May Bell African-American Art Doll

May Bell  Sunflower African American Folk Art DollI stopped calling May Bell a rag doll because she has so much character that she falls more into the art doll category. This isn’t my usual type of doll but I have to admit, I enjoyed making her.

May Bell is a beautifully elegant art doll who is handmade and hand painted. She stands approximately 8 inches with a rust and gold flowering dress that falls at 12 inches. May Bell’s hair is up in buns on both sides of her head, twisted perfectly and able to hold ribbons or flowers if desired. Her accenting Anne Klein II sunflower brooch is removable and can be placed where desired.

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Ophelia African American Handmade Rag Doll

Ophelia Rose- African American Rag DollOphelia Rose is an 18 inch doll with big, brown eyes and soft pink lips. Her hair is long and black. When sitting by a fan it whisks across her face lightly. She’s hand painted solid black but has gold and turquoise facial details. She’s got long eye lashes and a cute little nose.
All facial features were painted on after the initial painting of the cotton fabric.

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Love Bianca Bunches African-American Rag Doll

‘Love Bianca Bunches’ is a handmade and hand painted rag doll that stands 9 inches tall and is wearing a red striped dress with a green checked scarf. Her scarf has a tiny button on it. Bianca has big brown eyes with long black eye lashes with gold star dust above them. She has dimples on her rosy cheeks. Her lips are painted soft pink. Your little one comes with lavender that I dried myself.

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Lily with Lavender African-American Rag Doll

‘Lily with Lavender’ is a handmade African-American primitive rag doll shelf sitter. She stands about 9 inches tall and is wearing a hand sewn dress. The dress is made of a vintage handkerchief that I stained with spots of soft blue and hints of rose. The hand painted doll has super soft yarn hair, big brown eyes and soft pink lips. She also has the sweetest dimples ever.

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A New Woman Original Painting

A New Woman by F. Magdalene Austin *** SOLD *** **SOLD ** I began tearing the wall paper remnants from an old craft table when I thought, this would be fun to paint on, so I did. A New Woman is a romantic, abstract figurative painting with ethnic overtones. It is medium textured and has been painted on pulled, up-cycled wall paper. There are even tiny pieces of tape still stuck to 11 x 7  finished art piece.

The profile figure of a young woman stands in the midst of dripping paint, torn walls and gold. She is painted in turquoise and pink with flicks of color as accents.

What I enjoyed about doing this painting is putting all the tiny little drops, spills and smudges together to form something tangible. The wall paper was splattered with paint from various projects and stripped or cut from mounting other paintings. My new canvas had its own story and a full pallet before becoming A New Woman. Continue reading “A New Woman Original Painting”

PTSD No3 Whisper

I had no idea there would be a series of paintings called PTSD but there is. . .


In PTSD No3 there’s a river that flows from the sky right through the woman, past the eyes and forms the figures dress. The dress runs over the brick wall and simply stops. The paint on the brick wall has bits of stone mixed in making this piece multidimensional. I had to mix in a bit of stone with the sunflower painting because sunflowers in stone is significant to me. There are also tiny little details, layer upon layer of color and edge to edge movement which all comes together to form PTSD No3 Whisper.

Whisper can be purchased in my ETSY shop by clicking the link provided on the sidebar. If you do not have an ETSY account you may contact me to use PayPal.

Thank you for visiting SUNDRIP – Art for Life
Faith M. Austin

Gathering

I ran ink, acrylic and wax together to form the painting called Gathering. It shows several Asian, African and other ethnic woman standing together with their feet covered in mists of red, green, gold and black. A large white moon glows behind them with its light caught in deep blues and gold. In this emotional and texture rich piece the ladies arms reach gently to connect with one another.

The original of this painting called Women Alone showed several women standing around looking grieved.  The purpose of the original version  was to show how alienated I can feel when I’m in a lot of pain physically. The rebirth of the painting is to show that despite the pain I’m not alone. The rebirth of this piece was to validate what I felt but also to firmly plant in my mind the reality of the situation. As long as I reach out or make myself available for connection then I am not alone. It is also a reminder that my situation can get ugly and trying but it can change. Life can get ugly and painful but that doesn’t mean its the final curtain call.  Things can change. Continue reading “Gathering”

Japanese Maple Leaf Art

Nature dropped it, I picked it up and put in on a painting.

So, how did I do it? I layered wax, acrylic and ink to a magnet canvas then added a single red leaf from a Japanese maple bush (Acer palmatum). It’s as simple as that and very fun to do. The painting itself is 4 x 3 inches.

After completing this tiny painting I returned to the same spot where I stumbled on a virtual gold mine of twigs and petals just a’waitin’ to be picked up. There were  ‘helicopters’, dried seeds and petals sitting there like treasure. I won’t lie, I nearly drooled, right there in public I all but drooled.  I love a challenge and I love working with non-traditional mediums which is why I beamed as I snatched up the finds. Knowing how much I love stuff like this I was mindful to leave some there so another artist cold come along and partake.

Don’t let the magnet canvas limit your imagination. This can be matted and framed like any other painting and displayed in your home or office.

Noted: The Japanese Maple Leaf painting was gifted but no worries, there will be more to come. Check my Etsy shop often more updates and items you might like. All shop links are on the side bar.

Thanks for visiting SUNDRIP – Art for Life

F. Magdalene Austin

Crossings

This spiritual piece explores crossing over and accepting change.

It’s not just about death but about life choices and reaching the other side of our choices successfully. It’s about life changes, changes we can control and those we have no control over. The painting is about not alienating ourselves or putting rifts so large we can’t repair them. It’s about turning our backs on life’s waters (making bad decisions) but also moving forward, connecting. It’s about walking in the dark but not walking alone.

“Crossings” has dark colors against strong yellow, red and turquoise. White figures stand out, black figures linger in the back. A woman in a red dress stands with her back to her past. She is looking forward to life.

Crossings: death, birth and all life changes

Crossings is an original painting and is now available in my Etsy shop. Please see the sidebar for the Etsy link. SOLD

Thank you for visiting SUNDRIP – Art for Life
F. Magdalene Austin