Start your hygge?

 Autumn has hit hard here in New England.  It seems as if just the other day it was in the 70s and sunny with roses still blooming in the garden -- and then wham!  Cold, cold, cold.  2020 strikes again, I suppose.

So what to do to maintain a positive outlook?  To keep plugging along when almost everything in the news wears you down?  Well, I'm adopting -- or at least will try -- to take the Danish approach of "hygge"!  

Earlier this summer I stumbled on Helen Russell's wonderfully funny yet informative book.  It was truly fascinating how this little country has the highest rating for happiness, although Russell was quite frank about the "negative" aspects of living Danishly, as well. 

But I'm trying to embrace the idea of hygge -- to enjoy the simple, comforting aspects of winter.  And with the pandemic flipping into high gear once again, maybe this is the best approach for the coming months.  So, I'll be looking to cook more, read more, wrap myself in wooly socks and throws, whip out those knitting needles and crochet hooks to help sustain some type of positivity.  How about you?  Any plans for survival?  

In the meantime, I spent some hours sifting through artwork and such, posting to my Red Bubble store and thought I'd share some shots with you, several of which are colorful and summery in feel.  

Cape Cod Marshes (pastel on paper)

A throw pillow to break up the dreary winter months!

 

Melon Freefall (acrylic on paper)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A new journal for 2021?

Sail along the Coast (watercolor on paper)

Time to get a new apron?

 

Nothing like a bit of color and fun to lighten the mood, right?   As far as I'm concerned, anything to help get through the coming weeks and months.  So, stay warm and keep smiling (even if it is behind your mask).   I've always loved this quote.  It seems to capture that hygge attitude almost three hundred years earlier --

Barn's burnt down -- now I can see the moon.

               Mizuta Masahide, Samurai (1657 - 1723)

Tulip Crazy!

I confess . . . this spring I became a little bit crazy for tulips.  I don't mean just buying them by the pot load, but taking shots of them.  Every morning it became a ritual -- a few cups of java to get me going and then I was dragging these little puppies into the family room where we get incredible light streaming in from the southeast.  

 I tried catching them at all stages -- when tightly budded to fully open and onto the blowsy stage when the petals are about to fall off.

And that didn't include the obsession with color -- oh, my . . . !   From softest pinks to cherry red to cha-cha orange and finally to the ultimate yellow.  

 

What more can I say?  Like I said -- just plain tulip crazy.  And now there's not a trace of them in the garden at this time.  The bulbs slumber under the soil, waiting for the time to rejoin us next spring.

Oh sure, I'll probably browse the flower shops to see if there are any available, but that wouldn't be the same as, after a long New England winter, you find the first ones peeping up at you amid the melting snow and mud.  

These images are available at my online shop, Red Bubble.  From greeting cards to journals and notebooks, clothing, travel mugs and more, add something lovely to your life.  Because right now, we deserve a bit of lovely in our lives, don't you think?

Hoping you're all healthy and staying in fine fettle!

Cheers,

Kelly

Collaging with color

At a Glance

Taking advantage of the fairly mild weather -- no digging out from under snow and ice -- to get back to something more creative. I had begun these collages for an annual invitational, but never was able to reach the point where I wanted to inflict them on others . . . 

Not that I'm a big fan of pink but after looking out the window at white for weeks on end . . . well, you just want to see something invigorating for a change from gray, black, white and brown.

I've used these papers before, taken from Italian at a Glance (1920). The pages are quite brittle and the cover has fallen off, but I try to salvage the pages themselves.

The scrap of mathematics is from a child's primer from about 1910, and the pieces of fabric are scraps from old quilting projects.  I like them because they're soft and wrinkled, but when the acrylic gel is applied, it smooths them right out.

Earlier today I pulled out some old  paintings on birch panels and decided to 'upcycle' them into something a bit more abstract.  

I tend to be influenced by what I'm reading and yesterday I pulled a book off the shelf that I had forgotten about:  Barbara Rae Prints.  Talk about being hit by color -- Rae's monoprints and etchings are fantastical, surreal, dream-like.  

But now it's a race against time as the gardens will be screaming for work by mid-April -- and on top of all this, I've gotten back to writing again.  I'm hoping to have a manuscript (or two) ready for submittal by early May.  Well, at least that's the goal.  However, every time I set a goal, someone keeps moving those goal posts!

Here is the meaning of the happy moment:

color and I are one.     

Paul Klee

Spring Sale!

Just spending some time trying to organize various painting, drawings, sketches, etc.   This weekend the weather has been a bit too cold to do much in the garden, so am diddling around in the 'studio,' doing odds and ends.  It's hard to get motivated on a Sunday when you know Monday is only a few hours away!

Decided to try "marketing"  some of my works, as I'm contemplating opening up an Etsy store later in the spring.  But whatever the decision, many of my paintings and collages are availabe on Red Bubble as prints, notecards and more -- just click on the images below --