A Lovely Anniversary Present and Drawing Class

This Bear and Dove was a fun and very touching commission.  A man contacted me about a present for his first wedding anniversary.  His wife called him "Snuggley Bear" and he called her "Lovey Dovey".  He wanted to know if I could do a bear hugging a dove.  I did several sketches and after we collaborated on picking out the preferred features of the sketches, this was the result.  It is 12x16, colored pencil on hardboard panel.
I think I mentioned that I am auditing a drawing class at Denison University this semester. At any rate, I am and it is really stimulating to be using other media -- conte crayon, charcoal, ink, markers and to be drawing from life.  Though alot of my in class drawings are currently stored at the university and I have not yet taken any photos of them, I though I would share some homework.  One of our assignments is to pick an object and incorporate it into 100 drawings.  This wooden horse I have had for several years is the object I picked:

Here are drawings 5-11.  I am using conte and it is on two sheets of 18x24 paper, so the final here is 24x36.  I may add more to it later.  As I said above, feeling very stimulated drawing from life (though it is still). His arm fell off while I was workig on this, so I have not included it for some of the drawings.

Two Works

My piece, The Way We Were, Coshocton - 1972 did get into the Johnson Humrick House Museum Exhibit.  The opening is October 22, 4-6 P.M. A convenient time for some of my family to be there and we can have dinner afterwards -- looking forward to a good time!  I did change the year in the title from 1971 to 1972 -- I thought about it some more and that is the year it was.

Here is a portrait of Riley, a clipped and wet Portuguese Water Dog, that I finished last month. It was a surprise gift and was well received.  I enjoyed the challenge of the water as something new in this one.

I am having fun but also kept busy with a drawing class I am auditing.   I am working more from life and using other media -- I am enjoying it very much.  I keep alot of my work at the university, but will try to snap some photos for the blog. Also, I will be posting some other commissions soon,also.  After a disappointing Christmas season last year, I have had steady stream of commissions starting in June of this year.  YEAH!

Thanks for stopping by.

The Way We Were, Coshocton, 1971, still a Work in Progress

I have been putting hours and hours into this one.  Deadline Sept. 1, (see previous post)  if that isn't a post mark date, I will drive the CD there.  At any rate I started with the faces, and felt they were fair enough that I could go on.  Now finishing the faces is all I have left and it is getting out of wack some.  Hope I get a grip and finish this with some satisfaction.  It is 16x20, colored pencil on panel.  In case you haven't guessed, I am on the far right and the other two hip characters are my two younger brothers.  As well as faces, which I am close to overdoing now, I wasn't sure about the car or blending in the background the way I wanted, but I am fairly pleased with both of those two issues at this point.  That car was my beloved first, a 58 Chevy that I worked and paid for myself. 

Two Portraits Finished and a WIP

Here's Sassy's portrait finished.  It was delivered a few weeks ago and Sassy's mom and dad were happy.  I got to meet this beautiful kitty, on this rug also!  She is a sweetheart!  8x10 colored pencil on panel

Here is a portrait of Bungy.  Bungy has also been delivered, but he was to be a present to the owner. The client was quite pleased and I am still waiting to hear how this present was received. 5x7 colored pencil on panel

My home town, Coshocton, Ohio, is celebrating it's bicentenial. 
There are many events happening in relation to this.  One event is a juried exhibit at the Humrick-Johnson Museum, deadline September 1.  The exhibit is titled "Inspired by Coshocton" and is open to artists with a connection by work or residence to Coshocton.  The subject matter is open.  I have taken lots of photos when visiting my mom in trying to come up with a composition or two to enter.  In the end I have been working on  a family snapshot.  I have been working on this all month.  Here is my first WIP photo,  I will show more WIP photos this week.  It is 16x20 and I am thinking about calling it "The Way We Were, Coshocton, 1971" 

Hope you are enjoying your week!  Thanks for stopping by!

Finished Dog Portrait and a Cat Portrait in Progress

Here is a second portrait of Allie completed.  It will be delivered some time this week.  I enjoyed working on at at the Graniville Art Affair held a couple of weeks ago.  It is a 912 in colored pencil.

Below are  some work in progress shots of Sassy, a really gorgeous cat.  The proud owners (or ownees, whichever the case maybe)  commissioned this piece at the the Granville Art Affair.  I started it yesterday and got this far.  I am looking forward to working on her today.  The size of this portrait is 8x10 inches.

And Now Something Different -Virtual Paintout

I discoverd this blog, Virtual Paintout, about a month ago.  Love it -- love seeing what people pick to do and how they interpret it! 

There are animals to be found by traveling various localities, but when deciding to participate this month, I did not find any.  So I picked this scene:

Hotel LaPeRouse, Nice, France

I started this in watercolor pencil -- an attempt to experiment, perhaps be looser and quicker, but alas, I ended up using alot of colored pencil and put in over 12 hours on this little 5x7.  It scanned a little brigter in the red area than it actually is.  I sure did enjoy this, but spent way more time than I planned.

Here is the Google Streetview link for this scene:

View Larger Map

A Month of Sundays - Two Commissions

Well, it seems like a month of Sundays since I lasted posted.  Thank you all of you who still checked in once in awhile.  It is only in this past week that I have felt like I have had some time to myself for gathering my toughts and concentrating on art.  Mainly other work and some family needs have kept me away so long.

Here are two commissions I just finished:

This is Allie, I used both of these photos to develop her portrait.

This is Casey, a German Shepherd mix.

Both portraits are 9x12, colored pencil on pastelbord.

Columbus Arts Festival Jury Experience

GREAT OPPORTUNITY

I feel very fortunate to have been able to attend the jury proces for the Columbus (Ohio) Arts 50th Annual Festival.  This festival is a national festival with a high ranking among arts festivals in the United States.  It is celebrating its 50th annniversary.  I have attednded, as a patron, at least 30 of these 50 over the last thirty-three years.  This was the first year that there was an Emerging Artist category for artistist applicants. 

Though I made the first round of jurying, I did not make it into the show during the second/final round of jurying.  I am waitlisted number three out of eight accepted openings.

Getting in or not, it was an invaluable opportunity to be able to see the jury at work and to be able to get some one-to-one feedback from the jurors. 

Personal Feedback

Though the jurors said they admired my drawing skills/talent -- they felt that some of the subject matter and style was not personal, interesting, unique or "expressive" (I add this word as I felt it was implied, if not exactly spoken) to make it stand out and be eligble for a fine arts show of this caliber.  I was advised to draw more of what is in my everyday life instead of hawks or tigers -- overdone subjects, they felt.  Above are my submissions, if I had not submitted "Ruby and Roscoe", the dogs, I would probably have been passed over in the first round -- this was the only work out of the above that the jury found compositionally interesting and personal.  The jurors were very supportive that everyone in the room keep on working and keep on trying.

General Jurying Process and Concerns

The technical aspects of making a photo of the artist`s work and booth were very important and could eliminate an applicant in less than a second.  Three-D objects in particular need to be up close, no white background with good contrast between the object and the background. Also, booth slides were often looked at for the similarity of the display and the work submitted.  There were some concerns intermittently expressed about whether or not reproductions of work should be allowed if they were not shown in the booth slide.

The vast number of slides forced the jurors to work very rapidly.  The average of their scores ranked the applicant in each category.  Often there was little discusstion, just computerized scoring as the projections of the applicants works and booths rapidly passed by on large screens at the front of room.  I did not see the scores, but the accepted applicants were shown to the jurors and audience at the conclusion of the jurying process.

Summary Thoughts

I need to think about what it is I want to say with my art.  If I want to be part of a fine art venue, I may need to narrow my focus more.  I am not sure where I will take this yet, I do know that I do not have the time yet for my art that I want.  I would like to experiment more, but this does not always seem compatible with my needing to make some money and maintain the farm. At this point in my life, the goal is to make art more central to my life.  Doing pet protraits and creating a body of fine art may be two divergent goals.

I did note that there was alot of animal related 2-D work, much of which was accepted into the show.  There seemed to be more animal than people related work.  This seems somewhat surprising and ironic to me.  Nobody that had a wolf in their presentation was accepted -- the animal artists who were accepted mainly had dogs or farm animals.   Also, perhaps not so much of a surprise, more paintings, than drawings seemed to be accepted.  There were some preferences for larger 2-D work -  over 36", it seemed to me, also.

My main problem at the moment is cultivating the time to regularly devote to my art, no matter what my goals or purpose for doing it are.  I thought retiring from my day job would cure this problem, but after a few years, it has raised its head again.  I see my future productive time as consisting of fewer and fewer years.  I believe I need to seriously rearrange/priortize my life in some major ways to devote the time remaining to art in a more meaningful way.  It remains to be seen whether or not I have the courage to change my life and my focus.

Columbus Arts Festival Jury

I am excited about going to watch part of the jury process for the Columbus Arts Festival tomorrow. The jury actually met 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. today and will meet 9:00 A.M. until 2:00 P.M. tomorrow. I applied in the Emerging Artist category, open to all media, which will be juried tomorrow.   All applicants were invited to attend the jurying process.  In addition, the jurors will be giving artists in the Emerging Artist category advise as to how to improve their application presentation at the conclusion of the jurying tomorrow.  I will write about my experience when I return home.

Tax preparation work as been in excess of 40 hours a week, alot different for me than it was last year.  I have not had much time for myself -- art or writing here. 

I have been thinking alot, however, about my art business goals for the year.  My art business  goals for this year will include talking with a consultant.  I am planning to apply to some local outdoor art venues that set up regularly during the summer and fall, but only for five hours.  My set-up is quite cumbersome for such a short time, I may get an Easy-Up for these short venues to make set-up a little easier.   Other than the applying to the Columbus Arts Festival, I do not plan to expand my art festival applications this year.  I am thinking I will spend less this year on outdoor shows  by working on my local exposure and improving my set-up as I learn more at these local venues. 

I also plan to really work on getting my brochures out to animal and art related locations.  I plan to get many of my prints and advertising about commissions in my loacl art organization galleries.

This is not a complete list of my art or business goals, but some of my current plans for this coming year. 

I have been toying with what word to come up with to focus on as an intention for the year -- and I think for this year it will be, "trust".  For me that means trusting each step I take, though it may seem small as well as trusting myself to experiment more with my art media without looking for immediate quantifiable results.

A print of my  work below, "Bath Five Cents" recently sold on Fine Art America.



Thanks for stopping by!  See you soon, Angela

Hit the Ground Running in the New Year

I have hit the ground since the new year started, but not necessarily running in the direction I would like to go.  This is the morning of my third day off since starting tax preparation work on Monday the third.  Was not this time consuming last year. I have been in a shock about it.  But, for now,  I am rolling with the punches and thinking about my art goals as I run along.  I have made a list of the art festivals to which I want to apply and their deadlines.  The Columbus Arts Festival is a really big one, I did apply in their Emerging Artist category, the jury is public and I am looking forward to attending on February 6. 

I do plan to make a list of goals and a business plan for this year as well as picking a word for guiding my intentions this year.  I know one of my goals will be to work with a consultant/advisor on the business of art.  I do have someone in mind, but still mulling it over just a little bit.  I will formally look at my goals from last year and see how I have done, but I do know that though I met some of them, the results were not what I had hoped for.  I had hoped that going to more festivals, even if not lucrative in sales, would help with commissions, this was not the case.  I do think that perhaps becoming a regular at some of these shows could help with that, but that is something I may be consulting about.

On this glorious day off, I am running to the big city to get the last three feral kitties spayed/neutered.  They are five and half months already,  must not have anymore.  It will be a relief to release them tomorrow, hopefully healthy, as well as infertile. 

I took a better picture of the red-tailed hawk portrait when preparing my images for art festival applications.  So I decided to share it here. 

Thank you for visiting and reading despite my long absence.  I WILL be back soon.