The Crush -- Happy Valentine's Day!

"The Crush"
8" x 8"
(watercolor on clayboard)

Aaahhh . . . remember the days of school Valentine's? The doily-decorated box of valentines in the back of the room and the party at the end of the day. I always had chips and popcorn stuck to the frosting on my cupcake that I'd stuff in a bag to bring home for later. Ha!

For all intents and purposes I'm calling this one done. I'll probably tweak it a bit, but will have it up for sale on my site in a day or so. Wishing you all a very Happy Valentine's Day!

Flying By The Seat Of My Pants

Happiness is . . . a vintage Fisher Price toy collection!
(Although for all you purists, this is the Playskool McDonald's)

I tend to like routine and plans but for a little over a year now I've had some life things get in the way. Nothing bad, just the way things go sometimes. I'm sure you all understand. And in the midst of tending to unexpected life events I decided I still must focus more on my art career and not let the momentum I've worked so hard to achieve, slow down. That means staying consistent . . . which can be really difficult when life gets in the way.

Part of that consistency includes marketing and consciously setting time aside to devote to just that, something I've never really done. (While I have a love affair with routine, I often have a tough time sticking to it). It takes loads of discipline, something I've always struggled with.

And part of my new marketing plan is a new instagram account: "Real Housewives of Fisher Price." (There really is a method to my madness, even though this seems completely random!) 

I've created a crazy cast of characters with storylines a la "Real Housewives" and have been posting little "episodes" for a couple of weeks, I hope you will check it out. I've also created a new Facebook page for the #RHOFP which you can access here. It's fun and challenging and different. But most of all, it takes time and while I try to stay disciplined and ahead of the game, somedays I still find myself flying by the seat of my pants! 

The Little People Are Here!

2018 Little People Calendars
$12.00

Click here to purchase.

The Little People desk calendars are finally here! I  hadn't planned on doing one this year until sometime in December.  Yeow!  I needed a few more paintings to make it complete so hence the delay.  For all my Little People still life fans out there, I promise that this year I will do better.

If you click on the link above, even if you don't want to purchase, you can at least get a better look as to what's inside. 

Have a great day!

Another Day at the Office

"Another Day at the Office"
8" x 8"
(watercolor on aquabord)
$200

Click here to purchase.

By the time you read this post, I should have my Little People calendars in! I'm excited to see them. It's a little late, but at least it's still January.  (yikes) 

In the meantime, here is one of the paintings in the calendar. For busy flight attendants, a trip to a foreign destination is just "another day at the office."

Enjoy your day!

The Budding Artist

"The Budding Artist"
12" x 12"
(watercolor on aquabord)
$350

Click here to purchase.

I guess we can call this my first painting of 2018. It may have been started some time ago, but it's the first one finished this year. I think this would make a really cute addition to budding artist's bedroom, don't you?

Have a great day!

It's In The Mail

"Mailing a Letter"
8" x 8"
(watercolor on cradled aquabord)
SOLD

The second of four in my commissioned family series.  Hope you are having a lovely week!

No Cavities!

No Cavities!
11" x 14"
watercolor on cradled aquabord

Click here to purchase.

I'm continuing to finish up some older paintings that have been sitting around the studio, while making small steps in starting some new small ones. I had some issues with the floor in "No Cavities!" I would paint it, then scrub it out . . . paint it again, then scrub it out. I think I finally got it.  The colors in these Fisher Price paintings are sooo much fun.  I'm finishing up the wheels on "Gentleman Farmer" so hopefully that will be up soon.

Thank you for continuing to stop by to see what's new.  

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!

My Other Life

June's Bakeshop postcard

I had wanted to post yesterday but sometimes I'm doing other creative things.  In any event, the little "painting" above (most of which was manipulated in Photoshop from a painting I did a long time ago), is serving as a marketing postcard for my friend's Christmas Open House.  (I'm sure you could've figured that out on your own!)  :)

June's Bakeshop looks just like this, perched in her beautiful yard.  She bakes cookies and cakes and is basically an artist of confectionary delights.  Her cookies are amazingly crafted and clever and taste just as good as they look.  If you are in the area I urge you to stop by her Open House: it's truly an experience.  You can find more information about her cookies and where to find her shop at www.junesbakeshop.com.

So anyway . . . getting back to my Post Title -- this is "my other life" -- designing June's advertising.  I also built her website (my first one) and have built a few others including my own, www.backroadsstudiotour.com and www.kleinedlerstudios.com.  They're not really fancy, but they get the job done.  So sometimes when it seems like I'm "hiding" from my blog, I'm working on design things and updating sites.

"Pumpkin Cart"
8" x 8"
watercolor on aquabord

(what this painting could look like framed)

Click here to bid.

In other news, I think I'm just about done with my pumpkin cart painting.  I may tweak the wood a little bit more, but you get the idea.  I haven't signed it yet, so I threw up a "signature" in Photoshop.  And below is my new little people painting.  It's just a small one.  I'm hoping to finish up this one while I also work on finishing the 3 larger ones I have.  I also have another Fisher Price painting (8" x 10") "on deck," not to mention the other 6 or so paintings that need finishing!  Yeeouch!  Busy, Busy, Busy!  :)

Have a great day -- thank you for stopping by!

"Just a Trim"
6" x 6"

P.S.  I'm glad haircuts only cost 25 cents at this barber shop because this little boy only has 3 strands of hair!  :)

Studio Mayhem, Focus Kara Focus!

There have been a lot of things going on here in ol' central Massachusetts. As you can see, I started a couple new small paintings on aquabord.  I've been feeling pressured to get something up on DPW and thought these would be fairly quick . . . why do I always think that - you think I'd know better by now?!  Anyway -- I had originally started the strawberry, then on Sunday I was painting at the Drover's Roast at Salem Cross Inn where I started the raspberries.  The Drover's Roast is a wonderful event -- you can click here for more information and/or visit the Inn's Facebook Page).  (And if you look closely enough at the FB page, you may even see me in costume leaving the gazebo - ha!  The photo was taken a couple years ago and before the meal because afterwards my costume's usually stretched to the max and busting at the seams.  Seriously -- you've never seen so much food!)  Anyway my goal is to finish both paintings by Friday.  

Oh and I haven't forgotten about my Fisher Price People!  Here are three started.  Well . . . you can't really see the middle one -- but I assure you it's drawn out.

The Backroads Studio Tour is coming up next month, so I've started framing some pieces and the studio is a complete disaster.  Matboard, a bunch of old frames I've been storing, piles of papers to file, print samples, ugh, it total chaos. However, I couldn't resist purchasing some new frames, even though I have a ton of old ones to use up . . . why you ask . . . because I'm insane. Anyway, I bought these beautiful plein air frames from kingofframe.com -- the frame division of the Randy Higbee Gallery.  The pictures don't exactly do them justice. And as you can see -- it was a bit of a challenge taking the pictures.  (Although it's my own fault because I'm always telling Teddy what a good helper he is.)

Teddy Helping!
(this photo makes me laugh because he looks so serious when he's
really just a big goof like his mother!)  :)

Finally, here are some pictures of the notecards I just had printed and am packaging up.  In case you're wondering, I use catprint.com.  They are very reasonable and always do a super job (and I really love the quality of their heavy card stock - matte, which is actually a little bit shiny and shows the color sooooo well.)  

Thank you for stopping in and reading my blog. I probably don't say it nearly enough, but I very much appreciate you all reading and commenting. While I try to reply to all your wonderful comments sometimes I may miss a couple or be very tardy and for that I apologize. But please know it truly warms my heart that so many of you have taken an interest in this crazy little blog.  So here's to a productive rest of the week for us all! Keep painting! Cheers!  :)