Illustration Friday topic of 'Wedding'

This painting I've titled 'She Walks in Beauty',fits in very nicely with this week's topic of 'Wedding'. When I put this description for this painting on my website, I described her as a beautiful woman, possibly a bride who appears to be looking out and pondering her future life, and what is before her. She knows that she has a beautiful, passionate and loving life ahead of her. And she walks in that beauty. Congratulations to Illustration Friday's Brianna and her husband to be Josh. May you have a beautiful wedding day today, and a beautiful life filled with much joy,love, and happiness.

Illustration Friday ~ 'Missing'

This is a painting I titled 'Different Paths'. When people go their separate ways it can be for many different reasons. Maybe something was 'missing' from the relationship. It may be that what was missing was not missing at one time, but things have changed, people change. Change is a constant, and without it we would not grow. When we begin a relationship we have the best of intentions, the best of feelings, although sometimes things change to the point that separation is all that can take place. All we can do is to learn from the relationship and move forward in life and in love.

Illustration Friday ~ 1st submission for the subject of 'Moon'

This is my first submission to Illustration Friday. Here is my version of 'Moon', with an acrylic painting that I tilted 'Midnight Moon II'. I love the Moon and the energy associated with the Moon. The Moon has a magical quality that I am very attracted too. Many of my more recent paintings have included images of the Moon. Please do stop by my website to view other paintings. My Website
Magical Blessings!
Colleen

First Place ~ Keuka Lake Art Association Show

Had a wonderful time at the annual Keuka Lake Art Association Show in Hammondsport. This was my first time exhibiting and to my surprise I was chosen First Place in my category for my Watercolors. It was a validating experience and definitely boosted my confidence in my skills. I met some great new artist friends, and the weather was just perfect. This was the KlAA's 41st year for the show. I will definitely exhibit again next year. Hammondsport is located at the south end of Keuka Lake in the southern Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York. Hammondsport is a beautiful town and the KLAA Association members are a very nice group of people. Here is the link to their website KLAA website. If you would like to view the 10 new paintings that I prepared for the exhibit, please go to My Website and visit the galleries.

Keuka Lake Art Show

I will be showing my work at this year's KLAA Keuka Lake Art Show which is being held on Saturday July 7th and Sunday July 8th, 2007. This will be my first year exhibiting my work and it should be lots of fun! This is a wonderful outdoor show for local artists. I have been working very hard over the last few months and will be showing approximately 10 new paintings, of which, I will be posting on my website very soon. Please stop by and say hello if you are in the area.

Monday Monday!

The morning after the Easter holiday. My children's Easter baskets are almost empty. I see belly aches in their immediate future's. What a nice quiet dinner we had and then we decided to play the card game Uno. This is a really fun game for children and adults. I have to admit when my daughter first got the deck as a gift from one of her classmates, I could not fully figure the game out, then my oldest daughter's boyfriend (hi CJ!) taught us how to play. Lots of fun and my five year old has a full grasp of the game too, it didn't take him as long as it took Mommy ;)...I'm sure it will continue to be a game of choice in our home. Oh and a quick update on 'Oliver'. He's fully on the mend and getting back to his full activity level after his neutering surgery last week. I am enclosing a sweet photo of him from a couple of weeks ago. He adores the snow and I refer to him as my 'Snow Dog' because he loves to stick his face in the snow and eat it. He also runs exactly like the snow dogs that pull sleds. Very cute stuff! Until next time,

Sweet 'Oliver' My Havanese Puppy!

My little guy 'Oliver' went in this morning for his neutering...ouch! I felt terrible and sad dropping him at the vet's this morning. He couldn't eat this morning and of course I felt bad about that too. He knew, as I'm sure most animals do, that something was coming. He was whimpering in his travel crate and I just let him lick my hand while I talked softly telling him he would be okay and home very soon. It's now 1:54 p.m. and he's been gone since 8:00 a.m. this morning. We miss our little guy terribly and can't wait to pick him up at 4:00 o'clock this afternoon. Being the new mommy that I am, I had to run out and get him treats and a new squeaky toy to play with when he feels better. I probably got more accomplished today not having to take him out every hour or so, but it is strange not having him home. He'll be home and feeling better very soon, but it really wears on your heart strings when your children or pet are sick or under the weather. Here is a photo of my 'Oliver', taken January 13, 2007 three days after we got him.

Vincent van Gogh's 154th Birthday!

Yesterday would have been Vincent van Gogh's 154th Birthday. Vincent a very troubled artist, never knew that he would one day become so very famous. He was so talented, but had many troubles within himself and cut his own life short. I was interested to learn recently that van Gogh only began painting at the age of 27 and only painted for ten years until he took his life at the age of 37. What a young age by today's standards especially. He was born in 1853 in Holland. Actually, from what I can gather he only sold one painting while he was alive. He sold a painting called 'The Red Vineyards'. He became most famous for his painting called 'The Starry Night', my personal favorite. It is very sad that he lived such a troubled existence, but in the end what he brought to the world of art will absolutely live on forever. He is definitely an artist mentor of mine. I adored his use of bright colors, once he discovered them. Vincent may your soul and your art live on eternally, and I know they will.

Wonderful wonderful art supplies

One of the most joyous things in life, aside from my children and my puppy of course, is getting a shipment of new art supplies. Oh I just adore choosing my items and finally having them arrive UPS. I love the man in brown for he brings me my goodies...fresh new canvas, paints, art papers for making prints et cetera.

I also adore getting my shipments of books, fresh great smelling books. All kinds of books to include novels and many many spiritual philosophy books. It's like a pleasant addiction, nothing bad for me just give me my empty canvas and I am so happy. There are times when the creativity block asserts itself and causes friction within the process, but once that passes I am good to go and extremely happy for it....until next time,

Unbelievably Heavy Movie

The other night I watched a movie called 'The Pianist', with Adrian Brody that was directed by Roman Polanski. This was a movie from 2003, and as you can probably guess I'm a bit behind in my movie viewing. This was a true story of pianist and composer Wladyslaw Szpilman's survival in the ghetto in war torn Poland during World War II. This movie was so devastatingly hard to watch. The graphic nature of the horrific accounts that took place against the jewish people was unbearable to watch. I wondered why? I had allowed myself or was even driven to view this movie, but in the end it was Adrian Brody's tremendously talented acting and as far as I was concerned he was Wladyslaw Szpilman. This man went through so much and his story of survival is truly mind boggling. It is even hard for me to put into words what I am trying to express regarding my feelings about this movie and the emotions that were brought to the surface. I cried my eyes out and wanted several times to turn off the dvd player. Through all the pain and suffering this man went through he survived and actually went on and actually thrived in life. This movie did give hope where there was none and through his trials Szpilman's love of his beloved piano is what saved his life and saved his soul. He unexpectedly had the help of a sympathetic German Officer, but in the end he survived of his own accord. Wow! enough about that but a truly remarkable story.....bless you Wladyslaw Szpilman may your soul play the piano eternally............

For those wondering the name GARAHSTAH~ means picture maker; female artist in Iroquois...I wanted something different for my blog name.

I am brand new to the world of blogging and feel a bit lost, but I am certain I will find my way.....

......This is a painting I recently completed and it is still 'Untitled', but I will be naming it soon along with others in the series. The paintings are an expression of what has been happening in my life and my thoughts to go along with the images are what you will see here at my blog.