I lost my heart to a galway girl.

Jerry sent me the link to this photo today. I love the cut-outs of tattooed lady on either side of the poster! I read the comments on the flickr link...it seems she is also on a billboard. I wish so much that I could go see. She'll just have to hang out in Ireland on my behalf until I get to go someday!

I hope you're all having a lovely wednesday!

Love, me

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous. - Aristotle

Dream bag: Swan Clutch by Red Ruby Rose on Etsy. Just looking at the picture of it takes my breath away! Maybe someday.

Let's see, what is new lately? I'm sorry I haven't been posting much art. I have 3 paintings in process. I really should learn to finish one before skipping around to another, but I think that's just how my brain works and I'm okay with that. A few weeks ago I got some amazing vintage frames at Fairground Antiques up in Keene and a couple of these paintings are made to fill them.

I've been subbing at the kindergarten a lot lately and loving it. All the classrooms have been raising caterpillars to chrysalises and then to butterflies in butterfly houses, and I got to release the grown butterflies with the kids last week. It was so neat to see how excited they all were about finally seeing them fly away! They cared about them so much. It was adorable. 

I've gotten some small vintage things recently that are pretty neat. I'll probably show you them tomorrow.

I hope you're all having a great week! It's unseasonably cold here today.

Love,

Amanda

little tree

I've been in love with the shape of all different kinds of pine trees for about two years now, more than I've been in love with any other shape in my life I think. I draw them and stare at them all the time. They are hidden in almost all of my artwork from the past two years, in pictures and in titles.

 My favorite kind to draw are the ones with the upswept branches, and then strands of needles dangle down so abruptly, like clumps of prickly fur. It's such a quick shape to capture. It's so expressive and alive. I love it so much.

So over the past couple of days I've been making one, to translate my drawings into a 3D shape.

I'm considering glazing it with a dark blue to make it that deep blue-y green color that I love on pine trees. I think I'm going to sleep on that idea, though.

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Mesh Wire Tree Sculpture with Tissue

approximately 6"w x 15"t

I hope you feel like a real tree.

In a real forest.

--

love,

me

It was always silver

Today one of the art classes at the elementary school watched a video about ancient Egyptian rituals. I learned about a goddess who protects the sun at night, and I wonder who protects the moon during the day.

I wish I was the moon tonight.

Dear everyone,

Hello. :) I hope you all had a good weekend.

 I have many ideas and haven't had the time to make them into realities. I'm going to kick myself into gear and start working on them. I have three paintings to finish and a potential summer project which will allow me to do some things

 that I've wanted to do for a long time.

Today I got to restock shipping supplies for my etsy shop. I love filling orders! I love buying the sturdy white photo-mailers and plastic cello sleeves and putting stickers in as extras and going to the post office to send my prints to states like California and Texas and to countries like England. Mail in general makes me really happy. 

Yesterday I had the honor of walking as faculty at the AIB/Lesley graduation. It was semi-outdoors this year, which was really lovely because any time there was a lull in noise you could hear the echo of birds chirping.

So now I'm off to go paint, or cuddle with Tiger.

Have a good Monday!

love,

Amanda

bovines & deirdre

"Stella and Deirdre"

Sketchbook pages

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I love all the cow tote bags in Strand Redesign's shop, but I can't really afford much these days. BUT, these "scrap" screen prints were only $3 a pair! They're 9" square. I think I'm going to frame one and maybe sew the other one onto something. I love cows SO much. I think I realized the full extent of my love for them when I was on the train one day a couple of weeks ago. I always make sure to look out the window when the train goes by the cow pasture, and on this particular day all the cows were right next to the fence and so close. I just wanted to lay on the grass with them and kiss their foreheads and cow snouts (I know I sound like a freak). I also always think of the scene in Darjeeling Limited where the cows are wearing the white flowers and everything is white. The cows are so comforting in that scene. So beautiful. Also, last spring I became enamored with the word "bovine." What a lovely word for cows.

On Mother's Day, I went to green houses with my mom. I found this fallen flower on the ground and brought it home with me.

I hope you're all having a beautiful week!

Love,

Amanda

and suddenly it's spring.

Hello, everyone! Sorry I haven't been on in a while. I can't figure out quite why but I've been feeling blog-shy lately.

These are some pictures I recently took of our crab apple trees (sans the purple flower shot in the middle). The crab apple trees blossom every year for about a two week period, and after the first rain comes their petals blanket the ground, making it nice to lay on.

I love being in the grass. I like being surrounded by moss and dirt and leaves and flower remnants. I like being bare foot. Something like Contessa, whoever she was. I like her name, and how she so easily becomes a noun.

I think there's less to say on the blog in the spring and summer months. Blogs are kind of like the indoors. They're like little cozy rooms in and of themselves. We decorate them the way we'd decorate our bedrooms. The colors we like, the pictures we hang, the corners filled with our favorite things. And cozy rooms are more for the fall and winter.

When spring comes, the indoors begin to feel impersonal. They kind of lose all their feeling. Maybe everything alive about them leaves to go outside. And so we should do the same.

I'll have new work to show soon, and I hope you're all having beautiful spring weeks.

Love,

Amanda

(all words and pictures copyright amanda atkins)

soft and quick in the water

Last night I dreamt that I came from a rich family full of rituals and traditions, the kind that are set in stone and can't be broken. 

Girls were allowed anything they wanted, as long as they took a canoe to go get it. I was in a big blue gown paddling a canoe across a very green lake to take a female relative to get jewelry.

That's the only part of the dream that I really liked.

patches of plaid

"the unanswerable question"

sketchbook pages

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I finished The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen a few nights ago. Even though it was a very happy book, the ending still made me cry a lot. It was such a heartfelt book and I highly recommend it!

Every time I ride the train, I look out the window for almost the entire ride in hopes of seeing a deer (especially if it's early morning or in the evening), and last week I finally saw one! He was running up a hill right beside the train. I also saw lots of cows and it made me remember how much I love them. I think they're my favorite farm animal. There's something so gentle about them. They are like gentle giants. They remind me of dogs for some reason.

All the trees in our yard are flowering. It's laying in the grass time again.

I hope you're all enjoying spring!

Love, Amanda

shake your tail feathers

I love watching this bird! I love his stompy feet! He lives at a bird sanctuary - Bird Lovers Only Rescue. Please enjoy his dancing skills.