First paintings of 2018

We are having our first really bad winter since moving to Michigan.  We have been snowed in since before Christmas until the past few days when the January thaw began.  It is raining today and I would guess that most of the snow will be gone by tonight. 

 I have not accomplished much this year as far as painting goes.  On the other hand, much is being accomplished in the realm of home improvements.  We have started our master bath renovation.  We started shortly after the first of the year making decisions on what we wanted to do.  It took many trips to Menards, Home Depot and Lowes comparing light fixtures, cabinets, mirrors, tile, sinks, etc. We bought some items at each place and now the project is underway.  Roger and I made the choices together.....well.....maybe I had more say-so on what we got but he agreed to everything.  Once the choices were made he took over the project.  I am glad I am married to someone who is so handy.  He did all the electrical work which includes three light fixtures and more outlets for all my curling iron and blow dryer and all the other appliances we ladies have.  He is now working on the tile.  I pop in every so often to say "Great job Honey".  I'll post photos when the project is finished. 

As far as painting goes, I'm going though a dry cycle for inspiration on subject matter for what to paint.  I'm seeing my inventory of paintings building up.  In Tucson as fast as I did new paintings they would sell so I never had a huge build up of unsold work.  It is different here in Michigan.  There are not as many opportunities to show my work and people here do not spend as much money on art like they did in AZ. I also think the cold snowy weather keeps people at home and not visiting the places where my art is showing.  In AZ we had all the snowbirds come into town during the winter and they took advantage of the nice weather to shop at all the galleries.  People here are the snowbirds and they clear out during the winter to warmer places like AZ and FL.

  Most of what I sold at the holiday show were smaller items.  For that reason, I decided to concentrate on smaller paintings and craft items.  I completed three tiny paintings in the past few weeks.  Here are photos of what I did.

This one is called "Pretty Kitty".  It shows large here but it is a only a 5X7 canvas painting as are the others I did.

Next is "Welcome Home".

The last one is "Pretty Posies".

I took a photo of the three of them together which helps you to get a better perspective of size.  I sell then with the easels.

 The opening of the Carnegie Regional Show was yesterday.  My chair titled "Sitting Pretty" was accepted for the show but they did not accept the matching painting.  It was a smaller show this year so a lot of artists had only one or two pieces accepted.  Here is a photo of me with the chair taken at the opening.

I will be working on a couple of craft items next.  After that I may work on some glass mosaic things just for something different to do.  We will see....... who knows what kind of ideas will pop into my head and to which direction it will lead me?