Starving Artist Forum

If you like eBay, and you like facebook, then you will LOVE this! I have been using paperback swap for books for about a year, then I found this! It plays like a game, but you win REAL STUFF! How cool is that?

Click the banner, sign up with your facebook account easy peasy, and browse all sorts of listings! You can go pick it up completely FREE if you live close (Like Craigslist) or pay for the shipping through paypal. Some sellers will even pay the shipping if you bid enough!

Nothing to loose, and lots to gain! Sign up to try it out today and let me know what you think of it. Thanks!!

I was lost out there in cyber world for awhile until I found the team DAWG on Etsy. I joined up through the NING network they had at the time and grew to love that group very much!

DAWG stands for Designing Artists Women's Group. they are a very talented, wonderful group that love the Lord and art. I am lucky to be counted among them. They are a wealth of information, resources and friendship. I love that it encompasses all ages and styles! I have learned much about my own style both as an artist as well as a mother.

Thank you to all my DAWG sisters for helping cheer me on. We have moved as a group to a different site, so if you've been out of touch or want to join in, here is the link to my page there. (Link retracted for DAWG)

What groups are you a part of? And do they help you stay active in your craft? I think a great group will inspire you to try new things as well as improve your current favorites.

You can see more from my group by going to Etsy where I first found them, and searching DAWG team. Or just Click Here to See DAWG team Art on Etsy! and browse the favorites.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for sharing!

I am always on the look out for some great giveaways, and here is another hot one!



It's easy to get entered, and I have to say...worth it! Peacocks are lovely as God painted them, but this one is extra special!

Gone with the Wind is one of my all time favorite books made into an epic movie! The story, characters and colors continue to inspire me. So when faced with a landscape challenge I decided to paint my favorite scene.

This was not easy with my 3 year old son peeking over my elbow and insisting it was indeed his turn to paint now. Trying to paint in arm's reach of chubby fingers is a lot harder than it seems! But my painting and sanity survived!

This is the result of my labors. A watercolor base with black acrylic watered down a touch for silhouette. It is remarkably like the original and frame-able at 11X14 inches in size. I will be looking out at Tara with Scarlett and her father for a long to come now that this work is finished.

Spring time is in the air, and kids are playing while flowers bloom, and even the most stale of people can see the color all around. Enjoy the beauty and wonder of Spring and try new things as often as possible.

Before falling in love and starting a family, I was just Belle, and I was an artist. Now it seems I have no time for art, but plenty of experiences with family.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the choices I've made. I just wanted to properly introduce this art card, Spin Time in my Etsy Store AND my newest blog  http://themomsbookofworries.blogspot.com/

Everyone is creative. Find your source and explore it. Do something childish if you cannot figure anything else out. And think back to school days for inspiration.

Today I find myself thinking about Haiku's. The 5/7/5 rule of poetry that doesn't rhyme. I never got it. In school I thought it was ridiculous to have a poem that didn't rhyme. I preferred the sonnets completely. But it is always a goal of mine to do something new and fresh when I feel most stagnant.

SO find something new to try today and don't be too hard on yourself. You don't have to share or even keep it, just do it with your two hands and in a real way. You'll get a buzz out of feeling connected again, and challenges help spur us to growth.

The horse is a beautiful animal, strong, often wild, and graceful. I have long been inspired by their lines and structure. They come in so many varied colors, patterns and sizes that is truly hard to find an end to this source.

I am also well know for my love of trees, cats (feral and domestic) and my family. So to tap into my inspiration seems an easy task. I am constantly surrounded by one or another of my passions and this keeps my creative focus sharp.

It is still, however, difficult to carve out time to devote to these endeavors and  I find time management low in my skill sets. Why is it that creative types are often the worst at maintaining schedules and deadlines? It is for that very reason that I chose a career outside my passion for art.

Whatever your choice, your inspiration should be easy to discover. It is the single element that relaxes you the most. The scene, place, person, or thing that fills your heart with pride and your soul with peace. We as humans are hard wired to appreciate the simple beauty of a sunset because real beauty is simple after all. We know that when we are born, somewhere along the way we loose track of it and buy into the commercialized version.

Artists have the task of bringing us all back to that innocent realization that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and is therefore open to interpretation. The basic truths still apply to beauty, and that is what truly inspires. The phrase "it is what it is" comes back to me. Inspiration should be the easiest thing in the world to find.

So sit back and take in the view around you. There is color, form, texture and light play all around you. It may be the way the last sunbeam is highlighting the pile of laundry you have yet to wash, but try seeing it with different eyes. Respect the simple truth that if a sunset can makes us feel tranquil, and a grand painting make us reflective, then the beauty of life itself should leave us, at the very least, inspired. What you do with that inspiration is up to you.

One of my favorite movies, The Crow, has inspired me to paint this profile of Brandon Lee in miniature. It was a painstaking process to try it so small, but it wouldn't be fun if it were easy!

I used a textured black paper for the base and I love the way it added to the depth. There is so much energy in that stare, and it is the absence of color that brings it out.

Artists always play with techniques and colors, and going back to the most basic of black on white is always a favorite of mine. This was a challenge in that it was reversed. The white on black is simple and stunning and perhaps a new favorite of mine.

This original painting is posted for sale on eBay now, you can snatch it up now by clicking HERE, and you can buy the crow ACEO card to compliment it in my Etsy Store.

My latest sketch card, "Crow Relief", inspired me to dig into the origin of the phrase "Eating Crow". The following is from the wikipedia search:


Eating crow (archaically, eating boiled crow) is an English-language idiom meaning humiliation by admitting wrongness or having been proven wrong after taking a strong position. Eating crow is presumably foul-tasting in the same way that being proven wrong might be emotionally hard to swallow. Eating crow is of a family of idioms having to do with eating and being proven incorrect, such as to "eat dirt", to "eat your words", and to "eat your hat" (or shoe).

Its original form, to eat boiled crow, first appeared in the 1850s in America. Its exact origin is unknown but there are a number of explanations.
It may be related to the English idiom to eat humble pie. The English phrase is something of a pun—"umbles" were the intestines, offal and other less valued meats of a deer. Pies made of this were known to be served to those of lesser class who did not eat at the king’s/lord’s/governor’s table. Another dish likely to be served with humble pie is rook pie (rooks being closely related to crows).

After incumbent Harry Truman defeated Thomas Dewey in the 1948 United States presidential election despite many media predictions of a Dewey victory, the Washington Post sent a telegram to the victor:

YOU ARE HEREBY INVITED TO A "CROW BANQUET" TO WHICH THIS NEWSPAPER PROPOSES TO INVITE NEWSPAPER EDITORIAL WRITERS, POLITICAL REPORTERS AND EDITORS, INCLUDING OUR OWN, ALONG WITH POLLSTERS, RADIO COMMENTATORS AND COLUMNISTS . . . MAIN COURSE WILL CONSIST OF BREAST OF TOUGH OLD CROW EN GLACE. (YOU WILL EAT TURKEY.)

The crow is one of the birds listed in Leviticus chapter 11 as being unfit for eating.


I hope you enjoyed hearing the gore and lore! I have always been fascinated by the origins of some of our favorite sayings and words! Check out my listing for this sketch card miniature in my Etsy Store, and end be sure to share the story with your friends.

Many artists are offering FREE items to their blog readers. One of my artist friend's has one such offering in her daily blog. Read all about it and sign up at http://jywheeler.blogspot.com