Author Archives: Leah

Dreaming Acrylic painting on map and music collage on canvas, 30" x 24"

Dreaming: acrylic painting of imaginary landscape, curious characters

You may have seen bits & pieces of this image before, but here’s the whole thing!

At last I am able to make prints of this available on Etsy. They’re not full-size (about half that), but much bigger than my usual small prints. (When I tried to reduce them to standard printer-paper size, you could hardly see the details at all!)

Unrelated note: today’s A.Word.A.Day painting is Ineluctable. A warm welcome to all of you who are arriving here from that site. (For the rest of you, if you haven’t yet wandered through this wonderland of words, head on over now!) And if you’d like to know more about the painting itself, see my previous post.

 

Disprize Acrylic painting on map and music collage on canvas, 30" x 24"

Painting of Cat, Illustration for A Word A Day

Sometimes one must refrain from eating, if only to make a statement. ;-)

This image was created for Anu Garg’s A.Word.A.Day, where it’s featured today. If you love words, you should definitely sign up for Anu’s daily emails— they are always a delight.

The original painting as well as prints are available in my Etsy shop.

A.Word.A.Day A.gain! Curiotype Alphabet

AWAD-2013

It’s always thrilling to be a part of this amazing site. Thank you so much to Anu Garg for letting me play with his ever-inspiring word collection again!

My website crashed earlier, probably a fainting spell from sheer excitement. ;-) Not very felicitous timing, though– my apologies to anyone who received that doomly message. I hope all is well in server-land now, but if not, you can always reach me via Twitter, Facebook, or my Etsy shop, CuriousArtLab.

Ineluctable Curiotype Alphabet

Painting of Grim Reaper; Death and Taxes

This may be a bit of a stretch for Illustration Friday’s topic, but who among us doesn’t walk through the valley of the shadow of death (& taxes), at least some of the time? After all, they’re ineluctable!

This is yet another painting in the series I’ve been working on, whose purpose will be revealed soon. (Although anyone who tries can figure it out with very little effort.) In addition to invoking the Grim Reaper and the IRS, it includes an ineluctable nod to James Joyce, though you may have to click on the image to be able to read it.

Confession: this painting was intended for my Halloween post, not Thanksgiving! But that week I was visited by a monster of a fever, & rather than getting in the holiday mood by painting Death, I got to feel like death warmed over. The good part is that, now that I’m finally healthy again, just being able to walk around doing everyday tasks without feeling like a zombie makes me feel grateful every minute of the day, so I’m going to be very ready to give thanks tomorrow!

I’m also enormously grateful to every one of you out there in Internet Land who visits this blog. I never thought it would be possible to feel so close to people I’ve never met, but internet magic makes it so. You encourage & inspire me, you make me smile & laugh, sometimes you even make me cry (in a good way). THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!

Original Painting & Prints available in my Etsy shop

 

 

Felicitous Acrylic on collaged text on canvas, 6"x6"

Felicitous-LeahPalmerPreissAnother in the probably-not-so-mysterious series that began with Malinger.

It is felicitous indeed that Illustration Friday’s word this week is “tail”– this fellow not only sports his own fine fox tail, but also holds a bunch of foxtail grass. Also featured (though tail-less) are foxgloves, some glowing foxfire mushrooms, & some faux-foxing around the edges of the paper.

Original Painting ~SOLD~

Prints Available in my Etsy shop

 

Malinger Acrylic on collaged text on canvas, 6"x6"

Malinger-LeahPalmerPreiss

I am still wobbling from two very unpleasant bugs that have thoroughly sapped my energy, so it seems a cruel joke that the piece I’ve been working on illustrates the word “malinger”! I swear I have NOT been malingering, quite the contrary actually: working harder than I probably should have. No sooner did I begin to get over last week’s mysterious fevers than I got hit by a miserable chest cold, & I suspect that was partly because I didn’t allow myself enough rest for full recovery. So maybe I should learn something from this slothful slacker– he certainly looks a lot more comfortable than I feel right now!

Those of you who have followed my blog(s) for the past couple of Novembers can probably guess the series this piece is for. Otherwise you’ll just have to wonder for a week or two! ;-)

Original Painting & Prints available in my Etsy Shop

Fever Dreams Acrylic on coated paper, ~10" x 7.5" including frame

FeverDreams-LeahPalmerPreiss

This is quite an old piece, but I just had to post it now, because I’m getting over a mysterious fever that went on for a week. I had a bunch of intense dreams, as well as a very strange waking episode when my hand was attempting to draw vector lettering on the pillow. I kept trying to stop it, but it wouldn’t give up. Mostly “R”s, forward & backward, for hours. It was one of the creepiest feelings I can remember in a long time. I was afraid I might truly be going mad.

Happily I am much better and the major weirdness seems to be over. Unfortunately I’m quite far behind in my work though, so my Halloween image will still have to wait. Maybe by Thanksgiving. ;-)

Apologies for the less-than-stellar scan– it’s framed with glass, so there’s a bit of blur & distortion. I tried to Photoshop it back to health, but just like me, it’s not quite 100%!

Gateway Creature Acrylic on vintage catalogue page

Oddment103-Otoroshi-LeahPalmerPreissLately I get the feeling that Illustration Friday has been making up topics just for me! I love painting creatures of all sorts. I’m actually working on a new piece that fits the topic AND the last, but until that’s done, I’m offering Otoroshi, as previously posted in my Oddments blog (which is chock-full o’ creatures, by the way):

“This week’s entry for AlphaBeasts is Otoroshi, an exceptionally hairy, tusk-bearing, gate-guarding monster. Normally he hangs out on temple gates, but this time he’s gracing a Marvel-ous wire number from Jim Brown’s Catalogue, 1939.”

 

Namazu Acrylic on paper, ~6.75" x 4"

Oddment99-Namazu-LeahPalmerPreiss

I painted this last year as part of the AlphaBeasts! series.

From my old Oddments blog:

This week’s critter for AlphaBeasts! is Namazu, a giant catfish monster who causes earthquakes & tsunamis whenever he manages to wrestle free from his usual captive state. I thought it was interesting that catfish do tend to abandon their normal bottom-feeding habits when they feel tremors; their unusual activity at such times probably led to this legend.

Acrylic on illustration scanned from Cornell’s Primary Geography, 1873. (And yes, I know catfish don’t live in the ocean. Namazu is a river-beast. But I figured he might wander seaward when he’s in mid-mischief.)

Prints are available in my Etsy shop!