Tuesday, October 29, 2013

'Lunch Al Fresco' in Artist's Magazine!

"Lunch Al Fresco"  (pastel, 18x14 inches) $975

I'm happy to brag that my painting "Lunch Al Fresco" had an Honorable Mention in the animal category of the Artist's Magazine 30th Annual Art Competition and is in the December 2013 issue (page 48!)

Surprisingly, this piece has not yet sold, and I get to look at it even as I write this!

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Thursday, October 24, 2013

Ace

"Ace"  (pastel, 7x5 inches)  click here to bid

Ace is the last of the three dailies I got done last week. He was done from a VERY low-res pic, but it was the value patterns that drew me. I think Ace is one of my new favorites; he's just so warm and fuzzy.

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Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Boo

"Boo"  (pastel, 7x5 inches)  click here to bid

OK, so she's not a cow. I like to mix things up.

Boo is from the same reference photo as another white donkey I painted at the Rockport Art Fest and sold before I was even finished. I never did post that one. (The buyer titled him "Joey." Ok, so can anyone tell a male donkey from a female donkey from the neck up?)

Joey got so much attention I knew I had to paint another one eventually. I like to wait before painting the same picture until I have no visual memory of painting the first one. (These days that doesn't take long!)

Well, I was going to put a photo of Joey here for comparison, but he's nowhere to be found. I was sure I got a pic before he was sold. You'll just have to take my word for it.

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Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Samba

"Samba"  (pastel, 7x5 inches)  click here to bid

Not a lot of time for talk today, and no progress shots on this one. I've been attempting to import months of Paypal data into my Quicken account.

AAARRRRRG!!

(~break for aspirin~)

The good news is I painted this one and two others last week that I've not posted yet, so if I can scrounge 15 minutes out of tomorrow, another cow will be forthcoming!

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Sunday, October 20, 2013

Marble Falls TX Quick Draw

Untitled (someone's house) pastel, 12x12 inches, sold

This is my First Place win from Saturday's Quick Draw Event in Historic Downtown Marble Falls, Texas! Check in was at 12:30pm but the starting horn wasn't going to blow until 2pm, and we'd have 90 minutes to paint any scene between 1st and 5th Streets on Main. It was a glorious sunny day - absolutely perfect weather, but I knew because of the sun that I wouldn't be able to really choose my location until very close to 2-o'clock.

By 1:30 I was pretty sure I wanted to do a window with reflections, and had narrowed it down to the window of the Uptown Theater, as seen from an angle, with some of the building across the street. A little more abstract than I'm used to, but I thought I might be able to pull it off, although I did wish the 'open' sign was lit.
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But since I still had 30 minutes to settle down, I took one more walk down the street, all the way down to the Coffee Shop where I'd had lunch. The Coffee Shop was charming, but already had a couple of artists planted around it. I glanced to my left... and stopped! The sidewalk passed under some overgrown bushes like a tunnel, dappled shadows falling across the walkway, and turned a bit on the other side, in the light, and there were some tall red flowers growing along the side. I felt the excitement building! I had my scene, I thought for sure. But because it was a path, and one must always walk a little farther to see where it goes...  on the other side of the hedge there was this house!
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There was the light! There were the dappled shadows! There was the window with intense blue-sky reflection! And the walkway and steps, creating dynamic diagonals! I smiled and ran for my stuff.

At the 2:00 starting gun, I used the method learned in Terri Ford's workhop, and washed in a mostly complimentary pastel underpainting with denatured alcohol, but used my own board primed with gold primer, as I'd tried this once before and liked the results. I managed to get a couple of shots along the way...
I finished 10 minuted before the deadline at 3:30.






The 25 unframed paintings by 25 artists were auctioned of at the Old Oak Square at 4:00. I was happy to see mine go for $250, which was the second-highest bid next to Bob Rohm's painting. A portion of the proceeds goes towards Marble Falls childrens' art educational programs.

A big Thank You to Daniel Adams of Inks Lake, TX, for judging the paintings and awarding mine First Place!

This event was a preview of the "Paint the Town" Plein Air Event which takes place in the spring, with a full fledged silent auction of framed paintings done over a day and a half of painting in Marble Falls and the surrounding area.

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Friday, October 18, 2013

Mini Moo

"Mini Moo"  (pastel, 7x5 inches)  click here to bid

Finally! I have a new daily painting to post. Thank you all for being patient! This one I did at the Bayou City Art Fest last Saturday before the rain came.

I'm posting this at the last minute before heading up to Marble Falls for the Quick Draw Event in conjunction with Sculpture on Main. Saturday (Oct 19) 25 artists will have 90 minutes to complete a painting on Main Street, then will auction the paintings at 4:00.

I hope I remember to get a photo of my painting before it's gone!


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Thursday, October 10, 2013

The Sorceress

"The Sorceress" (pastel, 8x6) will be my donation to the Bayou City Art Fest, Downtown Houston, silent auction "Art Heist" this weekend Oct 12-13! I'll have the rest of my unsold Renaissance Portrait series in my booth, gathered together for the first time in months!
For more info on the fest: http://bayoucityartfestival.com/

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Baby and Pearl

"Baby and Pearl"  (pastel, 8x10 inches)  Private Commission

Here's the one I've been working on this week. 'Texas Pearl' is the baby (and 'Baby' is the mama - That's right!) This client purchased a 12x12 white calf painting from me early last year because it looked "..just like Texas Pearl!"

Pearl and Baby have since been sold, so she commissioned a painting from her favorite photo of them together - This scene is just days after Pearl was born.

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Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Charlie


"Charlie"  (pastel, 7x5 inches) Private Commission

Charlie is the actual name of this steer, who belonged to a client near Fredericksburg, Texas. We've been going through her inventory of animals, past and present, and filling her home with paintings! I painted her donkey "Blue" last winter, and she bought a white calf painting last year that looked just like her darling "Texas Pearl"! This week I'll be finishing an 8x10 of Pearl and his mom, Baby. (Yep, the mother's name was "Baby"!)

Here are progress shots of Charlie:







Thanks for watching! Please share!

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