First blog post of 2024

 It is over six months since my last blog post. In my last post in 2023 I said that I had decided to not show my work in any venues and only do commission work.  For that reason, I have not had many paintings to post.  My commissions have been from friends and family.  Here are those paintings.

The first were for my cousin and his wife who moved to Myrtle Beach and wanted something with a beachy theme.

 

The next painting was for a neighbor who also loves everything beachy.  She wanted a simple ocean/beach scene.

The last painting is for my oldest granddaughter who wanted a wooden plaque with a still life.

In the last six months Roger created two stained glass windows.  Both were for neighbors.

Every time Roger makes a stained glass window, he thinks it will probably be the last one he will make but then, someone asks him if he will do one for them.  A neighbor wants two and our son Mark wants a hanging panel.  He is holding off starting them because we are in a heatwave, and it is too hot in his garage workshop for him to work there.  

As I look back and reflect on my art career, I feel blessed.  It was a God thing.  I started teaching tole painting in 1976 at the request of a friend of a friend.  I started a home class and within a few months I was asked to teach a class at the YWCA then adult ed classed at the local high school and vocational school. I taught classes at all of these places and also various craft stores for 15 years.  When we moved to AZ I retired from teaching but continued to sell craft items at art fairs.  In 2007 I decided to enter a canvas painting contest and won 3 prizes.  At that point I switched to canvas painting and have sold hundreds of paintings and won 15 awards.  I still love to paint but I no longer enjoy having to market my art.  This is why I will only do commission painting.  I guess I am retired from actively selling my art.

I still create art by spending time everyday doing doodles.  I have books full of doodles.  I love doing them, but I do them for myself and not for sale. I also help Roger with design and color choice on the stained-glass windows he makes.

Will I do more blogposts in the future?  That remains to be seen.  I guess it depends on if I get more commission.

Merry Christmas 2023 & Lots of new paintings

 

It has been months since my last blogpost.  The summer seemed to fly by, and I didn't create much art during that time.  Once fall came I suddenly had many commissions and was spending lots of time in my studio.  I finished the last commission a couple of weeks ago and then Roger & I got the flu.  We are better now, and I finally had an opportunity to do a new blog post.

These first 3 paintings are ones I did for our son Brian and his wife Sarah. Sarah retired from the Air Force in September, and they have moved to Amarillo, Texas.  They are building their retirement home and asked me to do some paintings with a Texas theme.  The first 2 represent the yellow rose of Texas and the third features creatures in their area.

At the first of this year, I decided to remove any unsold art from the Owl & Rabbit Galley and retire from showing my paintings anywhere.  I was comfortable with this decision but then I got a request from them to please do some art for the Christmas season.  I agreed to do this.  Since small art seems to sell, that is what I did.  Here are some small paintings that I sell on an easel.  I picked subject matter that always sold well in the past. Here are those paintings.

Just about the time I finished with the above paintings, I got a couple of commissions for 3 domino train stations from people in Arizona who had bought them in the past and wanted more as gifts for friends. I have sold hundreds of these over the years. Every time I sell one, I think it will probably be the last one but then I get a commission for another one!

I still have three more paintings to do that were commissioned by a cousin who recently moved to Myrtle Beach.  They are to have a beachy theme.  I plan to work on them after the first of the year.

During the time I was not painting I continued to work on colored doodles that I featured in the last post. I have over 40 new ones that I have done.  The problem is that I did not scan them into the computer. Once I get that job done, I will post photos of them.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Doodles in Color

In the past, if I wanted a colored doodle, I would print off a copy of one of my black and white doodles and then color them with colored markers.  I never enjoyed the process although I liked the way they looked when finished. Recently I got an idea of how to do colored doodles in a way that I would enjoy.  What I did was put random colors on my sheet of paper and then do my doodle in my black sharpie on top of the color.  I love the results.  I used watercolor on the first three which gives a softer pastel look.  On the next three I used colored markers which give a more intense color.  

This new method is quick and easy and I love the results.  I have started a new sketchbook which will be all colored doodles.  

In my last post I mentioned that I probably would not be doing canvas paintings for a while but that has changed.  Our younger son and his wife will be retiring to Texas in a few months, and they would like some paintings with a Texan theme.  The first painting I will do will be an Endless Rose done in yellow for the Yellow Rose of Texas.  Then I will do a painting with critters from Texas.  I am also tossing around a few other ideas. I love doing southwest paintings so I will be having fun doing these new paintings.

On another note, we have started our last home improvement project.  It is the laundry room. There will be new paint and floors and new shelves.  It is a walk-in room approximately 7' X 5'.  We have decided to get a new washer and dryer.  I like the ones that came with the house but they are around 18 years old so it is time to retire them.  I'll post photos when we are done.

Oodles of Doodles

 I have not posted any of my doodles since my post in April.  Here are all the doodles I have done in the past 3 months

I have not done any painting since I finished  the commission which I featured in my last post.  Since January when I removed my art from the gallery and made the decision not to enter any contests this year, I don't have the push to do new paintings. I love to paint and enjoyed every minute of doing the commission for my friend. Since I finished that project, I can't get motivated to come up with new ideas for paintings. Hopefully I will get inspired to paint again but, in the meantime, I continue to doodle.  When I have new doodles or other art finished, I will do another blog post.

My latest commissioned painting

 Happy 4th of July!  I can't believe it is 3 months since my last blog post.  In April and May I had cataract surgery and was unable to paint for a short time.  In May and June I was busy painting a commission for a good friend.  It was probably the most unusual items I have ever painted.  

When we were visiting in Tucson a longtime friend asked me to paint two wooden urns.  One for her husband's ashes and the other for her ashes when she passes away.  I agreed to do this.  She purchased two wooden urns and had them sent to me.  Each was to have a desert scene on one side, their favorite bird on another side, a Surreal Saguaro on the third side and the last side of one was to have a hummingbird and the other was to have a quail family.  There was a total of 8 paintings, so it took me a couple of months to complete.  Here are photos of the finished project.

It has been a long time since I painted southwest subject matter.  It brought back good memories of all the paintings I did and sold when I was in Tucson.  My friend is happy with what I did which makes me happy.  This was a very special project for me.

I have a number of new doodles that I did in the past few months that I will show in another post which I will do soon.

Covid, Commission Painting, Stained Glass Window, Trip to Tucson, Lots of Doodles and A Belated Happy Easter

 The month of March 2023 was full of surprises.  Shortly after my last post both Roger & I came down with Covid.  A friend did not know she had been exposed and came to play cards at our house.  The next day she came down with symptoms and shortly after tested positive for Covid.  Roger then got sick and tested positive and a few days later it was my turn.  We had cold like symptoms, achy muscles, cough, sore throat, etc.  We were concerned because we had tickets to fly to Tucson on March 22.  Thank-goodness we were recovered and past the quarantine time before our scheduled flight time.

During the time I was sick I was able to finish the commission I had for the door of a cabinet that belonged to a neighbor.  Here is the finished painting.

Before Covid, Roger had just finished a large stained-glass window for Mark & Leslie's house. We were able to install it the weekend before we left for our trip.  This window is different than any others we had done because of the shape.  It was a challenge for me to come up with a design that would work for the shape of the window.  Mark & Les wanted a classic design with only clear textured glass.  Since the window was so large and heavy, Roger decided to build three panels that would fit together to look like one window.  This window is over the front door of their split-entry home.

During the time I was sick and when we were on our trip I completed many doodles.  The first one I am posting is one that I did for the neighbor who I did the cabinet for.  She was interested in how I did a doodle so I had her do the basic scribble.  She goes by the name Beth, but her given name is Sybil Elizabeth.  She printed this name for me to use as the base for the doodle.  The rest of the doodles posted are ones that I did during the rest of the month.

Our trip to Tucson was great.  We met up there with Brian & Sarah.  We got to see some of our old friends.  We went to some of our favorite places.  We spent time with our grand-daughter Lyn and her boyfriend, Mavrick who live there.  The big surprise was when we discovered that our niece, Kelly from Ohio, happened to be in Tucson for her son's soccer tournament.  We were able to go out to dinner with her.  Since this post is long, I will do a separate post with photos of our trip and all of the people we saw.  What I will post here is some of our art that we created while we lived there.  This includes stained glass and some paintings we did for our church and also that we did for friends that they still have in their homes.

I'll end this post with a Belated Happy Easter wish to all.  We celebrated with Mark and Leslie.