There's Only So Much Time

I cannot believe a month has gone by since I've updated my blog again. I feel like I'm alternately the most lazy person in the world, and also as if there is never enough time in a day because I'm just so busy with a million projects. I'm not sure how both co-exist, but they do for me.

I feel guilty for every single moment I take for myself. I think I'd feel better if someone told me how much time I am allowed for myself in a day, time that would be thought of as not being lazy and instead being perfectly acceptable as "me-time". Is there a chart somewhere? I need that...

So, since I have last popped in I turned 41.

Me, the morning of my birthday.

It was an interesting birthday because at first I wasn't going to celebrate it ON my birthday at all. My husband was traveling all over the world and wasn't going to be in town, and I just wasn't feeling it (I was also thinking about me trying to lose weight and how that wouldn't help things.) But on my birthday, I woke up and I knew I wanted to do something. My husband had a weird situation that ended up with flights canceled and him actually here on my birthday, so I took that as a sign! There was dinner, and chocolate cake. 41 years of chocolate cake seems like an achievement! (I just wish I didn't see leftover cake as a personal challenge. It's a good thing I have a teenage son willing to "help" me out on that issue.)

On the art front, I snagged a couple abstract commissions and also completed a few more paintings. I'm starting the abstracts at a significantly lower price-point because I figure it's sort of a re-entry into the abstract market after so long. I also dumped Etsy (finally!) and created my new store front and got that up and running (http://kyrawilson.storenvy.com/). So here are some of the paintings I finished in February:

9x12, acrylic on stretched canvas. Available.

This was a commission, but the client decided he wanted a smaller moon. 

Since on the last picture, the client rejected the moon being so big and I painted him another, I had this big moon canvas and I needed to do something with it, so, I added knife-worked trees and little cardinals in the branches:

16x20, acrylic on canvas, available.

I've finished others and they've sold and gone on their way to their new homes, and I have plans for a wooden panel elemental series... just as soon as I get some GAC 100 to seal the panels. (I know some people use GAC 700, but are there any other alternatives? I've always used prepared panels prior to this, but these are raw birch.)

I've started a smaller mermaid piece, and here are just two pictures of the under painting layers - I'll be adding in color today, actually!

She looks a little crazy eyed, but I figure lashes (one of the finishing touches) will soften that considerably. At least I hope it will. Otherwise, she's a little scary.

I have another surreal painting JUST getting started on the under tones with an elephant and a girl, and I also am gearing up to finish out the Alice Series. I have the 18x24 finally all laid out. I know some people are very precise in their painting sketches, but the only part that is solid in a painting sketch for me is a person's face. All the rest is sort of a landmark type of thing for me. It's loosey-goosey.

For example, the Cheshire will look at a lot better than that, and the bushes and stuff, I've just marked roughly where I want them to go. The painting is large, and complicated, but I hope it won't take too long. I'm so far behind, and the client really has been patient with me... but enough is enough! (I have too many commitments I think.)

I figured out I've been tripping over Lily almost constantly as she's become my stalker. I'll paint for a while, not look down when I go to stand up, and then suddenly be on the floor. She picks a new, sometimes stealthy, spot behind me every time, too.

And Socrates has been doing his best to distract me:

It's really hard to paint when a Maine Coon Cat decides he wants your attention. But in truth, it's coming down to me and my own distraction and needing to properly focus and get my work done.

I have to complete the mermaid and elephant paintings by the 20th, so I have very little time and so much work to do. My focus right now is to finish all the commissions I have and clear my books, and then re-evaluate my plan for the year. I had set up three new series I was going to be starting, and I haven't managed to start a single one of those and yet here we are in mid-March. I need to figure this out. Some of that might be disappearing for a while from my other social media so I can just be on a paint-frenzy and try and make a few jumps forward.

Time, and not having enough of it, seems to be my theme this year!

Little Bits of Progress

First, I want to thank everyone for your thoughtful comments about Cosmo, and us having to put him to sleep.

Things seem to be moving along a little better in the household, and we had an uneventful Thanksgiving (with way too much food.) I hid out from the Black Friday shopping, and protested the day by staying in my pajamas instead! Honestly, it was a little odd. I felt a little left out, and it was just so quiet. Maybe that's why Black Friday has become so big? After the cacophony of the holiday, the day after is so silent! I knew people were out shopping, in the hustle and bustle... and I was in my pajamas.

I did work, however. I've actually been working on lots of new little things (and all of these are available either in my shop (I'm having a 10% off sale until midnight tonight, it's been going all week. Code HOLIDAY2013), or on Etsy:

"Making Friends" 4x6 acrylic on hard canvas panel

"Snow Day" 3x5 acrylic on hard canvas panel

"Mini-Snow" ultra mini, 2x2 acrylic on stretched canvas

"Snowy I" 4x4 acrylic on stretched canvas

"Pepper" 3x3 acrylic on stretched canvas

And I also finally, finally drew out my official holiday painting for 2013:

This is an 8x10, I believe - hard canvas panel.

I don't know WHY it took me so long to do. I knew what I sort of wanted in my head, but I danced around the issue. Finally, I just did it. I built it as I went, not really having a clear picture, but just a vague idea. I rather like how it turned out, actually!

I started painting the fireplace, and I spent HOURS on the bricks to make it look like embers were burning low. I really don't understand why it takes me so long, but it does. I need to look up tips or techniques on how to speed things up. I only got the back wall finished last night. I'm very frustrated with myself, even though I like how the back wall looks.

Still working on the side walls, obviously.
I'll be working on that after I finish this post, actually!

I have a couple of commissions I'm working on, and a few other things, but I'm really feeling tired lately. We have a family trip coming up in two weeks, and I really hope that and the holidays in general give me a new kick in the pants to get things rolling again!

Lastly, I wanted to leave you with a picture from my son's rabbit's modeling session. My mother wanted to have an ornament made for my son, and Smoke (the rabbit) had to put up with modeling in a Santa suit:

Smoke spent the whole time modeling, not bothered at all. Is that a fabulous rabbit, or what?

Friday! (and a giveaway!)

The first Friday of 2013, and I'm welcoming it with a giveaway! Well, OK, it's actually because my Facebook Art Page is finally up to 300 likes, but it IS still Friday... Anyway... *ahem*

It's time to give away the free 5x7 painting!!!

Who's eligible? ANYONE! There are two ways to earn entries. First, like this facebook fan page, the second is to tweet the giveaway (which is optional.) The raffle is open from today until Monday at midnight, and I will announce the winner on Tuesday! Shipping is included if you are in the US or Canada, and if you are outside of those areas there will just be a small shipping fee just to offset the cost. 

You will get to choose either a 5x7 Acrylic canvas panel painting, or a watercolor painting. You get to then choose the kind of painting or elements you'd like to see (no portraits), and then I get to run with the idea and you get to own the result!

If you have questions, please ask! 

Good luck!






a Rafflecopter giveaway 




Moving on, Cosmo came home yesterday. I admit, seeing him without his leg was shocking even though I was prepared for it. He was much perkier than I thought he would be, and the vet apparently commented on it to my husband that he actually does seem happier. His leg must have really been hurting him more than we even thought. I'm hoping once he's all healed up he'll be back to his old self!

Cosmo, just happy to be home and snacking already!

The good news is that I'm feeling like the fires are back to building up and I'm ready to go! I want to knock out this fairy/peacock commission, get this new abstract finished (and there is another one half completed that I'd like to get done) and then I plan on diving back into my Alice series, I think with perhaps a much bigger piece (24x36?) This means I need to hit my sketchbook because I simply haven't settled on what I want my Cheshire Cat and Caterpillar to look like yet, but I have a good idea about my Queen of Hearts and other characters. I think it's time for a large composition featuring a lot of elements (but I don't want it to get too busy either...)  

So, lots percolating, even if nothing is getting done in the physical realm. It'll come! 


My husband is still home, so I haven't accomplished anything in the studio. I'm hoping I will but I wonder if it's going to take until Monday. I should be able to sketch out my commission piece without much of a problem, but for some reason disappearing off into my studio to paint is near impossible with other people in the house! (But he's cute, so it's OK *wink*)

Distractions

I thought that Wednesday was going to be all about getting back to normal. Kids off to school, people back to work... ME back to work.

Instead, I was surprised to find out (or be reminded, I am a teeeeeensy bit scatterbrained sometimes) that my husband actually has the rest of the week off. I admit, I didn't handle that bit of news with grace. Instead, I think I sat there blinking owlishly at him for ten minutes and saying repeatedly "You do? You... have today off? Wait, you do? The whole week? You do? Vacation?"

Not that I don't love spending time with him, because I do. He's my very best friend in the whole world. It's just that I thought all the normal cogs of the year would fall into place on January 2nd. I had a painting percolating in my head that I finally had started in on but couldn't maintain focus with because of all the constant interruptions (teenagers are fun) and "should do's" running through my head. After all, if the family is home mom SHOULD be entertaining them, right?

So, my abstract/surreal will have to wait until I get some alone time. Some non-husband-vacation-time where even sneaking off to write a blog is a trick! Here it sits:

General concept just barely mapped out. Abstracts are a bit more free in their plotting!
This one is an 18x24 canvas - room to play!

And some color. A tiny tiny start. I'm definitely going heavy on the blues in this one instead of the purples that I love so much. It's simply meant to be blue!

I also have a couple of commissions that need to be worked on as well. In particular a concept for a peacock, a fairy, and a key - all together somehow - is in process. It's slowly coming together in my mind. I have figured out that I used to use sketchbooks to figure out how I wanted a composition laid out, but I got better at it inside my head and stopped using the sketchbooks. I somehow managed to create a mental blackboard to work with. Now I don't feel so bad not using my sketchbooks as I used to! I need to start playing with them in new ways, though!

Another reason I wanted to get into my studio is that one of my dogs (we have three) had his leg amputated on Wednesday. Cosmo has bone cancer, and it's only a matter of time. However, in the area of pain management and quality of life, this was necessary.

This is Cosmo this Christmas, having snagged the new Labrador, Lily's bed.

They don't expect Cosmo to live out the year, which weighs heavy on me. I only lost my Labrador, Max, in April.

My studio is therapeutic for me, and it would have been nice to have been painting while waiting for the call from the vet letting us know he did well during his surgery (he did just fine by the way, and we get to take him home in the afternoon on Thursday.)

So that is where things stand, and where I sit; caught between loving the company, surprise vacation time, and a little sadness thrown in for good measure.

Max

I don't usually have stories to share about my paintings and where the inspiration came from, but my most recent painting is an exception to that.

We had a black Labrador named Max. Max joined our family when my daughter was six months old, and stayed with us up until April 4th, 2012 when we had to put him to sleep. Max was quite the character, with a strong will and a propensity for mischief (most especially if there was a skunk around. Oh, the skunks. You'd think a dog would learn to leave them alone!)

Max was also my companion. I had not realized how much he had become a part of my life until after he was gone. The loss is something I feel keenly. I painted this painting for my family, to always remember Max.

One of Max's quirks was that in the middle of the night, he liked to go out back, sit on a hill, and just gaze at the moon and stars. Usually this was around 2AM, and we didn't find it very funny - especially since we were the ones who had to go and drag him back inside (it wasn't safe out there with all the coyotes and other wildlife prowling around. And the skunks. Did I mention the skunks!??!)  But the truth was that Max was my moon-dog, and that's how I'd like to remember him.

So here he'll sit, on a hill of flowers and fireflies, watching the moon.

While the original will remain with us personally, already there are requests for prints.  Those are available for order on my website here.