My Relocated Art Studio in Tennessee

Well I'm all set up now to start creating finally. Whew! Been a long time it seems since I've seriously worked at my art.  The little house we bought, is about 1/3 the size of my home we sold in Washington state, but I said I wanted to downsize, and so I did. A lot! Anyway, my craft room - it's smaller than my last one sort of. The other craft room had a whole wall which was just a sliding closet and to me that's just a waste of valuable wall space. This one has a big walk in closet, but with a regular door, and it's tucked into the corner of the room. Way better.

First thing I did with this new room is paint it my favorite Tuscan gold-yellow color. Just love it. So warm and welcoming. Then I pulled out the old carpet and bought some Allure vinyl plank flooring in Country Pine, which looks like old barn wood. Loved how it turned out! Next, I bought a bunch of bookcases (can't believe how hard those were to find here! No Ikea's anywhere to be found.) Once those were built and set up, I got to unpack all my craft boxes and start to organize.

I'm pretty pleased with it overall. The window in the room looks out onto my back pasture so I can see my wonderful horses grazing back there and can keep an eye on them. It's just so peaceful and inspiring to see them and nature all around.

So far I've done a couple of small paintings and am working on a sculpture as well. On top of that, I'm trying to find a full time job and work on home improvement as well, so there's a lot to keep me busy these days.

My best friend Ellen, (Bag II) of Macabre Webs, and I get together to craft about once a week or so. She does amazing Sculpy pieces and paints as well, so we get together and hoot it up and just have a blast! The other day we had a "Craftabagamania" as we call them. Two old bags getting together to craft and eat and shop! So fun!! She's been a huge help giving me a kick in the hiney to get creating.  I feel very creative in my new space and I see a lot of new By Way of Salem art ahead!

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!

Painting a little bit of Winter

These are my latest little creations. I say little because these are petite canvases of 4 x 5. They are done in acrylics, then embellished with decorative papers and distressed letters. I was so charmed by them when they were finished, I didn't want to sell them!

I'm working on a few more right now. I know, it's close to Christmas and I'm a bit behind in my seasonal creations, but I can't create by the season. I have to feel it, or it doesn't happen. I could paint snowmen all year long, even in Summer. Right now, I'm feeling a bit candy cane-ish, so we'll see what I might come up with! Ho Ho Ho!

Come to the Halloween Carnival!

Welcome to the Halloween Carnival!
UPDATE: This piece has been sold. Didn't make it to Etsy before someone snatched it up! Thank you!
Here is my long awaited canvas I've been working on for several months now. I had no idea when starting it, that it would take so long to complete but I'm glad I endured the process. I found I could only paint one section at a time while I had the "picture" in my head. As I got visions in my minds-eye, then I'd move on to the next section. There are 6 sections; each one depicting something Halloween-ish.

It's also a bit of a different type of painting that I've ever done too, as I incorporated elements of altered art (which I really enjoyed!), and different textures of papers, glitter, and painting techniques.

I've titled this piece "Halloween Carnival", as it reminds me of when I was a kid, the local park would put on a Halloween Carnival. Everywhere you'd look, there was something different and festive happening; costume parades, games, a haunted spook house, and either a play or puppet show. The air would be scented with the sweet smells of candy apples and cotton candy. Candy wrappers would be strewn on the ground serving as paths to the next booth.



I remember being so excited at all the Halloween festivities going on around me, overwhelmed at where to go first, meeting up with other neighborhood kids, trick or treat bags spilling as we'd make our way through the crowds ridding ourselves of our adult chaperones hurrying to catch up with us. Seems like just yesterday.....Hope you like it!

A Bit of Progress

Remember the painting I was working on with the dancing skeleton? Finally I have a bit of progress on it. I forgot how much work it takes, at least for me!

I'm liking how it's all working so far. Each color block will be a different Halloween scene, yet tie in together. I'm also adding other elements besides painting. I've got some "altered" art ideas that I'm going to incorporate which should add some visual interest as well.

Hope you enjoy the preview! A lot left to do, so back to painting I go!

My BY WAY OF SALEM Website

Oh I've been so remiss! I haven't worked on my website in ages and it so needs to be updated. I apologize to everyone whose gone on and seen the same old stuff. There's also been some big staff changes so I'll probably have to update those as well. Another episode of "As the Bag Turns"....

So I'm not sure whether to keep it a selling website with a shopping cart like it is, or to just direct to Etsy. We'll have to just see. It's really a fun site! I have "Bag's Corner's" for your reading entertainment, and more stuff about me on the "About Us" page.

Make sure to drop on in and take a peek in the coming week(s) and see what other stuff I've added.

Take care y'all! Jeannine

Dancing in the Moonlight

This is just the barest glimpse of my latest piece; a 9 x 12 canvas painting. I'd just barely started, when I realized that this particular type of canvas needed to be prepped with gesso! So I had to re-do, which I didn't want to do, but oh well. I was wondering why my brushes were sort of dragging along.

I know it doesn't look like anything now and it might be hard to visualize, but that's how most start out and then all that paint just brings 'em to life! My plan is to make this sort of a patchwork of various holiday scenes, and I think will turn out very fun and festive. Hopefully. So see you all back when it's done!

New Items on Etsy

Good afternoon dearies! I'll be listing some new items on Etsy today; two quilted stitcheries (I LOVE making them!), sculpted mini-witch hats, SootFoot, the black cat familiar with a wonderful collar, and two wooden bunnies from my Bunny of the Woods collection. I'd love it if you'd stop by! Just click on the Etsy logo on the side of my blog to enter my store.

Sorry to say, but my days on eBay are now officially over. I swear, everytime I go on there, somehow my password gets compromised! I make sure I log out, but it doesn't matter. Because eBay and PayPal are linked, it makes me very nervous. Last time this happened, I lost $790! I'm sorry to say that 2 of our Halloween groups are on eBay, but it just can't be helped. You will now find me only on Etsy and Arts a Flutter. I think I'll check out the Etsy groups and see what they're all about. Plus Etsy is just wonderfully supportive and informative for artists anyway, so it's a great venue being surrounded by all that talent. See you there!!!