Karen,

You mentioned Ebay, have you seen this site for marketing art work?

http://www.paintingsdirect.com/index.html

Thank you for posting these, Karin! There's a saying in writing circles, "show, don't tell." That's exactly what you're doing here, and I am inspired by your workload.

I see several I'd buy. Have you thought of possible markets? How about designer showcase homes?

Hawaiian orchids
 

Here's my contribution. I did this about a year ago, before I started painting. It's soft pastel, and I hated doing it. I got bored with the flowers and was so relieved when it was done! I don't think I'm a still life person. Landscapes are different though, I'll try to post some.

Karin, I think you may be over your "block". Geez, don't hold back or anything! They're great.

Jean

Thanks Karin, those are absolutely wonderful and inspirational. I should take your lead and do a few small ones too but it seemed that I broke loose yesterday on one of my 36 x 40" canvases, doing a landscape of filtering light through many trees, on a lighted path and an old gentleman with a cane in the foreground, back to us, walking toward the light at the end. As a matter of fact, "Light At The End" is my title.

My point being that a much smaller one may have sufficed. Does anyone there or you Karin, ever seem to just let go and paint even in a completely different style than usual? That's what seemed to happen to me after painting commissioned work. This large one was so fun (not to say the others aren't) but so fresh and quite loosely painted compared to my "tight" way of painting. I had a great time with music filling the air, brush flying and not a care in the world. Felt great.

Mike, I checked out your tip on the online marketing and here is an excerpt from their reply: I don't qualify as I am on SOG and intend to stay there. However, I think that PaintingsDIRECT may be good for those who do not have a website and wish to sell their work. Thanks. Sure, I do it all the time. But somehow it still looks like "my work" - even those landscapes.

Karen,

Yikes! I never got as far as the fine print.

A non toxic medium


A lot of discussion has suggested the benefits gained by painting different subjects in addition to portraits and, as Sargent and Homer did, painting in media other than their main choice for portraits. Some posts have suggested the benefits of "just letting go" and allowing for some experiment and spontaneity. It seems like common sense to do so but we seem to forget long after our Art instructors put us through those exercises for good reason.

I am posting some working sketches that I used for a large exterior church mural that was executed in 1" ceramic tile. Nothing more complicated than a diagonal cut of that tile was allowed and the palette was glazed and unglazed ceramic tile in a range of colors from light earth tones to bright accents including gold and silver metallic. I hope you can see that the renderings are on a graph paper with each square representing 1".

You can easily see that this would not be anyone's medium of choice for portraiture. I post them because the nearly four years of this type of mural design taught me a lot about pattern, design, and story telling without the convenience associated with our traditional painting materials. (No room for highlights, reflected light, or blending.)

I guess my point is that we are enriched by being diverse in our range of appreciation and skill and it often occurs to me when I am blocking out a portrait composition that I am also drawing on my experience as a ceramic tile mural designer.

Since we're all having so much fun, here is a little 8x10 sketch I made a few years ago. I call these "dear little paintings." (plein air from life, 45 minutes. Henry Henche and Hawthorne called them "mud heads".)

Peggy

Peggy, it's beautiful! Very fresh looking.

Jim, I can see how that ceramic tile work would force an artist to focus on the large masses and values in a face. A lot of benefit in having to deal with that kind of discipline, I would imagine.

Peggy and Jean, those are beautiful! Oh, this is fun. And Jim, I think murals are wonderful forms of art. I remember you mentioning you had experience with them somewhere.

Now, stupid question 101, Karin. Where did you get all those frames? Are they jpeg images you just put your digital photos into or are they part of your stash? I remember you said you always deliver your work framed so you can work some of the color of the portrait into the actual frame color.