Iguanas in the Christmas Tree and BJ's Gourds

Who let the iguanas out of the cage? Now they are havin' a party in the Christmas tree!!! Actually this happened in real life in the 80s when I let them have the run of my apartment. I came home one day from work to find all three of them in my Christmas tree with several balls broken on the ground, grrrrr!!! I took advantage of the oportunity though and photographed them for the following year's cards. I don't have the photos anymore so I thought I'd paint an aceo to show you the scene!

This week I would also like to introduce you all to my friend BJ who paints these wonderful gourds. She wants to join us on Paint Party Friday but has no website or blog yet ( but she is working on that!) so I told her I would show her art here this week! BJ has Parkinsons which makes her work even more amazing to me!( I hope she doesn't mind me telling you that. ) Her detail is exquisite! OK everyone enjoy PPF this weekend and a Merry Christmas to all!!!

Mistletoe Mates!

Yep, they're mates for life! Mr. and Mrs. Gecko are sneakin a kiss under the mistletoe tree agian! It's that time of year! This Friday is not only Paint Party Friday but its also our company Christmas party and this year we have a live band so yahooooooo, time to go dancin! Party on all you lizzie lovin' bloggers!

Happy Thanksgiving !!!

We are leaving early tomorrow morning to drive to So Cal to see my mom ( about an 8 hour drive) so I'm posting this early. Hopefully my sis in law will let me use her computer to link to PPF and maybe Sweet Saturdays agian. So.... everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I'll see ya when I get back. Here's a little ACEO I did this week called "Pumpkin Patch Pow Wow".

Sweet Saturdays Squirrel !

I've been wanting to join in Diana's Sweet Saturdays blog hop for a while and finally gittin around to it! Her's a pic I took at Bodie National Park a couple years ago of a cute little buddy under an old shack. The Bodie ghost town is a photographer's paradise! Hopefully I can share more pics in the up coming Saturdays but we'll see. I'm only home today because I have a migraine, ugh, back to bed now...Deb

Paint Party Friday Iguana !

Hi everyone! Yep yep we're back to the lizzies! I must confess I've been so busy I haven't had a chance to work on the blue tailed skink. He's waiting patiently " on the easel" so to say ,even though I'm not using an easel. I guess you could say he's in hibernation, probably like the real model right now, burrrrrrrr! So instead I thought I'd share an older painting and photo I took. I painted this watercolor about 20 years ago of my pet iguana named "CJ". I had three iguanas then. They had the run of the apartment. I even came home one time to find all three up in our Christmas tree!!! When we moved into a new house far away, I gave them all up to new homes. This little guy was hurt because he had fallen off the TV and sprained his back. That's when I found out he was really a she and during the recovery she layed 9 eggs , which unfortunately never hatched, boo hoo!!!!!!!! Anyways, she ended up going to a great reptile lover's home where she had a huge shed outside and inside to live in that the guy had made for his other lizzy buddies. Have a great weekend and happy PPF everyone!

Paint Party Friday and Mary's Graces Givaway!

Whew, what a week! Sorry I missed everyone, but the overtime at work ( 9 hour days) is cutting into my painting and blogging time ( the extra money will be nice for the holidays though !). I might have to cut PPF down to every other week for a while. And now for something completely different, my first give away, yipeeeeee!!! It will be for our group site " Mary's Graces" , and it is a 3x5 embellished print of my watercolor aceo entitled " Mary Of the Earth" . So keep checking over there for details ( I don't think it is up yet but should be soon) or if you'd like you can mention here in the comments that you want to be entered and I will pass the info on to Mary's Graces. For all you fellow reptile lovers, I promise to get back to the little lizzies we all know and love so well next time. Happy PPF everyone!

Magaly's All Hallows Grim Party and Paint Party Friday

Who's that flying beneath the moon

on her itty bitty tiny broom?

It's Geraldine Gecko can't you see

the greenest little witch to be?

Children scurry from her wicked sight

as she hovers over the lake at night,

holding a pumpkin in her hand

small as a wedding band.

Her cauldron contains an evil brew

that'll stick to you like super glue.

It's Halloween, yep, that's the day

when Geraldine Gecko hunts her prey.

She'll slime you silly, then leave you in stitches.

The wildest of reptilian witches!

Double the fun this week! Be sure and check out Magaly's All Hallows Grim Party ( click on the sidebar icon!) where the wickedest of witches are running wild, kackle, kackle! And our paint party is now over 70 strong so get in on the excitement and happy blog hopping!  This should take us all week for sure! Yipeeeee!

Paint Party Friday Skink Close Up

Wow everyone has been leaving such great suggestions. I want to try them all !!! And I can now because I got ink in the printer, yipeeeeeee! I really like the idea of making a shadow under him to make him pop out. I need to practice first though to see if I can pull it off without ruining the painting so no promises yet,lol! For now I will just show a close up of some of the details I did this week. It was bugging me that his head wasn't as pointy as in the original photo so I fixed that. Then I started putting scale designs in his tail. This painting has a long way to go still so I think I will start posting other things in between just to change it up a bit. Like, next week is Magaly's All Hallows Blog Party on Oct 13 ( see sidebar!) so stay tuned for Geraldine Gecko on her broomstick!!!! Happy PPF everyone!!!!

Paint Party Friday Yep Yep Yellow!

I want to thank all of you for your helpful suggestions last Friday. That's what makes this group so fun! I really liked Faye's suggestion about using a lighter "mottled" orange. I'm not sure but is that where you use a sponge and dab the paint in? That would be really cool ! And I really liked Elisa's suggestion about making the lines blue and white like a water effect. I loved the symbolism behind that idea and I almost tried it but I was afraid the blue tail would get lost. ( It got me thinking about a whole other painting idea though, so thank you Elisa! ) And Rushmore, you are so sweet for worrying ( right along with me,lol) about what to suggest like it was your own painting! We are too much alike my friend! ( I love how your blog profile says Chief Salamander Catcher!). I probably should have listened to those of you who said to print out a copy to try backgrounds on, but our printer is out of ink and I didn't want to go out so I dived in with the yellow paint! Yes I can see how the yellow in the lizard is getting lost because of it, but I was thinking I could put more detail into the yellow in the lizard ( like scales or lines ) to bring that back out more. Or I could try "mottling the yellow in the background to make it different from the yellow in the lizard. I still would like to get a little blue in too! Would it be too much to sponge in blue water effects lightly in the yellow? What do you think? Maybe I can get some ink this weekend and try the printer this time! Happy PPF everyone!

Paint Party Friday and Thanks Dana!

I'm so excited I have to share with you all a pic of the wonderful goodies I got in the mail this week from Dana at Sinderella Studios. I won her giveaway a couple of PPFs ago ! The prize was the book Taking Flight by Kelly Rae Roberts (which is wonderful by the way!) but Dana even threw in 3 of her beautiful note cards and an adorable tag! Thank you Dana for such a generous giveaway and for picking my name! You are a sweetheart and very talented!

Ok, its back to the ole skink tease. I told you it takes me forever to finish a large watercolor! This is where I need your help too. I'm not sure what to do in the white areas. I kind of want to just do a gentle yellow stripe and maybe outline with blue like the tail. But the detail fanatic in me wants to go crazy and do wild zentangle stuff there too or southwest designs. I still need to put darker detail in the tail and darker outlines everywhere for more contrast. What do you think? Happy PPF everyone!

Paint Party Friday and Happy Birthday Stacy!

I have two reasons to party this weekend! One is Paint Party Friday and the other is that it's my sweet talented friend Stacy's birthday from Magic Love Crow this weekend. Hit the link to check out Stacy's cool blog! So to celebrate both events, I am going to give you all a break from our little blue tailed friend and show you the new aceo I made for Stacy! Its called Geckostone and Magic Love Crow!( this will be winging its way to ya soon Stacy!) So party on everyone! Happy PPF and Happy birthday Stacy!!!!!

More Orange for Paint Party Friday!

Just added more orange this week. Didn't have much time to paint but I squeezed in a few strokes last night! Oh yeah, more oooooozing orange!!! Yummy! This pic of our little model friend was taken when Jeff rescued him from crawling under my shoe. You can tell by his hand he is a carpenter, lol! Happy PPF everyone!!!

Rocks from the Pow Wow!

We had a blast at the Rib Cook Off in Reno and the Pow Wow in Valley Spring so I thought I'd share this pic of  all the cool rocks we got at the pow wow! Can any of you name some of them? Rocks rule, yeah!!!!!!!

Paint Party Friday Orange Beginnings

Oh here comes the best part, the background!!!! Nice big areas to just let the colors do what they want. ( hopefully some animals and muses will appear! Last week some of you commented on the star of the photo session himself. To tell ya the truth I have not seen him since he jumped free the same day and ran into a hole in our porch to hide. The pic above is taken right before he ran into the hole. We live out in the country on 10 acres so hopefully he is out and about all day and I just never see him. I have been spotting little lizard poops inside our house though so I'm wondering if he's actually living somewhere inside. We usually catch a lizard inside the house at least once a month so it could be a different one. If its him though, I wouldn't mind snatching him up for a minute just to hold him agian! I miss him! Perhaps he is hanging out to see how  his portrait is coming along. Can you just see him peeking out from under a cabinet or something? LOL! Happy PPF everyone!

St Francis tag from Donna!

Look what came in the mail ! I just had to share this gorgeous tag given to me by my dear friend Donna from Blue Otter Arts and The Woodwife's Wares! Donna knows me well and so she personalized it with a beautiful little lizard on the back and wrote on the front " St Francis loves all animals including the little lizard" Can you see the tiny lizard on the rock on the front too? Thank you soooooooo much Donna! I love you!!!!!!

Paint Party Friday "He's Got Legs" !

Yeppers, he's got legs now! Can't wait to start puttin the orange in next week though. The pic is way down in the bottom of the water bottle. He's so little and cute, huh! Happy PPF everyone. Be sure and check out all of our spectacular players this week. Party on!!!!!

Paint Party Friday Sneak Preview #23

Wow it seems I'm not the only one fascinated by these blue tailed little beauties!!! Thanks for all the great comments last Friday!!! I got a little more done this week on the body. I'm not sure if its going to turn out realistic or more abstract in design. Just waiting to see which way the little guy zips back and forth! I'll include another pic from the photo shoot too on the wood plate. You can see the droplets of water that spilled out of the bottle after him! Cool! Be sure to check out all the other PPFers, super duper fun stuff!!!! Thanks Kristen and Eva for hosting our Partaay!!!!!

Paint Party Friday #22

   Sorry, no goofy geckos this week guys! But I have a wonderful reptillian story to tell ya! Last week at work we rescued a baby Blue Tail Skink from getting run over by one of our production carts. ( thanks Hazel !) I have been wanting to photograph one of these gems for years now , so instead of just taking him outside the building and letting him go in the field, we found an empty water bottle ( thanks Sandy!) and coaxed him into it. I left the lid off and carefully slid the bottle into my bag and transported him home. I took a few shots of him in the bottle just in case he made a run for it before I could get him into the big plastic box of props I prepared for his "photo session". ( those came out great too!). Then I let him slide out of the bottle and into the clear plastic box. I gently slid a wood plate under him and began shooting ! He was a sweetheart and stayed perfectly still! Next I took the plate away and traded props for a southwest table runner. That was more difficult as he loved all the folds and kept trying to hide in them, but I still got some great shots! Last of all was the most risky but the shot I had dreamed of on the way home, a bright orange craft lid for a backdrop! The trouble was that the lid was bigger than the box he was in,and I knew he would use it as his escape route and climb out. Sure enough he made a run for it and climbed out via the bright orange ramp! But he stopped long enough for me to get a couple awesome shots!!!! I took a few more of him jumping on to my shoe and then running along our porch edge and finally down to a cool hole in the cement, ah home sweet home!

    Whew, nuff said, now the paint party part. The photos came out so cool , I couldn't resist painting a large watercolor from them ( or one at least). It usually takes me a couple months to paint one that size ( 22X30) so instead of ACEOs I'm gonna share the work in progress for the next few PPFs, so here's the start, not much just pencil and the magic blue tail and the yellow stripes. I'll include the photo on the orange lid too! OK  dont forget to check out all the other entries and big hugs to Eva and Kristen for hosting our party! ROCK ON GECKOANS!!!!!

Another Rockin Paint Party Friday!!!!!

Musician Bio:
       Name:  Buzz Lizario
       Years experience: 40 plus
       Equiptment: 63 Fender Strat, Morley Wah, phaze shift, distortion, echo and fuzz pedals, Fender twin
       Bands played with: Santana, Cream, Hendrix, Walter Trout, Gary Moore, Robin Trower, Satriani,
             Clapton, Eric Johnson, BB King, Freddie King, Albert King, and King Louie Liz !!!!!!

interview excerpt from Rolling Stone Magazine:

 Interviewer:  Buzz, do you have any words of advise for budding artists and musicians out there?
 Buzz:   ROCK ON PAINT PARTY ANIMALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Paint Party Friday Yipeeeeeeee!

Con found it you darn claim jumpin' varmits, stay away from my GOLD!!! I been pannin' these here parts fer over 100 years! Me and my roudy reptilian buds are the only ones left of our kin, so move over you young whipper snappers and let the ole geezer leezer show ya how it's done! There's still gold in them thar hills! Yahoooooo!!!!! ( sorry guys, I can't help it, we live in the Mother lode and it rubs off, lol! ) Watercolor aceo for PPF. Party on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Paint Party Friday Yipeeeeeeee!

I'm writing this as fast as I can because we keep losing our internet, oh, stay on, please, I want to party!!!! Actually I confess I had no time last weekend to paint because we went rockhounding but I thought I'd share an old painting but new to Etsy that I will be putting up for sale next week. ( If our internet holds up, lol!) Also since all of you have been so kind with concern for my mom I will share a wonderful photo of her taken right before she got sick. OK, off to partyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!

Paint Party Friday sneak preview!

   Hi everyone, I'm back at last from my trip to SO CA!!! It was soooooooo good to see my mom. She is still very sick(after a very major heart surgery) but she is in good spirits. Thanks for all the well wishes before I left. I told her all about our blogs and PPF and she gave me a huge grin!!!

  OK, on to the PARTY!!!! Here is another gecko ACEO called "Dragonrider  Gecko".  Hang on gecko lovers for the ride of your lives and join our green , not so lazy , lizard and his dragon " Purple Haze" to explore and defend their castle and enchanted lake in the Land O' Lizardia ! Yahoooooooooooooooo!!!!!

Gecko Groovin-3rd Paint Party Friday!

Well here he is folks, playin a hot drum solo for you!!!! I'm hooked on the ACEO thing and its geckos all the way, lol! I think I will do a whole band now! Just a note here too ( note? ha, ha!) I might be leaving tomorrow to go out of town to see my mom whose very sick, so I might not be able to join in all the fun looking at the other posts but the rest of you, PLEASE DO because PPF is a blast!!!! Ok everyone, ROCK ON, bang crash bang!

2nd Paint Party Friday!!!!!

Hi all you paintin' party animals!!!! I'm new to doing ACEO's and I am loving them!!! Since they are so small, I'm finding they are the perfect thing to paint on the weekend and then submit for PPF! So here's my 2nd ACEO ever! I painted him last Saturday. His name is Gandalf Gecko and he is getting ready to work his magic on you!!! The best part is, I sent him to a friend for a sneak preview and she wants to take him home so he is already spoken for ready to be shipped! Thank you my friend!!!! Don't worry the rest of you gecko lovers out there, I will be painting lots of little gecko aceo's to come in the future!!!!!

Sweet Blog Award- Yipeeeeee!!!

Hey guess what, my friend Stacy from Magic Love Crow gave me the Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award today!!! Is that SWEET or what?!!! Thank you Stacy!!!! Now the question is who do I pick for the 15 people to pass it on to? Everyone one I know is also on Stacy's blog, lol, so lets see.... umm... how bout if anyone out there has NOT already recieved this delicious yummy award, please comment and I will put you on the winners list!!!! Ok grab a glass of milk and chow down you sweet bloggers out there!!!!

Paint Party Friday!

Since this week's subject is The Muse, and mine seems to mostly come in the form of animals or " totems ", I will bring back the most recent example of that via the "kissing deer petroglyph" with the bluebird that just "flew in unexpectedly"! An older example is a painting I did entitled " Ramona " ( after the Ramona play in Hemet Ca) . Its probably too hard to see this here but in the original (20x30) there are all kinds of little "spirits" that show up in the background if you use your imagination and they are sometimes different for everyone who looks!!!Thats what makes watercolors so FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Little Crow

Hello everyone! I've been busy over the weekend carving a new rock and painting a new ACEO and I thought I'd share them with you here since they are already sold. ( Can you guess who bought them and why? Thank you Stacy!). Both of these are a design from a large watercolor painting I did in the 80s for my friend, brother and spiritual mentor Little Crow. He died quite a few years ago but his teachings and fond memories still lift my heart today!

Magic Love Crow's ACEOs arrived!

Hi everyone! I'm so excited, I have to share these with you! I know some of you know Stacy and know how wonderful her ACEO's are !!!! For all us Pow Wow goers, aren't these just the cutest ever?!!!!! THANK YOU  STACY!!!!!!

My first ACEO!

Ok, we're going to milk these poor deer to death, LOL ! But I couldn't resist trying an ACEO and they make a great subject so here it is! I don't know where the bird came from, she just flew in so I kept her and named the piece " Bird of Petroglyphs".  The holiday weekend is almost up. Sure has been fun. Back to work tomorrow though, ugh! See ya! Deb

New rock I carved!

I've been busy this weekend carving new rocks and thought I'd share the first new one with you! Can you guess where I got the inspiration? Yep, our kissing deer pair! I'm working on an ACEO too for this one. It takes longer to paint than it does to carve,lol. Hope everyone's having a fun holiday weekend. Three days off. yahoooooooo!!!!! Deb

Petro Pic -2

Hello everyone! Here's another picture we can discuss! This one I took at a couple summers ago at the Black Canyon Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuse petroglyph site. Its about 90 miles north of Las Vegas, NV on highway 93. It's interesting how the figures at this site seem to have no head or their head is also part of the body. I see eyes on the lower one in the square, kinda reminds me of  Sponge Bob, lol! Shall we say Sponge Bob and his pet goat? OK thats tooooooooo silly! Maybe the two figures at the top aren't people at all but blankets instead. What do you think?

Ancient Gecko carved in stone, reveal the wonderous stories you've known!

Welcome to the gecko's cave! Since I'm fascinated by pictographs and petroglyphs, I thought it would be fun to discuss the meanings of different examples of rock art here. Let your imaginations run wild or add any info you might have from books, teachers, archaologists, oral traditions,ect.

This first picture is from Arizona taken last year when we visited the Deer Valley Rock Art Center. To me I say it is two deer and although one could say maybe they are fighting since they are facing each other, I am romantic and tend to believe they are a pair and are "kissing" or courting. Many believe petroglyphs are a form of "hunting magic" that attracts the animals to an area or shows respect or gratitude towards the animals. I think this could be a glyph symbolizing the union of two deer in the hopes of many more to come! Also I wonder if it is maybe just a sign of a person named "Two Deer". I have also heard that in some native traditions the deer are considered a sign of gentleness. I love this petroglyph!