Pets To Posies

A New Web Friend From Brambleberry Cottage

2012-01-27T13:40:00.000-05:00

Only this one I met in person first! I was shopping with a couple of friends last weekend and found the perfect stroller for our little rescued Maltese in a thrift shop in a neighboring town. I'd just paid for the stroller when another lady came up with a cute little Yorkie to inquire about the same stroller. I found out later that her name was Liz and that she has a gorgeous blog here on Blogger.

We exchanged pleasantries and I gave her one of my business cards with the painting of CiCi on it (you know I can never resist showing off my baby!) Today she left a comment on my blog here as well as emailed me.

To make a long story shorter, I've spent the morning looking at her beautiful blog and came across a post of hers on "Morning Glories" http://thebrambleberrycottage.blogspot.com/2011/08/glories-of-morning.html. The photos are spectacular but I think she may have some bindweed there instead of true morning glories (sorry, Liz!)

I've long been enamored of the bindweed that runs rampant on our farm and even painted some a few years ago. I entitled the painting "Glorious Strangler" because that's what bindweed does to any plant around it. Not only does it strangle out plants but it also puts out some sort of substance from its roots that helps prevent other plants from growing around it. Not a plant that plays well with others but very, very beautiful nonetheless.

Please go take a look at the way Liz has arranged and photographed these flowers and you'll probably agree with me that their beauty far outweighs their nasty nature! Thanks so much for the photographic eye-candy, Liz!

Thank You, Christine!

2012-01-18T08:16:00.000-05:00

The internet is a wonderful place for meeting some terrific people. One of those people is Christine from Fine Arts Graphite Portraits blog.

I was stunned yesterday when our mail carrier brought a package containing a portrait of my dear horse, Bonnie, who we lost about a year and a half ago. Christine knew how much I loved Bonnie and how difficult it is for me to paint my own pets and sent me a graphite portrait of Bonnie just out of the blue!

It's a gorgeous portrait that looks just like her and I cried when I saw it.

Christine, I know how busy you are with your new little boy and for you to take the time to draw my Bonnie means so much to me. You did a wonderful job and I there just aren't enough words to thank you for your kindness.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Artistic Dead Space

2012-01-15T13:41:00.000-05:00

"WaterLily"

Gouache on an absorbent ground

prepared hardboard

Contrary to what you might have believed, I'm not dead but just having a little artistic dead space. I really have been working but I've kept hitting slick spots on the artistic road of a double portrait and decided to pull over to rechart my course.

All that means is that when you keep making mistakes with a project, sometimes it's just best to switch to another project to try to get your mojo back. lol

Sometime ago I bought some of the Golden Absorbent Ground but hadn't had time to try it. I had several odd pieces left from the hardboard I bought ages ago and decided to prepare one to try out the new ground. The above painting of the waterlily is the result.

It's only 4 x 6 inches so didn't take a very long time to paint but I'm not sure if I found any difference between the absorbent ground and a plain gessoed board. I won't give a review of the ground until I've had more time to use it. I will say the next time I think I'd use a roller to apply it to try to get a more even surface and maybe to get a slightly dimpled surface similar to cold pressed watercolor paper.

I'd also wanted to take this opportunity to use gouache as it's usually intended which is usually more like oil or acrylic than watercolor. But, gouache is kind of tricky - at least in my experience. It seemed that I was either mixing it too thin or too thick so I ended up using it much the same way I use watercolor but applying my lighter colors last as in oil or acrylic painting.

I guess that ends up being the best of all the media and I was pretty pleased with the outcome. Now back to the portrait of the two beautiful Golden Retrievers which I hope to finish soon!

Shawnee - Final (or close to it)

2011-12-12T12:29:00.001-05:00


Shawnee - Acrylic On Ampersand Board

I've finally gotten into the short rows with this portrait of Shawnee and I've just emailed the client for approval. It's taken what seems to be forever but between the flu and the Thanksgiving holiday, I guess it really hasn't been that long.

A fellow artist asked me about the technique I used to get the fur texture so I thought I'd share it with you all too. I used a small #2 round for most of the fur work and just worked back and forth in layers using three or four colors of paint. Shawnee had a buff colored undercoat which did peek through her outer fur at times so I used the buff color as the base layer. Then I used a mixed black (Ivory black and Indigo blue) to avoid that "flat black" look, a white with varying tones of blue or white with a bit of the buff mixed it to help convey the reflected light. The working in all these colors with such a small brush is why it took so long to finish as there must be hundreds and hundreds (or maybe thousands) of brush strokes in this painting.

I have a set of "fur" brushes but in this instance they left a very regular brush pattern that just didn't look like fur at all. Many times, these are my favorite brushes for fur as it goes relatively quickly with them but they just didn't work as I wanted this time. In case you're wondering what brushes I usually prefer for fur, they're the Simply Simmons Comb brushes. You can see how they cut the bristles into irregular lengths which gives the look of fur most of the time at this website: http://www.fineartstore.com/Catalog/tabid/365/List/1/CategoryID/11456/Level/a/Default.aspx?SortField=unitcost%2Cunitcost

Anyway, I hope my client likes the portrait and that it's a comfort to her.

Another Shawnee Update

2011-12-01T09:24:00.001-05:00

I haven't posted an update on Shawnee's portrait and thought I'd better even though it's in the "ugly" stage. I always feel that people look at it and wonder how any kind of finished portrait could come from that! But, for better or worse, here's an update.

I'm pretty much finished with the buff colored undercoat and have started working on the silver-tipped black top coat.

There's really not much to say about it at this point!

Oh, sorry for the bad photo - for some reason I just couldn't get a good one!

A Very Odd Thanksgiving!

2011-11-27T07:27:00.001-05:00

This past week - a week containing our American Thanksgiving holiday - has been a wild one and one very different from past Thanksgivings!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it seems to be the one most unaffected by blatant commercialism. (I won't even comment on starting "Black Friday" on Thanksgiving Day this year!) This year the kids (we have a son and a daughter) had other plans and I didn't have to cook a conventional Thanksgiving dinner.

This ended up being a good thing because the Saturday evening/night before Thanksgiving I kept violently up-chucking and ended up in the ER at our local hospital for several hours on Sunday morning. It was some sort of bug and some IV fluids and anti-nausea meds got me back on track. But, it took several days to get to the point where I could do much more than sleep and cooking a big dinner would have been nearly impossible!

So, we decided to get together this past Saturday (the Saturday after Thanksgiving Day) for a "Build Your Own Pizza" party. I made my "famous" homemade pizza dough & sauce, set out every topping that anyone even mentioned and let everyone make their own pizza.

The top photo is one of the pizzas and the bottom photo is of three of our four grandchildren - aren't they all beautiful? Our oldest granddaughter is just as gorgeous and is married and now lives in Maine. It would have been perfect if she'd been able to join us also.

We may have had a very unconventional holiday but it was a fun time and maybe something we'll do again in the future!

We're so very thankful for our wonderful family and I'm very thankful to those of you who visit my blog and have become my online family!

Shawnee Update - German Shepherd Dog Acrylic Portrait

2011-11-17T13:17:00.001-05:00

This is the latest update on the portrait of Shawnee, the German Shepherd Dog. I'm still blocking in color and it seems to be going slowly because I'm trying to build layers. With pastel, you can immediately go over the top of previously put down color, but with acrylic, you must wait for it to dry. It doesn't take long but is just different from the way I usually work.

Shawnee had a lovely buff colored undercoat that I really want to get down right as bits of it will show through the succeeding layers when I begin to build the silver and black colors of her top coat.

Soon I'll begin to texturize her coat so that all the subtle colors will work together to make her fur seem touchable and real.

A long way to go still but it's getting there!

Shawnee Painting Update

2011-11-14T05:50:00.001-05:00

Not much of an update on the painting of Shawnee but it's been a pretty busy last few days. As usual, I see several things to be corrected already and I'm just blocking in color at the moment. One of the wonderful pluses for acrylic paint though is the ease in correcting mistakes!

The most exciting thing that happened lately was a trip to Raleigh (NC) for the "Art of the Carolinas" trade show that Jerry's Artarama puts on every year. We got there shortly after it opened on Friday figuring that it wouldn't be too crowded on a Friday morning - Wrong! I picked up a few items I needed then stood in a check-out line that didn't seem to move. I was told by the artists in front of and behind me that it was the worst time to visit the show! I guess everyone tries to get there early to buy supplies for the different workshops along with trying to get frames and canvases before they get picked over! Since I wasn't in the market for either of those items and wasn't taking a workshop, I wish I'd waited to attend the show!

As it was, I bought a few things at the show for some good prices but still ended up with a small bag of stuff and about $60 poorer! Not only that, but we ended up going just down the street to the actual Jerry's store (which blessedly was nearly empty of customers) for some acid free foam board. I also saw some Rub'nBuff which I had heard was great to transform frames and picked up a tube of that. I'd looked for it in Hobby Lobby and our local big box building supply store but hadn't found it.

Since it's so rare for me to get to go to a large art supply store, I really wanted to look around more. But being at the show with all that crowd was really wearing. It was shoulder to shoulder in the huge room that contained much of the show and trying to see what was available was nearly impossible. At the store itself, many of the shelves were empty or depleted because the stock had been taken to the show.

Oh, well, I got pretty much what I went for plus a little extra so it was certainly successful in that regard!

It's back to work on the portrait of Shawnee today and I think I may get the colors all blocked in and a good start on the detailing if all goes well.

I'm also starting a portrait of two beautiful Golden Retrievers and have the sketch pretty much worked out for that. It will be on a full sheet of PastelMat which is the largest size pastel portrait I've done. I'm looking forward to starting it but feel I need to wait until Shawnee is finished so pastel dust won't contaminate the acrylic portrait.

As always, I'll keep you posted!

New Pet Portrait - Shawnee

2011-11-08T11:38:00.000-05:00

I met with a client about a week or so ago to meet her elderly and ill dog so she could have a portrait done. She wanted the portrait of a younger Shawnee and we gathered up photos to use as painting references. I started the portrait after receiving an art order on Saturday with some needed supplies and found out this morning that Shawnee had passed away yesterday.

This is another of those times when I almost wish I had a different occupation. I know the owner is hurting badly at this time and viewing any progress on the portrait will just hurt that much more.

I want my pet portraits to evoke good memories yet it's possible that the owner will look at the painting and remember only that Shawnee left this earth during the time the portrait was being painted. Shawnee's mom and I had talked of a portrait many times and I wish she had commissioned it when she first thought of it. I would encourage any pet owner to get a portrait done when your fur child is strong and healthy if you want one. Don't put it off.

I met Shawnee when she was ill and in some pain but her photos show her to have been a gorgeous black, silver and buff German Shepherd - very regal and almost wolf-like in her coloring. I'm painting her in acrylic and so want to do the best job possible with this painting. Of course, I always want to do that but I feel even more obligated to present Shawnee at her best in this portrait for the sake of her grieving "mama".

Run free at the Rainbow Bridge, Shawnee and be assured that your memory will live on in the hearts of those who loved you.

Old Acrylic Painting

2011-10-28T18:00:00.000-04:00

I was going back through some of my older paintings earlier and found an acrylic painting of this little puppy. I don't remember when it was done although I know it was for practice with acrylic paints. As I look at it here, the yellow background looks almost neon but it's not that bright in real life!

This painting was done on a sheet of canvas - one of those that comes in a pad and can be used for just about any medium. I think the next painting will be on a gessoed hardboard panel or on a stretched canvas. It will probably be the hardboard panel as I've never cared much for the "give" of even a tightly stretched canvas.

Anyway, I have done a few paintings in acrylic and would like to do more of them. The temperature here today has plummeted with rain and wind to make it feel even colder so staying in to do more practicing sounds really good to me!

Double Exposure Photography and Art Exhibit

2011-10-25T10:01:00.000-04:00

This past Friday evening was our local Third Friday Art Walk which featured the Camera Club's Double Exposure Exhibit.

The Chatham County (NC) Camera Club posted some of their member's photographs and local artists were asked to paint, sculpt or otherwise interpret the photos in their medium of choice. Then last Friday the art was exhibited alongside the original photograph. It was fun to be a part of this exhibit but even more fun to see the exhibit!

The best part was that my sister and brother in law were here from Colorado and attended the exhibit with my husband and I. We had a good weekend just visiting and since my sister is a professional photographer, I think she enjoyed the exhibit. We also drove around just looking for interesting photo ops.

All in all, we had a great weekend.

The Artist's List

2011-10-19T14:13:00.001-04:00

I realize that it's been a while since I've updated my blog and I do apologize. Life gets so crazy sometimes and real life has to take precedence over cyber life. One of those real life concerns is my little Maltese who's been a bit under the weather recently.

Plus, I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. I seem to do that in the fall of the year since it's my least favorite season. I get very introspective and start to hunker down for the winter I know will be coming soon.

One thing I've been thinking about is my art and where I want to go with it. I received the following in my email a few days ago and have been thinking about what it says:

I give you my list of 10 Things Artists Should Be Thankful For. Print this out, fold it up and put in your wallet. Send it to your artist friends. Read it whenever you feel all your work is for nothing and you are thinking maybe you should just stop making art and grow up. Post it in your studio when you are wondering what the heck you are going to do with all this work? But, most of all…believe it. Remember, it is impossible to feel thankful and be depressed at the same time.

1. I am thankful that I am not one of the majority of people in this world that wakes up every morning, goes to a job they hate, just to come home and do it all over again.

2. I am thankful that when I am away from my studio, my ideas come with me, they keep me company everywhere I go.

3. I am thankful for this passion that gives me so much joy (and angst) but mostly joy.

4. I am thankful that when I have left this earth, I will leave something meaningful behind.

5. I am thankful that I have a mind that can not sleep, I will never be bored.

6. I am thankful that there is a part of my life that nobody can control, except me.

7. I am thankful that no one in the world can ever take this gift from me.

8. I am thankful that I am brave, it takes courage to pursue my gift.

9. I am thankful that I am never satisfied, it forces me to move forward and grow.

10. I am thankful I discovered this list! Pass it on.

Do you see the sentence I've highlighted in red? Why is it out of all the positive points in this, does this particular sentence jump out at me? I do look around my studio and wonder what to do with all my art. I also look at point #4 and remember a recent trip to the Goodwill store that I took with my daughter. As she looked at normally expensive name brand purses, I looked at the bin with all the frames and artwork. I was aghast at seeing really lovely original artwork being sold for a dollar or so.

Is this the "meaningful legacy" we're leaving behind?

I hope you all are cheered and encouraged with the above - I am and then again, I'm not.

Experimenting with Gouache

2011-09-26T06:34:00.001-04:00

Since finishing Bracken, I've been experimenting with gouache again. I really like using it in combination with watercolor but decided to try it the way I understand it's supposed to be used - like acrylic or oils.

One reason I decided to play with gouache this way was to try to learn acrylics without having to clean brushes constantly. Because gouache is water soluble, you can leave your rinsed out brushes without doing a thorough cleaning of them. The gouache doesn't set up in the bristles like acrylic or even oil. I guess I have to be careful not to get into bad brush habits just because I can leave brushes when using gouache. I don't want to carry any bad habits into my work with acrylic!

I'm not at all satisfied with this painting and may continue to work on it or I may go over it with pastel. The gouache dries very quickly and smooth strokes and gentle transistions are very difficult for me to achieve. I do like the basic premise of this but know it could use a lot more work. The question is whether I want that work to be in more gouache or pastel!

Oh, this painting was done on Arches 140# hot-pressed watercolor paper with Lukas gouache. I've taped it off so that the actual painted area is 8 x 10 inches.

As always, comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Bracken - After The Fall

2011-09-18T11:36:00.000-04:00

I've been working more on Bracken since I dropped her portrait and am once again at the stage where I'll let it sit to make sure there's nothing more I need to do to it.

As always, if anyone sees anything that need to be done or changed, please let me know!

Dropped!

2011-09-17T06:19:00.001-04:00

I had done some additional work on Bracken, the Golden Retriever, and was moving him off my art table to a "safer" place when I dropped her! As you can see, the pastel came off in many places!

This is the first time this has ever happened to me although I've read about it happening to many others. Sooooo, velour is no longer a favorite support around here. Fortunately, I only have a couple of sheets of it left.

But, I'm not really so unhappy that it happened. I wasn't crazy about the portrait and now I can make some changes and not worry about the tooth being filled. I'm a "the glass is half-full" kind of person! lol

Golden Retriever - Marinating Stage

2011-09-15T11:04:00.000-04:00

I think I'm nearly finished with Beautiful Bracken - at least I'm at the stage where I know I'm not quite there but need to let it "marinate" a little before deciding what needs to be done.

I don't know if I messed up or not but the green of the velour paper just wasn't doing it for me so I added in some other greens to give it a little variety. That's one of the things I want to think about.

Another is the collar - I normally leave collars off unless the client just wants it because I find they often distract from the portrait itself. The round tags might be ok but I plan to ask Linda if I can cover up the buckle part. My eye goes right to it.

The other thing is the sienna coloring - for some reason it never scans or even photographs very well. Even though I'm using Richeson, Rembrandts and Senneliers, that particular color seems to be less opaque or something and the undercolors come through, particularly in a scan. I'll photograph it in a little while and see if I can get a better photo.

If anyone sees anything amiss, please let me know. If I change anything, I'll post again!

Golden Retriever - WIP 3

2011-09-15T08:53:00.000-04:00

Still just pretty much blocking in color although I have started some detailing in the head area. Still a ways to go.

I forgot to mention that the reference photo is from LJ on Paint My Photo and is of her 11 year old Golden Retriever. Also that I'm using green Hahnemuhle velour paper, 9x12 inches in size with a variety of soft pastel sticks and pastel pencils.

I'm going a bit more slowly than usual as it took a while to get back in the groove painting on the velour but I think we're cooking now. If only there weren't the interruptions one gets during the course of the day - I've said it before but I'll say it again - I need a mother! Not just a housekeeper, but someone like an old-fashioned mother to keep up with the laundry, shop for and cook the meals and keep the house clean!

Any takers out there?

Golden Retriever - WIP2

2011-09-14T10:01:00.000-04:00

Just a bit added to the portrait of Bracken, the Golden Retriever. It's getting easier to work on the velour but I'm still just blocking in colors. I'll go back over it and refine the details once I have the colors in place.

Watch this space! lol

Old Favorites

2011-09-13T14:04:00.000-04:00

This is directed to the other artists who read my blog. Did you ever have a favorite support that you used forever and thought was the best thing since sliced bread?

My favorite support was always velour and I rarely had a problem painting on it. However, the paintings I've done recently have been on PastelMat or ColourFix Suede. So I had this green velour and thought it would be perfect for the portrait of this older Golden Retriever. It's been an uphill battle since I started and I just don't understand it!

I thought going back to a previously favorite support would be like riding a bicycle - after all, you never really forget how, do you? Doesn't the old brain make pathways from repeated motions so those motions can be carried out quickly and easily in the future? Of course, much of the problem has been getting the right colors. Even though the pastel is covering pretty well, the green background does affect the applied colors. But the application has been difficult also - the pastels tend to drag and sort of skip on the surface and I can never remember that happening before.

Well, I'll quit complaining and just get back to it. If it turns out lousy, I'll give it a try on PastelMat or ColourFix Suede! Shoot, I may even switch media altogether and that would really stir up the old brain synapses, wouldn't it?

Double Exposure

2011-09-08T06:24:00.000-04:00

I got this painting delivered to my gallery (the Raleigh Street Gallery) yesterday. It's for a special exhibit for the Siler City, North Carolina Third Friday Art Walk and I'm excited about it. The exhibit is called the Double Exposure Exhibit and is a joint endeavor between local artists and the local Chatham Camera Club.

A few months ago artists were invited to choose a photograph from a selection from the Chatham Camera Club to interpret in any size, medium and way they wanted. Then a joint exhibit featuring both the photos and the art will be held at the Chatham Camera Club gallery during the Third Friday Art Walk in October.

I know the exhibit is over a month away but thought maybe some of you who are fairly close might want to mark your calendars and plan to attend. I think this will be an interesting exhibit and it will be really fun to see the art next to the photograph. I know one artist is using a medium that needs to be fired! How fun will that be to see!

And, some of you artists might want to sign up to participate in the next Double Exposure Exhibit or maybe even start something similar with your own local camera club if you're too far to participate with this one!

By the way, my painting is soft pastel on Colourfix Suede - I call it "King of the Mudflats" and I think this is a Little Blue Heron. There are so many varieties of herons that I'm not completely sure but I do know that it is a heron! lol

My Visit With Dors

2011-09-04T10:21:00.000-04:00

Some of you may recognize the beautiful kangaroo drawing I've posted. It's from my blogger friend, Dors, blogspot, http://dorsart.blogspot.com/, and she presented this gorgeous drawing to me during the visit to us by her and her husband. I was just delighted and overwhelmed by her generosity and so honored to have one of her beautiful drawings. Don't you just love it?

Dors and her husband, Nev, arrived Friday afternoon and were so warm and friendly that it felt as if we had known one another for years instead of just meeting at that moment. Of course, we have "known" one another for years but only on the internet and it's usually different when you meet someone in person.

Dors is no exception - she is different in person! First of all, her bubbly personality just doesn't come through on the internet. She's very warm and actually very funny and, as Sue (http://pencilpix.blogspot.com/) predicted, we talked the "hind legs off a donkey" that evening!

Dors and I talked art of course, and Nev, her husband, was equally warm and very knowledgeable about a variety of subjects. He's also a master photographer and got some wonderful photos of our hummingbirds. Between the two of them, we ended up staying up later that my DH and I have done for ages! We just had a great time and I hope Dors and Nev did also.

We also hope they'll come back for a visit again one day. It really can't be too soon as this visit was way too short!

Being a Loose Woman Ain't Easy!

2011-08-26T07:35:00.000-04:00

The following is a blog post I did at the Paint My Photo website. They're having a contest where members can post a painting of theirs in a loose style and possibly win a book by Jean Haines who is to judge the contest. Since I've been a fan of Jean's since I first saw her work on Wet Canvas, I really wanted to win her book but ------ the following blog post explains it all!

You don't know how many attempts I've made at a loose painting for this month's (August) challenge - my wastebasket overfloweth!

I've tried loose paintings in watercolor (but I stink at that medium under normal circumstances), then I tried pastel but if you put a brush or a pencil or pastel stick in my hands it's not really going to result in a very loose painting.

I've also tried an acrylic piece that is definitely loose because I used my fingers only but it's certainly not on par with the paintings already submitted for this month's challenge. I just don't think I'm cut out to be a loose painter.

I've admired the work of Jean Haines for eons and frequently refer to her tutorials on Wet Canvas. I don't think I'll ever be able to paint as loosely as Jean but I would certainly like to loosen up at least some! She makes it look so easy, doesn't she?

I think it's too late for me to paint anything for the challenge this month as there are a lot of things going in the next few weeks but I just wanted to say that whoever wins Jean's book certainly deserves it! If it ain't so easy being a loose woman, it's probably not so easy being a loose man either!

The lion painting above is from ESP at Paint My Photo but I certainly did not do justice to it. I painted it in acrylic but instead of using a brush or palette knife, I used my fingers and finger nails although my signature was done with a brush. While it's not a masterpiece and loose may not be easy, it was certainly fun to do!

Amazing!

2011-08-24T10:10:00.001-04:00

I just came inside after having the most amazing experience right out on our back porch! When it got really dry this summer (they say we've been in a drought for the past couple of years) and the flowers just dried up, we put out a hummingbird feeder that I keep full of sugar water.

I was putting out some fresh nectar while ago and got literally mobbed by hummingbirds! I got a few photos afterward but wish I could share the experience of having those tiny birds fly right up to your face as if to say "who are you?"

I don't know how much larger I am than they are percentage-wise, but I'm sure it's a lot! Those tiny little creatures didn't seem at all fazed by this giant though. As soon as I put up the feeder, they came swarming in, jockeying for position at a yellow feeding "blossoms". But these little beings are feisty little warriors at heart and will fly at one another to try to keep the nectar all to themselves!

There are times when I wish we had cable, stores and nice restaurants less than 15 miles away and some of the other amenities of city life. Then there are times when I walk out on any of our porches and know that the lack of those amenities is nothing in comparison to the perks we have right here in the middle of nowhere!

I Can Spell Schnauzer! Pastel on Suede Paper

2011-08-18T18:02:00.000-04:00

This little guy was the source of some controversy as I had gotten the reference photo from Paint My Photo, a group I belong to. I had started the painting but gotten busy and put it aside until today when I finished it. I had intended to finish it in a loose style and enter it into a challenge at PMP but the person who posted the photo had left the site and removed the photos they had posted.

The challenge is to paint a photo from the site in a loose manner but, as you can see, I failed miserably at looseness with this! At PMP, all paintings posted must be from a photo also posted on the site. I guess it's ok that the person left and I can't enter this in the challenge as it's not a best effort. I began it to play on some suede paper I'd bought and had liked for other paintings but it was difficult to get the colors right on this bright red paper.

It's another painting that I'm not particularly pleased with but I'm posting just to show you that I am painting. lol!

BTW, it's still ok to post the painting even though the reference has been removed from PMP - it's also posted on MorgueFile.

The Dreaded Ginger Cat Portrait

2011-08-15T03:59:00.000-04:00

My client picked up the cat portrait yesterday and said it looked just like him. I had tweaked it a bit more before she arrived (but forgot to get a new photo of it) but I was still a little apprehensive of what she would think when she saw it.

Whew! I honestly did the best job I could with what I had to work with, but I wasn't really sure I'd gotten the likeness. So, I was really pleased that she felt it looked like him.

It's these type of commissions that cause baldness and bad dental health from pulling your hair and gnashing your teeth!

Now off to get ready for Dors visit with maybe a quick painting or two if there's time before she arrives!

Enlarging Photos - SmillaEnlarger

2011-08-03T09:12:00.000-04:00

Sue, from Pencilpix blog, was also blogging about poor reference photos so I went searching for a solution. It seems we pet portrait artists get way too many small images that make it difficult for us to do the best job with our pet portraits.

My search for a solution led me to the SmillaEnlarger, an open-source photo enlarger that is free and works very well. It's not perfect but I enlarged a small photo from 421 pixels to 1155 pixels with very little loss of detail.

The only problem I had with it was initially trying to install it. Source Forge software often doesn't usually install the way other software installs and it can be intimidating/confusing to try software from Source Forge. To help figure it all out, I found the following which should be of help in using this software as it doesn't actually install. Anyway, if you have problems, go to the following website or search for using instructions on your favorite search engine.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?134771-Smilla-Enlarger-installation

Hope it helps!

Sucker for Punishment! Cat Portrait

2011-07-30T13:20:00.000-04:00

I've been asked to paint a portrait of a recently deceased cat and the following (& a couple more that are similar to these) are the only known photos of him. The first and last photos are the best, of course, but none are really great references. The first photo is of the cat when he was younger and the rest are from the last years of the life of the cat. And these are all at the size the client emailed to me. When I asked for larger resolution photos, I got enlarged versions (not higher resolution) of the ones sent - very pixelated and worse than the originals.

I guess I'm a sucker since I said I'd TRY to do this portrait. This is a favorite client and she's commissioning it for a friend of hers who just lost this cat. So many people think an artist can look at bad reference photos and immediately paint a superior portrait. Fortunately, this client is not like that but she would still like a miracle, of course.

To all others who give me reference photos like these I'd like to ask them to drive down to the corner store and get me a soft drink - oh, and by the way, have them wear a blindfold. Then , if they protest, I'd say, "Oh, don't worry, you've driven there hundreds of times and I know you can do it! and please can you be back in about 10 minutes?"

To me, that's much the same expectation many people have of a pet portrait artist. Just because we've painted a lot of cats or dogs or other animals in our life doesn't mean that we automatically know what your pet looks like nor can we paint it in a short amount of time. Animals are like people and one ginger cat does not look like another one!

Fortunately, I'm to paint the younger version of the cat before he got his ear mangled. I don't think I could paint that ear and have it look right - there's just not a photo that shows it clearly enough to paint accurately.

I know, I know, I could have refused to even consider this commission but hey, I'm a sucker!

ATC/ACEO Pastel Paintings

2011-07-26T14:35:00.000-04:00

I've been on a little kick of painting ATCs/ACEOs lately. There are a couple (or three) reasons - we're having an exchange on a forum I belong to, I haven't had time to work on a full sized painting (although these little paintings can still rack up the hours) and I've been wanting to challenge myself to try to get as much detail into this small size as possible.

These are both pastel pencils on PastelMat and both regulation ATC/ACEO size (2.5 X 3.5 inches).

Lakefest - Clarksville, Virginia

2011-07-18T09:06:00.001-04:00

The days are flying by again as we've been pretty busy lately. We took a "quick" trip to Florida to see my DH's mother and his sister and her family, I say it was a quick trip because it actually takes about 12 hours to drive and we were only gone a total of four days! Of course, it took two of those days to make the drive!

DH took the rest of the week off and we've gone here and there locally doing things we normally can't do when he's at work. One thing we did was attend Lakefest in Clarksville, Virginia.

My daughter and her family were spending the weekend near there on Kerr Lake on the North Carolina side so we met them and went to the festival. It was a mad house! The festival stretched for what felt like miles on a hilly street. The photo above was taken from atop one of those hills and was about mid-point of all the booths. If you click on the photo, it will enlarge and you can see how many people thronged this event! Unfortunately, this was about as far as we got as both my husband and I were seriously tired after about the first mile. We took turns carrying our little dog in her mesh carrier but the day began to really heat up and we were concerned that she would get too hot and since we were already tired, we just left before getting to see all the offerings there.

Although it was advertised as an arts and crafts festival, we only saw one booth with actual art in it. There were many craft booths but the food vendors probably outnumbered everything else!

Maybe we'll go back someday and take the time and effort to see the whole event - my husband says I can do it if I want to but he's not going to go through all the heat, the jostling and up and down walking again! I think they have another festival in October and it should be much cooler by then! Think I can change his mind by then? lol

Finally!

2011-07-14T05:08:00.002-04:00

Well, darn! I can't get the photos aligned right but maybe you can still get a sense of the closet off my studio. I've finally gotten it somewhat organized, or at least to the point where I'm not too terribly embarrassed to show you photos of it. This closet is about 8 feet deep and over 6 feet wide with a little niche that adds another 2 feet on one wall. That niche is the perfect place to put the treadmill so the closet isn't strictly for my art supplies.

Unfortunately, because it's so big, it became the storage area for things we didn't know where else to put and got very messy and disorganized. It still has to store a few sewing supplies, the treadmill and my saddle (not shown). I plan to advertise my saddle though and hopefully will be able to sell it - do any of you need a nice Stubben saddle and other tack? lol

So, as you can see, I'm getting there with organization but still messing around with the placement of things in the studio. I'm thinking of moving the desk that used to house my computer stuff into the closet and use it for a mat cutting area. I don't think that would work though as the desk would have to sit out from the wall far enough to allow a full sheet of mat board to be cut and I don't think there's quite enough room for that.

As I said, still exploring the possibilities!

WARNING from Susan Roux - PIRATES!

2011-07-07T12:06:00.000-04:00

I was browsing the comments on Sue's (pencilpix) blog and one of the comments came from Susan Roux. The post mentioned that she was from Maine and that's where my granddaughter lives so I wandered over to her blog to see if she had done any paintings of Maine. Well, I didn't really get to look as her post about Modern Day Pirates caught my eye. You can read her post HERE.

Many of you know that copyright violations are a pet peeve of mine anyway and to have an artist be so blatant about copying from another artist really burns me up. Not only that, but the pirate artist (Hugo Diaz Mapi) claims to have painted his paintings using PhotoShop. As a digital painter myself, it was a double insult as I felt he also gives a bad name to digital painting.

Anyway, Susan, thanks for revealing this fraud. I hope all artists are on the look-out for copyright violators and will report them to both the original artist if possible and also to the rest of the artistic community as Susan has done. And I do hope the original artists will file charges - there are copyright laws in effect for most of the countries in the world.

It's Dog Days

2011-07-06T10:23:00.000-04:00

I don't know about anyone else but we're having some really hot and humid weather right now. I don't know if the term "dog days" can be applied officially but any smart dog is cooling off anyway he can!

Even with watering, the garden has nearly quit producing and the landscape is looking more like late August than early July.

So, how hot is it? Hot enough to wish I were with this dock diving dog in the photograph right now!

Attempted Rescues

2011-06-27T09:57:00.001-04:00

The following paintings are a couple that I started painting eons ago and for whatever reason lost interest in them.

The painting of the magnolia started out as a watercolor but was unsuccessful so I decided to see if I could rescue it with pastel. I think I like the technique of pastel over watercolor but I'd used hot pressed paper for the original painting and there wasn't much tooth to allow for more than a layer or two of pastel.

The poppies started out as pastel but it was a painting from my first attempts at pastels and all I had were pastel pencils and not very many of them at that. I've done what I could to rescue this painting and I do like it better than the original but it's still not what I hoped it would be.

I guess you can tell I'm STILL in the process of organizing my studio but I keep getting distracted when I find these old paintings! One of these days I WILL have it done - hopefully before Dors arrives! lol

Acrylic Raccoon - Last Post

2011-06-15T13:09:00.000-04:00

I think this will be my last post on this raccoon. It's not that I feel it's finished as there are still some areas that need tweaking, but I've got other things that need doing and I'm out of paint that I've mixed for this fellow. It just feels like a good time to stop for now.

OK, what have I learned about painting with acrylics? What do I like or dislike about this medium?

Well, it's all color over color in layers and can be kind of tedious. It's the same with pastels, watercolors and gouache (sometimes) so I don't know why I don't mind going over and over in pastels for instance but it's irksome to do it in acrylic! Maybe it's all the brush cleaning in between as that adds more time to the painting. Even with watercolor or gouache, I can lay down a brush with paint residue in it and not worry about ruining the brush if I don't clean it thoroughly right away.

I so like the idea of acrylics going onto just about any surface or support. And I like the fact that they don't have to be framed under glass unless they're on unmounted/unvarnished paper. Those are certainly pluses for me. And while I'm pretty slow right now, this painting hasn't taken much longer than the pastels I do. I think in time I may even be able to paint faster, which would be another plus.

So, I don't know if the acrylic medium will ever become a favorite but at least I feel as if I've gotten a handle on the basics and won't be hesitant to do more paintings with it. We'll just have to see, won't we?

Oh, any c & c is very welcome on this. His paw isn't quite finished, the whiskers need some attention and the tree bark definitely needs work. If you see anything else, please let me know and please suggest HOW to accomplish any changes if you can! I'm always open to learning more!

I would heartily recommend Lee Hammond's dvd and book if you want to learn more about the mechanics of painting in acrylics. I hate it when you buy a video and just get to watch someone paint. Ms. Hammond tells you what colors she's using and mixing and shows you how she actually paints and I wish more artists were as thorough when they put out a dvd.

I'm going back to the garden, laundry, the kitchen and the rest of the house that I've sorely neglected recently so you may not see me again for a while! But, I'll be back!

Acrylic Raccoon - WIP 2

2011-06-14T05:33:00.000-04:00

I'm a bit surprised this morning as this painting actually appears to be coming together! After yesterday I thought I'd never be able to do anything with acrylics but at least I see a glimpse of a raccoon staring back at me today.

Hammond calls these unfinished stages of the painting the "awkward" stages - most artists call them the "ugly" stages. Most artists do go through stages in the painting that aren't polished or the subject even recognizable in some instances. It's normal but when you're learning a new medium, it's very discouraging and you do want to throw in the towel.

So, I'm working on and hoping it will all come out. I'm sure it will & I'm sure I'll get faster as I do more. Right now I'm kind of plodding along feeling my way so I have a lot more to finish. I also see some things to change and that's the one aspect of acrylic painting that I most appreciate - the ability to easily make changes.

I'll continue to work on this and may even finish it today or tomorrow! Again, stay tuned!

"New" Medium - Raccoon in Acrylics WIP

2011-06-13T08:38:00.000-04:00

I recently purchased the book and dvd, Painting Animals in Acrylic with Lee Hammond, and this morning I started an acrylic painting. I've painted in acrylics before but really never got on with them that much. However, I'd like to learn to paint with them so I can produce pet portraits that are less fragile than those in soft pastels.

I'm posting so I'll be more encouraged to continue with and finish this painting at least! lol Oh, the reference photo is from hotblack at MorgueFile.

Lee Hammond's method for painting in acrylics is to block in the base colors then start refining. She works back and forth between colors building layers and I can see where that method gives more depth and finish to a painting. Here I have the base colors pretty much blocked in and will be starting to refine next. I have no idea how long this will take. When I work in pastel, I'll often work in brief segments but with the drying time of acrylic paint, even with the stay-wet paint keeper (homemade), I don't think I'll be able to do that with acrylic paintings. We'll just have to see if I can change my habits or find a way to work with them using acrylics.

OK, I expect you all to hold me responsible! Let's see if this old dog can learn some new tricks!

Pastel Persian Cat - Final

2011-06-10T16:41:00.000-04:00

I think I'm finished with this. I spent a lot of today working on it and think it's pretty overworked. However, my husband thinks it's not overworked but finished. I printed a card and took it to the pet shop where I have some of my work and the owner liked it a lot so I'm calling it quits.

It doesn't look anything like the ref but that's ok - it was for my own learning and not a commission.

BTW, it's titled "One P.O.'ed Persian" ------

Pastel Persian Cat - WIP 3

2011-06-09T07:47:00.000-04:00

I'm moving very slowly on this painting - so many things to do lately that I just get to come in and make a few strokes then move on to something else. It's coming along though and I hope to finish soon.

I think I've finally found the pastel combinations closest to the colors I want but have to go back and change them from the wrong colors. I need to pay attention to those organized and thoughtful artists who do the test strokes on a scrap paper before committing the color to the painting!

Oh, well, tomorrow is another day!

Pastel Persian Cat - WIP2

2011-06-07T12:20:00.000-04:00

I haven't managed to get much done on the cat this morning. I've had a bit of problem finding the right colors to use in her fur. I'm finding that it would be very nice indeed to have an extensive collection of pastels - unfortunately, I don't so will keep working and see if I can make do with what I have!

In the meantime, here's where I'm at right now - I'll keep plugging away with her!

New Painting - Persian Cat WIP in Pastel

2011-06-06T13:52:00.000-04:00

This is from a photo reference at MorgueFile and I just could not resist that face! Of course, I realize you can't tell much about it at this stage but I wanted to post it as a WIP to keep me moving on it.

This morning was spent putting up squash, doing laundry and just generally trying to get a bit ahead before the garden really begins to produce! This is always such a busy time but is so worth it during the winter when good veggies are at a premium.

This is pretty small, only 5 x 7 inches. It's various soft pastels and pastel pencils on black velour and it's really going fairly quickly so I hope to have another update soon. Stay posted!

May 21, 2011 and Harold Camping

2011-05-26T08:50:00.001-04:00

Well, finally, here I am again but not with any real art updates as art hasn't been the main thing on my mind lately. Instead, I've been thinking about the recent stir caused by Harold Camping, the minister who predicted the Rapture would happen on May 21, 2011 with the end of the world shortly following. Of course, it didn't. I'm still here and so are all of you.

I am a Christian and I do believe in the "gathering together" of the believers by Jesus at some point in time. But I'd never heard of Harold Camping nor the huge campaign to promote May 21st as the day of what most Christians call the "Rapture" of the church before there was such big publicity about it. I do know the scripture that says no man knows the day nor the hour of this event and also the scriptures that say it will come as a thief in the night so I was pretty surprised that someone purporting to be Christian was actually predicting both the day and the hour that it would happen.

But I do think it's possible that someone will perhaps know the general time and maybe even the week it will occur as the Bible also says that believers shouldn't be ignorant of the end time, that believers shouldn't be in darkness so that the day overtakes them like a thief. It seems as if there's a contradiction there, doesn't it? And that's what I've been thinking about and studying on and I've come to believe that there's not any contradiction at all.

When the Bible says that Jesus will come as a thief in the night and that no one but the Father knows the day and the hour, I believe it's talking about those who either don't know or haven't believed or just don't care that Jesus will return for His Church.

I'm pretty sure that even believers who do know about the gathering together of the saints won't know the exact time of it, But the Bible has given enough details and predictions that they will know the general timing and will be prepared if they have any sense at all.

As I said above, I've been thinking on the end time events and asked God about the thief in the night scriptures and the seeming contradiction with the scriptures that say we shouldn't be ignorant nor be in darkness about those times. While I didn't hear an audible voice, I believe God did answer me in the following way.

While still praying about this, I was taken back in my mind to the time of being pregnant with my daughter a couple of days before her birth (which was over 40 years ago). I saw myself hugely pregnant and down on my hands and knees cleaning the oven, scrubbing the floors into the corners and cleaning areas of the house that I wouldn't have bothered to clean so thoroughly before. This seems to be a common action by most pregnant women shortly before giving birth.

Pregnant women know the approximate date that they'll deliver the baby - like the prediction that Jesus will return for His church, it's no secret. However, they usually don't know the day and the hour of the birth unless they have a cesarean section scheduled. Even then, the exact time of the birth is still not known. That urge to clean and prepare or "nest" is a pointer or a sign indicating that the time of the birth is very near and actual contractions indicate that the process has actually begun!

I believe signs of this type are what the Bible is talking about when it tells us we aren't to be ignorant or to be in darkness about the time of the catching away (commonly called the Rapture) of the Church. While we may not know the exact time, there will be definite signs that we should heed.

The Bible also says that the end times will be like the days of Noah. What happened back then? Well, Noah was instructed by God to build an ark and he set about doing just that. The Bible says that the townspeople laughed at him, mocked him and thought he was crazy when he tried to warn them and told them why he was building the ark. After all, none of them had ever even seen rain before and couldn't imagine a great flood. So they went about marrying, eating and drinking and just living life as always while Noah built the ark. When the rains came, the people were unprepared but Noah and his family and the animals were saved. Even though Noah's neighbors were told about the rain, they were taken by surprise (like a thief in the night) when the rain finally came!

I believe that our neighbors are laughing at Christians today and think we're crazy as we go about preparing for the return of Christ but that they, like Noah's neighbors, will be surprised when the Rapture actually occurs. The Bible says that there will be a loud trumpet sound and the dead in Christ will rise first followed by living believers. This will not be a hidden event like most people think so can you imagine the astonishment of any unbelieving caretakers or visitors of cemeteries around the world when the dead start leaving the graves? Or just the dropped jaws of the general population to see the dead rising to the clouds followed by living people floating past them?

I know most people don't believe that the events told of in the Bible will come to pass. Most people, even those professing to be Christian, don't even know what the Bible says about the future! But I know according to the signs the Bible says to watch for that the end times are drawing very, very near. It may not be in the next few hours or next few days or even the next few years (after all, it took Noah many years to build the ark!) but we would all do well to pay attention to the signs of the times!

One last thing - I'm not writing this trying to scare you into becoming Christian. God has always allowed people to decide for themselves who they will follow and I've always said that I can do no less. All I can do is point out that you do have a choice. Being Christian is a decision of the heart though, not because you're afraid of where you'll end up if you don't become one. But perhaps my words (and even the actions of Harold Camping) will encourage some of you to soften your heart enough to seek further information from the Word of God, the Bible. And maybe that seeking will further soften your heart to make the decision to follow Christ with the truest motives. I sincerely hope so.

And now back to our regularly scheduled program - art!

Show News

2011-05-02T06:03:00.000-04:00

I'd promised to tell you about the show I did during the month of April. It closed on Friday and I didn't sell anything. That was a disappointment, of course, but I'll live!

It was the first show for this venue but they intend to showcase a new artist every month. I was told that my art drew a lot of positive comments and I was asked to leave four of the most popular paintings to fill out spaces that the incoming artist wasn't able to fill. I thought that was very nice of them.

I'm also still working on my studio. I'd like to get rid of the huge table that takes up so much room and replace it with a smaller work center but my husband made the table for me and I don't want to make him feel bad. I did finish painting the old desk extension that will hold my paper cabinet though. I did a really good job if I do say so myself! lol I even put a large shelf under it for additional storage. Now I have to figure out how to arrange the studio to accommodate all this wonderful new storage!

Posting here will be very hit or miss as spring starts our garden season and there are just a lot of things happening at this time of the year. Just bear with me!

Back To Cleaning Up

2011-04-25T12:58:00.001-04:00

I know you all will think me awful, but I still haven't got my studio in order. I'm still in the process of painting the desk extension thingy that my paper cabinet will sit on and I still haven't emptied the old computer desk and found places for all of its content. I'm thinking I may go to work on the huge closet adjoining my studio and move it in there. It's a very nice desk but it's in an oak finish and I'd like to keep everything white in the studio proper. I could use the top for cutting mats and use the drawers for storage. Sounds like a good plan to me as the closet is currently being used to store frames.

I forgot to mention that I've renewed my organizational effort because Dors from Dors Art Blog will be visiting us during her US tour this coming August and I figure with all my procrastination, it will take me that long to get everything done! I have no idea how long it would take if she weren't going to visit but my husband keeps saying "Thank you, Dors!" over and over in a very heartfelt manner!

So, why isn't it already done by now? Well, I keep finding unfinished paintings and end up going back to work on them (like the egret above!)

I started it ages ago when I first got some of the Golden Open Acrylics but I put it aside to dry then moved on to something else before I finished it! Now I'm determined to finish it and get it out of the way AND get the studio in tip top shape ASAP! (Hey! I heard that snigger in the background!)

We're OK

2011-04-17T08:21:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to thank all of you who emailed to see if we were ok after the tornadoes struck our area yesterday and to let you know that we're fine.

My daughter and her family were closer to the destruction but they're ok also but without electricity (unless it was restored last night). They couldn't get out to come here because of downed trees and debris on the streets but said they'd be fine.

Again, thank you all for your concern and thank God for His protection of us.

I Hate My Job

2011-04-14T09:16:00.000-04:00

I really do hate my job sometimes. Like now, today. I just finished a portrait of a beautiful Rottie named Crissy. Some of you may remember her from a blog post about a demo at the Raleigh Street Gallery where some of my art is shown. There were some aspects of the painting that I just couldn't seem to get right so I put it away until about a week ago.

Crissy was the beloved pet of our friends. She was young. She was very healthy and lively. But something happened and Crissy became paralyzed. The vet said a piece of her vertebrae chipped off and became lodged in the spinal cord in an area they couldn't get to to operate.

Our friends held out hope that the chip would work itself out but that didn't happen. Yesterday they decided to euthanize Crissy feeling that she no longer had the quality of life she deserved.

I loved big ole slobbery and sometimes silly Crissy and that's why today, at least, I hate my job.

A New Show, More On Exhibition Title Cards

2011-03-31T06:30:00.000-04:00

Funny how life has it's own pace of stops and starts - it seems it's either the speed of a snail or a sudden acceleration to that of a NASCAR driver in an important race!

It's been the speed of a race here lately. I'm preparing for a small show and since the paintings are to be hung on Monday, I've been scrambling to get things ready.

I know, I know, I said I wasn't going to do any more shows but this is more like exhibiting in a gallery. The paintings will hang for about a month and the owners of the space will take care of the transactions should any paintings be sold.

One of the requirements is to provide the title cards for each of my paintings. I've been intrigued with the design of those cards for quite a while and ended up printing the image of the painting as a background for the card as shown above. This way there's no doubt as to what painting goes with what information.

I'll let you know how things go.

Foxy Final

2011-03-18T06:36:00.000-04:00

I've finally finished the portrait of Foxy, the little Pomeranian. I don't know if you all do this, but I tend to leave a painting out so I can see it for a few days after I think I've finished with it and will invariably "pick" at it as I walk by it. I'm sure there's probably more I could find to pick at with this but I'm calling it finished so as not to overwork it.

However, I don't like a painting in the mail over a weekend so won't send this out until Monday so if you see anything that needs to be changed, don't hesitate to let me know!

Challenge Painting

2011-03-15T11:15:00.000-04:00

This is a pastel painting that I did for the March Challenge at Paint My Photo, an online group where photographs are posted as references for artists to paint without worry about copyright issues. It's not a "vanity" site where any art work is displayed but is a site where the photos are the stars and only art from the photos on that site is allowed to be posted.

The challenge for March is to choose a photo reference from all those posted and paint it for an exchange between other participating members. I've always had a fascination with the sea (could it be because I'm originally from landlocked Kansas?) and the red sails from the reference photo clinched it as far as choosing this for my challenge reference photo.

I'm not normally a landscape/seascape painter so I hope I did a decent enough job with this that the recipient would not be too disappointed with its arrival. A second reason for choosing this subject was that I wanted it to be pleasing to almost anyone, male or female. Since we won't know where to send the paintings until the end of the month, I won't know who is to receive it.

It's pastel on Clairefontaine's PastelMat and this is the painting where the support had the little dots and one line where there wasn't any of the special pastel surface. The bare spots were small and fortunately, there weren't all that many of them, but it's still a bit of a hassle to make sure they get covered. Have any of you who use PastelMat had problems of this sort?

I'm also nearly finished with Foxy but will wait until I'm completely finished to post.

And, after I finish with Foxy, I have got to get back to organizing my studio! No, it's still not finished because I keep procrastinating about getting it done. Somebody crack the whip!

Foxy - WIP 2

2011-03-14T12:50:00.001-04:00

I've done a little more to the portrait of Foxy, the Pomeranian, which I've posted above. Most of the additional work has been in the way of adding layers and doing a little bit of refining. I should have it finished in the next day or so.

Again, this is soft pastel on ColourFix Suede and I'm enjoying this new paper. I really think my favorite paper is still velour or real suede paper/matboard but this is nice and, to me, is superior to PastelMat.

Both papers (ColourFix Suede and PastelMat) seem to both feel and respond the same way but I like the colors better in the ColourFix plus, there don't seem to be any flaws in the paper as there are in the PastelMat. I just finished a painting using the PastelMat and had a little trouble covering some bare dots and also one bare line where there wasn't any surface. It worked out ok but it's just a lot easier when there aren't any flaws.

I'll post the painting I painted on the PastelMat tomorrow and perhaps another update on little Foxy!

Foxy - WIP

2011-03-10T19:22:00.000-05:00

This is Foxy, a cute little Pomeranian I'm in the midst of painting. I have two nieces with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a genetic disease and I donated a gift certificate for a portrait to a fund raiser to help find a cure.

The lady who won the portrait sent me photos of this little cutie and so far the painting is going very well. I had initially planned to paint her in gouache or acrylic ink but my fingers instinctively reached for the pastels.

This is just the beginning of laying down of the base colors and I have a lot of refining to do.

I'm using the new ColourFix Suede in the Kangaroo color. It looks pretty gray here and in the color swatches online but it has a bluish tint to it. The owner of Foxy said she wanted a steel blue as a background color and this seemed fairly close to that color. This is only the second time I've used this support (& I still haven't finished the first piece!) and I like it ok. It's similar to PastelMat by Clairefontaine but doesn't seem to have the flaws I've noticed in the PastelMat. It seems to work the same as the PastelMat in that blending is pretty difficult until the layers are built up.

Oh, as an aside, the pipe insulation blenders I wrote about in a previous post don't seem to work well after the initial layers and tend to remove the pastel instead of blending it. I may just need more practice with them and the paper though. Much as I dislike the feel of the pastel dust, the fingers are certainly the best blenders for nearly every pastel painting situation I've come across yet!

Anyway, I hope to be able to finish this by the first of next week at the latest.

Another Pastel Blender

2011-03-09T08:30:00.000-05:00

Many of you know that while pastel is my medium of choice, I really hate the feel of the dust on my hands. That's why I'm always on the look out for the perfect blender.

A while ago I touted the virtues of the Loew-Cornell Style Styx and I still like them a lot. But I recently read on Wet Canvas's Pastel Forum about using foam pipe insulation as a blending tool. I didn't have any on hand and didn't want to drive 30 miles to a home improvement store so I looked around at what I did have on hand.

I found some dense foam lengths that are actually used in swimming pools as floats or kid's toys and decided to try a section to see how it worked. It's amazing how well they do work! You can cut the foam into any shape but I found the wedge shape works the best.

The foam sections that I had were purchased from a local Dollar store for a dollar or less each and one length is more than enough from which to cut dozens of the little blenders. These wedges hold up well and while, like the Style Styx, they may stain, they can be wiped off and used repeatedly. Or, they're cheap enough to have one for every color in your pastel collection!

Happy, happy painting!

Winter, Spring, Winter

2011-03-01T10:04:00.000-05:00

It's that time of the year again when the temperatures do their wild fluctuations! For the past several days, we've had temps in the high 70's to low 80's - pure heaven after the cold we've had. But we had a front move through yesterday that has brought back the cooler temps. It's not all that cold but still nearly 30 degrees cooler than what it has been.

The daffodils and forsythia are blooming and I spotted a crocus nearly open yesterday. These plants seem able to take the weather see-saw although a hard freeze would probably ruin the blooms.

Little teasers of spring right now then back to winter.

Another sign of the season is that there are a lot of skunks out and many are being hit on the highways. Since we're in the country, many are hit on the road on which we live. That makes for such a delightful perfume for several days!

But, the skunks and the early flowers signal that spring really isn't that far away. Here's hoping it's early this year!

Just Squint - Pastel Landscape

2011-02-21T06:50:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I'm still trying to make order out of the chaos that is my studio but I just couldn't go any longer without painting something!

I've recently been studying how to loosen up yet still keep a realistic (but painterly) look to my work. The advice I see most often is to just squint. Squinting supposedly helps you see the important and blurs out the unimportant.

That's fine, I guess, but it's really, really hard to sustain a squint long enough to finish a whole painting! lol Anyway, my first effort at just squinting! I think this is one of those things that requires a lot of practice!

Pastel on sand colored Ampersand PastelBord, 5 x 7 inches, mostly Rembrandt sticks and various pastel pencils.

Information on the Muffaletta Sandwich

2011-02-18T05:34:00.001-05:00

Since the comments I had on the post about Muffalettas were about not knowing what the sandwich was, I decided I'd better post a link to some information about it.

Wikipedia seems to have some pretty good information on the sandwich all in one place. This entry includes the ingredients and the origins of the sandwich although it doesn't give an actual recipe.

The muffalettas I had in the New Orleans area (I actually lived in Mississippi but the sandwiches were popular there also) were on a thick bread the size of a dinner plate and filled with Italian ham, cheese, & salami as well as the Italian Olive Salad.

The center of the bread was scooped out to make room for the other ingredients and that's why I was taken with the recipe from Rachel Ray. Instead of the thick bread of which much was thrown away, she used pizza crusts. Italian bread and pizza crust are made from the same ingredients in the same way but just take different forms. The taste was the same - crusty on the outside with those toasted sesame seeds - with the rest of the ingredients well-contained so no olive oil dripping on your clothes or bits of olive salad falling on your lap!

If you ever go to New Orleans and you're a meat eater who likes olives, be sure to order a muffaletta! Like the Cafe du Monde's coffee and beignets, the muffaletta is another New Orleans institution!

Back Again

2011-02-10T08:46:00.000-05:00

I don't have any photos yet because I just finished moving all the computer stuff to the new work area and everything is such a mess that I can't get back far enough to get a decent shot!

We have a couple of desks and a table to move out that are currently in the way of everything! I also have to move my huge work table and the paper cabinet that our friends gave me for Christmas.

Still so much more to do but I'm just blessed that all the computer stuff is moved and set up and actually working! lol And, in this so-called wireless society, I've found that everything (that I have at least) still needs electricity so still have a lot of wires to deal with.

So, I'll still be working on the studio for a while yet. My DH still has to put the trim around the base of the cabinets and we still need some pulls or knobs of some kind.

I'm thinking wrought iron as I saw some in the home improvement store that I really liked and they were very reasonable to boot. I like the look and texture of wrought iron and I think those pulls would look good with the black countertop. I've not seen any I like better so will probably go get those this weekend.

Things are slowly coming together!

Cabinet Photo

2011-02-06T08:21:00.000-05:00

studio computer area

My husband started the cabinet installation yesterday and while we aren't finished by a long shot, I thought I'd share what's been done already.

The upper wall cabinets are already in place and although it may look as if the bottom cabinets and counter are installed, they are just sitting there not attached anywhere. We were doing a practice run/dry fitting before actually installing them. We still have to install the actual cabinets and the countertop and the center drawer. Then we have to put knobs or handles on the doors and drawers.

I still haven't decided what kind of handles I want yet. I looked online and thought about some really funky ones that looked artistic (see HERE) but they were $36 EACH (and I need 13 of them!) and I decided I'd rather spend that money on art supplies. But I did find some that were a lot more reasonable but can't decide which ones I like best! (see HERE or HERE) Or maybe, in the interest of time, I ought to just go with something I like at the local home improvement store!

The studio is such a mess, I couldn't get a good shot of the cabinets and it will be a while before I get things in some sort of order but I promise to post photos when I do.

I also wanted to tell you that I may be offline for a while as I need to move my computer stuff and that may mean re-installing my router as the phone line is currently clear across the room and the router is hooked up with an ethernet cord (is that what it's called?) Not sure what I need to do to change it as my desktop computer does have a wireless card but I imagine it will take some time for me to figure out. lol That means no internet access for a while if it takes any time at all.

Domestic Goddess Day

2011-02-05T05:32:00.001-05:00

Some of you may know that I lived close enough to New Orleans at one time to know about their muffalettas. I used to buy one and it would last me for several days. I thought they were wonderful.

Since then I've moved far away from New Orleans plus have become a vegetarian and put thoughts of a muffaletta out of my mind. Then Rachel Ray had a recipe on her show that I was pretty sure I could make using non-meat ingredients. So I gave it a whirl.

It took most of the day yesterday but I made the olive salad and the bread from scratch and put together two wonderful, fragrant and ultimately delicious muffalettas! I made one of them from standard ingredients since my husband does eat meat and he loved it.

Art and creativity take many forms and yesterday they took the form of homemade muffalettas!

Just Stuff

2011-02-03T10:12:00.000-05:00

I've been working at trying to arrange the studio so that my husband can install the new cabinets this weekend. But I have to admit that I was also checking out things on the internet and noticed that there's been a run on visitors viewing my Kelpie puppy painting from way back in 2008! It's not that great of a painting and when I see things like this, it always makes me curious!

If any of you who have searched for the Kelpie puppy and viewed it recently would like to explain why it's so popular, I'd appreciate it. Or, if any of you who know what's going on with it would like to tell me, I'd appreciate that also!

I do notice when paintings are viewed frequently and will change them around from one host to another or add additional or heavier watermarks to them if I feel it's warranted.

I do hope that people using the internet know by now that items posted online are copyrighted even if there is no copyright notice on them.

Anyway, I'll keep my eye on the various "popular" and may even sign up for a photo tracking program.

I also wanted to comment about the areas of the US who have been absolutely slammed with snow and ice. I do feel for you and you have my prayers. You know I don't particularly care for winter weather so I'm especially aware of the inconvenience at least that you're suffering. I hope there's a break soon and that spring arrives early this year!

Stay warm everyone.

They're Here!

2011-02-02T11:03:00.000-05:00

As you can see, the cabinets for my studio have finally arrived. Right now they're sitting in the living room (my studio is just around the corner) waiting for my DH to have the time to install them.

Of course, I need to finish moving a large bookcase and a little table out of the way so he can get to the area! lol Who knew a bookcase could hold so much stuff?!!!!

We haven't opened any boxes yet - just checked that everything we ordered is here - but the cabinets are supposed to be white. I have two windows on the north side of the room which is the only natural light so I wanted white cabinets so as to reflect the light. I thought dark finished cabinets would only make the studio dreary.

So, let me get back to work getting stuff out of the way so my darling husband can hopefully get started installing them this coming weekend!

I'll keep you posted!

German Shepherd Dog Commission

2011-01-31T11:19:00.000-05:00

This is the commission I was working on right after Christmas. It was a gift that has now been given so I can post it. I'm very relieved to say that both the person who commissioned the piece and the gift recipient were very pleased with the portrait.

This painting is pastel on velour, my usual surface, with various pastels and pastel pencils and went fairly well, As usual, the reference photos were not clear and did not show some parts of the dog they wanted painted. The ruff under the neck was cut off and the eyes were "flashed" so I couldn't tell what color they were. So, between the memory of the person who commissioned the painting and looking at similarly colored GSD's online, I made some educated guesses which were evidently close enough as the owner assured me that it looked just like the dog.

I was concerned that the fur was too long but both the commissioner and the owner told me that this dog was not at all smooth and that the fur length was right on.

So, on to the next commission which will be in gouache and I need to both finish the magnolia pastel painting and get the studio ready for the new cabinets.

Jeanne, from Jeanne Grant blogspot, left a comment about wanting to see the finished studio and I promise to post pictures. The cabinets were supposed to be here by today but as far as I know, they haven't arrived yet. After they do arrive, we'll have to install them (around my DH's work schedule) then I'll have to get everything tidied up to show everything at it's best - lol. So, it might take a while but I'll eventually get pictures up here for you all to see!

Pastel - Blonde Cocker Spaniel

2011-01-24T10:54:00.000-05:00

I've been working on this little Cocker Spaniel instead of doing stuff I should be doing! But how could anyone resist that sweet face?

I'm still not finished with it but wanted to get feedback from the owner before I went much further and she was pleased with it so far. She also gave permission to show the reference photo I used. As you can see, there was some guesswork involved in painting the ears but I think I have them pretty close.

I still have some touching up to do and also need to finish the background but I'm in the "short rows" as they say down South!

This is various pastels (mostly Rembrandt) and pastel pencils on a 9x12 inch sheet of PastelMat. It seemed that the tooth filled up fairly quickly this time and I had to vacuum off some of the pastel in order to make some changes. I don't advise using a vacuum unless you have a lot of control or your vacuum doesn't have a lot of suction! Most of the touching up I have to do comes from the vacuum cleaner leaving visible pathways on the painting!

So, I won't show this again as the basic painting is there - again, just some touch ups and a little blending here and there.

As always, if anyone sees anything that needs some attention, please don't hesitate to let me know!

In the Studio: Re-Organization and Re-Model

2011-01-21T06:23:00.000-05:00

It's begun! My husband gave me cabinets for my studio for Christmas and the countertop we ordered arrived yesterday! The actual cabinets are supposed to be here by the 31st then the fun really begins.

This set of cabinets is for the "office" area and will hold my computer and peripherals. There will be cabinet storage both below and above the work surface. We started with the office wall because I'll need to get the desk and tables out that currently hold my computer stuff. Once that's done, we'll be able to get the cabinets for the other walls.

We haven't ordered them yet as I'm not sure exactly what I want and they're too expensive to get something I don't like. I don't think I want any wall cabinets for the other walls. I do want the counter space and cabinets beneath the countertops would be ideal. I'm not crazy about wall cabinets because I'm so short that the shelves above the lowest ones would probably go to waste!

I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

Some Goofing Off Stuff

2011-01-18T13:21:00.000-05:00

I didn't get a lot done on the magnolia painting yesterday but I did a little goofing off playing with my graphics software and some filters. The result is a cartooned version of my photo.

This is certainly nothing earth-shattering and not even news-worthy but I figured some of you may be looking for an update post and I didn't want to leave you without anything at all!

I did finish a commission this morning and am now working on one of the "for fun" photos that I said I wanted to do. I'm pleased with this one as most of the photo ref wasn't what I wanted so I had to improvise. I used the eyes and nose from the ref then had to draw the rest to my liking. I'm not finished with it and probably shouldn't have started it but the right colors were already out from working on the earlier commission so I went ahead with it.

I'll go back to work on the magnolia hopefully tomorrow even if I don't finish the puppy painting today. And I'll try to remember to show the commission after it's been given. It's a gift and I don't want to spoil any surprises.

Magnolia WIP 1- ColourFix Suede

2011-01-16T11:21:00.000-05:00

I finally got started on the magnolia painting and thought I'd share the steps with you along with my thoughts on this new paper.

First of all, I'm just blocking in color and am working left to right since I'm right handed. I'm using a full sheet of the white ColourFix Suede paper (14 x 18 inches in this case) and am sort of "feeling" my way with it so it will probably take a while to finish. It works a lot like PastelMat and feels somewhat like it also. I'll probably have to do more than one painting to really decide if I like it though. It took me a while to get used to PastelMat but since this is so similar, I hope this will be easier to learn to work on. One thing, it's not at all like working on actual suede paper and it's too bad the name of the paper leads you to think that it would be.

This is the first time I've ever worked on such a large painting in pastel and what everyone tells you about working large is right - it's much easier than working small as you have room to maneuver! When I ordered the paper (which is actually a card and a very nice weight), I also ordered a set of Rembrandt 60 half sticks of pastel. I've always liked Rembrandts and am glad I have them for this painting since they're firmer than some other brands. I'm also using Pan Pastels but I don't have the greens needed for this painting in that set. One of these days, I'd like to have more of the Pans but for right now, I'm just working with what I have.

I started just blocking in colors with the Pans where I could then using the Richardson and Conte' hard pastel sticks that I have. Again, the colors are very limited in both of those sets but I've layered and blended as much as possible to get the colors I want. It's pretty time-consuming and I can understand pastel artists having huge collections of pastels!

Anyway, like PastelMat, it helps to put down a good base of pastel and build the layers before trying to blend. You have to sort of push the pastel into the paper and that's where the Pans, hard sticks and the semi-hard Rembrandts work well. It could just be the way I work, though. I've found that everyone works differently and the tools used surely make a difference also.

There are a lot of tight places in spite of the size of this painting and, while I do like the Sofft tools, I find myself using the Loew Cornell Style Styx more often. I'm very glad I found these and plan to stock up on them the next time I go to Hobby Lobby or Michael's. The Style Styx seem to be firmer without being rubbery like the color shapers. They're a really dense, firm foam rubber and I think they were designed to use with water media but they've been an exciting discovery for me.

Well, let me get back to it - I'll try to post another WIP as soon as I can. My DH has tomorrow off work because of the MLK holiday and it's sometimes difficult to work with another person in the house!

ColourFix Suede - It's Here! Now What?

2011-01-15T14:43:00.001-05:00

The art supplies I ordered have finally arrived and now I'm in a real quandary! I don't know which color of the new ColourFix Suede to use first!

I ordered the rainbow package which consists of the colors shown HERE as well as an extra white and an extra black. I've decided to paint one of the magnolia photos that I took a couple of years ago but I really can't decide which color to use. I'm really drawn to the Blush which is more of a light peachy pink, (or maybe a light shrimp?) than the more brownish color that shows on my monitor. I think it would look good under the creamy color of the blossom but I'm not sure and would hate to try it only to find that I'm wrong. I guess I should use the white since I do have more of it and I can underpaint to suit myself.

So, I'm dithering about trying to decide after getting so ticked off because it didn't get here as quickly as I'd hoped! Or, maybe I was ticked because I knew I'd need some extra time to decide on a color! lol

I will say that the colors are wonderful and richer than they show online. The Kalangadoo isn't so much a light gray as it is a very light tan. The Jacaranda is a sumptuous deep, bluish-purple that looks the color of a woods violet or maybe a deep purplish pansy. The Tasman Sky is really a lovely soft sky blue. Their colors are good but I do hope they come out with more at a later date.

In the meantime, I'll never be able to report how I like this paper if I don't get off here and try it!

UPS Basic, ColourFix Suede and Revised Mallow

2011-01-14T09:45:00.000-05:00

I don't know if you can really see any difference but I followed Dors' advice and darkened under the petals some more, I'd said I'd probably have to do a bit more glazing and I did. Thanks, Dors, I'm always concerned about overworking and, while I probably could go even darker, I think I'll leave it for a few days and see what it needs then.

On another subject, I still haven't received the order I placed with Jerry's Artarama and it's a week today. Since the order comes out of a warehouse in a city only 60 miles from us, it's kind of aggravating. Since I noticed that their free shipping was through UPS Basic I decided to find out what exactly that is.

I found that UPS, FedEx and other shipping companies are taking advantage of a program with our postal system where they can become "consolidators" for US Postal Service mail and qualify for very reduced mailing costs. Since mail order companies were shunning UPS (& FedEx) because of their very high shipping fees, the shipping companies could reduce their costs and fees and win these mail order companies back by becoming USPS mail consolidators. It was a win-win situation for both the mail order companies and the shippers but it's a real PITA for their customers and our local mail carriers!

It seems that UPS/FedEx picks up packages at the mail order companies and ships them to the local hub where their drivers pick them up and take them to the local post office. Then the packages are taken to their final destination by the local mail carriers. They say it saves money because their drivers don't have to drive all over rural areas for one delivery when the postal carrier is doing it anyway. That does makes sense but why not just ship USPS to begin with? Why can't mail order companies negotiate with the Postal Service for a reduced rate when they ship so many packages or something?

My order shipping confirmation included a tracking number for both the UPS leg of the journey and another one for my local post office. From those tracking numbers, I found that my packages sat at the UPS hub (a city about 45 miles from us) nearly 3 days before it was put on a truck to take it to the local post office. A friend in business locally informed me that the local UPS driver has been on vacation and the substitute drivers have been very slack so I guess it doesn't surprise me that the packages weren't immediately taken to the post office. As a matter of fact, I'm not even sure the packages will even be taken to the post office even though they're supposed to be on the delivery truck. While I was researching this so-called "service", I found that it seems to be up to the drivers as to when to deliver the packages to the local post office!

I know, I know - the shipping was free and I shouldn't be complaining but I only ordered from Jerry's because of it's proximity to me plus the Jerry's website said that delivery would take about 2 - 4 days! And I also know that our ice storm was probably a factor as the UPS hub city was hit very hard and normally doesn't even see such weather. It just seems that if the UPS truck from Raleigh could make it to the hub, trucks could make it out also.

Anyway, researching the UPS Basic service was very interesting reading. So, now I'll know next time not to order if the company offers only the Basic shipping or unless I'm willing to wait several more days than I've waited in the past!

Maybe I'll eventually get my ColourFix Suede paper - if & when I do, I'll let you know how I like it!

Finally, a Painting!

2011-01-13T11:39:00.000-05:00

Sue, from PencilPix blog, has sort of been prodding me to get off my duff and post a new painting. Well, I did a new watercolor this morning. I always feel that I have so much to learn about watercolor and usually hesitate to post anything I paint in that medium. But, I also feel that maybe some of you can either learn from my mistakes or give me a critique or tip that will help me learn this elusive medium!

The mallow flowers are courtesy of MaLu at Paint My Photo, and I didn't come close to the rich colors of the original photo! It's hopefully enough, however, to break the painting slump and if nothing else goes a long way toward helping me forget that it's winter outside!

C & C gratefully accepted!

Oh, No, Not Again!

2011-01-10T09:04:00.000-05:00

Yep, it's snowing AGAIN this morning! It just started less than half an hour ago or so and look what's accumulated already. My DH just had to go to work this morning and left at his usual time before it started snowing. He works about an hour from here and actually made it to work before the first flake fell. However, it may be a different story this afternoon when he tries to get home! I hope he heeds the advice he would surely give me and comes on home before the roads get icy as they are predicted to become (check out Atlanta who got this a few hours ahead of us!)

Guess I'll stay in today and see if I can work on a painting.

More Snow, Colourfix Suede and Other Stuff

2011-01-08T14:26:00.000-05:00

We are having a really, really weird "snow/no snow" day today! It was cold with a very heavy frost this morning but the sun came out and it was really pretty for a little while. Then we had a 2 minute flurry of heavy snow with high wind - almost like a mini blizzard! Then the sun came back out again and since the weather forecasters had said all the snow would be in the morning hours, we decided to go to a Hobby Lobby about 30 minutes away. We set off with the sun shining and got about 10 miles before we ran into blowing heavy snow again. We thought it would end just as it had before but it only seemed to get worse so we turned around and came back home! Bummer!

I didn't really need anything at Hobby Lobby but it seems that I've been stuck in the house forever and just wanted to get out for a bit. The reason I didn't need anything is because I just placed an order with Jerry's Artarama yesterday evening.

Yep, I finally ordered the new Colourfix Suede paper along with some other things I've been wanting. It should be here towards the end of next week if all goes well. Sue, from Pencilpix blog, told me she'd been dithering over what support to use and had effectively put off starting a new painting. I think that's the case with me and I hope having a new support to try will get me revved back up again! The cold and lack of sunshine really zaps my creative juices and I haven't wanted to paint at all lately.

I have several things on hold that I really need to get going on but it seems that if I start something when I'm not in the mood, I struggle with it and sometimes end up starting over anyway.

I'll keep you posted on how I like the new suede paper - just hope I'm in the mood to try it when it gets here!

Going, Going ------

2010-12-31T13:32:00.000-05:00

Almost gone - that's both the snow and the old year and, to tell the truth, I'm not at all sorry to see either go.

You know my feelings about snow and even though 2010 hasn't been a really awful year for us, it's just time for a new beginning with a new year, don't you think? I have a good feeling that 2011 will be a great year. And I wish for a super year for all of us artists as it's also time for art sales to recover.

So, may I wish all of you a happy and prosperous New Year filled with every good thing life has to offer!

Colourfix Suede!

2010-12-30T08:34:00.000-05:00

I'm very excited as yesterday I saw that Jerry's Artarama and Dakota Pastels both have Art Spectrum's new Colourfix Suede pastel paper listed in their online catalogs! I checked Dick Blick's website but they still don't have it listed as of yesterday and I haven't check Cheap Joe's or any other online vendor that I order from.

I called the Raleigh Jerry's store but they do not have it in stock at this time - bummer! I was going to go get at least a sheet in spite of the distance and the snow still lingering in the shady areas around here.

I just haven't had time since I found out about the paper being available to figure out what I want to order but plan to do so today. In the meantime, here are links to Jerry's and Dakota Pastel's catalog pages for it. At least you'll be able to see the colors available and the current price. When I get my hands on a sheet and have time to work on it, I'll report on what I think of it.

And if any of you beat me getting a sheet of it, please let me know how you like it!

Now, here are those links:

Jerry's Artarama
and
Dakota Pastels

Back To Normal?

2010-12-29T11:47:00.000-05:00

Well, the snow is finally melting and the roads are clear at least. There's still quite a bit of the white stuff around but the patches of bare ground are getting bigger all the time. The weather forecasters say we should be up to around 70 degrees by the weekend! Whooo Hooo!

In the meantime, I'm still trying to clean up and organize my studio when I really need to be painting. I have several paintings to do and have got to get cracking on them soon - I just need to be able to find my table so I can paint!

So, I want to take this time to wish everyone a wonderful coming new year. I think I missed wishing you all a merry Christmas but I hope you had one anyway.

All the best in 2011!

That Four-Letter Word Again!

2010-12-27T09:07:00.000-05:00

You can call me a whiner, I don't care, but I don't like snow and cold. I even moved to the southern part of the country to escape it but we still get some from time to time. Usually we get a few flakes then the sun will come out and it's gone within a few hours. But we got dumped on Christmas night and it's still here 2 days later! That's not what I bargained for when I moved here!

So, I've stayed inside and finished painting my new cabinet and am in the process of filling it up with all my various art papers. Right now, my studio is a royal mess as everything was piled on my art table to make room for the new cabinet so I've got to sort through all of that and decide where each type of paper should go. This is NOT the fun part as I'm notoriously unskilled at organization. Once something is organized, I tend to keep it that way, but deciding how it should be organized is giving me a brain freeze!

That's why it's taken me this long to decide what I want in the studio and how I should arrange it. My husband gave me carte blanche in the home improvement store for Christmas and insists I get cabinets and counters ordered. That's great but every time I tell him what I'd like, he comes up with a reason why it would be impractical! Like, there's a short wall that I think would be ideal for my computer desk and peripherals table or a counter but my DH has pointed out that the phone line is on the opposite wall across the room. Since I use the phone line to connect for DSL internet access, I really need to have my computer close enough to connect to it. I'm not so sure that's a real problem though as I'm sure the phone line can be moved. I'm also sure my DH wouldn't be thrilled to have to do it since it would involve crawling under the house! I could have the phone company or an independent contractor move it, but I know my sweetie would rather do it himself even if it means crawling through cobwebs in a dark place. I can just see him moving the phone line then I find out later that moving my computer to the new area just isn't working after all! He's a wonderful, patient and indulgent man but I think that could cause some major words between us!

So, these kinds of problems keep me in a dither about how to organize and I tend to do nothing instead of forging ahead and maybe making a mistake!

Are any of you out there any good at organization? Any suggestions would be more than welcome!

Early Christmas Present

2010-12-20T08:38:00.004-05:00

Again, I've been negligent about keeping up my blog but I've been extremely busy plus, I sometimes wonder if anyone actually reads or cares whether I've posted anything or not! But, that's beside the point right now. I wanted to show you all a fabulous Christmas gift I got yesterday from some very dear friends.

Dave, an excellent woodworker as you can see, made this storage unit after Joy, his wife, designed it. My husband added his input also and everyone kept it secret from me for weeks!

This unit is so perfect for storing my papers although I need to finish the shelves to block any wood acids from affecting my papers (Dave ran out of time plus no one was sure if I would want the unit painted or stained). The top shelf is plenty big enough for even large sheets of matboard and the shelves on the viewer's right are perfect for large sheets of watercolor paper, PastelMat or other large sheets and the shelves on the viewer's left are perfect for pads and odd sheets that I use.

The drawers are deep enough so that I can store aerosol cans of fixative or other tall items. I'm even going to try to put up a rack or holder of some sort inside a drawer to be able to store brushes point down away from any dust. I don't know if it will work but it seems like a good idea anyway!

Anyway, I'm absolutely thrilled with this very generous gift. It's taken me over three years but I'm finally getting a handle on what I need and want as far as storage and workspace here in the studio goes. It will take a while longer to get it all done but, if anyone is interested, I'll post the finished result here.

Now, I'm off to figure out what I need to finish the shelves and drawers and to get to work finishing them!

Christmas Card - Iris Folding

2010-12-01T07:12:00.000-05:00

I've finally gotten the photos for another commission but while I was waiting, I decided to try a new-to-me craft. I haven't done much crafting in the past few years because painting has taken all of my time and energy. But, after finishing several commissions, I was sort of burnt out on painting but wanted to do something creative.

Carole, from Art Plus, got me curious about iris folding with the beautiful work she does with it. So, when I happened upon a pattern and some basic instructions, I decided to try it. This little bell still isn't finished as I don't have the supplies that most paper artists use. The paper I used for this is actually just some Christmas gift wrap that caught my eye when I got it out of storage. The examples I've seen of various iris folded cards use 3 or more colors/patterns for the different areas of the design. As I said, I didn't have any specialty papers on hand and it's really too far to go to get anything decent. However, I really enjoyed doing this and will keep my eyes open for papers I can use in future projects.

Now, on to the next dog portrait!

Egads!

2010-11-23T10:32:00.000-05:00

I didn't realize how much time has flown since I posted last! I finished up some extra cards and other odds and ends for my last customers then attended an open house at the gallery (Raleigh Street Gallery) where some of my art is displayed.

The open house was very quiet with very few people but several sales were made. I didn't see any original art sold but cards, prints and decorative items seemed to do well so it wasn't a complete wash-out. I ended up working on a pear still life set up by a designer who displays at the gallery also. The set up wasn't really to my liking so I changed some things around (on paper) and it still didn't ring any bells for me. Of course, most still life set ups don't inspire me much as painting subjects, but I feel that I ought to paint some if only for practice. Anyway, never did finish the painting and probably won't.

Now I'm trying to get ready for Thanksgiving! I've done several dishes ahead of time and will do more today but it's still time-consuming to prepare a large meal like that!

That's my excuse for not posting and I'm sticking to it! My dear husband will be home for four days and it's so hard to do much when your schedule is disrupted so I probably won't post much until next week. I'll do better after everything settles down though - I promise!

Hope everyone in the US has a wonderful Thanksgiving. I'm very thankful for all of you!

Serious Thinking

2010-11-18T07:51:00.000-05:00

It seems that when it rains, it pours sometimes and I've just received word that both of my recent commissions have had devastating news concerning pets in their lives.

I'm waiting to hear the outcome of a referral visit to our state vet school where Allee, the little female Coton de Tulears that I just painted was sent after she was found to have a tumor in her mouth.

And, when I delivered the portrait of Kelly, the Golden Retriever/Great Pyrenees mix, the owner told me that bone cancer had so debilitated one of their dogs that she was going to be euthanized that day.

I only met both of these ladies recently when they commissioned me to paint their dogs and both have become special to me. Maybe it's because there's a bond to begin with because of our love of our pets but my heart is breaking for both of them. It's especially difficult with Allee because I got to meet this little one in person and just fell in love with her and her "brother", Max. I know how much her owners love her too and that makes it doubly sad.

However, I'm really trying to stay positive here as I haven't yet heard how the appointment with the specialist at the vet school went. There's a possibility that the tumor can be treated and that's where I make my mind stay.

And, while Kelly had passed across the bridge some time ago and I didn't know her or her "sister", I still feel the pain of my customer. It's so difficult to lose one of your fur children and even more so to face the possibility that you might.

Max and Allee WIP Final Perhaps

2010-11-14T16:51:00.000-05:00

I think I've just about finished the portrait of Max and Allee. I've sent the photo of it to the client to see if they have any requests for changes and I'm going to let it "marinate" for a while but I think I'm pretty much finished.

This photo is cropped pretty tightly so only the puppies show, btw.

If anyone sees anything, please let me know!

Spent most of this morning at the Art of the Carolinas Trade Show put on by Jerry's Artarama in Raleigh and got some new art supplies. Actually, I bought more at Jerry's store than I did at the show as I didn't need as much and it didn't seem that there were as many vendors there as in years past. I only purchased from one vendor this year - Savor Faire - and I got some Cretacolor pastel pencils and some kind of mega white charcoal stick. They had the sticks in several colors but I wasn't really into them enough to buy more. I did play with them and liked that they went on smoothly but just didn't have a need for them right now.

I also played with the Sennelier oil pastels there. They only had expensive sets at the show and I don't know that I would ever get into oil pastels so I waited until I got to the Jerry's store and bought a few individual colors that I thought I'd use. I also got some acid-free foam board which I can rarely find around here and it's way too expensive to order. I wish Jerry's was closer as it's sure nice to be able to get items like that locally but ----.

Derwent had a booth at the show but didn't have any of the new pastel pencils with them. I was disappointed but stuff like that happens! lol

The highlight of the morning was getting to chat with Brenda Mattson. I've wanted to take her pastel pet painting workshop at the trade show forever but it's never worked out so I could. I had hoped she'd eventually put her workshop on dvd but it doesn't sound as if she's much interested in doing that. She also didn't seem to be interested in publishing a book. She said her workshop this time had 21 people in it and she didn't like to have more than 10 so she could give everyone individual attention. That's why it would be so nice if she had a dvd or book showing her methods. She's a really nice person and I'm glad I was in the right place at the right time to meet her.

Tomorrow it's back to the grindstone. I have at least one more portrait to do and am still waiting on the pictures on another but I still may take a little time out to play! lol

Two Little Coton deTulears

2010-11-13T11:55:00.000-05:00

This is Max on the left and Allee on the right. They are Coton de Tulears and are what I am working on currently. I got to meet these two little fireballs and fell in love with them instantly. They're very active but also very, very sweet.

I'm using various pastels and pastel pencils on PastelMat from Clairefontaine for this portrait Although I've worked on the PastelMat in the past and was beginning to like it, it has a little quirk that just popped up with this painting that I really don't like. It dents very easily and the dents are hard to cover. I used my Jack Richeson semi-hard pastel square sticks/and pastel pencils for sketching the two dogs and I had to bear down quite a bit in order for the color to show. This dented the surface of the paper and it's been very difficult to cover. Also, using the pastel pencils in the eye area for instance has also left "furrows" in the base of soft pastel and on into the paper. The only way I've been able to cover them is to use the very hard white pastel stick that I received in the Derwent samples not too long ago.

I guess it could just be this particular piece or maybe even color of PastelMat as I hadn't noticed this happening the other times I've used it.

Anyway, it's going pretty well and I got so involved in working on it that I forgot to stop and take any photos of the progression. It's still not finished as you can see so I'll try to be a little better about photos as I go.

And, no, Christine, I don't have the eyes completely finished yet but I did add a little highlight in Max's eye just for you! lol

2010-11-11T10:14:00.001-05:00

This is the second update on Kelly, the commission of the Golden Retriever/Great Pyrenees mix. I think I'm getting into the short rows but am awaiting comments from the owner.

Kelly's portrait is for a Christmas gift and I want it to be perfect, of course. Trying to determine her coloring has been a bit touch and go as each of the photos I received from the owner has been pretty different. She also sent a link to a dog online that she said she thought had similar coloring. So, I hope I got it right. The biggest challenge has been the dark areas.

The owner said Kelly's dark areas had gotten darker as she aged and she didn't want them as dark as they show in the reference photo. I've lightened them considerably and, again, hope they're what the customer wants. It's really difficult when the reference photos show one thing and the client's memory is different.

I'm also still working on the Cotons and will be posting a wip of that painting in the near future since I told a couple of regular readers that I would. I've just gotten the color choices for the bows in the little girl Coton's pigtails though so I haven't done enough on her for you to see much right now. I've made a pretty good start on the little boy though.

I'm really staying busy right now but will update here as soon as I can.

Kelly - New Commission WIP

2010-11-06T08:04:00.000-04:00

This is Kelly, a Golden Retriever/Great Pyrenees mix who crossed the bridge a while ago. Kelly was much loved by the husband of the lady who commissioned the portrait and the portrait will be his Christmas gift.

This is pastel on velour with a mixture of various brands of semi-hard pastel sticks, soft pastel and pastel pencils. I'm just in the blocking in stage right now so it looks very weird, I know.

The reference photos were from hard copies which weren't the best in the world but I got the opportunity to talk to the customer at length about Kelly's coloring so I hope to be able to portray her accurately. She looks to have been a beautiful dog with many features of a Golden Retriever. That helps a lot since I've painted several Goldens.

I can see that she looks a little scrunched down here when in reality she has a very alert, proud bearing in the reference photos. I'll address that as I proceed.

I'll also be posting a couple of Coton de Tulears that I'm working on. I've started on it also but am not at the stage where you could make much sense of a photo of them!

So, don't be alarmed if you don't see much of me here - I'm busy working in the studio but I'll try to post more wips as I paint!

More on ColourFix Suede in the US

2010-11-05T14:47:00.000-04:00

I just read that Art Spectrum (or it's distributors) is having problems getting the new ColourFix Suede paper into retail markets in the US. It appears that it will be after the first of the year before it's widely available. Bummer for an arts supply junkie like me.

I've also heard that it is similar to Clairefontaine's PastelMat as I suspected and which I'm beginning to like more and more. Hopefully, the ColourFix Suede will be as good, in better colors and cheaper than the PastelMat!

I'll keep you posted as more information becomes available.

Art Festival Musings

2010-10-25T05:55:00.000-04:00

Well, the art festival I told you about in a previous blog post was this past weekend and I actually enjoyed it.

It was held in a large barn out in the country and I'd wondered if anyone would find their way out to us. But, the show was well publicized and we had a surprising (to me) number of visitors. There were numerous events scheduled for the same time frame but I think that actually worked in our favor as people were out and about and stopped by on their way to or from other activities.

Did I sell a lot? Not really, a few note cards and magnets but no original art. That doesn't surprise me though as most people don't carry around the price of an original painting with them. But, I did have considerable interest in pet portrait commissions and hope there will be some people who actually follow through.

As I said, I normally don't like to do street fairs or these kinds of festivals. Most of the time you work yourself to the bone in preparation, set-up and tear-down and generally, for me at least, barely make back your costs. This time it was sort of fun though - it was fairly small as it was the first time but all the vendors were very congenial and the people who attended were in good moods. The weather was gorgeous and we were surrounded by farm animals, including 3 gorgeous horses. There was breathing room with real fresh air instead of crowded city streets filled with gas fumes and the sometimes unpleasant blending of food smells.

So, this festival was fun and, while not exceedingly profitable, at least I got an opportunity to give out business cards and get a little name recognition. Hopefully it will pay off with future commissions but, if it doesn't, it was still fun!

Diabolical Eyes

2010-10-19T06:38:00.000-04:00

"Diabolical Eyes"

About 6x2 inches

Pastel on PastelMat

I'm supposed to be preparing for this upcoming art festival but, as usual, I got distracted when I saw a little scrap of PastelMat lying on my work table. Thought this closeup of a cat's eyes was suitable for the upcoming Halloween holiday.

Now, somebody get the whip out and make me get back to work!

Exhibition Title Cards

2010-10-15T10:23:00.000-04:00

I mentioned that I'm busy getting ready for an art festival in a couple of weeks and one facet of the preparation is designing those cards that are placed beside a painting to give viewers information about the painting. I didn't even know what they were called until I went searching to see how other artists were handling this aspect of showing their work.

I guess I was fortunate to have stumbled onto a couple of mentions of them or I may not have found any information at all as there doesn't seem to be

much about them on the internet.

If you show in a gallery, most of the time the gallery furnishes these cards and they're usually plain white, simply functional cards. However, many art festivals and shows leave this part up to the artist and I've seen some very eye-catching cards out there.

I do want to catch some eyes, of course, but I also want my paintings to attract more attention than the informational title cards so I wanted to keep it attractive, yet simple. I've posted three designs that I've come up with but nothing feels quite right so far.

It's also been suggested that these cards contain a thumbnail image of the painting on display so that there's no confusion as to which painting the information belongs to. I've also heard that a card with the thumbnail image could also serve as provenance or a certificate of authenticity with additional information on the back of the card.

Have any of you had experience with these cards or do you have any thoughts on them and how they can be used to promote your art? What about thoughts on what they should be called? lol

Let me know which you like best (or if you hate them all) or any suggestions you might have.

I'll be checking the comments here but may not be posting a whole lot as it's a lot of work to prepare for these shows. I'll let you know how it goes.

Framing Paintings on Suede

2010-10-13T08:35:00.000-04:00

A couple of posts ago, I was singing the praises of using suede paper as as support for pastel painting. This post will tell you how difficult it is to frame paintings on suede supports! lol

I'm participating in an arts festival the weekend of the 23rd of this month and am trying to get paintings selected and framed and just stuff ready for the event.

The painting of the dog (Chevy) that I'd painted on the suede paper gave me a very hard time.as no matter what I did, the pastel would fall off. I sprayed it several times with fixative and even that didn't seem to help.

I ended up tapping the back of the painting to get rid of as much loose pastel as I dared then I attached the hanger wire holders to the frame and attached one end of the hanger wire. I left the frame in an upright position, cleaned and inserted the glass into the frame, added the top mat, then the inner mat turned to face the painting (to capture any pastel dust that might still fall). Finally I added the painting and the backing board.

After trying several times to frame this painting and cleaning the glass numerous times after each failure, I finally got the dog framed! I guess the secret is to leave the frame upright during the whole framing process!

Quick Draw II - Pumpkin

2010-10-10T10:13:00.000-04:00

We took a car trip to Kansas from North Carolina a couple of weeks ago and I took the small Conte sketch kit I bought at Jerry's. I also took some of the pastel paper that I don't particularly like as I thought it would be good enough to play on. It was really difficult to paint in the car but I did a series of quick sketches of things out the window or from my imagination or, as this drawing, a combination.

We saw countless fresh air markets and fields displaying pumpkins for sale. I decided to take advantage of the orange Tiziano paper to do this quick sketch of a pumpkin. The little Conte pastel kit has 12 crayons in good, basic colors, a sanguine and a black Conte pencil and a charcoal pencil, a kneaded eraser and a couple of tortillions for blending. It's perfect for painting on the go as it has a lot of stuff in a small space. I wish it were in a tin of some kind though as I had to put stretch wrap around the plastic base to hold everything in. Maybe I can find a tin of the right size one of these days.

It was fun and beneficial to do these little sketches - they not only saved me from total boredom riding hour after hour, I got to practice trees and rocks and other things that I normally can't get quite right in pastel.

Still Playing Fast and Loose

2010-10-07T05:43:00.000-04:00

The challenge last month at Paint My Photo was to paint a photo in an hour or less and Teresa at Blueberries, Art and Life has been doing some remarkable paintings in 20 minutes or less. I'm a slow painter so I've been trying these exercises to try to speed up at least some.

The idea is to paint as quickly as possible and still retain the quality you want your finished piece to have. That means deleting unnecessary elements and keeping the important ones. It means making every stroke count.

This is one of the Cotons I've been commissioned to paint as a Christmas gift. She's an absolutely adorable dog and I thought I'd practice quick painting with her. I think I need more practice!

Watercolor on Kilimanjaro cold pressed paper

On a Painting Binge

2010-10-04T07:57:00.001-04:00

I've been on somewhat of a painting binge here lately and just finished the portrait on the left yesterday. It's from the Paint My Photo site and is from a reference photo by Carrie Layne Mashon.

This is Conte, soft pastel, and pastel pencils on some suede paper from a scrapbook supply store. I've been wanting to try the suede matboard that some artists use but it's not available locally that I can find and it's pretty pricey to order since there's a 10 sheet minimum. The paper I bought is acid and lignon-free and I thought it would do well for experimenting. The size is about 8 x 10 inches.

I really, really like the suede for use with pastel and the painting went very quickly with little to no dust! I used a brown color paper for this painting and the light-colored, harder pastels didn't cover that well and that's really my only complaint with the paper. I have one Sennelier soft stick in white that works well so I can see that if I intend to use the suede much, I'll have to invest in some softer pastels!

Oh, just thought of the new suede paper from ColourFix! It's still not available where I shop but I'm really hoping it's as wonderful to paint on as this was! Just think, I can get new paper and new pastels! I'd better hurry up and finish the commissions that are waiting as I see a shopping binge coming to match my painting binge! lol

Toddler and Chicken - giving up

2010-10-02T14:38:00.000-04:00

Well, this looks a little over-saturated to me but looked good on my graphics software so I don't know how you'll see it.

Sue and Christine gave me some good advice that I tried to follow but am not sure how successful I was. I guess it's not bad considering that I'm not a people portrait painter and it's terrible if I were! lol We'll just call it somewhere in the middle and also call it finished as I don't have the heart to keep messing with it. It's already getting somewhat muddy.

I've not shown it to the parents nor to anyone else, for that matter. I'll do some slight smoothing then email it to my vet and see what he says.

Now, on to other things - I still have the Rottie to finish and also have a commission for two Coton de Tulears to paint. I go to meet the Cotons next week and I'm excited about that as it will be the first time seeing that breed in person.

Until next time!

Toddler With Chicken WIP

2010-10-01T08:27:00.000-04:00

I don't know if any of you remember the pastel I was working on quite a while ago but I've picked it up again and made a small amount of progress. This one is really frustrating me because I really like the reference photo but can't seem to get my painting to measure up to it.

For what it's worth, here's a small update. Any help gratefully received!

Oh, one of the items I bought at Jerry's was a small Conte' crayon and pencil set. One of the pencils was the color "sanguine" which seems to be working well for the ruddy complexion of the child when overlaid with a peachy skin color. The skin color still isn't there yet but nothing is finished at this point.

Various pastels/pastel pencils on Ampersand PastelBord - 5x7" size.

Vacation - of sorts

2010-09-29T08:53:00.000-04:00

My husband and I just returned from a trip to Kansas to visit with my family. I've seen my family but hadn't been to the house I mostly grew up in since my mother died in 1996 so it was an emotional journey as well as a physical one. I still couldn't stay there and thank my sister for letting us stay at their house.

It was wonderful to get to see my father and my four sisters and many of their family members as well but it's also tiring to drive such a long way. It's also really hard to get any one-on-one time with anyone in such a crowded setting!

We didn't do anything much except eat and talk but it was like old times for us all to be together again.

Most of our trip was overcast but I did manage to photograph this chicory (I think!) flower growing wild at a little roadside park. The one thing I wish I'd gotten was the "smoke" as we were driving through the Great Smoky Mountains! I've lived in North Carolina for nearly 35 years and have driven through those mountains countless times but this was the first time I'd seen exactly why the mountains were called the Smokies.

Yes, I've seen the billowing mists that hover over the mountain peaks and drift down along the sides and yes, it does look like smoke arising from those mountains. But, yesterday as we were driving home, I saw white columns of mist that looked exactly like campfire smoke dotting the mountain sides! It was truly awesome and I wished I could have gotten to my camera to document the event. Unfortunately, my husband had packed the camera in its bag in the trunk as he was loading everything from our night in a motel and I didn't notice until I reached for it to try to photograph that "smoke"!

Anyway, we're back and I hope to catch up with everyone soon!

Black Cat Time of Year

2010-09-17T05:59:00.000-04:00

I don't know about you but we're beginning to see lots of spider webs, a few falling leaves and some signs that fall is nearly here in spite of our 90 degree temperatures. It's still a little while before Halloween but I thought a black cat might be appropriate right about now.

This is Leonie and she seemed very appropriate for the season even though she isn't solid black. She was painted in gouache on Arches rough 140# paper.

Art Spectrum's Colourfix Suede Paper

2010-09-07T11:40:00.001-04:00

I think there are several readers here who use Art Spectrum's Colourfix paper. A while ago it was announced that they were introducing a new paper - Colourfix Suede. Being the art supply junkie that I am, I had to find out all I could about it.

I received the following email today concerning the availability of the new paper here in the US.

Hello Jan,

Thank you for your interest in Art Spectrum

Colourfix Suede Paper.   It is so new
that it has just arrived in the United States

last week for the first time!!!  Right
now it is available in just a few select

stores, but we have recently shipped some
to the following store and you will be

able to order it by mail in the near future:
 
Dakota Art Store, 1-888-345-0067,

www.dakotapastels.com 

Please let me know if we can be of further

assistance.

Kind regards,

Lori Villalonga
Armadillo Art & Craft

Armadillo Art and Craft is the US distributor for Art Spectrum products and I'd like to thank Lori for her prompt reply to my query about the suede paper.

I don't have any idea about the price or anything much else about it but have heard it will be available in 8 colors and 2 sizes. It's supposed to be a "softer" version of the current Colourfix paper. Hmmmm, don't know exactly what that means but it sounds somewhat like a PastelMat competitor.

If anyone tries it, please let us know how you like it!

No Sense of Humor

2010-09-06T11:39:00.000-04:00

We went to Jerry's Artarama yesterday and I got a literal handful of items and spent nearly $40! The nice clerk told me I'd saved $50+ dollars but I didn't stop to debate her. Just glad I didn't pay what they said was full price! Jerry's was crowded but that's probably usual for a holiday weekend. People are off work and want to pursue their hobbies or just relax. I wanted to play with my new toys too.

Most women don't get holidays off though. As a matter of fact, my husband asked me this morning if I was going to wash clothes. He said he was out of underwear. I said I had just caught up all the laundry and surely he had clean clothes. He said rather sarcastically that he did wear a pair of underwear a day after all.

My husband usually is very good-natured and funny but scowled and stomped off when I suggested that he cut it back to a pair every other day.

Sometimes even the funniest men just don't have a sense of humor!

New Derwent Pastel Pencils

2010-08-30T07:04:00.000-04:00

Derwent Pastel Pencils on UArt 800

ATC size

I received the promised samples of Derwent's new formula pastel pencils on Saturday and I have to say that I'm impressed. To be honest, I didn't think I would be as Derwent's were at the bottom of my list of favorite pencils. I only had a few of the old formula Derwents but they seemed to have chunks of something hard in them and were sometimes scratchy to use. As with all the brands I've used, some colors were scratchier than others.

These new pastel pencils are creamier and go on easily and smoothly. I haven't checked their lightfastness yet as I've been going full-tilt since I received them but I've heard that they are pretty lightfast. I'm sure some colors are better than others but it's that way with all brands.

So, would I buy these pencils? Definitely yes. The only disappointment is that the pencils are just a hair larger around than standard sized pencils and won't fit into my pencil sharpeners. The standard sized hole on my electric sharpener is just a little too small and the larger hole in the handheld sharpener is too big. I can make it work but the core breaks easily and I need to go slow and very carefully. I think it will be back to a craft knife and sandpaper for these.

As I said, I've been on the go all weekend and have just done a very quick trial to see how they worked for me. The painting above is from a reference photo by Teresa from http://blueberriesartlife.blogspot.com/ and please know that my quick sketch in no way reflects her skill as a photographer!

I received four sample pencils - Titanium White, Kingfisher Blue, Dark Fuchsia, and Naples Yellow. I also received the much-touted blending stick, a very hard white, square stick that helps blend large areas or one area into another. I wanted to use just the new pencils as a test and Teresa's photo contained colors closest to the samples I received so you won't see a refined painting here. But, I do hope you can see the smooth lay-down of the pastel and the way the pastel blends even into areas where the blending stick wasn't used.

Thanks for the new formula, Derwent! I'm very excited by the release of these new pastel pencils!

Agility Dogs

2010-08-24T07:38:00.000-04:00

Sometimes the little dogs get a bad rap and are viewed more as little spoiled companions instead of a small dog with big abilities. I just finished this painting of a little terrier going through an agility trial - something he should excel at doing.

This painting was done in gouache in a watercolor type manner and on Arches rough watercolor paper. Gouache isn't my normal medium so it was fun to explore it a bit more.

Choices and Compromises and New Formulas

2010-08-22T14:55:00.001-04:00

Well, our new laptop arrived and I've been busy trying to set up everything the way we want it. All the technical stuff is done but I'm totally undecided about an image/graphics editor.

I've been a very loyal user of Paint Shop Pro since its version 7 but the reviews for the current version are abysmal and I'm looking for a new software. It would have to do all that PSP does but without the glitches, bugs and bloat! lol

I've been researching PS Elements but its current version is not winning accolades either so what does that leave?

Serif's software, PhotoPlus, is getting great reviews but the company gets a D minus for its strong-arm sales tactics. I've downloaded "free" & "trial" software from them and the nag screens are so cumbersome you can't even properly evaluate the software. I'm told that in order to register any purchased software, you have to call and be subjected to an interminable sales pitch for add-ons before you get your registration unlock key to even use the software. No thanks on that - that's a compromise as far as I'm concerned.

I know there's a lot of free software out there also & I keep downloading various ones but they just don't quite fill the bill. I'm not against purchasing software - I just want what I want, especially if I'm going to pay for it (& I don't want to pay to listen to a sales pitch!)

Any suggestions?

On the topic of compromise and making choices, I just emailed to see if I could receive some samples of Derwents new pastel pencils. You all probably know that I'm not a fan of the old formula pencils but I'm almost frantically hoping the new formula will suit me as the Derwent brand is available in places relatively close to me. While I hate driving in congested city traffic, I don't mind mail order for my art supplies. But, that requires planing ahead - something I'm not always so good about doing! Right now, I need some new pastel replacement pencils to work on a couple of commissions and I'll have to mail order them. It would be wonderful to be able to go somewhere local to get them. (Well, you know nothing is really local but even 30 miles wouldn't be a burden to drive.)

Anyway, if I receive the samples of the new formula Derwent pencils, I'll be sure to review them here. If any of my readers in the UK or elsewhere have already used them, please let us know what YOU think about them!

Art Walk Featured Artist

2010-08-21T08:09:00.001-04:00

Well, last night was the Third Friday Art Walk in beautiful downtown Siler City (NC) and I was the featured artist at the Raleigh Street Gallery. I have to admit that it sounds a little more impressive than it actually was but maybe my experience will help others who do a public demonstration of their art.

Siler City is a small town to begin with and the only restaurant usually open in downtown during the Art Walk closed its doors this past week. I didn't realize it would have that big an impact but there were very few people out last night. At the last Art Walk there were large crowds and it was one of the hottest evenings on record so I was expecting at least a crowd that large since last night was somewhat cooler and less humid.

Ok, so the crowd was disappointing but it was still sorta, kinda fun to be painting in a public place. I think I was more comfortable doing it since there weren't many people watching me. There were a few people who did stop by to watch and everyone was very complimentary so that also helped.

But, I want to tell you artists more about the process than the results so you might be better prepared than I was. The gallery owner had said to have at least a start on whatever I was going to work on so I put in the background and eyes of the beautiful Rottie that I was going to paint. I didn't want to have too much done but I needn't have worried about that - I barely got started before it was time to leave. Not only that but I got it to the "ugly" stage about the time people actually started to come in. So, I advise you to get your painting to a recognizable stage then work on the details at the demonstration.

Another thing that bothered me and hindered me in working was the fact that I was given a table and chair as my work area. I'm told that artists are less intimidating and more approachable if they're sitting down so that was good. But, I normally work standing up at a cabinet-height work table. I do this so I can step back and get a better overall view of what I've done. Sitting down sort of skewed my perception of where I needed to go with the painting. Not a huge problem but it was a bit unsettling since I was already nervous. It might be a good idea for you to practice working in a setting similar to what will be provided at the demo area.

All in all, it was good experience and I think I'd do it again. I'm grateful for a terrific band last night as I was seated next to the area where they were performing. They were playing some good oldies songs but they weren't blasting me out of the gallery. The band was called Nitro Express and they were wonderful to listen to. If you have need of a band to perform at some function for you, I'd recommend them.

In conclusion, I got a decent start on Crissy, shown above. She's being painted on Ampersand PastelBord with various brands of pastels and pastel pencils. The Ampersand is one of my favorite supports anyway but I specifically chose it because it is a board and it's just easier for me to deal with in this kind of situation. In fact, I was amazed at how little I had to pack up and carry to the gallery for the demo. Another plus for this medium!

CiCi - Finished? Thank You, Jane!

2010-08-15T05:52:00.000-04:00

I think I'm finished with CiCi's portrait but will let it sit around for a few days just in case I see something that needs to be tweaked. Oh, the colors in this scan show brighter and more pronounced than they are in reality. Also, the shadow area around her mouth isn't really pink but I used a mauve-y gray there and when I sprayed with SpectraFix, the area became more pink and shows up worse in this scan. This is the first color change I've had using SpectraFix and I think it's because I used it heavily as Teo 21 suggested in a comment on Poppy. I didn't get any spots though!

I have to thank my dear friend, Jane, for helping me see why I couldn't paint our babies before. I'm still not sure about this one, whether it really captures her or not but my husband thinks it does and he's the "customer" in this case! At least I finally finished a portrait of our fur child so Thank you, Jane!

If you all see anything that could be better, don't hesitate to let me know!