Eye in the Sky - Day 20 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge

"Eye in the Sky" - 18" x 24" acrylic on paper - $295 includes free shipping

Wind Dancer - Day 13 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge

"Wind Dancer" - 24" x 18" acrylic on paper - $295 includes free shipping

Fall From Grace - Day 7 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge

"Fall From Grace" - 18" x 24" acrylic on paper - $295 includes free shipping

The Wisdom of Winter - First Painting of the Year

Happy New Year, everyone!  I'm beyond excited to get this year started and was off to Mishka's Cafe in Davis, CA at 7:00 a.m. this morning to hang a new show.  The show is called "Table Talk" and features thirteen of my recent paintings from the "Table Talk" series, which is a tribute to our Farm to Fork movement and my grandparents who were farmers in Chico, CA.  Simple living; good home grown food and family is what counted the most to my grandparents, and I strive to carry this tradition forward in my own life.

I decided to participate in another 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge, and here is my first offering from my "The Wisdom of Winter" series.  All will be abstract expressions in acrylic on 24" x 18" paper, and each will be priced at $295 which includes free shipping in the US.

Here's "The Drifting Fall" - the first of 30 new paintings for 2017!

"The Drifting Fall" - 24" x 18" acrylic on paper - $295 includes free shipping

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!

Day 14 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challege - "The Perfect Man"

"The Perfect Man" - Mixed media on 24" x 18" canvas

I've always been intrigued by da Vinci's Vitruvian Man - he sort of "wrote the book" on the perfect symmetry of the human body.  So - I guess you could say he's to blame for the body issues we have today??  Maybe we could have avoided all that had he done a Vitruvian Woman.....

In any event, I've always been fascinated by this particular figure.  When I saw this drawing on a royalty-free design book, I grabbed the book and made a copy.  I then enlarged it and created an image transfer.  I ran into a couple of problems making the final transfer but filled the missing spots in with my Micron fine liner pen.  Then I added some cardboard for more interest and texture along with some metallic gold acrylic paint by Golden.  A bit of burnt sienna glazing and some tinted Manganese blue set the final tones for this piece.

I'm not sure it's finished quite yet but I like the direction it's headed.  And yes indeed, Vitruvian Man is backwards.....proving once and for all there is no perfect man in today's world.  Way to go, Leonardo!

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!

Day 7 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge - "Get Peace of Mind"

"Get Peace of Mind" - acrylic & gouache on 24" x 18" x 1.5" canvas

I'm getting into my stack of larger canvases now and here's a reworked one called "Get Peace of Mind."
This painting has lots of texture and is painted with acrylics, gesso and powdered gouache in addition to some upcycled, torn cardboard.  The cardboard is from the wrapping around packaged light bulbs, and is a thinner version of the cardboard found from boxes.  It absorbs the paint beautifully and gives the painting an added dimension that I really like.

Once again I apologize for the quality of the photo.  It really does look a LOT better than this photo shows.  After this challenge is over, I've decided I'm going to challenge myself and learn how to use my Panasonic Lumix camera with a Leica lens.  I bought it over 3 years ago but soon found I could take decent (and easy!) photos with my iPhone, so just abandoned it.

One more thing to add to my ever-growing "to-do" list for 2016! 

Day 6 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge - "The One That Got Away"

"The One That Got Away" - mixed media on 8" x 8" x 1.5" canvas

No matter how I tried, I couldn't get a good photograph of this piece.  I used some torn paint samples and a tiny piece of a Gelly print along with some torn cardboard for texture.  On top of all that, I used my white Jelly pens; Golden metallic gold paint and added an area of sgraffito adjacent to the area with the 3 dots.