Salem Tavern Candles...

Add a little colonial New England era to your home.
Salem Tavern Candles centerpiece, and these are completly waxless and flameless!

Come see inside my Etsy Shoppe!

Said Wicked Deeds...

• "The Witch Trials" has been cast and is well under way. As the Salem theatre works to perfect this original piece, now called "Said Wicked Deeds". They have decided to run a staged reading on Monday Sept. 22nd at 7:30 at the First Church in Salem in place of the originally stated performance dates. Please check their website for more details: http://www.salemtheatre.com/

Salem Theatre

90 Lafayette St.

Salem, MA

Shades of Black, Blue and White

I wanted to try some new techniques with my backgrounds and some new colors to get a blended water color look. Thats when this hit me, its a story that came together as I was painting. My moon and the white ghost pumpkins have a stardust glittery effect to them.

I listed this one tonight on ebay click HERE to view my auction

The Swamp Witch


The wise old woman of the swamp; she has experience of the ancient, the oldest of old, beyond memory, in the roots of the beginning of time. This is the Gran Ibo, most commonly known as the Swamp Witch, so called because the swamp is the place she calls home. A place of only the darkest shades of midnight. A place where only shadows and unseen things lurked behind dark crevices.


Beneath an autumn moon she worked. She was old, old enough that she couldn't remember how long she'd been there or how old she was. Air, earth, fire and water were the same to her, but she preferred the cover and coolness of the swamp water. Her hair was coarse and covered in snow white moss. She was hungry and it was time for her midnight snack. Neither frogs, nor toads or nightly creatures would suffice this evening. Her fingers gnarled and as she twisted them, she cast out a spell over the ghost pumpkins. Pumpkin soup for the soul!

Extreme Grungy Witch Shoes

Well surgery went well, the broken tooth is all out, and I feel so much better. I have to admit I was pretty nervous I have never been put under for a tooth before. It was over in a flash and its a good thing I like mashed potatoes and gravy because thats about all I can eat today lol. There was only a minor incision needed so a few stitches and I am as good as new! thanks so much for all the emails and well wishes you all sent, that was so sweet and much appreciated. Life is a little bland without wonderful friends like you guys!

So I listed a new auction on ebay for some adorable witch shoes, I love these shoes! I thought it would be kind of cool to do two sets one that is extremely grungy and rusty and one that is just a little grubby and primitive. That way my collectors can choose for themselves depending on if they collect extreme primitives or subtler worn treasures. I have a pair of shoes, a hat and a broom I put in my entry way every year and they look so cute when everyone comes in. So for the next few days and the weekend while I recover I will be working on more Halloween prims for my shop, etsy and ebay as well.


Have a great day eveyone!
hugs,
Heather

Click HERE for my Auction

Victorian Witch Stocking...

How was everyone's Labor day? mine was good despite the fact that I am just dying from my broken tooth. I go in for surgery Wednesday morning yeah! so out it comes and I will be pain free. I should be more excited about that but the thought of surgery for extractions now means you don't get gassed and yanked, they put you out with an IV. When did they start doing that? I am a bit squeamish, but if it means the tooth will be out I guess its a good thing.

The kids and I spent the weekend with the fire pit going and roasting marshmallows. Fall is coming quick I can tell the mornings and nights are getting cooler and some of my summer garden flowers are already spent. I did work on some new projects this weekend too, Halloween ones! I am such a child when it comes to Halloween thank goodness I have little ones to give me the excuse I need to act like a kid myself.

So I have been stitching away, took a break from painting for a bit and made some Victorian Witches Stockings. This one in particular I love because of the antique looking photo of the witch on it. So I am sharing with you the new one. Hope you like it. I think I will drag all the decorations out this week, I put a few up already.


I let you know how the tooth is doing, Have a wonderful day everyone!
hugs,
Heather

Twilight Falling...

It is the season of the witch, well ok its not but its coming soon and I am getting ready for it. I can't think of anything else but Halloween and witches. Thats ok with me though I love to paint them so its fitting that I just keep doing it.

So here is a new one in a long series I am doing this month, titled "twilight falling"

Which reminds me I have to get dinner ready for the kids before they start revolting. Have a great evening everyone!

hugs,
Heather

ACEO's

I love doing these little ACEO's. I remember the first time I found out what they were. I have to admit I had never even heard of them 3 years ago. I was amazed at the artists that create little works of art in this small format. Don't laugh I was someone scrapbooking on 12 x 12 sheets where you have room to work!
For those of you who are not familiar with ACEO's here is the skinny on them:

A.C.E.O.- Art Cards -Editions and Originals... fit in a standard trading card sleeve, or can be matted and framed. They are an affordable way to own, collect and / or trade original works of art.
The only rule for aceo's is their size, they have to be 2.5 x 3.5 always. Other than that anything goes. They can be painted, drawn, altered art, I know of an artist that does them on fabric dryer sheets. Similar to ATC's or artist trading cards which began as a way for artists to trade each others work back and forth with each other. These were not meant to be sold. ACEO's hit ebay and grew like you wouldn't believe. I am glad they did. I have began to collect them from all the artist friends I know.

I am used to doing larger paintings but once I began doing them I couldn't stop. I love them. I just wish I had more time to work with them as my days are filled with so many other mediums. Here is a new ACEO that I did this week and will be available on ebay:

Ye Olde Witches Brew Celebrates One Year!

Ye Olde Witches Brew Magazine is celebrating one year!!!!

One year of very hard work bringing a dream into reality for our own Jennifer Toppel.
One year that I have followed along the path with many wonderful friends, artists and contributers as they came together sharing and supporting each other.

I am so proud of Jennifer, watching someones vision turn into a reality, especially someone you admire and love is very exciting. This publication was Jen's dream and she made it happen.
We must remember: "Always follow your dreams, for out of such fragile things come miracles"

I can only hope that this will continue to grow and flourish as it is such a wonderful source of inspiration and friendship to me and many others.

Check out the cover, isn't it beautiful? That is the wonderful work of Byrum Art I was also tickled to see the featured story: Celebrating One Year of Art and Fantasy which covers all the wonderful artists that have been featured in the magazine this past year. I am proud to say that I am one of them along with my wonderful friends Ron & Sherry Byrum from Byrum Art, Sarah Sullivan from Cottage Garden Studio, Carrie Hawks of Tiger Pixie Studio and many other talented artists who I share my inspirations with every day.

"Midnight Ride"

Here is a peek at my new one, and I wrote a little poem to go with it.
I will be listing it tonight on ebay.

"Midnight Ride"


Witch Hollow Primitives on Ebay

Baba Yaga

The Witches of the world theme has a winner, and no its not me lol, which is just as well the person I voted for did win, and she is much deserving of it. If your not familiar with Arlene, check out her work on Ebay: dreamedbyarlene

Arlene has not only inspired me, she brought back a wonderful memory from my childhood. When I was little they used to have these book mobiles go around and my mother would take me to pick out books. I found an old Russian Fairy tale of a witch named Baba Yaga. (and you wondered why I am so demented and full of Halloween spirit all year long lol) The story was so captivating to me that every time we visited the book mobile that is all I would check out. My mother would read it to me every night and finally she decided to buy the book lol. I want to share some of the story here, as well as the pics of Arlene's work, she chose Baba Yaga as her witch, and all I can say is WoW! It is a wonderful OOAK original sculpt.




Baba Yaga
O nce upon a time an old man, a widower, lived alone in a hut with his daughter Natasha. Very merry the two of them were together, and they used to smile at each other over a table piled with bread and jam, and play peek-a-boo, first this side of the samovar, and then that. Everything went well, until the old man took it into his head to marry again.

So the little girl gained a stepmother. After that everything changed. No more bread and jam on the table, no more playing peek-a-boo around the samovar as the girl sat with her father at tea. It was even worse than that, because she was never allowed to sit at tea at all anymore. The stepmother said that little girls shouldn't have tea, much less eat bread with jam. She would throw the girl a crust of bread and tell her to get out of the hut and go find someplace to eat it. Then the stepmother would sit with her husband and tell him that everything that went wrong was the girl's fault. And the old man believed his new wife.

So poor Natasha would go by herself into the shed in the yard, wet the dry crust with her tears, and eat it all by herself.

Then she would hear the stepmother yelling at her to come in and wash up the tea things, and tidy the house, and brush the floor, and clean everybody's muddy boots.

One day the stepmother decided she could not bear the sight of Natasha one minute longer. But how could she get rid of her for good? Then she remembered her sister, the terrible witch Baba Yaga, the bony-legged one, who lived in the forest. And a wicked plan began to form in her head.

The very next morning, the old man went off to pay a visit to some friends of his in the next village. As soon as the old man was out of sight the wicked stepmother called for Natasha.

"You are to go today to my sister, your dear little aunt, who lives in the forest," said she, "and ask her for a needle and thread to mend a shirt."

"But here is a needle and thread," said Natasha, trembling, for she knew that her aunt was Baba Yaga, the witch, and that any child who came near her was never seen again.

"Hold your tongue," snapped the stepmother, and she gnashed her teeth, which made a noise like clattering tongs. "Didn't I tell you that you are to go to your dear little aunt in the forest to ask for a needle and thread to mend a shirt?"

"Well, then," said Natasha, trembling, "how shall I find her?" She had heard that Baba Yaga chased her victims through the air in a giant mortar and pestle, and that she had iron teeth with which she ate children.

The stepmother took hold of the little girl's nose and pinched it.

"That is your nose," she said. "Can you feel it?"

"Yes," whispered the poor girl.

"You must go along the road into the forest till you come to a fallen tree," said the stepmother, "then you must turn to your left, and follow your nose and you will find your auntie. Now off with you, lazy one!" She shoved a kerchief in the girl's hand, into which she had packed a few morsels of stale bread and cheese and some scraps of meat.

Natasha looked back. There stood the stepmother at the door with her arms crossed, glaring at her. So she could do nothing but to go straight on.

She walked along the road through the forest till she came to the fallen tree. Then she turned to the left. Her nose was still hurting where the stepmother had pinched it, so she knew she had to go on straight ahead.

Finally she came to the hut of Baba Yaga, the bony-legged one, the witch. Around the hut was a high fence. When she pushed the gates open they squeaked miserably, as if it hurt them to move. Natasha noticed a rusty oil can on the ground.

"How lucky," she said, noticing that there was some oil left in the can. And she poured the remaining drops of oil into the hinges of the gates.

Inside the gates was Baba Yaga's hut. It wasn't like any other hut she had ever seen, for it stood on giant hen's legs and walked about the yard. As Natasha approached, the house turned around to face her and it seemed that its front windows were eyes and its front door a mouth.

(must edit for length) You will have to check out the book to read the rest of this story...


Arelen's Sculpt is now available on Ebay!

"Where Have You Been?"

Shame, shame on you bad wolfy. Where have you been?
This 11x14 acrylic on canvas painting was inspired by my best friend Jules and her love for wolves. I wanted my witch scolding her wolf for being out gallivanting all night and not knowing where he was at. There she sits perched on a rock, tired from the on going expedition and what do you know....here he comes lol.
Wanted to share this one with everyone, as it was painted with inspiration from a very special person in my life.

Sorry guys this one is.... SOLD!

Winter Solstice

Hello everyone it is blustery here today!

What happened to my 62 degree day? Aside from the kids getting sick, I am back in the swing of painting this month. Slowly but surly dealing with ear infections, colds and flu. My house looks like the plague struck lol. I started doing a original one of kind art series and was asked to keep doing more in the theme so here is The 3rd in my winter witch series, I am really having fun with these especially the colors and the textured snow. I will be putting her in my etsy shop this week.

Here she is entitled "winter solstice"
Prim Blessings, stay warm
Heather