Art

Nature’s Beauty, new adult coloring book

by Kristen James

I published a second adult coloring book!

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This one features flowers like my first one, along with birds, sea creatures, and mermaids. I included a few of my favorite drawings from the first one as well.

This one has a few illustrations that include the linework and then a shaded version.

I love getting creative in lots of different ways, and making pretty pictures. The cover illustration was inspired by the fushia bush in my mom’s yard. It attracted tons of hummingbirds every year. You could lay under it and watch the tiny birds buzzing around and fighting.

7.99 on Amazon; click the cover to go purchase.

Relax, Renew & Rejuvenate with flower and ocean scenes inspired by the West Coast! Coloring not only calms you, it energizes you and boosts your creativity. Lose yourself and relax while coloring these hand drawn flower, bird, and sea illustrations inspired by Oregon, the Pacific Ocean, and nature’s beauty. Illustrations are printed on one side so you can display your finished artwork without worrying about color bleeding through. Some drawings have linework and grayscale (shaded) versions. From the illustrator of Flower Therapy: Adult Coloring Book.

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Happy Autumn!

by Kristen James

Happy Halloween (if you celebrate) and happy everything autumn! It seems like almost everyone I know says fall is their favorite time of year. Or maybe we all feel that way as it draws near, and we sip our pumpkin latte and pull out the fun decorations.

I need to decorate for a birthday/autumn/festival party next weekend. My mind has been focused more on the yummy treats I want to make.

I also love to get out into the woods this time of year and hunt for chanterelle mushrooms. Hiking is fun in the summer, of course, but it feels magical to go out in the bright yellow and orange leaves, walk between the towering evergreens,  maybe in the mist or rain, and see how the forest changes.

So… I have been very bad about updating my blog this year.  Instead of working on a novel, I focused more on my painting and even began training as a tattoo artist.

I still plan to write! I just wanted to expand my horizons, and I love expressing myself in many creative ways from writing to painting to tattooing. Life got super hectic while I was training, but now it’s settling down a little bit, and I have to say I love tattooing!

You can check out my work at https://www.instagram.com/kchaneyart – there’s some pretty Oregon creek photos too.

One of my designs–I love nature themes:steelhead with color

 

 

It’s a perfect day when I can write and tattoo, or write and paint, and basically explore lots of ways to be creative. And it never hurts if I can sip hot apple cider or a cinnamon-chocolate-mocha while doing what I love!

Hope you’re having an awesome autumn with lots of creativity, and/or yummy drinks, or a hike on a misty trail surrounded by a rainbow of fall colors. 🙂

6 Years!!

by Kristen James

I was looking through my Facebook page the other day and something hit me: I started that page and this blog back in March of 2011, six years ago!

It’s been a fun ride since then, and I’m so grateful not just that I get to be an author, but that I am living the life that I am. I’m a super creative person in several formats, and being self employed and working at home allows me to draw, paint, and explore other art forms. I like painting Oregon landscapes in acrylic and oil, drawing flowers for body art in temporary jagua ink, and I’m starting to explore things like wood burning and even tattooing fruit.

And of course I love to create new stories! It’s an amazing journey, and each novel is a process where I enjoy writing it, getting to know the characters and their arcs, and learning more about storytelling.

Seems like I should celebrate 6 years of blogging!

I posted an audiobook giveaway on my FB page, with 5 copies of Point Hope up for grabs.

And I have a bunch of my Kindle ebooks on a 99 cent special for a while, including Covetous if you haven’t read it yet!

I’ll come up with some fun things throughout the month of April too.

So my next novel…. a past/present time split story

I’ve been painting a lot so far this year, and I’ll share those below, but I wanted to tell you about the novel I’m writing. It’s about a woman in a dying marriage–Lily can grasp the issue but doesn’t know how to get around it. She desperately wants a baby and her husband Mic is dead set against it. She wishes for a different life and wakes up on the Oregon Trail with Mic and their children. That’s all I’m sharing for now! I’m 20,000 words into the book, and I’m not sure how long it’ll be. So more to come…!

Here’s a few of my paintings; I love painting Oregon forests and the beach. And the last pic is my newest tattoo–very Hawaiian themed this time!