Scribble Picnic and GHOSTS!!!

Hello Friends! :)

I hope you're all doing well :) The theme for today's Scribble Picnic is "Bottle" (please follow the link for more art or to join in!). The very first Looney Tune cartoon that came to mind when I thought of "bottle" was Carrotblanca. Poor Bugs is hitting the carrot juice pretty hard!

I know "they" say to read your labels, but I honestly have never read the front of my Worcestershire bottle before...brings food alive huh? Hmmm...

This may not turn out well... :) 

We opened up a jar of Absinthe-flavoured cherries we'd canned in the summer of 2017...Oh my, what a great combination of flavours!!! Alex made us some Old Fashioned's to celebrate that success! :)

Sleepy Jack

Time to rest up...Halloween is right around the corner! I'm very excited and have lots of fun stuff planned that I will be sharing over the next few weeks! Do you have big plans? :)

👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻 GHOSTOBER!! 👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻

I post these daily on Instagram, but I'd like to share my Ghostober paintings and ghost stories with my Blogger friends too. Here is the artwork I've done for the last few weeks:

"Apparition" (watercolour): An apparition is a sudden manifestation of a spirit who is trapped in a certain place. Usually an apparition will appear out of the corner of your eye, when you turn to look at it, it will be gone! 

"Battlefield Ghosts" (watercolour): Battlefield Ghosts are spirits of dead soldiers who are trapped in the battlefields where so much death and destruction took place. They haunt these areas seeking out their fellow slain soldiers and their horses.

"The Bell Witch" (ink and watercolour): The Bell Witch is a woman who was allegedly cheated out of a land deal by John Bell. On her deathbed, she swore revenge on him, stating that she would haunt his home, his family and all of his descendants. She created poltergeist activity in the home, and caused physical harm to the inhabitants, including the children and the farm animals on the land. It is believed that her spirit played a hand in John Bell's death by poisoning.

"Dryads" (acrylic): Dryads are protective tree spirits and have been known to lure lost travelers into the depths of the woods as an act of vengeance towards humans who destroy forests.

"The Flying Dutchman" (acrylic): The Flying Dutchman is a legendary ghost ship that can never make it to port and is doomed to sail the oceans forever.

"Grim" (acrylic): The Grim was thought to be invented during the time of the Black Plague. Because death was so rampant and terrifying, people personified the horrors with a supernatural creature who came to claim lives.

"Hungry Ghost" (acrylic): A Hungry Ghost is the spirit of a deceased person who was greedy and envious. They have necks the size of pins and cannot swallow, they roam the earth endlessly looking for food which they cannot eat.

"Madeline Usher" (watercolour): In Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher", Roderick Usher, distraught and mad, buries his sister Madeline alive because he believes that his deadly fate is connected to his family name and his home. Believing that he is the last Usher to survive, he feels he has conquered his doom until one night his bedroom door bursts open to reveal Madeline standing there. He is terrified as she approaches him, she falls on to him, accompanying him into his death, as the House of Usher shatters, sinks into the ground and disappears forever. 

"Mrs. Wessington's Ghost" (watercolour): From Rudyard Kipling's "The Phantom Rickshaw". After being discarded for a younger woman, Agnes Wessington dies of a 'broken heart'. She haunts the man who betrayed her relentlessly. At first he sees her old rickshaw all around town, then he sees her riding in it, then eventually she appears to him constantly until he loses his mind and his new bride to be.

"Oiwa" (watercolour and acrylic): The Oiwa is the ghost of a woman who was poisoned and disfigured by her husband. When she learns of his plans to disgrace her, she fatally uses a sword to cut her throat. In death, she takes revenge and haunts her husband until he isolates himself goes mad.

"Shellycoat" (watercolour): A Shellycoat is an evil spirit and boogeyman who haunts the rivers and streams of Scotland. Calling out this rhyme is a dangerous deed: "Shelly-coat! Shelly-coat! gang awa' hame, I cry na' yer mercy, I fear na' yer name." Those who have recited this rhyme in areas where the Shellycoat resides, end up with broken bones and bruises - IF they're lucky!!

"The Snow Ghost" (ink and watercolour): The Snow Ghost is a winter mountain spirit. She appears on snowy nights to travelers who are trapped in snow storms, she leads them astray with her beauty. Her goal is to feed on their life force, often freezing her victims solid or leaving them to die of exposure. During nighttime blizzards, she has been known to break into rural homes, flash-freezing the inhabitants as she feeds on them.

"The Unquiet Grave" (watercolour and acrylic): The Unquiet Grave is a poem (I also read it's a folk song), about a man mourning the love of his life at her gravestone. Her ghost arises and begs him to move on so she can rest in peace.