Friday, January 29, 2016

Buy-Bye January!

It's almost February. I cannot believe that 2016 is already flying by at light speed (although, when trying to lose weight, the time seems much slower. It's only everything else that seems to be whipping by!)

My goal was five paintings for the month of January. Unfortunately, January nailed me with another nasty cold and a lot of time off for the teens from school, which just fed into my frustration in the studio. I only managed 3 paintings for this month. I'm really going to need to pull out all the stops and catch up if I'm going to be back on schedule! 

I finished this Rocking Horse Fly:
6x6 inches, acrylic on stretched canvas, sold

This oil painting:
"Love is Blind" 9x12 oil on stretched canvas, Sold

...and this small oil painting also:
"Love Child" 6x8, oil on canvas panel, available


The rocking horse fly is a part of my Alice in Wonderland series, and part of a line of commissions I'm working my way through. I'm actually sketching out the largest of them (18x24), Queen Alice, right now:

She (Queen Alice) was supposed to have been completed on January 23rd according to my schedule. *sigh* I'm so far behind. If I can just get in a groove though, I might just be able to catch up.

However, you see that blindfolded girl painting? Well, I was doing some research on the rococo technique, and that was my first experiment. I can't say it's a successful one, because I had to give up on the technique and just rush to finish it because I ran out of time for my deadline. Still, even so, the result is fairly pleasing. I'm a bit unsure about how "warm" it is, but at the same time it has that old-timey feel to it, and I think I want to use that in my Fairy Tale series that I ALSO didn't get started this month but was supposed to have finished one 9x12 of. (*head*desk*head*desk*)

The rococo technique is fairly involved, though. Lots of layers (i.e. drying time) and such. That's made me think about my schedule of about 60 paintings and whether I'm biting off more than I can chew. I'm going to try to move forward and see what I think, but I feel like I can't make a real decision about it until I get the Alice in Wonderland series closed out completely. It's a different medium (Alice is all acrylic) than I want to go forward in right now, and it's also a different style. I feel that I'm evolving, and I'm actually having to almost physically hold myself back in order to finish these paintings properly. 

With that in mind, Alice has become my #1 priority so I can finally move forward and not mess her up as I do. I worry about jumping between my old style and new, and I don't want it to mess things up on either end.

We did get some snow down here in NC. I felt a bit conflicted, as it finally looked like winter but it had ice which made playing in it rather pointless. Still, it was white for a little while (and now we're headed back to the 60's for temperatures which feels very wrong.) The schools and everyone shut down in a panic for several days longer than I would have expected.

So, here is my "first storm expected in NC" report: people really are nuts when it comes to winter weather. (You should know it was 43 degrees and sunny out when I took these pictures below the day before the storm.)

I went to the grocery store the day before because I needed a few things. There weren't too many people in the store, but this is what was left at 3:20pm. I checked out easily, but getting OUT of the doors of the store was hard because people were just streaming into the store. Some people had parked in the fire lane to run in and ask a manager standing in front if they had milk. I heard the "no" and the woman I was eavesdropping on as I was trying to leave turned on her heel and bolted out the door to her waiting car and said to her companion "no, they don't have any either!"

The lady at the checkout said she had people buying 5 gallons at a go. She said "you know, if you have kids, maybe it makes sense... But a lot of these people don't. I asked."




I did bake cookies though. Bad for my weight loss efforts, good for my peace of mind. Kinda. (Double chocolate-chocolate-chip.)

Anyway, I'm speeding ahead and trying to catch up as we head into February! I hope you have all had a good January!

Monday, January 4, 2016

Sniffles

My father brought with him a Christmas Cold when he came over. I thought we had escaped it, but my son started sniffling a few days later. Then I thought, well, maybe only my son would get it and I'd be safe.

Nope.

I've got the full-on sniffles and misery thing going. But I HAVE STUFF TO DO! Doggonnit! Paintings, PAINTINGS! I have almost 60 paintings to complete by November and I haven't even started yet!

I know, I know. Why am I writing a blog post, then? Well, admittedly there is some procrastination involved. However, I spent all of today working on the business side of things (finances, website, etc.) So, as long as I'm online, well, I might as well do a better job of checking in, too!

I'm searching for a reference photo of a rocking horse for my first painting of 2016, which needs to be completed by Wednesday if I am to stay on track. I have also decided to go with the 12 Dancing Princesses for my new Fairy Tale series for 2016. I found so many stories to pick from, but this one just stuck with me. Lots of ball gowns... and slippers.

In the midst of getting things rolling for 2016, I also need to find an optometrist.   I have finally admitted that I am having a horrible time seeing stuff, so it's time to get real glasses for working and reading. I have seen one who gave me a light prescription for glasses for when I work, and I admit I rarely wore them. Now, I cannot work without them and frankly they're just not right. I need a better prescription. Age is catching up to me!