Day 31 - Final Collage

 Whew! October was quite the month! A lot of fun, lots of great friends giving tons of positive feedback and, also, many sales! But there were also many days trying to figure out just exactly how I was going to pull it off that day... travelling 2-3 days a week an hour away from home and having to paint from my van, doctor's appointments, an early month surgery... all of these things compounded made it definitely a challenge at times. That said, its something I love about the 30 in 30 challenge.. finding out that there is always time to paint and if not, then making time to paint 2 paintings in a day if you have to.. making time for creativity is almost always worth it and posting everyday is definitely always worth it!  :) If you have been following along and reading my blabbing about this month's challenge, THANK YOU!  You are a huge part of why I do what I do, and why I paint what I paint.  Much love to you. <3

30 in 30 collage, oil paintings, 

for availability of any of the work above, please check out my Daily Paintworks Site.

Day One of the October Daily Art Plus Challenge - "Bloom With Grace"

Good morning!  I am starting a new 30 in 30 challenge today along with 9 of my artist friends from Art Plus Gallery.  As always, I will be painting and posting a painting a day throughout the month :)  I'll blog and post and most of them will be for sale on my Daily Paintworks site.  

Today's painting is titled "Bloom With Grace".  This one is from a group of 3 paintings I did for Visual Expansion Gallery in West Chester.  The title comes from the sweet frog's chill demeanor and of course the Bachelor buttons, rose and ferns on her head.  She is about to be visited by a ladybug, another motif that keeps popping up in my paintings.  Ladybugs are seen as a symbol of Love and Good Fortune, so maybe that is why one often appears in my paintings. Can't have enough of those things.. and according to google, Frogs are symbols of transformation, good luck and prosperity.  So, this painting is quite the lucky painting full of good vibes and abundant intentions. ♥ If you are interested in purchasing it, please contact Mary at Visual Expansion gallery who will be happy to help!  Their number is (610) 436-8697.

"Bloom With Grace", Oil on panel, 10"x10", 

for sale at Visual Expansion Gallery in West Chester

August 30 paintings in 30 days!

August has just about arrived and I can't believe it.  My aptitude for blogging is truly lacking and I see the last post I wrote was so long ago that it certainly qualifies as another lifetime...especially factoring in everything that has been going on in the world in 2020.  So, since the blissful post of yore, where I was painting away in a covid-free world (or so I thought), it is almost laughable to say -  things have changed. Artists (and frankly everyone) around the world have felt the ramifications of covid and, we all know it, so, I am not going to go into any details about that here.  (if curious though, see my past 3 newsletters here, here and here to read some of what I have been doing since January...)

As I was saying, it is the last day of July, 2020 and after mulling it over, I have decided I need to do a 30 in 30 again, where I paint and post 30 paintings in 30 days...I'm feeling the yen for just that kind of thing. So, stay tuned future selves..  I'll be starting my August 30 in 30 on Sunday, August 2nd and I am excited! I will be posting here every day, as well as on my facebook, Instgram and dailypaintworks pages.. Woo Hoo!  Hold on to your hats... :)

Collage of all the paintings from the 2018 30 in 30 painting challenge

The finale of every 30 in 30 includes creating a collage of all of the paintings I created during the challenge.  In the past, it would take me sometimes hours to do this, because I typically painted on a variety of sizes of canvas or panels and I had to figure out how to get them to all fit nicely .  This time around, save for one painting (the plein air I did around the middle of the challenge), I painted on all square panels or canvas.  This made it a relative snap to collage them all in a nice organized way.  I say relative because there was still finagling I had to do.  But it was much easier this time round... 

If you read my first post from this challenge, you will see that I wasn't sure how things were going to work out for me. My son was just getting over a 2 month illness, during which I had spent little or no time in my studio.  I wondered if I would be able to paint every single day... but I decided I neede to do this to push me to get up there!  Things were going great, and then, mid challenge and for a variety of reasons, we decided start my son in cyber school.  I once again wasn't sure what would happen, because I knew that my life was going to be in upheaval for awhile while he transitioned into this type of schooling. I can say this, some life difficulties are hared to work around. But if you have the will and the ideas, you can generally find the time to create.  There were days I didn't get up into my studio until after dinner and painted until 9 or 10.  I didn't care for that at all.  But I wanted complete this challenge with all 30 paintings this time so, I forced myself to do it.  I am so glad I did!  Below is the collage of all the paintings and I love seeing them all together!

And finally, credit must be given to my husband who always picks up on the chores and cooking that I can't do because I'm designing a painting or actually painting the painting... or I'm just too tired! Thanks hubby... <3

And thanks again to you for reading this and following me through this challenge.  All the positive feedback has been wonderful!  

Day 30 of the 30 in 30!!! - "I Honor the Place"

Today is the last day of this 30 in 30, and I cannot believe it!  It has been the absolute best 30 in 30 I have challenged myself to in so many ways...

I want to put this out to all of the people who have followed me through this round of paintings.  I have had over 700 page views on my blog since it started, which for me is a big deal! :) Plus lots of great feedback on my facebook and instagram.  Also, I met some new artists who are also participating in the challenge and amazingly, I have sold about 1/4 of the paintings I created!!! I appreciate all of the support, love and encouragement people give me every time I do one of these, and this time has been especially wonderful!  So, this painting is in honor of y'all... 

Namaste 

I honor the place in you 

in which the entire universe dwells.

I honor the place in you which is of love, light, peace and joy.

When you are in that place in you 

and I am in that place in me,

We Are One.

I Honor the Place, oil on canvas, 8"x8", to purchase click here

I tried to fill this painting with as much light as I could logically fit in... with glints of gold and rosey highlights to produce as much visual joy as I could... <3 <3 <3

Dog is Family

I had the great pleasure of being a guest this past Friday on my local TV station, BCTV's show, "Dog is Family". It is hosted by Barb Emmett, owner of Godfrey's Dogdom in Mohnton, PA.  Godfrey's is a spectacular store all about dogs.  They define themselves as a destination that specialize in everything "of and about dogs, and those people, collectively, who are interested in dogs."  Their motto is "Where a happy canine lifestyle is your lifestyle" and this couldn't be more fully realized in the products they carry and services they offer.  Barb is simply a wonderful, dog loving, great person and if you've never been to Godfrey's I urge you to make the trip, if at all possible.  Check out their website here.
Anyway, Barb interviewed me (animal portrait painter extraordinaire:) and 2 other fabulous guests - a holistic veterinarian and a professional animal behaviorist who helped care for and place all the lost pets when hurricane Harvey hit Houston.  It is a very entertaining show all around.  I hope you will give it a listen... my part is first! :) 
Click here to go to the show. 

I also talked about some upcoming events and goings on.. See below for the skinny.. Take note... I will be doing the February 30 in 30... so... be prepared!

Day 1 of my Holiday Painting Spree!

As I said in my previous post, my little paintings are popular with my followers.  I can see why! In the art world, a trend has been emerging toward personal, intimate, and small-scale paintings.  Not to mention, small paintings fit in difficult to design places and are more affordable than larger artwork.  I love painting in all different sizes, but I especially enjoy painting on small panels. It allows me to focus in on my subjects and paint alla prima - all in one sitting. So, I plan on focusing my paintbrush on these little guys through out the rest of November and into December.  

Today's painting is titled, "The Sentry".  I painted a series of little blackbirds a while back and sold most of them... Black birds mean many things to many people.  To me they can be pretty little birds that aren't flashy, but make a statement all the same.  And some of the species of black birds (crows and ravens for two) are quite intelligent. This guy is a young crow, keeping watch for you...  And stripes are back! I enjoy using the stripe motif in my backgrounds as they allow me to use interesting color combinations that I otherwise might not put together.

Remember, all my paintings are 20% off through December 17th, including this one!

To purchase this painting, please visit my daily paintworks gallery here

The Sentry, oil on panel, 6"x6",
to purchase click here

Holiday Painting Spree, Sale and Give Away!

Click the image below to find out all of the details about my upcoming 

Holiday Painting Spree, Painting sale and Painting Giveaway!

Day 5 - Morning Dove

Today's painting is of my daughter.  As I said in an earlier post, she obliged me a few weeks back and posed in different locales wearing various dresses and costumes. I was trying to capture the beauty of this moment while pushing a little further into impressionism. Although the dove wasn't there in the original photograph, this composition was just calling out for one.. who knows why?  This was definitely one of those paintings that was telling me what needed to be done as I was painting it! Because I love this one so much right now, I fear it is not for sale at this time!  But I will definitely be revisiting the techniques I was experimenting with in future paintings. I am thoroughly enjoying this 30 in 30!

Morning Dove, Oil, 12"x24"

Day 4 - Watching the Cloud

So, this young lady was an un-witting model down the shore this year.  I snapped a few photos of her as she walked on by checking her cell phone messages as she walked down the boardwalk.  I sometimes feel guilty when I take 'secret' photos of people who I hope to paint some day... but I justify it with the knowledge that I photograph subjects that I find have an inner beauty in some way... I merely hope I can express this beauty in my paintings.  After I painted this, I was not totally happy with it, particularly the cell phone aspect of it. So, I photoshopped a version of the painting that includes butterflies....  I am posting both here as I am still not sure if I will be taking out the cell phone at some point in the future and adding in the butterflies.  Let me know what you think.. should I leave the painting as it is.. with the representation of modern technology... or should I take out the cell phone and add some pretty butterflies???  As always, thanks for looking and have a great rest of the evening!!

Watching the Cloud,  16"x20",oil,
to purchase, please click here

Butterfly Girl, oil on panel,
\Let me know if you think I should add butterflies instead!

Day 2 of the 30 in 30 - Watching Her Back

Happy day two of the 30 in 30!  I am having a lot of fun painting... and experimenting. :)  I have a good painting friend who shared a secret with me that he learned during a workshop... it involves a tissue and closing your eyes and I ended up trying that out today... good times people.. good times...  Anyway, here is my painting for today!  You will find throughout this challenge that many of my photo references I am using to make these paintings are of my two awesome kids... They graciously obliged me one extremely hot day a few weeks back and acted as models for me... while donning prom dresses and cowboy hats.. in a farmer's field... yes, I have some great kids!  Anyway, this is the first painting from those pics I took that day.  More paintings are sure to come! :) Thanks for looking and I hope you have a great start to your Labor Day weekend folks!

Watching Her Back, oil, 11"x14",
To purchase, please click here

Day One of the September 2016 30 Paintings in 30 Days!!!

Ok... so I am more than a little excited for this 30 in 30.  For those of you who are new to my work and me as an artist, I welcome you here and hope you will visit back often during the month of September.  For those of you who have been with me for awhile, welcome back and THANK YOU for all of your support, comments, feed back and most of all your love!  

I am so ready for this challenge and have been thinking about it and planning the whole month of August.  So, as of day one, I feel pretty ready and psyched to go.  I do have a theme that I am following throughout the 30 days.  I will largely do figurative work (simply put, paintings of people/figures)  But... my goals are several.  (I am going to go artsy on y'all for a minute so, forgive me... ) I love to paint... and I love the paintings I have made in the past few years.  But, as any artist who has been at it for awhile will tell you, you are constantly developing and growing.  I am at a point in my artistic career where I am yearning for some change.  So, in painting figurative work this month, I also intend on attempting to go beyond my usual style and 'language' that I have developed to find new ways to express myself, new ways of applying paint, new color palettes to try and new techniques.  I really hope to push my knowledge and step outside my comfort zone a bit and see where it takes me.  I hope you will enjoy the work I create, as I am excited with the things I will be doing this month!  

Here is painting #1, titled "Watching the Races".  Being that this is #1, I feel it is pretty similar to work that I have created in the past. Starting out cautiously, I tried some new ideas with my colors and reallllly tried to not OVER paint this one...which is a hard thing to do.  I hope you like and please feel free to comment below.  Thanks and have a great night!

Watching the Races, Oil, 20"x20",
to purchaser please click here

Day 2 - Foxes and Cookbooks

I am going to try to stick to 3 themes with this 30 in 30.... I may waver a bit if an image just needs to be painted but doesn't quite fit one of the categories, but, the 3 themes are "Stripeys" (you saw one yesterday...), landscapes (could also be sky scapes), and lastly, "Vintage".  Today's painting fits into the Vintage category.  One of my kitchen cabinets is home to many vintage cookbooks, including the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, which possibly every American housewife has owned at some point, the classic Fannie Farmer cookbook (which I took with me when I traveled to Scotland many years ago and which amused Scottish and British girls to no end) and my two Vegetarian Epicure cookbooks which were staples of the early Vegetarian movement...  

I also have these two very cute fox salt and pepper shakers that I got much more recently, and don't qualify as vintage, but... they look so good standing guard over my cookbooks, they needed to be in the painting!  This one was painted with basically a primary color scheme (Red, yellow and blue...) As a point of interest, the 'green' in the background was made using yellow and black!  Just a little paint mixing trick I picked up somewhere along the way... :)

Foxes and Cookbooks, oil on panel, 11"x14",
to purchase, click here

Day One of the January 30 in 30 - Anegada Da Vida

Happy New Year!!! I am so excited to be starting this year with a goal of completing 30 paintings in 30 days... Happy happy happy!!!  Anyway, I first want to wish everyone a blessed and healthy New Year, and I want to thank you for coming here to read my posts!  I need to add in that I am terrible at posting unless I have a challenge going on, which I am resolving to get better at also.

Today's painting is a big one (for me..)  It is 24" x 24" and it also represents a very different style.  I call this a Stripey, as I base the design off of horizontal lines of color.  I also am experimenting with a different medium mixed in with oil paints called cold wax.  I like the quality of it when it is dry... a bit more matte than straight oil, plus there is more body.  Oh, and I added in some marble dust to also increase the body.  A good friend of mine suggested I title this one "Enegada Da Vida" as it reminded him of sailing around the British Virgin Isles (an experience I have not had the good fortune of having... but he obviously has...) and I thought, Yes!  The colors I chose came from a photo I took at the beach of some colorful umbrellas, the sand, sea and sky... so he was pretty close.  Just that my beach was OCNJ, not the BVI's... oh well....

"Anegada Da Vida", oil, cold wax and marble dust, 24" x 24",
click here for purchasing information

Here is what this painting would look like in a room...

Close up.... there is a lot of  paint on this guy... lots of surface and texture 

Day 24 - How We Roll

I said the other day that I like cute cars... Well, I like big trucks too... My husband is a truck driver, and I think about just how much our world depends on tractor trailers for just about everything...  This is how we roll, so I salute truckers out there just doing their job, helping things to keep on rolling.  :) In addition, I really enjoy finding interesting compositions in mundane pictures.  This was one of them!  While hiking around Google street view in Hailey, Idaho again, I came upon this little parking lot with a semi in it.. It caught my eye and after cropping it I really liked the contrasts and general balance of everything.  Anyway, here it is...

How We Roll, oil on panel, 6" x 6",
To purchase please click here

Last Day of the 30 in 30 - Je Suis Reconaissant (or Reverie)

Warning:  long and involved post.  I have a lot to say today...
Well, I made it thought the 30 in 30... had so much fun, learned quite a bit about my current painting style, color palette, brushes I use, painting small (which frankly I am sick to death of...) and just how much my family and friends support me.   I know I have talked about being thankful... and I find that the longer I live, the more thankful I become.  Lucky for me, I have heard "recent studies show" that being appreciative in life seems to go hand in hand with happiness.  So woo-hoo..... :)
Anyway... I have a lot to be thankful for, in fact, too much to list here and besides, this isn't a Thanksgiving post... Just sayin', I am thankful and if you know me, hopefully you know that you are someone I am thankful for...  But I will say this.  I am so grateful that I can make art.  And I don't just mean physically, although that is a big part of it. But I also mean, I thankful that I am able to 'legally' create whatever I damn well want to create on any given day.  There are too many places in the world where freedom of expression is not a given, where you can be tried and put in jail for stating your opinion, making the 'wrong' image or saying what you believe.  I am forever grateful that I do not live in an area of the world like that!  I hope that someday in my life I will witness the transformation of those countries that do oppress freedom of speech into a place of freedom for all.
That being said, my painting today is titled "Je Suis Reconaissant, (Reverie)"  for several reasons... No, I have no particular fondness of the French Language, but there is a reason for it being in French... Je Suis Reconaissant means 'I am Thankful' and it is in French because of the image reference I used as the background to my painting.  The image I took this from, (and I did... I took it..) is from a famous lithograph by the artist Alphonse Mucha.   It is an image that I love dearly.  I had an image of this when I was a child and I can remember looking at the image, burning it into my brain for all times... I chose to super-impose a buddha on top of the image for no other reason than I love the image..and I love the symbol of the Buddha.  I want to pay homage to the artist who created the original image, the title of which is "F. Champenois Imprimeur-Editeur" and was made in 1897, but for a time was apparently also known as "Reverie".  I love this, because if you look up the meaning of the word Reverie, this is what you find... "A state of dreamy meditation or fanciful musing", which is what my Buddha is doing... So, there.  Thank you if you are one of those who has followed me through the 30 in 30!  I have had so many nice and complimentary comments, I have sold 5 of my paintings so far (!) and I know lots of you are reading my blog (which is incredible to me) because over the past month I have had over 1,000 page views!  Amazing to me!  So... THANKS!!!  And just fyi, I'm not stopping painting!  I may not be posting every day because I plan on painting bigger, but I will post, so I hope you check back from time to time... If you don't want to miss a post, please sign up to follow my blog.  It is easy and maybe even fun... just enter your email in the spot under the elephant on the right and you will get updates when I post.
Alright... here it is.

Je Suis Reconaissant, (Reverie), 9"x12", oil on panel
to purchase please click here

And here is the Alphonse Mucha image, courtesy of wikipedia

"F. Champenois Imprimeur-Editeur" Alphones Mucha, Lithograph, 1897

Day 4 of the 30 in 30 - Together

Today's entry into the 30 in 30 is of 2 sweet birds... I have posted today's entry on my Daily Paintworks site as an auction (like yesterday's), and this auction starts today! Click here to check it out and place a bid.  Thanks for looking!

Together, 6" x 6", oil on panel
Click here to place a bid

Day 3 - Puff

So, painting later in the day on a gray Saturday... after getting to bed way past my bedtime (4 a.m.!) (oops...) is not an easy thing to do.... But I am pleased with how today's painting came out!
Here is day 3's installment for the 30 in 30... a simple little chickadee named Puff...
I am putting this little bird up for auction on my Daily Paintworks web page starting at just $40... if you are interested, bidding lasts 7 days starting today!  Click here to go to my DPW site and see what its all about!

Puff, oil on panel, 6" x 6"
to purchase click here

The Winged Buddha

Sometimes you have to follow your heart.... Today is the first day of Leslie Saeta's 30 in 30 painting 'challenge' and I am posting my first painting!   It is a great way to kick off 2015 and I am sending this out into the cloud as my prayer for the world in the upcoming year... I pray for peace for the world because I think that covers pretty much all of the bases.  I don't subscribe to one particular religion or philosophic belief, but I am highly spiritual and have been on a lifelong quest for meaning and living to honor this life that I have been given.  I wanted to paint an image that represented reverence, peace and inward meditation.... Hopefully I have succeeded!  Happy New Year!

Winged Buddha, oil on panel, 9" x 12",
click here to purchase

30 paintings in 30 days!

Well, I am so happy that I completed the challenge and actually did 30 paintings.  The last part of the challenge was to make a collage of all of the paintings completed.  I made mine using a free online program called picmonkey.  Pretty easy to use and it is pretty cool to see all of the paintings side by side.  Again, thanks to everyone for following and commenting and cheering me on!  I am so happy to be able to touch people with my art and hope that you will keep following me, cause I'm just getting started!  Have a wonderful day!

Most of these paintings are for sale at my DPW gallery.
Please click here to view them there