Kaia Thomas - A path with ART

I realize it has been way too long since my last post. Life has gone and got crazy busy again...busy is getting to be a more frequent occurrence these days and time is beginning to be a precious commodity... I recently completed two mandalas - "Renewel" is an 8" x 10" acrylic painting (shown above) and "Vibrancy" is a miniature 2.5" x 3.5" ACEO acrylic painting (see below) and both are available for purchase in my Etsy shop .  These were painted in a different way then I usually do. I disciplined myself to only two colors (minus the black) and after laying out the mandala drawing, what I would normally do is find particular patterns that I wished to emphasize with certain colors and sometimes painting over lines in the process. With these mandalas, I tried something different, where I kept every line and painting with the rule - no one color could touch itself...so it was like - purple, green, purple, green, that sort of thing. I found...

Well, this year is just screaming by and now we are approaching the gift season! The commissions are coming in and it's time to focus! I thought this a good time to share the gourd birdhouse I did on request a few months ago which lead me to the current commissions - birdhouse was a hit!! Makes me happy because they are really fun to do. This was my first experience doing one and of course there is always a learning curve. A few things I would do differently on the next ones but overall it was a successful first try.

 "Joy" 20" x 20" acrylic on canvas includes custom frame This painting has a lot of meaning for me. A year and half ago, my brother was in a bad car accident - it was serious and he is lucky to be alive. He suffered TBI (traumatic brain injury) and was in ICU for 2 weeks and rehab for 2 more. We remained with him the entire time and we had an amazing outpouring of energy from friends and family that I believe really floated us through the experience.  Today he is miraculously fine - the changes in his personality were minor, considering all the horror stories the doctors told us, and his fractured neck healed with no problems. At the time this accident happened, I had just started this painting and it took me many months to find the energy to return to it but when I did, a lot of my feelings of joy and being so blessed that this life changing experience had a happy ending. The experience really opened my eyes and heart and this inevitably influenced the pai...

Ok, so it's been a while since I posted. A lot has been happening, let's see, first of all I have  exciting news!  The "Art with Heart" gallery in Tempe, Arizona approached me to show the mandala paintings for three months!! Next exciting thing is that I made the leap and bought a really nice printer so I can now make my own art prints from home. This is a huge learning and a lot of frustration at times working out the bugs but I am thrilled - the prints look amazing! I have two currently available in my Etsy shop... "Summer Cloud" 8" x 10" print of oil painting 2009 For Sale click here "Castaneda Desert" 8" x 10" print of digital painting  2009 For Sale click here I will continue to post and share prints as I make them. I also would love to get some advise if anyone wants to leave some. Mostly I would like to know about getting the colors on the monitor to match what comes out of the printer or vice versa. The digita...

"The wind and the dragonfly" 11" x 9" acrylic on canvas paper  So I had a sudden urge to paint in bright colors and of course acrylics are always the best for vivid color. This was also a practice in painting faces, which faces or figures have always been a challenge for me to do. This painting was inspired by a photograph taken of myself a few years ago - I always loved that it captured the energy of wind. The dragonflies came as an afterthought. During the couple days I painted on this I kept seeing dragonflies everywhere, so in they went!