Title:  "Spirit of Christmas Planting Frost"

Size: 5" x 7" (5 inches by 7 inches)

Medium:  Acrylic paints on acid free Smooth Bristol.

Date:  11/21/07

Notes:  The light line seen going down through the painting, at the edge of the moon and over the spirit's cloak is NOT on the painting itself.  It is a reflection caused by my scanner.    

   As a child, I was convinced that the frost that grew on my window must have been painted on by some Holiday Spirit because I thought it was too beautiful to be there by chance.  The crystals of ice grew over night and created caves and forests for my fairies to play in.  My imagination was truely captured by the frost that was planted while I slept.  Now that I've grown and know the difference, I still like to imagine the special spirit that I was sure must exist.  I imagine a Christmas Spirit staying busy through the night to enchant my children as they wake in the morning.  She works dilligently under the light of the full moon, who watches over this great work.  Perhaps she is Jack Frost's sister or some angel who's duty it is to instill a love for the holidays.  Maybe she is one of Santa's Little Helpers.  Whatever this spirit may be, I hope she brings you joy this Holiday Season! 

   I've painted this piece in a simple folk style to capture the "feeling" of Christmas.  The deep blue background shows the happy strokes of my brush, dashing this way and that, with the abandonment of child like joy.  The face in the moon looks on, as if inspecting the spirit's work.  Please click the thumnail for a close up of the moon's face!  There is some texture to the fur on the collar of the spirtit's Holiday garb and the fur puff at the end of her red cap, that may be seen better if you click the thumnails.  A white snowflace hovers near her face, waiting for her command.  She has just planted this curl of frost and is intent on her purpose, ignoring the wind that catches her cloak and makes it flutter behind her.  A lovely addition to any holiday collection!  This painting will be wrapped in acid free paper, placed between rigid clean cardboard and shipped in a bubble mailer for protection during shipping.

Contact me for availablitily!

   Here's the first from my Maine sunset series.  This small watercolor painting would brighten up any room or office and is sized for cramped spaces.  It's the perfect office art!  Looking for a gift for your co-worker?  Here it is!  ;)  Only $20 + free shipping if you mention you saw it on my Blog!  Contact me to purchase!

This beautiful little watercolor painting captures a Maine sunrise in lovely pastel colors.  This one is the perfect size for a small room, hall way or office that needs a bit of decorating.  On Sale for the Holiday Season!  Only $10 + free shipping in the US and Canada.  Contact me if you would like to purchase this painting! 

 

 

Visit sunriseworkshop.com 

 

 

  Click the thumbnails to view this set of two Christmas tree gift tags with metalic gold tag ties from different angles.   This set of two tags has a lovely green watercolor background with metalic gold Christmas tree with a gold star at the top of the tree.  These tags would dress up any package!  The backs are blank so that you may write a personalized message to your gift recipient. Contact me to check availability!

  Lots of great shine and shimmer!  

Contact me to check availability!

   Contact me to check availability! 

 Some dark strokes in the mulch start defining the shadows below the gourds.

 I've desided to add a rock border behind the gourds.  This will be the mid level of the work and come before the background.  I know the shadow of the rock will be dark, so I'd added some black right away.  A bit of light blue and purple are added to the lighter portion of the rocks.

 I've used gray and white over the top of the base colors to give a "rock" look to it.  The blue and purple blend in well and add just a bit of color. Much of this picture is still in it's rough form.  Quite a bit of smoothing and some layering will refine the work.

Check back soon for part five of this oil pastel demonstration!  Visit my website at sunriseworkshop.com to view available works.

More color and value building!  The stem goes in as well.  I've also scuffed the shadow a bit with a textured cloth to lift up some of the dark color and give it a bit of texture.  This also helps smooth out areas that look too grainy.

 

Time to start on the background!  The gourds have not been refined, but that isn't important at this point.  The finishing details will be left for last.  Now it's time to deside how this background will play out.  I begin with the red mulch.  I use a bright red as my base color and scribble some in at somewhat random angles.  There's no uniform shape to the mulch, so this can be done quickly. 

In this frame, I add a bright purple to the mulch.  It looks completely unnatural at this point, but this purple will help give a cool tone to the shadows.

 

Be sure to continue to part four of this demonstration and visit my website, sunriseworkshop.com for available works.

 A stem and darker values are added to the new gourd.

 At this point, I feel the work needs a taller gourd to help ballance out the large shape of the pumpkin squashed shape of the third gourd.  I sketch the rough outline.

 Here, I lay in the undercolor of the new gourd.  Where I want the shadows to show, I fill the color in thicker.  The lighter areas of the gourd have been lightly colored with the same tone.  This will help the transition from light to dark look more natural and blended.  You can see I've also started adding brighter colors to lighter portion.

Be sure to continue to part three!  Also, visit my website at sunriseworkshop.com to view available works.

 I like to lay in my base colors and layer them as I go.  In order to create a gentle transition of color from the changing pumpkin, I have the green side changing to orange with the orange on the outside of the paper.  The green will face other gourds in shades of green.  Although a contrast of orange behind the green of the small gourd would be interesting, I didn't feel it fit the mood I want to convey.  I want the overall arangement to be the final focus, not the small and off center gourd.  A sharp contrast would have certainly drawn the eye straight to the little gourd.

 Here I begin adding shadow and depth to the pumpkin.  With out the darker value adding depth, the appearance would look flat and the little gourd would blend right in the the pumpkin.

 The stem gets some color. 

Be sure catch my next blog entry for a continuation of this demonstration!  Save this blog to your RSS feeds to stay up-to-date with my projects & visit my website at sunriseworkshop.com to see available works for purchase.  All the Best!  Kathryn

   

enlarged version

Also available through my website.  Visit sunriseworkshop.com to view this one and more.

Visit sunriseworkshop.com for more info or to purchase this original art.