A Light Spring

Spring is beautiful.  Full of hope and renewal.

It's a time for doing new things, changing old ways.

As you may already know, I've taken the leap and put my artwork up for sale on Etsy.  Now that the kids are old enough to play by themselves and basically keep themselves entertained for a while, I have a little extra time to stretch my creativity once again.

Etsy is full of inspiration.  It has really helped me seeing other artist's work!  I finished the sketch above earlier today.  I love the simplicity and beauty of a well executed drawing!

My hens have begun laying beautiful eggs, Spring is in the air, and Easter is on its way!  This calls for a fine and simple egg still-life painting!

Now that Spring is here, it's also time for changing some old ways, such as leaving behind heavy, wintery, comfort foods.

Thanks to some further inspiration from my sister, I just made homemade street tacos! 

Oh, yum!

Simple.  Quick.  Delicious!

Here's what I did:

Sauteed Bell Peppers, Onions, Baby Bella Mushrooms

Load warm corn tortillas with sauteed vegies

Top with Cilantro, Lime Juice, and a drizzle of BBQ Sauce

Light and full of satisfying flavor.

If you would like some menu planning ideas, check out my sister's blog!

Happy Spring!

Linking up with the Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop!

Planting Peas

We had snow last week, which makes it hard to believe we are so warm this week!  Just take a look...

I've been meaning to get out to the garden to plant peas earlier this month.  Something must have short-circuited my brain, because I couldn't bring myself to get out there in the cold!  Now with the bees buzzing, flowers blossoming, and the sun shining brightly, who could resist?

My garlic is doing beautifully...

the rosemary...

...chives...

...sage, thyme and lavender are all doing well.  As I was watering them, the wonderfully pungent Mediterranean smells of these herbs wafted in the breeze.  A great reminder why I love to garden!

While I cultivated, planted and mulched, I was serenaded by quail calls!

 

A pleasant day in the life of a desert-dweller!

The Winter Grays

Yup, not, "The Winter Blues."  No, no, no.  Such is the impact winter has on me.  And I live in the desert where the sun shines most of the time!  I did my time in the Seattle, Washington area for a few years, and I'm done with that, THANK GOD!

A neighbor recently called me up and I answered the phone.  The first thing she said was, "You sound gray."  Oh, how perfectly right she was!  I had to laugh at her choice of the word.

Sorry to say, but I am gray this time of year.  The garden is long gone, the days are too short, work comes to us in tiny batches, and the holidays blasted in and out of our schedules leaving another hole of a different kind behind!  It's hard just trying to keep keepin' on!

So is it any wonder that I turn to my artwork to create a bit of Spring in my days?

There now!  Isn't that better?

Here's some more Spring-time therapy...

Ahhh, much better!

I painted these watercolors a couple months ago, in November.  Winter grays set in early for me!  Looking at them now, in their tiny format 2.5" x 3.5," fills me with hope and joy.  They make me feel like I've found a small, priceless treasure.  The best things come in small packages, don't they?

Isn't this funny?  I love the mannequin's presentation, as if to say, "Ta Da!"  I put this in my Etsy shop as one of the photos of this daffodil...

A simple one hour pencil sketch which represents my wintery mood.  The quick, dark pencil strokes testifies to my walking around my house like a caged animal!  Ha!  You laugh, but I'm serious!!!  Haven't you ever done that?  Sure you have, so I'm not alone in my temporary insanity...which is good.  I think.

And, the fact that a beautiful spring-time flower (sunny yellow, no less) is rendered in black and white is another commentary on my "Grays."  Happily, it is full of hope and the coming joy of Spring.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Another promising endeavor is bubbling to the surface...

"Flora and Fauna Desert Collection I"

9" x 12"

"Flora and Fauna Desert Collection II"

9" x 12"

Here's a general idea of what they would look like framed...

I love the exquisite beauty of a pencil drawing.  Discovering Rembrandt and Durer was all the confirmation I needed to prove the glory of the pencil drawing.

These two desert tag collections are really exciting me with what else I can do with them.  These are just the beginning!

So as the days begin to lengthen, I draw and paint.  Full of hope and expectation of the coming growing season.  Gray will soon be...Sunny!

Visit my art blog at http://tatianasartstudio.blogspot.com/

and my Etsy store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/TatianasArtStudio