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)!!!!

A New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

I can't believe how quickly 2015 went! It was full of so many wonderful adventures and discoveries as well as some not so joyus moments...but those moments of adversity can create learning experiences and lead you down paths you never thought you'd go!

I hope you all celebrate your triumphs of 2015 in your own special way and may 2016 be bigger and better for us all! :)

Happy New Year!

(image from covermytimeline.com)

Merry Christmas!!!

I wish I had some finished paintings to show you. Not quite done with the the many I'm working on in various stages. But I wanted to wish you all a very merry Christmas and I hope you have a lovely day, week, month of holiday celebrations. I can't believe the new year is next week! Time sure flies....and faster every year too. YIKES!

Here is wishing you all peace, prosperity and new adventures in the coming year!

A Different Direction

This year was a bittersweet one. The good of it was that I feel I accomplished some solid paintings and am continuing to grow in skill as a watercolorist. I love watercolor and the way it works. I have some ideas for directions to go with my work and am excited about what the future holds. The bad was the art fair season...they were rough. I love doing the outdoor art festivals...it's a great way to meet my clients and fellow art lovers and artists. I make friends and usually end up with a new piece for my ever expanding art collection. But I do need to at least break even on expenses to keep the habit going and this year I fell so far from the basic line. Perhaps I'm in the wrong venue? Wrong region? Oversaturated market? It's kinda hard not to take it so personal. I've read many blog posts from other artists that, in not so many words, say that when you sell you feel like you're a good artist and creative soul. When you don't, you feel like a failure, debating if you a hack or wannabe masquerading as an artist. You question your skill, training, talent, approach, technique, medium, subject matter, booth design, framing choice, your attire,....the list goes on. You wonder if you should even go on. 'Maybe I should just be like everyone else and get a 9-5 job...it would be stable'. So many doubts and fears, all because you had a bad show. One good show and it all disappears, but after a year of bad shows you begin to wonder, am I any good???

Bad shows or not, I know I am good....I have a style all my own, a voice, and that is neat! But I realize I have SO MUCH TO LEARN. And that is one of the things I LOVE about art. You can never stop learning. You can never stop progressing and evolving as a creative spirit. Sometimes, though, you need to take a step back and focus on the little things, focus on painting and creating solely for you.

Which leads me into sharing with you all a different creative direction for me from the watercolor. I've always been a doodler and a drawer. Most of my school assignments from my youth featured little horses prancing, rearing, bucking, and eating grass along the borders. There was one time I remember actually getting scolded in the middle of a science class because I was drawing on my notes instead of giving my full attention to the teacher as he lectured....chemistry, it's not my thing. (but give me biology and geology anyday!) Before I start a painting I begin with a little doodle to figure out the composition of the piece. Then I work on the drawing. If the drawing doesn't look right, I won't paint it. You have to start with a solid drawing...it's the framework of what you're wanting to achieve. But to keep myself from not getting bored or to inspire new ideas, I often doodle, sketch and draw. Most of these will never see the light of day.

I also have a passion for gift giving...in part so I can wrap a package and make it beautiful! I love pretty paper and ribbons and bows. LOVE...or maybe I should say obsessed??? LOL. I was looking at some doodles and thought it would look neat as wrapping paper. I wanted to know if I could make my own and started researching different options. Well, I'm happy to announce that I now have several designs of wrapping paper sheets that I've created and that has led to my silk screening/screen printing some of these drawings onto fabric and creating textiles for the home. I've printed and sewn fabric and made tea towels, linen table runners & napkins, pillows, infinity scarves, and men's neckties. It has been fun! I haven't screen printed since high school....which is a loooooooooong time ago. I forgot how much fun it is. I decided this holiday season I would do some craft shows and sell these instead of the fine art. It's been a lot of work but it's been fun.

The most amazing thing out of this different artistic venture is the passion for my painting. When I sit down to paint it is for me. It's so much more rewarding. I don't feel any pressure to crank out paintings of subjects that might sell. I can enjoy the process. I love this! I can't wait to see what paintings emerge from this new found painting freedom. I will still be doing art festivals, but not as many. I'm just going to paint! :) Oh, and if you want to see some of the things I've created on my new artistic venture, check out corvidaedrawingsanddesigns.com

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!

A post with nothing to do about art but an insight I felt like sharing.

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. At least, I thought I had earlier today. I chalked it up to PMS or something but I just wasn't in the mood for much of anything today. But, I did what I had to do and I went to church. I won't get into details but I left a lot crankier than when I arrived so I went to the gym to blow off some steam. Well, after looking at myself in the mirror I stayed in my cranky state. (lets just say I gained some weight this past year and am doing something about it this year). While I was changing to go home in the locker room, It finally crossed my mind that maybe I was just hungry. Sometimes (not all the time) I tend to get very cranky when I haven't eaten so I went home and made myself a very delicious and LARGE spinach salad. Gosh it was good and I devoured it. Yup, It was because I hadn't eaten. I felt like the fog and low hanging clouds of Whitefish had lifted and flowers would spring forth from the heaps of icey snow-mounds. I guess that is the problem when you live alone...no one to tell you what you already know and encourage you to chillax and eat something. When I lived in Missoula and had my family around they'd often tell me that. When I was dating a certain someone, he'd often asked if I needed a piece of cheese (I LOVE cheese). That was always the cue that I was cranky because I needed to eat something. Funny how somedays I can go without eating because I'm so busy and I don't even notice and I'm still my normal opptimistic perky self. Thank heavens it doesn't happen very often.

After practically inhailing my salad I figured I should work on my epic painting. I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOO close to finishing but after standing at the table and stairing at it for a good 10 minutes, I didn't feel like it. I just wanted to curl up in a blanket with some bed buddies (sewed bags with rice that you heat up in the microwave) and either watch a movie, take a sunday afternoon nap or read a book. I figured I'd better read. It's kinda funny to say, but I feel SO adult in 2014....I'm part of a book club. We are reading A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby. Our meeting is next Friday and I'm 1/2 way through the book and this week is going to be busy so reading won.

I ended up finishing the book. It was good and I mostly enjoyed it, even though it was dark. It's about 4 people who meet each other for the first time on a rooftop where they were planning on committing suicide and they then take the long way day instead of the quick one. There were some very thought provoking lines that some of the characters would say that would get me thinking about how I react, interact, and view things in my own life. But it sure had the word F*** in it a lot. I do swear more than I ought. Usually when I'm upset about something but geesh, the excessive use of the F bomb really began to irritate me. After I finished the book, I was relieved. Relieved about the characters journeys and the insights they gained but most relieved I didn't have to endure that language.

While I was reading I got a hankering for chocolate. Chocolate always makes me feel better. I had started feeling cranky again, So, I found a box of cookies I bought at Target at the after Christmas sale (got them for a $1, Woot Woot) that I hid away for a rainy day and ate 10 of them. I know, I know. If I want to loose weight I can't be eating 10 cookies that are full of high fructose corn syrup, color additives, more sugars, 'natural flavors', and more ingredients than there should be listed for a simple cookie. But I did.

My realization that maybe it wasn't PMS, waking up on the wrong side of the bed, or forgetting to eat that made be so cranky. Maybe it was the language and depressing themes in the book that affected me so. I guess I'm a lot more sensitive than I thought. The book is good and I'm glad about the insights I gained but I just want to warn you, make sure you have a box of cookies or someone to lift you up if you read it. You may need it.

Fat Tire Bikes and the Start of a New Painting!

I love Saturdays! They always mean adventure....or productivity. Sometimes, both, which was the case today!

Whitefish Legacy Partners, a non profit in Whitefish, joined forces with many local businesses to create the Winter Trails Day...a free family fun day to try out snowshoes, cross country skis, or fat tire bikes. They had demos, mini lessons, fire to keep warm, and hot cocoa! I went with a girlfriend to test out some skis and bikes (I already own a couple pairs of snowshoes).

It was SO much fun! I'm really considering getting a pair of skis...partly to make traveling in Glacier quicker. All the places I want to go are quiet a ways a away and snowshoeing does take some time...So I figure if I get some skis, I can get to my destination quicker and then hop on the snowshoes to hike up to the lakes or explore around off the main road (The Going to the Sun road is closed 11 miles in and can only be traveled by foot or ski). What I REALLY want, though, is a Fat Tire Bike. Those things can go anywhere, OMG they are so cool! It was like mountain biking in the snow! Super awesome. I probably wouldn't take it to trails and such very much, if I had one. But I would most definitely use it as my mode of transportation. It'd be nice to bike year round, instead of driving in the winter!

After I got home from my fun adventure, I began to put paint to paper on my newest piece. I have several others in process or drawn and waiting to be started, but I just couldn't contain my desire to start this piece. It will be the largest watercolor I've ever done. It's almost as large as my kitchen table...which is what I'm painting it on!!! My watercolor pallet & water bowl are sitting on my chair so I'm standing/bending while I paint. This is going to be a very physical experience painting this thing.

I transfered my drawing a couple of days ago and have been attempting to make the piece lay flat (as it came off a roll of paper). When finished, the piece will be 30x44. SO exciting. It's of a fisherman holding the fish he just caught. The image is my uncle. I took the reference photo on a backpacking trip in the Beartooth Mountains several years ago. This was at Phantom Lake. While I LOVE the mountains of Glacier and all the adventures you can have, my heart will always belong to the Beartooth Mountains. I have so many fond memories there. There are so many wonderful areas you can explore!

Ahhhh, I'm getting off topic! Back to the painting. So I made some quick progress. Laid in the first washes for the shirt/vest, hat & water. Then I started doing some detail. I was gonna call it quits for the evening (and took the photos to show you) but decided to go paint a little bit longer. So, I should have more photos to post tomorrow or Monday as I KNOW I'm gonna be working on this badboy any chance I get!

You can see how it is practically as large as my kitchen table. This last photo shows the extra details I started putting in

1st of 2014

It's a super snowy day. I wanted to get out and snowshoe in Glacier but, alas, too many chores remain to be finished. I'm taking down my Christmas tree, need to clean up my apartment, and take my ever growing donation pile to Goodwill.

I finished a painting the other day. It is the first piece of 2014! I don't do many landscapes....I don't really feel they are my strong suit. So, my artistic goal for 2014 is become more comfortable at painting landscapes!

I hope you all are having a wonderful start to your weekend!

Iceberg, 10x18

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?