Tuesday

Remember the bit of forsythia I clipped a couple of weeks ago? It is happily blooming. Outside, the bushes are still a few weeks away from colour. Outside in fact, it is snowing again! The schools are closed! Topsy turvy weather.
These are three dear little lumpy bumpy organic oranges from my "box".

Rainy Monday

Paris Bouquet on eBay

Wow, it is absolutely pouring rain outside and has been all night. It woke me up several times last night but I was safe and warm and enjoyed listening to it. I feel bad for the animals out there and hope they have safe little havens. Some places in the Province are getting this as snow....I am so glad it is washing our snow away.

Stay tuned

Pictures from my maple syrup adventure coming soon...

This is the outside of the Earltown ramshackle wee general store. Each year it gets more and more run down. Inside there is a wood stove with about 8 chairs arranged around it. See all the snow reflected in the window? They had a blizzard up here last week but the sun was out yesterday and things are a melting!

Need some gas?



This bizarre work of art (credit goes to wasps) is one of several hanging from the ceiling inside said shop:)

Earth Hour.....

Just a reminder Earth Hour tonight. Turn out your lights at 8:30 for one hour. From Australia, India to Paris and beyond... Pyramids were in the dark, Eiffel tower shut her lights and I will too.
You can learn more here and read it live on twitter.
The elephant here is a teapot my daughter gave me for Christmas!

Something different:)

Jungle Safari available on ebay Roar!

It's Friday! morning and strangely foggy out there. Tomorrow is the Earltown Maple Festival and I am really hoping to get there. Pancakes and sausages and beans and fresh maple syrup and old time fiddling all together in an ancient one roomed schoolhouse!

greeting cards

Look what I have been up to:) I've been making some cards! I had some done up for a local shop called Love, Me Boutique and then thought that I should get cracking and put some in my own shop, BroomhillPictures :) I only have a few listed at the moment, more to come but really, every image in my shop is available in card form. Great to pop into a frame for some "mini"art.
I love finding cards in my mailbox. Did you know that the average person gives 25 cards per year? 85% of cards are bought by women.


In other news, my fridge is busting at the seams with veggies. Last night was delivery night and with it the realization that I have not eaten as much green stuff as I should have this past week. I have things left from the last box! Time to crack out the soup pot:) I have two large gorgeous bunches of broccoli that need devouring. Yum.

not quite overwhelmed

Tiny house in Paris. That's what I am feeling like these days, so much to do on all sides. Have to start making daily plans. I had terrible heartburn through the night. No more pesto and red pepper hummus for me:(

Tuesday, March 24

This is a magazine published by Reader's Digest. It's a light read, full of content generated by readers. I saw a contest online many months ago and thought I would enter just because it was easy and I always enter a contest if it catches my attention. You can't win if you are not in. Right? ( I have won a lot of things, but that is another post) I did not win, but a couple of months ago I got an email asking if they could use one of my pictures. Sure! Here it is. A simple shot of the Peggy's Cove Lighthouse. One of my fave subjects:)


I also wanted to show you some coasters I purchased from Four Dog Day. I love them, they are beautiful and came packaged as a gift:) Click on the picture to go to her shop.


Today the world is white outside. It snowed last night and continues to snow and blow! I don't mind too much because I know it will be gone within a week or two. This weekend is the Earltown Maple Festival and I think the temps are going to be above freezing so that lovely sap will be flowing:) Yum!

Mark Brennan, Wilderness Painter...

Today I want to introduce you to a WONDERFUL wilderness artist who lives and works here in Nova Scotia. I first came across Mark Brennan's work several years ago now and it resonated deeply with me. I own three of his paintings. He is extraordinarily talented and his work is thoughtful and expressive, capturing the luminous and ever changing beauty that exists in nature. His work has been purchased by the Art Bank of Nova Scotia and can be found in many private and corporate collections around the globe.


This is one of the paintings I own,
Moon over Lake of Two Rivers, 2004. I love it:)


Mark is also a terrific writer and on his blog, you can read his wonderful essays on life outdoors and painting in the rough, as well as samples of his work. You can see more of his work here at MarkBrennanFineArt.ca


Mark has also created some great wee videos using time lapse to show a painting in progress and in others, he takes us into the wilderness to show just what it is like to paint out on location. Worth watching :)


Originally from Scotland, he lives with his wife and daughter here in Whitehill, Pictou County. This summer, he has an upcoming SOLO exhibit at the Art Sales and Rental Gallery, connected to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. I look forward to visiting:) and there is also a documentary in the works by Simple Films of England in post production at the moment about Mark and his forays into the forest to paint. Interesting stuff. I do think Mark Brennan is one of Canada's great unknown painters who deserves a bit more attention! Can you tell I am a big fan:) What do you think?


You can purchase his work through various dealers found here on his website:)

Into the Mystic

Yesterday's foray out for lunch was great. The wee cafe only serves drinks and cake so we had to go for lunch elsewhere (great pub called Jamiesons) and came back to Into the Mystic for dessert and browsing :)

It is a bright interesting place with high ceilings and lots of things to ooh and ahh over. Upstairs they have two fortune telling"tents" covered with brocade fabric and you are encouraged to invite some friends and have a party. That would be fun:)

My friend having a sniff of a candle.

I bought a spell card for Hayley....... "How to Do Well" on tests ;-)
You sit at a long bar for your tea and there are lots of fun little things to try as you sip and taste your sweets. Runes and fortune telling pendulums and books to poke through. Fun:) We had a great chat with the owner Donna and one of her Readers, Myrna Starratt.

Spring has sprung!

Happy SPRING!!!! Finally. Even though everything is bleak brown and snow still covers a lot of the ground, it is here and will progress steadily:))

These pink sneakers belong to my daughter if you were wondering.. and this picture is available in my shop as a print:) Speaking of my daughter...... thanks for all the kind and wonderful wishes!!!!! It was such fun for her to sit and read them all last night. I wrote down all the names and put them into a hat, and the winner of my birthday draw is Blogartists!

Today I am venturing over to Dartmouth with a friend of mine for lunch at a new to me place, called Into the Mystic! A cafe and curio shop with books, gifts, astrology readings, tea leaf sessions, reiki, etc. Sounds like fun. Dartmouth is Halifax's twin city and is reached by a bridge across the harbour.

Happy 19th!

Happy Birthday Dear Hayley!
19 years ago was a day similar to this, gray and dull but the minute you arrived, the sun appeared and hasn't stopped shining since:) Love you... xoxox

I think this calls for a celebratory draw! If you wish my sweetie some birthday cheer today, I will enter your name into a draw for a print/photograph of your choice:) Please leave a way for me to contact you:! The draw ends at midnight tonight!
Hooray:)

tomorrow is a big day

Belinda and the Sea on eBay:)

So tomorrow is my daughter's 19th birthday!! How did she grow up so fast?? She can accompany me to a bar. Scary. She can order a beer. Really scary.
Today will be doing a bit of prep for her day tomorrow. She's in the middle of massive first year University end of term scramble to get projects, papers, presentations finished, so I am not sure how much time she has to celebrate.

Another warm snow melty day. Yay!

bits and pieces

Pears available as print on Etsy

Happy St. Patricks Day, Top o the Mornin and all that:)
Are you wearing any green? I always like to try, even if it is just a pair of socks. After all it is my favourite colour :)

I was delighted to discover a new foundation this morning. Life Through Art. I was featured on their blog today today:) Click on the picture to learn more about the foundation. They are making art accessible to as many children and people as possible.


We are experiencing some glorious melting weather, hooray. The snow is diminishing and large patches of weary grass are appearing. The temperatures are still only a few degrees above freezing but it is enough and the sun is shining! Makes it hard to buckle down and work, I want to be outside:) Good weather for the maple producers, the trees like warm days and cool nights to get the sap running.The festivals are starting next week. True sign of Spring. Pancakes, fresh maple syrup and beans at a Country Hall!

As a nod to the day, here is Maude Gonne, an Irish Nationalist, Patriot, and actress. She is often referred to in the context of her turbulent relationship with the Irish poet William Bulter Yeats. he was madly in love with her but she married two other men. Maude's life was never boring. Her son Seán MacBride was a founding member of Amnesty International and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974. This was taken about 1900.

Monday

Yesterday's lunch. Can you guess where I was?
Yes, a baby shower! Our hostess went to a lot of work making it fun and delicious. Thanks:)
I am amazed at the constant evolving creation of baby things. Even in the short time since my daughter was born, there have been innovations and new items that I have never seen:) My mom snorts when she sees what babies today have, "Back when you were a babe" she says , "all we had were enormous cloth nappies and big pins , you slept in a crib and that was that." lol.
Oh well...
I have a busy day today. Lots to get done. Hope your week starts splendidly!

Never argue with a woman:)

One morning the husband returns after several hours of fishing and decides to take a nap.

Although not familiar with the lake, his wife decides to take the boat out.

She motors out a short distance, anchors, and reads her book amidst glorious silence and beauty.

Put, put, put...... along comes a Game Warden in his boat. He pulls up alongside the woman and says,

"Good morning, Ma'am. What are you doing?'"

"Reading a book," she replies, (thinking, 'Isn't that obvious?')

"You're in a Restricted Fishing Area,'" he informs her.

"I'm sorry, officer, but I'm not fishing. I'm reading"

"Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment. I'll have to take you in and write you up."

"For reading a book!,"she replies,

"You're in a Restricted Fishing Area," informs her again.

"If you do that, I'll have to charge you with sexual assault," says the woman.

"But I haven't even touched you," says the game warden.

"That's true, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment."

"Have a nice day ma'am," and he left.

MORAL :

Never argue with a woman who reads. It's likely she can also think.

The picture above is from the Nantucket Historical Association, it is a sea serpent built by Tony Sarg in 1937. Click on the picture to see more.

March 13

Sunflowers available on eBay

Very cold today but the sun is shining and the March sun carries a warmth that is lovely despite the cold. Does that make sense? I picked some forsythia branches and have plopped them into a vase on my windowsill. I look forward to watching the buds blossom yellow in a few weeks. I'm hurrying along spring.:)

I just finished the most wonderful book! The Gargoyle, by Andrew Davidson
"It is a story of a gorgeous, dissolute male porn star who was burned beyond recognition in a car crash who, while recovering, meets a tattooed schizophrenic sculptress who claims that they were lovers in 14th-century Germany, when she was a nun and he was a mercenary. There are wonderful tales woven throughout the novel and one is left wondering what is the truth and what isn't." This is Andrew's first novel and it was picked up by Doubleday in the United States for the whopping sum of 1.25 million dollars.

poppies

Poppy Cat on eBay

This little 5 x 7 painting is on stretched canvas. I am so dismayed with shipping prices. Canada Post is very expensive and the cost keeps rising. Crazily enough, sometimes it costs more to ship within Canada than to the United States! I generally paint on masonite which is sturdy and cheaper to mail. I like canvas but it is more fragile so costs more to ship with all the padding etc. Sometimes I wonder just how much a person is willing to pay to have some art sent:(

Love poppies, love love love them. Their shapes, texture, colour, pods! They do make a mess in the garden when they are done but it is a small price to pay for their loveliness.:)

Did anyone see the moonrise yesterday? Gorgeous. A ripe apricot. It is the last full moon of the winter. Hurrah!

winged messenger

photo by me, "Winged Messenger" art piece by Susanna Gordon of Susanna's Sketchbook model is Chara, owner of Love,Me Boutique in Halifax

Susanna has been working on a really cool project for months now. She has created these beautiful "winged messengers", with different inspiring thoughts on them and they have been sent to various people about the globe to photograph. You can see their progress here. Maybe they will end up in a book for everyone to enjoy. It has been fun and I am only just starting:) Looking forward to sunny days full of colour to use as a backdrop:) P.S. I am not the model... it is a friend of mine:)

Gretchen Jakub Fabre

Here is the fourth of a wee series of artist interviews based on the colours of the rainbow! It has been a fun project. What impact did each colour have on the artist's life. What is the strongest memory or association with it.



Gretchen aka Chichiboulie as she is more commonly known, lives in Lille, France close to the Belgium border. (Chichiboulie is a name her husband calls her, a quirky derivative of cherie, xo) Gretchen has a charming and light touch, creating images for young children and the young at heart. She lives with three busy little children and you can read about her life with them and her day to day adventures HERE. She also creates embroidery patterns and stamps!
This is her etsy shop and here is her formal website


Colouring books


Nellie Belle badges


Pippa, paper doll

And here are Gretchen's colours......"Here you go! thank you for the interview. It was a fun one to do, but indigo really stumped me!"


Red - one of my favourite colours! So rich and bright and lively, I just love it! But only if it's a true red, a real cherry or watermelon red. Not orangey red at all for me. There's nothing wishy-washy about this true red in my mind. It's there and it definitely makes a statement. Red dresses, red shoes, red flowers, red scarves. All so classic and yet modern.

Orange - This is a more recent love for me. It used to remind me too much of the 70s and drab or oddly coloured kitchens and marigolds, not my favourite flower at all. But over the past few years I've come around to orange and discovered its vibrance. I love it with pink and peridot. It's such a happy colour in the end.

Yellow - Another colour I ignore a bit too often, but I put it down to my having blond hair and thus not wearing a lot of yellow. But I love a deep yellow, semolina coloured, the colour of Provence and Tuscany. A deep yellow is sunshine on a grey day to me.

Green - With red, my other favourite. I have had a love affair with green since I was just wee. My first "real" bicycle was green. I had green carpenter jeans when I was little. I still know the words to "It's Not Easy Being Green" sung by the illustrious Kermit the Frog. Green is fresh and happy. It goes with just about everything so apparently nature has gotten it right!

Blue - The ocean and the sky. A bright summer day. A refreshing, relaxing, calming colour. Amsterdam blue is one of my all-time favourite colours and Amersterdam blue shutters are my favourites on white washed houses.

Indigo - This one is the most difficult for me and I've left it for last. I still don't have big associations with it except maybe a brand new pair of deep indigo trousers. Crisp and richly coloured, wide-legged and cropped and just perfect for summertime.

Violet - admittedly not one of my favourite colours personally. I like my purples more on the blue side, but if I had to link violet to someone or something, it would be to my mother and her love of it! I think you can't think of this smiling woman who I often refer to (sorry mum) as a munchkin straight out of The Wizard of Oz without coming round to violet at some point.

Treasure Hunting

I was here yesterday, Cow Bay! One of a few stops while geocaching with some friends. What a windy, sunny, wonderful day! The wind was blasting here. The temperature was almost balmy so everything was melting. I could even smell the earth at times:)


Aren't these rocks on the beach great. It was hard not to pick some up and pop them into my pocket. So smooth and round. (April, see how similar they are?)

We found a ten dollar bill and a twenty under some melting snow, soggy and cold in a place impossible to locate the owner. We used it to buy lunch! Fish and Chips at a fantastic, famous, hole in the wall kind of place called funnily enough John's Lunch!

Looking towards Europe:)

blue sky saturday

Isn't it funny how an image can strike you. I love this one. At first glance it is just a jumble of wires and a telephone pole. Look harder and you see art. Gorgeous intersections of line and colour. Above it all, high in the sky is a seagull, wheeling around, oblivious to the trappings of society.
Ok, that's my airy fairy post for the day:)

Starry Night

Mediterranean Kitties available on eBay

Made this other other night and really enjoyed it. Roasted Beets nSweets I added garlic cloves and some parsnips and carrots. At the end I splashed on a glug of basalmic vinegar but that might not be to everyone's taste. Putting it here so I can find it again. I bet it would make a good soup too if you added stock and then pureed.

Cold and clear today. Snow this afternoon. I can really see the quality of light changing. Even though the weather feels like, looks like and is Wintery, the light is telling me things are changing:)