New Paintings!

I haven't had tonnes of time to paint, but have managed to get a few dabs in here and there. No brilliant wow moments, but nice little shots...me ruminating real life.

So, here are some paintings I've actually completed in the past couple of months:

Winter Walk

new year walk

weeding

Market Morning

Summer l.o.v.e

Snorkel!

trees

untitled

annual march self portrait

There it is.

love,

Jess

etsy.com

check out my etsy.com shop:http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6753090

or, search for jessweatherhead.

Perfectly Petite

This little clutch is the perfect accessory to that cute summer dress.

It is not much bigger than an average wallet, but it big enough to carry the essentials. 

details include gold coils and an antique faux-pearl necklace clasp

Just Lovely

The first purses I made were more artsy than practical. 

This, on the other hand, is a sturdy beauty that will carry keys, wallet, cellphone, lipstick, lipchap, etc.etc.etc. 

(see jhttp://jessweatherhead.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=8&Itemid=&vmcchk=1&Itemid=1 for pricing details)

Changes

I have recently moved to the condo of internet living : a REAL website.
sadly, it doesn't have the quirks or character of this blogspot. My heart will always call this place home--it's where i started afterall. But, now that i'm a FULL TIME artist (eep!) I need to step up my game-- rent is due soon.

Thankyou rss followers. your prompt comments on my little posts were encouraging. maybe i'll continue to update this site, but it will not be as often. busy, busy i am, rolling around in thread, and leather and oil colour.

visit my new site, if you're so inclined : jessweatherhead.com

peace,

jess

soft leather purse

this is an "artistically" designed purse.
nothing i make is symetrical or even practical.
I mean, it's a little bit practical if you intend to use it as a bag to carry your chapstick and change while dining on a wharf... but other than that, this one is just really good looking--like the type of
girl i always secretly wish i could be...but i guess i'm glad that my hands are thick and wrinkley like a dwarf's and that i can walk out the door with unintentional dreads clinging to my scalp and paint on my face. it's more convienient, if nothing else.

anyway, this is a lovely handbag.
1. the LEATHER: if butter could spread itself into a sheet, this would be it.
2. this handle is SO cool--I wrapped gold wire around shells then linked them together, like a preschool ring-around-the-rosy session. a gorgeous, authentic piece of maritime driftwood is the practical matriarch of this whimsical chain.
3. The lining is made of a second hand (but not really--it still had the tag on it) blouse and is garnished with red buttons (cute).

rain in january

a case of winter grey

these are hard times.

yes, being positive is very important, but there must be some honesty:

This time of year can be very cold, depressing, and disheartening. Personally, I begin lacking luster in october-november. Christmas makes the short days a little bearable, but this year financial strain and being in my twenty-something "what the f@*# am I going to do with my life" season, (kind of like a second, more painful coming of age) it didn't bolster my spirits all that much--even though it was a lovely Christmas. So when January 1st came along, I was so grateful for a reason to change-- you know, little things,

FOR INSTANCE: to become an olympic-level athlete, get job that pays at least 40$ an hour and satisfies my creative impulse and desire to do good and gives me time to paint...oh yeah, to become flawlessly beautiful, make a large variety of interesting friends, have musicians like sufian stevens, tom york, andrew bird and the family band play at house parties in my apartment... little things.

So every night I line things up the pieces of my reality, and can't seem to sew them into an adequate, gravity savvy blue print. Sixteen days have gone by and the nasty Winter seems to be winning his horrible quest to cut out all of our hearts. I shall not succumb!

the reality is, i think, that I am afraid to launch out and actually try to succeed--cuz what if i fail!!? I've been splashing around in my paints this year, and it has been disappointing. so, 2009 I am on a brutal quest to find and express the truth--canvas glimpses done with incredible and mind blowing artistic technique. right.

I'm not sure how it is going to happen-i suspect it will just take hours and hours and hours in the studio. listening to audio books and podcasts.

so it is, my friends (although i am on the edge of cliche):

a quest to be boldly beautiful.ugly.truthful.conceptual.intuitive.psychic.empathetic--in a word, ARTful.

**it is minus 2million today, so i'm going to nurture my soul with a glass of red wine. we can survive--I drink to you my winter friends!

This IS a self portrait. like i said, i'm being vulnerable--and i need to practice painting from life. so, if anyone (of my friends) in the halifax area wants to spend an evening with me, reading perhaps, i'll provide the bevvy of your choice and i'll practice. too many self portraits become a little...weird.

what else?

Billy bought me leather gear...for making stuff (technical terms).

so, while we were travelling, I started putzing around. I'm working on some boots.

here are some purses i've made.

Painted leather.

sketch-like

a little oil sketch on wood

of billy studying

winter in halifax

currently featured at Bean Around the World Cafe,
Main st, Vancouver

on a quiet afternoon

summer's last breath

currently featured at Bean Around the World Cafe,
Main st, Vancouver

there's a symphony in my window!

6x6inches
$120

market wares

currently featured at Bean Around the World Cafe,
Main st, Vancouver

john oliver

John Oliver is a street artist in Granada, Nicaragua.

Currently featured at Bean Around the World Cafe,
Main st, Vancouver

the way we are

currently featured at Bean Around the World Cafe,
Main st, Vancouver

a bouquet of sunflowers

August 2008

this one is definitely one of my favourites.

Wheelie

12x16x2
cotton canvas

Live well my friends.

sketches of Nicaragua

cheers

5X4feet
A commission

farmer benn from cumbria

$475

this is inspired by a picture i found in an old national geographic. the entire article is on this farmer named Farmer Benn, who is quoted as saying: "i like doin' things the old way". he was a happy, overworked farmer. he is also quoted as saying: "when will i retire? i'm workin' myslef down from 90-hour weeks. Maybe next year it'll be 80 hours." a typical and charming image of farmers.
(Currently housed in Halifax)

for a bowl of rice

from a picture of a thai hilltribe woman, from my trip in 2005.

she is cleaning rice in the traditional way.

old friends

as i wend to the shores i know not,
as i list to the dirge, the voices of men and women
wreck'd
as i inhale the impalpable breezes that set in upon me,
as the ocean so mysterious rolls toward me closer and colser,
i too but signify at the utmost a littlewash'd-up drift,
a few sands and dead leaves to gather,
gather, and merge myself as part of the sands and
drift.

-Walt Whitman,
from As I Ebb'd with the Ocean Life

peace of the wild things

inspired by my dad and the poem by Wendell Berry:


Peace of the Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.




-Wendell Berry

"clothesline"

4ftx2.5ft (approx)


i love this painting not only for its energy, but for its vintage feel. the subject reminds me of my grandmother. i (loosly) based the photo off of an old black and white photograph i found.

train hopping

even if you don't catch a ride, the act of trying to

go somewhere

makes the sidewalk and bills melt away,

as the foliage massages your soul awake.

and you find that somehow you've left one place for another

without necessarily moving very far at all.

pause

after the fieild II

30x30inches
i did a smaller sketch similar to this last year.
this is a bigger and better version.
($450)

seaworn rythm

vagrant finesse
o driftwood heart,
velveteen
battered by storm
Resilient itinerant
Matched only by the sea

30x30inches