Guinness

"Guinness"  (pastel, 6x6 inches)  click here to bid

Here's my quick one for the day, in between priming new circles.

.

Charlie

"Charlie"  (pastel, 12x12 inches)  $400 unframed for a limited time

Well, February is almost over and I've had a busy, kind of stressful month.

"Stressful!?" you say?

Yes. Mainly from not having enough time to paint and post. I haven't even sent out my February E-news, which won't happen now; I'll have to skip it and just do March. Charlie here I've been saving for a rainy day when I might have time to post, if not to paint.

I have to admit I did have a profitable 2 1/2 weeks at the San Antonio Rodeo sketching quick portraits... for the 19th year (Oh my goodness I don't like adding that up - I feel old!) But now that's done and I can get back to what has become my ordinary life of ferrying my kids around to school activities, email, karate class, and painting when I have a spare couple of hours. And this weekend I have nothing on the schedule, which means... Studio-Time!! Yay!

(Either that or cleaning out the garage, which has become quite a mess since unloading all the Rodeo booth stuff...
Eh,...
No, the studio is calling!)

Meanwhile: here are progress shots of Charlie!

(Charlie is available unframed for a limited time. Framed, he will sell for $550 at the Bayou City Art Fest in Houston at the end of March.)

The primer underpainting, with the first applications of dark pastel.

 My primers are Golden (brand) Fine Pumice Gel with Golden Fluid Acrylic Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold added at about a 2/1 ratio. This is 2 to 3 layers of that gold primer, which gets darker on each application because it's slightly transparent. Followed with a layer of Art Spectrum (brand) Pastel Primer in the Terra Cotta color. This photo (above) shows also my initial layers of warm dark pastels, Girault #376, and a Terry Ludwig dark red.

Thanks for watching. Please share!

.

Barley

"Barley"  (pastel, 6x6 inches)  sold

Another quick one for a quick day. Here and gone in a flash.

I've been feeling the pressures of life and the constraints of time weighing on me these last few days. I find that sometimes a good quote helps rearrange my perceptions of life and time in general.

Today I like this one by Paul Klee: "A single day is enough to make us a little larger."

.

Dark Chick Strutting

"Dark Chick Strutting"  (pastel, 12x6 inches)  click here to bid

Another lovely chick with attitude.

It's been a busy few days, and I'm way behind on my February E-News. The San Antonio Rodeo has begun with two cold slow days; unfortunately I have to be there most of the time (where I've been doing quick portrait sketches since 1994) instead of in my studio painting...  But after the weekend I should be able to catch up a little and get some new paintings primed and take them in to work with me on the next slow weekdays. Saturday and Sunday are supposed to be nice and warm, so hopefully we'll be busy drawing lots of quick-sketch portraits for the weekend!

.

Peek-A-Burro (III)

"Peek-A-Burro" (the third)  (pastel, 8x6 inches)  sold

I've gotten a lot of use out of this one reference photo. This is an 8x6 painting of this cutie that I painted on a request from a client. Unfortunately it was after Christmas when I finished it and she had been looking for a Holiday gift. ...So here it is!

A little history: "Head Rest" was the first painting I did from this photo.

photo

"Head Rest" 14x18 inches, pastel, sold

 Then, because I liked that face so much, I did a 12x9 I called "Peek-a-Burro" from the flipped photo.

"Peek-a-Burro" 12x9 pastel, sold

I originally thought to make this my donation to the ACT (Artists Changing Tomorrow) fundraiser auction and exhibit, but then learned that all 2-D works in the auction/exhibit would be 11x14 with the boards provided. So I priced this one unframed until I could frame it for my next show, and, well, I never did have the opportunity to frame it!

With the popularity and saleability of this image affirmed by these sales, I decided to go ahead with this image for the ACT auction. I flipped the image again and painted another in 14x11.

"Peek-A-Burro" 14x11, pastel

This Peek-A-Burro is still available through the act4art.com site and will be auctioned during the 2014 ACT exhibit, March 8 in Fayetteville, TX. Visit the link for reservation info, or to place a proxy bid. 100% of the proceeds from this auction of 104 original artworks by invited, professional artists will benefit arts, art education and cultural events for thousands of children and adults. ACT's purpose is to raise funds to sustain the arts throughout the world. You can make a difference by bidding.

So it's no surprise this most recent Peek-a-Burro painting stemmed from a client's excited enthusiasm about my donkey paintings. I have a couple of other cute photos of this donkey peeking over his friend's back; if I can come up with suitable titles, I might be motivated to continue the series... 
Anyone have ideas?

.

Cupcake (My Second Round Painting)

"Cupcake"  (pastel, 10" circle)   sold

Something about this little calf made me decide she needed a whimsical name. She reminded me of chocolate cake and ice cream.

(Well, ok, maybe I don't need anything to help me think of chocolate cake and ice cream. But now you're looking at her and thinking of chocolate cake and ice ream. Right?)

I also decided to put this one on auction and see how she goes, unframed. I have many more circles planned and definitely want several to be framed in time for the Bayou City Art Fest in Houston again this spring, but I haven't completely decided on my frames yet. I plan to order some from InlineOvals.com. (They also have an online retailer at victorianframecompany.com.)

I also remembered to take a few progress shots...

Thanks for watching! Please share!