New Paintings - 5.26.2012

Flower Garden on Yellow

Original 48" x 72" Painting

Forest Walk

Original 48" x 72" Painting

My apprentice - Diana Kim England - created this lovely painting with my guidance. I'm very excited to work with her, and to see the compositions she creates.

Flower Garden on Yellow II

Original 36" x 36" Painting

Abstract Autumn Aspens

Original 48" x 72" Painting

All paintings created with artist grade professional acrylic paint on gallery wrapped canvas provided by Big Daddy Canvas.

Quote of the day:

"What lies behind and what lies before us are but small matters compared to what lies within us."

 Ralph Waldo Emerson

Two Commissions

Quaking Aspens and Colorado Peaks
Original 18" x 24" x 0.75" painting
Golden, Liquitex, and Chroma acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

---

Raoul's Garden

Original 24" x 36" x 0.75" painting
Golden, Liquitex, and Chroma acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

These paintings are commissions requested from a patron from two of my signature compositions.

More Work This Week

Abstract Floral (Commission)
Original 20" x 30" x 0.75" painting
Golden, Liquitex, and Chroma acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

---

Autumn Aspens VI
Original 48" x 20" x 0.75" painting
Three 16" x 20" canvases
Golden, Liquitex, and Chroma acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

---

Flower Garden Against a Yellow Sky (Commission)
Original 40" x 50" x 1.5" painting
Golden, Liquitex, and Chroma acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

I wrapped up the week working on a commission of my Abstract Floral composition, a large commission of my Flower Garden composition, as well as the newest edition in the Autumn Aspens series to sell on my web site. It's been an incredibly busy but rewarding week.

Quote of the Day
"Self-reliance is the only road to true freedom, and being one's own person is its ultimate reward." --Patricia Sampson

Today's Paintings 6.11.09

Flower Garden Against a Yellow Sky IV
Original 30" x 40" x 0.75" painting
Golden, Liquitex, and Chroma acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

---

Red Roof and Spring Flowers
Original 24" x 30" x 0.75" painting
Golden, Liquitex, and Chroma acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

Today's work includes the newest edition in the Flower Garden series, as well as a new composition Red Roof and Spring Flowers. The joy in painting for me is to use bold expressions of color in my compositions, and I often get favorable comments from patrons and other artists on my use of color--which I very much appreciate.

Quote of the Day
"Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion." --Buddha

Flower Garden Against a Yellow Sky

Flower Garden Against a Yellow Sky (Commission)
Original 48" x 64" painting
Golden, Liquitex, and Chroma acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

Today's work was on a large commission from my signature composition Flower Garden Against a Yellow Sky. This patron requested a commission of the second painting in this series (see May 1 blog entry), only much larger. Given the size of the painting, he requested that I send it rolled.

Another patron bought a small painting (16" x 20") from one of my sales venues today, and also requested that I send it rolled. She will be shipping it to her home country, Lebanon, and wanted to reduce her shipping costs. I am always happy to accommodate special requests from my patrons.

Announcement
I've done a breakout of the topics to be covered in each of the four two-hour sessions of my workshop Selling Your Artwork Online. You can view the topic breakout by session on my web site.

Quote of the Day
"In a time of anger or despair, even if we feel overwhelmed, our love is still there. Our capacity to communicate, to forgive, to be compassionate is still there. You have to believe this. We are more than our anger, we are more than our suffering. We must recognize that we do have within us the capacity to love, to understand, to be compassionate, always." --Thich Nhat Hanh

Note
A dear friend died today, someone who fought and won against his own personal struggles, and who gave selflessly to others to help them rebuild their lives from the inside out. Jon Marsh--thank you for all you have done.

Autumn Path Commission

Autumn Path (Commission)
Original 72" x 36" x 0.75" painting
Golden, Liquitex, and Chroma acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

Today's post includes the completed version of the Autumn Path commission for my Canadian patron. She approved the Autumn Aspens piece, so I'm on to my next commission--a 64" x 48" version of my Flower Garden Against a Yellow Sky series, shown below.

Flower Garden Against a Yellow Sky II
Original 36" x 24" x 0.75" painting
Golden, Liquitex, and Chroma acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

We're expecting cool rainy weather over the weekend here in Golden, so I'm going to put on some tea, play some Joni Mitchell, Iris Dement, and Rolling Stones, and get some painting done!

Quote of the Day
"I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe." --Dalai Lama

Flower Garden Against Yellow Sky III

Flower Garden Against Yellow Sky III
Original 24" x 36" x 0.75" painting
Golden, Liquitex, and Chroma acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

Today's work includes the newest painting in my Flower Garden series. A patron who's bought some of my work before commissioned a 48" x 64" painting from this series. I'm excited to paint that one on such a large canvas. I typically buy my canvases pre-stretched, but the cost gets a bit prohibitive for anything larger than a 30" x 40". Roll canvas is the way to go, in my opinion, for larger paintings. Shipping larger paintings can cost a bundle, and in this market your patron's dollar is better spent on the art than getting it there.

I'm pleased to announce that I have a new apprentice as well. He's been working with me for a couple of weeks now, and has a background in literature, photography, web design and programming. It's been great having someone to work with, and he brings the kind of enthusiasm to my studio that reminds me of when I was in art school. I look forward to seeing his work progress, and I'm enjoying the collaboration too.

Tip of the Day
Shop around for the best deal on your art supplies. The major suppliers for painting include ASW, Dick Blick, and Jerry's Artarama. I highly recommend signing up for their emails that advertise sales on materials, and to plan enough ahead to take advantage of low or no-cost ground shipping. There are certain costs that you have absolutely zero control over: listing fees on sales venues, shipping charges, phone, internet, etc. Take advantage of things like sales on art supplies so you can increase your margin as much as possible.

Quote of the Day
"The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual's own reason and critical analysis." --Dalai Lama

Today's Paintings 3/12/09

Prairie Creek and Sky IV
Original 24" x 30" x 0.75" painting
Golden, Liquitex, and Atelier acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

---

Springtime Garden II
Original 24" x 30" x 0.75" painting
Golden, Liquitex, and Atelier acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

---

Poppies and Blue Sky IX
Original 54" x 24" 0.75" painting
Three 18" x 24" canvases
Golden, Liquitex, and Atelier acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

Today was one of those painting at dawn kind of days. I have been working on commissions for weeks now, as well as painting new pieces to list on my sales venues. Today's paintings are recreations of compositions that do well on my sales venues. The Poppies and Blue Sky series is hot right now.

I have two more commissions in the works right now, and requests for a few more in the works. My job rocks! I love to paint, and have taken on an apprentice (my husband), who up to now has been my back office guy--he does the accounting, computer stuff, and shipping. It'll be interesting to see how that works out. I was thinking the other day that I take things like how to hold a brush for granted.

We're also lined up to teach classes on selling your art online. One of our classes starts next month at Colorado Free University. We're also in the process of developing a webinar to teach how to sell art online. More information is available on my web site.

Quote of the day: "Without atmosphere a painting is nothing." --Rembrandt

Springtime Garden

Springtime Garden
Original 24" x 36" x 0.75" painting
Golden, Liquitex, and Atelier acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

My thoughts turned to Spring this morning as I looked out on the sunny day and the intense blue sky. It's a chilly morning, but the birds were singing, and I see the flowers that will bloom in the fallow earth around me.

This painting was purchased by a patron in Canada who I know gets a glimpse of the season to be every time she looks at this piece. Despite losing an hour to daylight savings I still managed to get the full compliment of sleep--fortunately the time changes always happen on a weekend so I can permit myself that little indulgence.

Quote of the day: "Spring is nature's way of saying, 'Let's party!'" --Robin Williams

Garden Path VII

Garden Path VII
Original 22" x 28" x 0.75" painting
Golden, Liquitex, and Atelier acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas

The Garden Path series is a popular one among my patrons. This rendering is on a 22" x 28" canvas, and has an abundance of flowers and the blue shadows that I love to paint.

We had a glorious week weather-wise, but yesterday and today were much colder than it's been. There were some flurries even--a reminder that we're in that transition season where it can be toasty warm one day, and cold and snowy the next. The nice thing about Colorado is that if you don't like the weather you can wait five minutes (or a day) and it will change.

Flower Garden Against a Yellow Sky III

Flower Garden Against a Yellow Sky III
Original 72" x 24" x 0.75" painting
Two 24" x 36" canvases

Golden and Liquitex acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvases

I must have Spring on the brain--this painting is the latest in my Flower Garden series of large, multiple-canvas, decorative paintings. This one is probably my favorite in the series. I'm trying to capture the essence of the seasons in each one of these seasonal series pieces that I'm painting lately. This isn't always easy, but I find that when I can relax and paint with my mind's eye it somehow brings it all into focus.

Quote of the day: "A writer should write with his eyes and a painter paint with his ears." --Gertrude Stein

Dreams of Spring

Flower Garden Against a Yellow Sky

Original 30" x 40" x 1.5" painting
Golden and Liquitex acrylic paints on gallery-wrapped canvas

It snowed a lot today in Golden. I worked today on embellishing giclee prints for my UK deal, and tried to stay warm.

This is a piece I painted last week, and is currently for sale on the venues where I list. Please check my links on the right.

I'm thinking of warmer days ahead...