autumn landscapes

continuing with the landscapes, these two little landscapes are acrylic and ink on canvas panels. they are 4x4" and 5x5" and i had a lot of fun creating them. they are a continuation of a body of work i started this summer, and which you can view here.

Southwest Landscape

Usually when I do watercolor, I sketch something out with pencil or ink first. These little ATCs were done freehand, without the aid of an outline to follow. I used to work a lot more that way when I was younger. I like how fluid the results are! They are listed in my Etsy shop.

October Beaded Journal House

this is part of a group project i am working on. You can find out more about that here. At any rate, you would expect my october beaded journal house would be done, this being november 1st, however, no. here it is in progress:

and here are the completed houses so far, june, july, august, september:

sepia girls, and mice, and houses, and fish, and things.

i find it very relaxing to create these swirly little worlds in my sketch journal... these are my latest!

zapata weaving

one of the most interesting galleries we visited in Taos was called Starr Interiors, where they sold hand loomed work from the Zapata indians of Mexico. I love both the dyed textiles and the undyed wools. (I grew up on a sheep farm where we bred colored sheep. So instead of raising sheep for white wool to dye, we bred different colors of brown and grey that could be used without being dyed. You would be surprised how beautiful and subtle the colors can be.)

My family sold the farm years ago, but I still love textiles and am an avid knitter today. My mother knits, spins and weaves, so textiles are still a big part of my family we enjoyed seeing them in Taos.

Here are a couple pictures I took in front of the gallery:

the land of enchantment

i recently returned from a trip to New Mexico with my family. We spent 2 nights in Taos and 1 night in Santa Fe. I loved Taos in particular, and all of the beautiful colors of the landscape. We got to see a lot of wonderful art in the galleries there -- weaving, paintings, basketry, and jewelry. We also drove through several little mountain towns on the way from Taos to Santa Fe.

We visited the Millicent Rogers museum in Taos -- where we saw wonderful weavings and pottery, and The Georgia O'Keeffe museum in Santa Fe, which was just heavenly.

You can see photos I took of our trip on my Flickr account. And I am sure this trip will inspire my art for weeks, months, and years to come.

Here are two little minature watercolors I did based on the landscape of the Southwest.

They will also be in my Etsy shop.

kitties and bunnies and mice, oh my.

usually i draw things, for the most part, from my oh-so-fertile imagination. i may use some photos for reference material, but by the end everything has been through the maze of my fancy and come out a bit meganized, i guess. sometimes, though, i do pet portraits, or i do my best anyway to restrict myself mostly to what is there, allowing just a little space for artistic license.

and so we have, jack. jack before:

and, jack after:

then, for a little winding down to relax and tuck myself in, i painted a couple imaginary animals, and they are available on etsy

these two critters were inspired by the beautiful colors of new mexico's landscape. i recently returned from a trip to the southwest. more on that and a few photos next time!

Megan Noel