Friday, 10 April 2015

Spring is here!

Oh yes, finally! The sun is shining and I only want to go outside and feel the warmth on my face. The kids are here all day and we've been doing things together, so art has gone to the back burner for now. No painting, just a few ACEO's. But that's okay, there will be time later :-)


What I did manage to do this week is finally figure out how to put Paypal-buttons on my blog and make a gallery of images. Oh, you wouldn't believe how good that made me feel! I have been wanting to do this since such a long time, but every time I started it seemed so overwhelming and there was always something that made me postpone it again.


I couldn't believe it when it actually worked :-) I've been so happy about it that I'm now thinking of making a page for my smaller paintings to sell as well. Here's the page for my ACEO's. You can also click on it on the top of my blog. I'll be adding the new ACEO's regularly.


If any of you are interested in doing this yourself, I'd be happy to share how I did it on my blog next week. Just let me know in the comments.


And then I had a really nice surprise in the mail today. A few months ago I got an email from a lovely lady in Australia asking me whether they could use one of my paintings for the front of a booklet about climate-change. Since climate-change is something that is really important to me, I felt honoured and proud to be a part of it, and of course I gave them permission to use an image of one of my paintings. They chose a painting that I made a few years ago and that has been sold already. And today the booklet came all the way from Australia to me! Here's the front cover:


It is such an interesting approach to climate change. It's from a Melbourne based group of psychologists and helping professionals who are working to foster emotional engagement with climate change. In the booklet are personal stories of people concerned about climate change who are trying to raise the subject with friends and co-workers, and the different reactions they get to it, going from silence to denial to anger. It's about how to engage people and overcome psychological and cognitive barriers to talk effectively with others. Very interesting, I'm even more proud now to be on the cover of this!

And last but not least: next Monday my Soulfoodlesson will air! Oh, I'm so excited! And nervous! For those of you who would still like to sign up: I know I said last time that you can sign up until the end of the year, but that was a mistake. You can access and download the lessons until the end of the year, but registration for Soulfood ends on April 30. So there's not much time left. If you still want to sign up, here's the link!

Okay, that's it for this week. I'll finish with one of the funny pics I find on Pinterest, since I've been forgetting that for the last few weeks ;-)


Just yesterday, our cat must've thought the same thing. She was outside for all of 5 minutes, captured a mouse and managed to bring half of it back into the house. Urrgghhh!

Well, I hope the sun is shining in your part of the world as well. The world looks so different with sunshine all around. The people are different too, I just love spring! (and summer even more!). Makes me miss Australia a bit less ... I'm linking this as always to Paint Party Friday. Hope you're having a wonderful day and beautiful weekend ahead. Thanks for being here ♥ ♥ ♥

27 comments:

  1. Nice present from your cat! Love the ACEOs, and huge congrats on having your painting on the cover of a book, what an honour! Spring is here too. Have a great weekend, Valerie

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  2. I wasn't familiar with ACEO's, so I learned something new today. The weather is certainly marvelous these days, so I'm sure it inspired your beautiful work. Blessings! PPF #40

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  3. Sweet faces. Love the duo on the Adele lyrics. xox

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  4. The ACEOs look great!! Happy Spring! Happy PPF!!

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  5. Your AECO's look great and I would love to know how you apply the PayPal button to your blog. You must be so pleased that your artwork appears on the leaflet. Congratulations!

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  6. I too love spring, and summer more! Congrats on having your painting chosen for a magazine cover-one regarding a special cause too-that is fantastic!! Great ACEOs too. Yes, I'd be so appreciative if you'd share putting on a PayPal button with your gallery of images. I've been asked to do this too but have no tech skills :(

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  7. Beautiful faces! I love the way you did the last ones hair, weaving together. Really pretty

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  8. Congratulations on the magazine cover. You so deserve it. Love the beautiful faces.

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  9. Wow that is pretty exciting being on the cover of that book! Now you need another page for MEDIA...Love all the work you showed today, I'm a huge Adele fan and Sarah lives in Vancouver...nice to see these quotes!! Great Characters you created...love them all!! Yes I love to learn how to do anything...hope you share the paypal thing!

    Hugs Giggles

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  10. Congratulations on being on the cover of the book!! :))) How thrilling!

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  11. Such gorgeous faces, Denise. Congrats on being on the cover.

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  12. Love your girls, nice outline ;-)

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  13. I love your ladies here, your paintings! Your way to paint hair is admiringly! I even started to think the hair on the first lady was Real! I mean it looks as real hair, so vibrant!

    Congrats with your lovely piece of art on the front of the book! I'm happy with you :) and yes, so very important! I wisnh we could start to consume things and stuff much less. I think we people cannot go on like this..

    And my comment about the cat: just as my cat :)) and my reaction to it. Watch her/his offended eyes! :0 :)

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    1. Thanks so much Viola. Just to set things straight: these ACEO's are mixed media collages, I use images of faces that I made/painted in the past, and then make new figures with it. Sometimes I draw or paint the hair, but sometimes I use hair from a magazine, because I like how that can completely change a face. So you were right: the hair on the first image is "real" hair from a magazine image :-)

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  14. Your ACEO's are lovely. The cover of that booklet is awesome - thanks for your lovely comment on my blog. The birds are a bit of a break from painting - they definitely loosen me up. I am very pleased with how my table came out - I wasn't sure while I was painting it! And about cats - they get their jollies by grossing humans out!!!

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  15. Beautiful work and I'm glad you have been enjoying the sunshine. I need to revamp my blog and get a papal button. Its on my to do list :)

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  16. Congrats on mag. cover. The ACEOs are dynamic. I love the faces and the sayings. Blessings, Janet PPF

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  17. Wow.. great girls and congrats on having your art on a bookcover.. this is fantastic!
    UUUps .. what a nice present from your cat!
    Happy PPF!

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  18. What a terrific painting on the booklet, congratulations!
    Good to see your "funnies" back, what an expression on the cat's face.
    I like the way you have combined quotes and portraits on your ACEOs.
    And I'll be looking out for your Soulfood lesson, I can just imagine how much work has gone into making it.

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  19. Haha, our cat did the same with a squirrel this week! It excited the boys to no end. Me, not so much. Congratulations on having your art on the hooklet! Perfect picture for what the group's message/purpose. Yes, do tell about Paypal button... I have been encouraged to do the same but it is just one more thing to figure out... so I haven't...

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  20. Wows! Congrats to you on your art debuting on a book cover! And the book sounds quite interesting as well! Well done Denise!!
    Your girls are sweet and I want my hair cut like the platinum blonde! heehee
    As for your kittie- yuk!! but at least there won't be mouse droppings in your pantry! heehee
    Happy Sunshine Sunday! xo

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  21. Cats are so generous with their gifts. LOL! I love your ATC's. I did a few a couple of years ago when we had a group that met once a month and gave us prompts for them. It was fun, but as usual I always seem to make things way more complicated and labor/time intensive. Congrats on your new button. It makes life easier!

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  22. Oh, so many good things here Denise! I think i'll come back a little later, when i have more time to look at everything. BRAVO to you. That cat photo made me smile. :) xx

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  23. yea sunshine!
    wonderful ACEO's and you figured out how to put a paypal button on, fabulous!
    i would love to hear how to do it.

    the kitty is so cute, of course it is a gift ;-)
    I can only imagine that your class will be well received!

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  24. Your girls have a cool hairstylist it seems, lovely!! and as I said I so love the girls with the weaved hair and had a loud laugh about the generously cat ;) ♥ Conny
    Piaroms Art Journaling

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  25. Yes, it's outdoors for me now. I sense my creative self returning to some of the Nature crafts I used to do in years past. I figure I'll fill a journal spread by the end of the month with who-knows-what. And that's OK!
    Love your ACEO and best wishes with the class!

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Thanks for taking the time to comment! I love hearing your thoughts about my work. Because I am getting too many spammer comments, l have to use Captcha, sorry. Hope this is not a problem for you !