New Spring Paintings

Despite not having updated this blog in a long time I am still continuing to paint nearly every day.  The past few months have been really challenging for me but one of the bright areas in my life is that I am feeling happier about my painting than I have in a long time.  I have been experimenting with some different types of work while also working on my quirky animal paintings.  Right now I am going to keep the experimental pieces to myself but perhaps one day I will share some of them here.  I am continuing to offer small paintings on paper at very reasonable prices through ebay.  As well, I have more paintings of varying sizes and on different supports in my Etsy shop.

Here are a couple of pieces with a spring theme that I have recently completed.  Both of them are ACEOs and are currently being sold through auction on ebay

Spring Blue Bird

The Joy of Spring Flowers

Copernicus Cat

Copernicus is acrylic & pencil on bristol paper and measures 4 x 6 inches.  He is currently for sale through my ebay auctions.

Hound with a Hat

Today I sat down to paint with a specific exercise for myself – to paint a grey cat without using any black paint from the tube.  As you can see from the picture below things did not turn out quite as I had anticipated.  I kept to my rule of not using any black paint and yet I ended up with a hound with a hat.  This painting has been sold.

Acrylic on cardboard - 5 x 7 inches

Summer or Fall?

On Sunday I was out walking my dog lamenting the end of summer.  The signs were everywhere – the chill in the air and trees beginning to turn colour.  I came upon this one particular tree that had a couple of brilliant patches of orange amongst all the green and I decided to take a photo of it to document the beginning of Autumn.  Fast forward to today and it is a completely different story – the temperature was 32 Celcius (that’s about 90 F) and it was humid which made it feel even warmer and very tropical.  What a nice surprise!  The fluctuations in the weather seem to be influencing my creative mood.  I completed two new aceos over the past couple of days and one has a distinctly cold weather influence while the second one reminds me of a warm summer day.  Here they are along with the photo of the flaming tree.  Both of these paintings have been sold.

 

 

 

New Scarf

 

 Acrylic on watercolour paper – 2.5 x 3.5 inches

 

 

Always Together

 

Acrylic on watercolour paper – 2.5 x 3.5 inches

 

New ACEOs

I’ve just finished two ACEOs and in the spirit of trying to keep my blog more updated I have them all scanned and ready to show.  I am very fond of painting birds and cats (in case you haven’t noticed) and I ended up painting one of each today.  Both of these paintings have been sold.

The Sulky Ginger Cat

Acrylic on watercolour paper

2.5 x 3.5 inches

Tranquility

Acrylic on watercolour paper

2.5 x 3.5 inches

Catching Up

I’ve fallen behind again here and I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do.  I have actually been painting a lot lately but by the time I finish the painting and get all the scanning and photography done I feel like I need a break  and then I forget about coming here and making a post until well after the fact.  Whenever I look at other artists’ blogs I can’t figure out how they manage to make great art and keep up an amazing blog.  I am envious!  I will just have to keep trying and hopefully someday my blog will be greatly improved. 

Yesterday I finished this little ACEO.    It was one of those wonderful painting experiences where everything just flowed – ah, if always it could be like that!  But then again it is often the difficult experiences where the growth happens.

 The Great Beyond

Acrylic on watercolour paper

2.5 x 3.5 inches

This painting has been sold.

Time for a New Cat

No, I didn’t really get a new cat although I would love to have another one.  I’m talking about a kitty painting – luckily you can’t have too many of those.  This painting is a portrait of Cliff.  Cliff is a fictitious cat that appeared out of nowhere this afternoon when I sat down to paint.  This painting has been sold. 

Moving Forward

Once again I’ve been neglecting this blog.  The truth is that lately I have been having a major artistic crisis and there have been other pressing personal issues going on.  I’ve still been painting but I have felt a bit lost and in doubt.  This seems to happen every few months and eventually it passes but this one has been particularly awful.  Fortunately this crisis seems to have  finally lifted and I have come through the other side with some important realizations.  I’m a terrible perfectionist and this has really been wearing me down.  I need to make a sincere effort to throw caution to the wind and let it all hang out and not worry what other people think.  This applies not only to my art but also to my daily living.  I also realized that I need to work on other types of art that I enjoy doing whether or not it seems to break with my “style”.   There are so many types of art that I like to do but don’t because I feel that it is too different from the type of art I am known for.  This leads to the worries that nobody will like it, my customers will be disappointed, I shouldn’t really waste my time on this if it won’t be successful, etc.  All of these thoughts and worries are extremely exhausting and life-energy depleting.  The reality is that life is short and to deprive myself of all the wonderful creative avenues that are just waiting to be explored doesn’t make a lot of sense.  At least not to me anymore.  I really need to start pleasing myself.  The other revelations I encountered shall be kept to myself for now.  The past few months have been difficult but I think I have ultimately landed in a clearer, happier space which is a great thing!

With Every Beat of My Heart

With Every Beat of My Heart

Mixed Media on Masonite

8 x 10 inches

Currently available for purchase through my Etsy store.

All Wound Up

All Wound Up

Acrylic on Canvas – 8 x 10 inches

This painting has been sold.