Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Pretty in Pink


It has finally gotten hot in Dallas.  No complaining, we had an unusually mild spring with cool temperatures, but, now it is is hot, hot, hot.  One of the flowers that does well in this heat is the Echinacea plant otherwise known as Cone Flower.  In our backyard we have a perennial garden that has some Cone Flowers.  However, there are some that plant an entire bed of cone flowers.  One home had the Cone Flowers line the walk.  It was so pretty.  They love the hot sun and do not require any work really. 

I have wanted to paint the cone flowers for several summers now.  Here is my first attempt.  I am happy with the sky and the flowers.  I think the foliage got a little muddy when I was trying to add the shadows and the darks.  I will admit, one thing that lacks from this painting is the darks.  I had good dark shadows in there, but, then it looked too spotty and lots of hard edges so I went back and softened and combined the shadows.

Happy painting!  As always, thanks for your comments.  They are encouraging and enlightening.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Sunflowers





I am procrastinating.  I need to get a painting done to submit for SWS, but, I am doing everything else, but, painting! 

So I will tell you about Surtex, the art licensing trade show.  It was fantastic!  I made a lot of great contacts with both artists and manufacturers for potential licensing opportunities.  I learned a lot.  It was interesting that everyone liked different paintings for products that I never even thought of.  There were some paintings that received interest from multiple parties.  Florals and coastal were the favorite themes!

One of the things I learned was that everyone had an entirely different opinion.  One person might say your work is too loose while the next said they liked how tight is was.  Would you believe that one agent told me that my paintings were too dark.  I want to run to that watercolor teacher from long ago and tell her, someone thinks my colors are too dark because she always told me my colors were way too bright. 

With that said, I posted these 4 paintings of sunflowers done over the course of 10 years.  My Surtex experience has led me to believe, paint whatever you want and however you want, someone out there will like it.  Of course, it doesn't matter whether anyone else likes it or not, so long as an artist, we are fulfilled from the experience. 

Thursday, May 5, 2011

What's been on the drawing board




Preparing for this trade show has been a lot of work.  I have had to make a lot of new paintings that coordinate with existing paintings to make a "collection".  It has been fun, interesting and experimental to create these coordinating all over patterns.  Someone may not want to hang them on their wall, however, one may be perfect for wrapping paper, bedding, home decor, who knows.  This has really freed my painting style up a lot.  I love having the freedom of working with the colors just to make an interesting design versus my typical style of not straying far from the subject and local color. 

I encourage the artists out there to put similar sheets together for a newsletter, post or mail to your clients/potential clients.  I know many of you have beautiful collections of paintings that can tell a story.  Some of you can make an entire book, even!  Either way, it is a great sense of accomplishment and I think it helps viewers see your work in a different way.

The last is a pen and ink that someone commissioned to give to their PTA president.  They wanted to do one of the school as well and make stationary, but, budget didn't allow for it.

Have a great week!  Thanks for visiting!

p.s. for those that receive this post via email, you may want to visit my actual blog one day and look at the different pages I have added.  The tabs are at the top and you just pick the tab.