Another Small Painting

Painting art cards is a challenge. The 3.5" x 2.5" canvas makes it difficult to get the detail you are able to get with larger painting surfaces. I have been trying different mediums so see what gives me the detail I would like to have. Yesterday I tried pen and ink and watercolor. Still not satisfied with the results.

 As I paint these art cards, I've been drawing from my head without reference. I think the artist is the biggest critic of their artwork. That's me for sure! I find I am not satisfied not only with the way I am painting but I am not happy with just painting what I see in my head. I am going to keep going with my experimentation with art cards until I am satisfied with what I produce. Anyone want to join me painting art cards? It's a great exercise that I think will benefit my larger pieces.

"Planting Seeds of Faith", pen/ink and watercolor.

My critique is that it is too cartoony for my taste :-) I like it for what it is however,

and it was fun to try. 

Painting Small

The last week of March and throughout this month I was away from home for a little over three weeks. Because of different restrictions I packed up the smallest amount of art supplies I could. This has led me to working on a series of art cards (mentioned in my previous posts).

Painting small or perhaps 'miniature' is a better description - brings a whole lot of new challenges. The main challenge for me is what medium best expresses what I want to accomplish? I have tried pure watercolor, acrylic, acrylic with colored pencil. Today I will be working on a piece with watercolor and pen and ink.

My 3.5" x 2.5" paintings have been divided into two main subjects, portraiture and whimsical illustration. I have enjoyed doing the portraiture in watercolor - even though the 'canvas' is small, it is big enough to get the detail in that I enjoy. Doing a little illustrative scene is a whole other story. To get all the details in you have to paint VERY small. I am not sure I am satisfied with what I have come up with to this point.

I am going to post a couple of recent illustrative pieces and would appreciate your critique of them.

"Bunny Serenade" is done in acrylic and colored pencil on paper.

"Catching Falling Stars" is watercolor and watercolor pencil on paper

"Little Red Riding Hood" (SOLD) Mixed - watercolor and acrylics on paper.

I would appreciate any comments. If you want to see more of my art cards, visit 

Cathy Darling Art on Ebay

Painting in Portland

I am in Portland to help take care of my grand-daughter Lily. A couple of weeks ago a dog bit her in the face. :(
I packed up the biggest suit case we had. Not just for my clothes, but for the inflatable mattress. My daughter had just moved to Portland the month before leaving her furniture behind. We were worried my suitcase would go over the 50lb. weight limit, but it weighed in at exactly that... 50lbs!

I came out on Jet Blue and they have a policy of no oil or water based paints, so I packed up my watercolor palette (dry) and brought along mini watercolor paper to paint art cards. An art card is 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" so I could pack a lot of them!
So far I have only painted 2 cards, they are in my whimsical style.

 This one (above) is titled "Breakfast at Tiffany's, 

Pupper's and Miss Pretty Kitty's. 

This art card is titled "Finding Spring". 

It is fun, experimental and a good exercise to paint this small. I will continue to paint while here in Portland. It rains a lot and often cancels my daily walk... I thought my waterproof windbreaker would be sufficient but I was wrong... so I will happily paint when it rains.

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!