A week's worth of work

This past week was pretty hectic for me.  I was working on a self imposed deadline.  Today was the day I wanted to have everything completed.  Yeah!!  I did it.  So here is what is going on.  This afternoon I have to be at the SAAG Gallery to take down my previous display and help check in all new artists and make sure they have filled out their inventory sheets correct.  We go straight to the airport from the gallery to pick up a grand-daughter from MI who will spend the week with us.  She will overlap another grand-daughter and her friend who is from NM.  On Friday we drive to NM to pick them up and visit with my daughter and family.  Next Sunday the MI visitor flies home and the following week end we take the NM visitors back home.  If you are following this.....it means two weeks of company and two trips to NM.  We have been looking forward to having these visitors and I wanted to be free to enjoy their stay.  That is why I wanted to make sure I was caught up on all my work before they came.  Here is what I did in the past week to make that happen.  I finished a large commissioned painting, painted 5 Mexican domino train stations (one of which was commissioned), and completed another painting I wanted for the new SAAG session.  Along with that I had to design my new layout for the gallery and make all the price tags and labels for what I will be showing and fill out the new inventory sheets and pack everything up for hanging on Monday afternoon.  It is all done and ready with an hour to spare.  Here are photos of the art I did this week minus the large commissioned painting.  I don't want to post that photo until after the customer picks it up.

This is a new version of "Desert Dwellers" size 14X11.  It is one of my more popular paintings.  I have sold every one I have painted so it was time for a new one.

I have not shown any train stations at the gallery in the past so decided to make a sign showing how they are used and also letting the customer know they can be hung on the wall when not in use.  Below are photos of the others that painted for the show.

This blue one is sold already so will not be at the gallery.  

Once the large commissioned painting is picked up I will post a photo.

Painting and matching sconces

One of the items I got at our church rummage sale last week was a pair of sconces.  I had a frame that I thought would be a good companion piece so I decided to do a matching set.  Here is a photo of the 3 items together.

I am now second guessing my choice of subject matter.  Yes, I do think the flowers and grapes look good together but I'm thinking of of breaking up the set and selling the painting as is and redoing the sconces.  Since I sell more southwest themed items than anything else I am thinking of painting the sconces black and doing either a saguaro or a string of chili peppers on them.  Before I do that I will put them in the SAAG Gallery as a set and see what happens.  If they don't sell in a few weeks I'll bring the sconces home and redo them.

I have a new commission for a painting that I would like to get done this week and I have a few more functional items I want to have for the next session at the gallery which starts on April 1.  I have back to back company coming soon so I have to get as much painting done this week as possible.  I better head for the shop and get started right now.

"Falling Leaves"

I have company coming soon so decided to straighten the spare bedrooms.  I use one of them as a bedroom/gallery/painting storage room.  One side of the room has gridwall panels where I hang paintings that are ready for upcoming exhibitions.  I also store things that are too big to keep in my studio.  I had some very large frames that I was able to put in the closet but I also had this really big canvas that I had no place to store.  I looked around the room and noticed the area above the closet was just the right size but didn't want to hang it as is so took it to my shop and painted a quickie abstract.  I don't paint many abstracts but when I do I enjoy the process.  I matched colors in the room and here is what I came up with.

I decided to call it "Falling Leaves" because that is what I saw when I looked at it.  Size is 20X59

This photo shows what it looks like hanging above the closet doors.  The discs on the right are something I did when we painted the room a number of years ago.  See the photo below for a close up.

There are five 12" wooden discs.  I did a simple geometric pattern on each one.  The terracotta strip is painted on the wall and the discs are hanging on it.  It was a good way to accent the small angled wall.

I thought I might as well show the bed so you can see how the colors all blend together.  The light streak on the bed is the from  sunlight which was coming in from the unshaded high window over the bed.  You can also see a section of the gridwall panels with hanging paintings.  Anyway that was my unplanned spontaneous project for the day.  By-the-way, I don't think I'll sell the abstract because I like how it looks in the room so will keep it for myself.

I'll show yesterday's project tomorrow.

Yesterday's Painting Projects

I had a full day of painting yesterday.  I didn't have to leave the house for anything so did a sweats and no makeup day and spent lots of time painting.  I worked on two projects.  One was the commissioned desert scene bowl that was ordered by my "bowl lady".   The other was a slight do-over on a box I painted in the fall.  It was pots, plants and a pumpkin.  I decided to change the pumpkin to a bowl of apples.  It was a quick fix to take away the look of fall and Thanksgiving and make it more appropriate for showing this time of year.  Here is the before photo:

With a few strokes of the brush I turned the pumpkin into a bowl of apples!

I will be showing this box at the spring show at the SAAG Gallery.

This bowl was painted for Mary who plans to give it as a gift to a friend.  At Christmas  she ordered 6 other bowls that she gave as presents.  That is why I call her my "bowl lady".

I have had a busy morning today with no painting time and will leave soon for a lunch and shopping date with a friend.  I may start a new project later this afternoon.  I am finished with all my painting orders so will be working on some new ideas which is something I enjoy doing.

Painted Bowling Pins

Here are the bowling pins that will be given as trophies for the first place team on our bowling league

Saguaro

Coyote

Kokopelli

Gecko

Quail

More painted boots!

This is the 4th pair of boots I have painted.  The first two pairs were my own boots.  The third pair was for a friend who is an artist.  I posted photos of all the boots on Facebook and another artist friend shared the photos and one of her friends saw then and made contact with me about painting her boots.  Since she lives on the other side of town, she mailed them to me.  I got them a few days later and painted them over the weekend and will mail them back to her tomorrow.

Because these boots are a dark brown and she wanted them bright and colorful I under painted the design in white them applied the colors.  It worked perfect.  I then coated the paint with a protective coat of clear acrylic that has a touch of glitter which gives them a little sparkle.  Most cowgirl boots have a stitched design so I incorporate that design in my pattern.  When I painted the first pair of boots for myself I never dreamed I would be painting boots for other people!

My next project is a bowl with a desert scene that is for Mary who I call my "Bowl Lady.  If you scroll back to December posts you will see all the bowls she bought from me to give as Christmas gifts.  I think the number was around  seven of them.  I heard from her last week and she wanted another bowl.  I didn't have any on hand but was blessed in finding the perfect bowl at our Church Rummage sale this past Saturday.

 I also wanted to  mention I finished painting the bowling pins that will be given as trophies to the willing team on our bowling league at the banquet in mid April.  I'll post photos of them soon.

 Who would have thought?  Bowling pins, Bowls, Boots!  What fun I have painting all these items!

Desert Royalty

I mentioned in the last post that I had butterfly burnout. I have a number of things that I HAVE to paint but decided to take the time to squeeze in something I WANTED to paint.  If you follow my blog you know that I LOVE to paint so painting anything is good.  So much of what I do are patterns that I have painted before that people like and that sell.  That is great but upon occasion I like to just face a blank canvas and start with a background in colors that strike my fancy at the moment that I apply with a sponge.  Actually before I do that I pick the frame.  When the background is done I place it in the frame and decide the subject.  Sometimes I draw it out on tracing paper first and sometimes I draw straight on the canvas.  In this case I decided on a plane green saguaro (usually I do the colorful ones).  I sketched that on and painted it first.  Then I got busy with other things for a few days.  Last evening I sketched on the rocks and painted them.  I wasn't sure what would come next but knew I wanted something purple.  I put a little purple paint on my pallet and picked up the brush and just went at the canvas without presketching.   I roughed in the flowers then the leaves and finished off the details.  This morning I decided on a prickley pear and sketched it in and painted it then I did the border.  The great thing about working in acrylics is it was dry in a short time and I was able to apply the polycrylic, stick it in the frame and photograph it and here it is!  I decided to title it "Desert Royalty".  Unframed size is slightly over 11X9.  Now I must get back to the HAVE to paintings.

More Butterfly Paintings

I think I am officially done with my butterfly series.  In fact, I am suffering a case of butterfly burn out!   I now have added a tray and small bowl to the collection.  Here are photos of both of them.

Size of this tray is 15"X7" 

This bowl looks huge in the photo but in reality is only 6" in diameter.  I think it looks so large because I cropped the photo.

I will post photos of the other paintings in the series below.

This is the large bowl which is around 14" in diameter.

This is the box.

...and this is the painting that I did first and inspired me to do a butterfly series.

The title is "Flight of Fancy"

I will be showing these in the spring show at the SAAG Gallery which starts April 1.

I also will be showing the following paintings that I did awhile back that feature butterflies.

"Enchanted Butterfly"

"Butterfly Saguaro"

Art Exchange

A friend who is a jewelry artist asked me to paint a pair of her boots.  They were white and a little scuffed up.  She wanted me to use lots of color on them.  They had a very nice stitched design on the sides so I used the designs as a pattern and added my own design on the toes and the heel.  Here is what I did.

She was happy with what I did!  Since I love her jewelry I decided I would like to have one of her necklaces in exchange for the painting the boots.  Here is what I chose.

I had just bought this colorful cardigan sweater.  When I saw this necklace I knew it would be perfect with the sweater.  As you can see we both love color.

I finished another butterfly painting and will post the painting soon.

Bowling Pin Trophy #1

I completed the first of 5 bowling pins that will be presented as trophies to the first place team on our bowling league.  I did a saguaro on this one.  I decided to do a different southwest pattern on each one.  I have until the end of April to complete them so will work on them between other projects.  I will post a photo of each one when they are done.

I also finished another project this week but will post a photo of it next week.  I am currently working on a butterfly box to add to my butterfly series.  Seems like I have been doing more 3D items lately.  I am looking forward to doing a new canvas painting soon but I have all these obligations that I must do first.  I keep looking for things to slow down but that isn't happening.  I have had other things to do besides painting most days and when I do paint it is commissioned work.  I'm not complaining just looking forward to a time to do my own creative thing and try new ideas.