just finished 'Tsunami Tree' (acrylics on Reeves cotton canvas board) this morning. I have an idea for my next tree fantasy now!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY ~ Sorry I'm a day late in my wishes since it just turned February 15th but I hope you all had a wonderfully sweet and delightful Valentine's Day! I did this little digital painting tonight and I'm working on a new painting in acrylics tonight that is larger than aceo size this time. I hope I get it done soon to share with ya'll!

NEW ACEO PAINTINGS ~ I just finished 3 more mini paintings in acrylics on 140 lb. watercolor paper! I always start out with painting in the background colors then I take it from there with what's going on with the rest of the painting. I can see what is happening with them as the painting progresses and the title pops in my head as I'm finishing them. I just listed these in e-bay (link on the right side of my blog). I've been having wonderful luck selling my little aceos in there so far! It's a great feeling to see that people like and want to own a painting that you do. It's like being able to share your imagination and feelings with the whole world! COOL STUFF!!

FIREFLY SUMMER NIGHT TREE ~ This is an original surreal ACEO (3 1/2 X 2 1/2 inches). It is painted (heavily textured) with acrylics on 140 lb. watercolor paper and is signed LC in the lower right corner. This depicts a a fantasy of a warm summer evening night. The nocturnal creatures are just awakening and the fireflies are decorating the trees like little jewels! I just listed this one on e-bay today. ugh, the wind has been blowing all day and it's getting colder and colder here so it was fun to think of summer when I did this one!

BUBBLE TROUBLE TREES ~ I don't think these little trees are actually in trouble, they are just pioneers on a new and unchartered planet in the Universe. The are temporarily wearing their protective bubbles until they can get acclimated to their new planet! This is a little fun painting I did and it's acrylics on 140 lb. watercolor paper. I just listed it on e-bay tonight so I'll see what happens with it. This is the painting that originally had 6 trees until I cut it apart! I sold one as an aceo and now I have 2 trees left so maybe I can title it 'Double Bubble Trouble Trees' LOL say that 3 times real fast!

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.

Ring around the moon ~ Tonight I stepped out on the deck and there it was...this huge ring up there around the moon. I had read that ice crystals up in the atmosphere are what create these halos. I grabbed my little digital camera and snapped some pictures of it. This is kind of fuzzy but I was happy that I actually captured this beautiful sight! My husband wasn't feeling well tonight but he came out and looked at it too. One of nature's amazing sights! They mentioned the moon halo on the local news tonight too. Here's NASA's lovely photo and explanation: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000515.html

The Tree Harvesters ~ Those little tiny people down there by the ladder are harvesting trees. I don't know exactly what it means but the trees seem to be a combination of Christmas trees and trees with fall foilage. I stayed up late last night painting on this and had so much fun! It's acrylics on 140 lb. watercolor paper and it's 7 1/2 X 11 inches. I'm going to put it up for auction in either artbyus or ebay.

Bridge of Sighs ~ I got an e-mail advertising an ebay special listing fee of .15 for today only so I listed this one for 24 hours. Hmmm, it's funny how .15 can turn into a $2.50 fee so easily though. I have this one hanging in my living room right now, and I'll be very happy if it sells but also OK if it doesn't. (acrylics on stretched canvas 16 x 20 inches)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=010&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&viewitem=&item=200062951313&rd=1&rd=1

Bright Window with Red Drapes ~ I just finished this painting and it's acrylics on cardstock yupo paper. I was doing an abstract (non representational painting) and this window and red drapery appeared so I went with it! It's 8 1/2 x 11 inches.

~~~

Well I am now using the NEW blogger! It was much easier to do than I thought it would be. I just clicked on the upgrade button, logged in my google account and then waited...and waited...and waited. I got an E-mail telling me that I had succesfully upgraded. yea, I'm glad that is over, I have been putting it on my 'to do' list for a couple of weeks now.

Testing...Testing ~ For some strange reason my whole blog seems to have disappeared so I'm making this test post. Also I was going to upgrade to the new blogger version (not beta anymore) but still can't find the link to do so and I used to see it every darn time I logged into my blog! arrrrrgh!! [:(

Lost River Cave ~ I grew up in Kentucky, not far from where the longest cave system in the world is located, Mammoth Cave. It has over 300 miles of mapped passageways and multiple levels with underground rivers. It's an amazing place to visit if you're into spelunking! In Bowling Green there is also a place called the Lost River Cave . Don't take the boat ride if you have claustrophobia! The boat glides over the murky green water and up under a solid rock ceiling which you can almost touch if you raise up your arms. Back in the 30's and 40's there was a big room in the Lost River Cave that was actually turned into a nightclub (check out the cool pics in this link!). It used to draw big name bands and must have been one neat place to party!! My Father used to tell us tales of how him and his friends would hang out in there. Another cool fact: legend has it that Jesse James hid out in this cave for a while after robbing a bank in a nearby town! The above is actually a quick painting I did last weekend but I manipped it into a digital work because it is still a WIP. I just had to try out the tiny bottle of flouresent orange acrylics that my husband bought to paint on his gun site for the turkey shoot but that's another story LOL!

Immunity Necklance and/or Immunity Idol ~ For those who may need one of these items to present in the event they are one of those 'tagged' in blogland!! My dear dear friend and fantastic artist Cheri (Ladywolf1 in wc) http://digisbycheri.com/, who I met in the Quickie Digi thread in wetcanvas, gave me this idea when she presented one to me when I tagged her once upon a time! :D

Tag you're it! ~ I've been tagged by Lisa (asil-art) http://asil-art.blogspot.com/ and I have to name 6 weird things about myself (LOL that should be easy). OK here goes:

6 weird things about myself

1. I've been a night owl all my life. I find myself more awake at 3 a.m. than 3 p.m.
2. You'de think at 53 I would be in to easy listening music but not me, I'm like listening to hard rock (Alice in Chains, Smashing Pumpkins, etc.)
3. I can write upside down and backwards.
4. I can remember my phone number and address from when I was a small child.
5. My fingers are pretty long but double jointed (one thumb is). I can turn my hand into a claw looking thing when I want to LOL.

OK so now I have to tag 6 people (insert evil laugh here!) unless you present the immunity necklace like one of my friends did when I tagged them hehe! :D

I pick:

Alfreda (Jafabrit)
W.J. (art 166)
Cynthia
Janet (A Planet Named Janet)
Florence Artur
Nina Kuriloff

Genesis ~ This is a new digital work I did recently. I am woefully behind on keeping up with my painting/art the last couple of weeks but I'm looking forward to catching up once the holidays are over. arrrgh, I just remembered I was going to finish addressing my Christmas cards tonight so I can get them in the mail.

Has anyone upgraded to Internet Explorer 7 yet? I did the other day but I seem to having some strange bugs with it so far...things such as overlapping type on some web pages, posts that appear, then disappear??? . I do like the darker type font though.

Trees of Surreality ~ I finished this one today and it's acrylics on 140 lb. watercolor paper and 11 x 15 inches. Brrrr it is getting cold outside and it's going to go down in the 20's tonight! I can hear the wind from the cold front hitting the windows outside. It's a good night to stay inside and drink hot chocolate or something!

Combine a Christmas Tree with a Full Moon and make a little digital magic! This is a digital painting and HOHOHO it's time to get in the Holiday Spirit!

OH CHRISTMAS TREE OF CHRISTMAS PAST ~ This is a photo of our tree taken a couple of years ago. We usually don't get our tree up until about the middle of December because my husband likes a real tree but those artificial trees are looking awful appealing to me lately. Several people I know already have their trees up and they come with the lights already on. Which means - no struggling with strings of lights that only half work, watering the tree every couple days, cleaning up all the dried needles...ah I love the Christmas season, I really do!! It's the most fun time of the year!

NEWEST ACEOS ~ I did them a week ago but finally got a chance to get photos of them this morning and they are all 3 listed on ebay too. These are called 'Dancing in Fire' (a little coal dancing through the embers), 'Deep Blue' (with the fishie), and 'Ice Droplets' (abstract of ice). Whew what a busy week! I am going to get my Christmas decorations down from the attic today and get in the moood but hey it's still early yet, we're not even into December!

DEW DROPS, GLASS PEBBLES, AND A DIRTY WHITE PLASTIC TABLE AT SUNRISE ~ This sure made an interesting surface and while I got some photos of my new ACEOs I saw a great photo op in this scene too! I am thinking this would be a good idea for a new painting!

Mystery Factory ~ One of the strangest sights we see on our annual drive to Kentucky to see my family is the Ashland Oil Refinery. Right after passing the Kentucky state border from West Virginia is this sprawling huge industrial complex with stack after endless smokestacks and big round oil tanks. It looks huge and mysterious and I can't image what all is going on inside the place. I think it's better to see from afar though, as sadly I read that lots of people living nearby have been experiencing health problems. It is an awesome sight at night, lit up by countless tiny white lights and big flames shooting from the the tops of some of the stacks. Experimenting, I took the photo I had taken of the place last summer, put it in photoshop, and pasted it into the horizon of the sunrise painting (below). I may go ahead and paint this in acrylics because I kind of like the way it looks huge and looming and mysterious on the horizon. Anyways I'm mulling this one over.

Whew what a busy week! ~ My part-time job has turned into a full-time job because of Christmas coming and plus doing my art business after work. Well here is my tree painting again (for the third time) but I swear it is finally really finished now and I just varnished it this evening. I titled it 'River Aire' after the River in the U.K. but it is totally from my imagination, I just loved that River name because it sounds so magical to name a body of water after air, I love that! I also did these 2 aceos last weekend and just getting around to taking a photo of them. I'll probably get them listed on e-bay when I get some free time this week. Hope everyone is having a great week!

Sooper Duper Light Show ~ This is a manip off of my acrylic painting so I guess it's a digital painting.

ACEO Madness ~ Wow I have 8 bids on one of my ACEO's that I listed on E-bay!! I can see how a person could get addicted to listing in there as long as the fees don't outweigh the bids. I haven't had this much excitement about an auction ever! I did 5 more and listed them tonight so I'll see how that goes the next few days, keeping my fingers crossed!

RED WHITE AND BLUE ~ Woohoo, a tribute to the U.S.A. on election day! This is a digital painting. :D

Three New ACEOs ~ I put these on e-bay tonight and I'll see what happens with them. I can see how people can get addicted to listing their art on art auctions sites because it's so fun to actually get bids. On e-bay I guess it's more like a gamble since you have to pay to list and don't know if it will sell or not. BRRRRR it's cold outside and I can feel winter is on the way. Has anyone done any Christmas decorating yet? I start playing my Elvis Presley Christmas music after Halloween but everything else has to wait till after Thanksgiving!

Blue Sea Tsunami with Full Moon ~ After finally getting up my nerve to try e-bay last weekend, I sold one in there tonight!! I listed my aceo of the red sky with moon (below) and someone bid and won it tonight plus he also bid on the one above! I was so surprised because of my 0 feedback and didn't think anyone would even see them in e-bay because of so many listings in there but woohoo OMG I'm doing the 'happy dance' tonight cause I made my first sale on e-bay! Maybe it's beginner's luck but I'm sure going to try for it again and I did a couple more aceo's tonight.

SUNRISE (Is it finished???) ~ Did you ever do a painting, let it sit for weeks while you mull over whether it's finished or not? This is 8 X 10 inches on stretched canvas and I had planned on adding some more items on the horizon to make it more interesting but maybe it's finished after all. So officially I'll call this one a WIP but share the progress of it anyways. Well Halloween is over and I hope youall are enjoying all that leftover candy LOL, I know I am!