Dreaming

This is a more whimsical painting titled "Dreaming". It is number 3 in a series of women paintings I am doing.

 My purpose in doing a series is to explore the topic and paint wherever the inspiration leads me.
There are many virtues that are embodied in women and often they begin with a dream.

This painting is 10" x 8" on gallery wrapped canvas. $250 plus $5 shipping in the US and is available for purchase. Contact me!

She Can Do It!

Today I put the finishing touches on this painting. It's second in a series called "The Virtuous Woman".
When I was thinking (out loud) of what to paint next in this series, my daughter suggested that I do something like the poster of  "We Can Do It".  It is an American wartime propaganda poster produced by J. Howard Miller in 1943 for Westinghouse Electric as an inspirational image to boost worker morale. (1)

One of the titles I considered for this painting was "Strong in so Many Ways", but my daughter vetoed it. That title does say in just a few words the idea behind this painting. But no go. My next thought was to just call it "She Can Do It". My daughter was asleep on the couch and couldn't gun it down, so there you have it.

"She Can Do It" is a tribute to the strength of today's woman.

This painting is 8" x10" x .75" on gallery wrapped canvas. $250 plus $5 shipping in US. To purchase it please contact me!

(1) Wikipedia

A New Series of Paintings

Today on my blog I am posting the first of a series. The series is called Virtuous Woman and it is inspired by all the women that I know that are multi-talented, smart, and wonderfully kind and good in so many ways.

Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies. (Proverbs 31:10)

This first painting needed a title and as I thought and painted and painted and thought, a song soon began repeating itself in my mind. It was a song that was an anthem for women in the 1970's as women attempted to combat social and cultural inequalities. I was fresh out of high school back then and was able to witness that bit of history. Although my interpretation is a bit different, I think the song title lends itself to a perfect title for this painting.

How can I describe today's woman? Oh wait, that's why I am painting this series for! Each painting will be an exploration of the many facets in a woman's life. "I am Woman" is the opening statement. A woman and her world. I painted the world like a halo that crowns her head, symbolic for the angel that she is.

This is an 8" X 10" painting and is available for purchase, $250 plus $5 shipping in US. Contact me for info.

Blind Leading the Blind

Each year the Springville Museum of Art holds a juried show that focuses on Religious art. This year I created a painting titled "Blind Leading the Blind". My reference is from the teachings of Christ in Luke 6:39 (KJV).

It is painted in acrylic and is 24" x 30" x 2" on gallery wrapped canvas. I took it down to Springville on Saturday. The show will be juried this week and of course I am hoping it will get in.

I like to include words or quotes in my art occasionally. In this painting I put a quote that I thought was pretty profound. It reads:

"The world today is in serious trouble. It is struggling for survival in a sea of selfishness, hate, greed and sin. They travel and cry for peace but do not want peace in righteousness."

To me that translates to this; many in the world have a bad case of spiritual blindness turning from the true source that gives us light and knowledge.

The leader of the group appears quite confident as he leads his followers. I came very close to adding the words coming from his mouth: "the ditch is this way" (see Luke 6:39). I think that we are not totally blind when we make choices and I think neither is this guy. The women in the center is labeled as trusting in the arm of flesh. The fellow behind her appears to be not only spiritually blind but deaf as well.

I often take a photo of my paintings, but my camera battery was dead so I had to borrow one. Apparently this camera is sensitive to capturing good pics of people because when I snapped a shot of the painting, a message appeared. It read: "Did someone blink?"

It made me chuckle and say; no they're just blind.

I Have a Show at Local Colors!

My art is featured this month at Local Colors of Utah Gallery. The theme for the show is "I Can Fly".
I recently moved and it took me a little bit to get in gear to paint for this show. I hadn't painted for a couple of months and when I finally got around to painting, I just couldn't get inspired.

*sigh*

 No matter what, I just couldn't think of anything I wanted to paint. The theme was really wide open for all kinds of ideas, but alas, none came my way. Finally some very good advice came to me...Stop thinking and start painting!

So I did and even though I wasn't thrilled with my first idea, I just kept painting. Pretty soon the ideas started coming. Unfortunately by that point, I only had a short amount of time to paint before the hanging of the show. The show is now up from October 18th thru November 13th.

This is one of my paintings in the show:

 "Flying a Hare Too Low"

  Come see what else I ended up with when I had to fly by the seat of my pants, or should I say 'paint' by the seat of my pants?

An Award From Robert Burridge!

This month the Utah Watercolor Society held it's Fall Show at the Michael Berry - Utah Artists Hand Gallery in Salt Lake City. The juror was Robert Burridge. If you are not familiar with him, you should do a search. He is a delightfully funny guy as well as an outstanding teacher and artist.

My painting 'Adoggio' was awarded a juror's award by Robert. At the reception I went up to him to thank him for the award. He asked which one was mine. I told him and he smiled. He said "When I saw that, I laughed my @$$ off."

My joy in painting is to bring a smile to the viewer, and if they happen to lose a body part in the process, well, mission accomplished.

See the show! 163 E. Broadway (300 South). October 3-November 1, 2013

Summer Bunnies

Marketing art online has become quite a good venue. I have been selling on ebay since 2001. After much study and learning how to sell there, I finally started on Sept. 11th. However I had a free dial-up connection and a very slow computer and my first auction didn't go live until about 10 minutes after midnight on Sept. 12th. It took all evening to get everything loaded up and ready to go. I was also watching the horrific events on TV and I am sure that slowed me down a bit.

So here I am almost 12 years later still selling on ebay. Because of my gallery connections and other online venues I have decided to make collectible art cards (ACEOs) my main product for this venue- tiny paintings for tiny prices. I am also in the process of cleaning out my studio and offering art at clearance prices. They need to find a new home.

I have a set of auctions that will be ending this evening for Bunny art cards. They are in watercolor and are 3.5" x 2.5".

 Knitting Bunny

Little Miss Bunny

Bunny Love

Check them out before they are gone! 

Update on My Activities

I have been working hard on my art lately. The past two years I have been tending my baby grand-daughter who is just turning 2. My grandmotherly duties have been relieved a few days a week as little Lily Rain is going to pre-school to expand her social  skills.

That means I have more time to work on my art! I am working on my watercolor painting currently. 

I was recently juried into Xanadu Gallery of Scottsdale AZ as one of their online studio artists. 

You can purchase my work there at:

The Art of Catherine Darling Hostetter

I was also accepted into the Trodden Path Gallery; You can purchase my work at this link:

Cathy Darling Art

If you are live in Utah, you can find my art at Local Colors Gallery  1054 E. 2100 So. Salt Lake City, UT 84106 Or visit their website:

My Pure Art Gallery

Sold!

Also in Utah you can find my whimsical art at Paisley Pomegranate of Park City, and Salt Lake City.

Ready, Set, Go.... starting at 99 cents

One thing I continue to do is participate in a contest with artists friends on Ebay. It's called Nibblefest and the purpose of the contest is to see how many unique bids our art can get. So in other words each person who bids on a piece gets counted once even though they may bid 5 or 6 times. It's fun to do and all auctions start at just 99 cents. It's also fun to see the bids go up and see how high they get.

Of course when you participate as an artist you do risk that you might get only one bid and sell something for just 99 cents. I know it's happened to me before. I don't mind though, I just look at it like it's an investment in getting my name out there.

Nibblefest always starts at the same time each month, the 20th and ends on the 27th. This month's theme is Nursery Rhymes. I chose Mary, Mary Quite Contrary. Currently in my artwork I have transitioned from painting in acrylics to oils, so I thought I would like to do a quick study of a girl, added a few flowers and called her Mary. She's kind of a modern Mary. The origin of that particular nursery rhyme is a bit gruesome and several hundred years old, so I decided to depart from the old and ugly to new and pretty.

Taking a picture of an oil painting when it's freshly done is a touch difficult. The new paint is shiny and reflects the light. I got a fairly good shot of it, but the color didn't come across very good. The background is a colorful but muted array of purple, greens and blues mixed into grey tones. Mary's coloring and dress is delicate pinks and roses but in the photo it looks washed out. Normally I would enhance the color in photoshop but it made the background blue-blue, too blue, so I had to settle for the washed out looking image because the colors were more true to the painting. I don't know what is worse - enhanced wrong colors or washed out impression of the right colors. What would you do?

Anyhoo. This is an invitation for you to visit my auction of Mary and bid on it. Help me get multiple bids so I can win the contest! (Is that bad to ask?) You may even win a lovely 8" x 10" oil painting! Check it out;

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

Unlimited

This week will be the opening of the Utah Watercolor Society show for their Two Star and Signature members. The title of the show is "Breaking Through - Something New" and the artists were urged to create something a little different from traditional watercolor techniques and go for creative and experimental.

My painting titled "Unlimited" is painted on watercolor paper mounted to masonite. The majority of it is in watercolor, since the guidelines state that 75% must be water media. My 25% departure was in small details of the painting. I collaged die-cut blossoms and buttons of watercolor paper that were washed in pale shades of watercolor. The buttons have little threads of brazilian embroidery floss giving the appearance that they are sewn to the dress. The silver lining of the cloud is enhanced with white glitter. Recently I bought some Derwent Ink Tense pencils. They are so fun! Like watercolor pencils, you draw with them and then take your brush with water and blend them in. The difference between them and regular watercolor pencils is that the Ink Tense becomes permanent after it dries. I know, pretty cool. I used them for adding little details around the painting, including drawing designs on the dress using stencils and then lightly washing over them with water.

The final touch was to apply and spray matte finish over the painting and then brush on 5 layers of a satin poly-acrylic varnish. This very durable finish allowed me to frame the painting without glass. 

"Unlimited" will be showing at Michael Berry Gallery, March 15 - April 12th. The address is 163 E. Broadway, Salt Lake City, UT.
This painting is available for purchase $650 contact me for info. 

New Paintings for the Gallery

Next week our gallery, Local Colors of Utah is having a white show featuring art from all our artists.
I have created a couple of mixed media pieces. I collage paper onto canvas for a smoother surface and then paint on it using acrylic paint, pastels, watercolor pencils, colored pencils and watercolor crayon.
For the New Year I thought I would do a series of faces with positive thoughts and quotes on them. Though my paintings are not totally 'white', they have some off white in them. I just didn't feel like doing totally white paintings.

The first one I did is titled Peace Comes From Within, and is 10" x 8". The second one is titled "Life is About" and has the quote; Life isn't about finding yourself, life is about creating yourself. It's the same size as the first one.
Each face is a new original painting.

The opening for this show is Friday, January 18th, 6 to 9 PM at Local Colors of Utah, 1054 E. 2100 South, SLC, UT.

Back to my eday job

The past year and a half I have devoted my time to tending grandchildren and creating art for my gallery representation. I have spent years - since 2001 selling on ebay until, well, the last year and a half!

I am happily finding time to do art for ebay again, and since my original paintings are going to my brick and mortar places, I am using images from my paintings to collage into new works of mixed media art to sell on ebay. It is quite fun to create something totally new and original with some of my favorite pieces of art. 

Today I am featuring a collage that is currently on ebay titled "Moos and Sunflower". It is 8" x 10" on a canvas panel. 

Here's the link:

Moos and Sunflower

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