"Stanley Lake" & "Tenacious Tiger" Originals Sold!

"Tenacious Tiger"




"Stanley Lake"

I have some exciting news! I have just been sent payment in the mail for two original paintings of mine! This is rare because I sell about two originals a year, if I'm lucky. Most people here in Idaho want prints and not the original. A lady from Alabama saw my artwork on my website. She is moving to Johannesburg, South Africa with her husband and she wanted some of my artwork to hang on her walls. The pieces she will be buying are "Stanley Lake" and "Tenacious Tiger." "Stanley Lake" is from Stanley, Idaho and the Sawtooth Mountains. My husband and I spend a weekend in Stanley every year, usually in May. "Tenacious Tiger" is from a photo I took. There use to be a small zoo in Nampa, Idaho, which closed a few years ago, and the owners had just purchased two baby tigers. They were adorable and loved to play, just like domestic kittens. I got to pet them and it was a really special experience to be that close to actual tiger kittens.

Emerging Artist Art Show at Capital City Market

Today, I had an art exhibit at the Emerging Artist's section of the Capital City Public Market in downtown Boise from 9:30 until 1:30 p.m. I was on a waiting list and they didn't have enough artists for that day, so they asked me to come. I had to pull things together for this show in only two days because I just found out Thursday that I was doing it. Everything went well and I sold about $120.00 worth of stuff. Not bad for only four hours. This show is the best deal in town for artists because it cost next to nothing to do and the $10.00 deposit fee is refundable. I also love doing this show because I don't have to set up my own canopy and there is usually a good crowd of people that come by.

It was nice to have some action instead of just playing the waiting game.

Playing the Waiting Game

This week has mostly been about waiting--waiting to feel better, waiting to hear from art show coordinators who wait until the last minute to give you information you need, waiting to get paid, etc.

Waiting to feel better: Last week I went to the doctor to get antibiotics for my bronchitis. This week I had to get something called Achidophilis Probiotics to counteract the bad side effects from the antibiotics! Apparenly, although antibiotics kill any infection from bronchitis, etc., they also kill the good bacteria that your digestive tract needs to function properly. A side effect of taking antiobiotics are toxins that build up in your system that make you feel lousy, give you headaches and other disgusting problems that I won't go into now, and that is what has been happening to me. So I am taking Achidophilis Probiotics to put back the "good" bacteria so everything will work okay again. So I have not been able to do much work on the art projects and home or yard projects. I am TIRED of being sick!!!!

What I have been doing when I have felt pretty good is making more rock animals to get ready for the upcoming outdoor art shows. I am also 90% done with a third piece in my series of art on Leavenworth, Washington. But I won't post a photo of that piece until it is completely done.

Waiting to hear from Art Show Coordinators: I have several possible art shows coming up, but I have not been able to get any confirmed definite dates set up. I have yet to get any definite dates for showing at the Capital City Market this summer. Apparently, they like to leave everything to the last minute which does not set well with me.

Waiting to get paid: On top of the other waiting I have been doing, I am also waiting to get paid for a rock animal portrait that I did about 3 weeks ago for a client who didn't have as much money as they thought they had, so payment got delayed.

Everyday Miracles Vine Arts Gallery Reception

"Maynard on Roses"

Tonight I went to the very first Vine Arts Gallery artist's reception. This exhibit is called "Everyday Miracles" and it is inside the Vineyard Church in the Art Gallery section. This show will be on exhibit from April 20 through June 1, 2008. Anyone can come and see the exhibit during regular church hours which are Tuesday - Friday and on Sunday.

In previous exhibits, The Vine Arts Gallery has not had any receptions, so the director of the arts program at the Vineyard, Jessie Nilo, and the Vine Arts Gallery Director, Lisa Marten, decided it was about time we had actual real gallery receptions for each new exhibit. There was a pretty good turnout. Not a lot of people, but still pretty good for the first reception. We had live music and food. I have a portrait of my cat, Maynard, in this show (see posted art above) and a landscape of Hidden Lake, Washington in Autumn. (See the March 24th blog entry for a photo of this landscape.)

Everyday Miracles and Hidden Lake Hike

I have been oh so busy trying to make up for all the lost time I spent being sick with bronchitis. I had to rush to prepare two pieces of artwork for the next Vine Arts Gallery show. (The entry date was Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.) Then on Friday I helped hang the show, which actually was fun to do. The theme of this new Vine Arts Gallery show is "Everyday Miracles." I entered "Maynard on Roses" and "Hidden Lake". There will be a reception for the artists and the public at the Vine Arts Gallery inside the Vineyard this Sunday night from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. and I will be there.

I also got some great new photos from my sister-in-law, Chris, from our hike to Hidden Lake, Washington that we took last fall. I am going to use some of them to create new art for my series on Leavenworth, Washington. The photos are really great--much better than the ones I took. I posted a photo of Jon and me at the start of the Hidden Lake trail.

Gray Cat Portrait Done

I haven't blogged anything for a few days because I have had bronchitis. Finally got some antibiotics and am feeling much better now. Being sick sucks and I have too many projects that need my attention to be sick!

I have posted the latest portrait commission that I have recently completed. The completed portrait of the gray cat is first then the photo I did it from is below it. It was done mostly in graphite pencil but the yellow eyes were done in colored pencil. The client wants to make some decals of the portrait so he can stick one onto his instrument case.

A rather strange thing happen this week. An outdoor art show (Art & Roses) that I do every year that is as regular as clockwork got cancelled! Apparently the local Boise Parks and Recreation had a scheduling conflict and scheduled an event for the same day as the art show. What doesn't make sense is that they knew about this show because it comes every year on the same date for the past ten years. Now all of the sudden they have a schedule conflict. They never even told the Art & Roses people about this event so they could reschedule. I don't know--something smells and it's not the roses!

Bequa's Salon Italian Fountain Mural

I thought I would post a few pictures showing what I have been doing every Monday for the past four weeks. My friend, Angie Harvey, and I have been working on this mural for Bequa's Salon in Boise. (That's Angie on the left and a tired looking me on the right.) We still have a few things that we both sort of want to fix, but we are running out of time and wanted to at least get it to the place where it looked mostly finished. I am entering my busy time for art shows and I have to prepare for them so there won't much extra time to work on things like murals.

Basically, I like the way it turned out. I think we are going to add more sky and less green and blue background and I would like to, at some point in time, make the ivy a little bigger. The ivy may looked a bit rushed because we were rushed! It was the last thing we did and we had only about 30-45 minutes to do it. I am still learning how to be a fast mural artist. It is a challenge. I am more like the tortoise than the hare when it comes to painting murals.

Here is the story of how this thing got started. A mural artist friend of mine, Jessie Nilo started this mural several years ago for Bequa in her salon and was unable to finish it. After staring at a partially finished mural for several years, Bequa decided it was time to get this darn thing finished, especially since she was in the process of renovating & redecorating her salon. So she asked Angie Harvey to help her and Angie asked me to help. When Angie first told me about the mural she said it would be just a few easy touch-ups and wouldn't take more than one afternoon. A few touch-ups? I don't think so! Well, what we thought would be an easy touch-up job ended up to be practically a whole new mural that ended up twice as big as the original! Although I did not get paid for this mural, I got some free pizza, an order for a rock animal dog portrait, and a future free hair cut, so I'm happy!

Reflections from The Feathered Nest

My second piece on the theme of Leavenworth, Washington is done! This piece didn't take very long either. I started it about two weeks ago. This is from a photo I shot last fall at Leavenworth. This is a decorative mural that had been painted around the window of a shop in Leavenworth called the Feathered Nest. It had at least five windows and each one was decorated like this, with the pink and blue hand-painted framework around it. This is just one of many examples of the Bavarian style artwork in Leavenworth that really captivated and inspired me. What you see in the window is the reflection of what was both outside and inside of the shop. I love the distorted and abstract composition of it. This is unlike anything I have done before and I like the way it turned out. I am usually a very traditional artist and this has a more abstract twist to it. I call this piece "Reflection Detection."

Pet Portraits and Murals

Yay! I got another photo from a client, which means I have another cat portrait commission to start on. This cat is a long-haired gray cat, darker than my gray cat, Maynard. When the portrait is done I will post both the photo and the finished portrait on this blogsite.

Last Monday my artist friend, Angie, and I worked on a mural painting that we are doing for Bequa's Salon in Boise. This painting is a fountain in an Italian garden with wisteria flowers hanging down. It is almost done, but it is taking longer than we both thought it would. I am not a fast mural artist either. It looks great so far. I hope we can finish it next week. I will post a photo of it when it is all done.

This Thursday I am delievering my rock animal of Bequa's dog, Barbie, to her at her salon and I will get paid then. I showed her the finished rock portrait Monday when I was there to do her mural and she was so overcome, she hugged me! That is what it is all about and that is why I love my job as an artist!

SPAM/VIRUS FOUND ON MY BLOGSITE!

Some SLIMBALL posted a SPAM AD/VIRUS under the Comments section of my 3/27/08 blogsite! No, this is not an April Fool's joke. What happened is when I went to read the comment a dialog box popped up to warn me that there was a virus that would cause my system to crash. Then it said that in order to remove this threat, I needed to download some software called XP Anti-Virus 2008. BUT THIS XP ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE IS ACTUALLY A VIRUS!

Fortunately this virus did not do any harm and I was able to delete it with some of my own anti-virus software. ANY TYPE OF SPAM AND/OR VIRUS IS ILLEGAL AND WILL BE REPORTED TO BLOGSPOT.COM. THIS TYPE OF THING IS UNACCEPTABLE AND WILL NOT BE TOLERATED ON MY WEBSITE! I AM POSTING THIS MESSAGE TO WARN OTHERS ABOUT THIS.