I wanted to keep things easy, so I only used a handful of oil pastels in this drawing.

Every generation says this of itself, but these were indeed bewildering times he lived in, a time before iPhones were everywhere, and people still looked up as they walked, their heads filled with self-generated thoughts floating up from deep pits in the subconscious. A time when you still knocked on each other’s doors, and if you wanted to talk to somebody, you had to call them on a landline

Ocean Vuong, The Emperor of Gladness

I’ve become a huge hoarder of cardboard. This is just one stack. I have boxes full of this stuff, and it’s taking over my house. I either need to start letting some of it go into the recycle bin or I need to paint more. I feel like I’ve been slacking lately, so maybe I should paint.

Seriously, Mom? WHY can’t it be stacks of doggie treats instead??? You obviously don’t wuv meese.

My cats are obsessed with silvervine, and I like that it doesn’t make a mess like catnip does. I let them play with it as a treat a couple times a week, and keep it sealed in the bag the rest of the time to keep it smelling fresh. They love this stuff, and I love filming their goofy reactions. I’ll have to go through the footage, and maybe share something soon.

Watching:

• The happiest orange cat

😹 Orange cats are pretty silly.

• How I Turned Cardboard Into a Cute Mini Ceramic Mug ☕✨

• 7 Monk Lessons to Clean Your Home (and Quiet Your Mind)

The book he’s talking about in this video, A Monk’s Guide to a Clean House and Mind is on Amazon.

Reading:

Reimagining Masculinity by Ocean Vuong

My artwork is available on Daily Paintworks, Etsy, and eBay.

You can also find me on pinksky & blsky.

I’ve also been posting notes here on Substack in between these longer posts.

Feel free to subscribe, comment, share or like any of my posts.

May you be well and happy.

“It was the kind of day where anything felt possible. As if the charity of the world had tipped, finally, to one side of the rusted scale. The kind of day where you can fill your scars with Magic Marker and tell yourself you’re normal—and it might be true.”

― Ocean Vuong, The Emperor of Gladness

This will probably be my favorite book for 2026. It’s going to be hard to find something that will top this one, but I will try because it’s only March, and I want to keep reading.

I’m madly in love with Ocean’s writing, so I borrowed his other book from my library app, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. It’s an audiobook. and from what I’ve heard so far, it’s as beautifully written as The Emperor. I’m only on chapter 2, and I’m savoring every word. I already know when I’m done listening to it I will borrow it again. I’m on the list to get The Emperor of Gladness again, but I have to wait 5 months because it’s in high demand. I was lucky to get it when I did.

Because I’m suddenly no longer in a reading slump, and want to play catch up for not reading enough all winter, I also started reading Writers and Lovers by Lily King. I’ve had this one on my TBR list for a while now. I’m a bit disappointed because I had hoped I would like this book, but it’s not my cup of tea.

Last night I looked at the glowing 5 star reviews of this book to figure out what I’m missing. I feel like it’s a “me, not them” type of problem because most people liked it, but I could walk away right now, and not care if I read another page or how it ends.

I’m only going to finish it because I’ve stacked too many books on my DNF pile lately, and it’s about to topple over from the weight of it in my mind. I feel a bit of shame when I don’t finish a book, always have. I don’t want to add another one to the pile. I plan on whittling down my DNF stack over the spring/summer. I won’t force myself to finish books I didn’t like, but I want to get back to the ones I stopped reading because I got too busy.

From Margaret Ray‘s book Good Grief, The Ground: bit.ly/raygoodgrief

This little snuggle bug fell asleep beside me, and kept having little dream twitches. He was poke poke poking me in the side. 😹😻🐈

Trying to knock the phone out of my hand takes extra concentration. 🤣

Repeat Until Death by Novo Amor - Performed by Tamara Laporte

So happy Tamara posted a new song recently. Her voice gives me chills. So pretty. I’ve been listening on repeat for weeks now.

[ASMR]Compilation set★ASMR SOAP★Crushing soap★Cutting soap cubes★FOAM&GLITTER&STARCH★

Fun title, color, visuals, sounds, and wow!! 5+ hours long!! I’ve had it up on my second monitor while I work for days now, and it makes me so happy to keep glancing up and stealing little eye candy breaks. All those colors are my colors.

My artwork is available on Daily Paintworks, Etsy, and eBay.

You can also find me on pinksky & blsky, where I post multiple times a day.

I’ve also been posting notes here on Substack in between these longer posts.

Feel free to subscribe, comment, share or like any of my posts.

I make my own little thank you cards to stick inside my packages. I’ve been doing this since I started selling my art online back in 2001.

I like to give them out for orders over $35 to show my appreciation, but sometimes I run out, like I did over the holidays. These take a bit of time to make, and tbh, since I feel most will end up in the garbage, I have to be in the right mindset to sit down and make a big batch. I had a few hours to kill, so I figured why not create some bright colorful art to give away.

Seeing the cards spread out like that reminds me of portraits I created a few months back. The colors are about the same although these portraits were made with oil pastels, and the thank you notes were made with gouache.

What keeps my heart awake is colorful silence.

Claude Monet

I found a new game about a month ago, and I’ve shamelessly/mindlessly played it over 350 times already. It’s called Arrowscape, and Maudie likes to watch the little arrows swish across my screen.

It does make a satisfying sound, I must say. 😁

I’m relisting some older giclee prints in my Etsy shop this week. I have 448 expired print listings, so it will most likely take me a couple months to go through all of them, and revise/edit/list or delete them. I’m working on it, tho.

Watching:

Buying a Cow

A silent French comedy short film from 1908.

I can’t imagine having to act knowing there will be no sound, which is why I love watching silent films.

Now AI has stolen my creative career, what art do I make? - a question many artists are asking themselves.

Reading:

A Brief History of Children Sent Through the Mail

!!! What the??

A Case for Joy in a Monetized World - “We know something’s wrong, but we don’t know what to do. We still need to pay rent, buy groceries, find a way to survive in a system that rewards efficiency over depth, image over presence. There’s no clear answer. Just tension, quiet resistance, and sometimes—if we’re lucky—a moment of clarity.”

I’ve been admiring the photography of Dennis Lehtonen. His photos of Greenland with its stunningly beautiful icebergs, and brightly painted houses make me so happy. I spent a couple hours looking through his photos, my mind is spinning stories of what it must be like to live there.

When I was young, my family almost moved to Greenland. It was the main conversation at the dinner table for weeks, but my father ended up turning down the job offer after much consideration. I remember feeling relieved, but also disappointed at the same time. I wondered how different life would have been there. I still can’t help but wonder all these years later. Different in a good or bad way, remains forever a mystery.

My artwork is available on Daily Paintworks, Etsy, and eBay.

You can also find me on pinksky & blsky.

I’ve also been posting notes here on Substack in between these longer posts.

Feel free to subscribe, comment, share or like any of my posts.

May you be well and happy.

Somebody goes ahead and dies and all of a sudden you become a box for them, he thought, you store these things that no one has ever seen and you go on living like that, your head a coffin to keep memories of the dead alive.

Ocean Vuong, The Emperor of Gladness

Last week I learned of the death of my best friend from high school, so naturally, I’ve been thinking of her, and having mini flashbacks of the crazy things we did back in the day.

I just read the book The Emperor of Gladness recently, and the passage above stuck with me, and sums up the past few days for me. My head has become a coffin to keep my memories of her alive.

Her death has nothing to do with this portrait. It’s something I created many months ago, and has no connection to what’s going on this week.

I hope you enjoy looking at the work in progress shots, while I tend to filling the coffin in my head with more memories.

Reading:

Things My People Say to Me by Orly Avineri

I felt this one to my core. 💕 I recommend reading it, and then listening to Orly read it, and then, if it moves you, as it did me, read it again.

My artwork is available on Daily Paintworks, Etsy, and eBay.

You can also find me on pinksky & blsky.

I’ve also been posting notes here on Substack in between these longer posts.

Feel free to subscribe, comment, share or like any of my posts.

May you be well and happy.

Bez·zie

/ˈbezē/

adjective

• denoting a person’s best or closest friend: “we’re practically bezzie mates”

noun

• a person’s best or closest friend: “she and Nadine used to be bezzies and even shared a flat”

My furry bezzies..

My artwork is available on Daily Paintworks, Etsy, and eBay.

You can also find me on pinksky & blsky.

I’ve also been posting notes here on Substack in between these longer posts.

Feel free to subscribe, comment, share or like any of my posts.

May you be well and happy.

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Art, I understood now, was so much more than the sum of its brush strokes, curved clay appendages, or intricate stitching. There were stories woven, kneaded, and scratches into each piece. Blood, sweat, and tears intermixing with charcoal, textile, and canvas. Hopes, dreams, anger, fear, heartbreak, redemption, romance, and the thrilling sensation of falling in love all resided in an artist's word, the admirer of such pieces never knowing what emotions and story had shaped it.

Noelle Salazar, The Roaring Days of Zora Lily

Reading:

The Bubble - Living in My Own Little World is My Job.

I read this last summer, and keep going back to read it again.

Artist I’m admiring this week - PAN INKHOO 😍

Watching:

Egon Schiele’s Short, Scandalous Life — And Why His Art Still Matters

Basquiat’s Work Ethic

My artwork is available on Daily Paintworks, Etsy, and eBay.

You can also find me on pinksky & blsky.

I’ve also been posting notes here on Substack in between these longer posts.

Feel free to subscribe, comment, share or like any of my posts.

May you be well and happy.

Share

I used watered down gel medium as my glue to add these white paint chips to the page.

I didn’t think this would actually work. The paint chips are heavy, and the gel medium was too watery. I left it to dry on top of the fridge overnight. It’s warm up there, and when I checked it the next morning. The pieces stuck.

The paint chips definitely add more interest to this abstract piece. Not sure if it’s finished yet, but I like it!

I wish I could say I’m almost finished with this art journal, but I’m not even close. I made it back in September, and I think I’ve only finished maybe 4 or 5 pages in it so far. I thought I would be using this little journal constantly, and I’d fill it in less than a month. I had good intentions, but nope. Didn’t happen that way.

Ah, well. Sometimes I start things, but the timing isn’t right. Working on other series is higher on my list of priorities. I’ll get back to it when I can. I’m not going to sweat it.

The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.

Mary Oliver

So true, sadly, and on that note, I hope you’re having a creative week.

Art I’m admiring this week:

Adam & Andrea Clague - husband & wife who both make amazing artwork

Becca Brown - porcelain and stoneware artist

This flower painting by Lisa Daria

My artwork is available on Daily Paintworks, Etsy, and eBay.

You can also find me on pinksky & blsky.

I’ve also been posting notes here on Substack in between these longer posts.

Feel free to subscribe, comment, share or like any of my posts.

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One of the things that’s fun about trying out a new art supply is figuring out how to use it that works best for you. Weeks pass, and you might think you know all there is to know when suddenly bam! Without even trying or meaning to, you learn something new, and it takes you by surprise.

This will probably sound silly to those of you who have used oil paint markers forever, but I recently discovered I can build up layers with them. I had never given it any thought before, and the first time I did it, I was like like woah, seriously? You can use these things like paint??!! Okay, okay!

It was like a lightbulb moment, which suddenly changed everything. For the past few weeks I had been drawing one way, and now suddenly that changed in a blink of an eye. Layering markers? Why hadn’t I thought of that before? It should have been something I tried much sooner. Ah well, better late than never.

Making new discoveries like this is what keeps me interested in art. I get bored fairly easily, but when creating, there’s always something new to learn. If it does start to feel like the same old thing after a while, all you have to do is use a new pen, paint with a different size brush, switch up the paint - try gouache instead of acrylics or oils, change your color palette, work on different substrate, start a new series, and/or change your subject matter. Everything becomes new again.

Watching:

Ajahn Achalo is “rising up above the mud” (the news headlines) with his watercolor lotus painting practice.

Sādhu, sādhu, sādhu!!

Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Here

“A documentary about an important American still photographer who captured New York City in the 1960s (his work there is said to have influenced the TV show Mad Men) and later the West in Texas and Los Angeles.”

Lewis Rossignal - Storytelling and Creative Comedy

LOVE Lewis’s work. He’s so funny.

My artwork is available on Daily Paintworks, Etsy, and and eBay.

You can also find me on pinksky & blsky.

I’ve also been posting notes here on Substack in between these longer posts.

Feel free to subscribe, comment, share or like any of my posts.

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There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of these silly little characters alive & dancing in my head atm. They’re banging loudly on the bars of their cage, begging me to let them come out to play.

I tell them not to worry about it. They’ll each get their turn. I’m in no rush to end this series any time soon.

Hiding away in my pretend cartoony world is my way of escaping from the real world these days. When someone asks me where I’m from, I want to say I come from the land of The Bezzies. I’m finding it harder to relate to planet earth with each passing day.

I might be switching back to gouache soon, tho. I don’t remember the last time I picked up a paint brush, and I’m starting to miss it.

The world is filled with profound beauty and tragedy, and it is through art that we can reconcile these contradictions.

Ryuichi Sakamoto

Reading:

A Tribute to Donald Baechler (1956–2022) I ran across his painting titled Painting With Two Balls again recently, and loved it so much I went down a rabbit hole searching for more of his artwork. I didn’t find too much about him, but this tribute to him was nice.

Watching:

Sloths Are Slow For A Reason - aww! I want a pet sloth. 💗

Speaking of aww, I just found the aww! subreddit. I’m addicted already, and I do find myself saying “aww” out loud while I’m scrolling.

These Oil Pastels Made Me CRASHOUT! Trying Winsor & Newton Oil Pastels! - Christian might not have liked the pastels, but wow, the art he made is stunning. That, and he made me LMAO as usual. He’s sooo funny. 🤣

I wanted to try some oil drawing sticks after watching Sandi Hester’s video, but I’m afraid they’re priced waaay out of my budget. Wow! Almost $200 for only 12?!! I either need to raise my prices, sell a kidney or stick with more affordable oil pastels. I would try making my own, but after Googling and seeing many artists say it’s not worth the cost or time involved, I won’t be doing that. I guess that explains why they’re so expensive. Oh, well. Maybe some day?

I’m still going down a Maud Lewis rabbit hole, what can I say? I love her art.

Maud Lewis Interview, Making and Selling Paintings (1965) - art supplies have always been expensive, even back in 1965. I wonder what Maud would think of the drawing stick prices these days.

Maud Lewis - A Virtual Tour

You can read more about Maud on Wikipedia

My artwork is available on Daily Paintworks, Etsy, and eBay.

You can also find me on pinksky & blsky.

I’ve also been posting notes here on Substack in between these longer posts.

Feel free to subscribe, comment, share or like any of my posts.

I’ve been setting up new 2026 folders & spreadsheets on my mac this week. The new year has gotten off to a slow start for me because I’ve been feeling under the weather the past few days. I haven’t had energy to create anything, so instead I looked back through some older folders to see what I was doing in January in years past.

Turns out I was revising this little 4x4 portrait a few Januarys ago, so I thought I’d share. She was one of my very first oil paintings, if I remember correctly, which I painted in 2012ish.

I don’t know what’s become of this painting. It might have sold or it could be in a box in storage somewhere?

When you eat, sleep & breathe art every day, and have painted thousands of paintings, the details of each one tend to get fuzzy over time. Unless I take photos as I go along to document, I can easily forget what I created and when.

It’s kinda like trying to remember every single time you’ve driven a car, and where you went for the past 25 years. It’s impossible.

For now, I’ll have to be content with seeing the photos of this painting once again, and the rest will remain a mystery.

I hope you have a creative new week. I’m gonna go rest up, and hopefully I’ll be back making new paintings soon. I’ll leave you with some links that I hope you enjoy.

Reading:

I’m still trying to slough my way through 418 pages of Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. I’m struggling. I wanted to love this book, but if I’m being honest, I don’t even like it. The storyline is super slow, depressing, and boring, imo. It’s time to start speed reading to get through it, and put an end to my misery. I’ve purchased two other books this week, and I’m ready to move on.

Watching:

introvert & dog - “Slow city living in Oslo, Norway with a dog. The world seen through the eyes of an introvert guy. I'm very happy to be ordinary and average. I live with my boyfriend Mr. J. + our wonderful doggy pal Mochi in a small apartment.”

Youtube recommended I watch this channel, and sometimes, although I hate to admit it, the algorithm is spot on. I’ve only watched 3 videos so far, but I look forward to binge watching a few more sometime soon. They remind me of Benjiplant & Chris Middendorf, two of my favorite Youtubers. Chris is actually the reason I wanted to love the book I’m reading — because he highly recommended it on his channel. Sorry, Chris!!

Michaël Borremans: A Knife in the Eye [english subs] - soooo good! I want to watch it again and again.

art journaling with recycled paper by Alisa Burke - I need to do this. I have way too many bits and pieces of paper lying around. Will I do it, tho? Probably not because I’m lazy. lol

My artwork is available on Daily Paintworks, and eBay.

I also just reopened my Etsy shop after an almost 2 year hiatus, if you prefer shopping there.

You can also find me on pinksky & blsky.

I’ve also been posting notes here on Substack in between these longer posts.

Feel free to subscribe, comment, share or like any of my posts.

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If you had told me back in January of last year that I’d be OBSESSED with drawing portraits with oil paint markers by the end of the year, I would have told you “NO WAY. Sorry, but I hate drawing.”

Like most people, I’ve been around markers my whole life, but I used oil paint markers to sign the back of my paintings, and to make marks in my abstract paintings. I never thought about actually creating an entire portrait with them, until a couple months ago.

At first I thought that’s a stupid idea, I’ve never liked to draw, especially with pens. What about making mistakes? There’s no erasing oil paint markers, and I suck at drawing, so there will be lots of mistakes.

The voice of reasoning inside my head kept insisting I try. She said I could figure out the rest once I was there in the moment. Why bother sitting around trying to fix a mistake you haven’t made yet? Duh! You won’t know how to fix it until you allow yourself to make mistakes, and then you’ll figure it out. It’s not a big deal. It’s only markers and recycled cardboard, ffs. Who cares? She was pretty convincing, and the only way to shut her up was to pick up a marker and begin.

Oh, how life can change for the better if you fight against your closed off mind, and challenge the bs you’ve been telling yourself for years. I’m sooo happy I stopped listening to the nonsense my brain told me. I’m now addicted to drawing, and need to get my fix daily. haha Seriously, a day without drawing feels a bit sad, unless I painted instead, of course. 🥰

When you hear that little voice inside whispering (or sometimes yelling) at you, please listen. You just never know until you try.

A few of these Beezies are up for auction on eBay, which are ending tonight. Take a look if you’re interested in owning one. I ship worldwide on eBay.

Watching:

Walk for Peace - Buddhist Monks from Fort Worth, TX #walkforpeace to Washington DC.

Sādhu! Sādhu! Sādhu!

☸️ ☸️ ☸️ ✌️✌️✌️☮️ ☮️ ☮️

Reading:

Klara and The Sun - I started reading this one a couple months ago, but life got busy & I’m just getting back to it now.

“Here is the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her. Klara and the Sun is a thrilling book that offers a look at our changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator, and one that explores the fundamental question: what does it mean to love?”

I’m not sure I’d call it “thrilling”. I’m half way through, and I like it, but there’s not much going on, imo. I’m hoping the thrilling part starts soon.

Artists I’m admiring this week:

Through the eyes of Daniel Eatock - real cool abstract painter

William Rochfort - his paintings remind me of Norman Rockwell

Joe Paquet - landscape artist whose work I can’t afford, but it’s fun to look.

Angela Sung - Sony Pictures animation artist, who has a huge portfolio of work on her website.

My artwork is available on Daily Paintworks, and eBay.

I also just reopened my Etsy shop after an almost 2 year hiatus, if you prefer shopping there.

You can also find me on pinksky & blsky.

I’ve also been posting notes here on Substack in between these longer posts.

Feel free to subscribe, comment, share or like any of my posts.

Last night I sat down with my art journal for the first time in about 3 months. I haven’t thought much about art journaling since the Christmas shopping rush started. I’ve been too busy packing & shipping out orders.

Now that Christmas is over, and things have abruptly quieted down, I suddenly have free time again. I almost don’t know what to do in all this stillness & quiet, but I found an hour long Youtube video about Maud Lewis I wanted to watch. My art journals kept me company as I watched.

After the first video ended, Youtube autoplayed another one titled Maud Lewis - A Twisted Legacy. How sad and twisted indeed. I don’t want to spoil anything, if you don’t know the story, but I recommend watching.

I’ve been meaning to watch the movie Maudie for years now. I remember excitedly writing about it in my old blog, but I never did get around to it. I think the only way to see it is to extra pay for it on Amazon or Youtube. There’s so much I want to see that’s free, I never think to look for it. I’m more into documentary style videos anyway, and there are a ton of them about Maud, but the movie’s on my “maybe some day” list.

Next in line to autoplay was a video titled Being an Artist by Bill Lynch Films about artist Gary Mayer. I had already seen it because I’m subbed to the channel, but I was drawing, and didn’t want to stop to find something else. I watched it again.

Once I start creating it’s next to impossible to stop. I can shut out the entire world, and hyper-focus on art for hours at a time. It’s my happy place. Time passes so quickly when I’m in my little bubble.

I don’t even like snapping photos because it’s an interruption, and feels like an inconvenience to be pulled out of my blissful trance, but I made myself take some shots in between pages.

The portrait on the right was already in my art journal. I think I might have created it using tempera kwik stix, if I remember right. It was the last page I did before taking a hiatus.

It is good to be back at it again, not only creating in my art journal, but also writing here on Substack.

This little one is now sitting in the crook of my arm, and I’m plunking down one letter at a time with my free hand. It’s a little after 5 am, pouring rain, and the wind is howling outside. The windows are shaking, and brr! It’s 27F, but “feels like” zero. I mean, it’s all normal for this time of year. The only reason it’s weird is because it was 72F yesterday, and my husband wanted to wear shorts, so it makes this sudden change feel a little insane.

It’s time to schedule this post for later today, so I can give Gus Wus some attention.

I hope you’re having a creative Sunday.

My artwork is available on Daily Paintworks, and eBay.

I also just reopened my Etsy shop after an almost 2 year hiatus, if you prefer shopping there.

You can also find me on pinksky & blsky.

I’ve also been posting notes here on Substack in between these longer posts.

Feel free to subscribe, comment, share or like any of my posts.

I started these portraits on Nov 12th, and at the time I swore it was a new series. I had them listed on eBay last week with a whole story written out about them, and everything.

But, as days passed, things changed. I started to not like the new series title. Every time I went to type it, I kept transposing the letters to the point of frustration. It wasn’t a word that autocorrect fixed for me, so I had to keep going back and making changes. I started to grumble, and it turned into a silent roar inside. Arrrrgh!! Why couldn’t I get this simple word written correctly?

The title was Misfits, if you’re wondering, and I kept spelling it mifsits. Why brain, why??? The only way I could spell it right was to slow my typing down to a crawl, and think about each letter, and like, nah..that’s not a good way to start out a new series. I decided to take down the eBay listings. Some things aren’t meant to be.

I was going to choose another title, but the more I looked at these paintings, the more I realized they are very similar to another series I’m already working on. A new series should be, well, new in some way, imo…like different in size, medium, substrate, subject matter - something should be unique, but nothing had really changed with these. So, I’ve retitled all, and added them to my Raw Humanity Series. I’ll be listing them soon.

While all this new series/no new series drama was going on inside my head, I started to experiment with drawing portraits with oil paint markers. I have no idea why, but the idea popped into my head, and wouldn’t stop nagging me. I went with it, and found out I absolutely LOVE drawing with oil markers.

4x already this week, I’ve been curled up for hours, completely losing all track of time because I was doodling away inside my own little bubble. Last night I didn’t get done with my day job until 10 pm, but I still had to draw for 2 hours afterwards.

This new discovery of mine must make my husband very pleased because I don’t think I spoke one word for hours each time I sat down to draw. He came in and asked if I was alright the other night because I was so quiet. Every time I pick up a marker I seem to go into full concentration mode, which is odd for me.

While I was drawing I thought, hm..maybe THIS is what my new series should be? Using markers to draw an entire portrait is definitely new to me, so I could check off that required box. I’m sure I probably used them as a kid, but as an adult, I’ve only used markers to…well, make marks in my mixed media or abstract work or to write. I never considered drawing entire portraits with them.

After drawing one, I couldn’t stop, and now all I can think about is getting done with my day job tasks, so I can sneak off to draw again. I even bought a new pack of Poscas, so you know it’s serious.

It only made sense to start a new marker portraits series. I have titled it The Bezzies, and yay..I can type the title without an issue. lol Plus it has not one, but two z’s in it, which makes me so happy. 🙃 I love words with z’s in themz.

Each bezzie will be numbered. I’m going to try auctioning them off on eBay. I say “try” because it’s next to impossible to sell anything via auction on eBay these days unless it’s an iPhone or some popular mass produced thing that everyone is searching for, but that’s a story for another day.

If you’d like to check out this new series, you can find it here. As I wrote in the listings, I’ll only be offering them at a low discounted auction price for one, maybe two weeks tops. If they don’t get bids, I’ll relist them with a higher set price & also list them on Daily Paintworks (where, tbh, I prefer to sell because I don’t have to give 1/3 of my earnings away in fees or buy ads that don’t ever work, but I digress ha!). If you’d like to get one before the price increases, be sure to bid early. Also follow my eBay store, so you know when new auctions go live.

I hope you’re having a lovely creative week. :)

Last week I worked on new little portraits for my Squares Series.

I used a combination of gouache (palette) and acrylics (little paint pots) on these.

I like the dark olive green acrylic I mixed up. It seems like a sophisticated color to me, which creates a juxtaposition because my naive little characters are anything but sophisticated. 😆

This week I focused on my Raw Humanity Series. I’m trying to add a few new paintings to each of my series weekly while juggling my other full time gig — buying & selling vintage/antiques, which I call my “day job”.

I’m constantly being tugged in many directions, but ideally I like to focus on my vintage store during the day, and paint at night. Otherwise, I’m putting my paint covered hands on a 50 year old designer gown (what a score that was) or a great grandma’s brooch, and that would not be good. Yikes.

October thru Feb tend to get hectic, so I’ve been working around the clock. Had a slight setback with the time change, and felt too discombobulated to paint a few nights last week. I’m not sure why this time change has been so difficult.

I think I’ve adjusted to it now. My husband and cats have not. Everything is still 🙃 in their world, even though I always move their feeding time, so it stays the same for them — the cats, I mean, not my husband. He feeds himself, so no change there. lol

Right now I feed the furbabies at 7 am, a snackie snack (also called “ss” when I don’t want them knowing what I’m talking about) at 1 pm, and suppah (iykyk) is at 7 pm. They also get treats thrown in now & then.

When it’s DST, I advance the time one hour. It usually works okay for us, but oy. They seem so messed up this time around. Always screaming for food, and then they won’t eat when I feed them. Weird.

Sweet Pea is blind because she was born without eyes, and Gus was born a police officer. STOP in the name of meow! 😸

Luckily Chewybarka Boo Boo couldn’t care less about the time change. 🐶 He’s more easy going than we are, I guess.

Okay, back to the artwork…these portraits were all created with oil pastels on corrugated cardboard, and they’re 4x6 inches. Figured I’d make it easier on myself by keeping them all the same size. Yet, I challenged myself to make them all unique and different at the same time.

I’ve also been working on a brand new portrait series that I’ll be posting on eBay with a low starting bid of only $14.99. I’ll tell you more about the series after the auctions go live tonight. Actually, they might be live already, so if you want to go check them out, the link to my eBay store is below. You can read the little story of how/why they’re coming into existence if you click on any of the auctions.

Okay that’s gonna do it for me. Writing this at 5:30 am, and need to get this scheduled for later, and get to work. I hope you have a lovely creative week ahead.

My artwork is available on Daily Paintworks, and eBay.

You can also find me on pinksky & blsky.

I’ve also been posting notes here on Substack in between these longer posts.

Feel free to subscribe, comment, share or like any of my posts.

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I apologize for my lack of longer posts here lately. I’ve been a tad bit busy. 🙃

About this series: since I’m painting this series on 4x4 inch substrate, I decided to call the series The Squares. Each little square will be numbered, and sold separately.

According to Wikipedia, square is slang for “a person who is conventional and old-fashioned, similar to a fuddy-duddy. Older senses of the term square, refer to someone or something honest and upstanding, and date back to the 16th century.”

You can take your pick of which definition is correct for these portraits.

So far I have painted 30 portraits, and a few new animals, also.

If any of these mini paintings strike your fancy, they’re available on Daily Paintworks. If you live outside the US, I ship internationally on eBay. I haven’t had a chance to list all of these there yet. If there’s one you’re interested in, message me and I’ll list it asap.

I hope you’re having a creative week. Thanks for reading.

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Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

George Bernard Shaw

Her eyes weren’t working for me, so I decided she was meditating instead.

Mindful Melodies
Gouache portrait painting

The original painting has been sold, but giclee prints are available here.

Reading:

The Dusty Lego Bin - interesting take on being an artist today by Rick Beerhorst

Why you shouldn’t give up on the creative industry just yet - “Things feel uncertain again—and the hits just keep coming for creatives. But before you throw in the towel, here’s a rallying call to remind you why it’s worth sticking around—and how you might adapt, rebuild, and even thrive.”

My artwork is available on Daily Paintworks, and eBay.

You can also find me on pinksky & blsky.

I’ve also been posting notes here on Substack in between these longer posts.

Feel free to subscribe, comment, share or like any of my posts.

Share

If you can’t play, you’ll never be creative.

John Cleese

I hope you’re having a creative week. :)

My artwork is available on Daily Paintworks, and eBay.

You can also find me on pinksky & blsky.

I’ve also been posting notes here on Substack in between these longer posts.

Feel free to subscribe, comment, share or like any of my posts.

Share

This is an oil pastel portrait from a couple years ago. I ran across the photos this week, and thought I’d share them.

I think the photos are self-explanatory, so there’s not much to say. If you have any question feel free to leave a comment, tho.

This painting is 11x14 inches, so I used a huge tortillon to blend the oil pastels.

Artists are just children who refuse to put down their crayons.

Al Hirschfeld

Side Pony
11x14 flat panel
If you’re interested in purchasing this piece, it’s available here.

I hope you have a creative week ahead.

This will be my last newsletter for a while. I’m swamped with work, and trying to fit in writing a weekly long post/letter feels overwhelming. Instead, I’ll be posting either more Wordless Wednesday posts like last week and/or I’ll be hopping into the notes section a couple nights a week. See you then!

My artwork is available on Daily Paintworks, and eBay.

You can also find me on pinksky & blsky.

Feel free to subscribe, comment, share or like any of my posts.

Share

I hope you’re having a creative week.

My artwork is available on Daily Paintworks, and eBay.

You can also find me on pinksky & blsky.

I’ve also been posting notes here on Substack in between these longer posts.

Share

It’s hard to tell the difference between my work table surface and the painting panel, but I promise you it’s there, and I prepped it with collage paper. I really liked the vehicles near the bottom, and knew I wanted to keep the paper exposed.

Lots of layers went into her face. I let each one dry, and kept adding more. I promise it will make sense later.

Then I kinda went off the rails for a bit. Since I was painting this girl from my imagination, not a reference photo, I was thinking her hair would/should be a wind blown mess since she was doing so much traveling. When I saw how ugly I made her look, I scrapped that idea quickly. Thankfully. :)

I went back to the cute pixie cut, and painted her ear back in.

All the layering I did is starting to make sense here, I think. I covered some of it up, and left some showing through.

The original painting has been sold, but giclee prints are available if you’re interested.

My artwork is available on Daily Paintworks, and eBay.

Please note: since Paypal has become so unreliable, glitchy, and a nightmare to use, I have recently switched to Stripe on DPW. This should make things easier on everyone. You don’t need an account on DPW or Stripe, just a debit or credit card.

You can also find me on pinksky & blsky.

I’ve also been posting notes here on Substack in between these longer posts.

Feel free to subscribe, comment, share or like any of my posts.

Share