Back from Mississippi

"Mrs. Winchester's Bedroom"

8"H by 10"W, on panel. 

(click for enlargement) 

This is a small painting I gave to my Dad last year. This is the first photograph of it that wasn't too terribly covered in glare, but there's still a shadow line down the right side from being in a frame.

"Tangerine Living Room"

12"H by 15"W, on panel. 

(click for enlargement)  

 

I gave this one to Dad this year.  He'll frame it in a week or so- I had to travel with it wrapped in wax paper to ensure that the few wet spots wouldn't create a enormous mess in the suitcase, so he'll wait a little while before cutting the frame to size and slipping it on. 

 

Had a great time in Mississippi, though it was really much too short. My husband and I went out for nine days, though the better part of two of those was spent almost exclusively in planes and airports. While we were there, I took pictures of three houses, two of which were new to me, and got in a lot of visiting with my relatives. I am also apparently delicious to bugs.  All anyone has to do when a mosquito swarm nears is stand near me, and all of the little bloodsuckers will be drawn to my vitamin-rich veins. 

So I'm very itchy now.

"Tip"(in progress)

11"H by 14"W, on canvas. 

(click for enlargement)  

 

 I like the chair in this painting but I think that the junk piled to the left needs some work. I had this desk in my posession and I left it outside my studio, in the parking lot, because hey- it was rusty and full of spiders. It disappeared overnight so I hope that the reference shots I have for it will be good enough if I want to paint it again.

Soon I'll update with photos of a hubcap I'm painting on for landfillart.org, it's exciting because it's my first attempt at a round surface. 

In addition, Tumult and Garbage have both been accepted to the California State Fair Art Competition. I'm riding pretty high for now.

Product

"Magnolia"

7"H by 5"W, on panel. 

(click for enlargement) 

"Granny Smith Apple"

6"H by 4"W, on panel. 

(click for enlargement) 

Been preparing for a trip to visit some family in Mississippi and driving myself a little crazy by painting every day. I'm actually happy to report that these two paintings took less than three hours each. I'm getting a lot faster with painting things that are right in front of me, which is great news. I stil get bogged down with questions of color in some items- reflected light is particularally hard to get right for whatever reason, but so far "faking it" seems to work pretty well.

I have some other paintings in progress to show, but the photos are very bad so I'll need to re-shoot the things in better lighting.

In Progress: Junction

48"H by 36"W, on panel. 

(click for enlargement)  

 

Brightened up the highlights today. I feel good about this painting again, even though that bowl/dish shape is hanging in some sort of limbo. 

I also pulled a chair out of a dumpster. I'm not sure if it will find a home elsewhere, but I saw it turned over and fell in love with the rusty legs. It's a very good thing that I have a pickup truck.

Funding- An Eternal Struggle

I always feel overwhelmed when thinking about money. My studio-mate and I are seriously considering a larger studio space, which we are both in need of- my works are stacked in my garage and above the rafters, and things I don't even remember painting threaten to avalanche onto my boxes of regular crap (I.E. Toys, clothes, furniture). I'm in a total quandary, and though I know the way out of it, I don't want get a regular full-time job. I need to earn more money to pay for a studio, in order to make more work, in order to sell more work, yet I'll have to sacrifice painting hours to do more work outside the studio to pay for it.

There are works that I consider "garnishes." Sweet little paintings of things that do little more than advertise my technical skill. I think I need to make a lot of those sorts of paintings just now, to try to deal with my seriously dry financial well. Paintings of things that people like isn't at all what I'm about, but the need to have a product is driving me now. So I'm trying my hand at a few portraits and a couple paintings of people's dogs. It's not a problem to turn these paintings out, I'm just a little ashamed of them.

More images soon. I'm going to donate a painting to a local art organization to try to keep them afloat and I'm preparing to enter a state fair competition. So this depression hasn't completely affected my enormous ego, but it could surely use some feeding.

Fireplace Scene 1& 2

14"H by 11"W, on panel. 

(click for enlargement) 

 

 

 

11"H by 14"W, on panel. 

(click for enlargement)  

 

These are finally finished. I like them both, and I'm fairly sure that one of them is going to be claimed soon. Part of my objective in painting two virtually identical pieces is to keep one of them- my studio is looking like it's full of things that are perpetually in progress, and I need a few art pieces that will look nice around the room. Building up a store of art that can be given to a gallery for a month or so is also an objective of mine, even though having such a small space means that some of the art will be in storage for a little while before seeing much daylight.

Tangerine Living Room

6"H by 8"W, on panel. 

(click for enlargement) 

A much better photo of this painting. I'm going to amend that entry where I showed it before, because the picture was so inaccurate.

In Progress: Tumult

48"H by 36"W, on panel. 

(click for enlargement)  

Mapping out the main composition points using the shadows is extremely satisfying and a step that takes a lot of consideration, so today I sat this painting in the parking lot and looked at it for a long time. I committed to some heavy editing. This painting is probably only at the halfway point and will have a lot more layered upon it before I'm at all satisfied.