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

.

Cathy Darling's Pure Art Studio: Snow Girls

Cathy Darling's Pure Art Studio: Snow Girls: I love creating art. I love dabbling in all kinds of mediums. My latest venture is creating art on the computer. This month I bought the new...

Snow Girls

I love creating art. I love dabbling in all kinds of mediums. My latest venture is creating art on the computer. This month I bought the new Photoshop Elements 11 and have been creating little paintings for my etsy shop. Actually I have been making clip art! I am sharing a little Cathy Darling art in e-files. It's all so brand new, that I only have couple of sets done. The first set was for Thanksgiving titled 'Gather to Gobble'. The second set is more winter appropriate and is called 'Snow Girls'. You can find them in my etsy shop:
 http://www.etsy.com/shop/CathyDarling

This set is full of whimsical Snow Girls and includes all of these snowy gals.

 

I am having a Cyber Monday Sale - all items in my shop are 20% off!  Happy Holiday Shopping!

Emo's Grave - An Urban Legend

It wouldn't be Halloween time without mentioning Emo's Grave.

This painting is currently featured in my show 'Falling For Salt Lake' now on display at Local Colors of Utah Gallery - 1054 E. 2100 So. in Sugar House. Open Tues-Sat. 11:00am-7:00pm. And yes we are open despite all the construction around us! 

Emo's grave is located in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. It was in high school that I first heard about it and it said to be one of Salt Lake's scariest places to visit.
 
It is said that if you go to Emo's grave at midnight and circle three times around it chanting Emo, Emo, Emo... You will see his face in the window! How's that for a creepy time?


The grave belongs to Jacob "Emo" Moritz who founded the Salt Lake Brewing Company. Jacob died on a trip to Germany and his family erected the memorial to remember him. 
 This is an urban legend and no disrespect is meant towards the Moritz family. 

Dressing up - It's October After All

Now that my show for Local Colors is up at the gallery, I have been focusing on my online art. After taking pretty much a year off from online sales, the last couple of months I have been turning my thoughts back to them.

One thing I have done to get my Etsy and Ebay shops up and running  was match my online prices to my gallery prices. I feel at this point in my little art career, I should do that. However, after much research and thinking, thinking, thinking I have decided that my online sales are going to take a new direction and become more illustrative rather than trying to compete with my gallery work.

I am not ready to totally present my new items just yet, but I will give you a little hint. I am pulling out some little characters I did in the 70's and I am going to incorporate them into my new stuff!

I went digging through boxes and pulled out a little face that I have used from time to time over the years. This particular image comes from a tie that I gave to my Dad for Easter, ties being a favorite gift and all for dads. He couldn't actually wear this one though, as it's picture!

I recall how hard I worked to make this little face a bit different from other artist's work. We didn't have the internet back then so I researched library books. 

Hopefully I will have my new product ready to show you by the end of the week. Meanwhile I have a Easter tie for dressing up- I guess it will work for Halloween too.

Bowlin' Bowlin' Bowlin' Rawhide!

This is another painting for my show in mid-October. I got a little crazy with this one. This neon bowling pin is located in Salt Lake on State street around 23rd south (not the exact address, but you certainly aren't going to miss it!)
 

The cows are in their retro bowling shirts and are ready to bowl. Bowlin' anyone?

I Have a Show Mid October!

I am busily painting for my show at Local Colors. The theme is 'Falling' (tis the season, fa la la!) and I decided my interpretation of the theme is Falling for Salt Lake. I chose that because recently I painted the gigantimus Snelgrove Ice Cream Cones located in Sugar House. I have loved them since I was 5 years old! I imagined what it would be like to lick a cone that size. So it was only natural that I painted somebody to lick it! 

I had such fun painting this that I decided to do my whole show of  icons and landmarks unique to the Salt Lake Valley, and of course they will be tainted with a whimsical twist. I will give you a sneak preview here on my blog as I get my paintings done. I am on my fifth one right now. If you have any suggestions for SLC landmarks for me to paint, let me know!

The show opens Friday, October 19 at Local Colors gallery, 1054 E. 2100 S. SLC. 
There will also be a drawing to enter for a painting.. more on that later!

Edelweiss Moo

Do cows yodel? Maybe- if they live in the Italian Alps!

I just completed a commission for Amy, who lives in Vail, Colorado. Her hubby is from Italy and she requested a painting with cow, edelweiss and Alps! So here it is...Yodel-Lay-Hee-Moo!

Halloween will soon be upon us! I really love Halloween and making Halloween art. I am doing some fun simple little paintings for the season. 

I did a Boo-Moo in Watercolor! He is VERY scary. 

And then there is Widdle Witch. She is also done in watercolor. My daughter described her as cute... in a creepy sort of way. 

These little tidbits of Halloween can be found in my etsy shop.

Coming soon... Scary Art Dolls!

Marcus the Great

This week I worked on a portrait titled "Marcus Hostetter the Great". It is done in watercolor and watercolor pencil and is 11" x 14".

It's of my grandson, who happens to be a boy of incredible personality. I would say that, wouldn't I? No doubt being a very partial grandmother. But what can I say. It's true, just ask Marcus.

The lusty month of May has now passed, and we are safe once again. Thank goodness for Camelot or we wouldn't know about lusty months... I didn't mean to start out my blog entry this way. It just happened. Things like that happen after midnight when my brain is half asleep.

But on to new things... I have been painting, and I am doing a series of 3" x 3" paintings. At first I was going to buy those tiny cute canvases, but then remembered my pledge to myself that I made earlier this year... USE SUPPLIES THAT I HAVE STOCKPILED AWAY.

You may have noticed the caps on that last sentence. It was meant to reinforce to myself that I can't spend money on new supplies until I have used up what I have or I absolutely need something and cannot replace it with any other supply.

Ok, so back to my 3" x 3" paintings. No I didn't buy the cute canvas. Instead I thought and thought and came up with a way to make my own. Using things around my studio, of course. And I made cute little easels for them as well. So I am happy. Plus my painting is truly original in all respects.

This is one of the new little guys. This painting is titled Indigo Bunting. It is currently on etsy with 3 other small paintings that I listed tonight. cathydarling etsy shop

So there you go... a fine ending to the lusty month of May!

Happy, a Good Day to Be

"Happiness is never stopping to think you are". Hmmm, wrap your brain around that one. This painting is watercolor and watercolor pencil on 140lb. arches watercolor paper. It is 10 1/2" x 6 1/2".
It will be on etsy tomorrow. I will list it sometime at my leisure... it is Mother's Day, you know.

It's a good day to talk about happiness. As a mom I have five kids and 2 lovely daughter in laws, a near son-in-law, two awesome grandsons and 1 adorable grand-daughter (who is turning one today!). That's a lot to be happy about.

Life is Just Beachy

A couple of days ago, I came across a fabulous watercolor artist by the name of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. He was an artist/architect from Scotland around the early part of the last century. His lovely work made me want to get my watercolors out and paint! I have been painting in acrylic for the past year, but there it is nothing like the delicacy of watercolor and it beckoned to me.

I am a bit rusty, but I did a little 7" x 5" painting titled "Life is Just Beachy". With summer coming on, and peaches not quite in season, I was imagining bare toes in warm sand and a feeling of how great life is. I really love painting in watercolor.

Art is in the Eye of the Beholder

Bird Dog 12" x12"

Art is in the eye of the beholder. In the case of visual art, it has to be. In your eye, I mean. So you can see it. Right? Now whether you like the art or not becomes the duty of the brain, interpreting what you are seeing and making a judgement call.

My show at Local Colors is this week, with the opening this coming Friday night. I am working hard to get my paintings ready. I am one of those artists that move a bit quicker when I have a deadline. The problem with that (can you say procrastination?) is you run out of time to do all that you really would like to do for the show. *sigh*.

Since I still have a few days yet, I am optimistic and plan on getting a lot done. I am excited about the drawing for the $600 painting to be given away that night. There's more details on my blog about it. If you haven't entered, you can right here:

 The drawing has ended. Congratulations to Susan Daniels.

16" x 20" painting valued at $600

Maybe this flying dog painting doesn't jingle your chimes, but think about it...it could be just the ticket for a kids room or a gift for someone who loves dogs. I am sure someone would like to give this painting a good home. After all, whatever your reason for entering may be, we all know that art is in the eye of the beholder.

Sorry, that is kind of a corny ending to my blog entry today.

Gardening a Painting

It's late, but I thought I would hurry and write here a bit about my day. I have been painting alot and it feels great! So I guess you could say I had a good day.

This painting is called Gardening for Mental Health. At least that is what it is titled until I come up with something better. It has a quote carved into the frame; "You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt". This painting will be available at my upcoming show.

Don't forget to enter in my painting drawing. For more info go to this link;
http://catherinedarling.blogspot.com/2012/03/enter-to-win-this-painting.html

Enter To Win This Painting

“Flying Below Radar” illustrates how people (dogs are people too)  often think they are content to stay just below their full potential because it’s comfortable. What they don’t know is how amazing they are just to be flying!
(how's that for symbolism?)

On Friday, March 16th Local Colors is holding a reception for myself and two other artist; Cheryl Glenn - ceramics and Melody Johnson - collage. The theme of our show is "With a Whimisical View".

Along with the reception I wanted to do a little fund raiser for the gallery. I am donating a painting "Flying Below Radar" for a drawing.  You probably noticed that I said fund raiser. Well, my first thought was to sell raffle tickets for $5.00 each, but then one of our artists pointed out that raffles are a form of gambling and therefore illegal in Utah. Unless you are a non-profit organization. Which we aren't.

So I had to come up with another plan.

 So here it is... Imagine owning your very own personal 4"x6" print of "Flying Below Radar" that comes with the added bonus of  having YOUR NAME entered in the drawing for the original painting! All this for only $5.00!

The drawing is for a 16"x20" acrylic painting on 3/4"gallery wrapped canvas with sides painted, wired and ready to hang. Valued at $600.

There are two ways you can you can participate.

Go into the gallery between March 2nd thru March 16th

 and purchase this little print

of "Flying Below Radar"

1054 E. 2100 So.

Salt Lake City, UT

OR

You can purchase it right here through paypal!

Your print will be mailed to you upon receipt of payment. (I have a history of selling online since 2001 with a 100% positive feedback) No additional charges for shipping.

The drawing will be held on Friday, March 16th at 7:30 PM. If you are not present and you WIN, you will be notified on Saturday, March 17th. Shipping is free anywhere in the U.S.

Either way you choose to buy your print, your name will be entered into the drawing for

the original painting "Flying Below Radar".

DRAWING UPDATE:

Thanks to everyone that entered! Congratulations to Susan Daniels who won the painting.

 Please note that the colors of the original painting may vary from that shown on your monitor.

My Mini Studio

I have a mini studio, and a mini nursery, all in my mini bedroom. Or I should say it's not a very big bedroom but that didn't sound as good. I like mini.

I am becoming quite productive now that I can paint in my bedroom (see previous entry for why I paint in my bedroom instead of the studio).  I have a show opening on March 17th so I have to be productive if I want to have something to hang.

I have attached a couple of images so you can see what my mini studio looks like. Sorry they are not great pictures. On my desk I have two monitors because I am still planning on doing some illustrations in photoshop for an app I am making with my sons. It's a lot easier to work on two monitors when you are doing stuff like that. At least that's what my boys tell me. However, I have found that I quite like it for watching Netflix on one and working on a project on the other. Netflix also keeps me very entertained while I am painting too. But ocassionally I let Lily watch Barney on it while I paint. Sometimes it more important to keep the baby entertained so I CAN paint.