Weekend Studio Wrap-Up

Lots of painting got finished in my studio this weekend. I've been doing 9am - midnight painting sessions (don't worry, lots of breaks in between) trying to get pending summer projects, commissions, and random thoughts and ideas out onto paper and canvas. I've also been working on the larger ocean painting, adding new plant-like creatures to it.

So first for commissions: I did a family tree, and a repaint of my seedling painting (a larger version)
Now for the new stuff, you only get sneak peaks as it will be slowly all released and listed online this week:

Here we have some acrylic landscape paintings:


And here we have two hints at my new watercolor trees:


So as you can see - lots of new stuff this week! :)

Back To School Week: The Notebook

School starts again for me after this week (Sept 8th). I'm enrolled in my second year Medical Radiation Technology course at Cambrian College - love, love this course!

I'll start off this back to school week with the most essential - the notebook! And this cute deer notebook by Cabin + Cub Design is a must-have!


The gocco-printed deer motif on this journal is splendid - a touch of vintage feel with complete uniqueness. It's the perfect size to fit in a backpack or large purse!

The Feed Your Soul Project

The 'Feed Your Soul' project is run by the lovely people at Indie Fixx. The idea was to allow everyone to have access to art for their homes. Since times have been financially unstable lately, not everyone is able to treat themselves to art. Artist's volunteer to the project and submit one piece - this piece will never be put up for sale either. Then the users, you, get to go onto the site and look at all the wonderful pieces (available as PDF's) and print whichever ones you'd like!

The project has already had an overwhelming response, and there are so many wonderful artworks to choose from! I know I have my eye on a view that I'm just waiting on frames for!


Now for the exciting news! My submitted works were released this past week!! You can see the article here. It's listed under my real name, but I'm sure you could recognize my style anyways :) I approached Indie Fixx's project a while ago, and submitted my artwork and had to waiting - trying to keep the secret - and now it's out!! :) You can't see it really on the small thumbnail, but the two little birds are cuddling.

As per the whole idea behind the project - this print is not available for sale in my shop in any shape or form. I may be painting a similar piece with birds...since they turned out to be little darlings in that tree, but I'm still working out ideas.

As for the original painting, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that either. Currently it's hanging in my office, framed. I don't have any of my original trees to keep - except for the ones waiting to be sold, but they're just temporarily staying I hope. So I might just keep this one. :)

Lemon Yellow Week: Love for the walls

This modern silk screen print, Love Candy, by jenniferramos, can brighten any room.

The simplicity of the prints design allows it to compliment most room designs - giving pure sunlight, without overdoing it. And what better than the phrase 'Love' to peak out of this silk screened piece?

Lemon Yellow Week: Candied Earrings

These Lemon Drop Earrings by manamoon look like just that - lemon drop candies!These earrings are as sweet as they look! And they would look amazing peaking out of some long hair. These delicious earrings would compliment a dark outfit wonderfully.

Prairie Wheat

Prairie Wheat - 8 x 8" acrylic on canvas board

I completed this 8 x 8" acrylic painting yesterday morning. I was itching to do a wheat field when I had gone home to visit my parents only to find that their wheat is starting to turn (Farmers term 'turn' = turn from green to yellow / light orange-red; depending on the crop. Crops, like wheat, are ready for harvest when they're no longer green).


My dad had also planted Soybeans - which are still green; so you can only image how inspiring they looked lying up against each other.

Through some trees on my parents farm; this was my 'reference picture'. You can't see the neighboring soybeans here since they're on the other side. But you can see what a beautiful shade of color it is!

This painting looks more like a prairie field out West than the fields back home. I live in Northern-ish Ontario, where there's a lot of trees and rock. But I think the simplicity of the field in this painting, along with a large clear sky, lets the wheat have the viewers full attention.

Available for sale on Etsy

Lemon Yellow Week: The Floral Necklace

This summery, floral Jolie Rose Necklace by KristinFriesen is the perfect touch a yellow to any outfit.


The cute yellow rose lies on an antique brass chain. It's like a little piece of sunshine around your neck! This playful and elegant piece would brighten anyone's day!

Scary, Scary Halloween!

My ghoulish Scary Eyes Halloween stationery sets are now listed!! (Find them on: Etsy, Artfire and Supermarket).

They consist of 3 'scary eye' designs. I'm not sure if you could guess what animals they belong to - and I thought that this might make an amazing contest - but I hate to keep secrets, and really want to tell everyone! One is a set of cat eyes, and then owl eyes, and then a bunch of mice eyes - I'm sure you can figure out which belongs to which! :o)


As I had mentioned before, this is a limited edition set. It is limited to 10 sets - and I won't crack and make more - so get them before they're gone! They also come with an assortment of envelopes: a light orange, pumpkin orange, and a deep brown kraft envelope. I thought it would be more fun this way!

For more pictures, see my flickr.

So send some scare-mail today!

Lemon Yellow Week: The Cute Purse

This cute Summer Sunshine coin clutch comes from BagatellesAndCo in the United Kingdom!

The beautiful pinkish-purple lining contrasts the rich yellow - bringing out it's 'lemony' aura even more. The material is a smooth, soft silk. Holding it throughout the night would feel lovely in your hands.

Growing up so fast!

I went to visit the farm this weekend - it was so nice out there! It's been about 6 weeks since my parents acquired some baby chicks. Now they're grown (or almost all the way grown) chickens! I was shocked at how they got so big so fast!


They get to grow a lot more too - I wonder how big they'll actually get! They're so funny to watch too: they pick 'battles' with eachother and have stare-downs. I love this picture that I look below at the gate - it's like an 'evil' chicken hehe

Grassy Meadow

Grassy Meadows - 18 x 24" acrylic on stretched canvas

I just completed this painting today, and it is now available on Etsy. I spent all afternoon trekking away on it - it was quite the painting session, and I'm pretty tired from - amazing how painting can just drain you when you're so involved with it!

I was also able to record some of the painting! I wasn't able to do the whole session today (about 5-ish hours) since my battery died. I had also started a few days before, so the beginning steps weren't recorded either - But some of it is there:

Fan Page on Facebook!

I just wanted everyone to know that I now have a fan-page on Facebook. I will be posting a great deal once I reach 100 fans! :o)

Angela Vandenbogaard on Facebook

Painting Video Diary!

So I decided last night to create a painting video diary on YouTube - completely random, so real reason for it, except that the idea came out of no where.


So I posted my first video. It's pretty short - I wasn't sure of the software and stuff, so I wanted it to be short just to keep the frustration levels down. Miraculously, it was pretty easy! So hopefully the next one will be a bit longer!

I really like this video mostly because you actually see how big that seascape painting really is :o) Also, if you have a YouTube account, please feel free to add me as a friend / subscribe!

Autumn!

So with all these Christmas items that I had been posting, it was quite obvious that I skipped over an entire season - and a holiday!

So first up are my Autumn Stationery Set! Like the other new stationery lines, these are printed on beautiful and thick watercolor paper and come with the brown Kraft envelopes.


Autumn is always so full of colour - bright yellows and rich reds, mixed with a fresh sprinkling of greens. This stationery set has it all! The colours are cheerful and very vibrantly printed on the paper.


The set includes the following paintings: Autumn Forest, Corn Field, Red Forest, The Turning and Crimson Flourish. All of which are available as art prints and some as pocket mirrors (and Autumn Forest is still available as an original, here!). You can see my listing for more images!

Next is a Halloween stationery line that I have coming out - it's just going through final printing / prep. So all I have for now is a sneak peek at the designs, below. (Bigger / better images can be see on my Flickr account)


They will be available in sets of 3 and come with orange and brown envelopes - and it will be a very limited edition run - I know, I never do these! The reasoning is that these designs are unlike my other paintings, and very seasonal. I will have more information when I get these back from the printers and have them posted. Keep your eyes peeled!

Painting updates!

It's been busy in the studio since I've been back! Lots of painting going on :o)

High Tide - 18 x 24" acrylic

First, I've finished the above painting last night. I titled it 'High Tide'. This painting was started in the summer, and it's the first of my larger 'summer pieces' that has been completed. I started it, because I was interested in attempting clouds. I think it turned out good for my first 'cloud attempt', I hope that I can improve with other pieces.

It was very difficult to capture this painting on my camera due to it's size and the fact that I don't have a professional set up - and not even anything close to one. So the colors are slightly off. There are more pictures on my Flickr page.

High Tide - detail

The blue portions are textured and contrast the more detailed stormy sky. There's a peaking of calmer sky behind the clouds, showing that it will all be over soon. Despite the painting portraying a storm, I don't get an angry or aggressive feeling from it, but that just might be me.

Ocean scene - detail

I've also been working on the ocean-themed painting, where a squid sort of creature resides now in the piece. I'll be working on it more today, getting some coral and a starfish complete.

I've also started a new painting. I wanted to try something new - painting the whole background a vivid color and then painting on top of it. I thought - what's more vivid than red? So this is the very beginning / baby stage of it. It will be a field landscape when it's done - unless of course I change my mind part way, which happens on a regular basis.

So on top of all these paintings, I have also been working on a large number of commissions of trees for my Jellybeans shop. My paint brushes have had no rest since summer came :o)

My Red Quinoa Experience

So to start, I follow an old friend / colleagues blog - piecurious - and she did a whole bunch of entries on various whole grains for breakfast. And then, when I was at Bulk Barn one lovely afternoon looking for some flour - I stumbled upon the various grain that she had talked about. It was the Red Quinoa (even organic too!) that caught my eye. I bagged up a bit and brought it home. It's been over a month now since that time.

The red quinoa rinsed and waiting - it's actually more colourful, my camera and the light just weren't working together today.

And now, today I was searching through my - I must say very messy and crowded - cupboards, looking for a side to make for dinner. Nothing really appealed to me - I didn't really want to "cook" anything. And I came across an almost empty box of couscous - why I keep only remnants of foods, when I know I can't do anything with, is beyond me! I got the idea for a cold couscous salad - but alas, I had no couscous. Just then, the little bag of red quinoa caught my eye - I had always read that it was 'similar' to couscous...how similar, I wasn't sure since I had never tried it. But what could go wrong, really?

Waiting in my cute heart measuring cup to be boiled

I cooked it as the directions stated on the little leaflet of instruction I had stuffed into the bag with so I would remember what it even was - really bad memory in this head over here. And then I put it into the fridge to cool.

Now, for the building of the salad. My mom a few days ago was kind enough to grace me and my roommate brother with goodies from the garden. By graced, I mean my fridge is packed with garden stuff - which is good for the body, but difficult for grocery shopping to get other, needed, essentials. Anyways, I just randomly started grabbing at different items and chopping them up.

I ended up putting in some zucchini green peppers (from the store, not yet ready in mom's garden), green onions, carrots and spinach. I would have added cucumber too - but I accidentally ate them all while reading the last few nights. Like a huge bag's worth - opps.

All my greens waiting for the dressing and quinoa

Next to the herbs: cilantro - or coriander as some call it; one of my fav herbs! and parsley. To this I added some olive oil and vinegar - to make a vinaigrette, and some pepper and a little garlic powder - I had just run out of my fresh stuff..sigh

Once the red quinoa cooled, I mixed it all up - it was so pretty, with all the greens contrasting against the vivid whole grain-ish quinoa. Nothing was measured - I just threw in whatever as it suited me - the best sort of cooking, I think. But it could have done with some lemon or lime juice and a little less garlic - there's enough in it I think to kill a vampire! (Twilight and old-school Buffy / Angel fans beware! )

My pretty salad :o) It's a little more than 1/2 quinoa - despite how it looks to be more veggies here. Little white curls came out of the quinoa while cooking - what a lovely surprise!

Overall, it was delicious. The cilantro really shone through, and the salad was fresh, tasty and fulfilling - with a hint of bad breath after from the garlic.

Do I hear Jingles?

My Christmas collection is almost complete in the shop now!

Christmas Poinsettia Holiday Card Set

I have added three new stationery sets this week, along with a Christmas Tag set. They're printed on gorgeous watercolor paper, and come with beautiful brown envelopes.

Christmas Tag Set

You may have noticed two of the designs are returning - they were so well loved that I couldn't include them again.

Red Christmas Tree Holiday Card Set

But you may have also noticed two new designs as well, which I'm hoping will be just as well loved.

Blue Christmas Tree Holiday Card Set

I hope that I've included enough pictures! hehe. I think my favorite was the random one that I took with the bear way up at the top - I had to include it in my blog, that bear was just dying to be included :o)

What are all these little squares?

Whatever could these be? And what's that: a hint of Christmas colours?!

Here's a better look:

It's been right back to work in the studio - and in greater than full force to catch up on missed time. Oh, self-employment morals couldn't you just leave me for a few hours a day? Hehe

These should be in the shop sometime later this week, or early the next. Wait until you see them all finished and pretty!

Back from Vacation!

I'm back from vacation now - well I have been a few days, I'm just a little more settled now.

Beach at Port Elgin, Lake Huron, Ontario

It was such a wonderful week and a half-ish. We spent the first weekend at the Paisley town civic long weekend festival, Beef Fest. It was filled with lots of music, silly games and best of all friends!

Sand turtle!

During the week, we hung out with friends we were visiting and went to the beach - so relaxing and the water was just beautiful!

Then we took a little day trip to Toronto to see the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO)! It was amazing! I had never been before, and there was just so much to see! I don't have any picture - didn't even bring my camera - since I knew that I wouldn't have been able to take pictures within the gallery - although I saw some people 'sneaking' picture of the Group of Seven every now and then...hrm.

Lastly, we came back to Paisley for one of my honey's childhood friend's wedding. It was beautifully done, and we spent the night dancing away.

So for my vacation 'Cole's Notes' : lots of friends, lots of sun and lots of food. I'll need to do double time at the gym for the next few weeks....

Robin Week: Screen Print Art

This modern limited edition robin screen-printed piece by beethings is wonderful.

The design of this piece is so modern, and it's mixed with retro colours. It's a beautiful combination, I especially like the splashes of the bright turquoise.

Robin Week:

It's been a rainy and wet few weeks. Since I've already done a cloud week, I thought I would do a Robin week in honor of this rain-spell.

First, is this artsy clay 'Signature Dish' by thebrickkiln.


I love the edges and the natural white of this piece. It gives it such a natural and organic feel. The blue robin's egg in the middle is a lovely shade of blue, and just pops out of this piece.