A Merry Christmas To All

Christmas Day 2013.  I have managed to keep things simple.  Simple greens at the doorway.  Simple gifts for the twelve littles.  Not-quite-simple home interior rearrange, but it got done and I love it!  Some rooms are spring-loaded, but those are projects for the new year.  Many goals to define for 2014, but for today--Christmas Day--I will reflect on the significance of this day and what I am most blessed to have.  I wish those blessings for one and all.  Merry Christmas.

Daily Paintworks

I've just successfully added Daily Paintworks to the places my artwork can be viewed and/or purchased.  Daily Paintworks is a wonderful site where artists can post their original work.  For the minimum investment of $12.95 a month, artists can post and sell paintings with no commission taken.  If one chooses to use the auction option, there is a commission.  Now, I just have paint more consistently.  That will be the tricky part.  Stop by and check out the site--there are, on the average, 200 original paintings posted every day, or scroll down and click on the Daily Paintworks link on the right side of this page to visit my DPW gallery. 

Lifting Fog

I'm pretty happy with the outcome of today's hours of experimentation.  Clayboard with acrylic utilizing negative shape painting.  8" x 8" cradled.  I'll paint the sides black and it will be ready to hang. 

Frost on the Rose Hips

It won't be long now.  Winter's icy fingers are reaching out to wrap around our temperate weather days of late fall.  Like the old saying "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it."  I've taken a LOT of foliage photos this late-fall season in hopes of discovering what can happen on Claybord when I focus on the negative shapes and paint deep into the thicket.  Still more work to be done on this one I'm thinking.

Harvest Moon

 As the middle of October approaches, things turn all black cats and pumpkins.  My 20-pound black cat, Lickerish, was the inspiration for this little acrylic card design.  What's not to love about a big black cat any time of year.   "Harvest Moon"  #218

Artful Autumn

New card for fall from the Whimsical Rabbit.  This was done in transparent watercolor, white acrylic ink and black gouache on 140# Arches paper.  "Owl and Oak" #219.

The Bellingham Farmers Market 2013 season is over for me.  On to fall and winter show preparation.  Lots of cards to make and hopefully new designs.  I was expecting to be done with my corporate employment as of Oct. 4 and heading into my new life as a self-supporting artist, but that will have to wait a bit.  So, I will continue to try to balance my life as an artist on a shoestring schedule...truly hoping to blog more frequently.

BLACK AND WHITE

Nest #1

Luna #1

Simple black on white.  I would not have guessed that I would be so intrigued with such a simple palette. I had the good fortune to spend the day printing with Jan Lor, a brilliant print maker and fellow farmer's market atisan.

These are two of the new relief prints I made today.  I created a "plate" of cardboard shapes on mat board, sealed with acrylic gel.  Water-soluble printing ink was then rolled on with a brayer.  The high spots were wiped off.  The plate was then rolled through a wonderful, extremely expensive, printing press to reveal the most amazing results.   No two prints were exactly the same and the textures were amazing.  It felt like the best use of a day off I'd discovered in a very long time.