FINALLY finished!

I finally finished the piece of the draft horse I've been working on. Unfortunately, my scanner is on the fritz so there are all sorts of weird lines in my scan. :( Guess it's time for a new one. I've had my scanner for 11 years (Through 4 moves and heavy use)!!!!

Chalk n Rock Festival

I was able to participate in the Chalk n' Rock festival that was held in Bigfork, MT again this year. SO MUCH FUN again! There were some great musicians that were playing some fun music and I had a spot next to my friend Kayla. The weather was much cooler than last year which was much better, I thought. I wasn't melting away in the heat. There was a little threat of rain, but it never came. THANK HEAVENS!

For those of you that are new, the chalk n' rock festival is a new thing to Bigfork. This was the 2nd year. They block of Electric Ave. (which is the main street in 'downtown' Bigfork) and paint at least 20 8x8 squares in the middle of the road with black chalk paint. Artists young and old, professional or emerging are invited to chalk up a square with an image....be it an original work of theirs or a work by another artist (most likely long since gone from this world). I did another piece of mine this year...and a horse, again.

They give us a fresh box of chalk and set us loose!

I grid out my image (that I printed out on the computer) and then grid out my giant chalk square and begin drawing. It's sooooooo easy with a grid. You are just copying what you see in each square and WHAM BAM! You have a finished drawing perfectly drawn. That's the easiest part. Then you sit on your knees, bum, side or you squat and work work work! I went through 11 pieces of white chalk this year. I like how it turned out. Everyone was hard at work too. Every now and then, we all would get up and walk around to stretch and check out what else was being chalked.

The chalk n' Rock festival is over two days. Which is great because I really needed it this year. Judging took place at 2pm on Sunday and then awards were announced at 5pm. My friend Kayla won a tie between first for her piece of a squid battling a sea monster! So cool!

The neat thing is the promoters also paint up at least 100 1ft squares for kiddos to chalk up. It is so neat to see what they draw and how they do it. My good friend Melinda came down with her family and her little girl drew a beautiful image that I just have to share with you!

Once again, it was another super fun year. I can't wait for next year...I have so many ideas!

Posting to Post!

Yikes! It has been A W I L E since I have last posted!!!!! :/ Sorry everyone! The day job has been keeping me busy. We were sooooo short staffed that I was working A LOT but thankfully we've hired a couple of people and the training process is winding down and I can get back to creating. I'm working on a draft horse now....similar to one I did several years ago that I named Blinders. It's taking forever, though, due to the lack of time I have to devote. I guess I could just sit down and force myself to finish it...but, ya know, projects abound and sometimes I swear I have the attention span of a goldfish!

I'm attempting to deep clean my house...always a necessity after art fair season. Things are just tossed by the wayside, clutter accumulates, half finished tasks pile up and then I feel like I'm living in a tornado. *sigh* So, I watch episodes of hoarders to make myself realize it could be MUCH worse! LOL. Plus, I'm really wanting to build a small house and am trying to purge all the unnecessaries in my life. It's especially hard for me because I DO hoard art supplies. Paper, frames, matting supplies, paint, canvas, etc, etc, etc...I know I don't need it all but I sure feel like I do! I really need to learn to live with less. I think that is really something we need to do as a society too. Maybe it's because I'm older, but every time I go shopping and go to a box store (TARGET IS MY FAVORITE!!!!!) for this and that I'm always surprised at how many things are pushed on us... and mostly through sales. Last week I noticed one store had a big sign announcing a Black Friday type sale with 'LOW LOW LOW Prices!!!!' I was thinking ' IT'S AUGUST for pete's sake. They must really want a leg up on the Black Friday competition.' Things are pushed on us from every angle. More clothes, More Food, Bigger this, Bigger that, Better better better! I guess I'm just feeling that if I'm able to get rid of so much and purge I won't be seduced by the feeling of 'needing' more.

However, It's rather funny I'm talking about getting rid of things and going without because I'm in a position, with my art and creative endeavors, that I hope people want to add to their collections. oh boy! It's a fascinating struggle we are all in. Pushing against some forces while pulling at others.

Well, It's now September, the start of my favorite time of year! We are on the verge of sweater weather, pumpkin flavored and spiced EVERYTHING, Football, apple cider, colorful leaves, crisp mornings, the 3 best holidays all in a row.... I am one happy camper that can't wait to create during my favorite time of year! YAY!

Happy September my friends!

Up On The Wall

I meant to share this before I went to Texas but was in a whirlwind to get ready for the show that I ended up putting a lot of things off, like this post!

Remember that commission I finished several months ago, with the three horses at the fence and I didn't feel strong about it so I came up with a different composition of three horses in a field??? Well, I was able to meet with the client and presented the piece to him and HE LOVED IT!!!! I was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited and happy. In fact, just a couple of days later he had the piece framed and hung up in his house and was kind enough to share a picture of it with me.

I love it when I'm able to have a happy client. It's the greatest feeling in the world! So a big shout out to him, and to everyone, over the years, who have asked me to do a special piece. Thank you! I'm so grateful that you chose me to paint an image for you!!!!

Have a great week everyone! Hopefully, I'll have some fun images to share with you soon. Bison and rocks are coming your way

Finished Painting and a couple of mini's

I finished it! Spent all day working on this piece and a bunch of mini pieces for upcoming benefit auction exhibitions. So, you get two posts in one day! :D

Trunks & Tops, 30x11

I wish digital images captured all the subtle details but sadly they don't. As cool as it looks on here it's much more striking in the flesh. Oh well...Hope you enjoy it! I'm happy with the result.

It's a busy/chaotic piece but there is a method to my maddness. I have the subtle focal point that draws your eye, but then you look to the left, the right, back at the middle, back to the left, back to the middle. I wanted to capture the look and feeling I get when I see a patch of daisies. There are always so many different ones but of equal beautiful. I look at one and think of how stunning it is. 'Surely another daisy can't be more perfe...Oh look! There is one. Hey! There is another. Oooooooh, three more over there. Oppp, two over here'. When I'm looking at a patch of daisies, I usually spend a bit of time looking at all the different flowers. They are all so stunning and compete for my attention. So, hopefully you get that sense in this piece. I have another daisy one (vertical one this time) that I'll be starting soon...that isn't so spastic!

Here are a couple of mini's. These two are my favorites from today. So much so that they are probably going to become larger paintings soon! For sure the grey one!

Both of these pieces are under 4 inches.

So Cold

I finished! YAY. There were SO many times I wanted to stop and work on something else because I didn't want to work on all the small details...they can be so tedious at times! I forced myself to slowly finish the piece. I have too many other paintings in progress and I at least wanted to finish one today.

So Cold, 22x30

Soooooooooo, here are some close ups / details of the piece.

The Work of an Artist Never Ends

I have several pieces in process. One of a snowy landscape, several mini's that might end up being submission pieces for The Hockaday Mini Show and the {mini} benefit show for the ZACC (Zootown Arts Community Center)....and then there is this piece.

This is the one I'm most excited about. It's 22x30 (I know, another big one...I am just loving painting big pieces!) It is based off an image I took at the Ski Joring event a week and 1/2 ago for the Whitefish Winter Carnival. For those of you who have never heard of Ski Joring, here are a couple of shots to show what it is!

Skiers are pulled by a rope over jumps by a horse and rider, while making sure they zig-zag around flags in the ground. It is SO much fun to watch!

Painting on Sunday

After an adventurous day yesterday (went cross country skiing and then chipped ice on my walkway for 2 hours) I definitely needed a quieter day today. I awoke to snow gently falling outside....and an upset stomach. So since I wasn't feeling that great I skipped church and decided to use the time to paint. Soooooooooooooo, all day I painted (I really should have cleaned my apartment though. I have Christmas stuff EVERYWHERE...as well as a pile of stuff to go to goodwill, a garbage pile, and some art bins and things I need to put away *sigh* sometimes getting your house clean is a major undertaking *sigh*)

It snowed pretty much all day. So nice to look up from my work and gaze outside and day dream. :)

I've been working on this piece for a month. It was the perfect piece to work on when I was waiting for something to dry on another piece...partly because it was SO tedious. Some pieces are definitely more of a struggle to work at more than 30 min. at a time.

Middle Fork of the Flathead, 11x19

This next piece was something I've had in my head for awhile. I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with the result. I like it and all, but it didn't turn out the way I imagined it so you might be seeing another version in the next month or so.

Halo, 12x18

I'm happy to report that my tummy is feeling much better. Perhaps I ate something last night that didn't settle well...or maybe too many Swedish Fish? I don't know if any of you play Candy Crush on Facebook and have the same thing happen to you, but anytime I beat a level and those little fish come out I CRAVE Swedish Fish...even if I'm hungry or not! It's crazy. I have never given in to the craving until my Sister-in-law gave me a bag of them for Christmas so I've been munching on them....way too often. They are SOOOOOOOOO not the thing I ought to be eating but it's Christmas time. You can splurge a little... Right?

Rattlin' Bones

I finished another piece this weekend. It has been a good productive weekend

Rattlin' Bones 30x11

Commissions and that 'it' factor

Commissions. They are at the same time a blessing and curse. They challenge me...often urging me to go out of my comfort zone to create an image that can become something I can proudly claim all while meeting the expectations/desires of the client. They are a way to stretch myself as an artist. They can be fun and inspiring. I've had a couple of commissions that spurred other paintings I've done later down the road.

I was asked to create a piece with three horses standing at a fence. I came up with several sketches and got the approval from the client for one of the five I presented to him. I began the piece with enthusasim. But as the piece progressed, it lost 'it'. 'It' is the thing that makes the piece work...where everything comes together and makes for a successful image. 'It' can be the magic/spirit of the piece, the combination of composition, color, light & shadow all working together in perfect harmony. I know I'm not the most elequent person with words. Images have always been easier for me to get across what I'm feeling/seeing/saying so I apologize if this doesn't make any sense. But often when I work on a piece I know it has 'it'. Sometimes, the piece loses 'it' during the painting process and can easily be reclaimed by fixing something or starting over. Some pieces I've never been able to pull off and successfully get that 'it' factor back. This is something that has always been as a feeling. I just know when a painting has it or doesn't. There are a few of my pieces that I know have a special 'it' factor and most of those pieces have been ones that sold immediately or have won awards at competitions. I just know when a piece works and when it doesn't. I'm sure if I really tried, I could critique my work and put into words what the 'it' factor is for all of my pieces, successful or not.

So, why am I explaining the 'it' factor I feel about my work? Because I have a show and tell! :D

Here is the first piece I came up with for the client. The image came directly from my sketch and I used all of the reference photos provided to help me with the coloring and marking of the horses.

Attempt #1

I was feeling good about the piece until I started putting in the shadows of the horses, especially the middle one. I really knew I lost my painting mojo when I painted the eyes of the horse on the far right. I struggled. I should have just started over but I was GOING to make it work! YES! Because I'm stubborn and don't like to quit. And this is the result. Doesn't have 'it'. I can easily critique it to say what isn't working, but I have more to write so I'll leave it to you to critique and we can all agree that there are many things that aren't harmonious.

Attempt #2

There a few more things to tweak, I know the piece can be a touch stronger... that is my goal tomorrow, to finish it, but the feeling that this attempt has 'it' is still there. I'm happy with the result and am excited to present it to my client. Thank heavens for his patience! I feel so bad making him wait, but now (especially now) after viewing the finished image, I think he'll like it much better. Lets just hope he wasn't dead set on having the horses stand at a fence!

Well, I've prepared a couple of upcoming paintings so hopefully in the next couple of days/weeks I'll have some more fun images for you! :D

A Commission and New Painting

This past month and 1/2 has been B U S Y! I thought life would slow down a bit so I can paint all these images and ideas I have dancing in my head. Nope! It's been go, go, go, go between the part time jobs, commissions, submission pieces for shows, and other things. Yeeeeeeeee haw! Never a dull moment, that is for sure.

This is a commission I finished a couple of weeks ago. It is an ink drawing of a house on Flathead Lake, with two ink colors to show the red flowers on the deck. It was a lot of fun. Most of the time I do ink drawings is when I'm doodling while watching a movie or keeping my hands busy at church. I really ought to do things like this more!

I'm working on another commission of three horses standing at a fence. I'm REALLY excited about how this one is turning out so far. I can't wait to share it a bit later.

But to keep the creative juices flowing, I have to eek out a bit of time to work on something I want to. So here is my newest piece, Fire In His Eye, along with the study I did to give me an idea of layout. I ended up cropping in closer to give the impression of his power and size and he leaps to the side. I want to do some large scale horse paintings. Horses, I know, how original. But they are my favorite thing to paint and I just love love love them. Hopefully I'll be able to paint all the ideas and I'll have a couple of submission pieces for juried competitions.

Fire In His Eye, 22x30

Watermedia 2013

I attended the opening reception for the MTWS annual national juried exhibition, Watermedia. It was held at the Bigfork Museum of Art & History in downtown Bigfork, MT. The show runs the entire month of October.

Over 200 entries were submitted and only 50 were chosen. I had the opportunity to hang among some AMAZING works done by some fabulous painters. This is the 9th time in 10 years I have been accepted into Watermedia.

The juror for this exhibition is a very talented watercolorist, Sue Archer. Her works are stunning. Be sure to click on her name and check out her work. I'm pleased to announce that she awarded me the MTWS Founders' Award (4th place) for the amount of $500!!!! THANK YOU SUE!

OMG!!!!!!!!!!! I can't contain my excitement. I seriously keep doing a happy dance...kinda like the one Katherine Heigl does in the Ugly Truth

Yeah....that's how excited I am.

Well, here are some images from the exhibition. If ANY of you are in the area of Bigfork during October, 2013. YOU REALLY NEED TO GO. The works of art are fabulous.

Sue is discussing the reasons why she chose my painting. She said I took a big risk leaving so much white space on the left side of the painting...a risk that paid off. :D

Me posing by my 4th place piece!!!

My FABULOUS friend Elena who came with me to the show!

On a Dime

I'm half way through a commission, restarted that one commission over again, and have a LOT of other paintings waiting in the wings. The ideas are flowing. But I felt I really needed to finish this one. So, I took the twenty minutes I needed to finish it. I painted it on Rives BFK White (a printmaking paper) and it holds the paint differently than 140lb CP Watercolor Paper. It feels a lot like 300lb. Really sucks all the paint up. You need a lot of pigment to make a statement, but you have to be careful not to over work the area as the paper can start to peel. It's good to push yourself every now and then.

On a Dime, 12x27

I get sidetracked easily

The Sound of Coming Thunder, 11x14

I did work on the commission today....most of the day. I've been very productive. But I did get sidetracked. I had so much fun painting 'Oynx' that I decided to paint another running horse. The horse that I'm painting is named Jet. He was one of the two horses I took some photos of a couple of weeks ago. I have SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many more photos that I can't wait to work on. But, I have to finish a couple of commissions and then there will be a LOT of horse paintings...and cows. I have some I need to paint but haven't yet. I'm excited about this summer painting season. I have so many ideas!

What happens when I'm frustrated...and procrastinating

Onyx 11x14

So I'm working on a commission. I'm super excited about it. So much so that I'm doing a couple of different versions of the images I have dancing in my head. One painting is 1/2 way there. Another image is just a series of sketches at this poing and I just can't seem to get it out on paper. So out of frustration, I decided to work on the 1st idea I have for the commission and try to finish it. But as luck would have it I didn't have the motivation to work on it tonight. So I sat there and stared at it....and stared at it...and stared at it some more hoping that I could convince myself to just geterdone!

Nope, didn't happen. Out of frustration that the commission wasn't coming together I painted this piece. I wanted to feel like I could at least make SOMETHING work! I should've just soldiered through and worked a little harder on making the images for the commission come together but I just didn't feel like dealing with it. Tomorrow is another day, right? I've gotta make good on this three day weekend and paint my little derriere off!

Horses

So I had the AWESOME opportunity to do a private photo session of two BEAUTIFUL horses so I could get more reference photos. Their owner (hands down the coolest and kindest horse gal in the Flathead Valley - THANKS REBECCA) was kind enough to lunge them for me so I could get a few 'action' shots! Lately, I've felt like I keep using/painting the same images over and over...and while it's not completely true, sometimes I actually have been!!! The last time I took photos of horses that I used as reference for paintings were from 2009. Yeah, it's been awhile.

Anyhoo, the inspiration is almost overwhleming, I'm just not sure where to begin so I haven't painted a week or so. I keep looking at these photos and keep asking myself, what do I want to do first? Do I paint just one horse? or multiple horses? Just a portrait or an action pose? Aghhhhhhhh, the possibilities are endless. Plus, I have several other paintings waiting to happen.

Usually, I'll get an image drawn up & transferred and then start painting immediately, but.....sometimes the piece of paper will sit there for a couple of days or more (the longest I waited to paint an image after it had been transferred to the paper was 13 months!) I have a scottish highland cow, a buffalo and a mountain goat. Plus, I have that motorcycle piece that I need to work more on (the one I blogged about a bit ago).

Funny how your obsession (mine in this case being horses) will completely sidetrack you. Geesh! Well, I decided to show off a couple of images from that photo session. Hopefully soon I'll be showing off a new painting

Blue on Black

Blue on Black 19x30

I finished it! I'm naming it Blue on Black...partly because that song (by Kenny Wayne Shepard) came on my playlist quite often while I was painting this piece and each time I thought how much blue and black (and purple) I was using in this piece. It's very tonal and the phrase, I thought, is fitting (yes, I know the song is about heartache and dealing with it, but we can just look past that aspect). So a shout out to Kenny for his inspiration when it came to a name!

I do want you to know that after I finished the piece and stared long and hard at it determining that it was, indeed, finished, I scanned it and stiched it together in photoshop (as I do with all my pieces) and then noticed a couple spots that needed so shadows. So, I've sinced gone in and given the piece a little more depth and beefed up some shadows within the shadow. I just got so excited that I was finished that I failed to notice I forgot those. Painting time clocked in at just over 19 hours. Add that with the drawing time and I'm under 25 hours for the piece!!! Close to 24 hours of drawing and painting time.

Thanks for letting me share the process with you!!! :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Saturday night and a fabulous end to your weekend tomorrow.