New art update...

Some new artwork underway since the last time I posted!  Let me show you!!

This first one is called "Burning Bridges" and i finished it in the fall.  It's based on a picture I took of the sunset while going over a bridge near Newport, RI.  Don't worry...I wasn't driving! I love the vibrancy that came of the colors I used.  I always start very vibrant with my underpaintings.  I do have a step by step picture series to show how this painting came to life and will be posting that soon! It's NuPastel on 9x12 Colourfix paper.

This is my latest creation.  I'm not sure if it's completely done yet.  I love the color and the way the rocks came to life.  It's based on a picture from a couple summers ago of a beach in Clinton, CT.  I really liked the way the landscape framed the umbrella and decided to remove the inhabitants.  I'm not sure if I need to do anything to the far water underneath the trees... it looks a little pale to me, but I don't want to lose the depth of the painting. I don't have a name picked out for this one...but I'm thinking somewhere along the lines of "Summer Soldier".  Please tell me what you think...I'd appreciate any feedback! This is NuPastel on 9x12 Colourfix paper.

Long time no see...

So two years ago after I finished my stethoscope painting, I began nursing school.  This explains the extreme absence in paintings over the last couple years.  I do not have any that I am working on but over the summer of 2013 I did complete the one that I posted an underpainting for and I did two others.  It isn't enough, I have countless pictures that I cannot wait to turn into paintings but I need to finish school and get a job before I really dive into it again.  So as an explanation and brief update I'm putting this post up...
Thanks for your patience and understanding!

It's been a while...

It has been a while.  The school semesters and this summer have been gruelingly busy.  However I have been working here and there on a couple pieces.  Here they are :)

The picture above is a sunset over Lake Travis in Austin, TX  I really had fun with this one because it is on a new surface.  Colourfix paint (black) on gatorboard foam.  An artist friend gave it so me to try.  It has a lot of tooth and I really enjoyed using it.  Here is a picture when I had just started layering colors...

I am going to put the step-by-step pictures of the other painting I've worked on in another post :)

Antigua Sunset Painting

Hey! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  I did a lot of good eating myself and have plenty of leftovers.  While I was trying to find time the past couple days to finish my most recent sunset painting.  I decided to focus on spending time with family and friends.  Today I spent some time to work on it and am really pleased with the result! I don't think there is too much more I want to do on this one but as always let me know what you think! This is NuPastel on 9x12 Colourfix paper.  I'll also be offering this on my Etsy Shop as a print soon so keep posted.  I'm also offering a special to anyone who'd like to order from my Etsy shop, a refer-a-friend discount on any purchase after someone orders and mentions they were referred providing name and email address.  This is a great way to save on holiday gifts!

I really enjoyed layering this one.  In my previous post, you can see that I started the clouds with burgundy and bright pink. The water has blue, purple, burgundy, grey and black in it.  The sky was the most fun because in order to get the fading of greyish blue from the outside borders, I had to put in purple, orange, blue, grey and gold-yellow.  I'm so happy with how it came out, and that I was able to get the textured effect in the hills that I was aiming for. :)

It's Official: I'm on Etsy!!!

Well I have decided to open up an Etsy shop and attempt to share my work with a wider range of people. Hopefully something comed out of it.  I hope that you check it out and over the next couple months, I hope to get to work making more pieces to sell.  While the Etsy experience is fabulous, I had a lot of questions that weren't addressed as clearly as I would have liked on the FAQ sheet.  For example, I've never had a paypal or learned how it worked on the buyer end.  So now I had no clue as a seller if I needed to accept paypal by having one or how to hook it up.  Or, if I have a paypal that is connected to a credit card, would the money go to that? What if I wanted to use a credit card for purchases with paypal but wanted the money from selling art to go to my bank? So confusing... But I've figured out enough to get started and posted a few pieces.  What I'm looking into now is to have affordable prints of my work to sell, so that I have original work for any exhibitions that may pop up.  And that is a whole can-o-worms in itself.  Anyone who has any experience with any of this, please help.  In the meantime take a look at my Etsy Shop and let me know what you think or what you'd like to see!

I did start working on a new sunset piece yesterday and wanted to post my progress.  It is based on a picture I took in Antigua on vacation in 2009.  The sunset was beautiful, but painting it was surprisingly hard because of all the darkness.  I need to make the clouds a little darker and put some texture in the hills and water.  But this is what I have so far.

 This is the end piece, which I wanted to put first so that it was the picture for the post and so that you could see what I got before looking at all of the under layers.  This is on 9x12 Colourfix paper, which I really enjoy working on.  You can see the color is like this beige/grey that I thought would work well with the clouds and foreground.  Let me know what you think and any suggestions!!

Step by Step Sunset Painting

Now that I've given my very good friend Erica her wedding presents, I can announce it on here and post the second painting in her sunset series.  I never remember to take pictures as I progress through a painting but remembered to take a few on this one. Here are the two finished paintings which I gave her this past Saturday!

Sorry about the glare.  Because the paintings are 9x12 I decided to use floating frames and am very happy with how they came out.  Here is my step by step process of the one on the right.

And one more with a close up of the other sunset painting.  Please let me know what you think.  And check out my facebook fan page!!

Sunset Painting

Finished my sunset painting.  I really like it and have started another one to accompany it.  I am taking pictures of this second one as I do it (when I remember) so that you can see how I layer and when I blend.  I'm very happy with that one too.  Please let me know what you think, and please check out more work on this site as well as my Facebook Fanpage!

New Piece: Just Started

Started a sunset picture which I took while I was in FL a few years ago.  I haven't done a whole lot of water pieces so it should be interesting how this comes out.  I've been working mostly on the sky and just putting my base colors on the sand and water.

This is Nupastel on 9x12 Colourfix pastel paper.