Quail, Bowl and Box

The day after tomorrow is the Sun City Art Festival.  I have to set up tomorrow afternoon.  I have been busy getting ready.  I have my layout arrangement done and everything is priced. Some things are packed up.  I will finish the rest of the packing this evening.  I still have to make up some signs and tomorrow morning I will send out an email reminder to my art list. I also have to get all the paper work ready.  Preparing for a show is lots of work!  While I was doing most of this stuff I still found time to paint three more items.  I call these my bonus items.  I don't have the exact count ( I will do that tomorrow after I set up) but I know I have over 60 paintings in all sizes and over 40 craft items.  17 of those are domino train stations.  I started with 24 but yesterday I had someone come to the house and buy 7 of them for her domino club.  Here are photos of the three newest items.

This is a quail statue which stands about 12" high

This sunflower box is 6"X9"

This rose painting is on a 9" shallow bowl

Beautiful Stained Glass window

When Brian & Sarah visited us early in the month they wanted to learn how to construct a stained glass window.  If you go to older posts you will see them working on a window.  They were not here long enough to complete it so Roger finished it.  This window is a companion to the windows we installed in their San Antonio home in August. You can see those in an older post. We will be taking another trip there soon to install this one.  Here is a photo.

Critter and Cacti Paintings and Tray

I accomplished the goal I set for myself for the Sun City Art Festival.  These are the last paintings that I wanted to finish.  Since I still have five working days until set up I may get a few more things done but I consider those bonus items.  Tomorrow I will start all the busy work I mentioned in my last post.  Things that need to be done like framing and pricing and planing the layout.  Once I get those done I may have time to complete a few more items.  We will see!  Here are photos of what I completed yesterday.  There are two 6X12 paintings and a 12" square tray.

Oh, I just remembered that I wanted to mention that I sold the gold day of the dead skull that I took to the SAAG Gallery just a few days ago.  That is the third one I sold this month.  I had no idea they would be so popular.  I don't have time to do another one before the Halloween season is over but noticed Michales will have all Halloween objects at 60% off this week so I think I will take advantage of the sale and buy some skulls and put them away until next year.

12" Desert Plate

I think I worked so much on Wednesday that I suffered painting burnout yesterday.  I did spend a little time in the shop late in the afternoon preparing a few things for painting but didn't have much ambition so took the evening off.  I got my nails done this morning and then went to lunch with friends and didn't get home until after 2 so no time for painting until I got home.  I was more in the mood to paint this afternoon and completed a desert scene on this plate.

On Friday one week from today, I will be setting up for the Sun City Art Festival which will be the next day, Saturday November 2 from 9 to 4.  I feel more relaxed as I see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I have a few more projects I would like to complete in the next few days.  Then I must spend my time framing a few paintings and pricing items and planning my display layout.  There is much to do to prepare for a 7 hour show.  If you have been reading my blog you know I have been working towards this for months.  The "problem" I had this year is that now that I am in the SAAG Gallery I kept depleting my inventory because of the sales I made there.  I think I finally have enough items for the art festival and also for the Gallery Holidazzle show which will start mid November.  I'll post information on both shows soon.

Very Productive Day!

I had a full day at home yesterday.  I started painting at around 8 in the morning and worked until 8 in the evening with a number of breaks to eat and relax.  I accomplished a lot.  The first project was a re-do.  By that I mean I took something I had painted about a year ago that hadn't sold and painted out the subject matter and did a whole new painting of a new subject. In the photo below you will see a rustic round tray painted with a day of the dead skull which is what I changed. This picture also shows a couple of other items that I did last year and sold.

Because this tray was so rustic looking I decided to do something that would compliment the long rustic tray that is featured in my last post.  Here is what I came up with.

My next project was to complete two chili pepper cutting boards.  I had sold all I had on hand and needed more for the up coming art festival. 

Between working on these items I also prepped other things so that I have something ready to work on the next day. I then got a call from the SAAG Gallery telling me I had sold a couple of items and to bring in something to replace them.  Since one of the items was a day of the dead skull and it is that time of year and I had another one already painted I decided that is what I would take.  While the skull was done I did not have a stand to put it on so I took the time to paint one.  I kept it simple...black with gold dots which would go good with the glittery gold skull. 

After dinner I spent some time painting this cigar box that I got from an artist friend that I recently met while working the gallery.  She told me about a smoke shop that will sell the empty boxes at a good price.  I will go there soon to check out what they have.  Since the Sun City Art Festival is before Thanksgiving I decide to paint a pot, plants and pumpkin painting.  I sold the last one that I did shortly after I showed it at the gallery.

I got lots of work done yesterday but today is a different story.  I was gone all morning and into the afternoon and haven't done anything yet but am heading to my shop as soon as I finish this post.  Hopefully I will have something to show tomorrow!                               

New Project Before and After

Before I painted this long rustic hand hewn bowl I took a photo of it.  I thought it was such an interesting piece that I wanted to post a photo of it in the raw state.  I was given this bowl by an artist friend  who bought it in Mexico.  She also gave me a number of other items and a frame.  Thank-you Trisha!  The photos below show what the bowl looked like before I painted it and after I painted it.   It will be for sale at the Sun City Art Festival on November 2.  Size is 22X9.  It would make a nice table centerpiece.

 Time is running out so I must get back to work.  I have a full day at home to paint so hope to have a couple of things done today that I can post photos of tomorrow.

5 More Small Paintings

I finished the small paintings I was working on. There are four 6X8 Desert Scenes and one 5X7 of Sunflowers.  I am now back to work on functional items.  I'll post photos of these when I am done.  Here are the small painting photos.

Because of how they are cropped, the desert scene paintings look smaller than the sunflower painting while in reality they are an inch bigger.

Six 5X7 paintings

I completed six 5X7 paintings in the past few days and am working on 5 more.  These are for the Sun City Art Festival.  I try to have a number of paintings in various sizes from 16X20 to 5X7.  I have a good supply of the larger paintings but didn't have many of the smallest size so that is what I concentrated on this week.  Below are photos of what I have done so far.  Hopefully tomorrow I will finish the others.

 

Cacti Tray

This is the second piece I completed yesterday.  It is a long narrow tray.  Dimensions are 20" X 6 1/2" X 3" high.  It has 1" feet and inside dimension is 2".  It would look good on a coffee table.

 Today I will paint for a couple of hours this morning then I have to work the SAAG Gallery for 4 hours.  I will take a 5X7 canvas that I will work on between customers.  Later when I get home I will spend another few hours in the shop.  My goal is to get at least two pieces done each day from now until the Sun City Art Festival on November 2.

Cowboy Santa

I got to work early this morning and prepped a number of canvases and craft items then decided to work on an idea I had when I woke up this morning.  I thought of a cutting board that I had painted black a while back and decided to paint an old fashion Santa on it.  I usually stay away from holiday themed items but years ago I used to do a number of unusual Santa paintings.  I dug though a box that I had stored old patterns in and found the Christmas folder.  It didn't take long to find the pattern I was thinking of but I continued to look through the file and stumbled on a Cowboy Santa.  I have no recollection of drawing or painting it in the past but there it was.  It is the perfect Southwest Santa.  I couldn't wait to get started and a few hours later I had him done!  Hope you enjoy seeing him.  He was fun to paint.  I may do a few more in various sizes for the up coming holiday shows.

25 Mexican Train Domino Stations Done!

Even though we had company for over a week I was able to paint 19 Mexican Train Domino Stations.  Added to the 6 that I had done previously, I now have 25 that I will be showing at the Sun City Art Festival on November 2.  Here is a close up of one of them.

Below is a photo of the other 24. 

 I did a variety of patterns using many bright colors.  There are cacti and critters and plants and pots plus other things.  For those who don't play Mexican Train Dominos they make an interesting wall hanging.

I have 17 days available to paint and one day to get things priced and organized for the show.  The crunch is on!

The company we had was our son Brian and his wife Sarah from San Antonio.  They came because they wanted to learn how to make a stained glass window.  Here is a picture of them being instructed by Roger on how to cut glass.  The window they worked on is going in their kitchen.  They didn't have enough time to get it completed so Roger will finish it and then we will have to transport and install it in their house later this year.

Quail in the Garden Box and a friend

Here is a new box.  It is a nice size...8X8 square X 5"high.  I decided to do a version of "Quail in the Garden"  I also have a tray done in that theme that I did a while back.  I will show both pieces at the Sun City Art Festival.  Here are photos of both.

I also did another Day of the Dead skull.  I sold the first one on the first day of the SAAG Gallery Show.  I did another on a glittery skull  but forgot to take a photo of it so am going to trade it out with this one and bring it home so I can take the photo.  I think I like the black background better than the glitter gold one.  I really like the expression on this one's face.  I think he has very expressive eyes...Puppy dog eyes!

2 bowls and a box

   Our younger son and his wife arrive today.  They will be here a week.  They want to learn how to do stained glass so will be working with Roger on a window that will be over their kitchen sink.  While they are doing that I will try to get 20 domino train stations painted.  Below are photos of the projects I completed this week.  The Desert Scene Bowl is sold.  The Sarape Bowl and Indian Lady Recipe Box will be shown at the Sun City Art Fair.