Topiary Animals- Green Art Forms

Maybe next year we won't grow vegetables in our garden. We'll plant our own zoo like this. Isn't it gorgeous?





This Scottie is at Hyde Park.




The longhorn cattle are appropriately at a nursery in Texas.

The clipped birds below are in Asia.

Antique-ing Volleyball Girls Folk Art Painting

Volleyball Girls

You have to love a slight vintage look with folk art or even childrens paintings because it makes them look like they've been handed down a generation or two. ("..and look how well this old piece looks" you say to yourself even though it's as new as the just bought morning pastries.)

I find for me it works to put one coat of varnish on your finished painting. Then I add the mixture of paint and antiquing gel where I want it and then wipe some off. After that coat has dried well, I add another few coats of varnish. Some artists apply it to the whole painting and then wipe off selected areas. Some only apply it to their background painting before they put the painted figures on. There is no one right or wrong way to use it that is the beauty of the product. Experiment away.

Volleyball Girls is an original painting up for sale on my etsy shop.

Frida Kahlo Altered Art Painting

Paper, scissors, glue and paint made Frida Kahlo soft and romantic looking. Pink always makes us smile! It's true. Frida sleeps with her smile pillow and always wakes up with a smile even though sometimes she hurts. We don't always need to be reminded to do things but often when we look at art it makes us smile. Over and over again.

Some ask why I paint Frida. When I was younger we moved from rainy Oregon to sunny California my first year of high school. They were like two different poles. California is so rich in spanish history, spanish food, spanish music, spanish architecture, spanish clothes, all with the beautiful warm sun shining down on it all. How could anyone not be touched? (I might also mention earthquakes here with sunny California.)

PINK SMILES is up for sale. Details here.

Romantic White Interiors

Yesterday I struck gold as I drove to the airport and back. It's the only time we pass these wonderful shabby antique stores at Lucketts, Virgina. On the weekends it's a traffic jam with people from the city driving out to gather up car loads of goodies. This was my first time inside the shop since the time I stopped before it was closed. Once you walk inside of the Beekeepers Shop you will never forget it. It's a wonderful all-white world.


Look at the floor, it's so chippy white and fits in perfect. I mean my mouth might have been open in wonder the whole time. I sometimes think all white might be too bland, but not so here!





She has the most darling things. Look at these sparkly crowns!

Another great decorating tip they use is to place smaller tables on top of larger tables for more display area. Great idea if you have a booth at any festival or even in your studio.

Check out her blog here.

Sushi Girl Mixed Media Folk Art

We've eaten sushi twice in the last few days and it was delicious. Last night after salmon and avocado rolls I came home and with my recylced paper made this 5 x 7 altered art painting. (I painted her as full as I felt.)

Around here we have quite a few sushi bars and they are all doing well, none have had to close down due to lack of business. Do you like the wasabi sauce? I do because it heats it up a few notches and clears up anything that is wrong with your head. The thin ginger is tangy too for a treat.

Up for sale on ebay now.

Sushi Girl

Westie Dog and Ground Hog Day

The other day our westie dog boy started barking ...the kind of bark that says "I can bark straight for 2 minutes without taking a breath." I ran to the window and this is what I saw. The groundhogs here in the countryside are rather large and plump. (And this one might now be slightly deaf from Sir Salty's warning barks.) I went outside and let the ground hog run back down to his home underground. Our westie thought he won and rolled around in the grass and raced back and forth to me in a happy craziness.

Westie dog grooming. I've bought our own electric dog shears and I'm letting his skirt grow out long, but trimmed his back, sides and neck, which I think looks lovely in this picture. Now to keep brushing vigorously and keep the tangles away.

French White Doll Furniture Painting Art

I purchased a doll bench at a tag sale for 1.00 and immediately wanted to paint it a french white. My french white colors mixed are beige, white, green and blue.



All winter we will dream about roses so I painted on an oval surrounded by roses and buds. I'm not sure I am finshed yet as I want to age it a bit more. Do I want to add something to the two bench tops like balls? or birds?




This is the before picture. It is cute, but it doesn't match our decor. I always worry about putting the before picture in case someone likes it better.

One idea always produces another...so these are going to be book plates! I could put them in all of my cookbooks.

Thank you for stopping by. Be sure to see all of the other white wednesday posts at the Faded Charm Cottage.

Back to Westie Art & Garden.

Primitive Dolls and Boat Folk Art

I am in love with both soft, subdued colors and vibrant colors. I like it all. But these two paintings I did for shabby white decorating. (I've still got chairs and tables to strip and paint white, but one day hopefully everything will come together beautifully.) My youngest son always wants me to paint more boy paintings.

This one I had all of us girls in mind as a "do it yourself-er" type of girl. She made her own costume and boat for halloween. Everywhere we go outside our little furry friends tag along. So all of my paintings usually have wee animal friends in them.

All are for sale on ebay with super low start bidding prices. Yay!

Westie Dog Halloween Art Costume Painting

Here is my westie dog boy dressed as the SUPER DOG (that he is). His friend is dressed like a princess (that she is!) and wide eyed puppy looking out the front door, "Ahhhh, is that my parents?" The title of this original painting is "PARENT TRICKSTERS". Lots of lovely vibrant colors with a mysterious air about it.

I'm starting all of my paintings out at 9.99 this week on ebay....Scarey low prices for Halloween, but I'm happy. Be happy, don't worry or so the song goes.

This week I am working on some FUN, special projects. I do hope they turn out nice, if they do I'll be posting pictures!

Original paintings and art sold here.

Pumpkins and Westie Rascals ACEO

Pumpkins are grown even for puppy dogs to pick out. They like the smallest ones that they can find in the field. Puppy found the perfect mini pumpkin for halloween but still too big for him to carry.

For more info and to see other my other art for sale click here.

Fall Days Westie

We're loving theses fall days where everything is still green and the weather is perfect during the day. Sweaters are necessary in the evenings unless you are a westie. I did an aceo size oil of a westie (our boy modeled) in the shade, but with the warm sunlight still reflecting on him. He looked lumunious like a lantern. An agile running lantern I might add!

Up for sale on ebay.

English Gardening

English gardens are the best to explore. You always want to know what hides around the corner. I have ladies mantle (the yellow flowering plants), I have sieboldiana hostas, I have the red maple tree, and yellow roses and it looks nothing like the photo above. The brick walls, the crunchy gravel, the urns and concrete ball make this so english and delightful.

Wouldn't it be great to build a maze that had little pockets of gardens in each dead end of the maze? Use some of the fast growing evergreens around the edges to conceal the suprises. I can dream.

White Cottage Garden Bulbs

Sir Salty doing the army crawl down the hill to rub his tummy. How this doggy boy loves the great outdoors and smell of grass. These white flowers in the foreground are Helen Campbell cleome. They reseed wonderfully and have been blooming all summer and will keep blooming til a hard frost. I love annuals like that. Every few days I collect fresh seeds that I want to scatter in different places. For now I have a nice little piggy bank full of cleome seeds! I'm a seed horder.



These are some of the bulbs that I have to tuck into various corners of the gardens from Lowes. They are big healthy bulbs. I'm hoping our westie can keep the squirrels away from them. I might have to put out corn to distract them.


These 22-inch tall white tulips are gorgeous with the lime green colors of spring. Put them in among your hostas and ferns and it's a fairyland scene come true. When I first started planting bulbs I thought they needed full sun, but they don't. Only two hours of sunlight a day!

These thalia white daffodils are 10-inch and semi dwarf, but they are multi flowering. Each stem is a bouquet.

I really need to get these planted while it's still warm and sunny.

Westie Art with Alice in Wonderland

Westies are among the tiniest wee ghosts on Halloween. Boo and Boo are looking for treats!

This is up on ebay now for sale.

Wooly Dogs

Magnificent in miniature. These two terriers will steal your heart. Each one is tiny and are handmade, wool felted dogs.