Return from the long slumber, new art and efforts

 I didn't think that Blogger/Blogspot was still a going concern with most people but I see that there's actually a ton of people (or bots—hello, bots) viewing this so I'm going to bring it back tentatively. For one thing, you don't know about me and BIRDWATCHING, which I've documented at length on Instagram and other sites. More on that in a bit though. I've only done one of these so far but I've taken enough pictures to keep me busy for a while working them into paintings. 

My goal right now is to get a good pair of binoculars, and to replace my wide-angle lens that seems to have stopped working. I mostly use the 300 mm though. Anyway, I'm not a photographer by any means but it's been a huge source of calm and comfort to find all of the amazing birds that live in my neighborhood in Texas.

Above is my greatest recent victory, grabbing a picture of a scissor-tailed flycatcher while I was on the phone with my mom for Mother's Day, and one appeared right in front of me. 

Since I stopped posting here, we moved, some things changed at work, Covid happened, I went to grad school and got a master's degree in English, and now I'm back pretty much back to my old routine and painting and wondering where all the time went.

For now here are some new paintings, and we'll figure everything else out later.

My first love is 1st edition Dungeons & Dragons-inspired art so that's been most of my time in recent years, going back to what I loved to do when I was 13-17.

And more recently, a love of vintage Halloween postcards is still a thing. 

Here are some new places where I have social media accounts:

Threads: ArtBySarada

Bluesky: Xelucha

Here are some old places that I've resurrected recently: 

Tumblr: ArtBySarada

Pinterest: ArtBySarada

Bird adventures, gothic exploration and classic D&D are all going concerns for the time being, more about those soon.

Psychedelic visions, imaginary album art, and dark memories of dungeons. Necklaces, too.

A big update is underway in my main Etsy shop this July, and one of the big things to know is that I've reduced the cost of prints, at least through the end of the summer, to $6 for 5 x 7 prints and $10 for 8 x 10 prints. I also tried to make sure that first class shipping is available for all prints. If you see it coming up as only priority mail shipping please let me know and I can adjust it down to first class. As always, international quotes are available on request, but require some extra time to pin down the exact cost.

I finally listed an oil painting that I completed late last year, with a gothic/alchemical theme. It's one of my favorites, and I'll be happy to offer prints on request but haven't made them just yet.

I also have a number of 8 x 10 and 11 x 15 paintings on stretched canvas that were done for art shows or just my own amusement...and pendants are now available! I have made 12 designs in total and have four more in my shop. Contact me if you're curious about the others and don't want to wait, but I will list the rest very soon.

Original oil painting

"Black Swan Ritual"

9 x 12 inches

Original acrylic painting

"The Golden Dragon and the Unicorn"

11 x 14 inches

This painting was inspired by a scene in a D&D module that I love, X2 Chateau D'Amberville. In the encounter, there is a woman with golden hair asleep in a grove with a unicorn, guarding a box. She is actually a gold dragon that has shapeshifted. You'd never know this is from a D&D module if you weren't looking for the reference, but just between you and me...that's where the idea came from!

Original acrylic painting

"Subterranean Summoning"

11 x 14 inches

Original acrylic painting

"Beyond the Sea of Cosmic Memory"

8 x 10 inches

These two psychedelic paintings (above and below) were in a recent psychedelic art show at Insomnia Gallery in Houston. They have an art show every month on a variety of themes: gothic, gaming, horror, and plenty of other pop culture and art themes. We've participated in at least a half dozen of them so far, including their annual monster art show, cartoons, video games and other topics. The gallery also houses an incredible record store!

Original acrylic painting

"The Source of the Mushroom Vision"

8 x 10 inches

One other thing about these psychedelic paintings: I did them to resemble album covers I'd love to see. The first one in particular is a bit of a nod to the kind of album art that The Fool did in the 1960s for projects like the Incredible String Band's 5000 Spirits of Layers of the Onion album. Just as colorful as possible, with vague overtures toward cosmic and spiritual themes.

Original acrylic painting

"Luna Crystals"

5 x 7 inches

Original acrylic painting

"Octo Crystals"

5 x 7 inches

Original acrylic painting

"Accidents in the Alchemist's Workshop"

5 x 7 inches

Now available as a photo print

"The Unicorn Constellation"

5 x 7 or 8 x 10 photographic print

"The Crone's Secret"

Glass tile pendant

1-inch square print beneath glass on a chain

I have wanted to make little glass tile necklaces for close to 20 years and finally broke down and did some. It is quite easy to do and they are very charming! Each pendant is made of a nice, sturdy, heavy metal and houses a teeny tiny 1-inch photo print sealed in place with a glass tile. I include a basic 24-inch gunmetal chain so you can wear it right away, but feel free to use your own instead.

"The Owl and the Pussycat Went to Tea"

Glass tile pendant

1-inch square print beneath glass on a chain

"Le Coeur et le Serpent"

Glass tile pendant

1-inch square print beneath glass on a chain

"Song of the Witch Girl"

Glass tile pendant

1-inch square print beneath glass on a chain

 In March, I participated in the Thorn and Moon Magickal Market at Avant Garden in Houston, an event that grows every month, and is held the first Friday of each month. I hope to attend again. Prints and pendants were extremely popular there, and I have all of them available in my shop all the time. If you ever see that I am out of stock of something you want let me know and I'll make sure to make a new one for you!

I have lots more art on the way, it's just a matter of sitting down at a laptop and listing it, but who actually sits down at a computer anymore, right?

Dragons again! Also, surreal and psychedelic prints newly available

I'd like to say that a childhood steeped in museum visits and gifts of lavish art books inspired me to start painting, informed by a classical education, but the truth is that old D&D modules and copies of Dragon magazine were probably what got me interested in art. That probably isn't too surprising though given that my favorite subject matter is fantasy-oriented, albeit on the whimsical side thereof. I'm not a student of the style of art that comes up when I google "fantasy" art images, obviously -- while all expertly done, it's a little glossy for my taste (and, er, my ability, which is nowhere near that of the professionals). I like to see the individual artist's touch and brush strokes. I especially like the look of the D&D art from around 1979-1981, where the figures are not always proportional and muscular, the colors are bright and garish, with oozy shades of green slime, crimson capes and glowing orange eyes. I like the drawings that look like elaborate notebook doodles and paintings with bold, clear strokes of color.

Behold, the formative influences. The colorful mushrooms, otherworldly lighting and details and stiff poses of the classic fantasy figures on "In Search of the Unknown" light up my brain in ways that cannot be articulated.

With that in mind, I'm applying myself to some more of the detailed dungeon work that I liked to do when I was in my teens. Here's my newest offering in that spirit, a 12 x 16 acrylic painting on flat canvas board. Any time I can put a small pile of jewels around a dragon's feet, I'm happy.

"Cave of the Stone Dragon"

I've posted a few examples in the past of my late 1980s paintings, but I don't think I posted this one below before. I'm terribly proud of that dragon; I think my dragon skills peaked around age 16.

Also newly available this week are some prints of paintings I did in the past. First here is a 5 x 7 print of a painting that I sold last month. I can make larger prints of this one on request, up to the original size (12 x 16). Oh yes, and clusters of crystals are even more satisfying than piles of jewels.

"Night of the Amethyst Dragon"

Also, a trio of psychedelic paintings I did in 2009. These first two have some kind of Tarot influence to them, but I can't say exactly what it is. The first was inspired by a dream; the second is just a collection of things that I like. The third piece is one of my lonely ice landscape paintings. Now that I am not living in a place where it gets quite as cold and lonely, I don't do a lot of those any more, but I DO spend a lot of time reading about early 20th century Arctic/Antarctic explorers.

"Vision of the Cosmic Rift"
Available as an 8 x 10 print

"Astral Peacock Empress"
Available as an 8 x 10 print

"The Secret"

Listing is for 5 x 7 print

also available as 8 x 10 on request

Thanks for looking! Coming soon are some perfume reviews and Halloween in June musings, if I get my act together.

Everything is A-OK

Just in case any friends are wondering if we're OK here in Houston after the flooding, I wanted to post something to let everyone know that everything is fine here on the north side of the city limits. It did rain pretty hard, but other than the power flickering, it didn't even mess up my plants. I can see from news footage that it looked pretty bad on the highways and heading downtown, earlier today, though. Any plans I had to head in that direction were immediately postponed, and it's business as usual here  -- for us, at least. Not everyone has been that fortunate, but there are some ways to help out in the communities that have been affected:

Red Cross - Gulf Coast Chapter (Houston)

Red Cross - Central Texas Chapter (Austin)

One of my favorite local charities is:
Houston Food Bank

And in Austin:
Hays Food Bank


While  we've been staying in to avoid the bad weather, I've been working on some medieval illumination-inspired art this week. This first piece already sold but a couple more have already come along in the meantime.

I can't promise I'll make it through the whole alphabet any time soon but I thought these little 3 x 3 inch canvases would be perfect for illuminated letters! The first is A is for armadillo, which I don't think any medieval monks would have seen, but if they did, they might draw them something like this:

And another colorful dragon, this time being battled by one of those rabbits with a sword you sometimes see in these drawings...

These are a lot of fun, so more are coming soon!

A few things for spring, and a new website

All this week I've been working on bringing my little art web page up to date from 1999 to...well more like 2005. I'm not much for web design, to the point where I've been nostalgically content to leave things there the same way for over a decade. But as long as the tools are available that even someone like me can make something semi-pleasant to the eye and only 10 years out of date, as opposed to 15, I might as well utilize them.

So far I only have artwork up in Gallery 1, which is Halloween, gothic and horror art, with a couple dozen paintings represented, along with links to the items which are available for sale. I'll be adding more including many images that have been hiding in my vaults for ages. The custom page has information for new original art and repaints of previously painted images.

I know that personal web pages are about as relevant as landlines at this point in time, but it's still nice to have a little place to call your own, right?

Meanwhile, with spring around the corner (in some places more than others....I realize it doesn't feel like spring in many places) I have some Easter/Ostara and spring-friendly prints and paintings ready for the season, for decoration or gift-giving. First up is a new version of a painting from about a dozen years ago that I resurrected from the vaults...

"Ostara's Basket" available as an 8 x 10 original painting

or a 5 x 7 photo print

"Spring in the Witch's Garden" is now available as an 5 x 7 print

and the original is still available as well.

"Stardust and Dragon Dreams" is available as a 5 x 7 print. Not spring specifically, but the pastel colors are very appropriate for the season!

 

"Sleeping Among the Seaweed" is available as a 5 x 7 print. Mermaids put me in the mind of summer, but it's not too early to think about that, now, is it?

"Sisters of the Crypt is now available as a 5 x 7 print

and the original is available as well. Because it's always Halloweeen...

Even when it's St. Patrick's Day. Which has its own charming lore and traditions as well, which have absolutely nothing to do with drinking (despite what every store on earth would have you believe in their 'holiday' section this month...geez...). Click the link below for some haunted crafts for non-Halloween holidays....or follow the suggestion to find them on Etsy! Happy spring, whenever it comes!

Dragons, and some dungeons

Dragons were kind of where everything started when I began painting in 1986 just before I turned 13. Although they weren't the absolute first thing I ever painted, they were definitely one of the main subjects along with unicorns and would-be D&D characters. Well, after about four years of that, by the end of high school my interest in surrealism and color and more abstract art took over for a long time and I mainly painted surreal alien landscapes.  But one thing I really miss from being 16 or so was the way that I used to do relatively large paintings, and patiently work on them for a long time, getting lots of details in as I figured out exactly how I wanted to paint.  After having a dream last night about a bunch of large-ish paintings that my dream-self forgot that I did, I thought I'd get a few larger canvases and revisit that old style.

"Opal Dragon's Eyrie" is my first dragon painting in many years, though not too big, at 14 x 18 inches. It's too big for a regular scanner so I had to take a photo (above) and a series of scans (example below) but I'm very happy that I was able to snap back to 1989 and indulge in my old subject matter, with a little less clumsiness of brushstroke. I still don't technically know what I'm doing, but I'm glad that I'm still 16 at heart somewhere.

My mom has been kind enough to take some photos of paintings that I still have around her house, so here are a couple from 1989, which I consider my "peak" year for doing 16 x 20 fantasy paintings with intense detail. I don't know that I really named paintings back then (I barely do now...) but I am really terribly fond of this one of cave adventurers. There's something very satisfying about working on the details of a big pile of treasure, or on a dragon's scales.  These were inspired by my childhood loved of first edition D&D (or AD&D) which I almost never played with other people but certainly collected a lot of books and accessories. Poring over them and creating characters and storylines was very satisfying even without actually playing the game.

Here is another dragon that I have a soft spot for! I was very happy with the way I did the crystals, at the time. This might have been 1990 or still 1989.  These frames were all made by my late grandfather...I wish I had learned to make them myself too, it would be incredibly handy! I did do a little woodworking as a young thing, but nothing practical, I'm afraid.

Below is a golden dragon in a snowy landscape that I am also very attached to. I would like to have the patience to do a forest like this again!

Finally, for laughs, here is a much earlier attempt when I was trying to work out exactly how to use a paintbrush.  I think that I came a long way from those early attempts to the ones you see above from around 1989.

More nostalgia on the way, I have dozens more paintings to share - including some that are no longer in my collection...alas, I should have just held onto them all, I'll never be 14 again!

Snow Summoning

Here's another recent painting, which I actually started at the beginning of last winter, with the clever thought "I'm going to get started early on winter paintings this year!"  Obviously, that didn't quite work out.  I used to do a bunch of snow-themed paintings before Christmas/Yule/etc time each year, such as:

Through the Snow

Snow Cauldron

Snowflake Witch

And oh, gosh, there are lots more that I don't even have up on my web site right now.  I need to create a page just for Winter, actually.

So why am I talking about this in the summer?  I don't know, I got ahead of myself, I guess.  I'm going to start putting up a lot of new Halloween stuff soon, but first I realized that I had to finish this snow painting.  I have put it up on eBay for sale at a low starting price, just for kicks, along with the Summer Strawberry Witch that I did last year who is still looking for a home.

There's so little time before tying up the Halloween stuff, before winter sets in, that I never get a chance to think about winter when it is upon us.  I'm too eager to extend Halloween for as long as I possibly can, but I love all of the imagery of ice and snow as well.