Happy Birthday Jeanmarie!!!!

Strike a Pose
11x14
Graphite

My niece turns 10 today! Jeanmarie is a fun girl who's into many things including Art, Reading, Lacrosse, Soccer, and most of all Horses! I have watched her go through my web site and pick out pieces which she likes, mostly I have seen her point to the horses. So, a few weeks ago when we were talking about what to get for this special little girl on her birthday, the idea of my doing a horse portrait for her popped up.

I had a lot of fun working on this, not the least of which was based on whom I was creating it for. It's a lot of fun to give presents from the heart and I poured my heart into this. I find that working on graphite renderings puts me into a very peaceful place, I haven't done one in a while so I was reminded of this while I worked "ohmmmm...."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEANMARIE! I hope you enjoy your present as much as I enjoyed making it for you!

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Colorful New Orleans

Colorful New Orleans
11x14
Oil

It's been a while since I participated in the Virtual Paintout. This month's location is New Orleans. I wandered around looking for something which caught my eye and ended up here. I set out to complete this painting in one sitting and was happy to have accomplished that. I started out with a brush but in the end used a palette knife for most of it. The actual image was rather drab but that just didn't seem right to me. Having never been to New Orleans, I tend to envision the area in the bold colors so I used those quite liberally here.


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eAbstract

Abstract
Procreate App on iPad

I love abstracts, they are so much fun to look at. I made an attempt at one a while back (click here to view), it was a small 5x7 oil painting. Here's my second one, this time created using the Procreate app on my iPad.

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Cool Bees!

I was recently contacted by a local shop called Cool Bees (what a fun name!). The owner saw my work online and asked if I'd like to sell some of my work there. I've thought of doing this before but didn't know where to start so this is incredibly exciting! I do have an etsy shop but this is a real live store you can walk into! How about that?

I'm working on getting everything assembled right now and phweww! What a job! I have no idea what will sell the best so I'm going to start with framed prints. That means matting, lots and lots of matting. Thanks to my wonderful (I can't say enough about her) high school art teacher, Valerie Savage, I am rather well equipped for the job. I've utilized the skills she taught me several times over the years, but never at this scale. I am also grateful that my Dad, while I was in college, signed me up to take a framing class at a local art store with him. I must admit that I didn't learn much more than I already knew, though I did pick up some ideas and had a good time taking the class with my Dad! Also, I walked out of there with a new matt cutter (thanks Dad!) which I use to this day. I'm sure there are better matt cutters out there now, but this one suits me quite well. Also, it sure beats the old method of taping down the ruler and praying you don't lose a couple fingers!

Another exciting piece of news is that on October 15th I may have a table set up in an outdoor art event which is being held outside Cool Bees! I think I may take some originals to sell there. I'll also be borrowing back a few portraits which I've done to put on display (heh heh). I don't have the whole booth set up so I'm not quite sure yet how I'm going to handle this but have a vague idea and I think it may involve the use of easels.

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Draft Horse - Final

Draft Horse
14x11
Oil on Masonite

Detail #1

Detail #2 - Palette Knife Strokes

A while back I posted the first stage of this painting. After completing the painting I was debating about changing a section of it so I've been staring at it for a while. I have made the decision to leave it as is. So, finally, here's the final! 


I used a combination of paint brush and palette knife in this one and am happy with the affect. It was fun to use the knife as it allowed me to apply paint in larger quantities and to blend in a different way. I will certainly be using that more in the future.