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theartofpatriciaallinghamcarlson

~ Paintings of nature & spirit, dreamscape & imagination

theartofpatriciaallinghamcarlson

Tag Archives: fairy

Imagination and Magic

07 Sunday Dec 2014

Posted by artbypallinghamcarlson in fine art and watercolor

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art, art experiments, art help, art ideas, artist, artist's eyes, artwork, blog, creative art, doodle, fairy, fantasy, fantasy art, fiction, fine art, imagination, magic, mermaid, nature and art, painting, Patricia Allingham Carlson, seeing the unseen, tree faces, watercolor, watercolor painting

I was the last child to give up believing in Santa Claus.

He was dragged from me, kicking and screaming on the inside, as with his passing I had to give up the last of my belief in Magic.

In that scenario my younger sister had confronted my mother with the question, “Is Santa Claus real?”

She was seven years old. I knew, for real, that Santa wasn’t real. But I was not ready to hear it from a grown up!

I was the little girl who remained in her wading pool in the backyard till long after dark- twining my legs together and wishing to be a mermaid.

If I just believed enough…

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Finding a Mermaid

I sat on my bureau, my back pressed firmly against my mirror for long spans of time, waiting to melt into it… it had worked for Alice.

And I waited at the window, looking into the dark skies for Peter Pan. I just knew he could make me fly!

Even younger I made cardboard stars, cut them out and taped them to sticks, then danced in the night saying “”Bibbidi–Bobbidi–Boo!”

But I never did turn into a fairy either.

joy1

Firefly Frolic

So I grew, and went into spinning stories and tales. I walked alone in the forest for many happy hours, looking for the magic that is in the world.

The secret home of a small animal, a beautiful rock or a fossil with a locked in secret; a feather, a deer trail, a patch of beautiful bluebells that bloomed every year. All these became my magic. My secrets.

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Fairy Wood II

And I drew pictures of princesses, fairies, fairy princesses, mermaids and people flying.

In high school I drew walking eyeballs, monsters and more mermaids. Surreal scenes of imps and creatures creeping about while you slept.

eyeball

doddle2

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With a sketch pad and pencil I was never bored.

Imagination is such a friend of childhood; all that you can conceive of could be real.

What a challenge to hold onto it as you become and adult. I guess people like Stephen King and Charles de Lint,  Cecilia Dart Thornton and Patricia McKillip have all protected their imaginations deep within their being to bring out and express in wonderful fiction. Musicians tell stories with well woven strands of song and instrument, painting pictures in the mind.

Artists such as myself dream and draw and paint their imaginings on paper. Well, trees and rocks and sand too- any surface is fair game!

birdhouse

And as I do I go backward into the years when I was a mermaid, a fairy, off on a grand adventure.

And I still walk in the forest for hours looking for the wondrous Magic that will always remain there.

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Have a good and imaginative day, all!

Do You Have Artist’s Eyes?

30 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by artbypallinghamcarlson in Uncategorized

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art, art critique service, art evaluation, art help, art instruction, art lesson, art teacher service, artist's eyes, collage, creating art, creative art, experiments in art, fairy, get objective art ideas, imagination, p allingham carlson, painting, watercolor and collage, watercolor painting, watercolor technique

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Do you have artist’s eyes? Born or developed, cultivated, grown, artists see the world differently. I think this is a blessing.

Artists look and look and look. They draw to figure out what they are seeing, then enhance the sights to show what they are feeling.

They look at the everyday, mundane parts of their environment and see the extraordinary.

As a craftsman sees a piece of wood and envisions a cabinet, a musician hears three sounds and creates a song, an author hears a tale and writes a book; an artist can extrapolate an artwork from a bunch of junk.

 

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To some a pile of TRASH.
To an artist- Possibilities!

 I was cleaning my studio and had gathered up this pile of scraps… but I could not throw them out.

I arranged them on a piece of paper, and imagined the headdress for a woodland fairy. Ok, let’s go!

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Sketched the fairy face in-

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established a light source and began to paint in watercolor-

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attached the paper scraps and developed the subject-

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Painting detail- trying to show a glint of the eye through the lashes-

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And here she is completed, Norwegian Wood-
watercolor and collage

From a pile of pretty paper scraps to a finished artwork, the imagination interacts with the sight to see what could be. The creative spirit makes you wish to do so.

You know yourself if you have these artist’s eyes, this way of thinking and seeing differently- you are the one who as a child was drawing better than your peers, taping odd pieces of stuff to paper, building doll houses out of cardboard. Drawing your jeans into a work of art, sculpting mud or snow or sand or metal objects into awesomeness!  Lucky you!

Today’s shout out goes to my husband, David C. Allingham, who has the vision to see a piece of wood and turn it into an exquisite piece of furniture-  CIO at https://www.facebook.com/decallingham.maker

Have a good and creative week.

 

 

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About the artist

Throughout Patricia's adult life she has been painting and enjoying presenting images of the world as seen and imagined. The paintings you see these blog are frequently textural, suggesting multiple layers of images through time. Ancient scenes, structures, people from long ago, and other realms weave through many of these paintings.

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