Inishmore

"Inishmore" 12x16 oil on panel $400.00

I remember the day when I took the reference photo for this painting so well! I was stuck at an intersection on my rented bicycle behind this pony cart driver on Inishmore Island, in Ireland. We were waiting for about ten other pony carts and bicycles, and a minivan and I took advantage of the moment to ask to take his picture. He has such a magnificently craggy, character-filled face! And he kind of frowned, and looked off in the distance, and said "Fine then, shoot away." No smile, nothing...but I remember it fondly...

the Thunder Dance

Thunder
12" x 16" oil on canvas

The color companion to my previous post for Kunamokst:
this is from the same reference photo, but I wanted to see what it would look like without the blue color restriction. I'm really happy with the results! I painted it in about 4 hours, right over the top of an old painting that didn't work. No drawing, no prelim, nothing. The feeling of spontaneity and freedom was so liberating! I didn't have to plan and I felt like there was nothing to lose, since it was on an old ruined canvas anyways...If I could only have that with every painting. I have been doing a lot of painting lately, but I've really been struggling. Nothing has been working for so long. I started turning towards photography to fulfill the creative buzz, since so many bad paintings were bringing me down. This success was exactly the confidence injection I needed!

Senorita

"Senorita" 9" x 12" oil on canvas

I have to try to get a better photo of this one, without the blur and the glare, but nonetheless, it's still one of my favorite paintings to date. I'm getting better with the loose brushstrokes, and this one literally flew off of the brush. It was really inspiring to achieve exactly what I was going for in this painting. It doesn't happen for me that often. The looseness worked, the colors worked...and thanks very much for the great contributors at WetCanvas for the great reference photo.

John "Cariboo" Cameron

John "Cariboo" Cameron 18" x 24" oil on canvas

This is a portrait of the actor in Barkerville portraying the character of John Cameron, the first man to strike it big-time rich there. He discovered gold on December 22, 1862, but his wife had recently died, and he decided to return to Victoria in February to grant his wife her last wish, a decent burial at home, for she despised the cold, miserable north where her husband had his claim on Williams Creek. This is an amazing story in itself, and you can read more about it at
http://www.cariboo-net.com/sentinel/vol2/cameron1.htm. This particular image is at a time in the performance when he is reminiscing about his dead wife and child.

Anyways, after his return, he mined vigorously from April until October of 1863, and the gold was so abundant that it was being mined not by the ounce but by the pan. By October, Cameron had taken out the equivalent of $5 million in today's dollars and Cameron Co. became the richest claim in the colony.

Mo Cuishle

"Mo Cuishle" 2.5" x 3.5" oil on canvas paper

I've been meaning to post a few times this last week, but our internet service is really bad right now, and blogger hasn't been letting me upload pictures. Since this is mainly a blog about pictures, and I didn't have anything interesting to say, I just didn't say anything at all.
This painting is one out of this week's set of ACEO's. It is from a gorgeous photograph that my friend, James, took, and he graciously gave me permission to use it. His was black and white, and I used my imagination to colorize it. I couldn't think of a name for it that I hadn't already used before, and "Mo Cuishle" came to mind, because it means "my darling". In the book I'm writing, I had to do a lot of research on Gaelic endearments because it's based in Ireland, so the term was fresh in my mind. Anyways, I hope you all like it.
Bye for now.

Contemplation

Contemplation - 2.5" x 3.5" ACEO

Hmmm...much to contemplate these days. I'm not sleeping well, thinking too much...too internal. I feel like walking, running, writing, reading, but not painting. Is that a normal artist thing? Am I just avoiding work? LOL! I'm having a hard time focusing on painting, but, I'm still able to churn out these little babies because they only take an hour. That's about as long as I can focus on one thing, and even then, I'm finding myself getting up twenty times, to look in the fridge, the cupboard, the drawers, only to go sit back down at the easel, empty-handed, because I'm not really looking for food. It would probably only take half-an-hour if I didn't get up so often:)
I did finish the 18 x 24 for Inside Barkerville...I think...maybe. There's still something bothering me about it, but I'm not sure what it is yet.
Anyways, I love the look in this cat's eye, and I also love the way I did the red background. It really brings it to life...I think it does anyways. (Thanks a bunch to the copyright free WetCanvas photo library for the reference photo!)

New Painting - Not an ACEO!- Le Petit Artiste

"Le Petit Artiste" 11" x 14", oil on canvas

Well, I've been trying to post for the last few days, but Blogger hasn't been letting me upload any pictures. Either Blogger or my crappy internet connection, who knows.
This one's went pretty fast. It was fun, too. It's a picture of my son, taking up the whole kitchen floor, sitting in a beam of sunlight while he colors. The scene took my breath away, and I knew I had to paint it, so I snapped a few quick photos, some of which turned out really well. There's another one from the series I might paint, too. But this is it for now.
Aren't children precious? Everything they do is precious, even the not so precious stuff. And today, that really hit home for me. I mean, I've always known it, and always thought it, but sometimes we take it for granted a bit.

That all stopped today. My daughter almost died.

For weeks, I've been telling her "Take that out of your mouth! You could choke!" Instead of just getting rid of the offending marbles, or picking them up, we'd get distracted by something else. She'd take it out of her mouth, and we wouldn't give it another thought. STUPID!@!!@#$% She's two. She doesn't listen or she just doesn't remember.

Today, she choked. She was gasping, and barely making a sound. Her face was starting to turn purple and she was clawing at her neck. I rushed over and stuck my finger down her throat, but it was a marble, and the slippery little thing just pushed farther down. I freaked! My husband rushed over and tried to get it out, but to no avail. He finally grabbed her and did the Heimlich maneuver. After only one or two tries, the marble flew out and landed on the floor in front of me. I broke down. I couldn't stop shaking. I just cried and cried. It was too close.
We went through the whole house after that, throwing out anything smaller than a baseball...well not quite a baseball, but you know...
I'll never take my children's safety for granted again. Nothing matters more than them. Her throat is sore, and she's shaken up, but she's alive.

New original miniature oil painting aceo

The Eyes Have It -- 2.5" x 3.5" aceo

Just a quick post tonight. I'm busy and tired. I painted three aceo's today, cleaned house, played with my kids at the park, cooked dinner, gave the kids a bath, put them to bed, folded three loads of laundry, and now it's time to get to work on my Barkerville paintings.
YAWWWWWWWWWNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!
But, I'm painting:) Who could ask for more?
G'night, all.

Queen Shiva ACEO

Okay, well, I know I have painted this image of my beloved Shiva before, but never this small:) I sold the original one, and I really love this picture of her posing in a ray of sunshine on our old farm. The light is so beautiful, I just had to do it again as an ACEO.

In other news, hmmm...let's see. I know I had something I wanted to talk about. Oh yeah...commissions. I've discovered something new about actually working full time as an artist. I hadn't up until this Barkerville project came up. I'd always dreamed of being able to support myself with my art, but let's just say I didn't do a whole lot to make that dream happen. I painted when I had the energy, or when inspiration hit, or when I thought I had time. When it's a job, though, holy...do priorities ever change. Suddenly it's really not that important to have coffee with girlfriends, or make sure your child gets to the play centre three times a week that's half an hour drive away, and lasts for three hours, or watching Medium every Monday night. I'd love to still be doing those things, mind you, but they sure don't allow me to get any painting done. This is hard!@ It's work. It's good work, because I'm doing what I love, but sometimes I have to do an image I'm not crazy about, or subject matter I'm not familiar with, and...it's work! I'm the one who decided I wanted to paint Barkerville anyways, so it's not like I have to just paint what I'm told, either. But still, I started to feel smothered, and hopeless.

I know I was going to go somewhere with this...damn mommy brain...I wish I could sleep at night:) That's it...back to the ACEO's. I've realized, that no matter how tiny, or insignificant it is, we, as artists, need to remember to take time to paint just for ourselves, or we'll start hating it. I was getting so burnt out. The last thing I wanted to do was pick up a paintbrush. And then I took an hour and put it aside for just me, and painted a little trading card. It turned out great, and I felt great, and I didn't have to take it all seriously, and worry if it was going to be good enough. So now, when I'm feeling smothered by the project, I grab a little 2.5" by 3.5" card and whip off a little kitty, or horse, or something totally frivolous, and suddenly everything's all good again.

I'm BAAACCKKK! With some original miniature oil painting ACEO's

"Baby Blue Eyes" 2.5" x 3.5" oil on primed watercolor paper


I know!!! I've been away from here forever, but...I'm going to try to come back, I promise. I'm finally painting something I'm allowed to show you all:)

For the last five months, I've been working on a top secret project:) I'm not allowed to show the paintings off online...yet. Not until the website is up and running. I'll give you a hint, though. The Candyman painting is one of the paintings included in the project. And, this cat painting is not, lol! Okay, I'll tell you about it. I know that I mentioned somewhere that I decided to do my body of work on Barkerville, this cool historical, restored ghost town near Quesnel, B.C. -- Well Serendipity walked in, and about a week after I'd made that decision, I was contacted by a man working in Barkerville, who saw my art online and wanted to know if I might happen to be interested in illustrating a book he was writing. (At that point, the only person I had told about my decision was my husband.) Well, DUH!! I had just decided to do twenty or so paintings about Barkerville anyways, so that was a no-brainer.

So, I've been working really hard on those full-size, original oil paintings ever since, and haven't given myself much time to paint anything just for me. These little ACEO miniature paintings are perfect, since they don't take long to finish, so they're not really cutting into my project time, but I still get that wonderful sense of accomplishment of finishing a new painting. Plus, I can paint whatever I want, and that's nice, too. I'm really enjoying the Barkerville project, but sometimes it's hard as an artist when you're being directed. So, Baby Blue Eyes was my solution! Hope you like her. She'll be on Ebay for the next week, so have a look.

The Candy Man -- Mason & Daly, Barkerville, B.C.

The Candy Man -- Mason & Daly, Barkerville, B.C.
18" x 24" oil on canvas

I did it, I think. I overcame my struggle with this one all by myself. Thank you, viewers, but not a single one of you here, or on Flickr, had any words of wisdom, so I was forced to use my own brain, however dysfunctional it may be at the moment.
Can you believe I am still nursing a 2+ year old, and she wakes up at least 5 times a night? No, I don't expect too much sympathy, yes, it's my own fault! But it does explain some of my psychoses these past months, LOL! I also have been too exhausted to paint much, so this one took a long time. For every two and a half hour painting session, I got about two of those jars painted. (The only time I get to paint is after the kids go to bed, and that's how long I last before I fall from exhaustion.)

Anyways, I think I've explained Barkerville before, it's one of British Columbia's most interesting historical sites. It is an old mining town, which has been lovingly restored, and has period actors that carry out the actual services of the town. You can eat at restaurants with menus from the 1800's, but old-fashioned fudge (YUUUUMM!!!) and candy from the Mason & Daly, fresh baked goods, you name it...there's even a China Town. It's a definite must-see for anyone traveling in B.C. It's about 1 hour northeast of Quesnel, in Central B.C.
This is my friend, Rick Galbraith, an historical writer and singer in the town who is my partner on a publication about Barkerville to be released hopefully in 2009. He does a wonderful job of doling out fudge and cheer to the many visitors of the store. You can check out the Barkerville site at http://www.barkerville.bc.ca/.

Well, I hope to start on another Barkerville painting tonight, so that's all until next time.

Nap Time #3 (in progress)

Okay, this isn't really only the third painting session, but I didn't dare show you all the previous two or three before this! Frightening! For literally 15 painting hours, I went backwards. Once again, I seemed to forget everything I learned. I'm starting to question the whole inspiration thing. Every successfull artist I've ever read about says you have to work even if you don't "feel like it", but it seems like every time I try that, I screw everything up! The skin tone has gone from yellow, to orange to purple and back again! But, yesterday, I "felt like" painting, and everything I knew came flooding back to me. It was like I was working from instinct instead of thinking about it. Anyways, I'm pretty happy with the results. I still need to tweak some values and richen up the skin tone a tad, but I'm feeling positive about it again.
As always, constructive criticism is welcome, so feel free to comment.

In Progress-#2

This is after my first day of working on laying in the main colors. I quickly blocked in the background and started adding detail to the part of the blanket that's wrapped around the baby. I changed the position of the face, and added detail there. I quickly blocked in shadow colors on the arms and legs. I'm having a few problems with the skin tones and the temperature changes. I think that I may need to make the local skin tone warmer, with the shadows warm, as the light is fairly cool. Right now she looks kind of corpse-like...YUK. The colors in the reference photo aren't very good, and I wanted to warm the whole thing up a bit, so I am kind of guessing at the colors at this point...tricky...anyways, I'll have more soon.

Nap Time -- In Progress

Okay, so I'm on to something new. This is a large painting, one of the largest I've done. It's 24" x 30", and so far, I'm enjoying the size for the clarity of detail and features that can be attained. This is almost life size. Since this isn't a daily painting, I thought I'd post some in-progress shots.

So this morning, I thought I'd work on my painting while the baby napped...isn't she beautiful when she's sleeping? I started to get ready, ate some breakfast, kicked my husband and son out of the house (well not really, they went willingly) and prepared my self mentally to start painting, when, of course, she woke up. No painting during the daylight hours again today. I heaved a big sigh and collected her from her room. We had a bit of a snuggle together, and she left my lap to go and play. Now, I do a pretty good job of baby-proofing, but something always seems to show up when I least expect it. This time it was a pin-cushion...missing the pins.
Oh My God! Where did she find that and where are the pins. I found one soon enough, sticking out of my foot! I pulled it out and blood squirted all over the carpet. As I'm trying to clean up the blood, I notice that Rhiannon is being uncharacteristically quiet, so I limp over to where I thought she was admiring her portrait, only to find that she is adding her own artistic touch with a blue wax crayon. I hope that oil paint sticks to wax! You can see her beautiful scribbles at the top of the painting, from one side to the other.

Anyways...About the painting...I learned my lesson with the last painting, and this time I did some planning. After taking the reference photo, I cropped it to get the best composition that I could and did some thumbnail sketches. Then, using a wonderful program that is a free download, called "Oil Painting Assistant", I gridded the reference photo and printed it, and then, using the same ratio, I gridded my canvas. On smaller paintings, I usually don't do this, I just rely on my eye, but on something this large, it's easy to really screw up proportions.

I lightly sketched the image onto the canvas with a #2 pencil, leaving out unnecessary details,and then re-enforced my pencil lines with a mix of burnt umber and hooker green. Next, I used a mix of hunter green, burnt sienna, cad yellow med. and white and I laid in a very fine wash of the local blanket color. I kind of use it as an underpainting to fill in the white of the canvas. I do the same with the skin tone, burnt sienna, cad yellow med., aliz crimson, ultramarine blue and titanium white, and the hair, for which I use a mix of the skin tone, with a bit of burnt umber, I think. Then I start to work in some of the major dark areas, and wipe out some of the lightest areas. I put in a bit of red on the lips, ears, nose and fingers, where the blood is close to the skin. All of this is basically an on-canvas value study that will later be covered with thick paint. It helps me see the beginning of the painting as a whole, and determine if I need to make any major changes in value, composition, etc...I know, this is a step that should be done as a thumbnail, and I did do some, but I find that it is not always successful. The last painting I started looked great as a value study, looked great as a thumbnail, even looked great as a 12 x 12 painting, but when I transferred it onto a bigger canvas, it was just plain boring. The large format didn't do it justice at all, so I wiped it off and started this one.

Well, now on to laying in the real thing. I'll try to post an in progress picture tomorrow.

Paniolo -- Hawaiian Cowboy

Well, I just finished writing this whole post a few minutes ago, and somehow deleted it! Now I have to start again...DAMN! Sometimes I hate computers!
Anyways, I want to thank the wonderful girls who left me some great feedback. I took your advice and now I have a painting that I'm pretty happy with!
I lengthened the mane and tail, and made them fly out, adding to the sense of movement. I definitely feel like this makes it far less static. I spaced out the back legs slightly, defined them, and added a longer shadow. This, along with the longer tail, balances the painting out and makes the horse more grounded. I took away most of the dust behind the horse, and added some color to the dust in front. I defined some of the background shadows, and values, and evened out the color in the mountains.
All in all, I feel pretty happy with it now. Of course, there's still things I don't really like, but don't know how to change, or if they need it. Artists are their own worst critics! But, if anyone sees something that still might need help, let me know. I, unlike most, love constructive criticism!

Coming Soon, I promise!!

I know, this isn't it, but this is proof that I've been doing something creative while on holidays. I got this tired looking portrait of my DH last night while he was watching TV. I haven't had the light to paint at night since I've been here, and that is usually the only time that I have to paint...AFTER THE KIDS ARE IN BED!! That's my time, when my muse can come out and work uninterrupted. It's amazing how much one can accomplish in those few hours before sleep comes knocking. So, I bought a clip-on light today with a full-spectrum bulb, so I'll be able to paint in the evenings. BUT...My painting's almost finished! I have been working, really. A few more days, I hope, and it should be done. It is a big one, 18"x 24", no more of these 6 x 8's for me, I'm going big! I felt the need to breathe, stretch out that painting arm. That said, this one is sure presenting me with some problems...Have you ever started out, and the underpainting turns out amazing, and the first layer looks amazing, then one part looks really amazing, and then all of a sudden, the whole thing looks like crap!?!!???!@#$%^&*()_!!! I can't believe it, the first few days I'm like "Wow honey, this is going to be the best painting I've ever done," and now I can't even stand to look at it!
Well, I bought "a BOOK" today, and it's going to get me out of my rut, I know it!(fingers crossed behind my back) Is it that I put too much pressure on myself? Did it become all TOO Important?
All of the above... and, I met Jia Lu the other day, maybe that is what it was. She is an absolutely incredible, internationally acclaimed artist whose paintings sell for like, $120,000. She is so sweet, and unassuming, but I almost cried when I met her, I felt so inadequate. It made me question my abilities, my art, my purpose as an artist...all of those things. I was depressed for about four days after, and my husband said I should stop trying to put pressure on myself to paint while we were on holidays. It was affecting him and the kids, and well, me. But it was good, because last night I had an epiphany, an AH HAH moment. I realized what it was that was bugging me about the whole thing. I hadn't been totally sure before what my purpose as an artist was. Being a mom of two small children, with very little time to paint, I spend my few hours before I drop off from exhaustion, doggedly painting from whatever good photographs my crappy little digital puts out that half-ass inspire me, or, I ask photographers who are much better than me for permission to use their work. I realized last night, that the problem with this, is even though for the most part, I paint from my own photography, that these photographs lack intention. I mean, I take the picture because I see something that is paintable, but there is no conscious thought, no planning, no intention other than to create a pretty picture. So, that the painting produced from such a photograph, is just a reproduction of something pretty, with no thought behind it, even if I tweak it and omit busy things, etc...
What touches me about Jia Lu's work is the creativity, the thought process behind the painting, etc...I hope I don't sound like an insane lunatic, it's just that I think I've finally GOT IT! I need something more.
So I decided that I will get models, and set up scenes, and if I have to "photograph" them because of the time restrictions of being a parent, I will, after doing some value and color sketches. Or if I see a scene that screams out to be painted, I will ask people for permission to take their pictures. (Oh yeah, that's another thing. I am a people painter. That is my passion. That is what touches me.) I've tried to paint for ebay, or what the market demands, or on commission, but the artist inside of me rebels, and I end up getting stuck and blocked.
So to all of you artists out there, IF YOU WANT TO BE A HAPPY ARTIST, BE AUTHENTIC!!
( Not that I would pass up a thousand dollar commission if it came my way! LOL!