"G" is for Glowing Heart #atozchallenge

"Glowing Heart" ©Mary Montague Sikes

"G" is for Glowing Heart in the A to Z Blog Challenge.

As writers, we often point out descriptive details such as "her heart glowed with pride." The author and the painter in me loves the thought of a glowing heart. But how do you show it?

My painting for today will probably need a little tweaking when the canvas is complete and full of "Dancing Hearts". For some reason, the gold paint is showing as white in this post, so you are not seeing exactly what I painted. I liked the idea of gold glowing around the red heart filled with bits of other colors. Perhaps there should be many more colors. A rainbow of color flecks would surely glow. Probably, I could have experimented a little more, but I was stopped by an exceptionally busy week.

Do you use words like "her heart glowed" in your writing? Is that pushing the descriptive image a little too far?

"F" is for Fragile Heart. #atozblogchallenge

"Fragile Heart" ©Mary Montague Sikes

"F" is for Fragile Heart, my post for today's A to Z Blog Challenge.

Whether we want to admit it, all of us from time to time have a fragile heart. We are hurt by something someone says or does. We are unhappy about a perceived lack, real or unreal. The list goes on.

I would love to show a heart of china, but that would take artistic abilities and patience beyond me. A pale blue-green acrylic paint represents fragility.

Do you have a fragile heart? Do you know someone who does?

"E" is for Expanding Heart #atozchallenge

"Expanding Heart" ©Mary Montague Sikes

"E" is for Expanding Heart in today's A to Z Blog Challenge. Every mother knows how her heart expands with the birth of a child. She has love she never expected, and her heart grows to include that love.

How do you demonstrate a heart of expanding love? There are many ways, I suspect, and all of them might work as an artistic statement. This is my version--one of my thoughts on the expanding heart. This is acrylic and is part of the "Hearts" project on the 24" x 48" stretched canvas. Please see what you think.

"D" is for Dramatic Heart #atozchallenge

"Dramatic Heart" ©Mary Montague Sikes

"D" is for Dramatic Heart in the A to Z Blog Challenge. This heart is quite different from my earlier ones.

Probably, most people have encountered a "drama queen" - someone who always has a great crisis occurring in her life. Even the smallest detail can become a performance spectacle that is spelled out with theatrical flair.

That's what my dramatic heart is portraying. It represents a very different kind of heart, one that is more aloof and beyond all the others.

Do you know a drama queen? How would you represent her with a heart?

"C" is for Chaotic Heart #atozchallenge

"Chaotic Heart" ©Mary Montague Sikes

"C" is for Chaotic Heart on day 3 of the A to Z Blog Challenge. As a writer and reader of romance, I know that the chaotic heart exists. This traumatic heart often confuses the heroine of books. Perhaps something happens in the story to cause her to believe the love of her life has found another love. Her heart is troubled and she faces chaos. It is a dark turn for story.

"From my sketchbook - pastels" ©Mary Montague Sikes

I have a sketchbook to help me plan the hearts for the 24" x 48" painting I am working on during the A to Z Challenge. This is page one of the pastel sketches that I am using very loosely for the little paintings on the canvas. Today's painting did not turn out quite as planned. I had already created a strong under-texture for my heart, and painting small symbols and designs over this base did not seem quite right. Having little working drawings is a big help though no matter how far I might depart from them. This is fun, and the big painting is developing.