Colorado sunset

My sister is an accomplished photographer and posts on her photo blog, Imagine. From time to time I use her photos as inspiration. This time I tried to copy, as best I could, and I'm pleased with the result.

Here is the inspiration photo for this pastel. It has a very gloomy feel to it but that's not always bad.

My mother is Frog Clan

Frogs are good signs.
The Frog is a doctor and healer, seer,
and fortune-teller.
The Frog is a messenger of rain …

We need the Frog now.

Today is Earth Day so all you losers not recycling or saving water get with the damn program, will ya?

Last Friday darling companion and myself went to the local Farmer's Market and the city had a handful of booths set up to remind folks what to do. At every booth we both said, "We do that."

So what's left for us? We've cut our water and electric consumption way back. We ride public transportation and my darling rides his bike around town. We don't use plastic bags unless we recycle them so will you fat bastards get off the couch and recycle, now!

One last rant; to the designers and makers of washing machines: Now you come out with energy efficient machines. Where were you ten years ago?

To those of you that are already friendly to Mother Earth, thank you. Thank you very much and keep up the good work.

We have nothing to fear but ourselves

Not too long ago I wrote a piece on me being lazy. For what it's worth, I actually did something yesterday. And when I say "something" I mean painting. I "do" something every day. Cook, laundry, clean, well not everyday but I keep busy.

It was my Yoga instructor I have to thank for getting me back on a somewhat creative journey. She said, during our Savasana on Saturday morning, don't let fear run your life. So I'm laying there and wondering what am I afraid of? Is fear keeping me from being creative?

Then this bolt of lightening came through the gym and singled out me; I am afraid.

When I started in pastels, almost two years ago, I thought I'd sell some of my work. I know they aren't masterpieces but decent enough for someone to shell out a few bucks for and hang on their wall. This journey took me on the road to market my work. I made prints of my work for the folks who would love to own my work but didn't want to buy the original, matted same and framed them; quite nicely I have to admit. I bought a booth at a few Holiday craft shows and thought I'd priced my work reasonably. There we small miniatures of my work in the form of greeting cards, too.

When I couldn't get anyone to purchase anything more than a few of the greeting cards I'd created I packed up everything and put it all back in my studio. Shut the door always thinking I'd get back to it as soon as I'd washed the taste of defeat from my mouth.

Comes February 2008. I brake my wrist (read posts with label "wrist") and I am down for the count. My wrist still hurts to do somethings but painting is not one of them. Good excuse not to paint, right? My beloved never pushes, never asks why; I stopped in November of 2007. I did wonder but didn't try to find out the reason. Self doubt wraps its self around you like a wet blanket.

Yesterday I saw my husbands old boots in the corner of the stairs to the garage and knew I had to paint them. I don't care if it ever gets framed or sees the light of day-- I did it for myself and I feel pretty good about it. I'm not afraid if anyone doesn't like it nor wants to buy it. I'm only sharing this photo because I want someone to know I've found my way back to my studio.

Oh, and the Vodka bottle in the studio? Naw, not what you think. I just don't have room anywhere else for the booze.

Please sir, buy my painting

Ok, I'm taking the plunge. I'm going to put my work out there and see if someone wants to spend money for it. The local senior center is having an Art/Craft show next month and I've reserved a table. Right now I'm getting together what I think my sell, I'll know of the 19th and 20th of October. Will I be surprised? I hope in a good way.

Editor note: I'm also tinkering with the idea of using PayPal to sell prints online, we'll see.

And now, a little word from our sponsors.

Marketing my art has always been difficult for me. When I was a kid you never boasted about what you could do and that's followed me to adulthood. I do feel I have some talent but never tried to sell anything.

Now I've found a wonderful website that let's more people view my work and this will give me an idea if it will sell. It's called VC Artfarm. If you're interested please take a look. If you are an artist, this is a site that is free of charge to post your work.

The site is provided by a group called Museum Quality. They are in Camarillo, California and do remarkable scans and Giclee reproductions. I'm planning to sell the Giclee prints.

Tuscan wall

This is from Ilva's photos. I hope she still doesn't mind if I paint them. For some reason I've started working smaller rather than larger. Larger is what I want but each time I choose something it becomes about 8 x 10 inches. I must get out of this rut. In my defense, this size is easier to transport back and forth to class.

Disclaimer: I'm just snapping a pix from my dinky camera for these posts.

So many sights; so little paper

Back from a week at the beach. This is the dry hills around Santa Ynez. The sky was a beautiful blue, no fog. More on the trip but I needed to get this out of my head and on paper.

Dolphins off the beach in Ventura. They came about an hour before sunset. I missed the shot of two of them surfing in a wave, you'll have to take my word.



Our camp in Pismo. Wow, what a nice place. Pismo Coast Village RV Resort.


Creek between us and the town of Pismo. Simply wonderful. Only draw back: there is a six month wait for reservations. We were lucky because we only wanted two days and we were willing to move for the second day.

Poppy

This is from a photo Doodles took at the Getty Center while they were visiting last month. Oh, has it been that long they've been gone? Where does the time go?

She and Mr Doodles are busy taking more photos so I can continue to paint. Damn nice of them, don't you think?

Poultry from the Getty

These are really called Echeveria but I've always know them as Hens and Chickens, they are a succulent similar to an aloe but they have these wonderful pinky orange flowers. This painting is from another photo taken by my sister, doodles, at the Getty Center last month. I love how the leathery leaves absorb the pink from the flowers.

Onion and tomatoes

At the farmer's market I found this great red onion. My fasination was with it's furry roots. The tomatoes were from a different FM. I seem to get most of my inspiration from veggies on display.

Mac person living on a PC Web

With family visiting I didn't have much desire to paint but now that I'm alone I find myself in the studio again. I'm trying to decide how to market my work. It's not easy but with the encouragement of my sister I think I can give it a try.

Here is a small piece I've just finished. I apologize for the color. I work on a Mac and to me the color looks garish but if I adjust the color for my platform it will look horribly washed out on a PC. When I was gainfully employed and did this for a living, I had two computers side-by-side, it was much easier. Why didn't I just design on the PC? Like I said, I'm a Mac-person; end of discussion.

The inspiration is a photo from a food blogger, Lucullian Delights. Ilva is a brilliant photographer and I've always wanted to try my hand at one of her images. I've already tried her recipes; no one person could be so talented, she must have a twin. Thanks, Ilva for giving me permission to use your photo, I hope I did it justice.

If you'd like to see more of my work, just click on "Pastel" at the bottom of this post under Labels. As always, I'd be pleased with comments, good or bad.

Under the Tuscan sun

When our dear friends visited Tuscany they brought back a lovely plate for our kitchen. It has all the wonderful colors of the kitchen and that is where it will hang but I couldn't resist a small, quick still life before it goes on the wall.

They also brought back some lovely photos so, even though I didn't travel to Italy, I can paint like I did. Only you and I will know this secret, shhhhhh.

First in a kitchen flavor

Doing a kitchen theme is something I've always wanted to try. I've always been drawn, pardon the unplanned pun, to Cook's magazine, I've even framed two of their covers but wanted more of my kitchen palette. So here is a start. I hope the color looks better on a PC than it does on my Mac.

Comments or criticism always welcomed.

One more, then I'll get back to work

This is a work in progress. Pastel is just too much fun for me now but I do have other things I've got to do, like clean the bathrooms and dust. Way too much dust in this part of the country, we oh, so need some rain. Since sister and her pit crew will be here in a few weeks I should get busy. Oh, maybe I'll do that after I work a bit more on this.

Having a pastel moment

Because watercolor is literally a pain in my neck I've changed to pastel. Here's my first two.