Pink roses, azalea, sweet lilacs, bleeding hearts, quince blossoms and pansies sit waiting in a bowl. 
Washed and picked for sugar coating they await their transformation…they will become sugar coated flowers. Lovingly painting their petals with a brush, I cover the flowers with a special mix of frothy white of egg, a touch of confectioner’s sugar and lemon juice. Some flowers can be dipped into the liquid. I then pour crystal showers of finely ground, almost powdered castor sugar over them in waves until thee petals are covered. I do it again , catching the empty spots until they are all covered , then allow them to dry. The flowers can be gently placed on a sieve or a screen placed over a plate to catch the excess coating that will drip off the petals while drying. More o the fine castor sugar can be poured over the drying blossoms and after sitting overnight they will be dry and sugar coated and sparklingly preserved. The crystal covered flowers make wonderful cake decorations , especially for fancy tortes and cakes made with rose petal jam. 
Category Archives: making art
Fairy Cuisine, in the Raw
Venus meets Mars in Aries…
The Cosmic Lovers join in celestial embrace in the Heavens, interlocking flames like two Dragons in love while kissing in the sky; their wings becoming one in their moment of passion. 
The Heavens alight, we traverse the milky snows of Embolic, electric with the proximity of Uranus, the cosmic lovers opening our wings with hope into Aquarian skies.
From the Celestial Hearts series, the two images above are both digitally manipulated photographs of paintings and available to order. The Golden Wing painting is 40 by 96 inches and is a duet composed of two canvasses.
Venus enters Aries
Venus slips from Pisces to Aries… Her body is touched by flames as she rushes now, to meet her lover Mars, who calls to her.
Venus is on fire and has no patience …she leaves the angel wings of Pisces behind, letting them drop like an unneeded costume. She feels her passion ignite and slips into the beckoning flames.
Venus on Fire in the Golden Lake
A new painting is flowing like music, as if pouring out of my hands and my heart. It is like a golden lake. A work in progress, soft coral clouds form a sky on the canvas, painted with layers of paint mixed in thin washes of time.Dull gold gleams as a base somewhere beneath the reds and creams. Placed there about ten years ago, like time trapped on canvas and preserved, glazes hold floating fragments of gold. Small fires and soft explosions are caught there forever like old loves that continue to smoulder; their beauty never dies, gold in our hearts. Venus is now fully in Chiron’s embrace. I feel them mingled together… the wise teacher and healer and the Goddess of beauty are meeting in the last sign of Pisces, the fully opened heart, yet they are restricted in their expression and flow by a square from Saturn. Love and compassion merge in their embrace like a joyous lake inviting us to swim in its magical waters healing our collective heart through gentleness. The square to Saturn in Sagittarius enables us now with the concerted effort to speak out, for our beliefs and collective truth – to have heart, the message of Venus in embrace with Chiron and in the realm of Neptune – the message of love.
Clouds of bright gold leaf are forming in the foreground. I see the changes coming in this beautiful inner sky that is unfolding before me and can manipulate them into what I wish to create – into a future reflection, my own inner sky. The canvas has been waiting for its completion patiently for years.Now marked by layers of time, a patina is giving its own gift of depth into the background that makes the foreground sing.
There is a certain degree of possession in painting… I must admit it. It cannot be denied, and is true of most art. The artist can become possessed; obsessed completely by his Muse. Once experienced, the artist seeks the same communion, hungering for the presence of the Muse, wanting to be once again hers, taken over, like an instrument. Once kissed fully on the lips by the Muse when she comes to him or her, the artist, singer or dancer is never the same. A divine elixir has been tasted. The desire for that sweet essence can become so keen and so subtly invasive that it takes over the human heart with a deep love and yearning. Perhaps this is the secret truth behind the passion of the artist…
the seduction of his Muse.
The Year of the Phoenix…
Phoenixes and Angels; both rise up to Heaven… A bronze cast from a wax original, standing four feet tall, my sculpture, “Golden Shakti”is photographed here against a painted detail of an abstracted wing. Rising up from the flames into a golden sky, reborn and crowned with gold, the Goddess is rising like a Phoenix. Rising up from the ashes of our own self immolation, we feel the planets collectively as Uranus in Aries, wild and willful, opposes Saturn in steady Capricorn. We feel the desire for freedom and for truth as the Feminine arises empowered refusing to be restricted and restrained. Venus, the Goddess of love and Chiron the Healer are meeting in the sign of Pisces in their yearly embrace. A wave of compassion, a rising up of the Feminine is spreading, healing pain with solace and releasing love to the world from the collective feminine heart. Angels will be rising like Phoenixes in their flames – the Year of the Fire Cock is coming, giving us the rare opportunity to rise up like a Phoenix and fly.
Heart Song
The Moon and Jupiter are kissing in the sky in Libra, ruled by Venus the Goddess of Love. Uranus the Electric Planet opposes the two so we can expect some wild and crazy love, with Mars in Pisces. Water needs to flow, and this is powerful watery emotion – use it wisely. There is a Grand Cross in the heavens. Become fluid, embrace the flow. Make art, dance and sing. Singing lets the love flow and you can share it, so the world becomes a better place… Keep the faith, sing your heart’s song, and share the love…
The Cosmic Heart with Doves….new work, recently completed, below.
Dragons and Doves
Dragons and doves fly in a fiery golden sky, mirrored in their perfection and surrounded by flames, hearts and stars. The dragons seem to kiss, poised in midair.This isolated detail from a larger painting draws me into its perfect balance. The symmetry holds me quietly and makes me want to paint larger and more detailed canvasses, creating golden worlds with skies where dragons fly in peace with doves.
