Painting, Painting, Painting

Unfortunately all of the painting has been the walls of my house in anticipation of getting it ready to sell.

I do have a painting of wooden apples that I am also working on (30 minutes here and there whenever I can) that is nearly finished. I also have a show coming up in late February that I am getting some pieces ready for.

Check back soon! :-)

I've been Tagged!

This piece is 16x22 inches, color pointillism in ink on paper, titled Stargazer. It is not for sale.

I would love to tell you that my extended absence from blogging was due to my tedious, time-consuming work on the above art piece, but that's just not the case. The fact is this piece was supposed to be a week long project in the one semester of art class I took in high school (13 years ago, yikes!) and it ended up taking almost six weeks to complete. My art teacher was fine with the extended time and entered it into the city, district and state competitions, where it got first place for it's division. So why am I posting it now?

My blog has been tagged (I think as a subtle nudge to get back to posting - so thank you) by Hershberger & Huff Studios, a pair of artists with a lot of talent. I love the textures and colors incorporated in their works. Go check them out!

The rules are as follows: 1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog. 2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. 3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. 4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I'm using the above art piece to demonstrate some of my 5 facts.

1.) I absolutely love working in color pointillism, but the above piece is the only one that I've ever completed. I have started 5 others throughout the years and they have all met a tragic end because they take so long to complete that inevitably they get something spilled on them, one or both of my kids contributes their own artistic marks, the paper gets creased or torn - something always happens. I do plan to do more of these some day, but they will probably be on a smaller scale so it doesn't take weeks to complete them.

2.) I have the patience to work with millions of little dots to create a piece of art, but no patience with watercolors - they drive me crazy. I like a lot of control in what I am painting. Acrylics are a great medium for me.

3.) I was offered a full scholarship to the Art Institute in Houston, Texas and an intern job by a recruiter from a major greeting card company who visited my high school art class and saw me working on the above art piece. I turned him down took a full scholarship to study Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas. I often wish I hadn't passed up the offer so I'd be a lot further along in my art career.

4.) I lived with my grandmother and her twin brother from the time I was 2 until I moved out as an adult. Losing him was what I imagine losing a parent feels like and it has taken me quite a while to get through the pain of his loss. I know I told him often enough that I loved him, but I'm not sure I ever told him thank you for all he did for me.

5.) I love to write poetry too. I wrote a poem for my son when he was born titled Hope and it was published and also chosen for a collection of poems read aloud on a CD. Wednesday my son Gavin (now 7 years old) came home with a poem he wrote for me:
"Snow" - When it snows, it's as pretty as a rose - like you. - Gavin K. Ard

He also wrote one for his teacher:
"School" - School is fun, + is fun, - is none. - Gavin K. Ard

Bonus fact: I love being a mom and experiencing life with my kids. My 2 and a-half year old is always telling me, "Mommy, I want to paint so bad. I need to paint." The other day I took her to an art gallery and she pointed out a painting and said, "I don't like that one. It's really scary." The title of the abstract painting was "Fear." Apparently the artist did a great job of conveying the emotion :-)

Here are the 5 blogs I am tagging:

Eric Francis - watch his daily videos as he creates incredible paintings and sketches each day
Connie Tom - see her breathtaking, vibrant landscapes
Dee Sanchez - check out the lining technique she uses in her paintings - love the effect
Nicole Wong - great illustrations, paintings and ACEOs
Takeyce Walter - lovely oils and pastel pieces posted at least twice a week

Onion & Peppers

Onion & Peppers is a 7" x 5" acrylic painting on canvas board. Working on this today helped me get back in the rhythm of working small after the large painting. I liked the shiny smooth texture of the peppers next to the duller sheen of the onion's outer skin. The imperfect shape of the green pepper also provided some neat light reflections.

I'll be posting more regularly, so check back soon. My next paintings will be more little shoes :-)

Also, be sure to check out my eBay store for some Fall and early Christmas specials I will be running!

Thanks for stopping by!

Pieces of the Puzzle

These are 3 detail images from the 3'x3' pet portrait painting I recently finished. Now that the painting has safely arrived at is destination and is cherished by it's owners I can post them. I did learn a valuable shipping lesson in the shipping process of this painting - namely, never to use "brown" again to ship my artwork. They managed to "misplace" a 3.5' x 3.5' x 3" crate among other complications. I also learned that the extra effort I always put into packaging my paintings was well worth it since the crate arrived with boot prints on it and the painting was unharmed. *huge sigh of relief*

The painting actually has 6 pets (4 dogs and 2 cats) standing in grass with a privacy fence in the background. It is acrylic on a gallery wrapped canvas. I will be posting the full picture on my website this weekend.

In the meantime, I wanted to update the blog to let everyone know that I am still painting since my absence was much longer than anticipated. I spent 3 weeks sick and we had an unexpected loss in the family that we are still adjusting to.

Thank you for stopping by!

Another Update

Since I have received several e-mails of concern lately, I thought I'd better post an update to let everyone know I am still painting, and thank you for letting me know you miss seeing my work :-)

For those who asked (and those of you who didn't but are still curious), this is what I've been up to:

2 weeks of my absence were spent entirely redecorating my children's room - a little painting and a lot of sewing. They are 100% thrilled with the results :-)

Currently, I have two commissioned works started, one of which is quite large and will require a lot of fine detail. There are particular circumstances which prevent me from posting an "in progress" series on these, but they will be posted when they are finished and have been received by my clients. I will still be doing the smaller paintings for this blog, but they are going to be somewhat sporadic until these two commissions are completed.

I strongly encourage you to join my mailing list for blog updates - you will receive the blog posts in an e-mail when my blog is updated. The list is confidential and will not be given out to any other sources. Also, if you are interested in any of the works on this blog that are not labeled "sold", they are currently available in my eBay store.

Thanks again for the e-mails!

Home again!

Quick update:

1) I'm back from my travels & had a great time

2) My custom shoe portraits were featured on Apartment Therapy's Nursery section yesterday - so exciting!

Two Peppers

Here is the second bell pepper painting (finally...I know, I know). Sorry for the delay! May is literally the busiest month of my year. It's the end of the school year for my son and it seems like they are trying to cram in 2 months worth of activities into the last 3 weeks. Then there is Mother's day, my mother's birthday the 16th, and my wedding anniversary the 21st (9 years this year!) On top of all this, I am planning out some larger pieces for a couple of juried shows this summer. Busy, busy, busy!

This painting is 7" x 5" acrylic on canvas panel.

Red Bell Pepper

This beautiful, shiny red pepper was sacrificed for grilled shrimp kabobs, but I could not resist painting it. I have two more paintings coming up that feature this pepper with a couple of his buddies who met the same fate. Those paintings are in the underpainting state at this point, but look for them to be finished for Tuesday and Wednesday's paintings.

This painting is 5" x 7" acrylic on canvas panel. Click the picture to see it full size. Thanks for stopping by :-)

Lulu's Shoes

This painting is a commissioned custom shoe portrait I completed yesterday. I had a lot of fun working on these adorable little silver shoes, and my client is very happy with the results :-)

In her words:

"I love the shoes!! I am so excited with the results. Ruby gives kudos too. You did such a great job and were so nice throughout the process--sending preliminary sketches to choose and working so quickly. I am sure that my other two girls will be begging for shoe portraits too." - Beth

The pencil drawings at the top are my preliminary sketches. This painting is 10"x 10" acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas. Commissioned

I will have a new painting on Monday. Have a Happy Easter!

Easter Shoes

This is a painting of the little shoes my daughter will be toddling about in while hunting eggs this Easter. She absolutely loves them because they have flowers on them, and right now, with the trees blossoming and flowers blooming all around for Spring, flowers are a big thing in her world.

I love this time of Spring with everything coming to life, but I'm definitely not a fan of the pollen! We are right in the middle of the two weeks or so that all of Georgia is wearing a dusty lime green coat. You drive down the road trailing a green pollen cloud much like Pigpen's dirt cloud in the Peanuts comic strip. The first Spring after we moved here, 5 years ago, we could not believe how much pollen there was and we stubbornly fought this seasonal phenomenon. As embarrassed as I am to admit it now, we washed the car daily. Now that we've been here a while, we simply drive around in our pollen laden car like everyone else, waiting for the couple of weeks to pass. The smartest people drive green VW beetles that already match the color of the pollen so none of this is an issue for them.

In other, non-pollen related news, I've been busy with a couple of commissions for custom shoe portraits and another painting I'm giving for a birthday gift this weekend, which is why I haven't posted in a while. I probably will not have a post for the next few days either while I finish up the commission work.

This painting is 8"x 8" acrylic on canvas panel. Thanks for stopping by :-)

Dance Slippers

I love the "broken in" look of these little dance shoes.

This painting is 8"x 8"acrylic on canvas panel.

Monkey Robeez

This is a painting of my nephew's little Robeez shoes. The Robeez line features a variety of cute little animals on their soft leather shoes made for babies and toddlers.

I'm having a lot of fun with the "Little Shoes" series. I like the challenge of rendering the various textures of the different shoes. In this painting, for example, the challenge was to show the folds and the hint of shine of the soft leather.

This painting is 8"x 8" acrylic on canvas panel.

Thank you for stopping by!

Flip-Flop Fun

Painting these fun little flip-flops made me long for warmer weather and a trip to the beach! Notice how much blue is in this painting...(and then read my previous post!)

These awesome shoes were designed by Paul Frank and the monkeys are his stylized sock monkey character, Julius, of his youth line, Julius & Friends. If you want your own pair use this dealer locator to find out which stores near you carry his line. I know they have them at Nordstrom's.

The painting is, of course, by me! It is 8"x 8" acrylic on canvas panel.

Damage Control

I'll let this direct quote from my 20 month old daughter speak for the absence of a painting today:

"Uh oh. Oh no. Ohhhh no! Messes! Ohhhh Mommy. Oh no! Messes! Make a mess! Blue! Blue messes! Wash hands! Wash my hands! Blue messes Mommy! See? See messes? Oh no! Ohhhh no, no, no."