Dia de los Muertos

A year ago I lost my beloved Tula to lymphoma-@*&%$#@Cancer!

Tula

I was hit by the triple whammy of mourning, autumn and the dreaded “Falling Back!”

It was dark, rainy and cold.

So what does an artist do to raise her spirits?

Paint skeletons!

My 1st painting was done in acrylic on an old board with appliqued, dried, ferns.

I painted several memorial images of Tula, and other dogs and cats.

PansyCat

The ghost of Seabiscuit

Northern Pike

The solstice sheep

This year my Dia de los Muertos altar will be packed with color and light to honor my beloved dead.

It’s Halloween Season

Having a border collie as my alter ego has always been useful and fun, but never more so that at Halloween. All three of my dogs have been black and white, though Tula had a little brown too.

This color scheme lends itself so beautifully to the imagery of this season.

 

And blends beautifully with pumpkin-orange.

Even in disguise, we’ll always recognize that tail!

Even an alter ego needs her own familiar–a cat just won’t do, so an owl it is!

Happy Halloween from Ashley, Pumpkin, Lucy, Tula and the owls

Little Owl Card

Why did this owlet fly into my mind this summer?

Every summer I wait for the right image for my cottage card to occur to me. Often it is obviously related to life here on this serene lake. Sometimes it comes from the Vermont landscape. And sometimes, fantasy sneaks in.

This year I began with lots of pigment applied wet on wet to my watercolor paper. Then I divided the sheet into postcard openings, and drew my owlet into each opening.

The different colors behind each owl affected how they came out, making each card even more distinctive, one from another.

I make quite a few of these cards and send them to my loved ones.

I think I’ll keep this little fellow to help warm my new home.