So it’s been a while!

I had a lovely vacation in Hawaii and it ended up being such a good break from reality.  I went with six other lovely people and it was so hard to leave.  So hard, in fact, that I had quite the difficult time getting my groove back when we returned.  It took at least a month to finally settle in to something resembling normal.

Complicating matters was a certain little neighborhood rabbit.  You might remember I mentioned Hopper in my last two posts.  (If not, well, it has been a while!)  While I was in Hawaii, my wonderful and talented brother-in-law built a fabulous hutch and rabbit run.  It is truly an amazing little home for a rabbit and better than anything I could have bought at the store.  (Believe me, I looked!) 

So, less than a week after getting back, Operation Rabbit Rescue commenced.  At 8:30 am on a Saturday morning, I was able to grab a very surprised rabbit and put him safely in his new home.  The next few weeks were full of adjusting to having a new pet and helping the new pet adjust to us!

I have enjoyed every second I’ve spent getting to know Hopper and learn about his unique personality.  I can’t believe what a blessing it’s been.  He’s become such a happy, loving little bunny and a special part of our family.  And he’s also become a major focus of my artwork.  Every day after I get home from work, I go outside and let him out into his special playpen for two hours, twice as long on the weekend.  I sit out with him and spend lots of time petting and playing with him, then I use the rest of the time to read or draw.  I just received a portable easel for my upcoming birthday and will be using that to start painting out there.



Spending this time with him has given me the chance to observe him endlessly and record it with photos, videos and drawings.  I am inspired and now rabbits are popping up everywhere in my art!  One of the goals I am working on is to build up my collection of rabbit art and  I plan to donate a portion of every sale to a rabbit charity.  These furry little critters have hopped their way into my heart and it has become an important, heartfelt goal for me.  Plans are in the works and I am having a good time putting those plans into motion.
 



The latest piece of art that I am concentrating on is a block print.  A local gallery, the Upstairs Studio, features art challenges very month or so that anyone can participate in.  This time around they are doing a summer block print challenge.  I have completed my sketch and plan to start carving the linoleum this weekend.  I’ve been working on some others, as well.  It’s been great fun to get back into this medium.  As soon as my entry is completed for the challenge, I will be sure to post it on here.  (In case you are wondering, it does include a rabbit!)

I hope that all of you are having a wonderful summer so far.  I promise it will not take nearly as long for the next update!

I mentioned him in my last post and he’s still hanging around.  (He just started showing up around our house around the end of January.)  He just makes my heart melt.  I go out every night and feed him by hand while talking to him.  Slowly building up the trust with him and hoping one day I’ll get to hold him.  I took this picture recently and it’s one of my favorites of him.  I felt inspired and decided to do a portrait of Hopper using this photo as inspiration.

That's right, it's time! I checked all my blogs and the mailing list, gathered names and let random.org work it's magic. I'm pleased to announce that Staci Sharp has won the giveaway celebrating my new Zazzle shop!

Thanks to everyone who entered. Y'all are fabulous and I appreciate every wonderful comment. I hope you all have a great week. :)

That’s right… I now have a Zazzle shop!   I’ve been busy setting it up over the past few weeks.  My paintings are available on a variety of things so far – mugs, note cards, magnets, plus tote bags and I am adding new items every week.  I’m retaking photographs of my paintings so that I can add the images to an even bigger selection of products.  I’ve had a lot of fun with this and along the way, I’ve ordered a few things to see how they turned out.  I’ve been pleased with the results!  (I ordered myself one of the mugs with my Rainy Day Owl painting and it’s quite a kick to drink my morning coffee from it every day.  )

I decided that, in celebration of the Zazzle shop opening, I would give a prize pack of Zazzle products away!





I will be giving away a tote bag and pendant featuring Quirky Dame (the painting that I use as my avatar and on my banner), plus an assortment of five note cards!

My shop opening was announced late last week in my monthly newsletter (click on the link to subscribe!) and the newsletter subscribers already have two entries in the giveaway.  Want to enter?  New newsletter subscribers will get one entry.  Also, check out my ArtFire shop and then come back to this blog and leave a comment on this blog post telling me what item is your favorite in my shop.  That will get you another entry in the giveaway.  Make sure to leave your email so that I have a way to contact you in case you win!

You have until the end of the day on Friday, March 4th to enter.  That weekend, I will gather all the entries and will choose the winner through a random drawing.  I will announce the winner on Monday, March 7th.  The winner will have three days to respond to my email.  If the winner doesn’t respond, I will then choose another winner and give them three days to respond, etc.

I’m excited to have this chance to say thank you my wonderful fans.  You guys are the BEST!

I'd like to present my latest (almost) finished painting titled, "Thinking of You."

Hello everyone!  I hope that your new year is off to a good start.  I’ve got several projects in the works right now and there is excitement about each of them.  Plus the ideas are bombarding me constantly.  I’m making plans, writing notes and taking steps towards turning these ideas into actual pieces of art!

Early last year I came up with a sketch of a woman with flowing hair and a bird perched on her hand.  I loved the sketch and immediately started to paint it.  Right from the start, things went wrong.  Horribly wrong.  I ended up putting the painting aside after keeping it out for a month.  I just kept staring at it and every time I saw it, I felt worse.

Last month, something sparked in my brain and I came up with an idea that used that very sketch.  I made a few changes, added a background and a foreground, and voila!  I love this sketch even more.  I’ve transferred the sketch over to an 18×24 gessobord and the painting has begun.



Here is a look at the sketch for the painting.  The first layer of the background has been applied and my next step is to fill in the foreground and the woman and bird.  I used photos from my recent trip to Hawaii as reference material for the jungle.  I visited the Hawaiian Tropical Botanical Gardens in Hilo and was blown away by it.  The beauty and diversity of plants and trees was overwhelming.  The path through the gardens ends at a spectacular view of the ocean and I was in tears.  I snapped hundreds of pictures and am so happy I did, as I can use them to inspire new artwork in the future.  I’ll be talking more about this (among other things) in the first newsletter for Quirky Dame Designs that will be sent out later this month.  If you are interested in receiving it, you can sign up at http://eepurl.com/o4tP.

Another project is the next series of 30 Art-o-mat blocks!  They’ve already sold over half of the first batch and are running low, so I’m continuing work on the remaining 30 that I have left.



A preview of four blocks that are completed so far.  I have a total of seven done.  Once I finish them all, I’ll be ordering 80 more blocks and the work will continue!  I’m thoroughly enjoying my experience with this project and am so happy to continue participating.  I also found out that my blocks have been available in Winston-Salem, NC at the Reynolda House Museum of American Art.  Not sure if they are still available there, as I know that some have sold.

I’ll be back again soon with more news from Quirky Dame Designs.  Thanks for taking the time to read my blog!

A few years back, my best friend and I started a tradition.  For our Christmas gift (or at least part of it) we would create something for each other.  I’ve given paintings each year and in return I’ve gotten a wonderful hand-painted plaster mask, a painting and this year, a wonderful piece of art done with watercolor pencils, plus a gorgeous handmade necklace and earring set.  I’ve been very spoiled!

This year, I was pondering what to do.  I started out with the idea to paint a realistic nude and the initial sketch came out gorgeous.  Somehow, things went downhill between finishing the sketch and transferring it to the gessobord.  I didn’t like the composition and I found I wasn’t very excited about it and realized that I needed to rethink things.  I do enjoy the challenge of painting realistically, but honestly, I don’t want to do that every time.  And this time I wanted to do something different – something fun and colorful but not too realistic.  By the end of the day, I had a new sketch of a woman and her cat completed.  And I found myself getting excited about painting this one.  It just felt right.  By this time, it was already into December, but I knew that I wanted to do this one in oils.

So, I got to work.  The skin tones came together fairly easily.    Painting in oils was the right choice.  I’m so much more at ease with the oils, especially when it comes to painting people.  Working on this painting helped solidify my decision to focus more on oils this upcoming year and less on acrylics.  Some things, such as my owl and the Art-o-mat blocks will still be done in acrylics.  But the rest will mostly be done in oils.  And I’m really excited about that!



Above you can see the finished painting.  I’m pretty happy with it and feel that I made the right decision to scrap the original idea for now.  Best of all, it was done before Christmas and in time to exchange today, though just barely!  Thanks to thesunnysidebiz on ArtFire, it has a name, which is Mutual Admiration.  (I’m simply horrible at naming paintings and when I mentioned it needed one on the forums on ArtFire, she put forth her idea.  I’m very grateful!)   It was done on a 9×12 stretched canvas.

My next project is another owl, a special custom painting for my darling aunt.  This owl will be a red hat owl and it promises to be a fun project.  After that, another oil painting and I’m narrowing down the possibilities out of several promising sketches. I hope to spend New Year’s Eve doing what I love best… painting!
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and may the New Year be filled with many blessings!

That’s right, I just received word that my mini paintings have been shipped to the following three locations:

• The Smithsonian in Washington D.C.
• The Studios of Key West in Florida
• The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas (Opening on December 15, 2010)

Ah, now I’m wishing I could arrange a long weekend in Vegas!    It feels great to know that my paintings are now out and about and available for purchase.  I have started painting backgrounds on a few of the remaining 30 blocks that I have left to paint.  Ideas are brimming in my brain and I’m excited to start creating some more pieces soon!  If you have found this page after purchasing one of my pieces, please comment or email me.  I’d love to hear from you and find out which painting you received!

While I was in Seattle at the beginning of last month, I had the pleasure of visiting a delightful shop called Venue Ballard.  It was full of wonderful jewelry and art.  I found a charming owl print that I just couldn’t resist.



And how did I discover this business?



Art-o-mat!  Yes, they have one there and I was lucky enough to pick out six wonderful pieces, though I’m wishing that I had gotten a few more!    I took the pieces back to my Aunt’s home where we were staying and had a great time checking out the pieces I had purchased.  Here’s what I got:

 








The little robot dude makes a great pendant.    My aunt was kind enough to give me a silver chain and I ended up wearing him to the Art Walk the next day. I’m looking forward to the day when I have another chance to visit one of these machines!

 

 I am back from a much-needed, very restful vacation and am getting back into the swing of things creatively. I’ve added a few new items to my shop.  Above is the Fantasy Flower pin and there are two more featuring cats. I also have some hand painted pendants in the works.  I’ve been having fun playing around with the smaller scale pieces. I love unique, playful jewelry and creating it?  So much fun!

While I was away, I was gathering inspiration.  I spent two weeks soaking up the sights in Hawaii and have come away with many wonderful photos to use as references and a couple of sketches.  I attended two one-hour demonstrations featuring Hawaiian musicians and hula dancers.  I am fascinated by the hula and plan on studying it more in-depth.  In the meantime, I worked on a sketch of a hula dancer and hope to turn it into a painting soon.  I’m also working on a whimsical 8×6 oval painting of a mermaid.

But first, I must paint my Christmas present for my best friend.  Each year, we create something for each other instead of just buying something from the store.  I love having the chance to dream up and create something special with her in mind.  That’s also one of the things that I love about custom orders.  Being able to tailor something to another person’s taste and vision is quite a challenge and it’s so rewarding when you have managed to capture what they wanted and even more in a piece.



Okay, I had to share the picture of this crazy cat!  It is another one of the hand painted pins.  He was a fun one to work on!  If you are looking for some colorful, quirky items as gifts for Christmas, I do have a few special deals at Quirky Dame Designs.

First, all prints, cards, hand painted magnets and pins ship USPS first class for free!  If you need quicker shipping, please contact me.  I will deduct what the first class postage would have been from the total of the faster shipping cost.

Also, all mini paintings with easels, such as the one to the left, are 20% off!  I do accept custom orders, so if you see anything you like, but would prefer different colors, etc., please contact me about having something special made to your specifications.

Be back again soon with more news from Quirky Dame Designs!

That’s right, the first 50 Art-0-mat blocks are done! Okay, mostly. I still have to paint the sides, sign them, print and attach labels, then package them along with the inserts. Oh, and I want some photos. LOL! So a bit more to do, but the hardest part is done. I will be ready to ship them out by or before next Monday. Which is awesome, because I leave state on Tuesday. I’ll get to attack the next thirty blocks when I get back.

Woo hoo! Feeling very happy and productive today. Now to celebrate by making dinner. :)

The last time I updated, I had just received the blocks. It’s been a crazy few weeks and I’ve been fighting to balance my time, making room in my schedule for everything that needs to get done. I’ve had to curtail some art time until recently. I’ll be going on a glorious three-week vacation to Seattle and Kona as of November 2nd, so it’s been a little nuts around here, trying to finish various tasks at the day job and home, wrapping things up all while doing three house-sitting jobs. By the time I leave, I’ll be needing that vacation!

Well, despite the harried schedule, I just finished my 45th block and wanted to share a little peak at the blocks. It’s been fun trying out new colors and ideas. My goal is to finish at least 50 blocks before I go. No problem, I’ll be over 50 by tomorrow night. (I’d love to finish all 80, but that may be a little ambitious!) Then I’ll send that batch out and finish the rest when I get home (and bring a few along on the trip to work on at night when I need an art fix!)



For now, it’s time to head back to the pets. It’s getting near their dinner time and I’ll have this sweet little guy begging for his meal. Remember this face, one day next year, he’s going to be the subject of an oil painting. I’ve been house-sitting him for a few years now and I’ve known for a while that he was going to be the subject of a painting. I’m still working it out in my brain and can hardly wait to dive into it. I plan on playing around with it and integrating the quirky style of the acrylic paintings I do into the oil painting. It’s going to be fun!

I came home from work today to find 80 Art-o-mat blocks waiting for me. 




I carted them downstairs to my work area and lined them all up.  Then I got out my gesso and got to work.



I went through and did two coats of gesso on each block.



And now I’m ready to start painting!  I’m going through my sketches and deciding which one to do first.  Mapping out my strategy.  Looking forward to beginning this process. 

I’ve been enjoying the long weekend and being very productive.  It’s been a nice change from the previous weeks and the weird mood I’ve been in regarding my art.  I haven’t been very productive at all and it’s been bugging me.  But I finally dove in this weekend and ended up working on several things.  What’s really nice is that it was a mixture of realistic and non-realistic.  I like a little of both.



First, I’ve been putting the final touches on the pet portrait.  I was going back and forth between painting the sides brown or gray.  I consulted a few friends and finally decided on gray.  I’m rather happy with the results.  It was a bit nerve wracking painting them, but I took it slow and easy and I didn’t get any gray on the front of the painting.  Success!  It’s now hanging and drying, waiting for the retouch varnish.  I’m trying to decide on a name.  That is my least favorite part of painting. 




After working all that time on such a realistic painting, I wanted to just play around and have some fun with something less realistic.  I had taken a photo of a poppy earlier this summer (which you can find in an earlier blog entry) and that poppy has been sticking with me.  I finally decided to do something with it.  So I watered down some acrylics and put them in some small spray bottles then grabbed a series of three canvases I had bought on impulse the other week, then sprayed them with the paint.  Then after it had dried, I sketched some poppies and started painting them.  They were quite fun to do.



Saturday I had some running around to do, but I wanted to have a little fun, too.  I was in great need of some coffee, so before I left the house, I grabbed my sketchbook and pencil.  I decided to stop by Barnes and Noble and sketch for a spell in the cafe.  I’m a little addicted to the Starbucks Frappucinos and they have that delicious M&M blondie blast treat.  Mmmm!

I have a photo of my best friend that I’ve wanted to do something with for a while now.  Just on a whim, I grabbed that, too.  So, after getting my sugary treats, I sat down and did a few sketches for the Art-o-mat blocks (which are on their way!) and then whipped out the photo and got started.



I worked on it for quite a while, at least until a couple sat down next to me that I thought would end up breaking out in some violent spat.  That got a little uncomfortable.  I’ve continued to develop the drawing and will be updating this blog as progress continues.  I’m hoping to get an even closer resemblance by the time I’m done.  I need and want to challenge myself more often by attempting this.  I love to do the quirky, fun sketches, but it’s just as important that I do realistic, as well.

Saturday night I sat down to get caught up on some TV and I grabbed a small 5×5 canvas that I had painted previously.  It had this hideous pink background that I couldn’t stand, so I thought I’d just slap some paint on and see what came of it.



The summer we’ve been having here in Alaska can be described with one word: rainy.  It’s been driving me crazy and I keep dreaming of the vacations I have planned for November and February.  I’ll be going to my future home of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.  One of the things I love seeing in Hawaii is those gorgeous palm trees against the brilliant blue sky.  That’s what I ended up painting on that little canvas.  I can hardly wait to see the real thing in two months, but until then (or until this piece sells) I’ll enjoy seeing it on the canvas. 


While working on the sketches for the Art-o-mat blocks, I’ve stumbled across some girls that I call The Quirky Girls.  They’re a little kooky or nerdy, but I love that in a person.  These girls have been great fun to create.



I had an 11×14 hardboard and another 5×5 canvas lying around, so I have used both of them to bring two of the Quirky Girls – Quincy and Frankie – to life.  Above, you’ll see Frankie.  She was done on the 5×5 canvas and, like the palm tree and summer poppies, is available in my ArtFire shop.  I’m still working on Quincy, but she’ll be making your acquaintance soon.  It’s been good to do these pieces and it’s helped me to work out a few things for when the blocks get here this week.

So that’s the update for now. I tend to do longer updates for this blog every week or two, rather than shorter updates a few times a week.  However, if you follow me on Twitter or on Facebook, I do show pictures of works in progress and update people on various projects.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and I’ll be sure to post my progress on the above projects soon!

Finished the pet portrait tonight!  For now, I will put it away for a week or possibly two, then take another look.  If there are any minor touch-ups that are needed, I’ll make them then.  Plus I will be emailing a photo to Linda, the artist who taught the pet portrait class I took in June.  If she has any suggestions, I’ll be addressing those as well.

This portrait took longer than I expected, mainly because I hit a bad patch with it.  There was something not quite right and it took me a while to figure it out.  I spent way too much time avoiding painting so that I wouldn’t have to work on it.  Not the best way to handle it!  But yesterday I had a breakthrough and the changes I made just seem to turn the painting (and my attitude) around.  It was such a relief to finally be happy with where the painting was heading and to actually want to paint again!   

Now the only other major decision I have is whether to paint the two-inch sides a dark brown or a dark gray.  Decisions, decisions…