That Groundhog Lied!

Where is spring? You just cannot trust those groundhogs!

I need to get out in my poor neglected gardens and get them back in shape. 

I love gardening, it is so relaxing and it makes me feel close to my grandmother (who I called Nannie) She had a house in the city of New Brunswick NJ with tiny front and back yards which she filled with flowers and bushes and vegetables. Her house was filled with potted plants and in the summer the front porch was full of hanging pots of flowers. If it was your birthday, Nannie would bake you a cake in a bunt pan, icing it and then put a small jelly jar in the middle with water and filled it with flowers from her garden. It was beautiful, creative and so Nannie. She passed away in 1998 and I still miss her terribly. She taught me so much and she was a wonderful person. Daffodils aren't thought of as glamourous flowers, but they are bright and happy and resilient, just like Nannie and they are my favorite flower.

Daffodils soft pastel on paper

I have 10x8 matted prints of this painting for sale in my Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/listing/41582979/daffodils-soft-pastel-reproduction-print

The gray twilight

I started this blog to let people know something about me and my art, but its pretty obvious I'm not very good at keeping it up and posting often. I usually feel I don't know what to say and fear that what I put here would be thought of as stupid or worse yet, irrelevant and boring, so I put nothing. That's pretty much how I am about most things - I let fear & anxiety control my actions. Even though I'm that way, I have a desire to live a better life, to have the courage to live the life I dream of. I need to try. This quote from Teddy Roosevelt impresses me. My fear of failure keeps me from ever having a chance at glorious triumphs but I'm tired of living in the gray twilight.

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt

Happy Valentine's Day

Never miss an opportunity to tell someone you love them, 

even if you know they know,

because you never know when 

you won't be able to utter those words to them again.

Christmas Commission

Pet portrait commission for Christmas. She is a Catahoula-Huskey mix. Beautiful eyes.

Lulu 8x10 soft pastel on paper

Where have I been?

My last post was the middle of August, then my husband and I found out that he has cancer... incurable, inoperable pancreatic cancer & my life has been a sad fog of hospital stays, doctor appointments and fear of what will I do without my best friend. I've tried to keep up a few positive creative posts on Facebook - but its to hard for me to try to be creative, I guess. But since this is supposed to be a blog about my artwork and creativity, I will not lament on about this. When I can manage to have something creative to post I will. I've decided to create a blog about my experience with the sadness I feel, to have a place to put my feelings, since I cannot afford a shrink and keeping it stuffed inside seems to be making me feel like I'm going to explode.
I've created a blog devoted to trying to survive the loss of my husband, and best friend
I don't know why I'm doing it, I'm such a private person - and a big believer in being careful of the TMI, but perhaps I need an overflow valve. So there you have it.

Remington Just Trying to Survive

I hope to soon have some kind of creative content to share here, so don't give up on the Remington Creations blog.

Butterfly Experiment

Trying some mixed media today - watercolor, ink & colored pencil. Not sure how I feel about it yet. May need more practice to be able to bring the different mediums together the way I like it. Any thoughts?

5x7 using reference photo I took of Tiger Swallowtail butterfly in my garden

Dragonflies hold your place until you come back

I had created some bubble paint background for bookmarks a while ago. I used one to make a bookmark for my mother for her birthday. I thought dragonflies would be appropriate since the bubble background kinda looks like water. I didn't want the background to show through the watercolor, so I sketched them with ink and painted them on watercolor paper, then cut them out and attached them to the background. I found the watercolor paper to be almost too thick to cut out such small intricate shapes. I may have to use thinner paper next time. I attached the bookmark to card stock and inserted it into a plastic sleeve to protect it.

Dragonfly Collage bookmark for Mom

Young Buck

My friends and I go camping in Shenandoah National Park (cabin camping) and every once in a while we are visited by various wildlife like this young buck. I was thinking about what a nice time my husband & I had up there this past trip and I decided to paint our friend young buck.

Watercolor & ink, 6x4 inches.

You Are a Classic!

Latest item out of my studio

5x7 folded card on watercolor paper in watercolor & ink

I had an idea for a card, maybe for a birthday or father's day. I painted this card today on watercolor paper, folds to 5x7. Watercolor and black ink. Featuring a '58 Corvette I snapped a photo of at a local car show. I'm thinking of recreating it as a linoprint that I would hand color for my Etsy shop.

What is Creativity? 1

I'm on a creative journey - what does creativity mean? How is perceived by different people? How is it encouraged or discouraged in the work place? How is it viewed by those close to you? Is creativity different in different genres? Every once in a while I'll post an article about creativity I find interesting. Tell me what you think.

article: What Does Creativity Mean to You?

Two Old Buddies - pet portrait

 I finished the "Two Old Buddies" pet portrait. I like the way they are never apart.

It was a pleasure getting to know these two trough this painting.
10x8 soft pastel & pastel pencil on blue Canson Mi-Teintes paper.

Old buddies - pet portrait

Working on a pet portrait on this gray day - 2 old goldens, BFFs

10x8 soft pastel on canson paper

Ever try Ukrainian Egg Decorating?

Today I participated in a workshop on Ukrainian Easter egg decorating. I've never tried this before, but a friend of mine heard about it and we decided to give it a whirl. 
The workshop took place at  The Little Fork Episcopal Church in Rixeyville, VA. www.littleforkchurch.net
It is a lovely colonial historical church. We had a wonderful time, I learned something new, met some nice people and had a great time. 
Here is my attempt - I got 2 eggs done, unfortunately one has a crack, but I guess now it matches me :)
Since we had to purchase a kit for the class, I may try to do a few more.

Spring is coming early

Spring is coming early to my little neck of the woods, I took these photos today. I neglected my garden last year, but I miss it, so I'll be out among my flowers this year for sure.

crocus

this shot makes me think of photos of the crowd at a baseball game

I forgot I planted this little hyacinth

I don't know what these little weeds are, but they're cute

this looks like lace and pom poms to me.

Sleepless in... plus some ATC

Sleepless in....   fill in the blank - we've all had those nights that sleep just never comes, like he lost our address or something. Well last night was one of those nights for me, now I'm operating on 2 hours sleep for the past 39 hours. After lying awake in bed for several hours, I got up and made these little artist's trading cards (ATC) I guess it helped because I was asleep 45 min after these were done, and my alarm went off less than 2 hours later