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.

The Yoga Series Continues...

I have been motivated and productive lately, making yet more progress on my yoga series and then some :) I have completed two more yoga poses and started working on some new content on a new surface last night.  I have a little more work to do on the beach scene which is on Pastelmat.  This was a fun toothy surface to work on.  Luckily, completely the yoga backgrounds on my other paintings prepared me for bulking on enough pastel to be able to blend on this surface.  Here is the beach painting:

My most recent yoga painting "Fierce" is featured below.  Entitled "Fierce" because of the warrior pose she is in, I wanted her to pop and appear to take charge of the page while also complimenting her surroundings.  I loved the pop of orange/red encircling her while the background is meant to capture the colors of the beach, sand, and surf.  Any comments appreciated!

The third yoga painting in my series, isn't the best picture.  I took it with my camera and will change it as soon as I get some natural light for a photo :)  This is "Rooted" and attributes her balance and harmony as she is in tree pose.  I incorporated very earthy colors to simulate her sturdiness as a tree would be.  Enjoy!

The bottom two paintings are on 9x12 Colourfix paper while the top beach scene as I said is pastelmat. All are created with NuPastels.  Have a great day.

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!!

Finished Paintings!!

Okay... so its been a little while.  I've been battling with my beach portrait photo.  I've been looking at it (my easel is in my dining/living room) everyday and thinking about what I want to do with it so that I don't over work it.  I'm happy with how it came out and don't think there is anything else I can do without throwing of the balance and spirit that is there.  Here it is! NuPastel and Pastel Pencil on 11x14 Pastel Paper.

The picture is not as clear as I'd like it to be but you get the drift. :)
Another photo I'm posting is a quite 20 minute 6x8 of a challenge on dailypaintworks.com.  The challenge was to do a piece based on balance.  And I figure, what's a better representation of balance than a pair of 5 inch heels?  Hope you like it.

On another note... I'm starting my first Pastel class tomorrow!!!  Actually, its my first art class since freshman year of high school.  I'm super excited about learning actual techniques and getting feedback.  Not all that excited about the teacher telling us to go get more supplies after the first class but such is life!  So I plan to bring my camera and take photos of my work as it progresses.  That way I can post what I work on and show the stages of it as I go.  Wish me luck!

Update

Worked on this some more tonight.  Just wanted to post an update.  I like where it's going, just need to think about what I'm going to do about the shirt... in the picture its a white and red hawaiian print, but that may be too detailed to come out nice.  White shirt? Blue shirt may cool down all the other colors...  Any ideas?