THe Secret Garden Auction July 5-6
I will be participating in the online group auction “The Secret Garden” on Facebook on July5-7. I haven’t done an auction for a while so I am really hoping you can join me. I’m excited for you to see the beautiful collection by the other artists that are participating. Take a look at the FB group HERE and the ALBUM of art HERE.
The following are the original paintings that I will have up for the auction. I hope you enjoy them.
Love,
Maria
Title: The Forgotten Garden
Size : 16”x 20”
Medium: Original mixed media on wood, sides are 1.5” deep and are a continuum of the painting. This painting is ready to hang.
"What the mind can't remember, the heart never forgets." — Unknown
My dad has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, which is very sad for all of us, especially my mum. They will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary later this year and have never been apart. Watching my dad recede from the man he once was and from his current life right now, is heartbreaking. The theme of The Secret Garden/The Forgotten Garden made me think of how our brain is so mysterious. He is still here but for some reason his memory is unpredictable, his interests have waned and he gets caught in a loop while trying to do simple tasks. His mind is like a mysterious garden where one moment he can get lost in all the weeds and tall grass and the next moment he is perfectly present enjoying the sunshine and smelling the flowers.
Title: A Garden of Memories
Size: 14.75” x 14.75”
Medium: original mixed media on upcycled panel and wood frame, sides are 1.5” deep and are a continuum of the painting. This painting is ready to hang.
"To love a person is to learn the song in their heart, and sing it to them when they have forgotten." — Arne Garborg
Title: Wild and Domestic
Size: 9”x 20”
Medium: original mixed media on upcycled panel and plastic frame. This painting is ready to hang.
This painting is on an upcycled frame. I thought it would be fun to paint right out onto the frame, like the garden can’t be contained within the borders. The wildness of the garden can’t be stopped from breaching the boundaries. Like a wild garden exploring beyond its wall, our old ginger cat, Beijing, was always trying to escape his confinement of the house. During the last summer of his life, we let him out in the garden to explore to his heart’s content. He was too sick to actually jump the fence anymore so he just stayed in the garden, sleeping in the sun or the shade of the blossom tree. He was wild at heart but in reality he was just an old domestic Tom cat living his last summer in the wild.
Title: Sleeping Garden
Size: 11”x 25”
Medium: Original mixed media on upcycled panel and wood frame. This painting is ready to hang.
Did you know that the city of Edmonton where I live in Canada is officially ‘the city of magpies’? When I first moved here almost 30 years ago, I was completely astounded by these beautiful birds. We did not have magpies in Victoria, so they were not familiar to me. I was a crow girl through and through. I had grown up learning all of the indigenous stories about the ‘trickster' crow and raven. I had seen magpies on a trip to Ireland when I was little but I didn't remember this until my Mum came to visit me in Edmonton. She was so excited to see her beloved magpies that she remembered whilst growing up in Ireland. They are loud, cheeky and smart. Their colouring is magnificent, as is their long tail. Edmonton is a cold city but these beauties look magnificent set against the bleak winter and the sleeping gardens.
Title: Magpie and Wildflowers
Size: 8” round
Medium: original mixed media on wood, sides are 1” deep and are a continuum of the painting. This painting is ready to hang.
“Dreams are real, Magpie. They're seed and water and sun. They're everything.”
Laini Taylor