For the Love of Art - Art Show

I participated in an art show yesterday in Elkhart Indiana. It was a great learning experience. I sold one framed artwork, and three small matted artworks, not enough to cover my expenses of the show, but at least I sold something, considering there were so many other awesome artworks, pottery, jewelry, sculpture to compete with, I am grateful I sold anything. I traded a painting for the big wall unit, so I have that for next time. If I do another art-show like this, I will only have that unit, and add another table to show more of the matted works. I will drape some material behind the display unit. Both of my "neighbors" were very nice. I'm drinking my morning coffee out of a wonderful pottery cup that the artist "next door" gave to me. It was nice to make a new friend. :)

Tamper Tantrum

I had a little piece of scrap paper left over from the Cherry Blossoms painting, so last night I thought I would just play with it. I had a lovely little mountain landscape thing going, was almost done with it, and then... WHAM! I screwed it up! What's a girl to do? Yep... smear the paint all over the paper until it was just a muddy mess, then add some color and get the rest of the frustration out... Yep, this is a temper tantrum. :)

Cherry Blossoms - Finished

Well, I am finished with this. I think if I do any more to it, it will look over-worked. I don't think it's horrible or anything, but I think it could be better... I am going to try something like this again, and try not to get so dark with the gray in the petals next time.

Cherry Blossoms Step 2 & 3

Well, I took the masking off last night before I went to bed... good thing, because I had a little trouble getting it off one area, and might have been worse if I had left it on over night. This morning, I painted some background color for the flowers and buds... after it dries, I will start to define the petals, and might lift some of the color I put on, have to wait and see how it looks when it is dry.

Here is the painting after I added some more background work, starting to develop the petals of the flowers.

Cherry Blossoms ... time will tell...

This is the start of a watercolor painting I am working on. It's 8.5 x 11 on watercolor paper. So far I have sketched out my subject (from a photo I took of some cherry blossoms in my yard last spring), then I masked off the flowers and buds, and then went wild with the background. Tomorrow, after it has completely dried, I will take the mask off and start working on the flowers... time will tell if this works as I want it to ... time will tell.

Dreaming of Spring...

Here is the finished painting. I really like the way it came out. Feels very happy and springy! Spring can't get here a day too soon! I am so tired of seeing all this white stuff... and not too happy about the cold either! Might have to move south when we retire!

sick of snow... painting spring!

We have really been getting our share of snow this year, and I am already sick and tired of it. Rather than let the winter blues get me down, I'm closing the blinds and painting spring! I had done a watercolor some time ago of birch trees in the fall that I sold, so I thought I would try my hand at doing an acrylic painting on gallery wrapped canvas of some Spring Birch Trees. This is the progress I have made so far, next steps will be to paint in the knots, lines and branches of the trees... then some lovely green leaves at the top, and some pretty purple and yellow at the bottom...

In other news, I am getting ready to do another art show/sale. I'm really excited about this one, there will be 45 fine artists at this event. It is on February 9th in Elkhart Indiana. I am going to have to pull the artwork I have at the restaurant out of there... I don't think it is selling anyway, so would be better to take it somewhere where people are looking to buy art. Hopefully the snow will stop, and people will want to go to the event to get out of the house. There will be a food vendor, entertainment and even a children's book author who will be doing readings and signing her books... beer for those that like to indulge in that sort of thing, I'm more of a wine-sipper myself. :)

Update: here is the painting after my session with it this evening. Tomorrow will bring leaves, grass and late spring flowers. I like the way it is coming along. :)