The Black-Capped Chick!

• The Black-capped Chickadee is a small, short-billed songbird with a black cap and throat. They have a reputation as saucy, active birds that are very curious and relatively tame.
• They can remember where they hide food for at least a month after putting it in its hiding place (this is more than I can say...hence, my day timer that travels with me)
• To keep warm the chickadee erects its soft, thick feathers to trap warm air close to its body. This serves as good insulation against the cold. (feather count? astronomical!)
• The chickadee makes at least 15 different calls to communicate with its flock-mates and offspring. The best known is the chickadee-dee-dee that gives the bird its name.

With the weather getting cooler, these 2 black-capped chickadees have excavated their own cavities in her mane and named her 'The Black-Capped Chick'.

Visit Dania Piotti's site for any future bird sightings

Halloween Season again???

How Does Halloween Come up so Fast every year???

Every year, I paint something to mark the occasion. This year, I was inspired by an upcoming movie called 'The Book of Life'.  From the second I saw the trailer at the theatre, I was enamoured by the vivid colours dancing on the screen. It comes out in a few weeks, prior to Halloween...and you can bet on the fact that I'll be watching it the second it does.

I couldn't stop painting just 1 and made a series of 3. When the paint is flowing, you don't ask questions ;)

www.daniapiotti.com

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Migraine Be Gone!

Well, I woke up this morning with a headache that got progressively worse as the day wore on. I wore a tight fitting hat all day, to ensure my head wouldn't literally split in 2 (I guess duct tape might have worked just as well). As I resisted the temptation to reach for pain meds, I picked up my paintbrush instead....

Donning headgear to keep her hear from splitting, while blocking her ears from the high pitched squeals of the bird chirping...

'Migraine Chirp'

...now, time to go to sleep and hopefully wake up migraine free!

Boo! Halloween 2013

As promised, I painted 3 quickies in time for Halloween.

In The Spirit of Fall and all it's lovely COLOURS

My newest painting called 'Tea Party'.  I will paint a few halloween paintings very soon....if I post it here, then my hand will be forced and I will HAVE to paint them. Ah, the power of making promises online :)

Artist in Attendance
On: August 31, 2013
Location: Gallery Catalyst

So I got the chance to paint live at Gallery Catalyst (666 Queen St.W in Toronto) this past Saturday. I set up my chair, rested my masonite board on my lap and painted my 'Swan Song'.

The mood in the gallery is cozy and inviting, complete with rustic old floors and beautiful art in every corner. I also had the pleasure of meeting a few people who own a few of my pieces and who were genuinely pleased I was there, go figure!

All and all, it was a great experience and from it, my latest painting came to life.

'Swan Song'

Halloween Party

Rita and Mason

I was cordially invited to a Halloween party last night. What to bring the hosts for their hospitality? hand-painted Kokeshi style dolls of course. I've recently dabbled in painting these wooden dolls and am enjoying it immensely. Love experimenting with different surfaces and having fun getting messy. Since it was a halloween party, it was only fitting that I bloodied them up (hope they didn't mind).

So begins the start of my Kokeshi doll collection, which will focus on couples and wedding cake toppers.


If you want to see more samples, I will be posting them to my facebook page as soon as the paint dries.
More Kokeshi dolls

Bat Girl

Bat Girl

I had to get a last Halloween painting before October 31st....and before my habit of painting bats gets perceived as being a tad creepy.

Can you spot my hamster Gordon? He loves halloween and blends into the night quite naturally, with his thick black mane of hair.

Costume Party

Costume Party , October 2012

Skeletor

Though I rarely dress up for Halloween and live vicariously through my boys, I have found that I absolutely LOVE painting skeletons and creepy critters.

So what was my inspiration? Why Skeletor was, he hangs on our mailbox and blurts out zings as you press the top of his head. I thought it was time to bring him inside for an evening and make him dress up with antlers. My girl, dressed up as a bee, is making him bone soup for dinner....and what Halloweeny painting would be complete without a bat and cat? right. Oh, and hard to spot, but I also included my black bear hamster right at her knee. My boys spotted him right away..heh.

so Trick or Treat and hope you get some goodies this year!

dania

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So Begins a New Week....

I work from home and yet I get Monday anxiety just as if I was going into an office. What will I accomplish today. Will I clear off enough things on my to-do-list so that I can be successful at falling asleep tonight. All things that plague me from Sunday night....hence why after trying to sleep for hours last night, I called the whole 'falling asleep' quits and came down to the studio at 3am to get some work done.
Blogging today was on my list, so here i go...

I got nothing to say other than, I have to get some work done.



blogging for the week - check!

2011 Challenge

As with last year, I will be once again challenging myself to create and add a new painting to my Etsy store every week, no matter how busy my day job gets (painting for wee ones on Cari Bimbi Art).

Every Monday on my fb page, I will post my new painting.

Here are my first 2 paintings of 2011....

Exposed and Ursula

Anxiously painting...

...painting...anything and everything...anxiety creeps in and creates wrestless nights of possible future paintings...consumed by it...almost to the point of madness. not much more to say...but definitely more paintings to come.

Arial Catches Lunch

So I'm killing 2 birds with one stone (not that I would ever kill a bird...fed one and nursed it back to health once...another story..another time)...but I got my weeks painting done + I finally got around to painting a mermaid. Been wanting to for quite some time now.

AND....round bubbles...notice a theme yet?

Self....Here is My Promise...

...I will paint 1 new painting every week. If not, I will personally hold myself responsible (since there's nobody else to point the finger at) and shall hold down my head in shame and not talk to myself again...why i was talking to myself in the first place is besides the point.

...I will put aside all my letter and canvas orders for the greater good of letting my creative juices flow

...I will not worry about whether anything will sell or will be adored

...I will abandon all reasoning behind paintings and use as little brain capacity as possible (this is not hard to do)

...I will stop blogging right this moment so I can sketch out next weeks painting (ps...i might get around to the mermaid I've been wanting to paint for ages now...or not)

Balloons...oh how i hate thee...

Okay...so I get asked all the time why a phobia of balloons...yet I seem to be fascinated and clearly from the image below, obsessed, with bubbles. Picture a 7 year old (with pigtails...because that's how I roll) at a New Years Party in the middle of the dance floor....it's midnight and the curtain of balloon descends down upon the crowd. Said 7 year old (me) gets somehow separated from her family and is attacked and traumatized by 100's (if not 1000's) of balloons bursting all around her. Is it the end of the world as she knows it....clearly not since I'm writing this mundane story of woe.
Now my passion of bubbles? who knows, maybe because they're so dainty, quiet and gentle...leaving a mist of soapy goodness on your skin.
Sketched this on a napkin while I was bored at dinner a few nights ago and while I painted it, I got a little carried away with the bubbles...but can you blame a girl for that? perhaps...but it's my painted world, and I can do what I want in it :P
You'll see a lot more bubbly paintings in the weeks to come I'm sure. pop...pop...pop