The Holidays Are Here!

Its been forever since I posted anything here.... My computer was slow as molasses... but its fixed now, so I'm back! I made the "Handmade Pledge" this year- and I may be slightly crazy- So I've been planning gifts and searching for other artists to make the ones that I can't. (The Handmade Pledge is simply a pledge to support artists and make less environmental impact by making or purchasing all handmade gifts for Christmas) I've also been taking lots of commissions that people would like to give for Christmas. Busy Busy Busy!!!!

We have our tree up and decorated, but we still have to decorate the front of the house. FUN! Well, I need to get off the computer and get to painting... lots to do!

Ok, Spring is officially on vacation again. Yucky cold. Here is a bird painting that I just finished. Its called "Swamp Sparrow."

Wow! Can't believe its already March!!! I have been working hard on my paintings because I'm getting ready for two art fairs coming up. Its that time of year!!! No pictures to post today... several of these new works are larger than my scanner. One of my jobs today is to see if a company can scan them for me... It feels like spring around here. Its so exciting!

ChihuahuaLovers.com

ChihuahuaLovers.com

Ha Ha Ha Ha!

I put this image on a T-shirt on my zazzle site. www.zazzle.com/miss_art_teacher

As soon as I have some extra $ I'm gonna purchase one myself!

Here's my latest piece.

Here is my latest pet portrait. It is my friend's dog, Bailey. I've put prints of one of my pet portraits on Ebay... so we'll see how that goes. This picture was a little bit of a struggle for me b/c I painted from 2 different pictures with 2 completely different angles, but I think I fought through it. Honestly, I could probably take it back into the studio right now and do touch ups, but I am trying to leave it alone. She's a cutie! Next I plan to paint my friend Amanda's fat rabbit, Anabell. She's v cute but kinda scary. Luckily I am not painting her from life. ha ha ha She's been known to bite. Haven't made progress on my calendar lately, February is stumping me even though its one of my fave months.

Ok, I have finished month one of my calendar, now on to February. I also started a just-for-fun crafty project for my kitchen. I have been wanting a coffee themed kitchen, but the only thing I have so far is a rug. :( So, I got the idea to do some coffee artwork on large chalkboards to hang up.. like you know how they write the specials at Starbucks? Then I ran into an issue: chalkboards are expensive and heavy. So I grabbed some scrapbook paper and some pastels, and I think I came up with something decent... It was fun anyway!

I still have to tweak the frames a little. Right now they are red, but tomorrow they will be khaki... or maybe copper. hmmmm

Well, haven't been as artistic as I should be the last couple of days. I'm working on the beginning of a calendar featuring my little cartoon kid and chihuahua. I have been priming some canvases so that I can start painting coffee mugs on them for my kitchen... but thats about it. I'll post some pictures when they are done!

I've decided that caricature is something I should add to my art repetoire, so I did a couple. They are not your typical caricature, but I didn't want to try to copy someone else, so I did it my own way! I'll keep practicing! The first one is me--I'm sipping my fave beverage-- mocha frappucino of course!

This is a pet caricature... It was fun! I used pastels for the color, which is a medium I don't use that often, but I feel pretty good about how it turned out.

Ok, so this is my first attempt at blogging. I would like this blog to be a narrative of what I am doing with my artwork...








So, here goes. To the left, you see my little Lucy. She's my logo and appears on most everything I do.





Right now I am making the transition from being a career girl- I used to be an elementary art teacher- to full time artist. (Deep breath) Its pretty different going from every day 8-3 to every day completely open. But its great and I am so lucky to be able to do what I love as much as I want!!!





So, I'm trying to create something every day.... whether I want to or not. Here's what I did today:


This is Lucy playing with her food. She scatters it all over and plays with it. Its really cute. I uploaded this image to my zazzle site so it can be purchased on mugs and a bumper sticker. Here's the site:

www.zazzle.com/Miss_art_teacher