New art and the closing of our gallery

I wanted to share with you some of the newer artwork that I've done lately. The first painting I actually did last summer, so it's not entirely new, but I love this painting. It just happened so easily and wonderfully. I was so happy with the way it turned out. The only problem though, was that I sold it two days after I finished painting it! That was great, but I really didn't get to enjoy it very much, so I miss it. Hopefully, I can do another painting like it some day.

The little doll I made recently. She's very funny, silly and odd. I love making little dolls and little people and creatures. She's like a grandmother, a quirky, funny grandmother. Doesn't everyone wish they had a grandmother who was fun and different?!

The following paintings are somewhat new. I was very happy with them as well. I love to paint. It seems like sometimes, though, I just cannot paint anything I like and then all of sudden, that goes away and I am able to do some wonderful paintings again. It's frustrating but I'm just glad that I am able to get out of my slumps after a while at least. Some of these are just parts of particular paintings, not the entire canvas. The one painting with the yellow cup was done with a lot of experimental materials. I used a kind of oily eye shadow, lipstick, shoe polish, acrylic, oil pastels and some other things I can't remember. It was wonderful trying out some different things; was really inspiring and fun.

The photographs I did recently.......just trying to do different things with setting up little scenes with the pretty things I have. I don't know how to use my camera very well, though. I like how some of these turned out. I should really take a class on photography; I love it but wish I knew more about it.

Some very sad news.......we are having to close our art gallery. We've been there a year and have just loved having such a wonderful, big space to work on our art and show it, too. It was our first real studio/gallery. We were part of the Gallery Strolls once a month in Salt Lake City and every month was great. In the warmer weather months, of course, we had tons of people and it was so very exciting to have so many people in our gallery. They loved our artwork and our space, the way we displayed everything and it was so motivating to hear their great comments and encouragement. We created so many great paintings and sculptures and little fairy houses, there, too. It is going to be really heartbreaking to leave. This Friday is our last day there. I have to go there today to get the boxes of materials (tons of boxes) and bring them back to our apartment. We're having to put all of our art and supplies in our apartment and it is getting so unbelieveably crowded. But it's also nice to have all of our art here where we live, too. So, I guesss there's always some positive things to an experience that might seem totally sad and disappointing. Something good will come up soon, too, I am sure; a new experience, a new part of our artist lives.

If you'd like to see video of our gallery, (which, by the way, was called "Marcel & Florette's Curious Menagerie"......a wonderful name, I think)......just go to our Youtube site......natureartists and you'll be able to see some great short clips of what our unusual gallery looked like. I will miss it so much!!! Some wonderful, cherished memories of our time there. What a blessing it was to have that space to use. We are so grateful that we had the chance to have our gallery there. I know now that we have the confidence and ability to have another gallery or shop some place else and even make it more unusual and wonderful.

Hope you are having a great day. It is snowing here, can you believe it?! Part rain, part snow and it's almost the end of April. The trees are blooming and everything is turning green. I guess we just need the moisture. It's wonderful, too.

Would love to hear from you. Keep smiling!!

Debbie