This year flew!

I can hardly believe it is the end of the year already. This year really flew by. I will be posting some finished commissioned pieces that has been keeping me so busy. I was so fortunate to have been invited to the Buffalo International Horse Show in September in Buffalo, N.Y. where I picked up about 12 commissions, mostly Christmas gifts.

Amazingly, I have had a blast doing these portraits. I say that since a few years ago, I found myself wanting to paint other things, such as landscapes. I still love painting landscapes, but for some reason, I have a real thirst for portrait work all of a sudden.

Since the economy is so slow, I have found that my portrait work has provided a much needed income. I have plans to continue to pursue portrait work and landscapes. I will be actively looking for gallery representation next year for my work.

Here are several of my most recent finished portraits.

Linda's Dogs

Here is a larger commission that I'm working on. This is starting out as an 11" x 14" oil sketch on Masonite, which is my preliminary work for the final painting which will be 18" x 24" on canvas. This really helps me decide values, colors, composition of the final painting. It also gives the client a good idea on what the finished piece will look like so there's no surprises on either end.

I'm really excited about this piece for several reasons. I love the warmth of the colors, the setting is just so beautiful, and who doesn't love these beautiful Basset Hounds?

Yes, I still do portraits!

I have clients that I have had the pleasure to work with for almost ten years now, painting their horses, kids, and dogs. It is work that can be demanding, but I really get a lot of satisfaction out of delivering a piece and having the recipient so happy they end up in tears. It also happens to be a refreshing change from painting and hoping someone will buy it. Here are some of the portraits I've recently finished, most of these are pastels.

Second Stage of "Downtown Palm"

Here is the second stage of my "Downtown Palm". I needed to add some highlights so I knew where I was on the value scale. I've had many people, including other artists, think that I work in acrylics, I guess because I tend to be more graphic these days. But these are oils, I just prefer the feel and end result in oils than acrylics.

I also prefer to have about three paintings going at once and rotate until all three are complete. It keeps me fresh and while one painting is drying, I can work on the others. I do use mediums, either Liquin or I've been using a new medium, Rapidry. Rapidry is very much like Liquin, only less thick, which I like better. This allows me to keep working on these paintings and can get them finished quickly.

New Painting

I have been captivated by shadows lately, and this painting is exciting to me because of the colors in the highlights and the shadow and how the shapes work. I really love Palm trees for their natural graphic shapes and wonderful colors. This painting is now "blocked in". Meaning the first layer of paint is on the canvas. This took me three days to do, that includes the drawing. This is a 30" x 40" painting, which is the size of my Grand Palm.

I have 4 commissions left to do. My goal was to finish 6 of the 7 that I have right now by the end of May. I believe I may finish 2 more by next week, my Celebration painting took a little bit longer than I had anticipated. But I'm really happy with the outcome, so it was well worth it.

This will have to fit in between the other paying paintings, as many of these have deadlines. But I'll just keep plugging away.

My Latest Commission Chronicled

The Finished Piece (left)

The Celebration Art Festival was a great boost for my career, and one result was a meeting with a new customer/collector who has commissioned me to do a painting for his beautiful home in Celebration. Initially, we talked about just a landscape, but as we collaberated more, my client decided to add more wildlife. One of the most rewarding parts of a commissioned piece like this is when the client is so involved. The ideas that the client adds to the concept contributes so much personality, it really is fun to work on these projects. Our initial meeting was very important for me to really get a feel of what the client was looking for. So I met with them down in Celebration, and decided to do a plein air painting for them to get the process started. It's always a good idea to do a small sketch before the final piece. Sometimes I do several, but this one just clicked so well and my client knew what he had in his minds eye - so it really worked. Here is the small plain air painting done on location.









Celebration is full of birds, turtles, ducks on top of the beautiful setting of the lake, water and trees. So as we talked about the painting, we decided to add more of the birds and other wildlife that makes Celebration so special. We added the Blue Heron in the left corner, a bird drying his wings, ducks, and another blue-colored bird. I added a turtle in the water too! Here is the first stage of the painting blocked in. The final size is a 24" x 30" oil on canvas.

STAGE ONE













STAGE TWO













STAGE THREE

A Couple Days Off

I took a few days off to spend the end of Spring Break with Kayleb, my almost 15 year old son, husband Bob and my friend from Ringling, Dave Anderson.

Dave graduated as an illustrator and has recently worked with Bob on a few projects. So it's great to be reconnected again. Dave lives down in Cape Coral near Ft. Myers. We initially wanted to stay on Sanibel Island, but after reviewing the hotels expenses, we decided that Ft. Myers beach looked just as nice and much more cost effective. So we stayed fronting the Gulf and enjoyed the nice weather and the sound of the waves.

While Bob and Kayleb played on the beach. I did a few little paintings. It was very relaxing and enjoyable.

I'm not really into laying around in the sun. But this was a perfect opportunity to take some photos and do sketches for my up-coming shows. The next one is in West Palm Beach, SunFest, and the Hampton's Art Festival, in New York. Both are on the ocean and it will be nice to have landscape paintings that remind buyers of their neighborhood.

I'll be painting more plein air, I really enjoyed working on these paintings and have just joined the Plein Air Florida and will be participating in the "The Treasure Hunt" for MCA and Shasta here in Marion County.

Here are some additional photos from our hotel room, it was a great hotel and beautiful weather.

Celebration - The Best Show To date!

In spite of very wet weather, this was a wonderful show for me. Not only was one of my paintings chosen for the poster art, advertising, program art and promoting me as the featured artist. But I had my first WIN in a prestigious juried art festival. A new piece, "SUNLIT FOREST", won first in the painting category, which is a welcome success for me. I won $1,000 in prize money, a blue ribbon, but better than all that, I won an opportunity to be a part of "The Masters" at Disney. "The Masters" is a very distinguished accomplishment for many artists, and a personal goal since I began dedicating my career to painting. A goal I knew might be difficult and take some time on the circuit to achieve. So to have this opportunity with only 3 shows under my belt, well, I can't be happier.

Celebration is an oasis in Orlando. The entire community is landscaped, meticulously taken care of and are very involved in putting on a first class art show. The Patron's party was double from the previous year, I was told. And every volunteer was helpful, cheerful, and made a point to stop in making sure every artist was doing as well as they could.

This was my biggest show to date in terms of sales. And I think if the weather had been better, sales would have been much stronger. On Saturday, the rain started at 3:30 and at times were very strong, but Sunday rain started around 2:00 and never stopped. Around 4:00 we packed it in, as the rest of the show did. But I will be back and hopefully we'll have nothing but cool breezes and sunshine.

Celebration Arts Festival

This week-end is the long awaited Celebration Arts Festival near Walt Disney World, in Orlando. I have been feverishly making prints, ordering small goodies to sell and making sure I am completely ready. I signed to be able to accept credit cards, which is a huge relief from going through PayPal and sending invoices at the end of the show.

As the featured artist this week-end, I'm looking forward to some "special" treatment. Friday night is the Patrons Party, and I will have my booth set up (they tell me in the BEST spot), and will be allowed to have my work previewed. Of course I am hoping for some good sales. I know from past experience, that this kind of promotion is truly valuable. So I am really looking forward to this show.

My time has been spent not only looking for show venues, but Gallery Partnerships as well. I am very lucky to have found a local Gallery in Ocala that I think has the potential to both promote my work and produce significant sales. EMPTY WALL GALLERY, is headed up by Monica and James Jo. They are located at2461 SW 27th Ave, next to the new Staples and Best Buy. Stop in and say hi, they have a good variety of art and have been in the business for quite some time.

I'll give an up-date after Celebration and hope to see at least a few of you there.

Sunlit Forest

I'm very close to finishing a large painting of the setting sun piercing through the Florida forest. At 36" x 48", this is one of the largest paintings I have done. I've really had the desire to work large lately, I really loved how the sun is seeping through the forest and the trees, the colors and the way it affects the leaves are fascinating to me.

I'm also working on a series of still life paintings. Fruits, vegetables, bottles, flowers, I am just moving to a place where I feel that I must experiment and expand my portfolio.

Fresh Off The Easel

Work in progress

Finished Painting

One of my goals for this year is to really focus on large, more dynamic paintings. By-the-way, I consider myself more a painter than an artist. So my latest piece, Grand Palm, 30" x 40" oil on canvas, is a painting I'm extremely proud of. First off, I had a concept in mind... a Palm tree looking up from the ground. I LOVE the design of palms, actually, I love the design of nature, but especially palms. And then there is the color! I mean, take a look next time. The color that nature provides just blows me away!

I began this painting with a value sketch, a simple pencil study. Which is the way I like to start each painting. I also use reference photos. In this case, I took a day and shot many Palm trees that I though would work. I took everything back to the studio and believe it or not, the very first tree I shot was the one I ended up using for reference.

Some people are always amazed that artists use photos for reference. But remember, my paintings are my interpretation of the photo. I choose to delete certain items that I think take away from the final painting. I may enhance other parts, re-arrange parts to make a better composition. I can't understand how anyone could ever compare photography to a painting. My opinion is that a good painting ALWAYS blows away a photograph.

Stay on the look out for my next painting. It's underway, an unbelievable composition of a forest. This one is 36" x 48" oil on canvas. It should be finished in time for Mt. Dora. I hope to see you there!

Welcome to my blog!

Okay, I admit it. I caved. With so many other artists having successful blogs, I decided I'd give it a try. Share my world as an artist, my views, frustrations and successes. I hope my collectors, customers and friends share in my experiences. Every comment is important to me, so don't hesitate to make your opinion known. And welcome to my blog.