Guarded - one of my favorite paintings - revisited

Artists, if we are lucky, occasionally make an image that seems to connect with everyone who sees it. I created this painting, "Guarded", about 5 years ago, and it actually sold only about 2 hours after it left my studio for the first time. From then on, every time I participated in an outdoor show, the prints of "Guarded" sold out almost immediately! I still receive e-mails from potential collectors looking to buy the original!

I had been working on a series of female figures that were all in various ways fitting into a "square" or "box". Many of the paintings from that series were painted from pictures of myself. (you'd be amazed at how helpful and attentive my husband was when I said "Honey, could you take some photos of me? naked?)

I hate speculating on WHY people resonate with a certain image, for fear that I will put my own interpretation and meaning out there, preventing you from seeing your own ideas and emotions. But whatever the reason, I am deeply honored and thrilled to connect with people thru my work.

Well there is a new prospect on the horizon - an opportunity to share this image with a whole bunch of new people! The opportunity has encouraged me to re-visit the image. I had a giclee printed out as large as possible from a digital file, and I am now going to paint over it, enhancing the colors and the textures to capture the same feel of the original painting. (That is the print on canvas hanging in my (messy!) studio)

I'm very excited about this new opportunity and promise to keep you posted as it progresses!

Finding Joy and Thanks in little things....

Morning Glories are one of my favorite flowers. I started growing them every year from seeds about 8 yrs ago when we lived in Poquoson, VA. Even though they are considered annuals, mine would come back every year! They covered the entire trellis with lovely blue flowers, facing the morning sun, shrinking away quickly if rain was approaching...

This year, much to my dismay, all of the seeds that I started indoors got moldy and didn't survive. It happenend to my neighbor's starter plants, too. We don't know why! I was so sad at the thought of no Morning Glories to say hi to every day.

Then about a week ago I noticed a few lonely leaves popping up from the planter. Soon, it became a vine...and it crawled ever so quickly up the trellis towards the sun! Oh yes! A morning glory vine came back!

Now, as if that wasn't cause enough for a celebration, the flowers were not the pretty blue I always planted...but a deep purple with a fuscia star in the middle!!! That color NEVER grew for me! The blues always took over!

Now I am enjoying these gorgeous flowers every morning...

My point is, and I do have one, is that this morning glory seems to be a metaphor for many things in my life. Cultivating a relationship with my husband, friends, and neighbors, raising my children, building my art business on-line...the results aren't always immediate, or even what I planned, but sometimes, a seed that I planted long ago suddenly begins to thrive.

My hope is that you are finding surprising and joyful moments in the things you are cultivating your life. The rewards may not always come quickly, or even be the results you planned, but you never know what seeds of potential you planted log ago may suddenly begin to grow.

SOLD - Saying good-bye to a few favorite figure drawings

It's been a bitter-sweet few weeks of saying "good bye" to some of my favorite drawings! I just packaged up three more orders today (I swear! Safely packaging up a pastel portrait might be harder than creating it! Well, not really, but you know what I mean!)

In the last (almost) year that I have been selling on-line, it has been incredibly satisfing to connect with fellow artists and collectors. For me, the sales are just the icing on the cake - a validation of my skills and a reward for effectively sharing my work. Thank you to all of you who have shared your work with me, and a special thanks to those who are living with my work - originals and reproductions alike - it is incredibly flattering and I can't begin to tell you how much it means to me!

A few recent sales...

Art Quote

You need a certain dose of inspiration, a ray from on high, that is not in ourselves, in order to do beautiful things.

Van Gogh

Metro Montage Art Opening - Marietta, GA

What a wonderful evening I had last Saturday...the opening reception for Metro Montage at the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art was just lovely. A great crowd, delicious food, and some wonderful Art. All made even more special because my sister was in town, and we followed up the opening with a DELICIOUS dinner on Marietta Square with our darlings and several of my favorite fellow artists! It's a rare opportunity these days to have a Date Night, and this one was well deserved.

My cute sister and I standing next to my drawing!

A shot of one room...very nicely curated!
My buddy Cecil and his wonderful landscape!

Yay! My drawing is on the big banner out front!

Pastel Portrait Drawing from the Live Nude Figure - the Red Scarf

It was a bitter-sweet evening of drawing from the live model on Wednesday. Wonderful drawing from the lovely Miss I, and we got to celebrate Shane's birthday early with the best ever chocolate cake, but it was also our last drawing session of the summer. The GA heat really permeates the studio! Hopefully summer will go quickly :)

Since I had done two drawings of the full figure last week, I decided to focus on a portrait of her face, because, well, she's gorgeous! I worked with Nupastels on a purple piece of COlorfix paper. I started with a lot of dramatic color - fuscias, bright blues and turquoise, intense orange, and slowly added peaches and creams and whites and olives.

I loved the red scarf, the drop earring, the shape of the shadow on her shoulder. It was nice to work on one section, the face and neck, for the full session. I felt that I was really seeing a lot of information. Can't wait for summer to be over!

Do you grow weed?

My neighbor Mr. B and I often discuss what' happening in the garden, exchanging thoughts on what the deer and bunnies are eating, what needs to be pulled out or what we like in other people's yards. But my FAV moments talking to Mr. B are when he says to me "Do you think that's a weed?" and points out some new monstrous growth that has popped up in his yard. Occassionally I say "Well I always pull those out". But this time - I must insist - he has grown a weed to be proud of! This thing is HUGE! I took this photo after the kiddos were in bed last night, or I would have had Ari and Jack pose next to it! It's at least 3 ft tall and has HUGE velvety silver leaves. The top actually looks like it may bloom! I will keep an eye on it and post more pictures if it does.

I wish I could grow weeds like that....