Cupidtoe?

I can't believe that Valentine's Day is just around the corner. Today along with my other art  endeavors I made a little cupid ornament. Since Valentine's is all about love, it got me thinking... why do they have mistletoe at Christmas but not for Valentine Day? I was thinking cupid would be an obvious choice for a mistletoe substitute, and he does have toes...

Wish I could do today over again

Today was one of those days I wish I could do over. I didn't paint a thing! For that reason I wish I could rewind and start fresh. However I was busy all day long, doing other art related tasks, lest you think I was laying around watching TV in my jammies and eating chocolate.

It's gallery stroll this Friday here in Salt Lake City, and the whole week seems to be filled with things I have to do to get ready for it. We had a gallery meeting tonight and it was also our un-Christmas party since we missed out in December. Tomorrow I will re-hang the gallery with my hanging partner Mr. Troy. He is a great hanger because he is well over 6 feet and we rarely need a ladder. Plus he is funny.

On Thursday I should be able to get some painting done. Friday is the stroll so I will be at the gallery that night. Our featured artists this month are Jeff Clay - photography, Frank Fuller - painter, and Steve Halsford - wood sculpture.

The Alice in Wonderland painting is one I did a while ago. It has a lot of collage in it. I liked the way it turned out. I posted it for no apparent reason.
Below that is the card for our gallery with our featured artists' work

If you are in Salt Lake, go to our Local Colors Gallery face book page for a coupon to get a free gift from our gift basket. There have been some pretty cool things in it. Ooops I just looked and they didn't put the coupon on yet. I thought I saw it the other day. Hmmm. Well, print up this blog and take it into the gallery and we will pretend it's a coupon! Trust me it will work. Just show them this entry. :-)

Follow Your Inspiration

A couple of years ago I painted a watercolor called 'Follow Your Inspiration'. I am a big believer that our best work comes when we listen to our inspiration.


Today I realized that I was getting too caught up in the 'making' of my art that I have been forgetting to stop, ponder and seek inspiration. Kind of sounds like stop, drop and roll, you know, like what you do if you're on fire. I think that's a good similitude for what I am trying to say. When you get inspiration you really get on fire! Except you don't want to put it out.

If I don't make a point to seek some inspiration on a daily basis, pretty soon I get sidetracked. Everyone has their own ways of seeking inspiration. For me, morning is the best time to contemplate my day. I don't limit it to a specific amount of time, I just let thoughts flow as I do my morning routine, exercise, get ready for the day, eat breakfast, study scriptures and pray for guidance.

Today I painted another foamance girl. I put a quote on it by R. Schuller;

"Anyone can count seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of apples in a seed."

Hmmm,  I just noticed that there is something I need to correct on this painting. Taking a picture of a piece sometimes lets you spot something that you missed. In this case, the quote is pretty much along the same line of the grass. I think if it were above or below that line it would look much better. To correct it, I am going to raise the grass line up closer to the trees. But I will do that tomorrow. Hopefully that will make it look better.

Tomorrow I am going to seek and follow my inspiration. I know I will have a better day!

A Subtle Change in Direction

Writing a blog on a regular basis is pretty therapeutic! I have often struggled about which direction to take my art, and have found that just writing a few things down has helped me to see a path appearing. I see myself lying on the psychiatrist couch of Dr. Blogblogblog. (Do they really use couches?)

After doing my first three foamances ( I need to call them something!) I decided I didn't want to pursue that style of art. I call it my eBay art. My high school art teacher would have called it kitsch art. I think he must have drilled that into my head, because I have felt through all the years of selling art online, the kind of art I sold there was inferior to what I should be doing. I felt I ought to be doing 'fine art', but that takes more planning and a lot longer to paint. In my situation I needed to have daily online sales. So I painted things that were cutesy and fast.

Now I am not saying that kitsch art is bad art. People love decorative fun art like this and that's a good thing. However it's sidetracking me from where I think I want to go with this. So I decided this weekend as I was drawing in my sketch book that I would do sketches on my foam figures and this time try to make it look more fine art-ish. It would also be a mini practice for the direction I am heading. I think it's a little bit different from the others.

I was thinking about Valentines - I love holidays! So I decided to make my sketch into an angel with a heart and put words on it. I know, it's still looks kitschy. I can't help it! This is a journey, one step at a time. This foamance is titled Love is Kind and will be on etsy tomorrow.

When is your best not your best?

Sketching in a sketchbook has never been easy for me. I have this thing about making it look really good. However a lot of the time it doesn't and so I don't want anyone to see it.  I  need to get over the feeling that everything has to be a masterpiece. I am not saying I create masterpieces, it's just that I hate to show art that I  feel is not my best work. Which really isn't true, I have shown a lot of my art that I wouldn't even claim nowadays...just kidding.. well maybe not. :-)
What is my best? What do I compare it to? I remember a drawing I did in the 6th grade of the Mona Lisa. I was so proud of it and everyone thought it was awesome ( I was the class artist, don't you know?) I really had done my best. But was it my all time best piece of art? I don't think so. I should dig it up, and post it. It is really bad.
It was probably my best at the time though.

Writing in my blog today is an exercise for me to stop thinking everything I do needs to be my best. Learning and practicing does not mean perfection. So I am being brave and posting a sketch that isn't great. I have to tell myself it's ok to expose my art in such a ruthless fashion. It doesn't have to be great, it's JUST A SKETCH Cathy, get over it!

I also have a hang up about sketching people when I am out and about. I don't want them to wonder why I keep looking and staring at them. So when I did the sketch of this kid, I figured out something really cool. I was in my studio and decided to take a break from my day job (wink, wink) and do a sketch. When I am painting I like to listen to music or TV, and recently NETFLIX! It's the most awesome invention! I can watch it off my computer. So I was watching/listening to a show on netflix when I decided I ought to sketch something. Then the phone rang so I paused the show. After the phone call, I looked back at my computer and on the show there was this kid playing chess with his dad. Here is the cool part... because the show was paused I thought to myself, hey, I could sketch that guy! He wasn't moving and he doesn't know I am staring at him.

So I saw, I sketched and I am proud to say it is not my best.

I'm featured on EBSQ's Art Blog

Today my blog is one of five artist's that is featured on EBSQ's art blog! Thank you Amanda! Check it out; http://blog.ebsqart.com/

My Art Day Job

In my effort to continue pursuing the artist's life, I decided that with my decision to improve as an artist (see previous blog entry) that I want to make what I sell online in venues such as etsy to be quite different from my work that I will do while studying and practising to be a better artist.

So after thinking and thinking I came up with a plan. I really enjoy mixed media and collage and since my focus of study will be drawing and painting, I thought my online sales would be mixed media. I also wanted to use something different than canvas and watercolor paper for my foundation so I chose foam to be the first element of my mixed media art.

As I began to work with the foam, I started to have all kinds of ideas of things I could do with it. I told my daughter some of my ideas and that I was going to make this art specifically for etsy. Her response was that I needed to do it for longer than a couple of weeks! I tend to try something new and then if it doesn't sell like hotcakes the first couple of weeks I have been known to abandon the idea. It kind of becomes little orphan annie art.

SO.... I had this really brilliant idea- I am going to spend this entire year making mixed media with a foam foundation for my online sales. No more abandoned little orphan annie art! I am going to stick with it for a whole year. I think it will be a creative challenge to see all the things I can do with it. Of course I will post my creations here, need you ask?

I started with a basic idea for my first few pieces. I thought it would be fun to create some whimisical people and rather than do them on a rectangle or square piece of foam I got out my scroll saw and cut out shapes. I posted the first three pieces I made.

Allow me to introduce to you my first mixed media ladies; The lady holding the cat is titled 'Dancing with Cats', the second one is 'Motherhood is Sweet', and the last one is 'Love Messenger'. They are all currently on etsy.

Why don't I just paint one style for my art studies, galleries and online sales? Because my art study is to be uninhibited by any pressure to create art to sell. I want to paint without the pressure of thinking this needs to be good enough to enter a juried show. That's why I want it to be different from my online sales art. Does that make sense to anyone besides me?

I'm a Home School Artist!

The new year always motivates me to review my life and try to improve. I suppose that happens to most people. The new year brings new energy to me and my work.

I have evaluated my art and in so doing some amazing realizations came my way in terms of experiences during the last few weeks of the old year. Without going into detail, I decided to go back to the drawing board, so to speak, and hone my skills as an artist.

I am home schooling myself!

I am making my sketchbook a daily habit and will take it everywhere with me. Currently I am studying a book called Design Basics by David A. Lauer and Stephen Pentak. I'm giving myself homework assignments. Sounds fun, right?

I am traditionally a 'paint for deadlines' kind of artist. Which means about a week or even a day before a deadline I whip something out. No more!!! I am taking a journey to discover what I am capable of producing if I take time to think out and really plan a painting. I will not set a time limit to get it done and avoid painting for deadlines. I want to paint for the sake of painting and work towards becoming a better artist. I will create work that isn't necessarily for sale, but for experience. Sounds kind of like a mantra, huh!

As a full time artist, the past few years have been filled with 'producing product'. My goal was to have something to sell. Not that that's a bad thing, as my livelihood depends on selling my art, but that mode has hindered me from exploring what I am capable of creating.

So I thought to myself; how do I make a living, and make art that is not solely for the purpose of a sale or a deadline? At first I thought that maybe I ought to get a day job and study and do my home school art at night. That lasted about 8 hours (while I was sleeping). I awoke and thought that's crazy! Why would I want to stop making art so I can make art?

I realized that I needed to make a plan and organize myself. As you can tell from reading my past blog entries I do a variety of art, sometimes more along the fine art lines and often not so fine art. As I pondered on the direction I should go, I decided that I should divide my day into two parts. The first part to devote to the study and improvement of my fine art talents. The second part would go to producing art to make a living. Kind of killing two birds with one stone. (No birds were used though).

I don't know where this will take me, but I will keep posting my art and hopefully I will be learning something along the way.

The painting featured today is a commission that I finished 4 days before Christmas (yup one of those dastardly deadlines!) It was for my next door neighbor and it is titled 'The Morning Breaks, the Shadows Flee' and is a painting of the Bountiful Utah LDS Temple at dawn. While painting it I kept humming a hymn, so it seemed logical to take some of the words from it for the title.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Tomorrow night is gallery stroll in Salt Lake City. It's moved up from the 3rd Friday to the first because it could end up on Christmas or too close to it. To celebrate this festive season I did a version of the Night Before Christmas. It is the cat lovers version. :-) I collaged the poem onto the painting. It goes like this;

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all thru the house
The reindeer were sneezing and so was the mouse,
The stockings were hung by kids everywhere,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

But Rudolf was nestled all snug in his bed
While visions of headache danced all over his head,
Mrs. Claus shook her head - it was just a cold (perhaps?)
“NO! NO! NO! “ Wailed Santa about to collapse;

Santa moaned “Christmas Eve, that’s what’s the matter,
How can I give gifts without reindeer clatter?
All the reindeer have caught a fever in a flash,
And NOW is the time for the Christmas Eve dash”.

He looked bleakly outside at the new fallen snow
The moon gave mid-day luster to objects below.
When what to Santa’s surprised eyes should appear,
But his own lovely sleigh with eight fuzzy cats near;

They all frolicked and played so lively and quick,
An idea occurred to the stressed St. Nick;
“With Christmas magic these cats can be game!”
And he whistled and shouted and called them by name;

“Now Pumpkin, now Muffy, now Felix and Nixen,
Come Cubby, come Cupid, come Meow-Meow and Kitzen!
To the elfs for sprinkles of flying dust on all
You will save Christmas Eve” (and such a close call!)

He harnessed the Kitties, they were ready to fly,
As the excitement mounted they took to the sky;
So up to the house top those kittens they flew
With a sleigh full of toys and St. Nicholas too.

A wink of Santa’s eye, and a twist of his head,
Around the world on Christmas Eve they sped.
Santa spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
He filled all the stockings with plenty of perk.

And laying his finger aside of his nose,
He gave the cats a nod, to the sky they rose!
The cats saved the day, Santa gave them a whistle,
He thanked them with gifts of catnip and thistle

They heard Santa exclaim to everyone in his sight;
“Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!”
Adaption of the Night before Christmas by
Catherine Darling Hostetter

Regarding the painting, I had so much fun painting the Noah's ark one using my kids for models, I decided to use a friend for this one. If you are one of my local artist friends, can you guess who? What gave me the idea to use this person is he is always telling me how he likes to take friends pictures and change them in photoshop into something funny. So I thought he would be a good candidate for Santa.

Come to Local Colors and see the original - it would be great to see you at stroll! Or if you don't live in Salt Lake, I will be selling prints of this painting on Etsy.

Springville Museum of Art

It's been a while since I posted anything. Partially because my computer crashed (hate when that happens!), and then on top of that I have had several painting deadlines. The most recent one was for a painting that I submitted into the Springville Museum of Art Religious show. I am happy to say it was juried in, which I consider a wonderful honor!

I chose to illustrate the Noah's ark story. There is a song about the biblical prophets that the kids sing at church called Follow the Prophet. It has a verse about Noah that goes like this:

Noah was a prophet called to preach the word,

Tried to cry repentance but nobody heard

They were busy sinning, Noah preached in vain

They wished they had listened when they saw the rain!

I had my kids pose for the figures in the piece, (Noah's family) and then changed them to fit what I wanted in the painting. My oldest son modeled for Noah - he isn't really that old though! I just made him old. I enjoyed doing it. The chihuahaus are my granddogs. I also used a bit of artistic license in the painting, that's the fun of being an artist. :-)

Angels and Saints Show

Last Friday was gallery stroll in Salt Lake City, and the reception for our show at Local Colors - Angels and Saints. If you've been following my blog at all you will know I have been painting saints, a bunch of them.

That night we also had a halloween party at the gallery and dressed up. The picture of the ultra-hot guy is Troy Nuttall who I did the show with. He does really cool photography and then adds photoshop effects to them. He created angels with halos of dandelions and neat things like that. Very artsy and very talented. He dressed up like a 50's biker dude.

The other picture is another one of my saints, the Saint of Motherhood. I dressed up as a Saint, but didn't manage to get a picture of myself. I hope to get some soon. I begged Shanna who also did the show with us to send me some of the pictures of the reception. I will post them when I get them.

Shanna is a master bead weaver and makes glorious jewelry. I am hoping to have a picture of her to share here as well.

We had a great show and thanks to everyone who came by to see us!

Saint of Breast Cancer Awareness

It wouldn't be October without a Saint of Breast Cancer Awareness. This is an 8x10 painting with a pink halo and delicate flowers - pink of course!

Tonight I am working on framing all the paintings for my show. Then tomorrow I hope to paint a couple of small saints. I should have started painting sooner. So many ideas and not enough time!

Saint of Peace

A few more days of painting left before I have to hang my show at Local Colors on Wednesday. I finished this painting yesterday and it is titled 'Saint of Peace'.

Peace is an essential part of my life, a necessity for my own happiness. Although I may not always find it in the world today, I can strive to have it in myself. It is a gift from God that I treasure.

Saint of Great Joy

I have about a week and a half before the opening of my show in Salt Lake. It's time to get cranking, since I don't have the number of paintings done that I would like. However I have a number of them started and I just need to finish them!

This painting is titled Saint of Great Joy. Awhile back I ran across an anonymous quote that reads; "Jumping for joy is the best exercise".

This painting is 14" x 11" and is framed in a gold frame.

Saint of Turning Back Time

Onward with my journey of painting saints. This one was suggested by my friend Amy who works for Sundance Catalog as a designer. She is also an amazing jewelry artist and a mom.

Ah if we could have a saint that could turn back time, we could get more done in the day. That's a goal that is worthy enough to merit a saint for it, right?

The Saint of Kind Words

I finished another piece for my upcoming show at Local Colors. As mentioned earlier on my blog, I am doing a theme of Saints. I think the world is full of them! Good people everyday inspire me with plenty of reference material in their kind words and deeds. In my book a saint is anyone that inspire us to live better by their example.

This piece is called The Saint of Kind Words. If we all had a one of these saints, I wouldn't have a to paint a 'Bite your tongue' Saint!

Catching up - Thanksgiving Point Plein Air

This past weekend - well week actually, I participated in a plein air competition. Now landscapes are not my cup of tea, but it sounded like fun so I signed up. In conjunction with the competition they had a two day art festival so I signed up to have a booth as well.

On Thursday I loaded up my paints and went to participate in the competition. Thanksgiving Point has these massive formal gardens and with so much beauty it was hard to choose what to paint. Having visited the gardens a month ago I decided to paint something that had previously caught my eye. It was a statue of herons (I think) located in the Monet Gardens. The competition actually ran 3 days in which I could paint but because of previous commitments I could only paint on the last day. By the time I got setup it was noon and the paintings had to be done and framed by 5:00 that afternoon. I suddenly realized that I didn't allow myself much time!

I set to work, sitting in the full sun, plastered in sunblock as I enjoyed the warm September day. Not being a plein air artist I had chosen acrylic as my medium. It wasn't too long I realized the folly of mixing acrylic and hot sun. It dried almost immediately! Nevertheless I pressed on and painted til 4:10, then hiked back to my car to frame my piece.

I didn't win a prize in the competition, but I surprised myself that I could paint a landscape and I enjoyed the peacefulness that I found in the garden that day. I think I will do it again next year but definately paint in oils instead!

Plein Air At Gilgal

There is nothing better than spending a warm summer afternoon in a garden painting. Today I painted plein air at Gilgal Gardens 10th year Celebration. It was made by Thomas Child who created in his backyard this sculpture garden that illustrated his beliefs. Here's the link if you are interested; http://www.gilgalgarden.org/

For the celebration they asked artists from Local Colors to come and paint plein air. Our gallery is just around the corner from the garden. I chose to paint the Alpha and Omega arch. I took a picture of my painting and the arch so you could see. It's about a 1/3 way done and I will finish it in a week or so.

Let the Saints Begin!

As previously mentioned I have a show mid October at Local Colors and had decided to do a theme of Saints. So between now and then about everything I paint will be Saints.

This weekend I will have a booth at the Avenues Street Fair in Salt Lake. This is a lovely community day long festival which I have done for 5 or 6 years now. One thing that is really enjoyable about it is that everyone brings their dogs to it. You see the most amazing variety of dogs! I love it.

So with dogs in mind, my first saint painting is a dog! St. DoggyBeGood is the saint of doggy treats. He is very sweet in nature and very popular among dogs.

If you happen to be in Salt Lake this weekend come visit me. The fair will be on 7th Avenue between I and N streets. I will be sharing a booth with John Blumenkamp - an awesome photographer. Our booth will be between K and L street, on the south side #22.

I will be bringing my dog (painting), come meet St. DoggyBeGood.

Dancing with Dogs - Revisited

Last March I had a show at Local Colors and one of the paintings I did for it was Dancing with Dogs. Recently I entered this painting in the Intermountain Society of Artists Fall Show. Tonight was the reception and awards ceremony. I was happy to win a 3rd place award for it, along with a Recognition award for another painting called "What's Next". It is always nice to win awards, it kind of makes you feel you are doing something right with your art.

Being one of the last to leave from anything I attend (I don't know why - probably I gab too much) I noticed a lady that kept going over to Dancing with Dogs. Then she was trying to measure it with a string since there wasn't any measuring tapes around. Well of course I stepped right up and told her the measurements - 3' x 4'. She told me she was a volunteer at the Cultural Celebration Center (where this show is). Her daughter had come in and looked at the show first and told her mom that she saw a painting that she just loved. Then the mom got a chance to take a look and found a painting she really liked. Both of them loved Dancing with Dogs! So.... after calling her son to make sure it would fit above their piano, she bought it! Whoo-hoo, an $1800 painting!

When you sell in a gallery you don't often get the opportunity to meet the people who buy your paintings. I can't tell you what a treat it is when you get to meet them and you know your painting is going to a good home.

So tonight, I am counting my blessings and being thankful and grateful to be an artist. It is a joyful occupation.