THE WOODS ARE LOVELY, DARK AND DEEP BUT...BEWARE OF THE GHOSTS

"BEWARE OF THE GHOSTS"

OIL ON CANVAS

ANNABELLE / 2022

THE WOODS ARE LOVELY, DARK AND DEEP BUT...
"BEWARE THE GHOSTS"
The beauty of working with oil paint is it allows me to fix my mistakes or things i dislike about the work. I wasn't fond of the toadstools so I repainted them.I believe I can move on to a new work.

 

A LITTLE PEEK A BOO GHOST

THE ROAD SO FAR WIP OIL PAINTING

The Road So Far ... WIP oil painting ... still some details to add.

Remember I did say it takes me forever to do a painting but In the end I have to be happy with it. 

This painting has been a long time coming. My aunt who lives in Little Rock loves wolves and asked me to paint her one like 2 years ago ; the wolf happens to be her spirit animal. Anyway, I finally tackled the project. Never painted a wolf but so far I like him. I didn’t like the witch in the cloak so I removed it and gave her a dress. Still need to work on her hands ( a first again for painting hands) and shade her dress , face and shading the baby wolf and papa wolf. Hope you like the painting so far, Pat. Oh, and yes , Supernatural has inspired me in many ways as well as my daughter’s stories she is writing for Supernatural Fan Fiction. So proud of her. My writer in residence🎃♥️@BATANDMAGGIE

Watching the last season with my daughter and husband. Amazing show🧡🎃🧡🎃

MOONSTRUCK ON CAT ISLAND AND HAPPY CATURDAY 🐾🐾🐾🐾🐈‍⬛

I HAVE LOVED AND ADMIRED SIDNEY POITIER ALL MY LIFE. THE FIRST TIME I SAW HIM ON FILM WAS "TO, SIR WITH LOVE" AND FROM THAT IST PERFORMANCE I KNEW HIS KIND SOUL. I COULD FEEL IT RADIATE THROUGH THE TELEVISION SCREEN.

SIDNEY POITIER WAS BORN ON AN ISLAND TUCKED FAR AWAY IN THE BLUE WATERS OF THE CARIBBEAN SEA. CAT ISLAND IN THE BAHAMAS WAS HIS HOME. WHAT A MAGICAL PLACE IT MUST HAVE BEEN. IT WAS HERE ON THE TINY ISLAND HE WAS TAUGHT BY HIS PARENTS THE VALUES AND MORALS TO KEEP CLOSE TO HIS HEART ON HIS LIFE'S JOURNEY.

"IN THE KIND OF PLACE I GREW UP, RECALLS POITIER, "WHAT'S COMING AT YOU IS THE SOUND OF THE SEA AND THE SMELL OF THE WIND AND MOMMA'S VOICE AND THE VOICE OF YOUR DAD AND THE CRAZINESS OF YOUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS ... AND THAT'S IT"

I READ "THE MEASURE OF A MAN" BY SIDNEY POITIER, HIS SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY, AND FELL IN LOVE WITH HIM ALL OVER AGAIN. 

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BEAUTIFUL BOOK!♥️

THEN, JUST RECENTLY, I WATCHED OPRAH WINFREY'S DOCUMENTARY ON HIM, "SIDNEY". NATURALLY, I WAS LEFT THINKING OF HIM AND CAT ISLAND AND INSPIRED. 

BAT WEIGHING .8 OF A POUND THE NIGHT WE BROUGHT HIM INSIDE 

BAT ONE OF MY FAV PHOTOS OF HIM TAKEN BY MY DAUGHTER EMMA

BAT THIS MORNING LOL 

I PAINTED BAT, OUR BLACK CAT RESCUE WEIGHED A MERE .8 OF A POUND WHEN HE CAME TO US AND HAD LITTLE CHANCE OF SURVIVING, BUT HE WAS DETERMINED TO LIVE. HE WILL BE 6 YEARS OLD THIS OCTOBER 27TH. I DECIDED TO PAINT HIM IN MY REVIVED PAINTING OF "GHOSTS IN THE MOONLIGHT". WHAT BETTER PLACE FOR A CAT TO LIVE THAN ON CAT ISLAND IN THE BAHAMAS.

MIXED MEDIA OIL PAINTING ON WOOD 

MOONSTRUCK ON CAT ISLAND 2022 ANNABELLE ...I  FORGOT TO SIGN IT, LOL

THANK YOU SIR♥️

  HAPPY CATURDAY FROM CAT ISLAND 🐾🐾🐾🐾🐈‍⬛

INSTAGRAM POST WITH SOUNDTRACK FROM PRACTICAL MAGIC  - ALAN SILVESTRI

" MOONSTRUCK " ... THE REVIVAL OF "GHOSTS IN THE MOONLIGHT" WIP OIL ON WOOD MIXED MEDIA

 

"Anything can happen when you have all the time in the world"

The merriest month of the year, May.

The flowers of the field and of the garden scented the spring air with their sweet perfume. I closed my lap top and put my phone on silent. I spent my Spring to the end of Summer in my garden. I had all the time in the world to do what I wanted. 

I watched "Gardener's World" on Britbox, went thrifting and bought a few more vintage gardening books, and visited nurseries I had never seen before. I brought home more plants for the garden and added more to my wish list. I had read somewhere pinning a sprig of rosemary in your hair brightened your memory and in the story "The Time Garden" sniffing a little Thyme might just transport u somewhere back in time. These little silly simply pleasures one might discover in the garden amongst the birds and the bees and the dragonflies never fail to enlight my heart.

 And then, early in September as I was watering the flowers, I noticed Bat, our black cat watching me from the bench at the kitchen table he had climbed to get a better view of what I was up to. He was such a cutie standing on his hind legs with his paws over the back of the bench leaning over with his face smooshed against the window. Someday I thought, I would paint him doing exactly that but at that moment he gave me another idea, one of reviving a painting I had already done.

"Ghosts in the Moonlight" was an oil painting I loved but I always knew eventually the forest would change. The way Bat had stood on the bench made me think why not have him climb right to the top of one of the trees and gaze into the enchanted moon. Make Little Bat moonstruck. So I did.

For the moment I shall simply call it,

" MOONSTRUCK " it may change.

 I still remember Bat on the bench, I think the rosemary has helped, lol.

Still a WIP... Mixed Media, Oil On Wood 2022

  

"MAPLE SPIRIT " -The bLUE aRTIST, A Moon, and Cloud Study, and Then Inspiration Strikes!

"MAPLE SPIRIT " 

The Blue Artist - I'm afraid I haven't grasped hold of color mixing skills, or, for that matter, painting clouds, water, trees or the flowers, the birds and the bees, cats and dogs, just about everything there is to paint, but that's ok, part of the journey is learning the art.
A few weeks ago, I went for a country drive along the Rideau River to look for pussy willows. I make it a habit to take a particular route home passing through Burritts Rapids, a tiny hamlet I love. Right before I turned onto county road 2, I noticed a few of the maple trees at Christ Church had buckets placed on them to collect maple syrup. Not wanting my coffee to get any colder since I had already left it earlier while picking the pussy willows I found, I opted to skip taking their photo. It was only yesterday I told my husband and daughter of the maple trees at the church.
Stan chuckled at the thought of collecting maple syrup from maple trees surrounding the church. He asked me, " Is that the same church with the cemetery at the back where we went for a walk last year"?
"Well, he had the name already picked out, and my daughter, the picture in her mind; I just had to paint it.
"Maple Spirit"; sort of sounds like a brand of maple syrup. Don't you think? And so, the moon and cloud study I was working on got a landscape below. Love how inspiration strikes.

FORGET-ME-NOT - COTTAGE BY THE SEA

TWO DOVES, A CAT, AND MY SON, LOL.
"OUR HOUSE, THEY SAY; AND MINE, THE CAT DECLARES" AND MINE, SAID; MY SON THIS MORNING WHEN I SENT HIM A PICTURE OF THE COMPLETED OIL PAINTING OF THE COTTAGE BY THE SEA - FORGET-ME-NOT.


I finally decided to place the two doves on the cottage roof and a little white cat in the garden.
On to my next painting. I'm practicing "Hygge; bringing in a little bit of Danish culture into my life and sharing with people that seek that same dreamy place in their life.

MY HOUSE, I SAY


~ ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 1850-1894


"My house, I say. But hark to the sunny doves
That make my roof the arena of their loves,
That gyre about the gable all day long
And fill the chimneys with their murmurous song:
Our house, they say; and mine, the cat declares
And spreads his golden fleece upon the chairs;
And mine the dog, and rises stiff with wrath
If any alien foot profane the path.
So, too, the buck that trimmed my terraces,
Our whilom gardener, called the garden his;
Who now, deposed, surveys my plain abode
And his late kingdom, only from the road."

ONE MOSTLY GHOSTLY NIGHT

If I could travel back in time, I would choose Ghostly Victorian England and live in a cottage by the sea, much like "Gull Cottage" from the movie "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir."

A haunting, lonely cottage by the sea, the house I've lived in all my life in my dreams. It was the lonely, ghostly mood of the place and a house sitting silently alone, its only view the romantic sea that I wanted to capture in this painting of three spooky cute ghost cats by the names of Ghost, Spooks, and Boo sitting by the seashore on "One Mostly, Ghostly Night."

As I was painting the ghost cats sitting on the driftwood posts, I got a flashback to the scene of Lucy and her daughter, Anna, on the beach and how the old fisherman carved Anna's name on the driftwood.

I could sign my work with my name, Anna on one of the ghost cat's driftwood posts. How fitting to pay homage to one of my all-time favorite ghost movies.


Oh, and by the way, Annabelle is my nickname given to me by my husband when we first met because I love the poem, Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe. Oh, and one more thing, look at the cloud to the right of the moon.



Lucy Muir: "I want Gull Cottage".

Lucy Muir: "I want Gull Cottage".


If interested in the ghost tale, here is a link to its trailer.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) Gene Tierney, Rex Harrison, Natalie Wood

DORMIR SOUS UN CYPRES

"Dormir sous un cyprès, or “to sleep under a cypress” means to be dead."


OIL ON WOOD WIP

I left it for dead.

When I was inspired to paint The Quiet Garden, it was after I had come upon a beautiful garden behind The Saint John the Baptist Anglican Church in Richmond, Ontario, next to the church graveyard. But, I failed in capturing the serene landscape of The Quiet Garden and tossed the painting into the woodpile.
Sometimes, what I have in mind does not always turn out the way I conceive it in my mind. Now, I have arrived where the road leads to though not so sure how to go on. I will need to give it some thought before I make my next brush stroke.

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN


Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;


Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,


And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.


I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.


~Robert Frost

By The Sea 🐚

Painting of the day by Gilles Leroux

By The Sea 🐚

When I bought this beautiful seascape painted on a conk, Ganoderma applanatum, I intended to paint over it: only, I fell in love with it.

I had never thought of using conks as a canvas for painting until I was introduced to them by my mother-in-law. I remember one, in particular, she had painted with a forest scene. It was two conks attached by a stick which she cleverly transformed into a fallen tree lying across a stream connecting the two sides of the forest floor. Her husband skillfully created a mama raccoon and her two babies out of Teasle seed and placed them on the log crossing the stream below. I thought it was such a genius idea creating a 3 - d painting from quirky fungi: ever since then, I have been on the lookout for one just like it. 

When I do get the opportunity to work on one of these lovely fungi, I love to smell their heady fragrance when I use my wood-burning pen in creating the design: Autumn enters the room, and its as if I'm still out in the woods, walking on musty fallen leaves, collecting fungi.

If you haven't tried painting on a conk, maybe, now is the time to try. Take an autumn walk, collect a few shelf mushrooms, and bring back a little of fall into your home. 

The conk with the beautiful sea shall remain in its original embodiment, and I will take another walk into the woods, maybe get lucky and find the one.

"By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea.

You and me, you and me, oh how happy will be.

I like to be beside, beside, beside the sea,

 beside the seaside with you." 

 Some Like It Hot (1959) M M IN BEACH SCENE

THE QUIET GARDEN ~ OIL PAINTING ON WOOD PLANK WIP 🖼

Abandoned and forgotten, this painting I started in April may yet see life.
I almost burned it on a few bonfire nights but, it somehow escaped.
And then, looking at the rough sketches of the painting, I took another look at the wood plank and was intrigued by the light and shading of the colors breaking through the Cyprus trees. I think it might be worth my time to finish what I started.

The Quiet Garden ~ Oil on wood plank WIP 🖼

Where did I get the inspiration for this painting? 

The Quiet Garden at The Saint John the Baptist Anglican Church in Richmond, Ontario.

 In times past, when my daughter was in school, Grace, our golden and I would go to Richmond, take a long walk in the park by the river until M finished her class.

Then, one day, Grace and I came across The Quiet Garden next to a beautiful cemetery behind the Anglican church.
The garden became our special place to retreat to after a long walk, Grace and I taking a little rest before picking up M.
These days, I don't go there often, but when I do, I see the golden girl sitting next to me by the garden bench. 😢🦮


"Today" ~ Mary Oliver


Today I’m flying low and I’m
not saying a word
I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.
The world goes on as it must,
the bees in the garden rumbling a little,
the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.
And so forth.
But I’m taking the day off.
Quiet as a feather.
I hardly move though really I’m traveling
a terrific distance.
Stillness. One of the doors
into the temple.

THE SPOOKS ARE COMING FOR YOU, LITTLE BAT! 🎃👀🎃👀👀👀🎃🎃👀🎃👀🎃👀👀🎃👀

The Spooks are coming for you, Little Bat!🎃👀🎃👀 🎃👀

~ Oil on wood panel 



I should have thought of this earlier but its never too late. A neat way to see where the stars would look good before painting them in. I still need to paint a shooting star and some tiny stars around the little white ghostly pumpkins. 

"By pumpkins fat and witches lean
 By coal black cats
 With eyes of green
 By all the magic ever seen
 The ghosts will rise on
 Halloween" ~ author unknown

I shared this oil painting yesterday but, I got better pictures this morning so, sharing once more. Also, wondering what to do with the pumpkin patch, any suggestions? 

Last night's moon was a waxing crescent, and I tried to capture an image with my phone, only I got this. Sometimes, pictures lie. lol 

I did, however, paint it in my spooky Halloween painting. 

Now, I am thinking, what I need to do with the haunted pumpkin patch being very careful not disturb the little spooks.
Of course, you might have guessed if you read about our pumpkin patch how I got the idea for this painting. And did you notice the pet rock? Nature sure presents inspiration: one only needs to put on their glasses and take a closer look. Well, at least I know I do, reading glasses and an early morning coffee helps me to see more clearly.

WITCHES' BROOM TREE WIP 🧹 OIL PAINTING

I love the trees! 

I love collecting their leaves, their seeds, the conks that I sometimes find on their trunks on my woodland walks and of course taking their photos. 

I also love the illustrations and paintings of trees, particularly the ones done by 19th - century British artists.

The Witch Broom Tree in this painting was inspired by Emily Carr's gorgeous trees of British Columbia.

"In 1818 Constable exhibited a beautiful drawing of elm trees at the Royal Academy. It failed to sell and so it was still in Constable’s possession two decades later, when he added a note on the back to the effect that “This noble Elm … was blown down April 1835.” It was a portrait, in other words, of a particular tree, one whose fortunes he continued to follow, and whose eventual loss he lamented long after he’d moved away from the area." ~ Professor Christiana Payne


And like John Constable, I adore painting them. When I came upon a tree down the road from where I live that looked quite peculiar I took a few photos of the tree for future reference which would come in handy when I went to paint it. At the time I didn't know why the tree was afflicted with such unusual, odd-looking, broom-like distortions but after looking it up online I discovered it was disease trees get and not from witches : )

I suppose the namesake is because it reminds one of a spooky broom belonging to a witch. So I decided to paint the Witch Broom Tree in oil but it was my first time painting entirely in oil and I didn't realize just how long it takes for the painting to dry and cure. This painting is still very wet.

I added a couple of spiders and webs to the tree and eventually would like to add a black cat and create more depth to the scenery before it's complete. Hopefully, in the process, I wouldn't destroy it.

THE MISSING MARK 🖼

You always hear in the news how someone, somewhere came across a painting at a church sale unsuspecting of its true value. And then it happens, they discover the treasure they brought home is not just a mere treasure for adorning the walls of their home but one which should be in a museum for all to revel in.

Who hasn't had the thought run through their head of discovering an object of crowning value when on a hunt for treasures? I know, I'm one who has and still does but not always, most of the time I'm quite content in discovering something that belonged to someone who's passed on and finding clues in the object that tells me more of their story. The mystery creates the curiosity of which I will never cease to have, I love digging for lost treasures! Dead people's stuff is so interesting to me, it's the kinda of stuff that brings the past into the present and me into the past; a connector to a time long past and forgotten.


Not long ago, a Maud Lewis painting was discovered at a thrift store in southern Ontario and was initially passed off for nothing more than a painting done by a child just because it was painted in the naive style. Don't judge the book by its cover yet how many of us have done exactly that? A mistake easily made when you come across a beautiful book with the most exquisitely detailed gilded artwork you ever laid eyes on. Naturally, we get lost in its beauty and some forget to look inside.
It is the countenance of the book that one must examine thoroughly and not just it's cover, alone; together they are the pieces to the puzzle that make the picture.


So when I discovered this landscape painting many years ago at the Ottawa neighborhood store the serene landscape made me think of The Group of Seven. I think it was the sunset, something Franklin Carmicheal might have painted. I liked its beautiful tranquil setting, I liked it because of its gorgeous sunset, because of the fact that it was an original, because it was painted in oil and because it was painted on a canvas that placed its origin back to England. The artist's identity though was and is a mystery to this day. Maybe the artist was not the boastful kind or perhaps didn't find it important enough to sign it since it was just a study to emulate a famous master or simply, had just forgotten.

The painting with the missing mark, the mark of ownership of who painted the landscape, will never tell its tale of where it's life began. Did the artist give it a name? Was it painted in Plein air or from a photograph taken on a holiday or from the artist's dream? Where was this secret place?
The artist's name missing, adds more of the mystery already attached to the painting. An old, antique painting belonging to an artist whose story I would love to learn more about only the story stops at the mouth of a river with the setting sun shimmering down into its still waters. The forests and hills are a few of the clues where the secret place may be and likely, will never be revealed. This lost and found treasure keeps being forever intriguing. 

The painting now adorns our home, desperately needing a frame, a very old one to complement its scenery would be fitting. I can pretend it was painted by someone famous, wouldn't it be lovely if it really belonged to Franklin Carmicheal?


In the end, I love the painting, famous or not, it does what a great painting should do, it captivates and draws you into its magical landscape and gives you a daydream.