A wonderful resource

For all my artist readers out there--I have a wonderful resource for you:

http://artistshelpingartistsblog.blogspot.com/

Two artists, Leslie Saeta and Dreama Tolle Perry, host a weekly radio show where they share their hard earned knowledge about being a successful artist. Topics include diverse subjects such as using Facebook to sell art to framing your art to marketing your art online. Each broadcast is available as a free podcast on iTunes. It's definitely worth your while to check out.

Old Saybrook Arts Festival

What an effort for the show this weekend. Rain during setup Friday night. Rain at 4:00 on Saturday (I spent the rainstorm in my tent--at least I know my tent doesn't leak). And rain during breakdown. You have never seen so many artistic drowned rats in your life. And boy was it steamy when it wasn't raining. I spent the weekend covered in a gooey paste that was a combination of sunblock and sweat.

However people came out like they always do at Old Saybrook. Interestingly enough, all my sales of orginal paintings were of calla lilies. Here's one that sold.

More calla lilies and pears

The show at West Hartford is coming up this weekend and I'm getting busy. Here are the latest paintings.

Dogs I've met that made me smile

I have a new theme that I'm working on---Dog's I've Met That Made Me Smile. These are little 6x8 inch oil sketches that are really a lot of fun.

At art shows people frequently bring their dogs and when I see a dog that elicits a smile, I usually grab a camera and take a picture. The title says it all.

Calla lilies

A while back I got the idea to paint calla lilies. They are so austerely beautiful and I had in mind to paint some white ones. Having said that, finding some up here in the north country in March is another story. I had to order some mini-calla lilies online which came in a bouquet of 10 pink and 10 white and cost $50. I also ordered the square vase for another $10 because it looked perfect with the lilies in the picture.

Well, never believe the picture in an ad. When they arrived, the vase was HUGE, way too big for the little lilies. I was scrambling to find a vase before my $50 investment bit the dust. After watching some You Tube videos on flower arranging, one of the presenters suggested Crate and Barrel as a good source of interesting vases. I went down to my local store and came away with a pretty good haul of vases, the most interesting being the Ono vase, which is a round vase with a hole in it. Very interesting and very contemporary. Hope you like them.

I learned one thing with this painting. Never make a fruit/flower still life larger than life unless it is REALLY huge. If you make it, say, 150% of life, he fruit will appear as Uber Fruit. I originally drew it larger than it is but I had to start all over and make everything smaller. I'll stick to 1:1 in the future.

Gladiolas

Every now and then I enjoy doing flowers. I originally started this painting for a demonstration at an art league meeting. I came in with the grisaille (gray underpainting) already done and demonstrated the initial stages of layering glaze over it.

Continuing this painting at home, I used for the first time the color Rose Madder Genuine by Winsor Newton. This is one of those oil colors that art stores keep behind the counter. AT $30 a tube, they are afraid of shoplifters. But it's well worth the $30. It is a deep rose color which, combined with the technique of glazing, creates the most incredible color.