Gothic heroines in distress

One of the categories I've started on my Pinterest page is Gothic Romance Book Covers -- I've started just by scanning the ones that I have acquired myself, but these things are hard to come by, as every used book store I've visited in several time zones has said "No, we just don't have much call for those." I can't believe this incredible category of vintage novel has completely vanished from second-hand stores, except for the odd lot on eBay now and then.

I haven't even read any of the ones I've acquired yet (my tastes run more to the 19th century anyway, and these are more recent tales) but I actually like the sound of them and enjoy a good pulp novel, so I suspect I eventually will read at least some of them, for they seem steeped in Dark Shadowsy atmosphere of mystery, family secrets and hidden rooms. Although marketed as "romances" they have all of the key elements that I look for in my old-fashioned tales of terror.



Even before reading them, these covers have started to form some of the inspiration for a series of paintings I've been doing over the past year and change. I just love the image of ladies escaping from castles in nightgowns by moonlight. Sometimes it's a mansion, sometimes a castle, a burning tower, a mill, or a country cottage even. They are invariably wearing a long gown though and it is always night.


"The Peril of the Crimson Manor" was the first deliberate attempt I made to come up with a title for a gothic romance paperback that might or might not actually exist, and then design a cover showing a woman fleeing in the night from a building with mysteries lights in the windows. I think it's important that the protagonist have a light source like a torch, candle or lantern, whenever possible, or an artifact of some sort like an amulet. She has both!


"Terror on the Cliff" was the second painting, and although it can be difficult to capture the colors when there is a lot of white and pale grey in a painting, given my limited photographic experience, I think she scanned pretty well. Everyone needs a mist-shrouded cliff to loom over, right?

"Trouble at the Mill" sold in 2010 right after I listed it - I loved the image of a mill and the intimations of what horrors might lurk in the chamber of the mill stone. I guess movies like "The Mill of the Stone Women" (1963) must be an influence as well. There is something sinister about these structures which now mainly exist in ruins. (though there was one in New Jersey that housed a great German restaurant, for years, that I worked nearby for awhile...).



"Terror in the Crimson Castle" is a classic image from gothic horror, of course -- every single 1960s-ish film I watch seems to have a scene like this, though they are usually in black and white. I can't watch a movie without a candelabra, a diaphanous gown and a staircase (preferably spiral). Well, I can, but I always wind up back in the castle. And yes I used the word "crimson" in two of my five paintings here, but can you blame me?


"The Moonstone (I)" is thus titled because I intend to do several illustrations for some of my favorite books, such as -- well, The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins. I have a bunch of J. Sheridan Le Fanu ideas as well. But I will get back to those, as I have a pile of other things to finish...


"Escape to Subterranean Horrors" is my newest painting in this line of inspiration -- after reading even more ghost stories (thank you, Ash Tree Press, for your affordable line of ebooks!), and watching even more gothic horror films (thank you, Mario Bava) I can't seem to get away from candelabras!

At any rate I'll continue with these for as long as I can think up variations on the theme. Since the contemporary idea of horror bears no resemblance to mine, with a few exceptions, I will just have to keep creating my own haunted atmosphere.

The haunted hands of Countess Regenbogen

It is a fairly well-known fact that I am rather fond of 1960s/1970s psychedelic horror movies. They don't have to be in color, but I like color a lot. And by "psychedelic" I really just mean weird and visually interesting. And mostly from Europe. And I love the movie posters, even if they have little or nothing to do with the movie. I just like how visually free and experimental they were -- the colors, the composition, the typefaces, all bear signature flourishes, with a little Art Nouveau, a little surrealism, some decadence, and a splash of je ne sais quoi. There's also a bit of garish comic book art and a good dose of pulp magazine or book cover.

I have always had a secret longing to do pulp book or magazine covers, but my style is a bit different...so I try to translate these things through my own little filter, and that's what I did with the painting above, ridiculously named for an imaginary pulp short story or low-budget film.

Some of my inspirations from the world of film are Jean Rollin, Czech fantasy films and Coffin Joe, which I'll show you below. I'm not exactly trying to recreate the movie poster aesthetic but I want to use similar elements, motifs and color schemes.

I've talked about Jean Rollin before, and he pretty much is what I have in mind when I throw around phrases like "psychedelic horror." People in masks, strange lighting, vampires walking out of clocks and fireplaces (Shiver of the Vampires), prog rock soundtracks to romps through night-lit graveyards, and wild costumes and colors. And candelabras, lots of candelabras.




This isn't a movie poster, above, but Coffin Joe (Zé do Caixão,) of Brazil also uses some wild and crazy visuals, most of which (like Rollin) aren't exactly safe for work. But the color scheme in this little graphic, and the hands, are the kind of thing that I had in the back of my mind with my little painting.


And perhaps most of all, one of the most perfect movies for my aesthetic, more of a surrealist fantasy film than a horror film, is Valerie and her Week of Wonders, or Valerie a týden divů, by Jaromil Jireš. This poster image, with that shade of green and the menacing, ominous figure in black, is something that creeps through whenever I think about painting a fantasy-horror image with a feeling of psychedelic menace. Which is something I think about a lot, believe me.

My favorite elements in film which have a tendency to also show up in paintings, are probably:

Contrasts of very colorful images against a very dark or bleak setting (a psychedelic gown in a dark castle).

Candles, candelabras, torches and lanterns.

Staircases, particularly circular ones.

Masks or painted faces.

Garish spot lighting in shades of red, green or sometimes blue and gold (Dario Argento, Mario Bava, et. al. do this very well)

Lushly decorated interiors infused with decay and decadence -- brocade wallpapers in dark green, red or purple; statuary, suits of armor, mirrors, gauzy draperies, etc.

Flowing diaphanous gowns, either in white or pale colors; also gauzy black drapings or robes.

Jean Rollin hits all of these notes, as do movies like "The Girl Slaves of Morgana le Fay" and many others. For black and white movies, the Italian gothics pretty much are what it's all about for me.

And then of course there are giallos but I'll save that for another day!

Incidentally if anyone reading this is on Pinterest I'm trying to start compiling some albums of interesting images there, including a board for my own paintings. Please feel free to follow and I'll do the same for you:

http://pinterest.com/artbysarada/

Halloween Artist Bazaar

I was recently invited to join the Halloween Artist Bazaar on Etsy, a new group devoted to all things Halloween. I love Etsy teams, and I am happy to be a part of several on there -- including the EtsyDarkTeam, TeamBPAL, and the VAST group (Visual Artists Street Team).

This new Halloween group was started by TwilightFaerie on Etsy, who has many vintage Halloween inspired items in her shop like this one:


Other members so far include:

Sauvage Raven Creations, which offers many altered art items, one-of-a-kind items with a gothic theme, including Halloween, Poe, and Dark Shadows:



And Evil Lily Originals, featuring many hand sewn items with skulls, bats and other trappings of the gothic Halloween aesthetic.:




Halloween art has been one of my main interests since I started painting -- the first paintings I did specifically to sell on eBay back around 2000 were all inspired by my love of vintage Halloween art, and before then I had been mostly painting fantasy and gothic imagery, and surreal or colorful abstract psychedelic paintings (from 1986 to 2000) in various forms. I have a pretty wide variety of art in my shop now, but there's still a high Halloween content -- and if you include anything gothic or ghost related in that, it's a whole lot more.

I know it's February, and we're just past Valentine's Day, but this is about the time of year that I started really actively selling Halloween art online about a dozen years ago, so it seems like a good time to start celebrating again this year! Here's one of my originals that I have tagged to be part of HAB:



And here is a print:



As this group grows you can just type "HAB" in a search field at Etsy to see a variety of works by the people in the group.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Poe toaster

Yesterday (Jan. 19) was Edgar Allan Poe's birthday and I noticed in the news that the legendary "Poe toaster" did not make an appearance in Baltimore. For decades, a mysterious figure has placed three roses on Poe's grave, made a toast and left a half empty bottle of cognac at the site on the great writer's birthday. This is the third year, according to news reports, that he did not show up. Perhaps it was because it was only meant to continue until Poe's 200th birthday (which was in 2009). The world may never know.

A lifelong fan of Poe myself, I can remember taking down our very, very old copies of his complete works from a shelf almost too high to reach, as a little girl, and reading "The Pit and the Pendulum." I don't know why, but that story really appealed to me. Maybe it was all those Saturday afternoons watching Hammer horror films and Vincent Price movies on Channel 48 with my dad, but I'm sure that we saw quite a few Poe adaptions over the years. At any rate, I always wind up going back to him, and there's nothing better than reading Poe on a dark and rainy night when the lights go out.

And as a general fan of mysterious figures and cemeteries, I am sorry to hear that there may not be any more Poe toasts of that nature. I painted my little tribute, above, to the humorous double meaning of the name, but it's meant with great love. I hear "Poe toaster" and, well, that's the first image that comes to mind (maybe it's since I don't drink, but love breakfast foods). I added in the three roses and half-empty bottle as a nod to the real toaster.

And really, wouldn't you want great horror writers' images on all of your kitchen appliances? A big nod to one of my friends who suggested a "Bram Stoker's spatula" or a "chopping Bloch" to continue that idea, though I haven't done any paintings in that vein yet. :)

Valentine Witches revisited

About 10 years ago, maybe nine, I did the painting above on 16 x 20 stretched canvas -- the photo above is not high res but you can tell what it looked like though the colors are muted because of the lighting. I really love that "winter sky" palette -- the pinkish cold tint as the sun sets, and all of the pastel ice cream shades that I associate with it. As much as I love dark and gothic colors, I also like these shades. And for some reason I really, really love "Candyland" images of heart and stripes all among the snow. So, whatever your thoughts are about Valentine's Day, that whole set of images really appeals to me.

And most of all it's an excuse to paint fancy dresses! My witch paintings are always little fantasies of dresses I want to wear. And yes I do wind up making a lot of dresses like that. Stripes and hearts -- and bustles, and bodices, oh my! I haven't made any like that in awhile since my size has been fluctuating the past couple of years but I will always have a strong longing to wear bustles, petticoats and bell sleeves.

For instance, this Simplicity Pattern for Alice in Wonderland and the Queen of Hearts really embodies what I want out of a dress! I have this pattern, so we'll see what happens.

Since I wanted to recapture this image now that I can get a high-res scan of it, I did a 9 x 12 version of the same approximate image. Now you can see how bold and bright the colors should be, though I had to cluster the main parts of the image in the middle. I also wanted to be able to make prints of the image so I wanted something easier to make into an 8 x 10.

This painting is available on Etsy right now.


The snowy season won't be around long though (and admittedly I am writing from a place where it was 73 degrees and I was out in short sleeves today) so my tube of white paint will get a break soon. Even though I was in no danger of seeing "the white stuff" this winter I can enjoy its aesthetic a lot more when I don't have to shovel it. But bare trees and blankets of white on the forest floor will always be beautiful!

Psychedelic Sunday

Maybe it's my proximity to the fantastic Menil Collection lately, a museum in Houston with a fantastic surrealism room, but I've been in a very surreal mood so far this year. It's really my favorite art movement -- that and the Symbolists, and the Pre-Raphaelites, but it's the one that I think stretches the furthest back and the deepest for me.

And on the other hand, I watched Yellow Submarine the other day, a lifetime favorite, but which I haven't seen in awhile. Stir in a healthy helping of going through a Bonzo Dog Doo-dah Band phase this week and you've got an interesting cocktail of images and ideas and weirdness to be swirling around right now.





So with that, I give you some recent paintings. "Lucy the Snail in Dessertland", above, was inspired by a little character that I saw several times in the background in Yellow Submarine, which was a snail with a colorful shell -- but I mistook the shell for a cupcake! I thought that was a nice idea though so I gave this snail a cupcake shell back.

I thought I'd take that idea a step further and make another mollusc into a dessert treat. I admit this is a little odd. I took what I think is an auger sea shell, the long pointy ones that look a bit like an ice cream cone, and made it into an ice cream cone animal underwater.



01.16 - edited to add one more painting, I might put him in a separate post too but I did him last night after completing this entry. It was kind of impossible to resist once I started doing molluscs with desserts. This one doesn't have a dessert as part of his structure though, he's just carrying the ice cream around, but I had to do it once the idea occurred to me!




On an unrelated note, I also completed a painting I've been wanting to do for awhile. My ghost bottles print has an extremely well-viewed and liked item and I took the idea of ghosts in bottles and transported them into lava lamps for this piece, "Spectrum of Psychedelic Spectres." The original ix 6 x 12 inches but I also made a print that is 8 x 10 inches on photo paper, and it has a wide border at the top and bottom to make up for the strange size.


Here is the painting (above)...


And here (again, above) is the print.


Some of the other things I've been messing around with are the surreal alien landscape paintings I did about three years ago (in January) and working on presenting them as prints. I don't think I ever gave this piece below a more complicated name than "Alien Moon" but it's one of my favorites. I kept the original but I have prints of this now available.



And finally, on the psychedelic theme, I uncovered this painting I did in 2010 and decided to bring it out to share, with some of the flora and fauna of the warmer climate that I am currently enjoying, with flowers known as firewheels (or Indian blanket flower) and passion flowers, as well as my little friends the lizards. I wound up calling it "Sunset in the Magic Garden" (below):



I am working on something for Valentine's Day right now and a few other odds and ends I need to scan or write up a little something about but it's a busy time for art right now -- and enjoying the nice weather and lack of snow, and later sunsets!

Fundraising for a friend

A friend of mine is facing some expensive veterinary surgery for her beautiful black cat, and I thought I'd chip in by donating all proceeds (before shipping cost) from the sale of prints of my black cat painting "Guardian of Pumpkin Woods." I also sold the original and have donated the proceeds from that painting. The prints are 5 x 7 and are $8 each, plus $2 shipping in the US or $4 shipping elsewhere. I have some in stock right now and can ship next business day after purchase - I will continue to donate proceeds from this print to her fund as long as there is a need.

The original was inspired by my own black cat, Voudoun, and I have two more black cats in my life as well, so they are pretty near and dear to my heart, as are all cats! My white cat Shizuka is the love of my life as well, even though she gets fur all over all my black clothing. :)

I have a few other 5 x 7 prints back in stock too, and most of my prints can be custom ordered in other sizes depending on the size of the original (if the original was 5 x 7 for instance, a print that is 8 x 10 will look like it's been blown up too large, so check individual listings).

New art for the new year!

I didn't manage to get one of those "end of year" things going this year but I do have a "first of the new year" to share -- immersed as I am in surreal and psychedelic things lately I feel like doing some circus inspired art despite the fact that I have never been to a circus or particularly interested in them. But the images are stuck in my brain, so what can I do but obey! This is "Hydrangea" so-named because her three-headed snake is something like a hydra...and I like hydrangeas, the flowers. She seems very pretty, innocent and flower-like.

I don't think I've done a lot along these lines in the past (circus themes) -- here is the most prominent, "Night Circus in the Pine Barrens," still available on etsy:



I have several two-headed woman paintings that I will have to repaint in order to offer them as prints (the originals were done and sold before I had access to high-resolution scanning that would allow for print-making):




'Lili et Rosa" was something I painted about 10 years ago, maybe 9...I think I would definitely like to do a new version of this so I can offer her as a print.


And continuing that theme, another painting which I unfortunately didn't record the name for so I will have to come up with a new one!


Finally, one that I do have a print available for, since I think she has kind of circus or carnival atmosphere to her...


So that's where things are at right now. I'm watching a lot of colorful arty movies and reading some surrealist books so that should be fueling some more things in the months to come...and I am in no danger of seeing any snow right now so I guess I am well out of the winter art mindset already!

Dark side of the holidays

I'm delighted to now be a member of the Etsy Dark Team - still dotting a few i's as I update all my pages to reflect that, but I thought I'd celebrate by posting a few "dark" items of gothic sensibility that I haven't shared in awhile. Above, "Mistress of the Purple Tower" was the first painting that I did in 2010 or the last in 2009 -- I remember working on it right on New Year's Eve into the morning.

For a sampling of the kind of things the team offers, just type EtsyDarkTeam in the search field in Etsy, visit the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/EtsyDarkTeam or the blog page at http://etsydarkteam.blogspot.com/.



"She felt bad for the beetle and wished to release it from its glass prison" is the overlong title for this little painting, which I did in 2008 when I started doing small paintings to illustrate little images that seemed like they belonged in old gothic stories. Women with candles, ghosts wandering through towers, and all the other things that have come to dominate my recent doodles. I wanted to give them names that sounded like sentences from a strange story.


"The pomegranate seeds glistened like blood" is another in this little series -- a ghost haunted by the blood red fruit of the pomegranate in a cold tower. As a side note, this has very wintry colors to my mind -- the ice blues and the berry blood red.

"Alone Again" is a 9 x 12 painted in very early 2009 to reflect the cold and distant feeling of winter. I like that feeling in winter actually -- in January, when the holidays are over and there's nothing but a dismal grey sky, grey trees and maybe snow, depending on where you are. I would always take a vacation week at that time of year just to be alone and read and paint. This is a nice little reflection of that feeling.

My coupon code HOLIDAY20 good for 20% off is still active as of this writing, Dec. 3, and I will leave it active at least for a little while longer, in the spirit of things...because why not!

Handmade for the Holidays

Candy Cane Witch makes me want to eat the gingerbread house I have in the other room! Well here we are, the big weekend, the weekend in which I will probably not venture out of the house/woods because I don't like crowds and I don't need anything they sell in the mall. Because like many people, I would rather give and receive something that is made by myself, by a person I know or an artisan or craftsperson who cares about their work, than something produced en masse. These gifts don't have to be expensive, and thanks to the Internet, you can get a gift from far away from a like-minded Maker-of-Things, without having to leave the house. That's what the Handmade for the Holidays idea is all about.

I won't be able to spend any money myself this holiday season, but I do have a variety of original art and prints available in my Etsy shop if anyone would like to give the gift of art this year, some with a winter theme, many with a year-round appeal if you like fantasy, gothic, fairytale and psychedelic art. See my Winter Art Round-Up post for a winter-focused list, or just browse my shop. The prints are all of a size you can easily get a pre-made frame for, and much of the original art is also a standard size.

For the people close to me, I will be making gifts this year, either artwork or knit/crocheted items. Last year I was able to give something to many people I know, because I spend my free time at home knitting instead of grappling for position in an overcrowded store.

Here is a selection of some of the handmade items that some of my friends and online acquaintances offer. Art, music, fiction, scented goodies, graphic arts, handspun fiber and much more. And I included some interesting blogs and podcasts that friends of mine are involved with as well. I will keep adding to this as more friends make suggestions to me, and I will link back to this post.


Art:

Bethy Williams Interdimensional Art

http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/bethywilliams

Photography:

Deirdre Ryan Photography (New Jersey area)

http://www.deirdreryan.com
http://blog.deirdreryan.com

Music:

Dark Holler Arts
(including the band I am in, Stone Breath, and friends)
http://www.darkhollerarts.com/

Lycia
http://www.lyciummusic.com

Mike Hamel and the Amber Lamps:
http://reverbnation.com/mikehamel

Korperschwache
http://www.korperschwache.com/

Lettering and Letterpress:

Word Illusions (custom ambigrams):
http://www.tiffanyharvey.com

Presse Dufour (design and letterpress)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/pressedufour


Fiction:

Hyacinthe Raven (her new book is "Dial 999")
http://www.realityasylumbooks.com/

Tara VanFlower ("Violent Violet")
Ebook:
http://amzn.com/B003YCPG1O
Paperback:
http://www.cafepress.com/tara_vanflower.460011264

Fiber Arts (art yarn):

Three Ravens:
http://www.threeravens.net

Terry Had a Little Lamb:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/terryhadalittlelamb

Perfumery and Bath:

13 Gypsies Perfumery:
http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/13GypsiesPerfumery

Sideshow Soap Co.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SideshowSoapCo

Conjure Oils
http://www.conjureoils.com

Possets Perfumes
http://www.possets.com

Jewelry and Accessories:

Od Peacock Jewelry:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/odpeacock

Peach Fuzz Jewelry:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/PeachFuzzAccessories

And I also wanted to promote some friends' work on the internet, in blog and podcast form, here are some projects that some friends of mine are involved with:

Painted Lady Finger (nail polish and beauty products blog):
http://www.paintedladyfingers.com

Pre-Recorded Late Night (free improv comedy podcast)
http://pre-recorded.com/

Miss Gender: A Transgender Woman Tells Her Story
http://missgender.com/


Thanks for looking, and happy holidays!