Fall Leaves

This is one mother of a painting. It was an ambitious undertaking to say the least. It's 36x48. Let me clarify. That's three (3) by four (4) FEET. It's practically a toddler bed.

I don't often paint big paintings and now I remember why. It's hard to keep perspective, the canvas doesn't fit on my easel very well, and it takes a shwack load of paint.

It took forever to do - mostly because I did a bunch of other paintings in the middle and every time I looked at the size of the canvas and what I had left, I got a little overwhelmed. I had to use a grid on this one so I didn't lose my place and it felt like I'd work forever, think I'd put a pretty big dent in it, and then realize I maybe did 1 1/2 grids.

But finally, after months of going cross-eyed, it's done! It's going to look so good in my sister & brother-in-law's orange kitchen/dining room. Just in time for them to sell their house and move to the fabulous new place. I'll see if I can get a picture of it on the wall as soon as it's dry enough to take to them.

Fall Leaves (36 x 48)

Fall Leaves playlist is 25 songs instead of the usual 15 because I needed a little more variety to keep me going. It has lots of songs that are favorites of the kids' (Stuck Like Glue), some for my sister (Sweet and Low), some for my brother-in-law (Typical), some that just make me think of them as a family (Livin' the Life) and some just for me (Let's Get Lost).

1. Audience - Cold War Kids
2. Dear Avery - The Decemberists
3. Only the Good Die Young - Glee
4. Smile - Lily Allen
5. Stuck Like Glue - Sugarland
6. Livin' the Life - Martin Sexton
7. I Will Follow You Into The Dark - Death Cab for Cutie
8. Tighten Up - The Black Keys
9. Sunshine Song - Jason Mraz
10. Sleeping Sickness - City & Colour
11. Typical - Mute Math
12. Sweet Pea - Amos Lee
13. Modern Love - Matt Nathanson
14. Worried About Ray - The Hoosiers
15. Sweet and Low - Augustana
16. OK, It's Alright With Me - Erik Hutchinson
17. Let's Get Lost - Two Spot Gobi
18. Marchin On - OneRepublic
19. This Is Your Life - The Killers
20. If It Was Up To Me - Stabilo
21.  Rock and Roll Radio - Waxpoets
22. She's So Lovely - Scouting For Girls
23. New Shoes - Paolo Nutini
24. New Amsterdam - Travis
25. Sins of My Youth - Neon Trees

Summer Lull

I've been painting, I promise! I just don't have a finished product to share yet. Fall Leaves has been taking forever, I started a few smaller ones, and I've been putting the finishing touches on some other ones. Also, it's summer and I don't want to spend all my time cooped up in my sauna of an apartment, AND I have a new nephew and would rather spend time getting cuddles.

In other news, I finally delivered Sprocket to my friend; she took her to Pat yesterday and reported everything was a hit!

Phew!


I have a week off from the day job and plan to spent quite a bit of time painting. On tap:
  • Fall Leaves
  • More Fall Leaves
  • Even more Fall Leaves

and, if there's any time left:
  • Jungle Babies (new nephew present)
  • Happy Colors
  • mom present, yet to be named

City Stroll

This is my first painting that ended up as a gift. About 7 years ago, I decided to teach myself to paint with oils. I bought a bunch of 'how to' books, followed the instructions, and this is what came out. Gotta love how much you can learn from books!

I still love it and it still hangs in my sister's house.

City Stroll (16x20)

Sunny Sunday

I had a wonderful week of holidays that was filled with art. Two paintings completed, Etsy set up, art chats with Erika, and yesterday, a day of music courtesy of the Youth Singers of Calgary, especially Kidazzle (with my friend's daughter) and OnCue (my friend's group).

All the groups are amazing and put on wonderful shows. OnCue even sang some Mraz, making it all the better for me.

And to top it all off, today is a gorgeous sunny day begging me to be outside. Nothing like a big glass of iced tea, a good book, the smell of flowers, and a little sunshine.

Happy Sunny Sunday!

Summer Reading

A friend from work moved back to Ontario about a month ago. It's been strange not having her as part of my morning 'check-in' routine or a friendly ear for when I need a movement break but I'm sure she'll be much more productive at her new job without me interrupting her and hovering in her office doorway!

Before she left, we had a team retreat at my place and she fell in love with Connemara Berries. Sadly (for her), I had already promised it to someone else. And so, I decided to paint her something as a going away gift. She chose this one from a photo by my friend Ky.

A little note about the lovely Ky. She's the most wonderful photographer. She has this uncanny ability to take something common and make it extraordinary. Things like a single rose, berries, leaves, a dew drop, a rusty fence, or a book. Makes for an abundance of options for painting!



Summer Reading (9x12)


Since my friend and I share a love of singer/songwriters & CBC Radio2 tunes, I HAD to make a playlist of my current favorites.

1. Early April Morning - Brendan James
2. Dreamcatcher - Elizabeth & The Catapult
3. Victoria - John Mayer
4. Tightrope - Green River Ordinance
5. When You Find Me - Joshua Radin
6. Awake My Soul - Mumford & Sons
7. Come Home - OneRepublic & Sara Bareilles
8. Forever & Always - Parachute
9. Winter Birds - Ray LaMontagne
10. Set the Fire to the Third Bar - Snow Patrol & Martha Wainwright
11. Perfect Heaven Space - Travis
12. Drifting - Tyrone Wells
13. Can't Go Back Now - The Weepies
14. Distance - Christina Perri
15. This = Love - The Script

ETSY!!!

I opened an Etsy shop! It's still 'under construction' but I'm super excited for it to be up and going.

Today, I visited with my friend Erika and we talked about our respective Etsy shops (among other things). We discussed banners, avatars, names of the shops, all the extra work involved (payments, return policies, how to list, what to list) and how to make our shops stand out against all the other art shops. So much to think about!

The plan, once I'm done all the promised paintings to friends and family (which are the next 5 or so), is to paint some small ones to sell and to use any money I make to travel. And then take pictures while
I travel to all those exotic places, paint them, list on Etsy, lather, rinse, repeat.

Erika's shop, The Passionate Pencil, is going to be awesome. She's an absolutely amazing artist and she'll have some fantastic art for sale soon. Go check it out!

Sprocket

Oh my goodness!! It's been almost 2 months since I posted anything and longer than that since I've finished a painting. Which also means I broke my New Year resolution 4 months in.

Fail. Major fail.

Except this is painting #6 since January, so if we average it out, I'm ahead of the game. Yeah. Let's do that.

Anyway. I finally finished Sprocket, the surprise dog painting I was commissioned to do. It really took forever to complete. Not because I didn't want to work on it, but because I was so absolutely exhausted from the rest of my life that I couldn't bring myself to work on it.

My friend took a picture of the almost finished product to reveal the surprise last weekend. It was hard for me to give her a picture when I wasn't done yet and couldn't stop myself from telling her to make sure Pat (the birthday girl) knew what I still needed to fix. My stomach was in knots and what little fingernails I had are now gone. And it was all for naught.

I just heard the surprise was a big hit and that there were happy tears & major excitement - especially because Pat just painted her basement and Sprocket matches perfectly. Big sigh of relief from over here.

Sprocket (20x24)

Now Sprocket strikes me as a Joss Stone & Amy Winehouse kind of girl, so I listened to Introducing Joss Stone, Mind, Body, & Soul, Color Me Free, and Back to Black while I painted. Lovely tunes