Julianna Mackenzie

Or rather, presents make great practice. I’ve been attempting to paint with acrylic more often, and learn art skills along the way – color theory, palette knife techniques, underpainting, etc. With a bit more skill than money, presents tend to be handmade from me. Hand-knit gloves, hand-sewn bags, sachets, etc. This year, that’s meant paintings. The first of which was an octopus for my dad, per his request. This felt like my first real try at using acrylic paint thoughtfully. Inspired by a google image of an octopus, I tried to capture the reality while accepting the artistic license to make colors more vibrant, details more cartoonish. My dad was…

I built this website to showcase my art and share my writing back in 2025. At the time, I was eight or nine months pregnant and thought, “maternity leave…. I’ll have so much time to journal and blog and paint! The baby will sleep and I will create.” Anyone who has had a baby may be chuckling at my naiveté´, or maybe you are one of the lucky few whose baby sleeps both at night and during naps, maybe even in their crib. We are lucky beyond measure, but not so when it come’s to our little one’s sleeping habits. So, I built this little platform, figured out the formatting…