Catching up!

I knew I needed to get caught up here but I didn't realize I hadn't posted since October. Most of what I have painted since then has been for the monthly challenges on wetcanvas. If you ever have trouble getting motivated to do something, try to find a good challenge group. I find having an objective and a deadline can help me get started.

The theme for the acrylic challenge in October was autumn. I painted this view from the hydro line in the Duck Mountains. In the distance you can see the grain elevator in my home town. 14x11"

The fantasy/sci-fi challenge was Halloween and I painted this dragon carving a pumpkin. I believe I used Procreate on iPad for this. It still needs some work.

The November acrylic challenge was to paint something inspired by the Hudson River School. They often painted grand landscapes with a lot of distance framed by strong verticals. I wanted to use one of my own references and chose this scene. I don't think I really captured the feel of the Hudson River paintings though but then I also made it more challenging by painting it very small, 2.5x3.5".

I did another digital painting for Resource Factory Tycoon. This was a limited time painting available in the game in December.

In December I took part in a gift exchange in the fantasy/sci-fi forum. Names were drawn randomly and I painted this for a guy who had been a member in both the sci-fi/fantasy and the acrylic forums for some time. While thinking about what to paint for him I thought of a painting he had started of a lady in front of a swimming pool. I thought he might enjoy my version of  a lady by a pool. This was done in acrylics, 7x5".

In January the challenge in both forums was to paint something inspired by a song. I didn't come up with something that would really fit the fantasy/sci-fi forum but I did do something in acrylics, just a little 4x4" painting for fun. Can you figure out what the song was?

If you haven't guessed, keep reading. And yes, I own sparkly gold shoes.

The February acrylic challenge was fun with vegetables. Something made me decide to paint an owl made of fruits and vegetables. 5x7"

In March I did two challenges. The acrylic challenge was to paint something based on your favourite quote. I thought of something Monet said... I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.
10x8"

The fantasy/sci-fi challenge was to paint your true self. This is me, head in the clouds and clouds in my head. Done with Painter 2017.

In April I was doing some beadwork, trying to make beaded eggs. It was difficult because it's hard to find instructions in English and everyone else uses slightly bigger beads than I have. I just wanted to try it out though. The first one really took a long time.

This one was quicker but I ended up covering an egg with clay to make the design fit. 

Also did a quick sketch for the fantasy/sci-fi challenge, which was historical monsters. I prefer to do something cute so I drew Cerberus as a puppy.

And this month I did both challenges. The theme for the fantasy/sci-fi challenge was nature. I have been playing a game on Roblox called Fantastic Frontier which has some interesting plants, usually quite blocky in shape, and I thought it would be fun to try to paint some of the mushrooms in the game in a more realistic shape. Done with Painter 2017.

The acrylic challenge theme was Vermeer. After someone found a painting of a meerkat with a pearl earring I got my inspiration.. Dachshund With a Pearl Earring. I used my dog Diamond as the model. The hardest part was getting her to post just right. After many tries I finally got a decent reference but she was looking away so I had to make some adjustments to the eyes. This is 3.5" square.

This is how it looks in the frame.

Oh, and the song was Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes by Paul Simon.

Frost

It's surprising how many hours it took just to paint the leaves for this, but I got it done, and combined them with more painting, beadwork, and some microbeads to create this frosty picture.

 Here's a close up:

My First Mixed Media Canvas

The nail polish picture is painted with acrylics on a 10x8" canvas and then I added texture around it with stencils and modelling paste and also just paint. Then I started adding things like metal flowers, painted fabric flowers, buttons, resin pieces with the actual nail polish in them, a watch face, a mirror pendant, and some beads. Then I decorated a 14x11" wrapped canvas and put the 10x8 canvas board inside the back of it to frame it. It took quite a few days to put it all together.

I also recently finished a digital painting of a polar bear. Prints are available on Fine Art America and Pixels.com. This is one of the polar bears that live in the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg and his name is Storm.

http://pixels.com/featured/polar-bear-michelle-moroz-chymy.html

New beaded ornaments.

These star spheres are an adaptation of the pendant I made. Many hours went into these.

I also bought a bunch of large beads that are netted with thread and came up with this design for one of them.

So many ideas are running through my head for Christmas ornaments and jewelry, it's hard to sleep at night.

Blue Ice Star Sphere

My site is working normally again and I have uploaded a new set. It wasn't intentional but this does make one think of a certain movie.

Technology Troubles

It seems like a week doesn't go by where I'm not wondering why something isn't working. Printers, scanner, website, iPhone.... the list goes on.

This time it's my website. I recently had to change hosting and had everything uploaded and working properly but suddenly it won't work with www in the links. I still wanted to do an update so I have started to remove the wwws from a couple of pages but I am also waiting for a response from my host to find another way to fix this. After all, many people are used to typing www with an address so I still want it to work either way.

On the upside, I sold the three painted ornaments I previously posted. And today I added three different ones to the holiday page on my site.

Mini Painted Christmas Ornaments

These three little Christmas ornaments have just been added to my site on the Holiday and Decor page. They are 2x2" acrylic paintings bordered by copper tape and embellished with glass beads. They may look familiar to some of my friends because I had previously posted them on my personal Facebook page.

Halloween and Resin

Here are some recent resin pieces I did for Halloween. One pair of earrings and a brooch with candy sprinkles inside and beaded around, and a simple pair of glitter candy corns.

I also tried one of the Mod Podge molds to see how they would work with resin. They work fine and come out easily, but have a very dull finish. A clear gloss spray on top helps. I used nail polish and acrylic paint to colour them, except for the middle one which just has glitter in it.

Light Green and White Jewelry

Just added a necklace and earring set plus another pair of earrings to my site. All in pale green and white. This is one of those projects that just came together. Both the light green seed beads and the round faceted beads came in mixed packs where I didn't know what I would get. And they just happened to go nicely with the pendant I had.

Two Russian spiral bracelets.

I have been making jewelry over the summer, just haven't been getting around to posting it. One of the techniques I have been using a lot is the Russian spiral. It comes together pretty quickly and makes a nice flexible rope. Here are two bracelets that I added to my site today.

Rubies on Ice

I have more jewelry to post but so little time to do anything indoors, like this computer stuff. But I got photos of my latest jewelry ready and posted this one today. I liked this bracelet so much I made myself one as well.

http://www.mkmcreations.com/rubiesonicebraceletandearrings.html

Good news!

The Ukrainian store in Dauphin, Manitoba has purchased some of my Ukrainian themed jewelry. These are the items I sold, the triangle pendants are now on chains.

Pearl and Gold Jewelry

Well, not real pearls and gold but glass pearls, white luster seed beads, and silver lined amber seed beads. The amber beads really shine like a metallic bead without the worry of the finish wearing off. I also made myself a set, I really like the Victorian look of it.

http://www.mkmcreations.com/jewelry.html

More Flower Earrings and a Bracelet

I got a couple more colours of Preciosa twin beads and made more of these flower earrings. I really like the pair I made for myself in red, they are quite light.

The inspiration for this bracelet came from the button I happened to find which was very close in colour to the large beads. This bracelet is quite weighty but I think it would be fun to wear, like big chunks of ice around your wrist.

Purple, Purple, and Red

You might have noticed that I like purple. Here are two more items I have added to my website.

I also like red, and the Cellini spiral stitch. Making a bracelet takes a very long time but earrings are much quicker. I hope to do more, but with the weather warming up I'm already finding less time for beading.