the past 2 weeks

I can't help but blame the economy and the recent financial markets for my slow business lately. I attended the JP Open Studios yesterday and there were a lot of artists expressing the same thing. But their works,,, some were in the thousand dollar range. Some pieces were great. But it's all in the eye of the beholder.

The upside of being slow is that my portfolio is growing leaps. I am able to do paintings of the breeds that people have requested. Not that they look like their dogs, but whatever. I've done a mastiff and there's a blood hound coming next. Not to mention the "2 kittens in a corner" and the sheep that I'm working on right now.

I just can't stop painting regardless of what the business is like. After touring around the JP Open Studios, Tracy and I have decided to open her apt. for open studios next year. She's got a good set up. She just has to start beading.

we shall see....

The Last Week of Summer

And it's still 80 freakin degrees out. I'm ready for fall and the cool crisp mornings that come with it.

And the business! Let's hope that this fall and Christmas season picks up despite of all the crazy financial stuff going down. I heard this morning that Bank of America bought out Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers has filed for bankruptcy. How does this effect me, the Pedigreed artist? Just like you'll see today in the stock market that a lot of people are holding on to their money, and not spending it on luxury items such as pet portraits or art for that matter.

So it's going to be a slow season I'm sure, but I'm hoping something will turn up. This week's projects include putting together a bit of a displaying portfolio and gift certificate and driving down to Norwell to drop it all off for the Scituate Animal Shelter fund raiser. And of course to work on paintings. Last week I finished the "sisters" and did a small 5x7 of a mastiff and started an 8x10 which I'm going to call "Kittens in a Corner".

Until next week....

This past week zzzzz

Last weekend was a whirl. Why is it that every time there's a 4 day work week that it just seems to go on forever.

I was finally able to get my constant contact email out with my events for the fall/Christmas season that has snuck up on us rather quickly. One included a event for the New England Arts for Animals with the reception on this past Sat, the 6th. Granted I sent it out the day before the reception, but the exhibit is running through the entire month of September, so you could go out and look at it if you wanted to. One good thing though, is that I have a woman who also donates alot to the causes that I donate to and that's how we've met. She is now donated a piece for the New England Arts for Animals. I love it when good things come together.

The reception was quite nice. What I did notice is that some people were selling glicee prints for as much as my original watercolor! Which makes me think that maybe i'm pricing to low, but hell, no one's buying as it is anyway. I'm not going to change anything right away. I do know that glicee printing can be very expensive (at least the last time I looked into it) and some of the framing was custom done and that is always expensive!!

I also went riding this weekend up at Chrislar, was able to swing by my parents house for lunch and a dip in the pool. Yesterday, Jason and I went up to Newbury NH (and other towns west of Concord) and try to scout out some deer. We found more moose sign than anything! I may just take a day and sit and wait for a moose to show up and watch him. That would be soooo cool.

Jason's already talking about driving up to NY state next weekend so that he can sniff out some hunting spots out there. I told him that he's pretty much on his own. I don't want to make a 3 hour trip up there only to come back early the next day (another 3 hour car ride). We're going to Mars Volta on Sunday night.

Labor Day weekend

I've been away to lovely lake Carmi in Vermont this past weekend, so nice!

I've been accepted to participate in the Howl -A-Day greyhound fundraiser so that's good. I'm ready to update my events page but our computer's are having a meltdown today and I haven't been able to get up to that site yet just to see what the traffic stats are. I'm sure it wasn't a whole lot anyway. I don't know many who spent this past weekend on a computer vs. being at the beach or the lake (like me!).

So it's the start of September and it's the last month of this quarter to try to make up some $$ for the worst sales season since I've started. I haven't spent alot, but I haven't recieved alot of interest in what I do either.

I still feel like I'm riding that freakin rowboat from the weekend though. Vertigo is the worst