The Omo People - Tribal Body Art

I've been fortunate enough to stumble on a YouTube video going around on the internet with beautiful images of the Omo people. They are a group of tribes in the Omo Valley of Ethopia. They use their bodies as canvases and their amazing body art is totally spontaneous and for their own pleasure!

Hans Silvester created a book featuring photos of the Omo people. Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa. Very inspiring! I hope you enjoy their art as much as I do.

My New Sketchbook

I have a new place to sketch ideas for paintings! I'm proud to say I made this little sketchbook. Well, I covered this little sketchbook.

I love the fabulous deep pink velvet and the vintage looking flower print paper. The great thing is you can use any papers or fabrics to cover any book. I made a journal for my friend Christina with Eiffel Tower paper and this same deep pink velvet paper. Delicious! I customized mine with my initials in gold.

It's nice to have a spot to keep my ideas in. I've got a few pages filled up already!

I love pirates and Halloween is coming, so I thought a pirate skull would fun to sketch. He's got a bandana with stars on it and an eye patch to boot. He had style, this pirate.

Have a lovely day!

Lavendar Field ~ French Soap Box

Lately, I've been really into painting lavendar fields and vineyards. My friend Christina gave me a box of beautiful french lavendar soap a few years ago and I loved the sweet artwork on the box so much I saved it in case I got the urge to paint something similar.

This quick little study was inspired by that exquisite little french soap box.

It's little things like lavendar fields on soap boxes that make my heart smile!

11x15

acrylic on cold press watercolor paper