Altered Box

Today my entry is just a "quickie" :)
I started with a little altered box/shadow box for a friend of mine. She´s a very busy traveller, every year living in another country, why she got the nickname "INT DIVA" (International Diva). Currently she´s living in Muscat/Oman, and that will be my theme for the inside of the box.

The box is very very small, I use an old candy tin box and there is not much room in it.

I think I will finish it until monday and will post some more pictures of the end-result then.

Hope you are all well and enoying your weekend.

Zoom zoom, see you soon!

Mahalo ~ Bettina

A Quick Collage

Yesterday and today I worked on a small collage, a tribute to my beloved Frida and her favorite song lyric "Arbol De La Esperanza, Mantente Firme" - "Tree of Hope, stay confident".
She also used that line as an exvoto in one of her paintings and I found it simply beautiful, as it goes so well with Frida´s strength and passion for life.

It was the first time I tried out any crackle technique and I used a crackle polish on water basis on acrylics. I guess I didn´t give it enough time to dry, I expected the crackle a bit more filigree. If anyone who is reading this is experienced with this technique I would be happy to get some tips how to work with it and how to create different effects. Some letters from the song lyric unfortunately became a bit blurry as I added the finish, the pencil I used was not waterproof..next time I´ll know it better!

The little skulls on top a friend once sent me from Tibet. I got them lose and seperated in a plastic-bag, but as every skull has a little hole in it like a pearl I assume they originally were a part of a prayer bead. It felt a bit blasphemic to use them in an artwork, but I thought they are better used in this work, as being in that plastic-bag forever or end up on a key-chain (like my hubby suggested).

Sorry for the bad quality of the close-up, but the finish was not fully dried by taking the pictures and reflected the flash. The original colors are a bit darker as they look in the photos.

Like I said above - every advice about using crackle is highly welcome! :)

Thanks for reading and sorry again for any bad grammar or typos, my english is still in progress ;)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Mahalo ~ Bettina

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Have a wonderful day with your beloved ones, friends!

Something I never did before...

Now I did what I never did before - I started with a new painting before I finished the last one. I got kind of stuck in the progress and decided to give it a break, cause I have so many new ideas in my head I didn´t want to get waste away, before I relalized them. I´m sure the right time for the opera painting will come, I didn´t give up on it.

Since a couple of days we have such a large ammount on snow here, it´s unbelievable! Winter is giving us another comeback this year and the hubby and I are shoveling snow three times a day, what is giving my hands a hard time, since I´m suffering of a massive case of pressure urticaria since a couple of years what makes my hands and fingers swell immensly due total normal activities (I will write more about that in another post). But I still try to keep on painting as long my hands are willing to do their job.

Here is a little sneak peek of my new project. Not much to see yet, but to be continued :)

Have a great and creative day everyone!

Mahalo ~ Bettina

Wow!

A few days ago a friend suggested me to add an artist called ANDY KEHOE on Facebook and I feel honored he accepted my friendrequest. I´m in love with his works, mindblowing beautiful, really unique in it´s style and very soulful.

I want to share this with you and hope you enjoy his paintings like I do.

To see more pls visit his homepage here:

http://www.andykehoe.net/

Happy Birthday Mum! :*)

Today it´s my Mum´s 74th Birthday and I want to dedicate my todays blog entry to her. She is the best Mum I can imagine, always supporting me, in good times and bad times, specially in times I have to deal with my difficult health condition.
She have been always very encouraging and inspiring to me, showing unconditional love and compassion to every being on this planet, welcomed all my friends with open arms and open heart. She´s simply the best and I love her very much!

Happy Birthday, Mum! May the new year of your life full of joy and laughter, happiness and good health!!!

THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING.

~ Bettina

Wedding Birds

Nothing new about the painting today, but like requested some pics of my wedding-tote.

As our wedding 8 years ago was rather "shabby-chique" I didn´t find the right purse matching to my purple-white dress. So I decided to sew one myself :)
I finished it in the night before our wedding day, literally a last minute accessoire!

Only one year before I patched a t-shirt with the same design, which became something like my personal signature - two swallows in love.

Just working on some pillows with the same applications.

This tote will always remind me of one of the most beautiful days of my life, I´m often wearing it in summer, it never gets old :)

Another progress video ~ Frida & Diego

Whilst I´m working on my theatre painting - here a video of the progress of another one. Inspired by the "Wedding-Painting" of Frida and Diego.
Hope you enjoy :)

Mahalao ~ Bettina

Struggling struggling...

I´m just working on a painting that means very much to me as it is for my parents. Even more I´m a little frustrated about having a hard time to realize my imagination of it.

After I´ve done only portraits and abstracts to me it´s the very first time trying to paint a building and I didn´t expect struggling so much with it.

I choosed this motive, cause it is one of the favorite places of my parents in Pesaro/Italy, where our yearly family meeting is taking place since my childhood and my parents have a very special connection to this opera house, the "Teatro Rossini" (as Pesaro is the birthplace of Gioachino Rossini).

Here is a picture of the original:



And here a picture of my painting, that is still in progress:



It´s about 6 o´clock in the morning as I´m posting this, this work makes me kind of sleepless :)

I will keep you updated on this one. In the meantime pls cross your fingers for me getting the creative kick I need!

See you soon!

Mahalo ~ Bettina