Misty Mountains Watercolor and Life with Baby

This is my new Misty Mountains Watercolor. I actually completed it and another 4X6 watercolor postcard last month, but I have not had a chance to post either one. This was a very fun little watercolor that I actually completed while my baby was sleeping on my shoulder. She was on the left shoulder and I worked with the painting with my right hand. I was pretty amazed with myself that this came out so well while hold a three month old, but I actually have not been successful at duplicating the situation.

It is very hard keeping up with an artistic life with an infant. I tried to do my very best at it, but it does not always work as well I would have hoped. I thought life was going to get a bit easier, but then she cut two teeth early and is teething some more. I will cherish this time with her even if it cuts into art because it is the only time in her life that she will be a baby. Hope everyone enjoys the watercolor.

Worry Stones

I love these clay worry stones. I made them after the smooth rock worry stones that you can often find here around town. It is very nice that at Art Awakenings I can glaze things completely (doing both front and back) in order to make these smooth stones. You can place them in your pocket and meditate as you have your hand in your pocket while rubbing them. I made love and hope this time, but I would like to make some with faith written on them as well. These are small stones that can easily fit in the palm of your hand.

Butterfly Woman Mask

In late 2013 when I was doing pottery at the clay co-op, I made a dark mask and a butterfly woman mask as transformation masks. I liked them a lot, and I got a lot of compliments on them. However, I was very disappointed and lost a bit in 2014 when they were stolen. Along with the masks being stolen, the camera that had the pictures of the masks on them was stolen as well. I had no documentation of them except one picture of both of them in progress. Several months ago, I started working on hand building the butterfly woman mask again. The first mask did not workout, and I was not sure if this one was actually going to make it as well. Fortunately, it did, and I have the Butterfly Woman Mask again. I do miss the first one that I did, but I do enjoy this one as well. The mask is roughly 15X10 and 4-5inch. deep.

Vermont Farm in the Fall

This is my latest acrylic just finished this week. It is from a picture that I took when I went back several years ago to visit my sister. It is a 18X24 acrylic with the Autumn trees and changing leaves. It was so beautiful to see Vermont in the Fall that I have been wanting to paint this for a long time and finally completed it.This interesting thing about the last two paintings posted is that I finally changed my signature to CH instead of CR. I am still struggling to remember that I changed my name, but I hope I will get used to it soon.

Through the Window 2

This is an acrylic that I did just in the last couple of months. It is an interesting shape being 10X20. I painted this scene before, but I changed it up a bit for the second rendering of it. I am going to send this up with another I just finished today to Phoenix Art Awakenings Gallery.

Cottage on a Hill

This is the last of the 5X7 postcard watercolors that I did last year. Cottage on a Hill is a mix of watercolor and ink intense pencil. This was one of the ones that I put in a little frame instead of making a card out of it.

Colorado Inspiration

These purple mountains and trees was inspired by my time in Colorado. I loved being in the Rocky Mountains, but it was fun to live in there in the Summer and Spring. I did not like the blizzards in the Winter; being a desert rat did not help the desire to avoid the snow. This watercolor is a 5X7 postcard size.

Sunrise Horse

I got into doing sunrises and sunsets several years ago. They are fun and exciting to make, and many people like these little interesting watercolors. This is a 5X7 watercolor card that I gave away to a friend. I called it Sunrise Horse because it turned out that the paint had the resemblance of a horse head in the clouds.

Fuchsia Flower

This watercolor (5X7) that I gave as a present to a friend is a fun little Fuchsia Flower. This is the first time I painted this type of flower, but it was a fun little project. I framed this in a little plastic frame box. I often use this side postcards for cards, but this one I framed as a present.

Calla Lily

I really love Calla Lily flowers, and this is a watercolor postcard (5X7) that I made this year. They are really fun to paint because they are white flowers. I had my first experience painting white flowers in watercolor years ago when I was taking non-credit classes at Pima Community College. My teacher challenged me to work on some from an artist that she had known. It was a great challenge. I painted this one much differently than I did those first few that I did as I have changed my style and it has developed.

Fall Into Winter

Another Fall scene of trees posted today. This is a 18X24 acrylic that I did a few months ago and was in a gallery in Phoenix at Art Awakenings for a while. I like the feel of Autumn trees moving into the bareness of Winter.

Autumn Trees Watercolor

This is a watercolor postcard that I framed for a friend this past year. I never posted it due to a temporary lack of a computer for a while. It is a 5X7 watercolor that was really fun and splashy to make. I love doing these little cards, and they make great gifts as well as sell often.

Desert Path

This is a painting that I did for a Southwest Restaurant viewing. I have done several cards of this scene that people really like. I added a few more details into the Acrylic that is 18X24. This is what it looks like now, but I might make some few adjustments for it over the next couple of weeks.

Name Change Madness

Just wanted to share a little update for everyone out there. I got married September 1st, and it has been a bit of craziness trying to update everything to my new married name of Higgins. I know everything is out there as Cheryl L Russell, so it makes it hard to connect that I am now Higgins. I have not even thought of how I am going to sign my work now as I have signed it with my initials, "CR," for years. Working on a new signature is really weird after believing that I would never marry and having used Russell all my nearly forty years. I find myself still signing things with my maiden name and still telling people that my last name is Russell. It is confusing for several people who know I got married and changed it. It is even weirder to call different offices and giving them both names because I do not know if I have updated their records or not. I know it has only been a little over two weeks, and I will slowly get used to this change and have everyone updated. However, the process getting there is somewhat frustrating at times.

Fun with Colors Card

This is just a quick little watercolor card that I did this year of a landscape. I was mostly just playing with color at the time, but I do like this little landscape. It is a 5X7 card that I sold a bit ago, but I had snapped this picture of it before I sold it. It is always good sometimes to just relax and have a little fun with color.

Night Rose

I actually love this new Acrylic very much. It is an 11X14 which is smaller than I usually complete, but this is very similar to a watercolor that I did several years ago for a good friend of mine. This Acrylic has a similar look to, and I tried to give the background more of a watercolor fell. I love painting plants and floral scene, so it was a pleasure working on this one. It was up for a month at Art Awakenings Gallery in Tucson, AZ. I am thinking about sending up to the sister gallery in Phoenix.

Grand View Sunrise

Grand View Sunrise is a 18X24 acrylic which was based on a photo taken at the Grand View in Grand Canyon in the middle of winter. It was interesting doing this painting because the photo did some things to the scene that may or may not have been in the original scene due to the light and extreme brightness of the sun. I included some of these aspects in the painting because I wanted to capture the brightness of the morning sun breaking through the snow.

Ocean Sunset, August 12, 2015

I just love the ocean and it has been one of the things that I calms me the most and even when I am just painting it, the picture soothes my soul. This was a 18X24 acrylic that is up in a gallery in Phoenix or will be soon through PSA Art Awakenings.

Cacti Garden

The picture of the Cacti that I used for this painting was from the Tohono Chul Park in Tucson, AZ and the butterfly was from one at the Botanical Gardens when they do butterfly magic in their greenhouse. I combined the pictures and integrated something different for the background. This is an acrylic on a 10X10 canvas.

Autumn Pond Acrylic

This was another acrylic created this fall as the Autumn Pond of the Journey to the Autumn Pond. I have this up in a gallery at Art Awakenings in Phoenix, AZ and at this very moment I am not sure what I used for the final name of the painting. This is also another 20X16 Acrylic which seems to be my favorite size to do as of late.

Tree of Life Acrylic

This is the Tree of Life Acrylic that I completed recently; it is also another 16X20 format. This painting was in process for over a year before I finished deciding what I wanted to do with it to complete it. I like the idea of the creative with the spiritual again with the fire gates behind it guarding the tree and the fresh new tree in front for the actual tree of life.

Purple Mountains Majesty

This is a 16X20 Acrylic called Purple Mountains Majesty. It has a bit of the Southwest added into it for a little bit of home with the saguaro cacti.

Purple and Teal Centering Acrylic

I made this acrylic that is 16X20 for a commission for a worker at 711 who found out I was an artist and requested one of my centering acrylic's in Purple and Teal. I like doing these a lot as they are very calming like making a mandala.I got a computer again, so I can finally get posts back on this website. Going to try to keep up with it as life is a bit crazy right not preparing for a new baby girl.