Trial, Error, Error, Repeat

Yesterday was another day of website building.  There are some things with WordPress that drives me crazy, such as when I post the link to my website on Facebook, it doesn't have a thumbnail image on it, and I've tried all the tutorials to fix the problem, but it persists.

Inspite of that, my website is coming along, I am making progress with it.  I've imported past blog posts there, and for a while I'll be posting on both, but soon I'll be moving.  I hope that those who have followed me on blogger will come over to my wordpress site and follow me there as well.  It can be found at http://ArdentReflections.com.

In addition to the website work, I've been adding up the cost of doing business as an artist over the past year, comparing that to what I've made in sales, just to find out how much money I've made lost as an artist, I won't share details, but I will say that I can see where the term starving artist comes from.  I didn't expect profit over this year, but I did expect a smaller deficit than I saw.  Oh well, there were a lot of expenses that I won't have to repeat any time soon, like buying a canopy for art shows, tables for the canopy, a cart to move supplies with at art shows, etc.

Last but not least, I actually got a little painting done, I'm still not happy with the clouds in my sky, but I'm getting closer to what I want.  One thing I am figuring out with this sunset though, is that I have to stop in between colors and let things dry, otherwise my oranges, and purples mix into brown, and my yellows and blues mix into green.  Here are two photos, neither one seems to really be right in color, the first one comes closer but is brighter than the painting really is I think...oh well,  what can you expect from a cell phone?

During my next session I will bring the purple and then blue up further in up in the sky, and cover those strange finger like projections I called clouds, then I will try puttin in some less finger like clouds, I can see it in my mind now, when before I couldn't, so hopefully I'll be able to translate that onto the canvas.    Then I'll bring more color into the darker blue water, the lighter blue area is actually going to be covered with land, as is the horizon line, so that the bay comes between where the viewer "stands" and the other side of the bay.  I'm not really concerned about how much experimentation this is taking, I mean after all, this is how I've learned EVERYTHING I know about painting so far, by trying, messing up, and trying again, until I get I get it right.

Thank you for reading! If you liked what you see, please consider following this blog with Google Friend connect, or follow me on Google+, or if you prefer, you can follow by email and get notified each time the blog is updated. See the right hand column to follow in any of these ways! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

Fine Art America is the place to go for Prints of all my Paintings.

 

My etsy shop is the place to go to buy my originals and request commissioned work. A few select prints are available here as well!

A Throwback on Thursday

What does an artist post on her blog when she hasn't had time for making art? Old Art!

Well, its not that old, I believe I did this one at some point in 2014, it might have 2013 though....  hmmm...

I haven't decided on a title for this abstract piece yet, in fact, I had forgotten all about it until I started looking through my mixed media sketch book. This was done with sharpies.  You probably recognize the similar style between this one and Inlets to Illusion, all of the pieces done in this style are intuitive, in that there isn't a set plan other than to do something different in each little section of the painting, just whatever feels right. The smaller ones, like this, that I can hold in my lap and work on, are quite relaxing, almost meditative to work on.  Inlets to Illusion wasn't as relaxing because it was too big to carry with me and work on when I had a minute, instead, I had to set aside time, pull out my easel, and dedicate myself to working on it. But this smaller piece just came with me to various places and I worked on it while I talked to people, while I waited at the doctors office, or whenever.  This picture of it is lower resolution than what I use for prints, I just used my scanner for this, I'll get better images and upload it to Fine Art America soon.   If anyone has a title idea, let me know!

Thank you for reading! If you liked what you see, please consider following this blog with Google Friend connect, or follow me on Google+, or if you prefer, you can follow by email and get notified each time the blog is updated. See the right hand column to follow in any of these ways! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!


Fine Art America is the place to go for Prints of all my Paintings.

 

My etsy shop is the place to go to buy my originals and request commissioned work. A few select prints are available here as well!

The Future of Art

Art has been around as long as human beings, from the time the first person picked up a charred stick and began drawing that day's hunt onto the rock wall of the cave that was home, and all along through the years, art has changed.  There have been times when it was respected, times when it was ridiculed, times when it was valued, and times when it was taken for granted. It has continued to exist through all times because it is part of being human.  That little spark of creativity, is in my mind, the thing that lets us know we are made in the image of the Master Artist and Creator.

Art as business though... when did that start?  Was the man in the cave considered the community historian, and given an extra share of the hunt in exchange for his services, or did the rest of the tribe look on with bemusement at his strange pastime?  We will likely never know the answer, however at some point, artists began being paid for their skill and talent, and a few were brave enough to try to make their living at it.

There have been times when the art business was doing well, when people have had the extra money to buy something if they liked it, and times when it was doing poorly, and the artist struggles for food and shelter.
Where is it now? Somewhere in between those extremes, at somewhat of a crossroads.  Various societal trends are impacting the art market, and will shape it in the future.

So, here are a few developments I predict in the art business, some of which are already happening.

1. More wearable art.  Art on T-shirts, art on shoes, art on necklace pendants, purses, and coats.  This is both printed art, and art that it is hand painted right on the products.

2. Smaller pieces.  Mini canvases that can be made into Christmas ornaments and refrigerator magnets, this is art that those in the downsizing movement can still embrace.

3. Street art that is created fast, in front of the buyer, providing both entertainment and an inexpensive piece of art.  Such as seen in this video.

4. Related to the above, but a little different,  is visual art AS performance art, as seen in these videos (though not all of us artist have the ability or desire to do this):

5. Art for the plugged-in generation.  Something similar to itunes, but for visual art. What do I mean? Well perhaps a purchase of a specific brand of digital picture frame, and then a library of digital files of artwork that could be downloaded onto that frame, with the artist getting a small royalty for each download.  I think something like that would be nice for those in smaller spaces also, since they could download several "pieces" and then rotate which one would show, providing them with changeable art.  It would also be more affordable than buying several original paintings or prints.

6. More "art classes as social time", such as "art parties" where people gather and an artist takes them step by step through how to create a painting, or make a mosaic, or some other project.  These are already gaining popularity, and I predict more growth in that area as people are looking for an alternative then dinner or a movie when wanting to get out.

7. More commissioned work.  For those people who do have their own home with room for art, often, they have something specific in mind, a specific color scheme or subject matter that they want for their home, what better way than to hire an artist to make it just for them?

Most of all though, I see art just simply continuing on, as it has since the times of the cave-paintings.


Thank you for reading! If you liked what you see, please consider following this blog with Google Friend connect, or follow me on Google+, or if you prefer, you can follow by email and get notified each time the blog is updated. See the right hand column to follow in any of these ways! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

Fine Art America is the place to go for Prints of all my Paintings.

 

My etsy shop is the place to go to buy my originals and request commissioned work. A few select prints are available here as well!

Finally Decent Photos!

Way back LAST YEAR or a week and half ago, however you look at it, I posted a cellphone photo of my painting, "Inlets to Illusion" and promised that I would soon have a quality photo of it to share.  Well, my setup for photographing my paintings is not ideal, I have to rely on outdoor weather to be just right, namely, it must be overcast over the entire sky, but not raining, not windy, etc.  So, I've been biding my time, waiting, and yesterday the weather was perfect for photography of fine art!

So finally I get to share with you not only my "Inlets to Illusion", but also the painting that I finished on Friday and posted cellphone photos of on Saturday.

First things first, here is "Inlets to Illusion", if you'd like to see it bigger, which I highly recommend to fully appreciate the optical art qualities, click on it, it will take you the website where I sell prints of my fine art paintings, but there is no obligation to buy just because you looked!

And now, for the impressionist and intuitive "No-Brush Painting" which I ended up titling "Sky Ablaze".

So that's all for today, Happy Sunday!

Thank you for reading! If you liked what you see, please consider following this blog with Google Friend connect, or follow me on Google+, or if you prefer, you can follow by email and get notified each time the blog is updated. See the right hand column to follow in any of these ways! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

Fine Art America is the place to go for Prints of all my Paintings.

 

My etsy shop is the place to go to buy my originals and request commissioned work. A few select prints are available here as well!

Furry Friends

Who is always glad to see you when you come home?

Who doesn't care if you forgot to brush your hair?

Who would still lavish love upon you if didn't bother to bathe for a month?

The answer of course is your pets!

There is nothing like the love of an animal to set the world right, and make your day seem brighter.

I know I love my pets, and I miss the ones I've lost.  I was privileged to have a little dog named Daisy in my life for a few years, but about a year ago she vanished.  We suspect she met her end at the jaws of the coyotes that frequent our property.

I was very heart broken over her loss, and not even being able to bury her or have her cremated made it even harder, but one thing that made it easier was that before she passed on I had immortalized her in a portrait which hangs in an honored place in my home, I feel its a fitting memorial to the little dog who brought our family so much joy.

I've also painted a portrait of my other dog, Spunky.  It hangs directly on the other side of the window from Daisy's portrait.

In addition I've had the privilege of painting portraits for other pet owners, some who have lost their pets, and some who simply want to honor their living pets with a custom painted portrait.  Most of these commissions have been arranged in person, either with friends, or with people who come by my booth at art walks and outdoor markets.  But I also arrange these special works through my Etsy Store.  The basset hound you see below is another example of one of my pet portraits.  I also do other commissions, following the basic price list of the pet portraits.

Thank you for reading! If you liked what you see, please consider following this blog with Google Friend connect, or follow me on Google+, or if you prefer, you can follow by email and get notified each time the blog is updated. See the right hand column to follow in any of these ways! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

 

Don't Leave Me Hanging!

Don't you hate it when people leave you hanging? They start to tell you about something, and then never finish, or never let you know the outcome to something they were excited about?

So do I, but sometimes I still end up doing just that.  An example would be that way back in May of 2014 I showed my readers a painting from start to finish, and told them it was going to be entered into a juried show.  Then I neglected to let anyone know if the painting had been accepted to the show or not.

Well, better late than never right?  To refresh your memory, this was the painting:

And it was one of three that I was going to enter into a juried show.  Well, it did get accepted, it was the only one of my paintings that did get accepted.  Now, this show gets hundreds of submissions, and rejects most of them, only showing a handful of what is submitted.  So even being accepted is a huge honor, especially for a completely self-taught artist like myself.  However that wasn't the end of the honor.  When I went to the exhibit, I noticed this attached to the wall next to my painting.

It turns out that in the category of paintings they gave three prizes, and I didn't win one, but each Juror also got to select ONE work from ALL categories that he personally felt should have been awarded the prize, and give it an honorable mention.  So juror Venker chose my painting from every single work in the show, and he personally told me that he had voted for it to win in the painting category.

Okay, so sure, I'd have liked to have won a prize, but to get accepted was a big deal, then to get an honorable mention out of all the works there.  I was very pleased.

I will soon be adding this painting to my etsy shop, I have to photograph it in the frame as well as the photo above so people can see how it will look in their home.  However prints of it are available right now, the photograph below is the print quality one, that best shows the true colors and values of the original.  Click on it to see a much larger version on Fine Art America.

Thank you for reading! If you liked what you see, please consider following this blog with Google Friend connect, or follow me on Google+, or if you prefer, you can follow by email and get notified each time the blog is updated. See the right hand column to follow in any of these ways! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

 

Stretching Myself

One of my Index cards from the ICAD challenge.

Before I first started painting in June of 2012, on those index cards that seemed so innocuous but proved to be carriers of the deadly "art attack" virus, I had no idea how much I had missed art in my life.  You see, way back when, years ago, in Junior High School and some in High School, I took great joy in creating.  Drawing, using oil pastels, markers, colored pencils.  I didn't paint much back then, though I'm sure at some point I must have used paint a little, I really don't remember, but it certainly wasn't a medium that I used regularly... at any rate, at that time I really loved art.  For some reason, shortly after high school, I stopped. Perhaps it was because the responsibilities of adult life left little time for it, and little money for supplies.  Perhaps it was because of other issues I was dealing with that caused me to feel unworthy of something that would bring me joy.  Perhaps I just didn't get around to it.  For whatever reason though, art was no longer a part of my life.  Occasionally I would do crafts, make Christmas ornaments, crochet baby clothes, something like that, but drawing, or "painting" with colored pencils or pastels, was completely forgotten.

After starting the ICAD challenge though, I quickly realized I was hooked, not just on art, but in particular on painting.  It wasn't long before I wanted to move beyond the index cards and onto a canvas.  Since then, I've painted and painted and painted.  Having had no formal training, I have learned most of what I know by trial and error, often with many errors repeated again and again (when will I finally automatically paint background objects BEFORE foreground objects???).  I've watched a few how-to videos, and read a few books, but mostly I'm self taught... I've been learning to paint by PAINTING.  Eventually I might like to go for my BFA, but in the meantime I just continue to paint.


Recently, the gallery owner where my work is sometimes displayed suggested that I take part in a local juried show.  He felt that it would give me more exposure, and also give me a chance to see how my work compares with other local artists and to get feedback from more people.  I looked over the work I had, and felt that there were many things I had learned recently that didn't show in those pieces, so I decided to create three pieces specifically for the show, being mindful to apply everything I've learned up until now.  In other words, I wanted to really stretch myself to the limits of my current skills and abilities, so that I would be submitting the very best work I am currently capable of producing.

Here is the first piece as it took shape:

This first photo shows the work after my first painting session, I have no idea how much time I spent up until this point on it, but it was all one painting session.  I used three reference photos I had taken, but didn't copy directly from any of them, just used them to spark ideas and give a general outline of what was happening.

I decided to block in some general darks and lights in the background, so that when I added background trees gaps in them wouldn't show stark blue sky, because I've noticed in some of earlier paintings that sky showing through like that often makes the landscape look flat, or fake.

Then, here is the second in progress photo, a little more has changed at this point, one back ground tree has been added, and one more foreground tree.

Then I added the other background trees.  Notice that I made them lighter and less distinct than the ones in the foreground, I've been trying to learn to implement atmospheric perspective.

On to progress picture number 4, here I have lightened the trees in the background more, plus added some more foreground elements. I know that the picture looks very different in color here, but it hasn't changed.  All but the final two photos were taken with my phone, and it is very sensitive to changes in lighting.  The slightest difference in available light causes a whole different color cast over everything.

Next I simply added more detail in the foreground, such as some flowers on the bush in the lower right hand corner, and some more reflected light on the pond.

Then I thought I was done, so I took a good picture with my good camera, but afterward, I noticed that the sky above the background trees looked "dirty" because of all the times I'd painted over to obscure the trees a little more in trying to achieve the atmospheric perspective:

So I fixed the sky, and then took another picture with my good camera.  I printed several samples to compare the color to the original, and edited until it matched.  And here is the final result:

So there is the painting that will be my first entry into the juried show.  Because I am keeping it for the show, I can't offer it for sale yet, however prints of it are available on my Fine Art America page, and if the original doesn't sell during the show, it will be offered for sale afterward either in my local gallery, or in my Etsy shop.

Thank you for reading! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

Why I Create

All my life, I've had a drive to create.

It has showed itself in different ways at different times.  When I was a child, it often showed itself in play.  Hours upon hours of story telling went on inside my head as I played outside, or inside with toys.  The stories weren't usually voiced, but they were always there.

Even when I wasn't playing, when I was doing chores, or walking to school, or doing any other task, my mind was usually not on what was going on right then, it was somewhere else.  In some other place, telling the story of some fictional person and their life and adventures.  Or, if I was focused on what was happening to me, my mind would play out the possibilities of how things might turn out.

Sometimes my creativity showed itself in writing, those stories I told in my head would sometimes spill out on the paper. Other times they would show in arts and crafts, clay, playdough, paper mache, finger painting, or even mud pies.

Trips to the beach yielded sand castles, and a vacation to Utah, provided the opportunity to cave designs in pieces of sandstone.  Hiking near my own California home, I discovered a shrub that when the bark was peeled back, yielded a soft, spongy middle that could easily be carved with a twig or stone.  It wasn't long before I had a whole collection of miniature "totem poles" to call my own.

As an adult, for many years it might have seemed as if my creativity was put behind me, but really, it was there all along, showing itself in more practical ways.  I sewed clothes for my first child, I crocheted blankets and booties for all my babies.  As a homeschooling mom I almost always made my own visual aids, and created some for sunday school as well.  I decorated birthday cakes, made pinatas, and sometimes wrote my own homeschool curriculum.

Then, one day I picked up a paint brush. It was as if I'd finally found the perfect outlet for that drive to create.  I longed to paint every day.  I looked forward to it.  I waited for the chance.

I haven't stopped since then.

I may never be famous or rich.  I may never see my paintings sell for enough to even "pay myself" minimum wage for my efforts.  But that doesn't matter, that isn't why I paint. That isn't why I create.

I paint because I love it.  I create because its who I am, and I cannot do otherwise.


Thank you for reading! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

Every Day in May #3

So its Day number 3 of the Every Day in May challenge, and today's topic is "Something that Represents Joy"

This was easy to think of.  I am trying to limit these EDiM sketches to 15 or 20 minutes most days, so that I still have time for my other art, after all, I know that the Gallery owner who shows my work wants me to come up with a painting that has something to do with wine... plus he said he'd like to see more small scale landscapes that he could sell for $100 or less.  (Basically that means 8x10 or smaller).

I also have an order for a pet portrait to get done... so I can't spend hours on these sketches.

Today's sketch took around 15 minutes, coloring included... and it shows, I mean its not straight, the form and perspective are a bit off, its too skinny proportionally... but anyway, here it is:

Thank you for reading! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

Every Day in May Challenge, plus more!

Okay, I have decided to take part in a challenge called "Every Day in May". The idea is to draw, sketch, paint something every day.  However, you can't just do ANYTHING.  There is a list of topics.

I started one day late, so I combined the topics for days 1 and 2.
May 1 was "Something Bubbly", and May 2 was "My favorite Sound".

When I decided to start today, I figured the something bubbly would be easy.  Lots of bubbly things... soap, soda pop, champagne, etc.  However on the "favorite sound" I was stumped.  So many beautiful sounds, babbling brooks, the ocean, the laughter of children, music, singing birds, the wind in the trees... how could I pick one?!

Well, I still don't know that I really have a favorite, but I picked one of my favorites.  I decided that I liked the sound of the ocean and that I would draw a wave or a beach scene.  Problem was, by the time I decided what to draw it was LATE, I should have been in bed.

Then, I got my art bag and discovered my colored pencils missing.  That was what I planned to use to draw the scene. I DID have some colored sharpies, micron pens, and a few paint markers.  "Sigh" they were not going to give me the effect my watercolor pencils would have given.

Oh well, I couldn't find the colored pencils, and I HAD to draw something now.  So I did the best I could with sharpie, micron, and paint markers.

Here is the result, my combo image for May 1st and May 2nd, froth on the wave is bubbly, that will do:

And also, I had promised in my last post to upload a better photo of my latest painting.  So here it is:

Thank you for reading! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

New Painting, "Dusk On Puget Sound" progress

Well, my new painting titled, "Dusk on Puget Sound" is finished... well almost.  I actually still need to get a good, high quality photo of it, and then varnish it, along with a few others that I've finished lately.

I finished the actual painting tonight though, and took a quick snap-shot of it to share, I'm afraid the colors on the photo aren't quite accurate... when I get the good quality photo I will post that, but for now this is the best I could do.

Thank you for reading! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

Hmmm... Still Learning!

Since I've begun painting, I've always felt that landscapes were my weakness.  I've just never been very satisfied with them.  I was okay with it if I did an obviously abstracted landscape... one that was clearly not meant to look exactly real... but when it came to traditional landscapes... I just wasn't happy with my results.

Well, I think I may finally be breaking through that barrier.  I've been working on a landscape and I think I am quite happy with the results so far, so I thought I'd share the work-in-progress.  I think the real difference in this one is that I went through my photography and found reference photos to use, when before I just tried to "make up" a landscape in my mind.  I didn't try to copy any of my photos exactly, but I did use them to plan the general shape of the shoreline, hills beyond the water, and the color of sky and water.

Just goes to show you, I still have lots learn and never want to stop learning!

Here is what I have so far:

Thank you for reading! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

Gallery Acceptance, and What's on My Easel

Yesterday was a great day for me art-wise. I went to the post office to ship off a painting that sold, and while I was there I noticed a gallery in town that I'd never noticed before. This is probably because I rarely go to the shopping center near the post office, there is another down the street where I usually shop.

Anyway, I went into the gallery and started up a conversation with the woman there, who seemed very interested in seeing my work. Then the owner of the gallery came in, and he was also interested. So I gave them my website to view my portfolio, and also went home and gathered up some of my paintings to show them in person. I am very pleased to say that they will be displaying 5 of my paintings!

 I've also been making progress on my Peacock paintings that I started at the art walk. Here is what is on my easel right now:

I was thrilled about the gallery, and I still am, although the person in my life who should have been most encouraging was absolutely not encouraging at all, and in fact seemed very irritated that I had taken time out of my day to bring paintings down to the gallery.  Oh well, I guess some non-artistic people just don't get it, to me, getting my work in a gallery was far more important than the day's chores, or doing a load of laundry, or anything like that.

 
 Thank you for reading! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

 

The Chrome Monster gets a New Name.

Once upon a time there was, living in the mind of an artist, an idea to paint a picture of one of the coolest cars in the history of American cars.  So this artist, although she had never attempted to paint anything shiny or reflective before, decided to paint a Chevy Bel Air from the mid 1950's, she ended up deciding on a 1956 since she had reference photos of that year available to her.

So this artist started off, and kept telling herself that she could figure out a way to paint all of that shiny red metal, and silvery, reflective chrome.  She had no idea how she was going to do it, but just started painting what she saw, carefully matching values and colors, though she changed a few things like the photographer's reflection in the bumper of the reference photo.

It was a difficult painting, and while working on it the artist bestowed on it the name of "Chrome Monster" as she realized just how much of that challenging, shiny surface the 1956 Chevy had.  In her head, as she painted, she kept reminding herself, "don't worry, paint what you see, the printer didn't have any metalic ink, and it managed to produce a picture of chrome, so can you.".

Finally, after many days, she stepped back and looked at the painting and realized that it was done.  She was so happy with the result that she no longer saw it as monster, and instead decided to name it the "Chrome King".

And here it is:

Thank you for reading! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

Looking for a Gallery

I am really wanting to find a local gallery to represent my art, but so far have not had much luck.  I actually had one gallery owner look over my pieces, and actually say that he would put them in his gallery if I produced more animal art, which he said was one of the strongest selling.  So I went home and produced four of my best animal paintings, he looked at them and apologized, saying that he had filled the spot in the meantime while I was making those, and to check back in a few months. At first I was very irritated that I spent so much time preparing paintings specifically for him (see the paintings below) and he didn't end up putting them in his gallery  but then I realized that I thoroughly enjoyed doing them, and had learned that I had a knack for painting animals, which I didn't realize I had before that, so I really wasn't too upset.

Now though, the issue remains that I still don't have gallery representation.  I can keep trying to sell online, but honestly, a gallery is an artist's best bet for getting sales.  So, after the artwalk on April 13, I am going to start really pursuing that gallery representation.

   
Thank you for reading! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

Working, working, working....

So, I've been continuing to work on my art pieces.  I finished an abstract yesterday VERY late at night, and I finished another pet portrait today.

The pet portrait was of a cat named Biz Biz, I got the photo, which was taken from a cell phone, so it wasn't the highest quality picture.  I made due though, I started with this:

Well, right away I decided to crop the image, and focus more on Biz Biz's face.  Here is the cropped picture:

Then to help me see the subtle nuances of the colors, I cranked up the saturation on the photo:

Then I was ready to sketch and paint, and the result was this:

The title doesn't show all the way on that preview, it is "Biz Biz Another Green Eyed Tiger".

As I mentioned before, I also completed an abstract last night.  I had been looking at lots of Kandinksy's work earlier in the day, because of seeing a friend's work that reminded me of Kandinsky.  So I combined the bright colors that I had been seeing in Kandinsky's work, with the the type of abstract pattern designs I use in a lot of my abstracts.  The result was "Tranquility", named such because that is how I felt while creating it... tranquil.

 

Thank you for reading! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

I Haven't Vanished from Planet Earth!

Just wanted to drop in quickly and let anyone who happens to read this now and again know that I am still around.  I haven't posted for a while, but I've been busy creating.  Since my last post I've painted two portraits of pets and started one more, plus completed an abstract work, varnished several paintings, ruined one canvas in a painting that turned out to be a "flop" in my opinion... though I may salvage the canvas by Gesso-ing over the disaster.  Also, with the help of one of my best friends I've built three displays for my paintings to hang on during the upcoming artwalk, and have started painting those displays.

That, plus every day life, and I just haven't gotten to the blog for a few days.

So here is my abstract:


And here is one of my pet portraits:



Very soon I hope to post photos of the displays my friend and I built.  (Okay, seriously, he did most of the building while I did really useful things like hold the drill and misplace tools! Though I DID drill some holes to start screws, and I also did hold some wood still while he sawed.  I also painted the surfaces of the displays.)

 Thank you for reading! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

My Freedom Series

I'm sure if you've read the past several posts, you've noticed a lot of bald eagles in my sketchbook.  That is because I am working on a series of paintings I am calling my "Freedom Series".  I'm not sure how many I will paint in the series, but the first two are finished.

The first one I call Freedom's Hope, and its a bald eagle, symbol of Freedom for so many, looking up to the maker, continuing to hope in good times and in trials, as Americans have done since the birth of our nation.

And the next one I call "Freedom's Pride", it depicts a A bald Eagle, symbol of American freedom and pride, perched on a branch overlooking part of the beautiful Puget Sound.

While I haven't decided yet how many will be in this series, I do know that I'll do a few more, however, before I do I'm going to do a few pet portraits, in preparation for an upcoming art walk where I plan to advertise that service.

Thank you for reading! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!