Magic mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all ?🐾🐱🐾

HAPPY CATURDAY!
Magic mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?

Of course, it's you, Maggie!

Maggie: "It's always Bat. It's about time they did a Happy Caturday feature about me, Maggie! "

For Happy Caturday's Theme, Airs Above the Ground.

"Vanish all self-control, and now we will see just how vain you mortals can be. " 

~ Endora

Bewitched ~ Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

WITCHES' BROOM TREE WIP 🧹 OIL PAINTING

I love the trees! 

I love collecting their leaves, their seeds, the conks that I sometimes find on their trunks on my woodland walks and of course taking their photos. 

I also love the illustrations and paintings of trees, particularly the ones done by 19th - century British artists.

The Witch Broom Tree in this painting was inspired by Emily Carr's gorgeous trees of British Columbia.

"In 1818 Constable exhibited a beautiful drawing of elm trees at the Royal Academy. It failed to sell and so it was still in Constable’s possession two decades later, when he added a note on the back to the effect that “This noble Elm … was blown down April 1835.” It was a portrait, in other words, of a particular tree, one whose fortunes he continued to follow, and whose eventual loss he lamented long after he’d moved away from the area." ~ Professor Christiana Payne


And like John Constable, I adore painting them. When I came upon a tree down the road from where I live that looked quite peculiar I took a few photos of the tree for future reference which would come in handy when I went to paint it. At the time I didn't know why the tree was afflicted with such unusual, odd-looking, broom-like distortions but after looking it up online I discovered it was disease trees get and not from witches : )

I suppose the namesake is because it reminds one of a spooky broom belonging to a witch. So I decided to paint the Witch Broom Tree in oil but it was my first time painting entirely in oil and I didn't realize just how long it takes for the painting to dry and cure. This painting is still very wet.

I added a couple of spiders and webs to the tree and eventually would like to add a black cat and create more depth to the scenery before it's complete. Hopefully, in the process, I wouldn't destroy it.