SOLD!

I recieved an email this morning in my inbox that this painting sold over the weekend at the New England Arts for Animals show. Whoo Hoo! As excitited as I am seeing a piece of mine take off, I'm sad to see it go. Am I weird? Yes, very much so! I've already contacted the coordinator of the show to get the information of the buyer so that I can write them a quick thank you note. You know, keep it real!

After a whole weekend at Chester in the woods, I was thinking of what I should blog about on this lovely rainy Monday morning. Being that I wasn't creative at all this weekend unless you call chopping down small trees with a hatchet creative (my back and shoulders got their workout this weekend)....

But when I received the email this morning lets talk about the emotions that I felt- Surprised. (then) excited (then) Sad. Sad? Why? I loved this piece. The original photo was taken on a farm in St. Albans Vermont. When some friends of mine rented a house up on Lake Champlain there was this small house across the street with all sorts of barn yard critters. The temps were like -20F and my friend H and I took a walk to check out the farm. The woman who owned them all came out to give us a "tour" of all these animals. They were all rescues and each had a story. The pony in this picture? 22 years old and blind. Spent most of his time with "his" sheep, who is also in this painting, who was a fair ground attraction because he had 3 horns, (other side, you can't see it in the painting). Most of the geese and ducks were grown up Easter basket additions. She also had a monster-pig with tusks, tons of chickens, cats and a couple of dogs. One who had a litter of pups that she was keeping warm in the barn under a roof of hay.

Anyway, that aside, my paintings are like things that I've created, nurtured and shown off only to come back home and sit in the portfolio case. When one is purchased, it's like giving it wings to fly to it's new home. You know that it's better for you but you're still sad to see it go. Then there are the others you just can't wait to see go, but those seem to linger forever. But this is the way artwork gets out there. Sometimes I need to watch Antiques Roadshow to realize this.... when they bring in works of art. And no, they're not Monet's or Picasso's but some artist who did beautiful work and made someones home a more beautiful place. I hope that this piece will reach that goal as it will be passed from hand to home and from home to heart.

Wednesday Night Creativity at the Allston SkyBox

So the last time I was at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, T & I did the live model drawings. We scooted out at about 8ish and checked out this guy's paintings:

Luis Melendez "Still Life with Figs" c. 1760

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Egidio_Mel%C3%A9ndez

Look at the detail!! In all my years paintings I often have trouble with textures. (except fur - that I've got down!) So we decided to do our own still life and practice on textures. J had found a deer skull in the woods a couple of weeks ago (most likely the result of deer hit by car, goes off into woods, coyotes came and finished the job).

So here's our still life. Complete with red grapes, artisan bread and a bottle of wine. (Maynard from Tool created this wine and it is tasty! I still have a bottle and am saving it for a very special occasion). Anyway... I thought it was so pretty and artsy with the skull and all that I took a couple of pictures with the phone and the "good" camera. Our goal was light and texture!

This is my watercolor. I tried to put down as much information as I could before dinner was done (there's nothing like painting whilst the aroma of roasted chicken fills the air). I like the bread and I really like how the shadows came out. It's not done, but yet I think there's a lot to be said for leaving it as is. I don't know. I'm kind of torn about it. Maybe I'll go back, but it's going to be hard because I didn't take any reference photos from this angle and yeah, we ate that bread with the chicken!

Springtime!

Remember the Scottish Terrier from previous posts? Here he is; all done!

Well, it has been a busy week. I finally got more artwork up on the website, and one of them is my sweet Luna kitty! Her first pet portrait (aw!) Most of the new works were mixed media pieces done on that Cotman paper. Cotman is a cheaper watercolor paper. It doesn't hold the paint well, but makes up for it with the way it handles color paper on top of the watercolor. I have a ream of this Cotman paper (given to me) and I'm trying to use it up... I can't bring myself to throw anything away. I am definitely one of those persons who holds on to markers until they're completely dry. Heck, I think I still have charcoal from art school somewhere!

Aw, Sweet Luna Kitty

Did I mention that most of my work on my website is for SALE? And that most of the artworks are also available in prints and magnets? You really should stop by and take a peek at what's new! http://www.thepedigreeartist.com

Oh and look, here's me!

Standing next to my "Black n' White Farm" piece at the opening reception of the New England Arts for Animals Calendar 2011 exhibit. (I had one glass of wine by this point and looking quite flushed!). This was a great exhibit and I met a lot of people who I had been emailing for some time. So nice to put a face with a name. I also met a great watercolor artist, Frank Constantino, who is also an architectural render er. You should check out his website here: http://www.fmconstantino.com I plan to take one of his workshops this summer. You can never stop learning.

On another note, this past weekend New England had a beautiful spring weekend. J & I went to Chester and did a lot of hiking around. J found one antler shed and I found 2 birds nests from last spring. I also walked out of the woods with at least 3 tics on me. Freakin' hate those things!! I've already had 1 battle with Lyme disease and do not ever want to do that again!! We also had some turkeys in the front yard and some of the males were parading. I've only seen this done on TV nature shows, so this was a real treat! We're headed back next weekend, I have to give my body some time to rest. Feeling quite creaky this morning.

Yummy!!

Crappy photo, but these were the Guinness Cupcakes that I made for the Saint Patrick's Day party that I went to on Saturday and they were a hit!! Guinness, chocolate, BUTTER, sugar and sour cream made the cupcakes, and then the frosting was cream cheese, heavy cream and confection sugar. I also called around and found some edible gold dust to decorate these with. There was SO much batter, that I froze 16oz. of it for later. I found a couple of recipes but my twitter friend @a12eggs recommended this one. I went with her choice as she is an expert cupcake baker!

There's one left in the fridge at home. But that will be gone tonight for sure!

Another Wednesday Night at the MFA

Here are some sketches from last night. This model was a spitting image of a Renaissance Madonna. She also held poses for 20 & 15 minutes. I don't like the face on the above drawing. I think she looks too spooked. Like a deer in headlights.....

This one I liked better because of the position, and I think I was pretty successful at getting her proportions right (you can see that I drew the leg where it ought to be in order to get that calf part of the leg correct.) Then T & I went to the Squealin' Pig over in Brigham's Circle on a recommendation from @hiddenboston via Twitter. The food was good, although Tracy said her Reuben could have used more sauerkraut and they were having their Stomp Trivia night and we had the MC's speaker right next to us. So each time he asked a question we had to stop talking ourselves because it was impossible to hear anything.

So I got home about 10:30pm and J was playing guitar. I came in and sat down and started chatting. We were on the sofa and he took his guitar off his lap and placed it between us. Usually I'll just start randomly strumming it to the point of annoyance but this time J worked my fingers into an A Minor and I strummed that for a while. Then me, (of course like a little tot) "Teach me another!!" and then showed me and my fingers a G chord. So I worked on both switching back and forth. Someday............

I'll be rockin' it like PJ Harvey LOL!!!

This weekend I'm going to Hingham to drop off those 2 pieces for the calendar show and making Guiness Cupcakes. I've never done this before, so it could end up to be a total disaster. But I hope not as I've already purchased my edible gold dust for decorating!!

Monday, March 8

Sheep 8x10 watercolor

Black and White Farm 5x7 watercolor

Well, it's official! These 2 pieces made it to the final for the New England Arts for Animals 2011 calendar. I had to repost them again because of the news and that they will be on display at the Derby Street Shoppes in Hingham MA from 3/18 to 3/31. I believe it's suite 413 where the art work is. The opening reception is there on 3/18 from 6pm to 9pm. Hopefully I will be there! It is a Thursday!

This brings me to my next issue, my own disorganization. I had to pull these pieces so that I could frame them and bring them down to Hingham next week. I found the sheep one right away in my big portfolio case. But where was BWF? So I looked in my small portfolio case, which is what I take to Kinkos, nope, not there. Now I'm concerned. Where is it? Did I have it on display somewhere and forgot? So I went through my framed pieces and nope not there either. Oh crap! Where was it???? It was in the big portfolio (the tissue it was wrapped in; the tape caused it to be stuck to another piece so) I missed it the first time. *PHEW*! But this got me thinking. I really should organize some sort of spread sheet and keep track where everything is. Otherwise I should just be giving this stuff away, right?? I did loose one piece by leaving it somewhere on a scanner- Staples, Kinko's? Who knows. But when I realized it was gone, I was sooooo pissed at myself I broke down and cried. So what are things that keep you organized?? I really got to get on the ball!

Wednesday Night at the MFA

So, Here in the lovely city of Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts is FREE on Wednesdays!! And I found out from a woman that I work out with (who is also an artist) they have a figure model there 3 Wednesdays out of the month. Did I mention that this was FREE?! So another friend and I went down and had some serious sketching to do!

This is a page from my sketchbook of head studies. If I'm going to become a portrait artist then this is great practice. She moved about every 10-15 minutes. So you have to be fast! But it really loosens your brain/hand up. She was older, in her 50s, and had quite the nose! I haven't done this since art school!

Then she switched outfits and wore a dancer half-shirt thingy and a petticoat. You can tell that I took fashion illustration courses because I always gave her more volume in her hair than she actually had. I will definitely do this again. It's from 6pm to 9pm and it changes location in the museum every week. You just need to ask the Visitors' Center where it is. They provide stools, boards (for backing) paper, pencils (thank dog, because the charcoal one I brought was cracked all the way through and pissing me off as I tried to sharpen it) and erasers.

H and I stayed til about 7:45 and then checked out the Albrect Durer exhibit. I will go back again and take J as well, as it's one of his favorite artists. I love living in Boston :)

News from Christine Winship Watercolor Artist

News from Christine Winship Watercolor Artist

The above link is my newsletter! Sorry for the link, but it would have cost another $5 to my already membership fee to constant contact. I'm a starving artist, remember? :) The 2 images I have here, "Sheep" (8x10 watercolor) and "Black & White Farm" (5x7 watercolor) are the 2 images I have submitted to the New England Arts for Animals 2011 calender. They have to be voted in to make the cut. Vote for me!!! :) http://neartforanimals.org

The Newsletter is springy! I'm ready. I did a lot of walking in the woods this past weekend. In Epsom, NH on Saturday where they were getting another inch or so of the sticky snow. The kind of snow that makes me want to just stop and start building something.... and then on Sunday in the Wachusett reservoir area where there is still some snow, but you can tell that it's ready to thaw. In fact I saw two pileated woodpeckers. When I was able to glass them I noticed that they were really getting close to each other and then one hopped on top of the other and OH MY are those birds DOING IT??? ha ha! If that doesn't say spring, I don't know what does!

As far as being Creative Every day I made some homemade chicken soup on Saturday night. Must of been from walking around in the snow all day that made me want some. YUMMY.