Sweet Clementine Surprise

When I went to pick up my paintings from the Live an Artful Life Gallery in The Plains Virginia last Monday, I discovered that My Sweet Clementine was purchased at the very last minute!.  I got the “no sale” email the day before, so was doubly delighted.  Plus my good friend (let’s just call her GL) went with me and we had a grand old time talking with the natives (its amazing how an hour from my home (less than 20 miles from DC) is a simpler, wonderful, rural, hardworking, people-oriented delight!  Luckily my friend navigated me through the terrain.   

I thought Morning Fox would sell at the show but apparently there are too many foxes out there this month. People in that area LOVE foxes.  The good news is I will submit him to the Clarke County, Art at the Mill show coming up this fall – I am hoping he will be accepted and find a few friends out there!  This is a fantastic venue if you are looking for a variety of art, at great prices, by famous, near famous and emerging artists.  Apparently, people come from all over including buyers from NYC, DC, FL, etc. making it our little Shenandoah Mountain secret which just so happens to be around the time the leaves are turning into amazing colors. Go to this link for details.   Psssssst, for my locals, I can get you into the reception for free.  Now I just gotta come up with four other paintings to make the submission worthwhile! 

I’m actually quite sorry to see this sweetie go – it is a real favorite of mine.

My Sweet Clementine

p.s. Posting excuses abound, but last week was my birthday, Independence Day holiday, and my wedding anniversary!  Enjoy life. . . 

Hat-trick ! ! !

For our non-sports fans, a hat-trick is the achievement of a positive feat three times during a game, or other achievement based on threes. One more sale late Sunday night makes three for the weekend – YAY, YAY, YAY. I’m going to chalk this up to a full moon or something because it seems too early to be giving serious consideration to raising prices. I can see stats on the number of paintings vs. those with bids. Not very good odds so keeping things low for now. 

What the heck,

• The fact that people are willing to pay for something you love doing is priceless. 
• Getting to share enjoyment of the same piece of art is amazing. 
• Grabbing my personal favorites is brilliant! 

A follower asked me to share the ones that sold, so here they are. BTW, you can tell in the gallery if a painting has sold by a tiny red dot in the bottom right corner. Also, there is a button at the top of the gallery that lets you filter out the sold ones when you’re in a buying-mood (wink, wink).   Here’s the button:                 

Here are the ones that sold:

Life is joy you make one moment at a time.  
Remember to take the Studio Tour posted last night when you have time over the holiday.

Artists Studios Online Tour and Giveaways – A Blog Carnival

Here’s your chance to go BEHIND THE STUDIO DOOR and see where real artists paint! Have you ever wondered what goes on in an artist studio? Now you can tour them online, no need to pack your bags, get in the car, fill up on gas --- just go into the virtual space, bring the kids, bring the family, tell your friends.

Click on the links below to see the participating artists' blog posts about their work spaces.  Some artists are offering giveaways or special prices for the Carnival so take a minute or two to check them out.

>>>> update July 1st - please note that Cathy Engberg's link has been added!

Thank you for stopping by and enjoy the tour! 

Marla Laubisch	Carol Schiff	Kaethe Bealer	Jo MacKenzie
Michael Chamberlain	Charleen Martin	Sally Binard	Jacklyn Karabaich
Sharon Graves	Sea Dean	Johnna Schelling	Taryn Day
Julie Ford Oliver	Sarah Sedwick	Kim Rempel	Cindy Michaud
Joanne Grant	Carmen Beecher	Cindy Williams	Cathy Engberg

Give away!  If you sign up for my blog email updates by July 20th, you will be entered into a drawing for 20% off one of my auctions (through 12/31/2013) or 20% off an available painting currently in my DPW gallery.  Look for the submit box on the right hand side of the blog, just above the gallery icon.  NOTE:  you must confirm your subscription to be entered into the drawing.  Check your junk mailbox if you don’t see the confirmation email from Feedburner. 


I am so very fortunate and honored to be a part of this internet carnival – My thanks to Marla Laubisch (Head Ringleader, think tank extraordinaire, inspiration generator!) and this group of artists for taking the time to contribute to an event that will make a memory for all of us. 

Welcome to My Studio  My space is fantastic – a sunroom - turned into office - turned into new art space.  Since getting the chance to go to Carol Marine’s workshop in January 2013, I am delighted to say that the art space has expanded.  This carnival motivated me to hang my favorite paintings and really turn it into my “happy cave.”  I even put a group of unfinished “masterpieces” on the wall in the hope that I will get inspired to finish them.   My journey of taking painting classes to admitting I’m an artist has been quite delightful and at times daunting.  To go from conventional sized canvases to tiny panels has triggered my Alice in Wonderland complex, how to get small and get big! Taking it one day at a time.

So here we go.

Big Picture

Office desk (how lucky to have a glass table – easy to scrape paint off of it!). Great view into inspiring art space.  Computer ready for my day job and DailyPaintworks updates.

Close Up of the Happy Place

Not sure if you can tell, but the small panels are carefully placed in the cabinet on the right behind the glass doors.  A lot less dust in there.  I found some dish racks (yes dish racks) that are perfect for holding them while drying.  Very low profile with just enough angle to keep from messing up wet paint.  Probably rather doubtful how they would work for actually drying dishes!  

Before the wet paintings make it into the cabinet, they are “cured” in my special box.    A lot more elegant than a pizza box, don’t you think?  Plus I can get a few at a time in here and it has a magnetic closure so it works really well.   Before you even think about asking, Yes, I have more than one box. . . .  enough about the cookies, okay?

Box Closed

Box Opened

Inside - Outside

Photo of the inside to outside view and the awesome sunlight on the occasion we are in the same place at the same time.  Trouble is the light is near blinding so a set up with natural light has its challenges! 

There's More

I hope you’re still reading the blog – because I’m sharing a rather surprising circumstance and possible invention!  It all started with a challenge from Carol Marine – literally called “crazy”.  Here’s the link The Crazy Making Challenge.  

Well that whole thing was way beyond my ability so I got creative (and maybe a tad overly artistic) by coming up with a super-zoom of what I thought I could tackle.  Hence, my submission, which can be seen here:  Crazy Challenge ~ Double Dare.  It just so happened that my local art venue was sponsoring a show called “Patterns” so I amped it up and recreated the 6x6 inch panel into a 16 x 16 inch gallery wrapped canvas.  You can see it in the first picture on the left wall under the clock.   Look for the zebra-thing. The amazing part is the thing has multiple personalities (crazy I know!) depending on which way it is hanging.  Below is my collage of how it looks from different sides.  How fun – I’m thinking that the world needs some sort of invention to hang a painting and have it rotate 90 degrees every so often (daily, weekly, monthly).  This could rock the abstract art world!  HAHAHA.  

Gotta go and log into Kickstarter. . . . 

 How fun is this – Crazy Four Ways! (digital art concept)

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my studio.  Thank you for taking the time to stop by and remember to sign up for the drawing!  

Sunday Morning

Big weekend and another milestone – not one, but two, paintings have sold in the auction so they will be off to new homes!.  It’s always exciting to see who wins the final bid.  I guess for good reason, even I can’t see who’s bidding on a painting – only the final highest bidder.  Guess that’s so I know where to send it.  

Adding this one to the auction tomorrow.  I’m calling it Sunday Morning. Happy orange slices.  This was created for the challenge painting that ends this weekend.  Whew, just in time.  See The Composition Challenge (link).

Sunday Morning

After this blog email arrives in your mailbox around 11:00 am, you will see a very special edition later that evening around 11:00 pm with the surprise event I mentioned yesterday.  

Enjoy

Grapes on the Loose

Putting these guys on auction this weekend, Saturday 6/29.  Green grapes painted very loose to focus on the lights, darks and colors in between.  Shadows were fun and still loving my angular plates.  Funny, I'm finally comfortable dealing with circles and ovals and now I've fallen love with squares and rectangles.  

I also thought you might also enjoy seeing the setup for a change.  A few things I want to point out because I have a really cool privilege known as Artistic License.  I think that means I can do whatever I want, whenever I want and just whip out my AL get-out-of-jail-free card if I get caught!  I'll have to go order some of those.  I wonder how long they last????

The lone grape on the front corner just needed to be there to balance things out and make you ask, "where's that one going, what's so important that he has to leave the group now?!"  Also, it goes without saying, that rectangles are just a tad more interesting than squares. . .  

PSSSST - be sure and check out the upcoming late-night Sunday (6/30) post !  My artist-family has cooked up an interesting surprise!

Raditude!

These two are from a technicolor (red, white, and purple) radish bunch - the white ones were so cute cuddled up together and just dying to get into the painterly lime light.  They think they are the focus, but I love the long, pale leaf stems that seem to have taken over.  Kinda like the best supporting actor award – the part that actually steals the show.    I also love the red plate and how the shadows dance along with the composition.  Those Rads insisted on doing things their own way despite my best effort to twist and turn them to what I thought would be more appealing.  In the end, I gave it up to them for being such great subjects.   Oh, in case you’re wondering, I did eat them!  

White Radishes on a Red Plate

In early June, I mentioned the two paintings I submitted to the Plains Miniature Masterworks show which runs through July 7, 2013 at the Live an Artful Life Gallery.   Here they are hanging in the gallery.  It was a special treat that my cousins surprised me at the artist reception!

Live an Artful Life Gallery, The Plains, Virginia
Gallery Link

It’s All About Me – How Rad!

Okay, you caught me - tongue in cheek title.  Blushing. . . 

You know I love, love, love radishes -- not sure why, but they are so much fun.  Maybe if you eat your subjects, you can relate to them on a much deeper level.  HA, HA.    I get so excited painting a favorite food, in a favorite quirky saucer / bowl, with vibrant colors and the subtle shadows that I find so irresistible!   Simple is so much fun.  I hope you love it too.  

How Rad!

Have you noticed lately that radishes are now being sold in technicolor-bunches?  Our local stores have them grouped with red, white, purple, magenta and mauve!  I don't know what's up with that, but they all taste differently (and delightfully so - try 'em), not like the German white radishes I grew up with that were long and skinny. . . .    

Intrigued, I painted two of the round white radishes out of the bunch.  Will post that one this weekend.  

Meanwhile, here's the big news, I am putting Garlic Four Ways on auction Saturday 6/22.  There's been a lot of interest and I am buoyed by the recent sale of Lemons Four Ways.  What's not to like???

Swiss Miss

Some of you may know that I had the most delightful opportunity to live in Europe during my high school years.  As an American family, we had the luxury of traveling and learning a lot.  To me, experiencing other cultures is the best education you can possibly have, especially when growing up.  This darling cup came from a small hotel in Switzerland on one of our many ski trips.  It has the subtle, yet distinctive feel of a tulip.  Can you see the petals?  Such fond memories, better than a T-shirt souvenir don’t you think?  I recall the hotel refused my offer to pay for it, but were gracious enough to give it to me.  A cherished memory.  Perhaps I should try this again because the delicate white got a bit lost in trying to render the whole.  I love it anyway.

Swiss Miss

Delish!

What’s could be better than triangular fruit on a square plate!  I just love the way light sneaks through watermelon unlike other subjects – it’s not translucent nor opaque but some mysterious place in between.  How lovely to have such variety in life.  This was both fun and frustrating to paint.  I hope to do more in the future. 

Delish!

One of my fondest childhood memories was the “watermelon dress.”   Growing up with a brother and three sisters – there were a lot of hand-me-downs (clothes, toys, furniture, etc.).  That has to be an ancient term.  I wonder what it is called now. Gently-used-pre-re-cycle-wear or something like that.  Ha, ha.    At any rate, it was a great dress – starchy white and dark green with big bold, appliqué watermelon slices on it.  All the girls got to wear it and you can see it was a favorite when you look through any family photo album.   Funny how some things just stick with you for a lifetime.  I cannot think about watermelon without thinking about the dress and I bet my three sisters are the same!  Normal people probably just think watermelon means it is finally summertime!

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

Trying on Some Black

Hello again - Earlier I mentioned that I had a few new paintings, but was not very happy with them.  I “called a friend”, got the CPR going, and will post them over the next few days.  In addition, I’m trying out black backgrounds because they seem so intriguing.  The black I use is Phthalo Green and Alizarin Crimson (learned a few years ago from DT).  Somehow, the dark green and red make the most luscious black.  These are both considered cool colors, who knew.  Perhaps that explains why anything warm will pop out at the viewer.  So much to learn.

Every day I try to take a three-mile walk.  The path has a number of wildflowers and it’s always delightful to see what’s blooming.  Go figure, all the time we spend hand-holding and tending our garden plants doesn’t seem to apply to these hardy specimens that brave the drought and the torrential rains!  This painting was to capture their bravado.  Calling it Daisy Divas, because it looks like they are actually singing into the wild clover “mike” and jockeying for the limelight!

Daisy Divas

Tomorrow I will post my favorite of the three and put it up for auction. I am delighted to report that last week's painting, Lemons Four Ways, has been bid on (auction to end on Sunday June 16th).

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