My Creative Soul Revival: city painting

Showing posts with label city painting. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Day 26 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge - "Splash"

"Splash" - 40" x 30" acrylic on 1.5" canvas

"Splash" is a multi-colored cityscape with numerous layers of color in the sky and water portion. As usual, the photo doesn't do it justice!

Monday, January 18, 2016

Day 18 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge - "Building Dreams"

"Building Dreams" - 36" x 24" acrylic and graphite on 1.5" canvas

With a strong background in the real estate industry, I have a love for buildings; houses; and dwellings in general. They house our spirits day and night, and I've always been able to "feel" their soul. When I was developing commercial real estate, each building or project that I worked on felt like a child to me, and I would always get excited when the new tenant or owner moved in. True, I had built the structure but the people who moved in were what ultimately made the building come alive.

Inside these structures, the occupants build their dreams. Doesn't matter if it's a home or a building - it's where the creativity begins and life actions take place. It's almost spiritual, hence the desire I had to add the liquid metallic gold at the lower left part of the painting.

Another fun makeover piece - and it can be hung either horizontally (as shown) or vertically with the black circles on the bottom.

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Day 10 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge - "Imagine the Possibilities"

"Imagine the Possibilities" - 20" x 16" on 1.5" canvas - mixed media

Wow - it's hard to believe we are 1/3 of the way through this challenge already. It hasn't been as easy as I hoped it would be but it's infinitely more rewarding than I had expected. I'm having a blast painting over old pieces and seeing what comes next, and I'm enjoying the process.

I knew working larger again would take more time but what I hadn't factored into the time crunch was the final finishing of the paintings. I don't know about you, but I'm a procrastinator. I love to do the paintings and can usually get them photographed and named - for me that's the best part of the process.

But afterwards, the paintings sit in a "finished but not really ready to sell" state. I let them stack up and just wait until a show comes along or someone wants to buy something. Then I go into a panic mode because I need to install the hanging wire; finish painting the sides if they weren't already completed; sign the piece in the front and the back; and complete the piece with 2 coats of UV protective varnish (satin is my favorite finish). For me, this set of chores is the least sexy part of painting and I dread doing it for some unknown reason.

Well - yesterday one of the art consultants I work with called to see if I had any new work she could look at for a client who needed something now. I told her to come by this morning and I'd show her what I had. Then last night one of my friends said she wanted to buy one of the paintings from the challenge and asked if she could stop by this afternoon to pay me for it. And of course I said yes - but I was in a state of panic thinking about how I was going to get all of these pieces sale-ready before my meeting. Yikes!

So I was up very late last night and got up early this morning to finish off 10 canvases. I had an assembly line set up in my kitchen and dining room, and was freaking out thinking the varnish wouldn't be completely dry before the consultant arrived. Thankfully it was and she loved the new pieces - now I'm keeping my fingers crossed her new client loves them too.

What a way to learn an important lesson though - you can be sure that from now on, I'll be more diligent about completely finishing a painting before jumping into another one. If I'm pegging myself as a professional artist, then obviously I need to act like one - and having a nice inventory of ready-to-sell work is preferable to having a studio of half-finished works. After all - what would have happened if another consultant or designer had needed something in a hurry and I wasn't prepared?

"Precious Moments" - SOLD

And later this afternoon I said good-bye to Day 8's offering called "Precious Moments" - which happens to be one of the highest rated paintings on my Instagram account to date and a personal favorite. Suffice it to say, today was a very good day for this artist :-)

Once again this project is challenging me in more ways that I expected, and I would like to think that each and every challenge makes me a better artist. So now I know I need to treat each painting like a commodity, ready to sell at a moment's notice. Lesson learned - bigtime!

Friday, January 8, 2016

Day 8 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge - "Precious Moments"

"Precious Moments" - 16" x 20" x 1.5" - mixed media on canvas

I generally sign my work in the front and the back of a painting when it's completed, and one of the challenges with painting over old canvases happens when there's a title already on the back of the piece. I've been trying to create pieces that go with the previous titles and so far I think it's worked. But I thought the new painting was a bit dark for the "Precious Moments" moniker.

So I grabbed some Golden's Iridescent Gold (Fine) and painted the textured leaves and a few accent areas. The result is quite beautiful, if I do say so myself. It's really hard to capture the glistening leaves without distorting the rest of the painting, but I assure you they do shimmer brightly. I had always shied away from using metallic paints, thinking they were more of a novelty item. But with this challenge and all of the redo's, I think I'm beginning to change my mind!