New Year, New Adventures

Well my lovely readers, Merry Christmas!
And soon to be a Happy New Year!

I'm so excited for a new year full of new paintings and adventure.
Here's my  To Do List for this year:
1. New Paint Brushes
2. Build custom canvas stretchers
3. More commission projects
4. Get my mural project going
5. Another few rounds at the art market. - so far I only have one under my belt
6. Perhaps try for an independent gallery, because let's face it I don't have the degree the big galleries want to see, so I need some experience in lieu.
7. The coffee shop project
8. Work on paintings for friends and family
9. Promote my tiny business
10. Participate in at least one street festival
Phew! Sounds like I'll be busy.

Can't wait to get started!
In the mean time, feast your eyes on two projects I finished just in time for Christmas.
Take Care and Cheers cheers cheers to a very Happy New Year!

Much Love ,
Erin

"Love is a dogs only language" Acrylic on canvas 2011

"Stillness my love" Acrylic on canvas 2011

Christmas Christmas Christmas.

Christmas is almost here. This is where I'm making my wide eyed surprised but also terrified face, because I "Erin, Queen of Procrastination" have left my Christmas projects to the last possible two weeks. Less than two weeks.. This is not entirely my fault however, I have been quite busy with work. When I'm not working apparently I am a magnet for illness. I have been sick for weeks, and before that I was sick for days. Flu, Cold, Bronchitis, Respiratory Virus...vicious cycle. Not surprisingly one of my New Years resolutions is to buy out a vitamin company, hahaha and the other is to get to the bottom of my mysterious lack of immunity.
I digress. The art making is in progress and I am feeling very sentimental, and warm and fuzzy and sparkly! I love Christmas. I love spending time with my favorite people, baking, making things, writing cards, cuddling up watching sappy Christmas movies and all the other wonderful traditions that come along with it.
My parents put up the tree over the weekend, and oh it was an undertaking, it usually is. I am normally a part of this project, however having been and continuing to be sick I wasn't much help this time. The tree went up in no time, and then there was a lot of scurrying around it fluffing out the "branches" if you can call them that..the tree is artificial, but very pretty. (My Mom will testify openly every year about the years when we still went for the real deal and how nice the house smelled)  I have to agree. I miss the tree smell. The lights are a  deal breaker , there can never be too many lights on the tree, this time it was a case of not enough! So the parents scurried around the tree one more time and then off to Rona for more lights. Then it was time for a nap, which lasted approximately 10 minutes before Andrea Bocelli's Christmas album woke me, my Mom loves him. The rest of the festive decorating seems to be a blur, I was a little out of it. The house looks cheerful and very much like Christmas thanks to my adorable parents. <3  That was an "Erin Story", if you have never been lucky enough to hear one they usually go something like this... Lots and lots of extraneous detail , most of which doesn't really pertain to the point at all, weird anecdotes, long winded and often times there is no real point to the story at all. Just a re-telling of some event, sometimes I'm funny and entertaining.
(Smile!) Well now that I have updated and graced you with my ridiculous story I bid you adieu. Goodnight!

Much Love
Erin

                                                       This is Funny and Entertaining Erin

Sentimental

I'm feeling sentimental tonight. Bear with me. You may skip this post if you're not the sentimental type...
With all the talk of Christmas, just being around the corner. I find myself missing the people I've lost. I would give anything to give any of my grandparents one more hug, to hear their voices again. To share life with them and stories. To listen to my Grandma M reading to me, spend afternoons with her sewing and playing scrabble. To pull up the driveway of the farm and see my Grandma L's tiny face peering out the window at us, spending the day in the garden and chasing kittens behind the house. To lay on the old shaggy brown carpet in front of the TV watching Hockey with my Grandpa L, I loved the way he laughed from deep down inside his chest. To see my Grandpa M's face light up when we walked in the door of the old house, he always had hugs and smiles for us.I would give anything..  I miss them. Especially at this time of year. Going home to Saskatoon in the winter time to see them, those long cold family road trips. I loved it all.

Who do you think of or miss?
Is there someone you wish were still around?

Speaking of Christmas. I've started the long and tedious task of making Christmas presents. Dun dun dun.
The next 6 weeks are going to be busy. Painting until I can't anymore.
I'll post what I can along the way or at least the many chaotic and beautiful messes I'll make in the meantime.

Much Love,
Erin

Fall Frenzy

Hello ladies and gentleman. It's been a little while. I have been brainstorming and sketching out ideas for some new paintings, toying with a comic style, graphic and colorful series of portraits.
In the meantime I have some paintings to start on my list of Christmas presents for friends and family.

I just recently finished a long over due commission project , it was a larger reproduction of a smaller piece of some birch trees, and painting it the second time taught me a few things. 1. I much prefer painting on a larger scale, the bigger the canvas and the brush the better 2. Sometimes less is more 3. Layers, layers,layers are my favorite 4. The smaller piece served as a sort of rough draft of the larger piece, as it turns out I like the larger one much better. Overall I was very happy with it and so was my lovely client.
Thank you for loving my birch trees Jamie!

In the next two weeks while I would really like to work on a collage painting. I've been craving something tedious and searching for good collage materials is always fun. Some of my favorite paintings are collage based, two of which hang in my bedroom and one on my Sister's living room wall.
 After I play with that I have some canvas building and stretching to do and on to Christmas projects from there. Hurray!

Much Love,
Erin

Because I am so happy with it , here are some pictures of the Birch Tree piece, sequential, from start to finish.

Last but not least my three favorite collage paintings. These I could never sell. 

This Heart of Mine.

Here's something interesting to ponder. 

The lasting effects other people have on your heart and soul. The imprint another soul leaves on your heart is..

Permanent. There are small handfuls of people in your life that likely have had or will have some influence in the way you live and the way you love. Whether for better or worse. Who leaves an impression on you?

Who has hurt you? Loved you? Changed the way you see yourself ? Changed the way you see the world? 

Who makes your heart skip a beat? Who smashed it in to a million tiny pieces? Who embraces you? 

Who has held your heart?