Bookworm kitty cat aceo original art by Tahirih Goffic

"Bookworm" 2.5" x 3.5" ACEO oil on canvas paper

This is one of the ACEO's I sold last week on ebay.
Check out my new listings on Tuesday night. I should have a bunch more.
I enjoy doing these little paintings. I can get the great feeling of accomplishment that comes with finishing a painting, but in an hour instead of a week. It's a nice break sometimes, and they sell like hotcakes, too. It's a nice way to make a few extra bucks every week.

Randy Hall

"Randy" 12" x 12" oil on canvas

This is my husband's son, Randy. He's a handsome guy, and he looked so intense in this pose that I thought I'd try to capture his intensity.

Hula Girl

"Hula Girl" 9"x 12" oil on canvas

I took the photo for this one last winter in Maui at the Children's Hula in Lahaina. Although it was indoors, the light through the skylights was very dramatic, and I was able to get a lot of great shots. The sun shining today made me feel "Mauish", so I thought I'd post this painting, which I did a few weeks ago in a frenzy of creativity. I think I completed six paintings that week, all larger ones, too. I'm sure most of them will eventually end up on this blog, too.
I'm starting to feel a little like I'm coming out of the darkness of an extremely long and difficult winter. The weather is warmer, the grass is starting to come up, and I have tulips! It makes me feel like painting again, and dancing, and smiling...all that good stuff.
Happy Spring!

"Miss Wendle~Barkerville" 16 x 20" oil on canvas

Here's another of the previously "undercover" Barkerville paintings. I really liked the challenge with this one. The wrinkles in her shirt, the lace of the curtains, and the wallpaper patterning all gave me quite the hassle, but overall, I'm pretty happy with the result, although the paint took on a weird sheen in the far left where the glare is. The photo has quite a glare on the left hand side from the sheen that's not really there, though. I have to re-take all of my art photos now that I have the use of a good camera.

St. Saviour's Anglican Church

"St. Saviour's - Barkerville" 18" x 24" oil on canvas

Well, at this point my involvement in the Inside Barkerville project has been put on hiatus, my I now feel free to post some of the paintings I did for it. It consumed a lot of my time, and I finished a lot of work during that period. I am grateful for the experience, and the practice in illustration, but I doubt very much that I'll go back to this exacting style of painting. Nevertheless, I did turn out a few good paintings, and this one was one of the most challenging. I don't have much experience with buildings, and painting straight edges, and I am pleased with how it ended up.

Mr. Grimsby

"Mr. Grimsby" 8"x 10" oil on canvas

This is one of the most memorable Barkerville characters, Mr. Grimsby. He does a great comedy skit at the waterwheel, as a miner selling his claim. I've had many laughs watching it. Dave, the guy who portrays Mr. Grimsby has been there since I was a child, and has one of the greatest, character-filled faces. I just had to paint him.

John "Cariboo" Cameron

John "Cariboo" Cameron 18" x 24" oil on canvas

This is a portrait of the actor in Barkerville portraying the character of John Cameron, the first man to strike it big-time rich there. He discovered gold on December 22, 1862, but his wife had recently died, and he decided to return to Victoria in February to grant his wife her last wish, a decent burial at home, for she despised the cold, miserable north where her husband had his claim on Williams Creek. This is an amazing story in itself, and you can read more about it at
http://www.cariboo-net.com/sentinel/vol2/cameron1.htm. This particular image is at a time in the performance when he is reminiscing about his dead wife and child.

Anyways, after his return, he mined vigorously from April until October of 1863, and the gold was so abundant that it was being mined not by the ounce but by the pan. By October, Cameron had taken out the equivalent of $5 million in today's dollars and Cameron Co. became the richest claim in the colony.