Sunday, June 26, 2011

Sunday Sketches - Water Sprite finished!

Happy Sunday Everyone!  Hope you are enjoying a sunny relaxing day today.  I didn't get a chance to start a new sketch this week as I was so busy finishing this one, but I had to share her with you - She is off to the printer to be scanned ~ don't have the scan back yet so this picture will have to do.

Can't wait to see what you have all been up to this week! 
Head over to Sophia's for more great Sunday Sketches!

Smiles!

Julia

Friday, June 24, 2011

In honor of Valentine's Day ~ 'She fell in Love' - short story

She fell in love.


On a rainy Autumn day she fell in love with him.  They talked and held hands and her heart was broken by her capacity to love him. He smiled into her eyes and said he loved her, and she cried when he left, closing out the afternoon with a torrential storm of tears. She took her limping heart tenderly home and earnestly tried to forget what she felt, filling the days and hours and minutes with everything but him. But always the tug, always the sense of something just missed.

Do you know the kind of love that tugs at the deepest part of your heart, slows it’s beating, and turns it into an achingly beautiful sonnet written just for you?

Have you wandered through the dark of the night, your love consuming you, your chest rising and falling to the rhythm of its melody as it washes over you in powerful dreamlike waves? Have you reasoned with it, analyzed it, twisted and contorted it, asking in vain for release?

In the Spring she tried to tell him how she felt, but her natural capacity to express herself failed her and he just smiled teasingly, unknowingly; He was lightness itself when it came to this love of hers, like a feather floating up and around the subject without actually landing and settling on anything. This should have been torture for her, but by this point he had become a dear friend and she realized that what he had to share with her, whatever that was, must be enough.

Years passed.

She is older and sure of herself, bursting with self-knowledge and control, her patchwork heart tucked deeply within the protective exterior of those mocked-up defenses called ‘maturity’.

So they meet again and he is much the same, funny and guarded and lonely. Still, there is a brittle transparency about him that was not there before, and she feels that tug, compelled to soothe him, comfort him, love him.  Involuntarily his heart reaches out to hers and asks for what he is missing.

She sees him, you know. She does. So strong and careful, so resilient, yet she sees how empty he is in this moment and her heart turns, wrenched with tenderness.

She fell in love with him in the Autumn and she loves him still. Her hand is out, extended, and if he likes she will walk with him a quiet while until he is restored, her dear, dear friend.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Sunday Sketches - 'Water Sprite'


Happy Sunday
Everyone!!!

I've missed my sunday sketches group the past couple weeks - summer is starting to get busy and I was out of town last weekend, but I'm so happy to be back and can't wait to see what you have all been up to this week!  For more great Sunday Sketches, head over to Sophia's place and say hello!

Above is the piece I shared earlier this week with more color and detailing completed...I am in LOVE!  I call this piece 'Water Sprite' and she is inspired by the magical weekend I had touring some really beautiful gardens in Oregon recently ~ I fell in love with all the incredibly lovely water features sprinkled throughout too, and this idea was born!  Started a rough sketch while away, and got right to work when I got home.

Close up of her face - I initially found it difficult to draw her with her eyes closed, as eyes are such a big part of the pieces I normally do...Maybe that is why I chose to make her hair and headscarf so vibrant!



This shows some of the detailing up close and all the blank spaces just waiting to be filled in with lots of color and detail - I just love this stage - everything just FLOWS!  This is another large piece (12.5" X 24") and so takes much longer to complete, but oh is it a rewarding journey!


I hope you are having a peaceful week, full of LOVE and JOY, and if you aren't, I would be happy to send some of both of these your way along with a
S M I L E!
xo
Julia

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Hello Stranger! and sharing my lates WIP!

Hello dear Peeps ~  Soooo very sorry to have been absent so much lately!   I am missing my blogger friends so much and can't wait to find out what you have been up to :-) 
I have been away on a little trip which I will tell you all about soon! 

This sleeping beauty is loosely patterned after the incredible piece ' Sea Serpents  IV' by Gustav Klimt
which I found when searching for another piece of his that I just LOVE called 'The Kiss' !
(You can see either one of these gorgeous paintings by clicking on the links)




So of course I had to try my hand at a similar pose, but decided to make this lass much more fiery, powerful, and passionate!  I am really having a lot of fun with her and can't wait get her completed!  At the 'working till all hours of the night' stage on her, and it's tough to go to bed, let me tell you!

I really miss you all and will be stopping by to catch up on what you have been up to soon! 
Hugs and as ever
S M I L E S!


JULIA

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Sharing the Art of Amber Rain Forest


Hello All!  Hope you are enjoying sun wherever you are!  Not so much here in the Northwest, but there is talk that we may see some this weekend!  Yeah!
I wanted to share some art by Amber Rain Forest, who also happens to be my Sister :-)
I have two of her paintings hanging over my bed and I am in love with the colors and sheer JOY that she conveys when she paints!!

Love the dots in this piece and the detailing! (of course I do!)

Yummy flowers!




I think this one should be titled 'Rebirth'






I see water here - an impressionist feel to this one I think. 




And this is a relief carving she finished this spring - Amazing details here too.  She used a dremmel tool for most of the carving and then glued clear glass beeds randomly throughout for a 3-D bubble effect. 
Click for a close up.


Thank you for dropping by and sharing this lovely art with me. 
Hugs and Smiles

Julia