Goodbye Maurice Sendak, we’ll miss you.

09. May 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Free Coloring pages, Illustration, Thoughts

happy mother's day tribute to maurice sendak by wendy martinA picture book great passed away yesterday morning.

Maurice Sendak was best known for his story “Where the Wild Things Are.” While I enjoyed that story with the rest of the world, my all time favorite book by Mr. Sendak has got to be “In the Night Kitchen.” I remember thumbing through the pages for hours at a neighbor’s house soaking in the many mysteries embedded into the art. I don’t think I ever bothered to read the words.

Years later, when my daughter was born, I came across an old DVD with 4 of Mr. Sendak’s stories in stop motion images being sung by a female vocalist. One of the stories was “In the Night Kitchen.” Hearing the words sung and seeing the images brought the book alive for me all over again.

My daughter is grown now, but that video was picked out of her GoodWill donation box and saved with several other treasures she felt she’d outgrown, but I know I never will.

Sendak’s work was greatly influential in my path to being a children’s book illustrator. His words of wisdom along with his body of work will remain in a place of honor in this house for years to come.

Goodbye, Maurice. Hope the other side is as wild a rumpus as you would like.

I wonder, if Viking Warriors go to Valhalla when they die, do picture book illustrators go to a fully stocked art studio?

This week’s coloring page honors Maurice Sendak. A young boy in his wolf suit stops being a wild thing long enough to give his mom a card and some flowers. Of course, he was just wild enough to pull them from the neighbor’s garden. Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms out there.

Click on the image to get your 8.5X11 download coloring page.

I love to hear from you. Emails, comments and your colored pages make my day.

Email your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpage (at) handcraftedpagan (dot) com and I’ll post it to my blog!

Sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and/or click here to view more coloring pages!

Do you have a special request for a coloring page? Let me know either via an email or through one of my social networking sites. I’m on Twitter and Facebook. Let me know that you found me here in a message so I know why you’re following me.

I send out coloring pages to let people know about me, my art and my children’s books. Click on the covers to find out more.

Help support my efforts by spreading the word or buying any of my books. Please stop by any of my social networking sites to leave me a message (here is good too!) and let me know how you like the coloring pages. Remember, I provide these pages free of charge for your own personal use. Do not reproduce them or use them for any other purpose without my written permission.

Earth Day is April 22 – here’s a coloring page for you

17. April 2012 · 1 comment · Categories: Free Coloring pages, Illustration, Thoughts · Tags: , , , ,

earth day 2012 coloring page by wendy martinI’ve been keeping myself entertained by listening to the various TED talks while I draw. Some of them are very good information, some are just fun and silly. Last week, I listened to one talk about the other “inconvenient truth.” (No, not global warming, although after this past winter and record-breaking warm March, I wonder how any one can still doubt that.) What’s that you say?

According to the speaker, Jonathan Foley, we are going to run out of food for the population of earth in a very short while. Possibly as soon as our children’s lifetimes, most assuredly by their children’s lifetimes. That’s a pretty scary thought. Jonathan Foley studies complex environmental systems and their effects on society. His computer models have shown the deep impact agriculture is having on our planet.

This week’s coloring page is a brave mouse holding up the world. What are you doing to support Mother Earth?

Click on the image to get your 8.5X11 download coloring page.

I love to hear from you. Emails, comments and your colored pages make my day.

Email your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpage (at) handcraftedpagan (dot) com and I’ll post it to my blog!

Sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and/or click here to view more coloring pages!

Do you have a special request for a coloring page? Let me know either via an email or through one of my social networking sites. I’m on Twitter and Facebook. Let me know that you found me here in a message so I know why you’re following me.

I send out coloring pages to let people know about me, my art and my children’s books. Click on the covers to find out more.

Help support my efforts by spreading the word or buying any of my books. Please stop by any of my social networking sites to leave me a message (here is good too!) and let me know how you like the coloring pages. Remember, I provide these pages free of charge for your own personal use. Do not reproduce them or use them for any other purpose without my written permission.

Flamingo Tango coloring page

09. April 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: Free Coloring pages, Illustration, Thoughts · Tags: , , , , , ,

flamingo tango coloring page by wendy martinI just got back from taking my daughter to get her learner’s permit. This is her second one. She let the last one expire without ever driving the required 30 pre-driver’s test hours and then promptly lost it.

She’s planning on moving out as soon as school is over for the year. I hope she manages to figure out the driving thing by then as I have no clue how one can function as a full-fledged adult in Missouri without driving.

When I left home at 18, I moved to New York City. NYC has one of the most extensive mass transit systems in the world. I could get nearly everywhere I wanted by a combination of bus, subway or train for the 12 years I lived there. Then I moved to another state and had to *gasp* learn to drive and buy a car so I could become gainfully employed. Also, so I could actually open a bank account because – even though I had a NY driver’s license, it didn’t have a photo on it and all the banks in my new home town required some form of PICTURE ID. They wouldn’t even accept my passport since it had expired 2 years earlier.

One of the things I still miss to this day, several decades after leaving NYC, is convenient and affordable mass transit. Do you have any idea how many things I got done while traveling on a subway? Scores of books, hours of doodles, piles of writing and countless wonderful daydreams. You can’t (safely) do any of those things while commuting and driving a car.

I also had to get my own driver’s license renewed. This time around my photo doesn’t make me look as if I am suffering a severe hangover. I even look younger! LOL Got get your perks where you can.

This week’s coloring page is a pair of flamingos dancing the tango. I have to tell you, flamingos are not built to dance a tango, but I think I managed to make this pair appropriately entwined. Think pink and enjoy!

Click on the image to get your 8.5X11 download coloring page.

I love to hear from you. Emails, comments and your colored pages make my day.

Email your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpage (at) handcraftedpagan (dot) com and I’ll post it to my blog!

Sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and/or click here to view more coloring pages!

Do you have a special request for a coloring page? Let me know either via an email or through one of my social networking sites. I’m on Twitter and Facebook. Let me know that you found me here in a message so I know why you’re following me.

I send out coloring pages to let people know about me, my art and my children’s books. Help support my efforts by spreading the word or buying any of my books. Please stop by any of my social networking sites to leave me a message (here is good too!) and let me know how you like the coloring pages. Remember, I provide these pages free of charge for your own personal use. Do not reproduce them or use them for any other purpose without my written permission.

April’s full moon coloring page

05. April 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: Free Coloring pages, Illustration, Thoughts · Tags: ,

pink moon coloring page by W MartinThis week’s coloring page is for the full moon this week. April’s full moon in the Northern Hemisphere is called the Pink Moon (for the flowers in bloom), the Egg Moon, the Sprouting Grass Moon and last but not least the Easter Moon. Yes, Easter is a holiday that follows the first full moon of Spring. Strange how all paths converge at some point or another, isn’t it?

Click on the image to get your 8.5X11 download coloring page.

I love to hear from you. Emails, comments and your colored pages make my day.

Email your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpage (at) handcraftedpagan (dot) com and I’ll post it to my blog!

Sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and/or click here to view more coloring pages!

Do you have a special request for a coloring page? Let me know either via an email or through one of my social networking sites. I’m on Twitter and Facebook. Let me know that you found me here in a message so I know why you’re following me.

I send out coloring pages to let people know about me, my art and my children’s books. Help support my efforts by spreading the word or buying any of my books. Please stop by any of my social networking sites to leave me a message (here is good too!) and let me know how you like the coloring pages. Remember, I provide these pages free of charge for your own personal use. Do not reproduce them or use them for any other purpose without my written permission.

Rabbit egg planting coloring page

28. March 2012 · 2 comments · Categories: Free Coloring pages, Illustration, Thoughts · Tags: , , , ,

Even though it’s still March, we have our garden planted out back.

I’m really excited to taste the first crop. We’ve never had a real, planned garden on our property before. When my father-in-law was alive, we used to work his garden with him and reap the benefits every Sunday. For several years after his death, my husband and his siblings tried to plant a garden for my mother-in-law, but with everyone working full-time jobs, the garden was sadly neglected and after a while, no one bothered any more.

My husband has been talking about putting in raised beds in the back for several years, but all things being equal, it never happened.

This year it has. Can you tell I’m thrilled?

This week’s coloring page is in honor of the small sprouting gems of yummy poking their leafy goodness out of the ground.

Click on the image to get your 8.5X11 download coloring page.

I love to hear from you. Emails, comments and your colored pages make my day.

Email your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpage (at) handcraftedpagan (dot) com and I’ll post it to my blog!

Sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and/or click here to view more coloring pages!

Do you have a special request for a coloring page? Let me know either via an email or through one of my social networking sites. I’m on Twitter and Facebook. Let me know that you found me here in a message so I know why you’re following me.

I send out coloring pages to let people know about me, my art and my children’s books. Help support my efforts by spreading the word or buying any of my books. Please stop by any of my social networking sites to leave me a message (here is good too!) and let me know how you like the coloring pages. Remember, I provide these pages free of charge for your own personal use. Do not reproduce them or use them for any other purpose without my written permission.

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