IF ~ Rescue

No need to rescue these two!

They will always take care of each other!

~a peek of an illustration from

The Enchanted Tree of Crooked Lake to be released soon...

 written by Rachel Longhurst...and illustrated by meeeee!

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!

Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks

...a day in the life of

Michigan Spring!!!

These are my two ADORABLE, schmoopalicious, I could eat 'em with a spoon, nieces standing on the dock of the Lake St Clair River in Michigan. While the snow is gone on the ground and it is warming up nicely (for Michigan), this is what the St Clair river looks like in the spring! A freighter got stuck in the ice on the river a few days ago, so two ice cutters came to set her free. That's one of the ice cutters in the background.

 

Notice the girls are eating ice cream as their favorite ice cream shop opened for the season just this week!

Gotta love Michigan!!

...and I do! So many AMAZINGLY beautiful sites here, no matter what the season is!

Kisses to you Mia and Ava!!!

(thanks for the pictures Carl and Mindy!) 

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!

Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks

Artsy Fartsy Cake

Topsy Turvy Artsy Farsty Cake

For the longest time I've wanted to try to make one of these topsy turvy, rolled fondant, sculptural type cakes. This weekend I took the opportunity to do so when we hosted another party at our house, a birthday party for our friend Gerry Pas' and his family and friends. I took a whole day to experiment with this task on Friday, just to "get acquainted" with the rules of this style of cake making, which I knew NOTHING about. While I've never even tried to fool anyone into thinking I'm some great baker or cook, I do like to play with artsy food for special occasions, holidays, parties, etc... and who doesn't like to throw a party? I mean, I guess some people don't, but I DO when the mood strikes!  It might not be perfect but I'm fairly proud of it if I may say so myself! ...oh and BONUS...it even TASTES pretty darn good! Except the fondant part, fondant is just not my favorite thing...but it sure looks perty!

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!

Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks

IF ~ Expire

Winter has finally expired...

time to enjoy SPRING!!!!

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!

Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks

EBSQ Featured Artist!

I've also been featured in

EBSQ's Friday Five

today!

written by
 Amanda Makepeace

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!

Grab a cup of coffee and take a long luxurious gander at my website ArtQwerks

Milford Memories Featured Artist

Family a Fair

Beer Tent

I have been chosen as the featured artist for the

 Milford Memories Summer Festival

 August 13, 14, 15, 2010 

This is such an honor for me!

I would like to thank Joell Beether, Executive Director

of the Huron Valley Chamber of Commerce

for this amazing opportunity! 

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! 

to all of those at the Huron Valley Chamber of Commerce that made this possible!

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. They deserve a chance too.

Grab a cup of coffee and take a long luxurious gander at my website ArtQwerks

Harp Mouse Newspaper Article

click on article to enlarge

Wonderful newspaper article about author Diane Dunn and The Harp Mouse Chooses Her Home! This article was written by Lindsay Warren of the West Bloomfield Beacon. See more about Author Diane E Dunn and her process for creating and enjoying the rewards of publishing her children's books (and how I love illustrating them!)

See ALL Harp Mouse book reviews HERE 

When you purchase an item from My Store, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. They deserve a chance too.

Grab a cup of coffee and take a long luxurious gander at my website ArtQwerks

IF ~ Propagate

...color me shameless...

see more about Rachel Longhurst HERE

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. They deserve a chance too.

Grab a cup of coffee or glass of wine
depending on your alchoholic tendencies

and take a long luxurious gander at my website

ArtQwerks

IF ~ Muddy

He contemplated the past, but the details were a little muddy...

This illustration is from the soon to be released book "The Enchanted Tree of Crooked Lake" written by Rachel Longhurst (R.A.K. Publishing) and Illustrated by Donna Pellegata (that's me)

When you purchase an item from my store, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. They deserve a chance too.

Grab a cup of coffee or glass of wine depending on your preference

and take a long luxurious gander at my website

ArtQwerks

Main Street Art

My pet portrait work is being displayed in the window of Main Street Art for the month of February!

Come in and browse through the beautiful original art handcrafted by artists from around the U.S. and Canada, shop through Main Street Art's wide variety of art supplies and see some of their gorgeous specialized, creative custom framing works. If you have artwork, photos, heirlooms or ANYTHING that needs to be framed, they are the ones to do it in a creative professional style that will tickle your fancy! ...and who doesn't like to have their fancy tickled?

hmmmmmm...?

While you're at Main Street Art, you can check out my portrait prices , then contact me for a custom commissioned pet portrait of your very own! They make fabulous one of a kind gifts for any occasion or discriminating pet lover!

Grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine depending on the time of day and take a long luxurious gander at my website and see more of my work here:

ArtQwerks

When you purchase an item from my store, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. They deserve a chance too!

starting the next book...

Donna and Diane

hard at work on the second book

Donna and Diane muggin' it up

Diane E Dunn, author of The Harp Mouse Chooses her home: The Adventure Begins and I, started the next book in the Harp Mouse series yesterday. We really do have the best time working together, yukkin' (and muggin') it up! Yesterday we gathered our thoughts and dove right in to the newest book. The last book has almost sold out! The time is now to get one so you can have a copy of each book in the series, for your collection! We sold books to fans as we were working yesterday so get yours now before they're gone!

...and while your at it, get to know Diane...

visit Author Dianne Dunn's Facebook page

and her website Heart & Harp where you can purchase YOUR copy of the book!

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. They deserve a chance too.

Grab a cup of coffee and take a long luxurious gander at my website ArtQwerks

IF ~ Focused

Focus on this...

When you purchase an item from my store, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. They deserve a chance too.

Grab a cup of coffee and take a long luxurious gander at my website ArtQwerks

IF ~ Wilderness

Wilderness

This is a preliminary illustration for the book I finished illustrating just before Christmas, titled "The Enchanted Tree of Crooked Lake" written by Rachel Longhurst. It is not a final illustration, you can only see THAT in the book when it is released this spring! ;-D

Rachel also wrote "Where My Story Begins" and you can read more about her here!

When you purchase an item from my STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. They deserve a chance too.

Grab a cup of coffee and take a long luxurious gander at my website ArtQwerks

The Chamsah Project

The Chamsah Project

SOLD

Exhibition and Sale

January 10-March 7, 2010

Come see the work of many artists including

Donna Pellegata (that's me folks), Linda Onderko and Dan Persinger

The Janice Charach Gallery asked artists throughout the world to decorate plain, wooden chamsahs. Each chamsah begins the same, but through the careful hands of the artist is revealed to be a singular, masterful creation of great beauty. The result is a reflection of life itself: our commonality as human beings, and our extraordinary uniqueness as individuals.

When you purchase an item from my store, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. They deserve a chance too.

Grab a cup of coffee and take a long luxurious gander at my website ArtQwerks

IF ~ Confined

Well, well, well...I've got a jump on IF today because I can't seem to get out from in front of the computer to do anything else. There's a big hunk of snow storm on the ground outside so I'm calling it my own personal "snow day."

Translation: CONFINED/Blogday/procrastinateday/doanythingtokeep fromworkingorworkingoutday.

Anyhoo...the illo above is from The Harp Mouse Chooses Her Home: The Adventure Begins, the book I illustrated and Diane E Dunn wrote. As you can see, the Harp Mouse is confined, but what you can't see is that she's confined for a very good reason. Guess you'll have to read the book for that! ...and I happen to know the very place you can get a copy of it (click on the book in the column on the right!)

Below is the cutest picture of Diane and her new adopted kitty Noodles. He's quite the handsome specimen, don't you agree? I have a thing for rescue animals.

Diane and Noodles

(how cute is that picture!)

Just Noodles

Diane and I had the best time collaborating on the Harp Mouse book. She is so fabulous to work with and we have become great friends. There are not enough nice words in the dictionary to describe her so I'll have to make some up. She's absolutely phenomenastically talentabulous. A diverstual multifaceticulated author, musician, publisher, consultant and more. You can see more about her and what she does here:

Heart&Harp

Diane and I at our latest book signing before Christmas.

I love working with her! If you can call it work, it's too much fun to be called working!

When you purchase an item from my store, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. They deserve a chance too.

Grab a cup of coffee and take a long luxurious gander at my website...

ArtQwerks

IF ~ Renewal

Today we have the renewal of the word "Pioneer" because I just got around to finishing this and by gosh by golly I'm posting it for IF.

...just call me trailblazer...

When you purchase an item from my store, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. They deserve a chance too.

Grab a cup of coffee (or wine, depending on the time of day or your alchoholic tendencies) and take a long luxurious gander at my website...

ArtQwerks

Under the Watchful Eye

See my work here this weekend!

Exhibition and Sale

January 10 – March 7, 2010

The Janice Charach Gallery asked artists throughout the world to decorate plain, wooden chamsahs. Each chamsah begins the same, but through the careful hands of the artist is revealed to be a singular, masterful creation of great beauty. The result is a reflection of life itself: our commonality as human beings, and our extraordinary uniqueness as individuals.

Opening Receptions:Sunday, January 10

Gallery Patron Preview and Presale – NoonPublic Opening – 1 p.m.

For more information, please call 248.432.5579or visit http://www.jccdet.org/.

Visit the Gallery Opening livestream at https://74.204.85.21/.

When you purchase an item from my store, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. They deserve a chance too.

Grab a cup of coffee and take a long luxurious gander at my website ArtQwerks

New Year!

Now that the new year has begun, it might behoove me to to start picking up the ball where I dropped it before the holidays and pay a little more attention to my blog here. I don't know about the rest of you but that was one whirlwind of a season (just like every year) and I had a great time, but I sure am glad it's done and I can get back to work. I decided to list a bunch of my contemporary art pieces on ebay today, so please take a moment to check those out. Since I closed my ebay store, I'll just send you right over to my "about me" page and all you'll have to do is scroll down and click on the artwork listed for sale. Pictures of my horses are on that page too, although Buddy (the one with the blond mane) left us for the great hay bale in the sky about a year ago. I just can't bring myself to take his picture down. HE was a great horse. I swear I could look him in the eye and he knew what I was thinking. Usually I was thinking, he must be thinking "she's nuts if she thinks she's gonna put a saddle on me!"

I'll miss him forever.

...ANYWAY...

go here to peek at my contemporary works: About Me on eBay

When you purchase an item from my store, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. They deserve a chance too.

Grab a cup of coffee and take a long luxurious gander at my website ArtQwerks

IF ~ Undone

These two have a love for the holidays and for each other that cannot be undone.

OH OK!!!!! I've been away for a week or so, so I'm playing catch up by posting fairly early (for me anyway) for the current Illustration Friday. I'm somewhat discombobulated with the time, as I'm sure we ALL are during this hectic holiday season, so instead of using this illustration that was supposed to be for Entangled two weeks ago (or last week, or whenever it was), I'm now using it for Undone THIS week. It works if you hold your head right. I'll just consider this a Christmas present to myself because there's so much to do, what with all the holiday busy-ness between now and next week.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

When you purchase an item from ArtQwerks Store (I know of a great book that would make an awesome present for some adorable someone on your list), 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. They deserve a chance too.

Grab a cup of coffee and take a long luxurious gander at my website
ArtQwerks

Got Milk?

Alrighty then...I'm going to milk this holiday market until the cows come home and since the only animals living here are horses, dogs, one fish and an occasional mouse in the barn, that's going to be a very long time...at least until the holidays are over. The Holiday Art Market contains an array of many beautiful paintings, fiber art (wearable and to drool overable) and other amazing works from the artists that were exhibiting at the HVCA Arts and Greens the weekend before Thanksgiving. See their new stuff too! They have all come together under one warm and toasty roof at the HVCA Gallery in Highland MI. Come join us on Sunday, December 6th for the official opening of the market and meet the artists, listen to great music and to Heiner Hertling while he reads his illustrated children's book, A Pirates Quest, a delightful, gorgeously illustrated gift for any child (or adult, I bought mine when it first came out last year), watch artists demonstrate their talents and shop while you nosh on snicky snacks. You can peruse the HVCA Art Shop Gallery too while you're there! So come and get started, continue or finish up your holiday shopping here, where you will find fantastic unique and beautifully crafted art gifts for everyone at every age on your list! The HVCA Holiday Art Market is open December 1st through the 24th.

...oh yeah, I'll be there too!

When you purchase an item from my store, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. They deserve a chance too.

Grab a cup of coffee and take a long luxurious gander at my website ArtQwerks