Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a good night bringing in 2013- I love the fresh start a brand new year promises. I have a lot of intentions, as I always do. I want to cultivate a more positive attitute-  I am going paint 30 pieces of gratitude. I am joining in on a "30 paintings in 30 days" challenge put out there by Leslie Saeta. Lots of folks are doing this.

I made a special folio from a gift  box to hold the papers- all index card size. It will be fun to try some new techniques- fluid acrylics, watercolor, and collage. I plan to do these in my house at the kitchen counter- a place I used to love to paint when my kids were home.

In other news!-Girls Just Wanna Paint monthly post is up- our challenge for December was

 Paint like Matisse! 

Here's mine- 6''x6" oil on panel.

This is Tamburina, Matisses cat.

A Very merry and Mello Christmas

 My husbands sister Maria is the best! We celebrated the Mello Christmas this past Friday. Her house is a magical feast for  the eyes- before the holiday she teams up with her buddy Lorna and together they make every corner, tippy top of cabinet and shelf a sweet vignette - what a great idea to do it with a friend- two houses get the treatment . They swap decorations too. FUN!
An event with my husbands family is always happy, loud, crowded and delicious. I know I am blessed.
After dinner we played games and some of us did a fun holiday craft with wooden beads ala Sally.

I hope everyone had a great time this past week- I sure did. Today the best gift ever- a snowstorm gave us the perfect amount of lovely white snow! I am filling up my phone with sunlit trees and blue skies.
I will be doing an ambitious project for 2013 (  I am a project junkie!)- stay tuned.....

This picture was taken Friday as I was leaving work. The rain let up and this gorgeous sky emerged!

I wish everyone  a wonderful Christmas and a happy healthy New Year.

I look forward to 2013.

We're still here, pondering the questions....WIP 22"x24" acrylic on paper

12-21-12
Sending gratitude and blessings for all of you guys for reading my blog... It is so wonderful receiving your comments and emails. As we return to the light I am hopeful for all of us to smile soon and often and keep the warm wishes of this season in our hearts for the year to come.

Portland Art Museum

Somehow my friend Mary Sheehan Winn and I managed to get away a week before Christmas to Portland to see the Winslow Homer show "Weatherbeaten " It was great!
(It was pouring the whole time btw- quite fitting)

                                                Great view from the parking garage...

                              The only Homer I was allowed to take a picture of- love this!

Me in the mirror....

Gertrude Fiske- I adore this!

Sergeant 

these fiberglass apples are by a professor I had at the Museum School- Don Moulton.

The show is up only till December 30- so glad I got there!

Antone 8"x8" oil

This is one beautiful boy, my husbands brother's boy- and he is as smart as a whip.
I am working into the one of his brother Luis- scared I might be over working...

I love doing these.

 I am aspiring to paint like Rose Franzten. (below) Tall order.

She set out to paint her entire town. I am starting with my own family.

Like most of you probably I've been off and on crying all weekend. Truly it is unthinkable.

Winnie in the Woods 30"x30" acrylic on canvas

I am lucky to have a lot of woods around me.
I love walking in there - as a child I spent lots of time in the woods behind our house-now it has all been developed. Winnie loves it too. I changed the photo a bit on photoshop- the trees are not as big as redwooods here in Massachusetts, but it was fun to play with scale.
It was a challenge to know when to stop here- but I want it in my house so I made myself finish- this has been on the easel too long.

Wreaths!

I hosted a class on wreath making on Wednesday night- ironically I won the wreath that Marie Flaherty made!( it was a contest that all the shops in Scituate harbor had- fun) Lucky me! Here it is on top  of my armoir in my kitchen.
Here they are ...

Marie made this out of pvc pipe-

these are made from cutup old sheet music

Lindas had a chicken theme ( because she has hens at home!)

this  one (below) I made from old cut out cardboard letters and paint brush handles.

Drew and Anjuli

Two sweet souls guiding our way.

Bo Tes Mural in Duxbury

 This wine and deli is on 3A near Millbrook motors- Tom the owner commissioned me to paint the end wall.
It was a lot of fun- My friend Mary Jo Killian Wildes helped me- and we transformed the space into old Italy.
Popoli is the town Tom's father lived in in Italy before he came to the states.
We painted the faux shutters- glazed and scrubbed and dragged and stippled the paint for that It-lee look!

Carol O'Malia at the Art Complex Museum

This artist is just amazing. Carol is from Westwood, her studio is in Framingham. I met her a few years back when she won first place in oils at the Winter Juried show where I work at the Art Complex. She gave a gallery talk and we were captivated by her humor and panache.

She was painting snow and shadows and white bed pillows at the time. I love her exhibit here at the ACM! The paintings are life size figures- (it's really great to do yoga in the gallery with these 7 beautiful pieces!) The exhibit is up until Feb 17.
On a side note I have been making new tabs at the top of my blog ( if you are reading this as an email you need to go to the actual blog) and listing my works for sale.
I can't seem to find a good way to describe my "out of the box" stuff...so I called it "crazy imagination stuff". Eh, need a better one.

elf and paint

 Busy with all the Marshfield ornaments- ordered 250 and need more! A huge thanks to my friend Linda who came and glittered with me  last night- I had to watch her carefully though- she wanted to glitter EVERYTHING!
She did a fantastic job- she will fit right in up at the North Pole.

I should call myself Sally Deanovich-
The show I saw Sunday spins me in a new - old direction. I am getting a good vibe through the Brooks Kelly paper. It's like a door opened up in my head....

Cleaned my studio

Ornaments are here! but luckily I cleaned out right before they arrived. Had to put away the summer work.
I saw Andrew Stevovitch at the Adelson Gallery Saturday- it blew me away! I am doing some big loose acrylic studies of his portraits on paper that Brooks Kelly had ( given to me by his wife)
I plan on painting the studio all white but can't do it quite yet.... Love the feeling of space!
You can see a couple of big  pieces I am trying to finish.
I have to go glitter ornaments now!

Luis 8"x8" oil

This was a challenge for my girls just wanna paint- at midnight it goes up- this months challenge is "Paint like Van Gogh"
I liked the pose my nephew was doing - we were playing a game together last week.It reminded me of this one byVincent. I share a birthday with Van Gogh and I have always felt a connection.

out of my mind 12"x12" oil

This one was just from my imagination. I find it freeing to do that sometimes.