"Happy Halloween" -- oil on stretched canvas -- 30x40" -- Margie Guyot

"Happy Halloween" (Detail)

As a kid growing up in Iowa, I always loved Halloween. My cousins and I would make up the most fantastic costumes and go trick-or-treating weeks in advance. There was no special designated night for trick-or-treating back then, so we'd make the most of it, turning it into 5 or 6 nights. We'd go to each other's neighborhoods and stay out for 3 - 4 hours at a time.

Halloween was NOT a good time to live in or near Detroit, however. For 30 years I lived on the outskirts of Detroit, where the holiday was marred with vandalism and arson. They didn't call it "Devil's Night" for nothing. Thank goodness I moved away.

I wanted to include the two classic Halloween candies: candy corn and those horrible peanut taffy confections that came wrapped in orange and black wax paper. Ugh! Even as a kid, I never cared for either. But they do say "Halloween", don't they? Found a package of each at the dollar store. I checked to see if they were made in China (no -- Indiana). My holy grail was "Almond Joy".

Probably the first thing I'd found that inspired me to do this piece were the clear plastic owl trays. They came from a Charlevoix consignment shop. The clear glass-covered pumpkin dish also came from a resale shop in Ellsworth. As with most of my still lifes, everything either comes from a resale shop or garage sale. I love it: shopping roulette! I love the concept of trusting in the Universe to steer one towards things they need.

Don't you just love the warty pumpkin? Actually, I've been told it's really a squash. Today I'm going to bake it and maybe make a pie.

I've had that black ceramic cat teapot for probably 30 years. Love that thing. It's probably about the only thing I bought new, aside from the candy.

The first things I painted in this piece were the maple leaves. I knew they wouldn't last but a day before drying up. It's getting late in the season and I feared waking up some morning to find all the leaves on the ground before I'd had a chance to paint them.

Maybe working in the auto factory was a good thing in that it got me used to constant interruptions, struggles and aggravations. I've adopted 2 little kitties for the studio and they interrupted me constantly. Kept wanting to climb up my legs, sit on my lap, wanting me to play with them all the time. At the end of every painting session I'd have to lock up the palette in another room, as they wanted to walk all over it.

I included a close-up detail shot of Elvis, my favorite cat. This is the third time I've included him in a painting. He typically hangs around me all the time, watching and guarding me from errant mice.

"Ford Explorer" -- plein air field study -- oil on birch panel -- Margie Guyot

A sunny day here! I hung around until mid-day, waiting for the temperature to rise up from the below zero range. What to paint, what to paint? I couldn't resist it any longer: what I wanted to paint was my red Explorer, sitting out in the driveway. I loved how it cast blue shadows onto the snowbanks and how it reflected the blue of the sky. And yes, that's a layer of snow on top, between the luggage rack bars. Remnants of snow also cling to the top of the hood and front grill.


Believe it or not, but I actually was feeling a bit hot. Had on all my full array of long underwear and hi-tech boots, etc. Even my zebra cowboy hat. Had to unzip a few things.

Then the chickadees were buzzing me. Earlier, I'd held sunflower seeds in the palm of my hand when I refilled their feeder. Some of them were sitting in my hand, eating. So when they saw me again they must have thought I had more sunflower seeds for them.

Elvis and Matisse, my cats, were outside, prowling around, airing themselves out. We'd had about 18" of snow last week and I think everybody and everything was happy to get out into the glorious sun for a change. Elvis likes to hang around me and gives me meows of approval.

"All Good Cats Go to Heaven" -- oil on canvas -- 60x36" -- Margie Guyot

I did this one last summer and just realized I hadn't posted this. It all started with finding this fluffy pink prom dress in a garage sale. It was SO pretty, with rhinestones and sequins. Size 2, so it would never fit me, but I bought it to put into a painting or two.

While take a shower a day or so later, I had the idea to paint a surreal vision of a white fairy cat, wearing the "fairy dress", wielding a magic wand, surrounded by cats enjoying catnip and playing with little glowing orbs. The cat in the lower right corner is Matisse, my longhair cat who catches and eats red squirrels. My other cat, Elvis, is the gray tuxedo cat on the left side, about midway in the painting. On my bed I have a giant black jaguar, which I painted in the background, overlooking the cat fairy.

I'm entering this one into the Scarab Club's annual "Blooms, Bugs and Beasts" show tomorrow.

"Gazing Globe" -- oil on canvas -- 48x48"

Last fall I trekked over to my neighbor's house and borrowed her purple gazing globe to use in a painting. Spring's just about here and I figured she'd want it back, so I got on the stick and did a yellow and purple-themed still life. Bright colors are my personal antidote to the dismal, sour-owlshit colors of Michigan winter. When I'm painting something with bright colors, listening to Diana Krall, it takes my mind off the factory or the frozen tundra outside. I imagine it's almost as thrilling as being in Key West, sipping a cold one under a palm tree.

It took me a good 2 weeks to do this one, slugging away on it on weekends and in the afternoons, after work. Pretty challenging to do. I work in the spare bedroom upstairs and it's pretty cramped, but manageable. The deep purple fabric is really a jacket. The yellow fabric with the purple and black squigglies is actually a dress I own. Life's too short for beige, honey! The red pieces are red tissue and a red plastic bag. My ascendant (astrologically-speaking) is Cancer, the Crab -- and it's been said that we just love packages and bags. They say that we tend to love the package the present comes in far more than what's inside -- and I'd agree! You should see all the boxes in my garage! But I digress. I found that great, gnarly glass vase at a consignment shop. I got to an estate sale in the last hour, expecting all the cool stuff to be gone, but I thought if there's anything I'm meant to have, it'll be there. And there it was, waiting for me: the iguana, marked down from $20 to $5! My lucky day.

The very first thing I painted in (or "nailed", as we say in the trade) was the canary melon. Waste not, want not. I quickly painted it in, then took it down to the kitchen, cut it up and ate it while I worked on the rest of the painting.

Notice the cat in the lower right corner? That's my dear Elvis, checking on me.