Southwest Sky

"Southwest Sky" (pastel 14x11in)

This was my result from the Liz Haywood-Sullivan hands-on demo at the convention. I very carefully followed all the steps as closely to how she demonstrated as possible -- I think it worked!

I also found a valuable lesson about framing when I got this home. I've been framing a bunch of stuff in preparation for the Rockport Art Fest this weekend. I was searching through my frames for something to put on my two larger landscapes from the foothills, and came across an old still life from '02 in a strange whitewashed frame that (I thought for years) could only look good on that still life (it had onions.) Well, I took the old painting out to see how it looked on the other landscapes -- it didn't work on those either. But then I tried it on this one  -- wow!

Something about the white and gray cloud shapes really worked with those weird gray knots in the wood.  This was a frame I couldn't seem to recycle onto any of my paintings lately, because my palette tends toward warm ivories and golden tones and not very many cool whites and grays. This painting, that I might not have tried outside of that demo, seemed like it was made for this frame!
Just goes to show the benefit of trying new subjects and colors!

New Cowgirl in Old Frame

This week I've been working on re-filling some old frames, in a vain effort to clear out some clutter and get rid of old, icky artwork. This new Cowgirl is about 13x17, made to fit in an ivory double mat and a very nice 16x20 handmade mesquite frame with copper stars which until recently held an old cowboy portrait due for recycling!

Unfortunately, when it was finished, I didn't like it in the mat. In my painting enthusiasm, I'd created a lovely vignette effect around the portrait which I now did not want to cover up.


I had 2 other old mats in the closet that would fit the frame, and I surveyed some friends for opinions...

Well, the object of this exercise was to re-cycle and save some money on framing, but it looks like I'll be finding some new matting for this one. Popular opinion also liked more of the paper showing, but the 3rd mat, which does this, is not the right dimensions for a vertical format. I might try a small linen liner...

*sigh* ...The things we go through for our artwork! But then, presentation (or "packaging") CAN make or break a work of art, and I've gotten a lot pickier as my artwork improves.