Ironwood Saguaro

I finished this project before we left for our trip to San Antonio.  It is a 10" high saguaro that is made of ironwood.  I painted it in my surreal saguaro pattern.

I have painted a number of  carved statues in the past.  I'll post photos of some of them below.

I also did a couple of flat standing metal items.

All of  these colorful critters have been sold except for the saguaro which I just finished.  I haven't shown it yet and will probably save it for the Sun City Art Festival which is in October.

What I did with spare time on my trip

I took another trip so if you are a follower of my blog you know what that means.  Zantangle Doodles!  That is what I do when I have time to fill.  This time we flew instead of driving.  Usually I doodle when I am riding in the car but since I had a good book to read while flying I did not doodle on the plane.  I got my sketch pad out during the down times between activities and did my doodling then.  Here is what I did.

I was gone for five days.  I spent the morning today catching up with things I needed to do because I had been gone.  I am now ready to get back to painting.  I have an artist box that is 24X24 that I base coated before I left.  I decided that is what I am going to work on next.  It has been a long time since I did a geometric abstract so that is what I am going to paint.  I have a design in mind which takes a lot of measuring and taping.  When I paint one area I must wait until it dries before I can tape off another area to paint so I will also work on another project while I am waiting for paint to dry.  I will use that time to base coat some more domino train stations.  The Sun City Art Festival is over four months away but that time will go quickly and I need lots of inventory so I will be working towards having a supply of new art for that show.  My best seller is the domino train stations so that is why I will work on them first.

Two small "Classic Desert Scenes"

  I have been working on getting better photos of my paintings.  I do not use a flash but still get a reflection along the top of the photo from the overhead fluorescent light.  My husband thought if we changed to a different kind of bulb that has a softer tone it might work.  I tried it with a number of paintings and the top reflection is softer but some of them had a very yellow cast to them and others had a more normal look but were a little fuzzy.   These two have the correct color but the fuzzy look.  I think I am going to go back to the fluorescent bulb and rig up something to deflect the light away from the top of the painting to prevent the reflection.  In the past I managed a photography studio and I remember the umbrellas we had in the camera room for that purpose.  That is what I have in mind to try.  Anyway these are my two newest painting.  They are 9" square.

I am ready to start a new painting but am having a hard time deciding what I want to paint.  I am not going through an artistic block but more of an artistic overload.  I have so many ideas tossing around in my head that I don't know what I want to do next.  I also have so many frames in all sizes and many functional items that I collected at yard sales that I can't decide what to work on next.  I have a table and chair, bowls, trays, 32 domino train stations and many other items.  What do I do next?  I'm not sure so keep watch for my next post to find out.