Hand painted Christmas tree ornament of a cat

Here is first for me a Christmas tree ornament. The VAA was asked by Mr. David who has the Martha Vick House in Vicksburg. He has a cat called Orangie Louise and wanted to have a Christmas tree for her with ornaments with her on them. I was afraid It would never be done after being very careful with the glass ball I was given I was getting ready to photograph it when disaster hit. I dropped it and it shattered to pieces. I tried to paint on two of the balls I had from home and they were much thinner ant two broke in my hand. Hubby saved the day, went to the store, and found some plastic ones and I was able to do it all over a gain. Therefore, here is my second one that did make it to the blog. It was kind of fun.
(By the way, this little house is packed with history. http://www.marthavickhouse.com/
Please go see if you are ever in the area.)

The upside down painting

Acrylic 5x7 $30.00

Karin had a real winner this week and another great challenge. I have painted more people in the last few weeks than I have ever painted in years. This is good as it forces me to give it a go. In fact, I was surprised at how this turned out. I tried to just look at the shapes and not be caught up in my one hair detail mode. It also helped that I did it upside down. It was hard not to take the canvas and turn it around. When I had finished and did turn it around, I was pleasantly surprised. It looks a lot looser than my other stuff and it really looks like a person walking down a street. True she looks like she is walking in boats but you can tell it is a woman and not a stick.

Check out the Different Strokes for Different Folks link is on the side. There is some great artist there.

Black buterfly

Acrylic 5x7 $50.00

A last goodbye to summer this last cold spell has sent the butterfly’s off until next year. I saw several of these big beauties flying around the yard this summer. This one was nice enough to hold still for me to get a picture or two.

Clinton

My bud Lisa and I freezing our booties off.
It was cold this last Sat in many ways. The temperatures were down and very blustery for the out door Christmas festival in Clinton. Most people must have stayed at home, as there did not seem to be that many people out and of course they were not letting go of the cash. It was almost a no sale day but I did sale two of my small art cards. We actually spent more than we made which is not the way it is supposed to work.
Every one is worried about the economy including me. As an artist, it really hits home when the economy is down and art is the last thing someone may spend any money on. Moreover, there are a lot more artist out there trying to get some of their work sold than it seems as in the past or it seams that way to me. With the internet a lot more are visible I guess and there are a lot more people like me who would like to make a little money oh what the heck a lot of money to be able to continue the drive to create something. Let us hope things get better as I have not had the guts to look at my IRA lately at least gas is a little cheaper for the time being so that is some consolation.

Shadows

4x6 hot press watercolor
Another fun challenge for me and getting me out of my comfort zone and trying something new. This week’s challenge was of people at a busy crossing with long shadows. I chose to crop the picture. Check out the site different strokes for different people a link is here on my page and see all the beautiful ideas the other talented artist come up with.

Different strokes image

sold
This is the image for this week. Another first for me

Pintail Duck 14 inches

Sold

This is my first of two commissions, a pintail duck with other ducks flying in.

Painting on wood was a little different from the canvas as it got pretty slick in some spots and others it was rough from the wood. In addition, the little cracks drove me crazy. It was some kind of top off a cheese wheel I think.

Not to brag but I did have my 15 minutes of fame in the Vicksburg Post this past Sunday and if you are interested in reading it this is the site http://www.vicksburgpost.com/articles/2008/11/02/features/doc490b11374706a801400123.txt