Latest Painting and Exhibition!

My latest painting consisted of many firsts. Despite my close proximity to the ocean, this was my first and only time painting it. This was also my first time trying to paint with a palette knife. Lastly, it was my first time entering and being accepted into a professional exhibition. I have participated in school/alumni based shows in the past, but somehow this one felt more 'official' since I didn't know any of the judges or participants.

The theme of this exhibition was simply "Landscapes 2012".  As the gallery was specifically looking for Florida based landscapes this sort of narrowed things down for me a bit. I realized that I would have to paint something specifically for this show as I don't really have any Florida based landscapes that I've already painted. (Yes I do recognize the irony in this since I've lived here most of my life.) I just tend to find inspiration more easily in other locations, specifically North Carolina, but also Oregon, England, France, etc. As I began to peruse local artist hangouts for inspiration I inevitably came to the ocean and began to take lots of photographs. I took some pictures of the beaches, and the people and the vegetation and it wasn't really until I took everything home that I realized that I had taken more pictures of the people than anything else. Clearly, Florida landscapes (by themselves) weren't as interesting to me as the Florida landscape used as a background to the people who enjoy them.  Once I came to this realization, creating the painting itself came much easier.

                           My Florida "backdrop" in it's early stages.

                         Making waves with a palette knife.

                       Adding in some of the 'main characters'

12" x 24" Acrylic on Canvas

 

 

My painting "Conversations" is on exhibit at the Lighthouse Art Gallery in Tequesta, FL from now through Jan. 4th, 2013.

 

I'm working on many new things right now and will be sharing them with you very soon! Have a wonderful week!!

Laws of Attraction

Move over James Bond, you're blocking my view of Q! That's right. That intelligent, quick-witted, earl grey drinking, art loving, computer geek makes my heart race.

    Just to be clear, I'm talking about this Q (played by Ben Whishaw)

  Not this Q (played by Desmond Llewelyn, who was BRILLIANT. Just not hot...)

One of my dearest friends often uses expressions like "He can leave his boots under my bed anyday" and "I wouldn't kick him out of my bed for eating crackers". All of those pertain to Q, while Bond would be promptly turned out on his ear.

               Get out of my bed you cracker eating slob!

Many of you are probably staring at the computer screen with a marked look of bewilderment. Is she nuts?!! How could she NOT throw herself into James Bond's arms? Or Daniel Craig's, for that matter? Well, he just doesn't do anything for me. Perhaps in real life things would be different as I have heard that Daniel Craig is a very kind and charming man, but James Bond just doesn't make the cut. This creates a slight problem for me when  I am watching these movies as I can never understand what all of these women see in him!

In the midst of my drooling over Q, I began to wonder about attraction. What causes us to be attracted to others? We obviously aren't seeing movie stars or the characters that they portray in person so pheromones can't always be the cause.

They say that Helen of Troy had the face that launched 1,000 ships, but for all of those that found her attractive there were probably quite a few people who couldn't figure out what all of the fuss was about. Some people may have even found her to be downright unattractive.

           Helen of Troy by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

As a society, we have our stereotypes of beauty (thin, big lips, eyes a certain width apart, etc), but the reality is that beauty really and truly IS in the eye of the beholder. I think that this is a pretty important revelation. (especially for our teenagers) For every person that finds you unattractive or plain, there will be someone out there who thinks that you're perfect.

I have read quite a few studies on why we are attracted to certain types of people. While there are many different theories, it seems to me that basically no one really knows why we are attracted to certain types of people and not to others. For some it's based on looks while others it's based more on  personality. For some people attraction is instantaneous and for others it comes after knowing the person for awhile.

If any of you enjoy science like I do, you are welcome to check out some of the studies that I have read.
http://www.livereal.com/relationship_arena/attraction.htm
http://aimtobe.co.uk/personal/what-attracts-us-to-certain-people/
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200704/the-laws-chemistry

So what odd crushes have you had? Is there anyone that society has deemed to be the epitome of good looks that has you baffled?

You Stink Sandy!

My thoughts and prayers have been constantly aimed towards the northeast for over the past 24 hours. So many of my friends are being affected by Hurricane Sandy AKA Frankenstorm's wrath. It's a devastating storm and I cringe in fear at what horrors the next few days will unearth. The deaths and the destruction.
Many people think that I'm used to these storms because I live in Florida, but the truth is that you can never get used to them. It's true that Floridians are less likely to panic over a Cat 1 storm, but in the end, it creates the same sort of fear and trepidation in our hearts. Every storm brings with it the possibility of disaster. A storm that was supposed to be nothing more than a day of rain and wind with minimal flooding can all of a sudden stall and create days of severe flooding and power outages with a rising death toll. It's true that our homes are stocked with water, batteries, flashlights and canned foods at all times, but what good will this do you if the storm contains tornadoes that rip the roof off your home?

If God is good and you make it through the storm unharmed with minimal damage to your home, then you still have sometimes weeks of 'roughing it' with no power. In the north, this means covering yourselves with warm blankets. In Florida it usually means trying to battle the heat and mosquitoes. It's hard to keep your spirits up during these times. However, it's in times like these that the most amazing thing happens. Without the distractions of technology. Without the TV, internet, cell phones, etc we are forced to actually socialize face to face. Suddenly our neighbors, who were strangers up till then, are coming out to offer assistance. Suddenly entire neighborhoods are bringing their thawing food to the one neighbor with a working grill and having cookouts. Suddenly you remember what it's like to be a community and you remember how amazing and wonderful people can be.

So in the end, as with all tragedies, something beautiful somehow manages to emerge.

Many many prayers for those who have already lost loved ones in this storm and many many prayers for those who will be suffering in the aftermath.

Vacations and Root Canals

I'll bet you've been wondering where I've been all this time haven't you?
If you haven't been, then lets just pretend that you have been...

I was blessed this year to be able to take three weeks off of work to spend some time in North Carolina with my family. My little niece, Coralie, is two and a half years old and I was able to spend over a week of that time with her. I just love that kid so much!

                                                  Storytime with Aunt "Bocky"

The mountains have always seemed like a second home to me and it was wonderful having the time to reflect on my life and to recharge my inspiration battery.

Upon my return I promptly began the process of having some much needed dental work done. This has quickly become worse than my worst nightmare. So far, in about 5 weeks or less,  I have had three root canals. Inbetween these root canals I have had a variety of painful toothaches that were started after my dentist began crown work. The latest root canal was finished about 8 hrs ago. Despite this physical and emotional ordeal, (I hate and fear dentists with a passion) I have been busy working on several projects. Some pieces are inspired by my recent trip and some are from my imagination. I've also been hard at work creating jewelry components for some upcoming art shows that I'll be attending.

 

'Misty Mountain'  8x10

Acrylics

Sketch of Coralie in my sketchbook for an upcoming painting

Sketch of two ocean sirens for an upcoming painting

                                        Some fall inspired jewelry components

I only have one more crown that needs to be done. Therefore there is only one more possible root canal that I might have to have. Once all of this is over I should have a lot more time and energy for posting on here. I'm also looking forward to working on some new videos for my youtube channel.

Hope that you have all been well! Have any of you ever had a nightmare dental experience?

Latest Painting and Hooray for Summer!

Summer is here and that means that I can FINALLY start to focus much more on my art! Every year for about six months our "season" is in full swing. This means that I am working full-time at my day job and am usually so exhausted that I rarely have enough energy to work full-time on my art. My creative energy is usually spent working on commissioned pieces for Christmas, Valentine's Day, etc..  During the summer months things slow down, shifts are cut and I begin to work on my art full-time instead of my day job. This season was particularly hard as I spent a lot  of my time working with a physical therapist on my neck after my accident this past December.
The first order of business? To finally finish my painting of Autumn in my Four Seasons series!

This was the color study that I did for her early on...

And here she is finished....

Autumn

acrylic on panel

6 x 6

        She's surrounded by mums, chinese lantern flowers and a colorful bounty of fall leaves.
              I love all of the colors and textures in this one!
                                   

I have the sketch done for Winter so I should be completing her pretty soon as well.

If you would like to see Summer from this series, click here.

If you would like to see Spring from this series, click here.

Art Prints of Autumn are available here.

Stay tuned to see Winter and have a wonderful week everyone!!

                                 

The Journey of a Photoshoot

I mentioned in a past blog post that I had been hired to do costumes for a photoshoot in L.A. Well that project is finally finished and I wanted to share that experience with you.

My director, Drew Bates of Unique Publications LLC, wanted something reminescent of the 1950s. (Not necessarily historically accurate but inspired by this time period) He mentioned Katy Perry as a possible celebrity to grab inspiration from. The words that were bandied about during our initial conversation were flirty, fun, slightly innocent but still sexy. Taking all of these things in mind I developed an idea of what I thought would work best in terms of style or silhouette, pattern, color, etc. Drew had chosen a kitchen location for the shoot that had quite a bit of color in it.

 He had also created some brightly colored 'products' that our model, Camille, would be holding.

Also Camille, our model, was going to be dying her hair a bright red for the shoot. Seeing how much color would be in the scene I chose to go with minimal color for my costume choices. I directed my focus more on getting the right silhouette and to find pieces in fun patterns .

I was so excited when I came across this apron!

 It was absolutely perfect for what I had in mind and I felt as if it had been created just for this shoot. Once the apron was purchased I let it inspire me for the dress that Camille would wear underneath. Seeing the fun stripes in the apron, I decided to contrast those with some polka dots. My finished choice was this.

To bring in some of the fun colors of the scene and especially the products that Camille would be modeling with, I found some fun vintage bracelets to use as accents and tied in the bright yellow from her bracelet with a bright yellow petticoat to add the full skirt that was so common in the 1950s.

The end result is this.

 Everyone did such an amazing job with this photo shoot and I am just so honored to have been a part of it!

Take a minute to check out Drew Bate's new and improved website.

As you know, I always try to support my fellow handmade artists whenever possible so several products for this shoot were bought from etsy shops.
To find your own fun retro apron, go here.
To find fun bold bracelets, go here.


Thanks for reading and I hope that everyone has a wonderful day!!

Jewelry for Easter

For Lent this year I have vowed to watch less TV and spend more time praying, purging my house of material goods (it's a crowded mess!) and creating. It only seemed natural to spend time creating Easter inspired jewelry too. I have, of course, created some more secular pieces such as my Easter Bunny illustrations, but I have also created some new cross necklaces.

I have to say that my favorites from my Easter line are the eggs. They were inspired by Fabrege eggs and are super fun!

While I definitely find myself regressing to older bad habits, I do find myself creating a lot more since Lent began so that's a very good thing.

Are you celebrating Lent? If so, what did you give up this year?