Where Does the Month Go?

September is almost over, it has been a very creative month. Today I'm working on what will likely be my last #paintseptember painting which I will post when complete, but meanwhile, here is the next one painted after those posted already below. A brightly colored, stylized version of a flower  - acrylic paint on canvas.

Following that painting, I was inspired by something I saw one night while outside. I looked up and the moon was for a very brief moment peaking through from between the clouds. I photographed it (which was of course blurry and non defined seeing as I used my phone), but it did give me enough to go on for inspiration to paint this next one - acrylic paint on canvas.

While trying to decide what to paint next, I thought to give painting some rocks I have collected a go - I've collected many rocks over the years and as I was going through them to decide which ones to paint, came across the three heart shaped rocks that I'd found while digging through the garden. This first photo is the work in progress, showing the actual rocks and the water color pencils that I used to create the drawing, with the first one painted.

This is the finished artwork, though I may still add a background - haven't decided yet, but for now it is complete.

Have a great Sunday everyone and keep the creative juices flowing! Now back to #paintseptember number 7 :)

Joined Zazzle, new features and 'Two Tulips' added

Well I figured I might as well expand my online reach a little bit more and signed up at Zazzle.com. For those of you unfamiliar with Zazzle, it is a venue for 'store owners' to upload designs which can be printed on various items and clothing on demand.  I will post a link once I've got my first store all set up and ready for visitors.

Meanwhile, I spent most of last weekend scanning various forgotten drawings and art that has been sitting in my portfolio case.  Much of it likely won't make it online, but some is worth preparing for upload.

I have decided to put less energy into maintaining my profile on Image Kind, since I have been reading in the forums that there is a genuine concern by members of a poorly designed internal search engine in place.  Even though IK offers high quality prints (some say among the best), this search issue is a problem since other unrelated images appear first a lot of the time (even if searching with the exact keywords).  As a free member it is doubly hard to get noticed since we are only allowed limited categorization and keywords and the poorest placement in the search hierarchy to start with.

I'm very content with maintaining Fine Art America, Red Bubble and The Untapped Source however :)

There are a few more features to mention since last week; 'Bono' got it's second feature on FFA yesterday in http://fineartamerica.com/groups/realistic-portraiture.html and 'Tillie' got her first feature on FAA today in http://fineartamerica.com/groups/shelter-dogs.html.  'John Lennon' has been featured four times since my last post (to view the groups, please see the links posted under the painting on the 'Paintings' page).

This morning I added 'Two Tulips', which is a 9" x 12" acrylic painting on canvas:

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/two-tulips

http://www.redbubble.com/two-tulips

http://www.theuntappedsource.com/two-tulips

Cheers! :)

Welcome to my Artist Blog!

After some time away from drawing and painting, distracted by technology and other pursuits, this past Christmas I painted a portrait of my sister's dog 'Tillie' as a gift for her and her husband.

 
It was such a good feeling to paint again, I had forgotten how much I enjoy it and it awoke in me the desire to get back to the basics of art with a pencil and a paint brush again. 

I began researching online artist communities and considering which ones I might want to join to see if I could sell 'prints on demand' and original artwork, when I realized I needed to get a little more organized and start at the beginning. So I've spent the past few weeks scanning older photos of my artwork, preparing them for the web and designing my online portfolio http://www.onlinebydesign.ca as the first step in this process and the second step has been setting up this blog.

I'm sure it will go through a lot of changes over the next few weeks and months as I decide upon the look and feel I want for it.  Now that both my site and blog are online however, I will begin signing up for the various artist community sites and places to sell art online that have caught my attention and will post links to those when they are ready to share.

My goal in starting this blog is to encourage new inspiration and motivation to continue to grow in me as an artist and to keep learning and doing!