artwork in progress

artwork in progress
Originally uploaded by megan_n_smith_99

(written 3/28. posted 3/39)
here is something i am working on. pen & ink & watercolor. it's 9 x 12 inches. it feels kind of Celtic-y to me but it's not overtly so. maybe it feels that way to me because i have been looking at celtic art and thinking about it, and i was listening to Charles de Lint's Moonheart while working on it, which features a Celtic bard, among other things. For a long time it was my favorite of his novels. I still like it, but having been recently rereading and re-listening to some of his later works I can appreciate how his talent has matured. I sure hope he is going to do more audio books. (Well, he is not the reader, but I mean I hope he authorizes them!) Forest of the Heart is my current favorite, and it has not been made into an audio book -- at least not yet.

Lots of art ideas in my head and not much time to work on them! I have a sinus headache this evening so I think I will now go hole up with a book.

amber celtic knot

amber celtic knot
Originally uploaded by megan_n_smith_99

i am working on learning to draw some Celtic knots. It's even harder than it looks! I did this one a couple nights ago. I am even more exciting about the one I worked on last night.. I'll show that to you when I am done. I've started adding a few more to my Etsy shop this week, too.

Speaking of Etsy, my friend Kathy made a really cool Treasury List!. Love the GREEN!

Tomorrow Kathy and I are going to a tribal belly dancing event at the Seattle Center. That should be fun. I'll probably come away with some more inspiration!!

Beaded Journal Project #10

Beaded Journal Project #10
Originally uploaded by megan_n_smith_99

This is a little beaded and quilted piece that I did as part of Robin Atkin's Beaded Journal project. Artists from around the world spent a year creating beaded works to reflect whatever was going on in their lives at the time. I was involved in this project in 2009. It's still ongoing if you want more information--just check Robin's website.

This piece was created in April 2009, in honor of spring. When I was growing up on Vashon Island, there was a little clearing in the woods near our house. There had been a house there at one time, and we found some bits of it- foundation stones buried in earth and grass, a few wooden bits of what had been the outhouse roof, and a few old medicine bottles.

The people who had lived there, who knows how many years back, had planted bluebells, and over the years the bluebells took over the clearing and started spreading into parts of the woods where there was a bit of sunlight. Every spring there would be thousands of them. My sister and I used to go and pick them. So bluebells always make me think of Spring.

photo by audin malmin, angry viking llc.

hedgehog bearing news - website update

Sketch Journal 2011
Originally uploaded by megan_n_smith_99

peek a boo.
If you are of a mind to, you can visit a new page on my website. i made a page of my sketch journal's progress and will be updating it. have you noticed i've been adding new content to my website over the last month? exciting news if you are a hedgehog.

www.megannoel.com

celtic oak

celtic oak
Originally uploaded by megan_n_smith_99

Celtic Oak
8 by 8 inches
watercolor and ink on paper

another new painting. i am working on ideas for a new series of works inspired by celtic design - mostly the neolithic stone carving. i don't really know where the idea is going - this is not what i had envisioned, but then what i had envisioned is rather vague. maybe more a feeling than anything else. and darn, knot work is intricate! it's hard enough to draw with pencil, eraser, and ink pens - imagine doing it with the basic tools available to contemporary carvers!

my mother and i went to a show of knitting inspired by viking carvings. i don't think i really understood, till then, what the intricate cable work seen in scandinavian knitting was really trying to represent. it gave me a new appreciation. viking carvings are similar to the celtic ones, but of course viking ships "visited" (or raided) the west coast of England many times over the centuries.

we'll see where these new ideas of mine end up going.

yeti in the foothills

yeti in the foothills
Originally uploaded by megan_n_smith_99

here is a new little painting i did yesterday. yetis are elusive but i have a way with them. they like tea and biscuits, and are really quite civil creatures if you offer them a thermos of earl gray or english breakfast tea, preferably with cream and sugar, no lemon.

in other news i've started listing some of my newer forest creatures on etsy.

and i made an etsy treasury list, This Sublime Earth".

enjoy!

In the Hidden Forest

In the Hidden Forest
Originally uploaded by megan_n_smith_99

11 x 14 inches
watercolor and ink on paper
the colors are more vibrant in person. i don't think this will fit on my scanner so i can scan it. maybe i'll try to take another picture later when the sun is shining in my west-facing windows.

the good news is i think i am getting over my infection! the bad news is that cipro can be hard on a body. but i did know that...