don't forget the 50-50 show!

I hope y'all remember that the 20th Street Art Gallery's 50-50 show runs through the end of the month, so if you haven't had time to check it out you can still do that! I know they have re-hung the show and I believe there are now only 27 pieces per artist showing (instead of all 50). Or something like that. You can see all my work here! This page also has the hours and location information.

Chances are I will not make it to the May 9 reception, I don't think I'm going to have time.

Now, I've been debating whether I should try to paint you a rosy picture, but I'm going to give you the truth instead, it's a sob story (lest you think it's all sunshine and unicorns around here, some day I should tell you more sob stories, I have LOTS of them about bad clients and the book curse). Nothing of mine has sold there. Nothing. Zero, zilch, zip. That's painful, to put it mildly, and I don't mean to sound snobby but I'm genuinely shocked. Of 70 artists showing there, only 4 have sold nothing (as of last Wednesday anyway). I really thought my work would do well there, and no doubt the gallery did too or they wouldn't have accepted me, and I really REALLY hope things perk up by the end of May. So.. I dunno. [shrugs] I dunno. I have heard from a few people who are waiting to see which artwork comes back home and are hoping to buy it (cheaper) at that time. It will be slightly cheaper, but it's not going to be half price. And the sad part here is that if nothing sells and the gallery makes no money off of me, I'm pretty sure that will blow my chances of ever being able to show work there again. So, I hate to say this, this is really kind of embarrassing, but if you're holding out for a certain chicken painting, call the gallery and buy it, don't wait to buy directly from me. Please.

Okay, crawling back under my rock now.

the gallery show!

Last night was the artist's reception for the 50-50 Show. How fun to see everything all hung up! There is some amazing work there, and it's fascinating to see all the different styles and the way that everyone interpreted the project. And it just makes me grin like an idiot to see my art in a gallery! Woo hoo!

It was crazy crowded. I had no idea it would be so crowded, and they say Saturday will be even more so. Seriously, elbow to elbow. I mostly felt like I was in the way. I would love to be out of the way but still present (like at an art show where I'm in the booth) so I could talk to people but I felt like I was constantly in the way or blocking someone, so I may not spend long there on Saturday, it didn't seem to work well for that.

The show is open through May 30, I hope lots of you blog-readers get a chance to go see it. Remember, you can buy work over the phone from the gallery! You can see pics of all my work on my website, and just give the # of the painting to the gallery and they'll make it happen for you. :-) Come on, everyone needs some chicken art. Looks great in the kitchen, or anywhere! They're little, 6 by 6 inches each, very easy to find a space for them. AND the gallery does a great job of framing if you'd like! (See pic below, the Andalusian rooster by my head is framed).

Thank you to AC for going to the reception with me last night (and for the yummy dessert). :-) And a big thank you to the five of you who came to visit me!

Here are some pics from last night, during a 3.5 second break in the crowd (I kid you not):

The 50-50 Show

Well, I dropped off my work at the 20th Street Gallery today and got a little glimpse of some of the other art, and this is going to be a great show! I also got a peek at the price list and noticed most people were priced pretty low, so I decided to drop mine down a little in order to stay with the pack. Trust me, I understand the economic woes here... So my stuff is now priced at $120 each. Remember, I only get half of that... :-/

But hey, I can't wait to see the whole show! It opens April 8th and closes May 30th. The gallery hours are noon to 5pm Wednesday through Saturday. Receptions are as follows:

"Artists Reception" Thursday April 9th at 5:3pm. PLEASE RSVP to me asap if you would like to attend this.

"Second Saturday" April 11th, 6pm - 9pm

"Second Saturday" May 9th, 6pm - 9pm

I have put all the paintings on my website HERE. This also gives the gallery location and phone number. You can purchase over the phone from the gallery, they'll ship work for $5.

Now go look at the paintings! :-)

March 18 work in progress

First of all, American Idol... I am aghast.

In other news, I finished painting today!! (Happy dance!!!) I still need to varnish them, but the subject matter is all painted, woo hoo!!! I did rearrange the order a little. There had ended up being some unintentional groupings of bird colors and I did not like that. I will scan them individually and post them all next week.


Next up: Chicken drawing! Dog scrim! And there's a knife on the way that I'm going to scrim on spec. Not the one I mentioned a few weeks ago, that apparently didn't pan out.

February 18 work in progress and other things

Okay, first things first I finished painting all the backgrounds today, which was tedious beyond belief. Of the metallic paints I chose, I'd have to say that "rich espresso" is my favorite because it covers in *only* three coats. That seems like lot unless you've been dealing with having to put on six coats! Yes, it's the small things in life...

Anyway here they are, and this should give you inquisitive minds a better idea of what breeds we're lookin at here. Next up I will obviously be painting the chickens.

I had to be up at 4:45am this morning, not exactly my prime time. I did what I needed to do and was back home just after 7am, and this isn't a part of the day I normally experience so I loaded up The Beast (the big Nikon) and headed down to the Cosumnes preserve to see what sorts of wildlife I could rustle up. I have to wonder if newer lenses would give me sharper pictures at maximum zoom, but I love that camera nonetheless.

American Coot:

Black-Necked Stilt:

Northern Harrier:



Northern Pintail:

Ring-necked Duck:

Red-winged Blackbird:

random crap

This evening was stunningly gorgeous. Unfortunately I was in a hurry to get down to Lodi (Stockton? the borderline thereof?) for a dance rehearsal so I really only got to enjoy it very briefly out the windshield of the Taurus. The sun was setting, so the light was coming in sideways all gold and pink, the clouds overhead were deep blue and it was raining, and there was a double rainbow off to the east. Wow!!! I generally don't think of myself as superstitious but at the same time I catch myself finding "signs" everywhere (usually in places I shouldn't, like hearing my all time favorite song while going to pick someone up from the airport and thinking that the stars are all aligning for me or something dumb like that). But really, this was jaw-dropping, I couldn't help but feel like it's a good omen for things to come. No pics, I neglected my own rule this evening ("Always carry a camera").

I've decided to go to Fresno. Last show of the season for sure, and it'll be day trip, so that's one looooong day. I still have no idea what to do about the birds. There are a lot of options.

So about the 30-30-30 project, what can I say. It was interesting, I definitely used some techniques I don't normally use and drew some things I don't normally draw, and that's all good. It was a good exercise. I was a little tired of it by the end, mostly because there are a lot of other things I ought to be focusing on, but also I didn't realize how hard it would be to come up with something every day! I don't plan to do it again. I also didn't expect it to become quite so personal, I was just going to be drawing random items, but sometimes even random items end up with some sort of deeper meaning. Oh well, you can't really predict those things in life anyway (or, actually, yes you can, but I won't get into that). That's all okay now, for anyone wondering. I've even got one foot in the stirrup. ;-) Hmm!

Anyhoo, here's a pic of all the 30-30-30's together. I'll start shipping them out on Friday, fyi to those of you have ordered (unless I'm still waiting for your moolah).

After about a gazillion hours I have finally finished sketching all the chickens for the 50-50 show. Yes, this is the thing where I'm theoretically supposed to be doing one a day but decided to sketch ALL of them and then paint a few a day. We'll see if that saves me any angst. That's a lot of chickens, let me just say right now. This has the potential to cure me of ever wanting to make chicken art again. ;-) I know this doesn't show up very well, and it was hard to photograph. Each of these is 6x6 inches, so the whole group together like this is 2.5 by 5 feet. I was up on a chair with the camera over my head!

Oh! I've been talking to a bunch of knifemakers lately, since I find myself wanting to focus on working on knives (scrimshaw for now, engraving when I am more comfortable with it, and I REALLY need to study scrolls and work on that). Of course nothing is ever for sure until it's here in my hands, but there might be a collaborative project in the works for this summer, and I've been in touch with a collector who is interested in having me work on a piece this fall. And another knifemaker is going to send me a knife that I can scrim "on spec." Not my favorite way to work, but the focus of that would be getting it published, so I'd really give it my all and do the most fantastic image I can come up with.

I'm happy about the rain, we need it. Plus it's always a good excuse to wear flannel and drink hot chocolate.

for a bit of GOOD news...

I'm so excited! And I just can't hide it! You know how people say "I'm jumping up and down." I really did! And I yelled WOO HOO very loudly. Because I was accepted into 20th Street Gallery's 50-50 show.

[insert wild applause here]

Thank you thank you. Yes, this means you should buy lots of things from me right now before I take the Sacramento art world by storm.

50 days, 50 pieces (see, the 30-30-30 is just a warmup!). My theme is chickens. 6 x 6 inches. Acrylic and ink. I start January 30. I finish March 25. This was my sample submission:


Blue Rosecomb
acrylic and ink on board
6x6 inches