Category: Watercolor Art

Tina is No Good at Starting Conversations –

I actually painted this about 2 years ago when the actual incident that lead to this painting occurred.
There was a stepmother who absolutely ignored her stepdaughter.
In over 6 years, not one single email, text message, letter or phone call to her step daughter that she claimed she wanted to be part of their family.
She instructed her own children to have little to do with the step-daughter and being dutiful kids, they did.
The stepmother would ask others about her stepdaughter even when the girl was in the room.
If the stepdaughter spoke to her stepmother, she would be met with a grunt or silence.
Every photo of the step-daughter was removed from the walls of the house save one left the father’s study.
And when the daughter confronted her father and asked him to intervene and please talk to his wife and help everyone find some common ground, her father simply told her that her stepmother wasn’t good at starting conversations.

I feel bad for them both, they missed out on knowing a great kid 🙂

Size : 11-inches by 14-inches
Ink, watercolor on 140lb hot pressed paper.

Tina is not the actual name of the person I am referring to in this story.
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Dead Rita

I have 2 sisters. One I really don’t know well and from what I have come to know, well I don’t want to know her. I don’t delight in the misfortunes of others and anyone that does just can’t be in my life.
The other sister, was creative, funny, always saw the positive, very compassionate and did the most amazing calligraphy lettering.
I used to be very close to until the late 1980’s when she become someone I really didn’t know anymore.
I couldn’t trust her to be truthful with me about anything and then she started stealing my identity and she fell hard into drugs to the point she abandoned both her children and was prostituting herself.
I’ve gotten one letter from her during yet another brief time of sobriety that never lasts and had probably two conversations with her in the past 20 years. I have to just reconcile myself that the sister I had so much fun with, could count on for anything and really was my sister – is for all intents and purposes dead.

Size : 6-inches by 9-inches
Ink, watercolor on 140lb cold pressed paper.
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Siamese Cat Time Travel Totem Watercolor

I was inspired by this quote I saw: “

“If you want to feel sad, live in the past.
If you want to feel anxious, live in the future.
If you want to feel peaceful, live in the now.”

Somehow that translated in my brain to 3 Siamese cats with the Latin words for past, present and future written on their collars.

So if you wanna time travel in the present – this painting will allow you to do that. 😀

Size : 9-inches by 12-inches
Ink, watercolor on 140lb hot pressed paper.

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Ladybugs get luck from fairy kisses – EVERYONE knows that!

Everyone knows that ladybugs bring luck.
But very few people know HOW the ladybugs get so darned lucky.
It’s from fairy kisses.
Whenever a ladybug isn’t feeling so lucky – the fairy smooches the ladybug on its little buggy cheek and restores its luck.

Size : 2.5-inches by 3.5-inches
(Shown larger so you can see the detail)
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Boss Pear Runs the Fruit Bowl ACEO Card

My partner Skinney bought a bag of pears.
They weren’t too ripe so he put them in a bowl on the kitchen counter.
I guess no one looked at the bowl for a few days.
One pear had apparently gotten really ripe and then moldy and taken over the fruit bowl
The fruit bowl wasn’t a pretty site when Boss Pear took over.
Size : 2.5-inches by 3.5-inches
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Timmy – One Fantastic Feline Friend I Was Lucky to Meet

Here’s the story:
Back in 2003, I adopted a runty little kitten who was given birth by a feral cat that was still a kitten herself. Timmy’s father was a gorgeous Himalayan who got out of his owner’s home and apparently wasn’t fixed either.

The runty little kitten I adopted had Cerebelluar Hypoplasia, what was explained to me is the mother had been vaccinated at one time and distemper didn’t affect her but it attacked the kittens in utero and totally wrecked them neurologically. Only 3 of the 5 kittens born lived through being born.
I was advised to euthanize her but I just felt like she should have a chance.

This kitten reminded me of Timmy from “South Park” because her head was huge and flopped over to one side, sometimes over her shoulders and slightly backwards. Her back legs didn’t work so well either.
We decided to give her the most quality of life possible because otherwise she was a happy little kitten who still liked to play as best she could.

Every day, my partner Skinney spent hours playing with her and slowly but surely she got stronger and stronger and then she filled to the brim with personality and she copped a total attitude and demanded attention, demanded play and would yell at our daughter if she stayed up after 10pm. She very much ran the house as far as she was concerned and grew to be a very large 20lb cat.

Timmy started failing in 2011 and she had dementia. I had no idea cats could get dementia but a vet told me, “If you have a brain, it’s a possibility to experience dementia”. It started off with her yelling all the time at night suddenly and the last year of Timmy’s life she spent mostly in one room upstairs and she was happy to eat, play and use the litter box, just not outside of that room.

The day she died, she came downstairs and laid down by the back door. Timmy never went outside.
She passed on surrounded by the family and loved.
I’m still sad we didn’t get more time with her, but I’m glad for the time we had.
A friend of mine said cats that pass on go over the Rainbow Bridge.
It’s a nice thought. 🙂

Size : 2.5-inches by 3.5-inches
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She always left her dogs out in the rain

Here’s the story:
People who make a big deal out of adopting animals in need and then don’t take care of them drive me nuts. I knew someone that thought nothing of leaving her rescued dogs outside in the most violent weather, the hottest weather, and the coldest weather.

Size : 2.5-inches by 3.5-inches
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Leta the Clown – ACEO Coulrophobia Inducing Clown Art

I’ve been obsessing for a while to do a clown doll. A really, obnoxious, ugly clown doll.
So this is the first sketch I did on an ACEO and it’s pretty much how I envision the final doll.
For some reason it also reminded me of my ex-mother-in-law so I named it “Leta”.
I know she’d be totally honored to know I think of her as a coulrophobia-inducing clown.

And I love making Artist Trading Cards or ACEO’s (Art Cards, Editions and Originals) – you’ve been warned.
Size : 2.5-inches by 3.5-inches

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Ladybug on a Flower 🙂

The same day I was sketching the other flower with a tiny frog, I decided I liked ladybugs and in fact, I miss them.
This is the first year I have not seen ooooooodles of them in my garden and I’ve very curious as to why, I haven’t changed anything – in fact we grow more than ever.
But this lady bug is a trooper, I recall reading once they dont’ see all that well so she may not see where her journey ends but she’s going there just the same.

Size : 6-inches by 9-inches
Ink, watercolor on 140lb cold pressed paper.

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