Happy Summer Solstice!

Happy Summer Solstice everyone!

I went out and bought some new flowers to celebrate (I will post pictures of the dahlia when it opens :)

Thought I'd share my painting of the Japanese Sun Goddess Amaterasu. I'm smitten by her story and the relationship between her and the goddess Uzume, This story of laughter and joy bringing Amaterasu out of the darkness after all the other gods had failed is so inspiring. Laughter is the best medicine it seems, even for the the gods :)

from pantheon.org

When the sun goddess Amaterasu had hidden herself in a cave, thus covering the earth in darkness and infertility, it was Uzume (Shinto goddess of joy) who brought her back. With her provoking and curlew dances she managed to make the gods laugh so hard, that Amaterasu left the cave intrigued. Her emerging brought light and life back to earth. Her brother Ninigi married Uzume to the deity who guards the Floating Bridge to Heaven.

ghost tour

The ghost tour of St. Augustine was great fun, we visited the Military Hospital, Oldest Drugstore, and the Jail. Our ghostly tour guides were wonderfully macabre and delivered the tour with great relish. I did get a bit spooked locked in the old jail house in the dark!
Many of the ghost tales were more gross than ghost and served to make us all very glad to be around in this century!
I still can't believe my youngest wanted to go and didn't get a bit scared!
We got back home last night, and I missed my little dog and of course my studio. Strangely I missed the green of my backyard. Its become quite lush and bit overgrown, we now have turtles wandering about :) I can be such a homebody!

*shiver*

Reporting from the shores of St. Augustine where we will be leaving for a ghost tour in about one hour. On the Ghosts and Gravestones Trolley Can you believe this was my 12 year old daughters idea? I'm a little nervous, I hope they don't have people jumping out at us! I'm a big chicken about that sort of spooky! However I do hope to visit the graveyard, and I'm more than a bit nervous about visiting the military hospital!

Wish us luck!

Fairy Market

"Fairy Market" watercolor, colored pencil, gold paint. (detail of painting)

I've always loved gypsy wagons, I was inspired to do this painting after attending the Hoggstowne Medieval Faire and a dash of the film Stardust. The gypsy wagons just seem to magical for this world. I could just imagine them on their way to a market in Faery :)

Prints and original here

Queen of Hearts

"Queen of Hearts"
watercolor 2008, This is a character that scared me to no end as a child. I thought if I gave her a great dress she might be pleased. Hmmmmm still not sure about that!

Prints available in my etsy shop

ACEO bounty

Mermaid ACEO


Have you started collecting Artist collector cards? (ACEO's artist cards, editions and originals) If you haven't heard of them, well they are small collectable works of art, trading card sized! ACEO's are always 3.5 x 2.5 inches but they can be created in any media. There is a really fun group on Etsy running an ACEO challenge with a big prize. Anyone can can join in and post a challenge for the artists to create! We keep creating and posting our cards. All cards not sold by the end of the challenge will be won by the last person to post on the thread! See, I told you it was fun :) ACEO Bounty thread

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you Moms and caretakers of all sorts. You know who you are feeder of stray cats or kids!

This is a picture I took while in DC with my oldest daughter a few weeks ago, at the Museum of Natural History. They have a butterfly house you can walk through and its filled with magical, unlikely creatures like the one pictured here.

Hope all of you get to put your feet up a bit today and enjoy the flowers (and butterflies!)

Love,

Cat

tagged!

I've been tagged by Athena's Armory  :) Rules are..

1. Link to the person who tagged you

2.post the rules on your blog

3. list 6 nonimportant things, quirks, habits about yourself

4 tag 6 random people and link to their blogs

5. Let each person know they've been tagged by commenting on their blog. 

I'm tagging battlemaidenstudio, beautiful fantasy artist

debdesign  very cool dolls and more

heartaday a very uplifting art blog :) 

texastella great etsy sellers blog!

hellen grossman dolls, enchanting old world feel to these wonderful art dolls

dzfantasy, dazzling fantasy art 

6 things about me....

1. I adore ethnic dance, especially Middle Eastern, Indian and American Tribal. I've taken lessons but am not very good *blush* But I do love to go see performances :) I hope to take Middle Eastern Dance 1 again this summer. 

2. I am owned by the silliest little pom puppy, I never pictured myself with a dog, much less a toy dog. here he is (what do you mean spoiled?)

3. I have striped hair (blonde,red, and dark fudge) sort of a neopolitan head 

4. My hubby is a fencer

5. I once met my idol Alan Lee <3>

6. if I don't get studio time I get very cranky :P

DC and DaVinci

While in DC with the 8th grade class I had the opportunity to take my group to the National Gallery. We didn't have as much time as I'd like (of course I could spend days in there!) we did get to see Leonardo's Ginerva. 

I was strangely taken by the painting. Of course I'd seen it in books for years, but nothing could prepare me for seeing her in person. I could wax on over her beauty, the brush strokes, etc. However that isn't what I felt while standing there mesmerized. What I felt was a timelessness in her gaze, an artist reaching across the centuries through his models face. I have to admit I was teary eyed and had to send my quickly bored students on to the next exhibit.  Ok I realize that many people must have this reaction, I mean it is a Da Vinci I just didn't think I would go all fan girly right there in the museum! 

Calamity

Meet Calamity, the little ghost out for a midnight walk on the moonbeams. She is a wee bit afraid of heights you see, so her little moth friends are lending a hand. 

prints available http://darklingwoods.etsy.com 

also just listed new original aceo cards! 

No Place Like Home!

Had a wonderful trip to DC, despite a loooong bus ride with the 8th grade class :) My oldest daughter loved everything, especially the beautiful cherry blossoms in full bloom.  

A highlight for me of course was seeing Dorothy's ruby slippers. There is still a bit of magic there don't you think?  We even brought home a stuffed Toto. 

I read Wicked on the bus trip,  I'm in love with Elphaba and still a bit scared of the flying monkeys! 

When I arrived home imagine how tickled I was to find that ebonypaws had featured my Ruby slipper painting in her blog.. check it out if you love red shoes!

FEA spring show

Fantasy Artists of Etsy spring exhibition 

Red Wings

"Red Wings" mixed media for Chlidren's Illustrators Club 

There was a children's book about a little white rabbit who wished for red wings. ( the title was the "Rabbit Who Wanted Red Wings")

I remember reading this as a child and being delighted that the little rabbit's wish was granted. What could be better than sprouting bright red wings? As the plot played out however my heart broke for the little winged rabbit. You see no one would befriend him, or take care of him with the red wings. Not even his own mother! 

Now, I'm sure the idea was to happy with they way you are, but the story gave me chills and still does. In my little mind the story's moral was; if you were different, or changed, no one would love you. 

 The theme for Children Illustrator's Club this month was angels. I had almost forgotten this story when along comes my angel sprouting red wings. The collage elements are from a vintage book that was discarded from our library on pantomime and that worked perfectly for me. Because in real life we can't wish those red wings away. 

"Red Wings" available in my etsy shop

Cheshire Cat

 Back to Wonderland! 

My newest painting 

"The Cheshire Cat" 

He was my favorite as a little girl, and I adored cats and thought they were all magically clever. (well aren't they?) A smiling one was creepy and intriguing all at the same time. I tried to capture that mystery and dapper air in this piece. 

Prints and original available 

(copyright property of the artist, violators will be taken to the Queen of Hearts)

Serpent Mandalas

Happy Spring!

Today I'm featuring an artist whose work I've long been enchanted by Lindy Longhurst. And her work just makes me feel like its spring time!

Here is one of her beautiful works of art inspired by fairy tales, "Rapunzel" The attention to detail and pure joy in her art is just wonderful to see.

and here is "The Frog Prince" I think the colors in this piece just sing! 

For more of her inspiring work please visit her web page. You will find more mandalas, paintings inspired by dreams and lovely gifts http://serpentmadalas.com

or blog

http://serpentmandalas.blogspot.com 

moo cards

my moo cards are here!

Aren't they cute? In case you haven't heard of them, moo cards are half the size of traditional business cards made by moo in England. I'm really happy with them, they are much thicker than I expected and the color is great, all my contact info is on the back. The best thing about them is you have unlimited number of images to feature on your cards! 

Alice in Wonderland

"Alice"  2008

Have I mentioned that I adore Alice, even though when I was little the story terrified me? See I had a book with Peter Pan on one side and when you turned it over and upside down Alice in Wonderland was on the other. I'm sure there were other book made this way but it was a bit unnerving all the same that down the rabbit hole was literally topsy turvy!

 But Alice, she was my hero! yes she cried, but she kept her wits even though the adults around here were nutty as can be! And what child can't relate to that? She was also so independent, no fairy godmother or prince for Alice. 

Oh yes I do adore the other more traditional tales with Princesses and towers, and princes *swoons* but this tale was about a real little girl, someone I might of known or been myself. 

So here I painted her feet firmly planted in Wonderland, and The Cheshire Cat is keeping a close eye on her every move, and yes thats the Queen of Hearts on the card!

Prints are available here http://darklingwoods.etsy.com 

Magic Carpet Ride

my new watercolor "Magic Carpet Ride"

Magic Carpet Ride is available here http://www.darklingwoods.etsy.com 

I've got sketches complete for 4 new paintings. I hope to work on the Alice in Wonderland piece this weekend. Others are "Climb" and a new little Witch, and "To the Fairy Market"

I'm needing to do some mixed media work, I can just feel it coming on :) 

Alice In Wonderland 1903

Here is an enchanting journey down the rabbit hole! from richlayers live journal, a vintage film from 1903. The film quality isn't perfect, but that adds to the charm. Its quite ambitious once you think about it!
enjoy!

White Rabbit

New Painting of "The White Rabbit" all decked out in the Queen's finest. 

Wishing all of you a very Happy Valentines Day.  Its one of my favorite holidays, being all about the glue and glitter and of course the chocolate and cupcakes!

xxxooo

Cat

Fairiesnest

I meet the most amazing artists in my journeys online and off, so I decided I just had to start sharing more often!
Todays treat is Cynthia of Fairiesnest http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5072731 here is the link to her etsy shop where I found her, and she has dolls of all sizes and prices, even tiny little doll pins to wear!
she just makes the most enchanting dolls, just look at the Queen of Hearts Face, isn't she lovely? and here is her blog http://thefairiesnest.blogspot.com/ where you can see more (she's been featured in art doll quarterly!) It just blows me away what magic she can do with needle and thread, I'm afraid I'm more of a seem ripper :( Its an art form I greatly admire!

Queen for a Day

Portrait of Catharine with Sparrow and Pomegranate by Lisa Falzon

This a photo collage portrait I commissioned by the ever talented Lisa Falzon, an artist I've been admiring for quite sometime. her web site is http://www.lisafalzon.com and for information on a portrait commission for yourself you can visit her deviant art site http://meluseena.deviantart.com/ She also does amazing traditional paintings and illustrations as well.

Thank you Lisa!

West of Moon

"Hold on tight to my shaggy coat" Detail from my November submission for Children's illustrators club on deviant art. The theme was polar bears and I was drawn to an old favorite East of Sun West of Moon :)

Prints are available in my shop along with new prints of my ruby slipper painting, "Follow the Yellow Brick Road".

Hermitage

I'd like to introduce a most wonderful and enchanting artist, Rima of the Hermitage I've long admired her work and recently been delighted to find that she not only has an Etsy shop but a blog!

here are her links follow them and be transported to a magical place
http://intothehermitage.blogspot.com/ blog
http://www.the-hermitage.org.uk/ website
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5195715 her etsy shop
be sure and check out her stop motion film its wonderful! And I love her new blog... wouldn't you love for her wagon to pull up to your town?

Striped Socks!

this is Henri, he is quite uncertain about his new striped socks...

painted for Children's Illustrators Club on Deviant art for the theme of Oct. (Striped socks)
ttp://childrensillustrator.deviantart.com/ this months theme is Polar Bears you can already see entries being submitted...I'm not so speedy! I'm just hoping to get this on in on time ;)