Maud Lewis: Part 3-The FInal Views

 Hi everyone. I hope you are having a lovely weekend. Mine has been busy, and once the wind dies down, I need to go clean up some leaves. In the last couple of days it's like the whole forest of leaves fell into my yard. 😉

 Yes this post is #2 for today, but because I will not be around next weekend for SITAR and Sunday Smiles, I wanted to finish off the Maud Lewis photos today. 

 You might remember that back in late September I visited  the Nova Scotia Art Museum in Halifax. These photos are some of the other pieces of Maud Lewis' work.  I'll be linking this post up to Gillena's Sunday Smiles and also Nicole's Sunday in the Art Room.

   Also please excuse my photos that might be slightly less than perfect do to the fact that it's hard to take photos in a museum due to lighting and other people being around when you try to get a photo. I did try to straighten a few of these also, but somehow it didn't help. 😞 They are what they are, and you can get the gist of them.

   Let me start with 3 cat paintings which might just be Lewis' most famous subjects, especially this first one.

   She also painted some lovely winter scenes.

Because Maud and Everett did not have a lot of money, Maud painted on whatever she could find. Notice this next winter scene is done on a serving tray.

   Here's a couple of other paintings on trays. I wonder if this train one was painted for the tourist market specifically because I noticed what looks like US flags on the front of the engine.   This is how Maud began her professional career, by selling paintings outside of her home to people driving by. Usually her paintings sold for $2-$3, but once she was "discovered", she raised the price as high as $8.00. (Now you might end up paying  as high as $20,000 for one of her pieces.)

   The painting above this last tray is an early painting of Maud's. The write up next to it said she often painted images from books when she first started. The scene  definitely looks different from her later works.

    And here's a multi seasoned themed piece.

I took a close up of this one because I wanted to see the bees much more clearly.

   Being from Coastal Nova Scotia, Maud also painted some beautiful ocean scenes.

    And finally for  the last of my photos, here's the original door from her house which you can see she painted many times.

   I photographed most of the exhibit, but I know I didn't get all of her paintings. I hope you enjoyed them. I really enjoyed her primitive style and all the lovely colors she used.  If you missed my first 2 posts about Maud Lewis and if you'd like to see them, you can find them here: Maud Lewis Part 1 an also here: Maud Lewis Part 2.

  I have some other photos of some other artists exhibited in the museum, which I will share at a later time.  

  And as I mentioned above,  I'll be around all this  week, but I am leaving this upcoming Saturday on a girl's trip for a few days. I will not be joining  Sitar or Sunday Smiles next weekend. 

  Have a super rest of your weekend and week ahead. 

   

Welcome November

     Hi everyone. Happy new month to you.  It's already November. Actually I like November because it's one of those months that is quiet. After all the running around of summer and the fun of fall, November  means the yard work is just about done; there's usually a bit of chill in the air so I can pull out my sweaters, and with the days being so short there's lots of cozy reading time. I'm also hoping that this year the elections results will go well and then all the flyers, texts and TV ads will disappear. And hopefully there'll be no shenanigans from anyone in DC or elsewhere. 🤞

    OK enough about that.  It’s time for a new host to take over this month at  Art Journal Journey   First let me thank Mia who besides being a super host also had a great challenge.   I also wanted to thank everyone who joined in and shared some wonderful art. ❤

    This month we  have a new host.  We admins want to welcome  back  the talented Wendy. You might know her from her blog  Wendy's Art and Crafts Journal. Her challenge this month is 

THE COLORS OF AUTUMN

  I'm excited to be able to continue with some of this season's inspired art.  For my first page, I'm going with the longer nights that come with this month. We are just changing the clocks on this November 1, so darkness will be coming quite early tonight. 🌜

    I started my page with this barn owl image I had in my stash. The background paper is one I pulled out of an old Somerset Studio magazine. I thought the owl worked great on it. That meant all I had to do was pull the page together.

   I did that by using a punch out late autumn brown leaf images as well as the copper swirl sticker at the bottom of the owl image. I die cut the stars using some copper sparkle paper. Finally I used a stamped quote to finish off my page. 

  I also need to remind you that Art Journal Journey is an art journaling challenge, so please NO cards, tags, ATCs, etc. Unless of course they are on a journal page. 😏 We accept any type of art journaling. And also be aware that not everyone is on every type of social media so if you link up through a source other than blogging, we may not be able to comment on your piece.

  I hope you are still inspired by the colors of autumn and will join us this month at AJJ.

  

Halloween Faces for Friday

   Hi everyone. Happy Friday.  

  Last Friday I shared  my neighbors down the road skeleton displays. They change these every week in October. Here's this week's display. It's not a very good photo since I snapped it from the window of my husband's car when we were heading out yesterday. I love how the skelly on the left has a unicorn to ride. Smile. 

   Today I am joining Nicole for her Friday Face Off  and Gillena for her Friday Lunch Break. Since tomorrow is Halloween, and since one thing I have been working on is a Halloween journal, I thought I'd share a few pages that I created. 

   You'll notice there are lots of faces too. 👍

   I like to try new ideas for Halloween because otherwise it seems like I make the same thing year after year. I don't know how far a stretch these pages are, but I feel they are at least different from things I've made in the past.

   I really like this first page (above). The Tim Holtz paper doll couple don't look very happy. This story came up in my head that he died on his wedding night. Or maybe it was all just a dream for him. Hmmm. You can decide. I really like how the coffin came out. I die cut it, then I ran it through a wood designed embossing folder. I used some scraps of copper paper to make the hinges, and on the same paper I scratched in the word beloved. I darkened it with a bit of black after that. The light is stamped (as is the quote) and all the flowers are fussy cut. The ones over the coffin were cut from acetate, and you can see it bit of it on the black.

   I was inspired by Maria's junk journal pages that she posted awhile back, so I made one myself. You can see it above.

  And below, I used a bunch of fussy cut and punched out pumpkins. I added the eyes on the hack-o-lanterns. The bats are all die cuts from a TH bat set I've had for a couple of years and had never opened. It was definitely time to use it.  Otherwise I did some fussy cutting and some paper layering. The quote is a sticker.

    These next 2 pages are basically sheets of paper I cut down to size and then glued into the blank board book I am using.  On this next witch page I die cut the witch and the trees along the bottom. As you can tell I only used the top parts of those die cut trees. I stamped the quote (and yes it's quite crooked but I didn't want to add anything else to the page) , but everything else was printed on the paper. The washi tape you see on the left side is actually part of the left side page which is still not quite done.

   I really enjoy seeing all the art people make using Lavinia stamps. I don't have many of that company's creations, but I do have  these 2 owls. 

    This time I painted my page black and then used the old tree part from a sheet of paper. I purposely tore it out and left the side edge shorter so you can see the black below it and the tear. I stamped the owls onto the scene. I did give the yellow eyes to the owl facing at you. I stamped the quote too. I painted the moon and the clouds with acrylic paint and also added a bit of yellow glitter glue to give the area around the moon it's shine.

   And there you have it. I might be late commenting on posts today as it's my daughter's birthday, and my husband and I are driving out to Keene, New Hampshire where she lives to help her celebrate. It's about 2 hours each way, so I will be out for most of the day today.

  Since I am not posting tomorrow, have a Happy Halloween if you celebrate. And even if you don't, have a great start to your weekend.

Wrapping Up Art Journal Journey for October

     Hi everyone. Happy Thursday. It's not quite the end of October, but this month always ends  on a  busy note for me as both my husband's and my daughter's birthdays come up and also Halloween happens.  Today I want to share my last journal page for Mia's Beautiful World challenge at  Art Journal Journey

   This page really started because of the green paper strip of leaves on the left. It came as a freebie with something, and for about a year I seem to be constantly picking it up off the floor. Not that I left it on the floor, but it kept falling onto the floor. I figured it wanted to be used, and I should use it so I wouldn't have to pick it up again.

   I started my page with some brown ink that I lightly rubbed on a piece of watercolor paper. Then I stamped a Hero Arts background stamp with orange ink.  I like the texture it created. Then I inked that leaf strip with some green ink and attached it to the left hand side of my page.

    I die cut the oak leaf wreath (Funky Fossil) and used a green paint pen to color in the oak leaves. Where the berries were I added some red half-pearls. Then I added a bit of green and some brown glitter glue to the acorns so they would pop a bit more. 

   The crow was a TH die cut. The flying geese and the quote are from a Creative Expressions autumn set of rubber stamps.  I lightened up the next  photo view so you could read the quote better and also see the details better.

   Thank you Mia for hosting this month. I loved your topic because it could be interpreted in so many ways. ❤

   That's all for me today. I hope everyone has a great rest of your day.

 

Time for a New Challenge

   Hi everyone.  It's Tuesday, and it's been 2 weeks, so that means it's time for a new challenge at Try It on Tuesday.

   Thank you to everyone who joined our Halloween challenge. It was so much fun seeing what everyone made. I love how some of you went spooky; some of you went sweet; and some are just plain fun.

   For our new challenge, I made a tag. This time our challenge is MAKE IT MAGICAL. 

  There's so many ways to go with the new topic. Think fairies, magicians, Christmas, new babies...and I'm sure you can think of so many of magical moments in life. If you can't, the design team has some great ideas for you. Be sure to check them out.

   I still had all my Halloween craft supplies out, and since I was working on a Halloween journal, I decided to go with a fun Halloween themed tag. Plus,  the background is made with stickers from a Harry Potter sticker book that I don't get to use very often. 😏👍❤

   I started by inking  my tag and then adding some of these Harry Potter potion stickers. The white centerpiece, the one that says "spells and charms", was the last sticker I added after the tag was finished.  I had a set of playful AALL& Create Halloween images, so I pulled out some of the potions. Then I fussy cut the cauldron from a sheet of printed paper. The skeleton behind the cauldron  was an extra one on my work table. He came from some Creative Expression dies I had been using. I left him plain except to color his hat and darken in his eyes.

   I glued down the top half of Mr. Skeleton and put the cauldron image over the space where I snipped off his legs. Then I glued down the potion bottles.  I cut some place trim using an ancient Cheery Lynn die and glued it along the bottom. Then I added some orange glitter glue to the cauldron, used a black Sharpie to color in Mr. Skeleton's eyes, and finally finished by adding the last sticker to my tag.

   Don't forget we accept any art forms that relate to our challenge. And as always. this challenge runs for the next 2 weeks. I hope you'll join us. 

  

T Stands for I'm Obsessed with Changing Leaves

 Hi everyone. Happy new week to you. And a big hello to those of you who stop by  Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog for our weekly T Day meet up.

  Last week was a beautiful week  weather-wise. I managed to get out for a few walks and enjoy the weather. One day I could even sit out on my back deck and read for an hour while I had my lunch. I could have stayed longer, but I had a PT appointment. The thing about this time of year is you know what's coming next so you have to enjoy every warm and beautiful day there is.

 As the title of this post says, I have been obsessed by the leaf colors and other views this autumn.   They have been pretty amazing. And I know this is week 3 of my T Day posts with autumn photos, but  (sorry) I just can't help myself. 😉😈😀

Here's a few photos from one morning I took the dogs out walking.

    I thought this leaf was quite strange.  When I looked it up I discovered it was most likely caused by uneven chlorophyll reabsorption.

    Tom once mentioned what these black spots on the leaves are. I now know it's called  Tar Spot fungus, and I'm glad I now know what it is.  Thanks Tom.

When these leaves fall they look almost creepy. 

    This grass plant in this next photo almost looks like the seed tops are made of glass, at least in the sunlight.

  These next 3 views are facing east at sunset one night. It's looking down on the side yard of my house. In this next photo you can see my 2 beehives down there if you look carefully.

   And here's 2 views while standing in my driveway on a sunny day.

   And for my last 2 photos, this first one is the Dover (NH) rail trail where I went walking with some friends last Thursday, and 

afterwards my friend Deb and I went out for lunch at a small local chain called Tuckers. They close at 2, but serve breakfast all day. We both opted for pumpkin pancakes with water to drink. Those pancakes were to-die for delicious.  They were served with real local maple syrup, real whipped cream and in house made maple butter. Tucker's business model is to use as much locally produced food as possible.

   And yes, I was scarfing them down so far I almost forgot to snap a photo for T Day. 😉

   We also ran into one of our former school principals and the former school system director of the arts. They are both retired too, and it was great to say hello to them.

   And for those interested, last week I spoke to the orthopedic doctor about my shoulder and the MRI results. I asked so many questions she referred me to the surgeon. I ended up meeting with him, and I must say, I was very pleased with the results. The tear in my muscle-tendon area is an internal tear, not on the edge, so that should heal up nicely in another 3-6 months without doing anything. I still have some inflammation, and he recommended I come back and get a cortisol shot next month if its still bugging me. And I can stop PT, as long as I continue with my exercises  until the inflammation discomfort goes away.  Overall, it was good news!

   That's enough for me today. Wishing everyone a happy T day and week ahead.

   

Maud Lewis Part 2

   Hi everyone. Happy second half of the weekend to you. I hope yours is going well.

    Today I am joining Nicole for SITAR (Sunday in the Art Room) and also Gillena at Sunday Smiles. In this post I'm heading back to the Nova Scotia Art Museum in Halifax to share some more of the Maud Lewis artwork. Today I have some paintings to share. (And please excuse some of the photos for being a bit off center. It's tough to take photos in a museum between lighting and also since I am short, I am often shooting up.)

   Many of you asked me or brought up the film about Maud Lewis. Yes, I have seen it. The film is called Maudie, and it is from 2016. It stars Sally Hawkins as Maud and Ethan Hawke as Lewis. I'm not sure where you can view this online, but it is worth watching  if you have access as it is very well done. Plus you learn a lot about Maud Lewis too. 

 If you missed last week's view of her home,  you can see it here.

 One thing Maud seemed to love to paint was oxen.

   I didn't know this about Maud's husband Everett. But I love how it added to the story.

   You can tell right off the bat that Maud did not paint this next one. I think it's interesting how we all have our own style, even when we try to copy someone else's.  Maud's husband Everett did a great job with the oxen, and I wonder if perhaps Maud had painted those. I think they feel different from the rest of the piece. I'm glad the exhibit shared some pieces of Everett's too. 

  I think my favorite bovine (this time a cow) painting (at the museum) is this one. Ignore the light reflection in the side of the oxen that looks like 3 squares. 

   I love how when you look up close at the people's faces the details aren't clear, but in the big finished piece, you don't notice that. 

  I'll finish today's post with this gallery view.

   Since this post is getting long, next Sunday I'll finish up the Maud Lewis art.

   Have a super rest of your weekend and start to the new week.