Teabag and Rust Art, This is for you Suki

My wonderful blogger friend Suki asked me to do a show and tell about the tea and rust pieces I have been doing, so this is for her and anyone else who is interested. First let me say that I have no idea what I am doing or if it is the proper way :-). I read about getting rust with tea bags and just thought I would try it, many blogger artists are doing it and it looked fun, but I never read any real instructions, so I just made it up as I went along. This is how I do it: Starting with the bottom photo, I put a paper towel down in the sink and lay down 3 pieces of small art paper, then I lay out some rusty bits, I steep a bit of tea with various size teabags and lay them out on the rusty bits, then I pour the tea over it all, it makes a mess :-). I usually do this before bed and then in the morning I remove all the teabags and rusty bits. I let the teabags and paper dry  and then I cut open the teabags and empty the tea out, I am left with many teabags and 3 rust and tea papers which I can draw and paint on, do anything you wish with. The tip top pieces are finished drawings from the last batch. These are not going to my Etsy shop yet as I really like them and want to keep them around for a while for myself, but if you are interested in one just email me, they will all be 39.00  plus shipping when I do decided to sell them.
My Christmas sale of 10% off all items is still running in my ETSY shop, I am not sure how long  I will run the sale.
I hope you are all enjoying your weekend.
Love and kisses, XOXO

Thankful

This is my beloved Taos Mountain, it does not look like this right now as we have had nothing but sunshine for weeks, not that I am complaining, but I miss the snow.
Since it is Thanksgiving tomorrow I thought I would do a little post about the things I am most thankful for right now:
Family,
Furbabies,
Friends,
Good health,
Taos Mountain,
Art,
Making it and looking at it.
Margaritas,
I get to have some tonight, yay, I am not a big drinker, but I am in the mood tonight :-),
Rust,
I am having a love affair with rust right now, everywhere I go I look for rusty bits, I am so easy to please :-),
The way the light here in Taos is so magical at dusk,
The birds I feed that entertain me on a daily basis in my yard,
Good movies,
Good books,
I will finish my list with the magical #9, if you don't know why it's magical I will tell you: If you multiply 9 by any # and then add those #'s up, they always come out to 9, here is an example: 9 x 102,985= 926,865, added up=36 added up=9! Try any number, it will blow your mind :-).
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone. Love and kisses, XOXO

New Tea and Rust Drawings

It has been slow going, getting back into doing my art. Drawing seems easier right now than painting and I am being kind with myself and not pushing.

These are my newest tea and rust stained drawings. I add ink and in some cases oil paint to my tea and rust stained tea bag drawings. The tip top is a drawing on tea and rust stained paper the rest are on tea bags then glued to art paper to make them more stable.

I have included a close up under each piece. You can also enlarge for a better view.

Since Christmas is fast approaching I thought I will have a sale in my ETSY shop. 10% off all pieces, just type in CHRISTMAS when the coupon window comes up during checkout. I will be adding these drawings to my shop in the next week, but if you should want one just email me (email address on my side bar) and I will reserve it in your name.  My prices are very low on the drawings, 20-59 dollars, I have a large range of paintings too, 25-675 and every price range in between.

It is hard for me to market myself, but one has to at least attempt it :-).

Always lovely to hear your thoughts.

XOXO

Life is Amazing

These photos are from my walks with Bella, sometimes we go to the forest, sometimes the desert and sometimes we walk by my house which is where I took these pictures. In the last photo if you look hard you will see a hawk, he is also more easily spotted in the other photo. He is almost aways there and now there are no more leaves so he really stands out. I love him.
I am showing you these photos because these are some of the things that bring me joy. Yesterday, I realized I have been very sad for the last couple months after my mom passed. Then looking around my yard I saw a bunch of birds having a bath party in the bird bath, it made me think about what makes life worth all the pain, that one image that I got to enjoy for about 5 minutes makes it all worth it. Even if that is all I ever got to witness, it would be enough, but we are so lucky, we get to see miracles like that on a daily basis if we are aware.  After the birds flew away I stayed watching the yard and then these amazing clouds came by and the sun started to go down.  There is something special about the light in New Mexico and the way it filtered through the clouds and trees was another miracle and if that were not enough the wind came up and started to blow all the last leaves from the trees, it was amazing.
Life is amazing.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
XOXO

LEAVES

I have been picking up leaves for a month now, for some reason I am finding them infinitely fascinating. I scanned these for you, they are better in person, but I hope you enjoy.

P.S I hope all of you on the East coast are safe and warm.

P.S.S. Go Obama! I love you.

XOXO