Sunday, November 15, 2015

"Dog of the Dead", the 6th in the "Day of the Dead Fairy" series by Dennis Mead



Been a busy four months since releasing the last painting "Desert Race".  After getting Michel mostly settled here in Arizona, we started doing a lot prep work to build a new workshop for me to do my wood working in, which has consisted of a lot of yard work really.  People often think that AZ is one big desert, like they see in the movies.  Dust storms, saguaro cacti and tumbleweeds as far as the eye can see.  What most dont realize, is that a large part of Arizona is in the Rockies.  Here in the Verde Valley, there's a lot of vegetation, and unfortunately, some of it grows REALLY FAST, namely the weeds and the "paradise trees".  I've been spending so much time in Montreal the last 5 or 6 years that the yard got away from me, and quickly became a bit of a rain forest.  We've taken out over 500 of these "paradise trees" already, which includes digging up their roots so they dont grow back.  We're starting to see daylight, both figuratively, and metaphorically, as we're nearly done digging up trees, and the backyard is much sunnier.  It'll be nice to get it all cleared and have more workspace, as there will be some other work shops going in, and outdoor work spaces too.

While cleaning out the backyard, I found a bunch of piles old lumber I haven't thought about in years that I collected during the years I worked in construction, and while tearing down and rebuilding part of the house I live in now.  Whenever I've needed a break from yard work, or during rain storms, I've been working up some of these piles, making frames to put the prints of my artwork in.  It's been a lot of fun.  A big mess in my studio, stacks of wood and sawdust everywhere.  I REALLY cant wait to have a dedicated wood working space, instead of the temporary one I set up once in a great while.  Sedona Green has been getting most of the framed pieces so far, but I've been taking them to art shows the last several months as well, and will have them at a couple of upcoming temporary art shows at local galleries here in Northern AZ.

With Michel finally here in Arizona, he's been helping me more and more in the studio, taking over some of my jewelry lines and such, giving me more time to do things like get back to wood working, and doing art shows.  We have done 3 art shows in the last couple of months, 2 of which were really fun.  And we have 2 more before the end of the year, including a local favorite that I have in the front yard of my studio during the Christmas parade.  Really looking forward to restarting this tradition, as I haven't been able to do for a couple of years now, due to being in Montreal so much.

Before continuing on with a big list of things that would really be boring to anyone other than Michel and I, about work and such, I'll continue on with this blog and just say we've been really busy.  But, I managed to sneak in a little time to finish this new painting "Dog of the Dead".

This painting was actually supposed to be the first painting in the "Day of the Dead Fairy" series.  While coming up with ideas for the Fairy paintings, I looked at a LOT of pictures all over the internet.  Pictures of flowers, and rivers, and streams, and butterflies, and well everything.  During the huge search of pictures, I came across a photo of a dog painted up like a skeleton dog.  Immediately I knew I had to paint a fairy with a painted skeleton dog.


I started this one back in January, but was having a lot of trouble with it, right away.  I kept trying all sorts of things to combine the fairy and the dog.  Everything from the fairy riding the dog (which lead to the idea in the painting "Desert Race", to having the fairy in a ballet pose on a dogs nose, to the fairy using a skeleton dog's tail to swing around on like she was on monkey bars (which the fairy in "Fairy Lockets" was going to do from a bleeding heart vine).  I finally settled on a fairy just posing next to a skeleton dog, in a stone and flower garden setting.  I had so much trouble with the layout though, and not really caring for the general concept that I decided to put it away and start on another painting while I gave more thought to this one.

I started working on it again back in June,  after stopping at a gallery in Montreal to have a look around.  It was more of a show for student artists really, but some really good pieces mixed in here and there.  There's always the standard pieces at these types of galleries:  too many portraits of famous people, tributes to feminine parts, lions, tigers, and zebras, and I have yet to go to one of these student shows without seeing a painting of a really detailed hand, resting on a sheet of paper with a pencil in its hand, drawing another hand.  Never been to a show without a version of that.  This show was no exception.  But near that piece, there was a painting of a woman in various levels of completeness, with a paintbrush in one detailed hand and arm, connected to a completed shoulder, neck and face, but the rest of the painting was still "in progress", as she was painting herself.  I really liked the idea, and toyed with doing a day of the dead version of it, when I looked to the painting to the right of it, of a pug.  That was when the idea of a fairy painting a dog to be a skeleton popped into my head.  I will revisit the idea of a woman painting herself in the future though, as it's a great idea.

I went back to the apartment and looked at the painting I had started with this new idea in mind and realized I wouldn't have to change much of the general lay out or painting I had done back in January, other than changing the way she was standing a bit, and I changed her wings, as Michel and I had gone to a insectarium and I took a picture of a butterfly that had wings like this.  I got pretty far with this painting while still in Montreal, but had to quit on it as we had to start getting Michel ready to move to Arizona.

We've been so busy since getting back to Arizona though, that I haven't had time to paint until just this past week, spending many nights painting, instead of sleeping.  My friend Teri had a birthday a few days ago, on Friday the 13th.  She's a big fan of my Day of the Dead artwork, plays in the same hockey rec league as I, she and her boyfriend Jesse were both in the wedding parties when Michel and I got married, she and I even clogged together in a 4-H group as kids.  I knew she would love this one, as she loves dogs, fairies, and day of the dead, so I used her birthday as a deadline to get this painting done.  After giving it to her at her birthday party, I told her that as part of her present, she would also get the chance to name it, but only if she came up with something good, and she did :-)

Getting back to work here.  We're working in the back yard again today, with lots to do.  Hope you enjoy the new painting.  If you want to add it to your collection, it's available at the Dizzybear Creations webstore starting today (November 15th, 2015) in three sizes, matted and ready to slip into any standard size frame of the same size.  The matted prints will also be available at Sedona Green within the next couple of weeks.  Sedona Green will also be getting a large batch of my art prints in wood frames soon too.

To find the prints at the Dizzybear Creations webstore, click this link:  www.dizzybearcreations.storenvy.com



Thank you in advance for sharing my artwork/posts with friends that you think would like my artwork, 
on your social media accounts:

  Facebook, twitter, blogger, 
pinterest, tumblr, ello.... 



It is INCREDIBLY helpful in getting my artwork out in the world, and is greatly appreciated. 

If you have any questions you'd like to ask that I can answer in a future blog, you can either post them in the comment section below, or send them to my email dizzybear73@gmail.com 



Direct link to all blogs: 
 http://dizzybearcreations.blogspot.com/





E-mail: dizzybear73@gmail.com










Posted by at No comments:

Saturday, July 11, 2015

"Desert Race" the 5th in the New "Day of the Dead Fairy" series by Dennis Mead


Hope you all had a great 4th of July.  I surely did.  I'm a little late getting this painting online, but with good reason.  The last couple of weeks, I've been busy moving Michel down here to Arizona.  In January of 2014 we started the paperwork to get him permanent residency, and on June 17th (nearly a year and a half later), we did the last interview with the immigration department to finalize his paperwork.  We took another 10 days to say goodbye to all our friends and family up in Montreal, and to pack up all our stuff.

We loaded up everything into a rental truck and worked out our route to Arizona, trying to make it a nice leisurely route, spread out over 6 days of driving, stopping to see many cities and towns.  During the final goodbye party, we decided that since we had the truck all packed that we would leave later that evening, instead of the next morning.  At the last minute we changed our route, decided to go through the nearest customs border into the US, the one we were the most familiar with, and figured we'd drive like 3 hours and get a hotel room.

After driving about 20 minutes, we reached the border, and were both prepared to be sent to second questioning, and to have the car tore apart and searched.  We've had quite a bit of difficulty in border crossings in the past, so we had made a very detailed inventory of the car, listing all the items, numbering all the boxes to correspond with the inventory, hoping to make things go easier.  When we pulled up in the truck to the booth of the US customs agent, he took our passports, entered them into the computer and made a little small talk.  There was a little issue that appeared on his screen because of our past problems crossing the border, but he took care of it at the booth with the click of a few buttons, saying that Michel's permanent residency visa superseded all our past issues.  

We both figured we'd still be directed to second questioning to have someone examine the car....  The customs agent asked a few questions about Arizona, asked us to roll down one of the windows to the back part of the truck, he looked in and said "you have a safe trip" and let us right through.  I was so shocked that we didn't get stopped and questioned, nor have the car tore apart, that I must have driven 10 miles with a nonstop smile and saying "oh my god, I cant believe it was that easy!" over an over again.

I ended up being so amped up from the border crossing being so pleasant that I drove all night.  We ended up sleeping a few hours in the truck while parked in a Tim Horton's coffee shop parking lot in Pennsylvania the next morning, and then I drove all day.  On that first day we connected a bunch of smaller highways, zig-zagging our way through New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and to about the middle of Illinois.  Just under 1100 miles.  We got a hotel room and I slept like the dead.  It was a fun drive though.  We went through a lot of Amish country, saw many horse drawn buggies, but man did we drive through a lot of rain.

Day two we woke up a bit early in Altamont, Illinois and drove to Tucumcari, NM, exactly 1000 miles according to google map.  We had discarded our original map of the route we were going to take and were just driving in the most direct route we could, but adding a couple of stops like St Louis, and Oklahoma City.  We were driving just in front of a big storm as we went through Oklahoma City with golf ball size hail, and from there we raced the sun to hit the Cadillac Ranch before the sun set to get some pictures of the caddies.  Just made it.  From there I drove to Tucumcari, NM but was too tired to continue on.  Michel doesn't have a driver's license as he's always lived in cities with good public transportation, so we had to stop for the night for me to rest.






On the third day we pretty much just took I-40 into Flagstaff, with one side trip up to Sante Fe to see what it looked like, and then straight to our place here in Verde Valley.  Just under 2700 miles in three days.  We plan to go back to several of the cities we drove through in the future to explore them more.  Once we got on the road though, we both felt like doing the trip really fast, rather than taking our time.  It worked out really well though, as once we got the car unloaded, we did day trips around Arizona on each of the final three days we had rented the truck for.  We found a bunch of great materials to work with to make jewelry and artwork out of, and found an awesome table saw that someone had built a rolling stand for with pop up side tables, drawers full of blades, and they had built a bunch of jigs to use on the saw to make picture frames with.  It's going to be a lot of fun to work with, and we got it for an amazing price.

This 5th painting was started long before we started our move, but it's kind of fun how its release aligned up with our trip, and how we were planning to take our time getting to AZ, like the desert tortoise would have, but ended up going as fast as we could to get to AZ, like the jack rabbit could have.  We arrived in plenty of time for Michel to celebrate his first July 4th in the United States, as a permanent resident.  We got several of our friends together here in Arizona to help us celebrate.  A good night indeed.

This painting was a bit of a challenge, figuring out how to paint fur, and the shell as well.  Many parts had to be repainted many times.  I'm still not quite sure why I painted this particular painting.  I just woke up one morning and decided I wanted to paint a jack rabbit, which then made me think of the Aesop's fable I liked as a child.  Since the jack rabbit is typically a desert animal, decided to go with a desert tortoise, and add an Arizona desert background, inspired by areas found around Tucson.  










The following is the story of "The Tortoise and the Hare"
(One of Aesop’s Fables)

Once upon a time there was a hare who, boasting how he could run faster than anyone else, was forever teasing tortoise for its slowness. Then one day, the irate tortoise answered back: “Who do you think you are? There’s no denying you’re swift, but even you can be beaten!” The hare squealed with laughter.

“Beaten in a race? By whom? Not you, surely! I bet there’s nobody in the world that can win against me, I’m so speedy. Now, why don’t you try?”

Annoyed by such bragging, the tortoise accepted the challenge. A course was planned, and the next day at dawn they stood at the starting line. The hare yawned sleepily as the meek tortoise trudged slowly off. When the hare saw how painfully slow his rival was, he decided, half asleep on his feet, to have a quick nap. “Take your time!” he said. “I’ll have forty winks and catch up with you in a minute.”

The hare woke with a start from a fitful sleep and gazed round, looking for the tortoise. But the creature was only a short distance away, having barely covered a third of the course. Breathing a sigh of relief, the hare decided he might as well have breakfast too, and off he went to munch some cabbages he had noticed in a nearby field. But the heavy meal and the hot sun made his eyelids droop. With a careless glance at the tortoise, now halfway along the course, he decided to have another snooze before flashing past the winning post. And smiling at the thought of the look on the tortoise’s face when it saw the hare speed by, he fell fast asleep and was soon snoring happily. The sun started to sink, below the horizon, and the tortoise, who had been plodding towards the winning post since morning, was scarcely a yard from the finish. At that very point, the hare woke with a jolt. He could see the tortoise a speck in the distance and away he dashed. He leapt and bounded at a great rate, his tongue lolling, and gasping for breath. Just a little more and he’d be first at the finish. But the hare’s last leap was just too late, for the tortoise had beaten him to the winning post. Poor hare! Tired and in disgrace, he slumped down beside the tortoise who was silently smiling at him.

“Slowly does it every time!” he said.






www.dizzybearcreations.storenvy.com



Thank you in advance for sharing my artwork/posts with friends that you think would like my artwork, 
on your social media accounts:
 Facebook, twitter, blogger, pinterest, tumblr, ello.... 


It is INCREDIBLY helpful in getting my artwork out in the world, and is greatly appreciated. 

If you have any questions you'd like to ask that I can answer in a future blog, you can either post them in the comment section below, or send them to my email dizzybear73@gmail.com 








E-mail: dizzybear73@gmail.com
Posted by at No comments:

Sunday, May 24, 2015

"Water Nymphs", the 4th in the Day of the Dead Fairy series.


Happy Memorial Day! A lot has happened since releasing the last painting ("Fairy Lockets"). The most important of which though is that Michel WAS FINALLY APPROVED for a permanent residency visa, and after a long wait, will be able to move to AZ soon. We're both excited and relieved that the immigration process is almost over. Just one more interview to go, and he'll be able to stay in the US year round, and the long distance aspect to our relationship will come to an end. We've been waiting and planning for this for several years now. 

The first thing we'll be doing when he gets here, is finish building a studio I started building in my (nearly nonexistent) free time several years ago, allowing me to at long last move all my art supplies and work tables out of my house. It's been less a "home" and more a chaotic studio since I started Dizzybear Creations over ten years ago. After we're all settled in the new studio and have the house all situated, he'll be taking over several of my jewelry lines, so I'll have more time to paint!

It's been getting harder and harder for me to find time to paint, as the popularity of my other lines have continued to grow. I've been teaching Michel how to make all sorts of jewelry and hand crafted items over the last 4+ years, he's been a quick study and has a good eye for detail. At some point we may put more of it online, but we'll see. I think doing arts and crafts shows, and finding more stores to carry my line would be more enjoyable, as we'd get to travel all over.

When I get a little spare time, I'll put together a video of everything I make, as most people have no idea of just how long that list is. The items that you see on the webstore only represents maybe 10% of the kinds of items I make. 


This 4th painting:  "Water Nymphs" in the new Day of the Dead Fairy series was actually a bit challenging to paint, but fun, as I got to experiment a lot. It's the first time I've ever painted still water, with near mirror reflections on the surface. Took a lot of trial and error to figure it out. 

During my most recent "painting furlough", I spent three weeks up in Montreal, and instead of working on new paintings, all I had time for was doing touch ups on paintings that I thought I had finished months earlier, until I looked at them again, and decided they needed more work. After doing the major retouches on "Fairy Lockets", which took most of my three weeks, I was happy to see that the only thing that really needed work on "Water Nymphs" was the flowers, which were a bit cartoonish and easy to paint over, and the painting needed a little more shading and detail in spots.  Also I had painted her face a bit big, compared to her body. I was able to fix everything in 3 or 4 days of work.  I've included a side by side comparison of the painting before I started doing the final touch-ups, and the finished product further down in this blog. 

In my older paintings, I haven't spent much effort or time in coming up with painting titles. "The Mermaid", "The Pirate", The Vigilante", "Winter Wonderland", "The Duel", etc....... With the fairy paintings, I'm trying not to use the word "The", and I'm trying to be inspired by research I do upon completion of the pieces about the items I portrayed in the paintings, which has actually proved to be really interesting. 
Matted to fit 5 x 7 Frame

Like how the hollyhock flowers featured in the first painting "Thrice Lucky" are a favorite home of fairies. The overall history and folklore of poppies, and how the symbolism from a famous poem lead to the poppies being used as the symbol of veterans. The story of how bleeding hearts got their name, and the connections between those flowers and fairies. I don't let myself do the research on the various aspects of each painting until after I finish the piece so it wont affect what I paint, only the titles of the paintings. 

Some people will wonder why I pluralized nymphs when they see the title of this latest painting: "Water Nymphs". While researching the various things in this painting, I discovered that the word nymph is applied to several things, and I just happened to paint three different things in this painting that can technically be called a nymph. 

The most common use of nymph is a mythological spirit of nature imagined as a beautiful maiden inhabiting rivers, wells, springs, and other waterways. 
Matted to fit an 8 x 10 Frame

A second use of the word nymph, are the flowers. Water lilies grow in ponds, lakes, and along the edges of streams and their scientific name is Nymphaea, derived from the Greek word "nymph". 

Water lilies are associated with rebirth and optimism as they return to waterways after the rains, even if they dried up the previous season. The water lily also symbolizes fertility, sexuality and creation. White water lilies symbolize peace, purity, pleasure and spiritual enlightenment. In ancient Greece, white water lilies symbolized modesty. 

Water Lily Symbolism 
The symbolism of the lily can be traced back to antiquity and plays a significant role in various cultures across the globe. From beauty to enlightenment, they represent emotions and ideas. Here are a few variations of the symbolic meaning of water lily, based on different cultures and ceremonial practices in various countries around the world. 

In ancient Egypt, this flower depicted the unity of people in the country. The lily (symbol of Upper Egypt) was teamed with the papyrus flower, which was symbolic of Lower Egypt. It was used to denote a united country. The two flowers are used as well to represent the cycle of birth, life, death, rebirth and the Sun. Ancient Egyptians also had a high regard for the blue water lily, which they regarded as a representation of rebirth and as a symbol of the Sun God, which emerged from a primordial water lily. 
Matted to fit an 11 x 14 Frame

Coming to the Asian continent, the water lily has a completely different symbolism. Since it produces blossoms and fruits simultaneously, it represents universality. In the context of religion, it is considered to be sacred by the Buddhists and the Hindus. 

According to Buddhism, enlightenment is associated with this blossom. Different colored water lilies have different representations according to Buddhists. For instance, a red lily connotes love and passion. The iconography of the purple lily is mystic power, whereas the white lily is mental purity. The highest deity is represented with a pink lily, and blue lilies are often associated with knowledge. 

In the spiritual arena of Hinduism, the concept of resurrection is symbolically denoted by the water lily. This is because at night (or during darkness), the lilies close their blossoms and with the first ray of the sun, they open. It is also a symbol of purity, because even though the plant grows in mud, the flower is pure and free from blemishes. 


Water lilies are often mistaken to be lotus flowers. The most striking difference between lotus and a water-lily is in the center part of the flower. The lotus flower contains a barrel shaped seed pod and has stamens that are filamentous unlike the leaf-like stamens of the water-lily. Of course, the most commonly cited difference and the one which will help you decide which plant it is from a distance, lies in the leaves of the two plants. The leaves of lotus rise above the water level whereas the leaves of water-lily are found floating on the water surface. 

  The same is nearly true for their respective flowers; the lotus flowers rise above the water and remain there from flower to seed, but the water-lily flowers start life above the surface of the water, but as they mature and have been pollenated, the flower stem contracts and coils, pulling the flower into the water where it will finish its reproductive cycle floating on the water.  Earlier in the creation of this piece, I had only painted the flat lily pad leaves, but I added the lotus plant leaves on the right to make the painting a little more interesting, visually.

The third item in this painting that could be labeled as a nymph, at least in an earlier stage of its life, is the damselfly. When I painted this, I thought I was painting a dragonfly. I had heard the term damselfly before, but I always thought "damselfly" referred to female dragonfly. It doesn't. It's a completely different kind of insect, though related to the dragonfly.  The most notable difference between a dragonfly and a damselfly are the wings. At rest, the wings of a dragonfly remain flat and outstretched, while the wings of a damselfly close together or fold back along the body.


Something else a bit interesting I found while reading, in adult form, frogs obviously eat damselflies. When the damselfly is in its nymph form though, it feeds itself by eating other aquatic insects and the tadpole form of frogs.  Hope you enjoyed the information!



I'm going to be really busy over the next several months, so the next painting wont be released until July 4th, 2015.  






www.dizzybearcreations.storenvy.com



Thank you in advance for sharing my artwork/posts with friends that you think would like my artwork, on your social media accounts: Facebook, twitter, blogger, pinterest, tumblr, ello.... 


It is INCREDIBLY helpful in getting my artwork out in the world, and is greatly appreciated. 

If you have any questions you'd like to ask that I can answer in a future blog, you can either post them in the comment section below, or send them to my email dizzybear73@gmail.com 








E-mail: dizzybear73@gmail.com
Posted by at No comments:

Monday, May 4, 2015

"Fairy Lockets" The 3rd painting in the Day of the Dead Fairy series

Happy Cinco de Mayo! I've been in my studio painting away for weeks.  Haven't gotten as much painting done on this "painting furlough" as I would have liked to have gotten done, but still did some good work.  A big part of the reason I didn't get as much painting accomplished as planned, is actually because of this 3rd painting in my Day of the Dead Fairy series: "Fairy Lockets". 

 It had been a quite awhile since I've had time to paint, so I was feeling a bit rusty.  I started doing touch-ups on this painting, to warm up the painting muscles.  Before I got too far into the final touches though, I decided it best, and easiest, to just repaint most of the painting. The original had several parts I didn't like, that I wasn't going to be able to easily fix with simple touch ups and painting over the parts I didn't like.  

When doing the repainting on "Fairy Lockets", I added more depth to the scene, simplified and removed a few parts, added more detail to sections, changed the color and shape of her dress a bit, and adapted to a more controlled color pallet.... MUCH happier with how the painting turned out after the rework.

To look at the finished project, you wouldn't think it to be my most time consuming painting to date, but it is by far.  It proved difficult in every way it could.  When I "finished" the first version of this painting, I proclaimed it "finished" mostly because I didn't want to spend any more time on it, seeing the second version though, I'm really glad I decided to repaint it.  I broke my long standing rule of not touching a painting again after I proclaim it "finished" on this painting, which led to me doing touch-ups and changes on two more "finished" paintings.  As a result I didn't get much painting accomplished on newer pieces during my "painting furlough".

I've included a side by side view of the two paintings towards the end of this blog.  
Only the second version will be released as prints.

The Bleeding Heart plant:

No other plant bears perfect heart-shaped flowers like those of the Bleeding Heart. 
Due to this shape, there's several folklore stories about the Bleeding Heart plant, but oddly, most are stories of unrequited love and heartbreak.  

The following story will be easier to follow the symbolism if you have a Bleeding Heart blossom to pull apart, but if you dont, refer to the pictures I've included here:

Long ago there lived a noble prince who tried in vain to win the heart of a very beautiful princess. The prince had brought the princess wonderful gifts from his travels far and wide. Yet she had taken no notice of him. One day the prince returned from a long journey with very special gifts to surely win the love of the princess. First he presented her with two magical pink bunnies (in some variant stories the bunnies are replaced by shoes). 

<Peel off the two outer petals and set them on their sides to display two little pink bunnies/shoes>

The princess only sighed and barely looked at the little bunnies (shoes). Still hopeful, the prince proceeded to his next gift - he presented a pair of beautiful enchanted earrings. 

<Remove the two long white petals and hold them next to your ears>

Again, the princess hardly noticed the prince's gift. Now the poor prince was utterly heartbroken and could try no more to win the heart of the princess. He rose up, pulled a dagger from his sheath and stabbed himself in the heart. 

<Remaining in the flower is a heart shape with the stamen, appearing as a dark green line down the center. Hold the heart up, carefully remove the dagger-like line, and plunge the dagger through the heart>

The princess was overcome by the dedication of the dying prince and his unending love for her. She realized too late that she loved him also. "Alas," she cried out. "I have done wrong, my own heart is broken also. I shall bleed for my prince forever more!" And her heart bleeds to this very day.



In some legends, fairies take up residence inside the flowers, or store their treasures and tokens of love inside the blossoms.  In other legends, the flower part that was described as a dagger in the preceding story, is the magical wand of the fairy, safely stored and hidden away, until needed to perform spells of love.  

The latin name for the Bleeding Heart plant is Dicentra spectabilis, which roughly translates to Dicentra =  “two spurs,” and spectabilis = “worthy of notice,” or “spectacular,” which this plant certainly is.

Fun Fact:  If you press the flowers between the pages of a heavy book, you'll have papery-thin little hearts to adorn letters or valentines.  
Other (Folk) Names for Bleeding Heart plants: Bicuculla Canadensis, Chinamen's Breeches, Corydalis, Corydalis Canadensis, Enfant-Jesus en berceau (French- Infant Jesus in Cradle), Lady in a Bath, Lady's Ear-Drops, Lyre Flower, fleur de Marie (French- Mary’s Flower), coeur de Marie (French- Mary’s Heart), Our Lady in a Boat, Saint-Esprit (French- Holy Spirit), Shone Corydalis, Staggerweed, Turkey Corn, Turkey Pea and the name I like most, influencing the name of this painting:  
Lady's Locket.



As stated in the facebook cover photo, there's a way to get a
FREE print of the painting:  "Fairy Lockets" 

Now through May 13th, 2015,  all orders of $35.00 or more at the Dizzybear Creations webstore, will get a hand signed print of "Fairy Lockets",
matted to fit a 5 x 7 frame
included FREE with their order.
A $9.99 value.




The next painting
will be 
released on
May 25th,
Memorial Day



Thank you in advance for sharing my artwork/posts with friends that you think would like my artwork, on your social media accounts:  Facebook, twitter, blogger, pinterest, tumblr, ello....   




It is INCREDIBLY helpful in getting my artwork out in the world, and is greatly appreciated. 

If you have any questions you'd like to ask that I can answer in a future blog, you can either post them in the comment section below, or send them to my email  dizzybear73@gmail.com  










Posted by at No comments:

Monday, April 13, 2015

3 week painting furlough



 I'm still a one man operation here at Dizzybear Creations,
and do everything myself.  

From making all the products on the website, and for all
the stores that carry my artwork, jewelry, and gift items, to updating the website,
taking care of the promotions, packing up and sending off the orders.....

All of which hasn't been leaving me much time
to get any painting done of late.


After months and months of 12 to 16 hour work days, 
I'm taking some time off from the normal part of my work,
 and spending 3 weeks solid to just work on paintings.

The webstore will remain open, and you'll
be able to place orders..... 

BUT any order placed between 
April 15th and May 6th 
wont begin shipping until 
May 7th.

My apologies for any inconvenience this may cause, 
but I do my best painting when I can focus on only painting.

Anyone who places an order between April 15th and May 4th
will get some sort of gift in exchange for their patience...

BUT you'd be better off waiting until May 5th
to place your order, as I'll have a
ONE DAY SALE
on the Dizzybear Creations website,
in honor of Cinco de Mayo
(and to make up for the delays in shipping).


Circle that date on your calendars, so you dont forget!

I'll also be releasing the next painting in the 
"Day of the Dead Fairy" series on May 5th as well.



If you have any questions, you can reach me at dizzybear73@gmail.com
but I'm planning to cut myself off from most outside distractions during the next three weeks,
so dont be surprised if it takes me several days to respond.

Any order placed by midnight on April 14th will ship on April 15th.

Thank you for your patience, and I cant wait to share what I get
accomplished during this painting furlough.

Dennis Mead
Posted by at No comments:

Monday, April 6, 2015

"Sunset Glow" (Red Poppy Fairy), the 2nd in the "Day of the Dead Fairy" series




Hope everyone had a great Easter!  I worked most of the holiday weekend getting hundreds of prints matted and ready to deliver and send off, including the second in the new "Day of the Dead Fairies" series: "Sunset Glow"

 With Michel's immigration process, potentially coming to an end in a couple of months, I've been working really long days, 12 to 16 hours a day, trying to get ahead of orders, so when the time comes, we have some free time to get him settled here in Arizona.  

 I hadn't realized how engrossed with work I've been until Easter afternoon.  I was working on finishing an order to deliver, and finally finished it around noon.  I loaded everything into the car, and drove over to the shop to deliver it.  I arrived, and noticed the store was closed.  As was most of Old Town Cottonwood.  I was a bit confused, and didn't truly realize it was Easter, until the dj on the radio said "Happy Easter" as I drove back home.  I figured I'd take the rest of the day off, being a holiday, but only managed about an hour before I got back to work, packaging more prints, making more jewelry, and building a trophy for the fantasy hockey league I'm in, as I volunteered to build it months prior, but hadn't found the time to do it.  I might be a bit of a workaholic, but I do enjoy what I do, so it's a good thing.  

 Easter Sunday was the final day of the Fantasy Hockey League competition, and as I put the final touches on the trophy, I found out I had won the trophy, yay me!  

 This was one of the most fun paintings for me to paint, and definitely the most detailed so far.  The hairs on the poppy stems alone took forever, but was actually a lot of fun to do.  

 While I was preparing this painting to be printed, I noticed something rather peculiar.  When I zoomed in to do digital touchups, I was surprised to see I had painted something that looked like my husband and I taking a mirror "selfie" with a flash going off in the larger of the spots on the butterfly wings.  

 Before I send a digital file of a painting off to the printer to the printed, I've made it a habit of having Michel check everything and make sure I didn't miss any touch ups.  When he was going through the digital file for the painting, he saw it immediately too, and thought I had done it on purpose.  I hadn't.

When working on paintings, I typically refer to photographs, as I did for the butterfly wings.  When Michel asked if I did it on purpose, I immediately looked at the photo I was working from to see if it was just a weird coincidence.  The basic pattern is the same, though I made it rounder, but because of color choices, and the layers of color washes that built up, it became an unintentional, abstract portrait of the two of us, though my face is less present and blends into the rings, as I'm in the background.  I've posted the picture I was working from, with a detail of the spot in question, and a close up detail picture of the spot from the painting, as well as a picture of Michel and I.  It's really pretty weird.  I'm going to wonder for a long time if it's just a huge coincidence, or a subconscious mind thing.  Either way, weird, yet awesome.  

 I've always been drawn to photographs and paintings featuring fields of red poppies.  Arizona tends to be a bit warm and dry for many varieties of poppies to grow wild, other than the orange colored "California Poppy"(which will be included in an upcoming painting).  I've yet to see a huge field of red poppies in person yet.  It's on the "to do" list.  As is getting in the middle of a monarch butterfly migration.  

A few things I learned about poppies, while researching and brainstorming to come up with a title for this painting:  Poppies have long been symbols of sleep, peace, and death.  In Greek and Roman mythology, poppies were used as offerings to the dead, the red color variety in particular.  Typically placed on tombstones to symbolize eternal sleep.

Since the first World War, the most recognized symbol of the red poppy, is to commemorate soldiers who have died in war.  Inspired by the poem "In Flanders Fields".  A line from which inspired the title of my painting.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.


We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.


Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.


Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae  May 3, 1915

McCrae wrote the poem during the early days of the Second Battle of Ypres.  A young Canadian artillery officer, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was killed on 2nd May, 1915 in the gun positions near Ypres when a German artillery shell exploded near him.  He was serving in the same Canadian artillery unit as a friend of his, the Canadian military doctor and artillery commander Major John McCrae.


As the brigade doctor, John McCrae was asked to conduct the burial service for Alexis because the chaplain had been called away somewhere else on duty that evening.  It is believed that later that evening, after the burial, McCrae began the draft for his now famous poem “In Flanders Fields”.  You can read more here: http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/john-mccrae-in-flanders-fields-inspiration.htm

Fields of the red-colored corn poppy, known as the remembrance poppy, are often found growing early in the season in freshly sown corn and wheat fields.  The poppy is a prolific seed producer, but grows best when the seeds are close to the surface.  The seeds can lay dormant within the soil for years, until the proper temperature and growing conditions are had.  Appropriately, if these poppies are present in an area of battle in which large artillery has been used, and the ground in that area has been ravaged by explosions, it will often be followed by a banner crop of the remembrance poppy, as the tiny seeds that have traveled too deep into the soil to grow, will be brought back up closer to the surface due to the explosions.  

As stated in the facebook cover photo, there's a way to get a
FREE print of the painting "Sunset Glow": 
Now through April 14th, 2015,  all orders of $35.00 or more at the Dizzybear Creations webstore, will get a hand signed print of "Sunset Glow",
matted to fit a 5 x 7 frame included FREE with their order.
A $9.99 value.
There will ALSO be a drawing for a 
FREE print on the Dizzybear Creations Facebook page, for Liking, Sharing, +/or commenting on a post.  

 1 entry for "Liking"
1 entry for Sharing
and 1 entry for Commenting
____________________
= 3 entries

The drawing will take place on May 3rd, to correlate with the 100 year anniversary of the writing of "In Flanders Field".  You can find the contest post by clicking <HERE>***


Click here to be taken to the Dizzybear Creations webstore.
The next painting will be 
released on May 5th,
Cinco de Mayo


Thank you in advance for sharing my artwork/posts with friends that you think would like my artwork, on your social media accounts:  Facebook, twitter, blogger, pinterest, tumblr, ello....   


It is INCREDIBLY helpful in getting my artwork out in the world, and is greatly appreciated. 

If you have any questions you'd like to ask that I can answer in a future blog, you can either post them in the comment section below, or send them to my email  dizzybear73@gmail.com  

P.S.  The first prints of this painting has a little mistake on the included story card, only a few made it out of the studio before I caught it.  It listed the date of McCrae's poem as May 15th, instead of May 3rd.  I hand corrected a few story cards as well.  So if you have either the story card with the 15th, or a hand corrected 3, you have one of the very first prints I packaged from the First Edition prints.  :-)

***In the event the link to the contest post doesn't work, you can cut and paste the following:
https://www.facebook.com/dizzybearcreations/photos/a.199369476769839.45006.146857072021080/951944124845700/?type=1&theater





Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)