Painting the ever-constant and always changing...

Happy Wednesday!

Don't even remember when I made this, but found it under some old books :)

News!!!

I really want to thank Katie Hardin from the Creative House Blog for nominating my own blog for a Liebster Award!  I am very excited - I just need to answer a few question and nominate a few other bloggers, so that will be coming up in a post near you :)

Upcoming Event...

Just wanted to remind anyone who is in the Westport, CT area tomorrow that I will be giving an artist's talk at the Blue Lemon Happy Hour tomorrow from 4-6pm.  It is part of the Pairings Art Exhibit and there are other wonderful artist's featured in the gallery as well - and food!  You can find more information here.

In The Studio...

Lots of fun painting today!!!

I was so happy with my Singing Flower yesterday, and how it goes with my Singing Tree, that heck, I just wanted a few flowers to do some more singin'!

Singing Tree

Singing Flower (not real title yet!)

With the wonders of the $4 jar of Spackle plaster - my new artistic obsession...

I was able to create a fun textured landscape background!

I didn't want to add too much since the background with already so textured and filled with layers of color, paint, drippy liquid things I found, glitter, embossing powder, etc...

How is this not the happiest nature scene ever????

Okay, so this painting really makes me smile!!!

You got a singing flower here...

A singing flower there...

Everywhere a singing flower - and yes, that made my day!  Nature is always singing all around me with beauty, wonders, joy, I just love it!

Nature...is just great.

The next few paintings are actually pages from an old art journal I found this morning I had done out of the hospital, when I was really finding comfort in the world of nature around me.  It gave me peace of mind for the physical and emotional turmoil I experienced when bouncing from surgery to surgery.  Nature - though always changing, was a constant.  A reliable source of beauty, inspiration and healing.

Nature is beautiful purely just to spectate - like a free museum exhibit every day, but the best part is that we are part of nature - so whatever beauty, comfort, or groundedness we see outside, we can find within ourself - a homey little place.

Here's a good creativity prompt for ya that I just thought of...

So if there was a room deep and safe inside of you, what would it look like?  

For me,  the first thing that came to mind was a wide open Zen room, with wide open windows for walls, and each wall has one of the full-fledged seasons shining through it in the most vibrant, vivacious forum possible.  

The fall is adorned with orange and red leaves falling one by one onto the pavement, with copious cornucopias, pumpkins, and turkeys, and lots of lamp-posts under trees in the crisp fall night.

The winter window is a full-blown blizzard, with the one leaning pine tree covered in snow, and you cant see the ground, my feet feel fluffy in the snow, and the sun is shining bright so the snowflakes calmly raining like angel-kisses down on me.  No breeze, you could hear a pin drop.  

And then the next wall over – Spring, magical with bright pink cherry trees, cherry blossoms whose petals droop down on the green grass.  There are flower pots hanging from the window sill with little baby birds in then and speckled blue eggs – the birds open their beaks, open and close them, and their eyes aren’t open – they are squinty and adorable.  And sunlight is pale, pretty and feminine.  

And summer?  The summer wall has luscious vibrant green leaves all over the place, and  huge rolling Berkshire hills with the huge top half of a big circle sun peering from behind them.  There is fresh dew on every leaf whose veins you can see so clearly, and sometimes it rains really hard.  There are farms and animals, and carrots growing from the ground.  There are pools and streams. 

(I feel a painting idea coming on...)

But for now, this scene will do.  This is quite a homey place inside of myself, these singing flowers - filled with life, femininity, grace and song, with open petal-hands to the sky, embracing anything that comes their way - my kind of gals :)

Title Idea:  Floral Mountain Choir?  Nah, I'll sit on it for a bit - not literally, that would be a waste of all that studio time...

I actually did a ton more painting today, but for the sake of length, you'll just have to see that tomorrow! (I reallllyyy want to show you though!  Ugh!)

Okay here's a LITTLE sneak preview...

BUT THAT'S ALL YOU GET!

Bye for now...

I'm actually on my way to NYC today to see my amazingly talented brother Matt Oestreicher play in the house band for Amateur Night At the Apollo - always a great night filled with music, talent, cheers and boos!  

Actually, last year I got chosen to dance on stage - I scored the audience vote and even got me a nice tee-shirt!

You can watch me tap-dancing my little toes off at this link on my website HERE.

And some singing too!

Oh, and if you want to hear Matt and I jam out a little bit, watch us perform this really fun medley:  Honeysuckle Rose/This Joint Is Jumpin'

(I'm a big ham, what can I say.)

A wonderful video before I go...

This is an amazing Tedx talk I'd love to share with you.  It's a very smart kid giving the talk about what makes him happy in life, and how he has made an education centered around this - you will definitely be inspired if you give this a listen.  Watch him talk about what he called "Hackschooling."

"Published on Feb 12, 2013

When 13 year-old Logan LaPlante grows up, he wants to be happy and healthy. He discusses how hacking his education is helping him achieve this goal. "

Okay now I'm really going...

Have a wonderful day folks - see ya tomorrow!

Almost Spring, Almost...

"The world is full of poetry. The air is living with its spirit; and the waves dance to the music of its melodies, and sparkle in its brightness."