2022 - Wow

Guess I'm having a painting hiatus - zip, nada, rien du tout, happening here.  Er, what's that "rien du tout" all about?  Well I've been learning french everyday via DuoLingo and that would be to say "nothing at all."  Started before the pandemic when so excited about our next trip -- but over 700 days later (Wait, What??), now just plugging along filling up pandemic time.  Frustrating and wildly enjoyable at the same time.  Next step, figuring out how to work on listening and speaking (in the hopes of a planned trip in May - gotta have something to look forward to!).  Meanwhile, trying to get the painting mojo going again . . . . 

One really cool thing that happened over the year-end holidays was a gift of my entire blog printed and made into a hardbound book!  Super cool if I do say so myself.  Nine years of blogging makes for a pretty huge book - but encourage everyone to give it a shot for "prosperity's sake."  You can do a PDF file for $10.  Books are based on the number of pages and binding.  Should have chosen soft back - literally busting out at the seams. Just feed it your blog URL, tweak a few things and done. You can set timeframes, delete specific blogs and other customizations.  Customer service is great too.

Here's the place:

click to visit website

Need some pretty pictures, so a reminder that several paintings (new ones too) are on Redbubble and Society 6 if you're looking for useables or wearables.  Lots of discounts when you sign up for emails.

Redbubble - Tote bags, Cards, Pillows and much more

Society 6 - trays, coasters, cutting boards (front shown), etc.

Mojo fingers crossed for next month.  Enjoy, life is joy we make one moment at a time.

December - Reflections

The last week of November was the time when our sweet Mom passed away (almost 94). Family was in the room holding her hand (and several of us nearby - virtually). Thankfully a brief and peaceful transition.  Not unexpected, but a bit of a surprise. 

A truly vibrant woman who taught us so much, encouraged us to be our best, and cajoled us through a life living around the globe - always fearless, always game, always making life interesting and fun. She was a trailblazer and made us feel safe despite the chaos of moving and somehow managed to calmly raise a family of five well-behaved children (wink, wink). We are grateful for the expert and unwavering care she received the week before, and know she's off to her next adventure with a smile on her face and a song in her heart!

Life is quirky - for some unknown reason I chose this last still life in November and decided to call it "For Mom."  My mother always had the most gorgeous African Violets on her kitchen windowsill. Purple was my favorite.  How fitting, given the circumstances.

For Mom
click to zoom / purchase

Late-November, I decided to clear the decks and paint a series of holiday paintings to give as gifts. I added them to the gallery to remind me of a few of the special people in my life. We are a spread out family - Virginia, New Mexico, Alabama, Florida and Texas!  Despite the circumstances, it was great getting together to celebrate a life well lived and ignore the pandemic for a few days. 

click to zoom gallery

Enjoy! Remember life is joy we make one moment at a time -- so get out there and make some memories!  Be safe :-) 

Johnna

November - Recovery Time

Was on quite a roll and then November arrived.  Got a few in and then started working on a holiday project that has to be hush, hush for now.  Oh my, it's the end of November already! Where are the paintings, what have I been doing?  Not too much actually.

Three of these are already in new homes - Northern Virginia, Alabama and Colorado. Can you guess which ones?   

click photo to enlarge
click here to view/zoom gallery

Have been focused on adding lots of new art and items to Society6 just in time (hopefully) for the holidays.  Love their iPhone cases, trays and cutting boards.  Looks like their coasters are nicer than RedBubble - time will tell.  Can't guarantee shipping times, but earlier has to be better.  Love RedBubble for their quality and so many other accessories. Both sites pay a small amount to the artist and it's a great way to spread the gift of art around in a much more practical way. Use "JohnnaArt" to filter views.  So many ideas and talents you could get lost for days :-) 

A few other paintings sold and 10 favorite, but unsold paintings, have been donated to local a senior home -- feels so good - art is truly a gift whether donated, given, purchased, or gifted!  

Enjoy, life is joy we share one moment at a time - Happy Holidays! 

October - Have an Art Show and They Will Come!

WOW - after months of Covidness, finally had our in-person neighborhood art show and sale. My only "stand in front of it live" art event. Well this year call it pent-up demand or whatever, the 15 resident artists had the largest turnout in 20 years.  Enormous amount of effort to do all the prep-work and then show-production-organization work.  Set-up took two hours and the show only lasts two hours!!??!!   Well worth it.  This introvert had a fantastic time 😊  Great night meeting neighbors, friends and hearing stories that connect us through art.  Energized yet again to keep creating.

In all honesty, two paintings sold online while framing was in progress, 10 paintings sold at the show, and two sold on the 5 minute drive home - wink, wink.                    

Did I tell you that frames are in short supply / backordered - luckily bought ahead but it was quite the drama-scene deciding which ones would be properly dressed for the show.  My online sales are rarely framed so deer-in-the-headlights for a few days. In the end it all worked out - just like life usually does. 

Ta-Da. . . Sold, in or around the 'hood or gifts off to unknown territories.  Early holiday shoppers - smart. . . .

During framing Last Peony (middle left) made its way to a new, now repeat buyer in NC, Escape the Estate (bottom right) hopped a flight to Texas. Blue Bowl with Orange is headed to Colorado after reconnecting with a delightful co-worker from years past. I just LOVE how art connects people and their stories!

Available paintings added in October - click collage to go to the gallery.  Holiday shopping, definitely smart.  New paintings added each week, check back often.  BTW, you can mark me as a "favorite artist" and then just click that button on the main DPW page.  

 

p.s. Right before cutoff,  Gorgeous Goldfish, bottom left, said "bye y'all" and headed off to Decatur, AL - will be in great company.

Enjoy, life is joy we make one moment at a time - thanks to everyone for keeping me going! 

September - Find a Routine and ABUSE It

Five paintings a week, what was I thinking?  That idea, plus our neighborhood in-person art show (Oct 1st) pretty much devoured the whole month!   Really challenged myself and hope the inspiration lasts. I'm absolutely sure the looming show helped out a TON. Feeling pretty tapped out, but the days spent varnishing, tagging, framing, etc. for the show has kept me busy and distracted (which helps refuel creativity - yay).  

Click on the collage and you'll be whisked off to my gallery (new tab) to get the backstories, zoom-in detail, and purchase options.  Shipping is free! 

September Collage 

The show is posted on Instagram and Facebook with details (10/1 5-7 PM), don't be late it's happy hour only.  There are 15 neighborhood artists (see tags) in the show this year - come check it out! This is a great time to buy Johnna Art - see it in person, neighborhood discount and framed (at my bulk cost).  

Four paintings (Spanish Wall, Royal Blue Silver, Golden Tranquility and Beach Glass) are now in scattered Virginia homes.  Always makes me happy and motivated to keep painting!   

Gotta run - more show prep is desperately needed!

Enjoy, life is joy we make one moment at a time - as always thank you for your purchases and for stopping by,  

August - Find a Routine and Stick to It

Last month's Mid Summer challenge was inspiring and leveraged some of the Happy Habits workshop lessons, so in August when everyone was getting ready for school to start -- I decided to start my own "new routine challenge." The idea is five paintings a week, but to do them Saturday thru Wednesday and then spend the rest of the week doing all the work needed for social media, publishing, and coming up with the next week's inspiration.  The painting days feel much more natural to me and it seems people are more into instagram, facebook and buying art on the weekends.  Genius!  

Things kicked off in mid-August, so ten paintings and I'm thinking that might be too much and of course there will be weeks when some things just don't work out.  We'll see.  

Click on the collage and you'll be whisked off to my gallery (new tab) to get the backstories, zoom-in detail, and purchase options.  Shipping is free! 

August Collage 

The more recent paintings have yet to be released, so keep checking back to the gallery or follow me on Instagram to get a heads up.  Did you know instagram can be used on a computer, not just smart phones. Oh, and subscribe to this newsletter (top right corner - Sign up for email updates!) to automatically receive monthly posts in your inbox. 

Two of the July paintings (Taste of Summer and Sweet!) are now in North Carolina homes.  Always makes me happy and motivated to keep painting!   

Enjoy, life is joy we make one moment at a time - as always thank you for stopping by,  

July - Mid Summer Challenge

Great timing for a summer 30 day art throw-down despite life’s challenges!  Be sure to check out all the artists in The Miller's #30midsummer Hashtag Challenge on Instagram.  Thrilled that I managed to do a few paintings and adored the weekly motivations, but . . . . life is challenging too.  Here's a collage of the results - just click on the picture and you'll be taken to my gallery to get the backstories, zoom-in detail and purchase options.  Shipping is free! 

Have to mention a couple of firsts.  The grey heron in action begged me to paint it (wet birds & wet fish, you know).  Love how the reference photo was backlit.  Hopefully captured some of the drama in the moment.  Last minute hummingbird came out really well and getting a lot of Instagram likes and comments.  The pie looks good enough to eat, but "I'm just not a pie-person," said my five year old niece many years ago. I wonder if that's still true, now that she's all grown up?

Happy to report that the flamingo literally flew off the canvas to a home nearby.  I think the turquoise challenge influenced more than a few subsequent choices.  ha ha.  Most recent to earliest, way better images when you click on the photo:

Enjoy, life is joy we make one moment at a time - thank you for stopping by,  

June - Jumping Around

What!?! another month zoomed by - pardon the pun since we're all still in a love-hate relationship with zoom.  It has been a life-saver for staying in touch with family and fantastic for exploring workshops and so many unexpected venues. But so glad today to finally meet up in person with other artists!  Exhilarating and stressful - putting on real clothes, driving, arriving on time, geez so much spent energy but again absolutely intoxicating - life!!!

Anyway, here are this month's paintings. The last few are from a virtual challenge to paint summer themes for 30 days -- sometimes you really need someone else to call the shots for inspiration and I have to wholeheartedly thank Debbie and Brian Miller for this Mid-Summer Challenge.  I love their artwork and actually got to meet them at a workshop in NC before COVID - Incredible!!!  Small World.  Delightful!

Before the challenge paintings -- love wrought iron and capturing the coolness / heat of cactus - a favorite!

Escape the Estate Fence
click to zoom / purchase

Crumbling Wall
click to zoom / purchase

The 30MidSummer Challenge - way behind, but really hoping to catch up and do more of these challenges - a lot of great ideas and inspiration.  Summer whites, turquoise and pink flamingos - what's not to like?

click to zoom / purchase

Enjoy, life is joy we make one moment at a time - thank you for following my journey.  

Johnna

May - New RSS Feed and Update

More changes - haven't we been through enough already!

This post is to change email distribution from Feedburner (being decommissioned by Google) to Mail Chimp - probably won't matter to you, but be sure to add this sending email address to your contacts list. If you don't see a monthly blog email around the end of the month, please check your Junk/Spam email and authorize the sender.  Thanks, and so very much appreciated!

Haven't been in a painting mood lately, so trying new things like the palette knife -  so liberating and challenging at the same time.  Love / Hate relationship is where we are right now, but in hot pursuit of the happy zone.  Love how these turned out.  First up is 99% palette knife with loads of paint, best to zoom below to see it up close.  

click to zoom / Purchase
Waiting for You

Thin and thick paint helps make this next one seem like the roses are leaping off the canvas.  So much yin/yang energy literally drove the title on this one. Combination of brush, scratches and palette knife.  Looks to me like an understudy waiting for their moment in the spotlight . . . 

click to zoom / purchase
I'm Next!

Thanks for hanging in there with me and I hope this switch doesn't cause any problems.  Email / reply if you have questions. 

Enjoy,

Johnna

April - Recovery and Good News

In a bit of a slump lately - maybe the blues from not getting all my submissions into the Mill show, but wildly delighted and surprised that two sold on the Very First Day!  Usually I have to go back and humbly pick up the paintings, so this is quite fabulous and hopefully generate some more painting enthusiasm!

Art Show (Online) and the sold paintings.  

Daffodils for You

Blue Bowl with Tangerine

Finished these paintings late last month and a few in April. Made a collage - all, but the Blue Bowl are available.  Beach House anyone?

click to zoom / purchase
JohnnaArt.com

Current inspiration thanks to DH and the Blue Bowl w/Lemon, is to pick up the palette knife and "do some damage!"  Well that project seems to be working out.  When you surprise yourself, you are truly delighted!  Really appreciate the push and hope to do even more like the painting below - mostly palette knife (my Daddy would be proud), I even used his knife for part of it.

click to zoom
Into a Tuscan Courtyard

Well the same DH, just had to have it, so he shall!  Just between us, I couldn't imagine parting with this one.  Hope it inspires a new wave of enthusiasm, creativity and all out motivation!

Enjoy, life is joy we make one moment at a time,