painting folkart for Christmas

By special request by one of my readers, I have posted some of the (many) folk-art Christmas ornaments that I have painted over the years.  I started painting in or about 1996.  Painting is an act of self-discipline and repetition for me.  I started taking folk-art painting classes to exercise the right side of my brain (which is regularly overwhelmed by the rigourous workouts given to the left side of my brain being the analytical side) and as a way of getting me out of the office.  (I had discovered that my legal practice absorbed all of my "leisure time" so I needed an activity that required my attendance).  I discovered taking folk-art classes could be quite a social activity as all the class participants learned step-by-step within the class, all seated in a square.  Regretfully, there are no classes offered currently that I am aware of in my city so my painting is more in spurts to respond to seasonal demands!

Here's an early project completed in a class:

This ornament shows my progress from another class at a later date:

I painted this ornament (along with others donated for a Christmas tree) and kept this one for K's first Christmas ornament:

The remaining ornaments have been painted on my own, often based upon patterns found within folkart painting books:

do you see the angels?

 Today's prompt was to take a photo of a candle so I broke a 28 year old tradition by lighting this vintage candle on this vintage angel candle-holder that was given to me by a friend in high school!  I suppose I should have done this long ago; it is astonishing it hasn't melted or somehow became mis-shaped by now!

 We were supposed to take photos of lights yesterday.  As I didn't want to venture outside, I took this photo of K & N's tree!  Do you see angels in the tree too?  We purchased a short strand of lights for this tree this year so they will be on most evenings from September through to Easter due to K and N's various seasonal tree decorating spurts!  (It drives my dh crazy & now it is lit!!)

Earlier this week, we were urged to take a photo of something sacred.  I took a photo of my view of the local cathedral from my office window.

sincerely yours photo prompt

Today's photo prompt was to take a photo of cards/letters sent or received for the holiday season.  The teacher is accurate that handwritten letters/cards is almost a lost art in our age of almost instantaneous communication.  I do miss tangible communication methods although it takes so much longer and more effort to write and send a letter!

As I had just sent out the last of my Christmas cards yesterday (plus a letter to Santa ~ ho ho ho!), I took a photo of the cards received thusfar this holiday season!  We were encouraged to consider "antiquing" the photo.

 It so happened that I realized late last evening that I needed to create a tag or card for a co-worker who recently left my office.  Early this morning, I finished "ad libbing" the card so I took a photo of it as well!

2010 ornaments

Today's photography class prompt is to take a photo of a smile.  As I didn't capture any smiles early enough in the day, I decided to feature the 2010 hand-painted Christmas ornaments.  As I paint each of the girls a new ornament each every year, they chose the snowman 'Peace' ornament.  Little N painted the Noel ornament (and was smart to choose glitter glue to decorate her ornament instead of fiddling around with glue and glitter!)

reflections

Today's photography class prompt is "reflections".  Here is what I caught reflecting this holiday season:

 The Christmas tree lights reflect onto my grandmother's china cabinet.

Reflections of our livingroom from our hallway mirrored closet.

the pensive season

We've been having spectacular hoar frost here for the last 2 days.  Here is a close-up that I took for my class:

 I also took this shot last evening while contemplating the "Road less traveled". 

I was reflecting on how children run all over through snow and adults generally keep to the traveled road and how this is mirrored through everything that children and adults do (ie: how children do crafts versus adults).  As time passes, and likely too soon, there will be just the one well-worn foot-path to the garage.

Reframing: Frohe weihnachten

Today's photo prompt for my class was to re-frame a subject.  Technically, I didn't reframe an object (as the Advent calendar doesn't have a frame) but I was home ill with the flu so searching for a better subject was out of the question!

My dh and I bought this Advent calendar at a huge Christmas store in (Rottenberg?) Germany in 2002.  We've hung it annually ever since and now use it daily with the children as there is a little chocolate Santa waiting for them each morning following a discussion about Advent.

I don't speak German but Frohe Weihnachten is translated as "Merry Christmas".

gratitude: the gift of sound

As you may have noticed on my sidebar, I am taking a photography class this holiday season.  I know: just one more thing to do daily is contemplate what photo to take based upon email prompts!  I hope to capture a different perspective of Christmas this year.

Christmas is my favourite time of year.  It is a season of all our senses.  It is tactile with different ribbons, glitter and evergreens.  I love the smells and tastes of Christmas (baking, Christmas dinner).  I adore the brightness and warmth of Christmas.  Most of all, I love the sounds of Christmas, so seeped with music both classical and contemporary.

Yesterday's email prompt was "gratitude".  I have so much to be grateful for but I couldn't shake the need to focus responding to the daily prompt with a focus on hearing.  It was tough to photograph hearing or sound so I played around with music and CDs.  The reality is that one of my greatest joys at Christmas is playing Christmas music on the piano.  Voila!

I've continued to have ongoing periodic challenges of hearing this year, most recently in October and November.  I am continuing to explore the source of these hearing challenges with Western medicine; I am plugging along on the naturopathic diet albeit I don't feel any better or energetic for following it for almost 1.5 months).  The good news is that I'm not allergic to dust (following allergy tests) & I have no brain tumour (following MRI)!