I'm back, and I have a Lot of New Work!

I haven't been posting as regularly as I should, and there are many reasons for this.  One of them is that I've been very busy actually creating art, and therefore taking less time to blog about it.

I've made a lot of new pieces, and I've been showing them every chance I can, here I is my stuff at a local Art Walk in August (that's my hubby sitting on the chair feeding his face!):

I know this blog needs to made a little more interesting, so soon I will be doing some video postings about art.  

Here are some of my new pieces:

 

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

Walking Wine...

Just thought I'd pop in to share my latest work in progress.  The gallery owner requested wine related paintings for a "Wine Walk" that is coming up.  (For some reason I get a mental image of someone walking a bottle of wine on a leash like a dog...)

Anyway, here is my first of the paintings, it still needs a little touch up around the bottom of the bottle, and some color blending on the grapes, as well as needing to be photographed properly for prints... however, here is a quick snap shot of it.

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

Every Day in May, May 10

Today's challenge was to draw something creepy.  Being the die-hard Whovian that I am... this is what I came up with!

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

Every Day in May, Day 9

Today's EDiM challenge was simple.  Draw a lock.
Since it was simple, I decided to keep it that way and drew a very simple lock in a very dimple medium (graphite).

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

Every Day in May Days Four through Eight

Well, I fell way, way, behind in the Every Day in May Challenge, so tonight I made it all up in one night.

Here are the sketches:

May 4th

May 5th

May 6th

May 7th

May 8th

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

My Own Framing Shop!

If you've ever taken a piece of art into a framing shop, you know that custom frames will often cost more than you paid for the artwork.  So, I have been very hesitant to frame my artwork, however, I know it looks much better with a frame.

For a while I was toying with the idea of learning how to make my own frames, but I really didn't know where to start.  However, a friend of mine did have some experience with framing, and he offered to help me.  Soo, I bought a miter saw... and brought it home only to realize my work table in my shop would not work for it, it was too small and not sturdy enough.

So back to Home Depot again to get all of the supplies needed to build a suitable work station.

Today, my friend and I spent the entire day building my framing station together.  And this time, I actually did help considerably with the building.  Here are the results:

My friend also demonstrated how to make a frame from crown molding.  I didn't really do any of it though.  Next time I will,  this time I just watched and got lots of practice using the saw while we were building the work bench, (I put in a picnic table temporarily while we were building, and used for almost all the cutting.)

Anyway, the frame is basically put together, but the glue is drying still, so I don't have pictures of it.  I'll probably post them when I get done staining or painting it, whatever I decide to do.

My friend doesn't know yet, but the frame we (he) made today was for his favorite of my paintings.  I plan to give it to him as a gift when the frame is finished.  :-D

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!

 

Art Walk

Well today was the first public showing of my art.  I thought it went pretty good.  We had very uncooperative weather, and I'm sure it would have gone even better if it weren't for that.  As it was I sold 2 original paintings and 2 prints.  Plus handed out a lot of business cards.

I also got a considerable amount of work done on a new painting, because, in an effort to attract people into the building, I stood outside and painted, I was under a covered awning so the rain and hail didn't bother me, and it did attract a few people into the building.

Here are some photos from the event.

Remember the display boards I wrote about? The one's my good friend helped me build?  Well here is the medium sized one, the way it is build is like an A-frame, so I could use the other side as well, but with the setup in this particular building, it worked better to just use one side.

The same was true for the large display, showed here:

The small display we where able to use both sides on, but somehow I forgot to photograph that one.

My daughter displayed some of her paintings too, and she sold one:

I also displayed some of art in various other places around the room:

Here is the painting I worked on today, its far from finished, but still I made a lot of progress on it in one day.

My daughter and her best friend had fun playing and dancing for me, and I took lots of photos, but I cropped my daughter's friend out of the photos because I forgot to ask if it was okay to post them online:

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