Working On A Christmas Card

Thought I'd share the beginnings of a painting for my Christmas cards this year.  I'm still busy on the others I have going in the studio -- including a pet portrait.  I do love to bounce around!  :)

Thanks you for stopping by.

Some More WIPs

Blueberry Redo

There's a little story behind the blueberries.  I was just about done with them last time I posted -- just wanted to do one more background wash to get rid of a light spot that was a little distracting.  Well, I thought I'd get all fancy and mask off the edges that I didn't want to disturb with my background wash and made a big ol' mess.  The wash seeped under the masking and just yucked everything all up.  HOWEVER -- I kind of felt the painting was a little muddy.  Not as fresh as I would have liked.  So I decided to start over.  I'm so glad I did.  I learned so much from the first run-through that the second time around took no time to get to this point and I think it's fresher than the original.  See . . . there are such things as "happy accidents."  God bless Bob Ross!  :)

The chair was started a while ago but I don't think I ever posted the first washes.  So this is where I'm at today.  I'm excited about this one.  

Thanks for coming by.  Happy Painting!

Works in Progress

I decided to take last week off from blogging and posting on Facebook.  Sometimes I just feel the need to "unplug."  Do you ever feel like that?  I had a wonderful Backroads Studio Tour and can't thank people enough for coming out, visiting the studio and making purchases.  I sincerely appreciate all the support and interest and am very grateful to be able to work in my passion. 

I did make a lot of progress on these two paintings and a few others last week.  I have a pet portrait commission that I won't be posting until it's done that I've been working on as well.  I like having a few things going on at once (as you know) so I can still be productive, while I ponder the next steps on other paintings.  This system seems to work well for me.  

I'll post some more WIP's tomorrow.  Have a good day and thanks for stopping by.   

Big Grapes - Part 2

work in progress

Just thought I'd post my progress.  I'm moving between projects today -- lots of big fruit to contend with!  Have a great day.  :)

Big Grapes

Big Grapes - wip 1

Big Grapes - wip 2

whole sheet!

I know, I know . . . I still have a whole bunch of wip's to work on, so why start a new one?  Well . . . sometimes I get an idea and just HAVE to jump in.  It's good to get back to some of the studio projects I've begun -- either in my head, photo shoots, or already on paper.  This one just happens to be a project from a photo shoot of grapes and other fruit that I took a few weeks ago.  The photos came out pretty cool I thought.  Very sleek and contemporary - unlike me.  Ha!  I wanted to do them larger than life for more impact and wouldn't allow myself to start until I finished my two commissions.  After today, I'm sure I'll be bouncing around, trying to finish things up.  I have another bigger than life fruit painting to work on too (among many others!)  I'll eventually get to them all.  Thanks for stopping by.

Juggling

Nantucket Basket - wip 1
(approx. 13" x 19")

Nantucket Basket - wip 2

In between washes of this new painting, (which I'm thoroughly enjoying) I took out my gentleman farmer to work on: trying to adjust values using a black and white image of my painting. I find myself constantly struggling with values anyway - but throw in yellows and bright oranges and I'm completely lost! I think they're so difficult because they register gray. Ugh. 

I also continued working on some details. I feel like I'm going at a snail's pace with this guy . . . in fact he's already hayed his fields twice since I started this painting! Almost done though.  

Have a great day!

  

 

Really Big Shoe - final

"Really Big Shoe"
12" x 21"

 Well hello again!  I finally decided that "Really Big Shoe" is done but I haven't yet decided what to do with her.  I will most likely put her up for sale soon, so stay tuned.

In other news . . . here's the link to Boston's Chronicle, specifically the segment my husband and I were on last night with a few of our neighbors.  The producer did a wonderful job putting it all together.  Doesn't our town look great? . . . don't you want to come visit?  And I was very grateful that they showcased so many of my paintings.  Also, I've added a couple more shots below of my husband's model railroad in case you're interested.  It really is something.  See . . . you don't have to be a kid to still play!  :)

Thanks for coming by . . . have a lovely rest of your day.

No Cavities! -- WIP"

"No Cavities" - wip
11" x 14"

I'm sorry I haven't been posting too much lately. Within the past few weeks I started a couple part-time jobs, so my time has been a bit limited as I try to work out my new schedule. I think though it's finally starting to come together -- although it has cut down on my painting time. But not to worry . . . I'm still painting . . . just not finishing things as quickly. So please bear with me while I work on my new routine.

In addition to the new jobs, I've had some other interesting opportunities arise and as I'm sure all you working artists understand, sometimes we have to stretch ourselves a little thin every once in a while to help get ourselves out there. Although when that happens to me, I just need to take a break.  I think I may have already explained, that after Easter I did just that. Well . . . I was all set to finally get back to my painting/blogging routine, when last week my husband and I had a great opportunity come our way. We were contacted by WCVB Boston's Chronicle -- a local news program that features different topics from all around New England. The show has been on forever and is quite iconic; we watch it all the time, so you can imagine our excitement! They were putting together a show featuring our town in Central Mass. and wanted to come visit us as one of their locations. My husband has a large train layout in his barn and between that and my studio, they decided to come interview us for the show. That was last Monday morning (before the terrible marathon events). I had a few days to do the extra special Spring cleaning (thanks to some help in the yard from my dad and my friend June who planted lovely flowers outside my studio!) needed for these special visitors, in between my other commitments. Anyway . . . it was a wonderful experience and we met two lovely ladies -- the producer and her camera-woman, although admittedly I was more than a little nervous. Hopefully it will come out well. Chronicle also visited a few other places in town - the Salem Cross Inn, Troubadour Mercantile, and a mini-horse farm.  I'll be sure to let you know when it airs, and link it here.  

In the meantime . . . I'm still trying to revisit some unfinished paintings. I really want to finish up these Fisher Price pieces that I began oh so long ago! Here's the second one from my series of three. Although, because I just sold the first one (In Line At The Theatre) . . . I think I may have to start a couple new ones!  :)  

Thank you for coming by and have a great day -- and happy painting!

Shoe Progress

wip-3

I meant to post this shot yesterday but got a little distracted.  So here it is . . . off to paint some more!  Have a great day and thank you for visiting.  :)

Out On A Limb

"In Line At The Theatre"
11" x 14"
(watercolor on cradled aquabord)

Remember when I started this? Does your memory even go back that far? Well I "went out on a limb" and decided to enter it into a local show so I finally finished it up. I know . . . it's a little out there. I have no idea what to expect, so we'll see what the judges think. I'm going in with very low expectations. All that being said . . . my Little People interest has been renewed and I'm hoping to get the others ones in this series finished up so I can proceed with my original goal -- submitting them for jury at a Boston hospital exhibit. They make me smile almost as much as those crazy dogs in their Christmas costumes!  

(Sorry about the poor image quality . . . but I was scrambling to meet the deadline -- see my previous post.)  :)

Thanks for checking in.  Have a great day!

Time Flies

"Bathed In Sunlight" - wip
12" x 12"

I can't believe I haven't blogged since Tuesday -- Yikes!  I stayed up waaaay too late to watch the election and thus was utterly useless all day Wednesday.  I really do need my 8 hours.  But I did manage to get a new painting started and I kind of finished "Just A Trim." I say "kind of," because I think I may have jumped the gun adding the black outlines on the wall decals before my under-values were all set.  (Gaaahhh . . . WHY do I do that?!)  And so now I'm a little worried that it's a bit muddy.  BUT on the flip side, I started thinking that I've learned a valuable lesson, better understand the values now and could really make a better painting if I started over.  Yes.  I actually thought that.  So that's what I did.  I'll post soon.

In other news . . . I've also been itching to try this little composition.  I say "little" but it's actually quite a bit larger than what I've been painting lately and it's on paper -- my favorite Fabriano soft-pressed.  I was so "jazzed" about it . . . (yes, you read that correctly, I actually used the word "jazzed."  I think I did that once before here.  It's so lame.  Forgive me.) . . . that I woke up at 3:55 this morning (early enough to have met the nun from my church at the gym, whom I've ridiculed for getting up so early  --  I'll have to tell her she made it into my blog -- oh and it's probably not a good thing to ridicule a nun.  I digress.) . . . all excited to paint!  Isn't that grand?!  Or insane.  Since I took the photo above, I've done a little more work on the foliage but you'll have to wait to see the next step.  Heh-heh!  :)

So that's the news here.  It's about 9:30pm now and I didn't even nap today!  My poor Teddy-dog was so excited this morning at 4:00am when he was served his "early, early-bird breakfast special" but then turned completely pathetic when his belly was full and it was only 4:02.  He was too pooped to pop and could barely keep his eyes open to climb back onto his bed and take his morning nap.  I'm kind of feeling like him right now.  :)  Cheers!

Getting There

"Pumpkin Cart" - wip
6" x 6"

Still pluggin' along.  I'm having trouble getting the colors right on the computer -- the cart is actually just more neutral and I have no idea where that crazy green came from.  I tried to correct it on Photoshop, but it just started throwing other stuff off, so I decided to just leave it.  I'll try to get a better image next time, when I'm (hopefully) done.  :)  

Have a great weekend . . . thanks for stopping by.

Special Delivery

"Special Delivery"
6" x 6"

I finished this little painting and gave it to my cousin at her baby shower.  My friend June helped me name it  --  she is very clever!  :)  I'm excited to start the new week . . . I have lots of paintings going, ones I am finishing up and some ready to start.  I also mailed out my little landscape paintings on Friday for the Edward Hopper Art House exhibit.  Cheers!

What's For Dinner - WIP

''What's For Dinner" - wip
11" x 14"

I got #3 in my series started today; thought you might like to take a look.  Have a good night and thanks for stopping by.

At The Theatre and At The Dentist . . .

"On Line At The Theatre" -- wip
11" x 14"

"At The Dentist"
11" x 14"

Moving along on these two paintings and I started a couple more that I will post soon.  Have a good night and thank you for visiting!

Raspberries & Fun With Cropping!

"Raspberries"
8.75" x 9"
(watercolor on Fabriano soft-pressed paper)

Click here to bid

I had a very busy weekend -- visiting my brother and sister-in-law on Saturday and then a trip to Fenway to watch the Red Sox win today! But I did manage to get a glaze or two on "Raspberries" to finish it up. I'm not sure I like all the space around the actual carton, so I had some fun in Photoshop cropping it in tighter, both centered and a little off-center, while playing around with what it would look like matted and framed. You can view my experiments below. And please let me know what you think. I will put this painting up for auction tomorrow -- but will sell it the way it is and let the buyer decide how they would like it cropped . . . or not.  Have a great day and thank you for visiting . . . I'm off to bed!

Raspberries Progress

"Raspberries" - wip3
8.75" x 9"

"Raspberries" - wip2

"Raspberries" - wip 1

I did some more work on "Raspberries" but still have some details to do.  I thought you might like to see the progression thus far.  I thought it was looking just a bit too boring so I decided to put in the "wallpaper" and "pink-up" that table surface.  Still have some decisions to make, but I'm aiming to have this painting, along with another, completed this week.  Until my next post -- Happy Painting!

New Look, New WIP

Ok . . . so sometimes we try, try and try some more, with less than desirable results and are forced to just abort the mission!  :) Such is the case with "No Beggin'" -- so I am chalking it up as a "study." Ya, that's the ticket . . . a "study." The photo was kind of dark which was good, because the people then popped, but I just made a muddy mess of it. So I'm going to try this one again -- but this time I'm going to be careful with the background. I'll probably take some more photos because I like the story or theme of the painting, "no beggin'" but I hate the painting. And I just LOVE that kitchen. It deserves a much better rendering.

"Hydrangea II" - WIP
6" x 6"

I just put on the second/third glazes on the redware mug this morning and it was delightful. So hopefully I'll have this one finished up later today.

Now onto some other news. If you haven't noticed, I changed my blog design a little. I've been listening to "Artists Helping Artists" (if you don't know what I'm talking about and you're an artist, you MUST check it out - Leslie Saeta is wonderful -- as well as her original partner Dreama Tolle Perry.  I'm looking forward to hearing more from other artists.  Fellow bloggers Carrie Waller and Crystal Cook had a great interview a little while ago) and I'm very excited about all that I'm learning!  So this is my first attempt at implementing some of the important advice they've shared regarding building a brand and marketing. The new banner, fresh look and tag line are my first steps toward creating a consistent message about who I am as an artist (unfortunately "Scatter-brained ADD Artist" isn't really an option). I've also worked on my website, tweaking it to reflect the same message. Hopefully I can stay more current with it, as I've let it slide since I started this blog. Aaah, so much to do, so little time -- but isn't it fun and exciting!?  :)  Anyway, click here to check it out if you get the chance. -- Oops - at first I forgot the "c" and I typed "lick here" instead of "click here." Thank goodness I noticed, or else you'd all be licking your screens wondering why nothing was happening! You can thank me later.  :)

So that's the news around here.  Hope you are having a pleasant Monday.

Sunlit Lemons - WIP

"Sunlit Lemons" - WIP
8" x 8"

I worked on this yesterday.  I'm hoping I don't beat it to death as I like the luminosity I've got going so far.  This is on Aquabord -- which I'm LOVING!  Did I mention that before?  :)  The reference photo for this painting is from one of the "Paint and Draw Together" past challenges.  I wanted to try some lemons again.

Anyway . . . Happy Fourth of July, America!  It's a little drizzly here this morning, but I'm hopeful the sun will come out shortly.  At least that's what the weather reports are saying.  Have a great day, wherever you are.  :)

Happy Birthday America

"Jubilee"
5" x 5"

(what this painting could look like framed)

Click here to bid

I really do like painting on Ampersand's Aquabord.  This is another small painting done on the board and finished with a gloss acrylic sealer.

Below is an image of that larger piece I'm working on - it has progressed a little since the last time I posted it and thought you might like to see.  Until the next time I post -- I hope all you American's have a joyful Fourth of July!