peak show.

just a little taste of what's to come.

i call this piece jnana.
jnana means wisdom in sanskrit, and this painting depicts the jnana mudra.
a mudra is a hand gesture that channels and guides energy through the subtle body.

Lightning speed.

HEllo hello! Happy Wednesday!

Dears, I must run fast right now, but really want to show you what I've been doing in the evenings.

more later, i promise!

Sweet geography.

Dears, hope you are swell. I am fabulous now that the sun has re-appeared! Here is a peek at a new piece: I know, it's a crazy departure from what I have been working on in the last few weeks, but I like to keep you on your toes.

It's a mix of water-media on paper. I think I love it.

The blue whale.

I really like this character.
He'll be swimming his way into the shop soon.

I hope that you all had a lovely weekend. It snowed here, if only for five minutes! The lovely thing about snow in my part of the world is that it (generally) doesn't stick around too long. We have now entered that part of the year that I literally begin to dream about vacationing somewhere warm and sunny. In dream-world, I watch my mister and me hop on a plane and head to Mexico. We spend all waking time in the water or on the beach (with a sufficiently high spf sunscreen, hats and all that jazz, mind you). These are great dreams to have: they give a girl hope and keep optimism alive during the dark and damp months!

Happy Monday, all good things to you!

Flame.

Dears, Wishing you a lovely weekend. This piece is called flame. He might make his way into the shoppe one of these days.

hello world!

Another whale swims out of the studio.

bowhead.

dears,
Here's a little bowhead swimming his way through a technicolor looking glass. This original is going in the shoppe.

narwhals.

happy new year, dear-hearts!

i have been locked up in the studio: cleaning, painting, sketching, working, staring into space, meditating, yoga-ing, and the such. in other words, true loveliness. two little sketches of female and baby narwhals found their way onto the paper and i just had to share them with you. These two will be in the the shoppe oh-so-soon!

The baby:


The adult female:

Staying open to surprises.

Hello hello,

Have you ever made a huge mistake, only to have the mistake lead to an even more wonderful surprise than you expected in the first place?

I imagine you have, and in many different circumstances, too. Well, I made a huge "mistake" on a painting this week, or series of "mistakes" I should say: first, I used a water-soluble ink instead of my indelible India ink; second, I forgot to lay down a layer of medium on top of the ink before adding another layer of watercolor paint. Whoops. What resulted was a bit of messy, streaky ink mixed with my pigments. Instead of tossing the whole piece into my file of scrap paper, I decided to keep working with it. And am I ever glad that I did! After letting the ink-paint smear dry out, I went back to the piece. Now, I like it more than I did before I messed it up! I love life's ways of reminding us of the power and inspiration that open minds and hearts can offer.
Here is the piece!



Now, I love this mistake so much I don't even want to part with it.

Elements: earth.

Part two of the elements series focuses on earth. In ayurveda, the dosha (or type) associated with earth (and water) is Kapha. Kapha's properties are generally cold, wet and unctuous and offer stability and immunity.

Elements: water.

Darlings, You know how a love working on a series, don't you? Well, I have been toying the idea of an elements (air, fire, earth & water) series for some time now and think it is finally in the works. Here is a peek at part one: water.



A new ink & watercolor original in the shoppe!

The workshop.

Dears, Hope you had a lovely weekend! I made a batch of peanut butter bon-bons that completely ruined my hopes of being a macrobiotic wonder by the new year. Oh well. There is always tomorrow. Also, I worked both Saturday and Sunday at bringing some new prints to the shoppe. Keep your eyes peeled for a return of the brollies and going on fabulous sometime this week.

Although I have been completely consumed by making my holiday gifts, I did manage to finish this piece today. It is five by seven inches of watercolor, ink and thread-y goodness. It's going up for sale in the shoppe for $30.

Busy-ness.

Hello my dears,

Here is another little sketch. Pink and green have begun to appeal to me this year. Who knew? I must admit that for many many years, the fantastic-ness of this combination was lost on me. However, in the last few months, I have become totally enamored with it! You will probably see more thistle and moss, fuchsia and hunter, and other combinations of the pink + green duo in weeks to come.

I will be listing the original in the shoppe tomorrow morning.

Happy weekend-ing!

Sunburst?

A moment of light. And then it was gone.

Droplets.

Dears,

It snowed this weekend! Can you believe it? One minute I was smiling on a sunshiney walk with the family, the next I was staring into a snowing, blowing introduction to December. The snow stuck around until Sunday morning, and then the big, fatty droplets of rain began their steady dissent. And they have not let up since.

This is my favorite kind of rain: heavy droplets that are so obese with moisture that they appear to bounce back up after they have hit their earthly targets. On a walk through the arboretum yesterday morning, we watched a pair of ducks bob amidst the natural jacuzzi the rain created in their little pond. This is the magic of the Northwest.

For now, I'm staying dry indoors. Watching all of the wintery wetness move in outside.

Pop-py.

Here's a soft poppy for your Friday afternoon viewing pleasure. I really enjoyed painting her. I have really gotten into the soft, subtlety of the watercolors lately. This little gal should be up in the shop soon. I will keep you posted, of course.

Fish scale lamp.

Darlings,

I think I have finally kicked this cold's booty to the curb! Hoorah. So much has happened since I last had the strength and attention span to share with you all: Thanksgiving yumminess, more sales in the shoppe, interviews for another day job, and on and on! The important thing (to me, at least) is that I am able to paint again. Joy! Here is a new piece that I have been dying to share with you.

Do you think this would look divine with Lamp on stack of logs and

Mid-century Bubble? I do! I think I will have some prints made.

Oh, by the by, have you begun thinking about Christmas at all? I have and of course I'm trying in earnest to get myself organized. Remember the HANDMADE PLEDGE? Well, I thought it would be helpful for any readers who are new to buying handmade for me to put together a little buyer's guide of sorts, with links to other savvy handmade buyer's guides like Modish and Trunkt along with my Etsy favorites. Look for that tomorrow, won't you?

Wishing you all a loverly evening. I do believe I am off to sit on my meditation cushion before walking our dog to meet the husby after work.

Toodle-loo!
kel-kel

Mid-century bubble.

Dears, we are not leaving town today after all! Good! I was hoping to share this new piece with you, and am thrilled that I don't have to wait until Friday or Saturday. I painted this little number yesterday afternoon after much rushing around and experimenting with the holiday cards, bigger prints of some of the paintings in my shoppe, and my accounting system. The lamp in this painting was just what I needed. I hope you enjoy it! I am planning to make prints for the shoppe. I think it would look lovely next to Lamp on stack of logs.

Here comes Santa Claus.

I have been painting up a storm today, working on those holiday cards I mentioned last week. My plan is to print them up on watercolor paper and sell them as a set in the shoppe.
Presenting...

The Blessing Tree,

Be Merry,

Tidings to you, and
A little bit of JOY!!

Oh, and another thing: I have been experimenting with sewing hand-made books together (blank pages for drawing, journaling or writing lists of things for which to be grateful) with covers made of paintings. I will keep you posted, dears.

Happy Thursday! Happy 2O2nd POST!

Dear-hearts,

Somehow, we slipped right by the 2OOth kelly LOVES whales post without any sort of celebration. Oh dear. I must remedy that immediately! Unfortunately, I don't have any bubbly on ice to share with you.

Care for a banana instead?

Or some garlic?


I say, it's all about celebrating the stops along the way. Don't you? (For a trip down memory lane (post numero uno), click here.)

The piece up top is a brand new painting. Very juicy, if you ask me! I was listening to Feist sing her heart out while I painted it. Sometimes she sounds so sad, maybe I painted this flower to cheer her up a bit.

Peace.