Paint Yourself in Stars Hallow

If you're fans of the Gilmore Girls and wish you too lived in Stars Hallow, you could very well be a fan of folk art and not even know it! I've always envisioned myself living in some quaint and charming New England town with salt box houses and gas lamp streetlights, horses trotting up the road, pumpkins on the porch in Autumn, and sailboats lining the bay in Summer. Can't you picture it?

I've always loved the art of Charles Wysocki, as he depicted that type of life in his paintings, and now I've recently discovered several other artists whose work I equally admire; Cheryl Bartley, Johanne Cassia, to just name a few very talented folk artists.

Charles Wysocki

Cheryl Bartley

Folk art is a more simplistic form of painting than fine art. I can't do fine art. As much as I try, it's just not my style I guess. I love bright colors, a more surreal look than classical art. Perspective and proportion are not a big deal in folk art.

Hiro Yamagata is one of my all time favorite artists. Known more as a contemporary artist, to me, his paintings capture a similiar folk art style with bright colors and less use of perspective/proportion as well. I was lucky enough to see some of his original work on display in San Francisco awhile back and I was absolutely wow'd and just fell in love with his style and use of bright colors.

Hiro Yamagata

Folk art style is something that I would really like to explore further in my own work because I think I fall somewhere in the middle; definitely not fine art and not too cartoon-ish, just fun and naive.

Snowmen with his friend Red bird

I love crows and pumpkins, and Fall of course!

Halloween and holiday art has long been a subject of folk art paintings so often depicted on wooden plates, tinder boxes, or other readily available surfaces, as well as canvas.

Maybe I'll paint myself in my own quaint New England village, with crows and pumpkins of course!

Oh Dem Bones, Them Jumpin' Bones!

Did you know that this fun Halloween-time childrens' song is actually an old traditional spiritual song, written by African-American author and songwriter James Weldon Johnson? Well hells bells, neither did I!  And even more interesting, the lyrics are based out of a chapter in the Bible; Ezekiel 37:1-14, where the prophet visits the Valley of the Dry Bones and prophesises that they will come alive by God's command. Wellllllll doggies, I just had no idea! And that concludes our bible study for today........

"....the toe bones connected to the foot bone, the foot bones connected to the ankle bone...." makes me giddy for Halloween!

So on to my Skelly paintings... I created these spooky little characters on 4x5 stretched artist canvas, painted in acrylics and embellished with German Glass glitter, rubber stamping and other ephemera. The details were done with pen and ink which adds that special finishing touch. 

See them on my Etsy store!

Haunted House - The Unveiling

I know, I know - I promised Mordred, but she's still getting her gown altered. You know these high maintenance diva's. Never satisfied!

I'm hoping you will enjoy my haunted house in the interim. The top as you can see, has the haunted house with it's creepy front walkway and pumpkins standing watch. Each side (there are 10 sides to this box) has a semi-different silhouette. I say semi, because I used one or two of the designs twice as I loved them so much. For a whimsical touch, I added white, yellow, and orange polka dots. The inside is a decoupaged ensemble of assorted Halloween designed papers surrounding a non-too-happy skeleton attempting to make his escape. It is glazed inside and out with a waterbase varnish.

This little gem measures just shy of 12" across and 5" tall. Perfect for your other-worldly treasures! Finally listed for sale at http://www.bywayofsalem.etsy.com