Red Roses against a Terracotta Wall

I had picked these roses from the garden and liked the effect of seeing them against my terracotta wall.  I was surprised that I liked it since I would not normally put those two colors together.  It has become one of my favorite floral paintings.  I have it on auction this week.
To Bid

A new batch of ACEO paintings on auction

At the request of one of my ebay art collectors, I started painting these little ACEO artist trading cards.  What a great idea for an affordable way to start your art collection and for us artists, a great way to introduce people to our work.

To check out this auction click here.  Bidding starts at $28.50 with no reserve.

Green Pears on Red and White Striped Cloth 6x6 oil

This is one among many daily and larger paintings on auction this week through my ebay gallery/auction site.  This began as a class project.... painting one object on a striped cloth.  My students breathed a sigh of relief when I mentioned that our next project involved only one object.  They breathed another kind of sigh as they saw the addition of the striped cloth rather than a plain backdrop.  heheheh
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Garden " Bed"

Just an update.  I made this from an actual bed spring wooden form last summer.  The lettuce that I planted a month ago is coming right along under the protection and added warmth collected by the old window that rests atop it.

Last Night's Writing Theme, " Night sounds"

Last night Scott and I were sitting out back by the fire and had a bit of time before the Beatles retrospective was coming on the TV.  We decided to write something.  Scott's turn to pick the topic.  Night sounds.  He started off thinking about the sound of bugs on a hot Arkansas summer night but that Beatle thing was now in his head so he surprised me with the night the Beatles came on the Ed Sullivan Show.  Here is what I wrote:

Night sounds

I feel a slight chill as we leave the warmth of the counselor’s lodge and step out into the night.  Behind us now the sounds of conversation and laughter fade and the light from the windows ceases to light our way. 

I have spent the day in my swimsuit with my brother and sister sunbathing on the dock and playing in the water in front of the lodge which sits on the banks of a quiet, secluded lake in the Adirondack Mountains.  My mother and other counselor’s wives in bathing suits and sunglasses sit in lounge chairs  on the dock and keep an eye on us as we play.

A day in the sun and an evening by the fire inside the lodge has left me tired and longing for bed.  A loon calls from the lake and is answered by thousands of unseen insects in the deep forest that surrounds our pine needle path which leads to our borrowed two room cabin in the woods.  The path is thick and soft with hundreds of years of decaying wood, pine needles and leaves.  Even with my meager  sixty pounds  I can feel the path give and push back with each step.  The sound is quiet and comforting…. Until, to quicken our pace, our dad mentions the bears that might come out and bite our bottoms.  He punctuates with a pinch on the closest bottom which makes us all laugh.  We still quicken our pace as,  ‘you just never know…’  We are familiar with bears as one of our favorite weekend pastimes is to visit the town dump at night with others of like mind, where we watch them come out of the woods to feed. 

“ What would you do if you ran across a bear?” we ask our mom. “Well, just as he opens his mouth to bite me, I would stick my hand all the way into his mouth and down to his tail and pull him inside out.”  That answer was quite satisfying to all of us and we felt protected.  In our little world all stories have a happy ending and little children don’t ever get eaten by bears.

We come to an opening and we see the water pump up ahead where we always stop to pull down a paper cup and fill it with hand pumped, ice cold water.  We turn off the flashlight as the stars and full moon will now light our way.   The air surrounding us is crisp and clean. 

From across the lake we hear the sounds of a bugle playing taps and calling all to rest.

“ Day is done.

Gone the sun.

From the lake…

From the hill….

From the sky.

All is well…

Safely Rest.

God is nigh.”

In my bed in the same room with my brother and sister with mom and dad in the other room, I am safe.  I am loved.  All is well.

Avocado 6x6 oil on canvas

To Bid

Lucky Penny Dolls to Benifit Tulsa Arts and Humanities Council

A portion of the proceeds from the Lucky Penny Doll sales goes to support the work of Tulsa's Arts and Humanities Council.  To place your bid, Click Here

The story behind the dolls:

My husband, Scott, had had a heart attack and was recovering in the hospital.
After several days of little sleep, lots of worry, I was returning to the hospital after running to Scott’s office to call clients and cancel appointments. I parked my car and got out and in the quiet, had come to a more full realization of just how close I had come to losing my very best friend.

It was then that I remembered that strange old superstition, “pennies from heaven.” It is a silly, but fun and a little comforting, to think that if you find a penny on the ground it is someone that you love from the other side (Heaven) sending you a message of love.

Well, I started walking through the parking lot and said to my father (my dad passed away about 12 years ago from a heart attack), “Dad, I really need a lucky penny right about now.” Which made me weepy so I said to myself, “that is just silly, buck up and put on a good face. You can cry about all this later.” I did not tell anyone about my request to the other side of course.

So I continued on up to see Scott. My son, Dylan was there and about a half hour later he turned to leave. I saw him sneak some little flat thing onto the bottom edge of Scott’s bed. He didn’t know I saw him. I picked it up and said “Dylan, what is this.” He replied “lucky penny.” and walked out. He had left a penny that had been flattened by a train… his lucky penny. I couldn’t tell him what that meant to me at the time as I didn’t want to get emotional but later just told him and my brother in- law, Ed.  When Ed came to visit the next day he dropped a penny in my lap and said “I found that and 4 more in the parking lot.” I, myself, found another in the stairwell and 2 more at the Church studio, one being on an inaccessible little roof outside the lobby window, a day later. I just felt like it was a good omen, a message from the other side that all will be well and it has been.

When I was in the hospital with Scott, I worked on knitting a little doll. Inside the doll I put all the lucky pennies. Now it is our lucky penny doll.

I continue to find lucky pennies and have stored them in a special place and I continue to make these little dolls. Each one contains one of those “found coins.”  Each one is unique and of course, very lucky.      Margaret Aycock

Caution, all dolls contain a coin, and some, buttons.  Buttons and coins my pose a choking hazard.

New Stairs in an Old House

We, after 20 years or so, have finally gotten around to repairing ( replacing ) the main staircase in our house.  My carpenter opened a cavity under the landing and I thought... " I need to hide something in there for the next person who repairs these stairs in 100 years or so.  I quickly got a front page Tulsa World, a giclee of one of my paintings and a couple of CDs of Scott's and wrote a sentence about who we were.  I wonder if they will even have CDs in 100 years?  oh well.  Anyways later in the day as the carpeter was tearing out the banister, he came to me with a slip of paper and said, " I think this is for you."  It was a letter from Sandy and Rob that was hidden in the banister for us.  They worked on repairing the banister in the early 80s.  Fun!
Thanks to Dennis Welch who worked for several days on this project.

New Garden Bed Prep

You can't paint fresh fruit and veggies unless you can grow or buy them.... I prefer to grow them.  This bed has been a thorn in my side for years.  The thing is that the trees across the driveway have nowhere to get any nourishment so they sneak up into the tiny little bed next to the house.  It is full of tiny hair like roots and I decided to fight the battle.  I dug the whole dang thing out, put down heavy plastic sheeting, added all the cardboard that was in the recycling bin, all the rest if the leaves in the yard, found an old metal slatted shelf to use as a grate/sieve and sieved out all the roots, rocks etc and was left with a nice, fluffy, compost rich soil to start planing short rooted veggies.  Keep  your fingers crossed!

Jesse's New Album just got released!

click here to watch a short video on the making of the album

here is a link to Jesse's website where you can purchase the CD ( amazon, CD baby )

http://jesseaycock.com

I had a few people that were going to be absent from my class the other day so I changed the assignment to " bring a troubled painting to class day."  I had this painting kicking around for a while and decided to play with it.  It was from a 3 hour sitting w a model and although I liked it, I couldn't sell it on ebay so I decided to play with hair and make up and costume and see what happens.

To check her out on ebay, click here

ACEO art trading cards

To bid on one of these little #ACEO sky paintings click here
What fun!  The bidding starts at $23 with free shipping.  I sign and date the back of each of them.  They are each painted in oil on ACEO canvas. 

Avocado 6x6 Original Oil

To Bid

Air bnb moves to the Aycock Home and Studio

For years we host traveling musicians in our home for free when they do a house concert with us so we are kind of used to having strangers ( who quickly become friends ) in our home.  Years ago we also converted our basement into a private apartment which we rented out on a yearly basis.  After a neighbor turned us on to #airbnb and after our son traveled Europe staying with airbnb folks all across the world we thought we would give it a try.  So any of you who happen to come to Tulsa and need a place to stay should check out our little airbnb apartment.   The studio, upstairs is open by appointment and if you pick the right weekend you get to be our guests at one of our house concerts.  We don't have them every weekend.  You can check schedules at houseconcertsunlimited.com  For info about saving your space at the apt  click here to find out more

Paleo Crackers/ pizza crust by Me... as if I have nothing else to do today!

I have been perfecting this cracker/bread/pizza crust for a few months.  And when I say " perfecting," you will see by my measurements that I don't mean "perfect."  Those of you who cook will understand and the rest of you will just have to follow along.   Turn your oven to 375 degrees.  Plan on cleaning  your kitchen as you make the crackers.  If you decide to answer email, water the garden, or even take one step out of the kitchen, you will be sorry.  These things want to burn and will wait until you turn your back to do so.

step 1.  You will use any nuts that are available.  I used a combo of dollar general roasted, salted almonds and some cashews for this. If you want to cut down on the carbs ( which is the whole reason for doing this in the first place ) grab some garbanzo bean flour ( or make your own garbanzo mush ) maybe throw in a little flax seed meal too. 
step 2.  rinse off all the salt on the nuts ( those who are watching salt intake... otherwise, who cares, leave it on ) 
step 3.  Throw the nuts in a blender w a little water to make something that looks like, and is the consistency of cooked oatmeal. Throw in a few cloves of garlic and an egg while you are at it. a dash of olive oil wouldn't hurt and some nice, very sharp, cheddar cheese.
step 4.  dump all that into a big bowl and add some chickpea flour, maybe some Italian spices if you want and some flax seed meal. Add enough water ( or almond milk, soy milk ) to keep that consistency like oat meal. 

Step 5. Now liberally oil a cookie sheet or two.  Sometimes I sprinkle sesame seeds, flax seeds and such on the pan after oiling.  This time around I didn't.
Step 6.  I tilt the pan, use my oiled fingers or an oiled spoon to make sure this gets spread in a very thin sheet all over the pan.

Step 7.  Now is when I added a bit of sesame seeds across the top and sprinkled with oregano
Step 8.  Pop it in the oven  and check after about 5 minutes.  It should be starting to hold up on its own a little.  I pull it out of the oven at this time and cut it into crackers but leave it on the tray and pop it back in the oven for about another 5 minutes.  The sides should start to turn brown a little.

Step 9.  Now pull them out and with a nice steel spatula, flip them all over.  Sprinkle with Parmesan and pop them back in the oven for 5 more minutes or less.  Keep checking .  They are still conspiring to burn on you.
If you are making pizza crust then don't cut it, just pull it out of the oven, slip a spatula under the edges to loosen, flip it over on to your counter and then slide it back onto your tray.  It will now be upside down and ready to put  on your toppings.... now or later.
Step 10.  Sometimes the ones in the middle need a little more time.  Chuck them back in the oven and turn the oven off.  They will crisp up and be ready to eat in no time.  Enjoy!

Another Pre Raphaelite Girl... She's back on the auction block

I started this last semester while my students were working independently.  I think I finished it the other day... one never knows for sure.  It is on auction this week through ebay.  A purchase will assure me that it is, in fact, finished :-)
To Visit my Ebay gallery and possibly bid... click here

Pre Raphaelite Girl with Cat by Margaret Aycock SOLD!

This was a really fun assignment that I gave to my students and of course, not wanting them to be the only ones having all the fun..... I painted one too.  We started with a random photo of a pretty woman and each person had to add a background and an animal.  I loved what everyone did with them... I had bear cubs, cougars and my kitty too.

To bid visit my ebay gallery by clicking here

Melody Takes a Walk

I have been working on this today.  I started with a couple of photos, on of my son's girlfriend and another of a very cloudy moment during an ice storm in which I didn't know that the sun was trying to peek through until after I looked at the photograph.  You can see the progression and changes that I made during the process.  I liked how everything was kind of monotone.  I moved the snow covered dirt road into a better compositional position, played around in the snow myself, with paint and played in the sky.

Pre Raphaelite Girl by Margaret Aycock

This is what I have been playing with today.  I started this painting in my adult class as a demo and finished it over the holidays.  I have been painting Oklahoma landscapes and decided to put her at the edge of an Oklahoma forest.
Be the first to Bid by clicking here to visit my ebay gallery

Persimmons

It is that time of year.  When it gets cold and grey out I look for a relatively warm, sunnier day and finding one,  take off into the woods. I keep my eyes peeled for bare branches with little balls hanging from them.  Finding that tree, my search takes to the ground.  The best persimmons have already fallen.  They are usually unattractive and  mushy which might scare off those who are used to perfect looking fruits and veggies offered at grocery stores.  That is fine with me because those folks grab the pretty looking persimmons on the tree, bite in and find a bitter tasting fruit that quickly gets spit out.  I won't have to worry about them taking my tasty treats.  I have been eating them and painting them throughout the last couple of weeks.  This is the latest one.

To bid

What I am working on today

Some interesting photos, a great subject, a borrowed coat 

not done yet 

Allow me to brag on my kids two birds with one stone....

My son, Dylan is releasing my son, Jesse's 7" vinyl record on his record label, Scissor Tail Records.  So Dylan designed the cover ( excellent job, Dyl ) and Jesse wrote the songs, played several instruments and produced the mini album.  A bunch of well known musicians play on the CD.  You can check it out at http://jesseaycock.com where there is a link to Dylan's label and more info about the release.

After a Walk in the Woods

We took a nice walk in the woods two days ago when it was about 55 degrees out and then worked on this the next day when it didn't get above freezing.  Surprisingly we found a tree full of persimmons long after the season was over.  Every tree in the woods was totally vacant of persimmons EXCEPT one and it was absolutely full of them.  We have had several hard frosts and an ice storm which should have cleared every tree.  Don't know how this one held on so long.  Anyways the persimmons, having been through those extreme weather conditions, had turned a very interesting shade of blue, almost like a blueberry.  I just had to bring some home to paint.  Later in the day we found a tree that had dropped a bunch of acorns too and the squirrels hadn't found them yet.  I have been meaning to try to make some acorn flour and these were so big and meaty that I couldn't resist.  When I started to make the acorn meal and boil it, it smelled just like molasses.  I called my husband in and asked, " what does this smell like?"  to which he replied, " Molasses."  I am excited to try some bread made from this flour.  Perhaps a loaf of banana persimmon bread is in order.

Now and Then

The photo shows what my pretty lilac bush looks like right now.  The painting is what it looked like this summer in all its glory.  Hopefully it will spring back after all this ice melts off of it.  It was about 12' tall.  and today its leaning self is barely off the ground :-(
To bid on this painting and check out my other ebay auctions click here