Salix's Art Nook

George 2, the ghostly Beatle.

2008-04-06T09:15:00.004+01:00

Princess Haiku had a post a while back about a ghostly image, and invited her readers to share any ghostly pictures.
My youngest brother was born during the Beatle craze in the early 60s. When my Mom was trying to think of a name for the new baby, I said "George" after my favorite Beatle. And so it was. Here is George appearing as a ghost behind his and my favorite Beatle George.
I have another pic of a ghostly creature on my garden blog as well.

Rebsie, peas and flowers

2008-03-31T07:06:00.004+01:00

I did a drawing of Rebsie to thank her for sending me some heritage pea, bean and beet seeds. She experiments with breeding vegetables, especially peas, and she loves wildflowers.

Homage to Chagall

2008-03-29T19:07:00.003Z

Song of Sings
For Illustration Friday's topic "Homage"

I adore Chagall's work, the loving embrace of his couples, the smiling animals, the upsidedown characters and little crowds of people here and there.
Here's the real thing: "Song of Songs IV"

pet peeve

2008-03-21T18:47:00.003Z

Pet Peeves for Illustration Friday: The noisy eater

My Portfolio Blog

2008-03-21T11:19:00.000Z

My art portfolio blog, click on this button:

<--- or click on the link at left.

Saillé's Dream

2008-03-20T22:59:00.000Z

Saillé's Dream, a story by Silvia Salix.
A story on the theme "Dreams" for World Storytelling Day

Saillé loved going for walks in the woods. She loved to sit under her favorite tree, a large oak, and daydream. But as she grew older, her walks became less frequent. But she made sure she went on special days. This day was the Vernal Equinox, the beginning of spring. Very tired, she sat under the oak tree for a while, and soon fell asleep. She dreamed...

...Saillé was much younger, and danced and sang under the oak tree while a few snow flurries fluttered down. An Oak Sprite, who sat up in the tree, watched her in rapture. He was smitten! Hopping out of the tree, he took her in his arms and danced. Saillé felt so alive, so content, so free, dancing.. dancing.. dancing...

She woke up, and it was almost dark. And indeed there was a little bit of snow on the ground.She was cold, and it was a long way home. But home she went, thinking of her lovely dream.
Saillé went for a walk again on May Day. It was a much warmer day, and she was feeling quite chipper. By the time she reached her favorite tree, she had become quite tired, and sat to rest a while in the dappled shade. Again she fell asleep. She dreamed...

...Saillé was again in her youth, twirling and spinning through the long grass by the oak tree. The Oak Sprite was there as well, watching her from the branches above. Happily, he hopped down to greet her, swept her up into his arms. Then they were floating and they danced the tango together, through the branches of the tree. Saillé felt so happy, she hadn't been so happy for years, she has been alone so long, and this seemed so right. dancing.. dancing.. dancing...

Waking up, it was quite dark already, how long had she been sleeping there? She felt sore from sitting against the trunk for long hours. Saillé slowly made her way back home, the dream of the Oak Sprite urging her on.
Midsummer, Saillé decided again to take a walk to her tree. She felt rather tired today, but she was thinking of her lovely dream of the Oak Sprite, and hoping she would see him again. Soon, she might be too old to make the long walk there, and today was a most lovely warm day, and the daylight would last far into the night. Almost exhausted, she settled down by the oak tree, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. She dreamed...

...Saillé was young, waltzing under the oak, looking up into the branches to see if Oak Sprite was there. He was indeed, and he was very happy to see her again, as was she. Hopping down, Oak Sprite took her in his arms, and they waltzed for hours and hours, a dizzy and exciting whirl of energy. Then Oak Sprite did something he had never done before. Spinning and flying, he kissed her. It was pure rapture for Saillé, and she fell into the kiss with all her soul. She wanted to stay with Oak Sprite for always.. dancing.. dancing.. dancing... and dancing...

At midnight, the northern sky aglow with summer twilight, under the oak tree, there rested an old woman with her eyes closed. She looked to be asleep, but she was cold and she was not breathing...

...Saillé and Oak Sprite were dancing.. dancing.. dancing...

Phoenix tattoo, first idea

2008-03-15T17:27:00.002Z

Doll hutch deco

2008-03-13T17:34:00.000Z

While visiting my Mom, I noticed a cute little doll hutch in her living room. I thought it would be fun to make little things to go in it out of Fimo. I made a vase with flowers, a picture frame with a Dutch landscape, a pitcher, a plate, and a basket with candy eggs. I put some little lace in the windows too. The seashell is from my Mom's collection.

Christmas Day 2007

2008-01-15T11:01:00.001Z

Drawn on Christmas Day a couple weeks ago. That's Michelle on the left, her broken wrist in a cast. Pippin on her lap, Molly snuggled up next to her, and Tas lying down staring at me. We had just gotten a really cool gift of LED Christmas lights, which weave their way through all the ornaments and snacks and other gifts. The TV was on for a few moments to check if there were any good films on, and we came across Paul and Ringo talking about Cirque du Soleil - "Love".
As I decided to sketch them into my drawing, Paul was just talking about George's last days, and the way he would sit and chat with him, holding his hand. He demonstrated how he held hands with Ringo, and I caught the most beautiful moment of the show in my drawing.
Anyway.. Robby, Michelle, Michael and I had a lovely Christmas Day, chatting, laughing, reading silly books, eating...

Portraits: Robby, Michelle and Michael

2007-12-31T15:33:00.001Z

Robby

Michelle

Michael

Silvia's Christmas wish list

2007-12-19T14:24:00.001Z

Dear family, please post your lists on Fudge. ;-)

Pan

2007-12-18T18:47:00.001Z

tattoo from Pan's Labyrith , cover art by Mike Mignola

5 random things about me

2007-11-28T13:21:00.000Z

I was tagged by Kelly to do this meme. So here it goes...
5 random things about me:

1. I have an uncontrolable urge to grow plants. Even when I've been sent to hotels or such for a week, or go camping for a couple days, some type of plant/plants ends up on the windowsil/next to tent within a day or two, a cutting in a glass, a pot of african violets, something!

2.Along with plants, I also obtain weird seed pods and rocks and sticks and other random nature things.
One time, near Cork, I had collected several pretty yellow sea snail shells, they ended up on the windowsil. The next morning, a few of them had crawled away all over the walls. So we had to bring them back to the place we found them!
Another time, in Claire, we found an old sheep's skull (or was it a goat?) and a possible meteorite.

3. I like toys: Yoyos, tops, Plushies, puppets, music boxes, female action figures (I have a Diana Troy and a Rippley), wind-up toys, plastic figures, dolls, Barbies, anything that animates or moves is super cool.

4. I played an online role playing game for many years. My favorite characters were: a dryad named Salix, an orc named Zaal'Ug, and a pixie named Viola. I never played a human.
Zalli was married to Zur'Goth, he was the clan's warboss.

5. I once lived in NYC's lower east side without electricity or a stove for a year. The only thing I missed was hot herb tea. Evenings were lit by candles, and I had a little tape player powered with a big battery. I ate a lot of yogurt and fruit during that year for some reason.

a handful of dolls

2007-11-28T12:30:00.003Z

I saw some of these dolls on Mimi's blog here, she wrote about her memories as a child, and mentioned the 100 dolls. I too saw an ad when I was a girl, it advertised 100 dolls for a very small price. It seemed too good to be true. So my father sent off for them. They arrived in a very small package. And they were only tiny little pink plastic figurines. I was quite dissapointed at first, but I did play with them a lot! Today, more than 40 years later, I still have a small handful, sewn onto a hat I made for a Halloween long ago. I wonder how many other little girls grown older still have these tiny dolls?

Afghan Hound studies

2007-11-27T18:20:00.000Z

NEW logo test: afghan3 - ruff 1
(only partially cleaned up, still needs a LOT of work. The head and ears are almost to my liking. Basic body shape good, I think)

Logo test 1, click on picture to see larger size.

Second rough test

Gold Afghan Icon (rough test)

What a beautiful animal!

Angels do wear red!

2007-11-21T18:08:00.000Z

When I was a child, in school, we were occasionally given copies of drawings to color in. Close to Christmas we were all handed drawings of angels and told to color them in. I sat happily coloring with my crayons, and made her dress red. Everyone handed their angels back to teacher. She hung them all up on the wall in a row. Except mine.
She looked at me crossly and said mine was not being hung up, because "Angels don't wear red!"Hmm, I wonder if Botticelli's teacher ever told him about angels not wearing red?

tick one

2007-11-13T16:03:00.000Z

Dona Nobis Pacem

2007-11-07T19:52:00.001Z

Make a Peace Globe today! Peace to all creatures and life on our beautiful planet Earth. Help heal our Earth, do whatever little (or big!) thing you can to help our world.

Nessie plush toy

2007-11-06T11:50:00.000Z

Progression of a cute stuffed Loch Ness monster toy, a commission for a pattern. Sketch for a stuffed nessie.

Newspaper pattern mock-up.
(Photographed with a horrible old webcam, my digital is away, to take pics of my daughter's birthday party)
......................................
(Pattern sent to client, here's a tutorial for her)
Instructions: click on each picture for close-up.

See real fabric body and belly below as well.

Body with spine-bumps and eyes sewn on.

Belly with legs sewn on.

.................................later..........................

Got my camera back! Just in time to take this last pic of Nessie all done!
Only thing I think is wrong, her eyes are a bit too large. Well, I'll fix that another day.

Tribal Dragon tattoo

2007-11-06T09:31:00.000Z

progression of a tribal tattoo: sketch 1
sketch 2
sketch 3, and partly drawn
Finished tattoo! Hopefully in a few months, I can see the design on skin.

ow!

2007-10-26T22:13:00.000+01:00

I got a tiny little scratch on my arm, right by my tattoo.. looks like the spider scratched me, hm?

Annual Cloud Festival

2007-10-05T11:58:00.001+01:00

I drew this some years ago, just came across it.

draw anything in 1 minute!

2007-10-05T11:43:00.001+01:00

Wow, I wonder if I should get one of these nifty things.. I can get my drawings done in only ONE minute! Think how much time I could save!!

Woe

2007-10-01T08:38:00.000+01:00

" We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey."
~Kenji Miyazawa

For Michelle, who's feeling kinda low recently. *hugs*
Also for Illustration Friday, funny how this topic happened to come up just now.

Red carpet meshes

2007-07-27T08:41:00.001+01:00

A pic for a fellow skinner, so she can see what the meshes look like.
:-)