Blush

I am very happy with this one. Partly because I love roses, and partly because I really pushed myself and it paid off. I have attempted creating art from this reference photo before, but it did not look anywhere near this good.

This piece has been donated to the Arti Gras 2014 party that supports access to the arts in the City of Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. It will be auctioned and hopefully it will raise a bit of money. Proceeds from the event enable a wide variety of arts programs and activities in the community including arts programming for all ages, free concerts, the Cinesreies film program, school programs for children and opportunities for access for those with special needs.

6" x 6"; Prismacolor Premier coloured pencils and Faber Castell Polychromos on Strathmore Bristol vellum surface paper; 8.5 hours

Hershey

This little miniature pony's name is Hershey. I was visiting him to try to get a good photo of his two month old colt, but the little dude did not want to pose for me. But when I turned around there was Hershey, talking and eating. So I snapped the shutter and got this cute photo. Although I did not accomplish my original goal, the photo of him rocks, so I obviously had to paint it!  Also, the following week, his mane was trimmed, and I find the scruffy look charming on him. 

This was done with coloured pencil crayons. I have not touched coloured pencil crayons in five years. But it was the first medium that I tried out of high school. In fact, Andrew purchased a box of premier Prismacolor pencil crayons, and a book about pencil crayons for my first birthday as a married couple. Even back then, he was so supportive and amazingly thoughtful. 

For those of you who were waiting to see this piece, thanks for you patience. Spraying it and photographing it was not easy. But it is finally photographed and protected! Yeah me!

$200.00, 6" x 6"; Prismacolor Premier coloured pencils and Faber Castell Polychromos on Strathmore Bristol vellum surface paper; 30 hours

Please email me if you are interested in purchasing this piece. 

Dad

This is a portrait of my Dad. This is the first portrait I completed in my drawing class taught by Sanela Dizdar at the Uptown Gallery in Waterloo, Ontario. It is pretty cool how my Dad and I are taking Sanela's class together.

My Dad is an artist, and art is a big part of my life because of him. I was always fascinated by his ability to create such beauty on a flat surface. It was like a magic trick that I never grew tired of watching. I loved spending time with him in his studio and watching him paint. For health reasons, my Dad can no longer produce much art, but he is still a great inspiration to me.

11" x 14"; Steadtler Mars Lumograph pencils on Strathmore Bristol vellum surface paper; 15 hours

My little Star

This is a graphite portrait on paper of my sweet little dog Star. I am soooooooooo happy with this piece. Never have I been able to do fur in so much detail and so realistically. I thank my drawing teacher Sanela Dizdar for patiently guiding me through this piece. She helped bring me to a whole new level of drawing. I even had to re-due it three times, LOL. But I learned so much and it was so worth it.

11" x 14"; Steadtler Mars Lumograph pencils on Strathmore Bristol vellum surface paper; 30 hours

Stapler Seven Forty Seven

One day I was feeling very blah and had my head down at the computer desk. When I looked up, I saw my Swingline stapler. I had looked at it many times before, but I had never REALLY looked at it. I had never noticed the numbers on it's front, nor how cool it looked. So I had to draw it. I am pleased with the final product. :)

This is also the first piece created with graphite on canvas using the techniques taught to me by my drawing teacher Sanela Dizdar. I feel this piece is a great improvement from my other graphite on canvas pieces. :)

If you are interested in owning this piece, it is thirty dollars at the Waterloo Community Arts Centre (the Button Factory) in Waterloo Ontario. This pieces was donated to them and all of the proceeds from the sale of this piece go towards art programs at the Button Factory. Although part of me wishes that they would sell the artwork for a bit more. But oh well.

5" x 7"; pencil, on gallery wrapped canvas; about 8 hours

Sketch from January 4th

I am taking an urban sketching class this winter. So far it has been very inspiring and fun. The above sketch was done at the Grand River Transit Bus terminal walkway during the first class. It was nice to be able to sketch the outside from inside a building (the weather was a bit chilly). I am proud of myself for not using any pencil on this sketch. I just jumped right in with my marker. Yeah for me!

Thanks for reading!

9" x 12"; Sharpie ultra fine point permanent marker on 80lb acid-free paper; 1 hour 30 minutes

Globe studio show

I regret to inform all of you that I have decided to withdraw from the Globe Studios Art show this coming weekend. I realized that I did not have enough quality artwork for the show. I need to build up an inventory of work before I can participate in any other art shows. I am ashamed of my poor time management skills, but I felt it was better to be honest with myself, the Globe Studios, and to accept my failure. Submitting a few sub par pieces would not have been good.  My goal is to never have to back out of an art show again. 

I have been having a lot of trouble keeping commitments for the past year. My energy levels have just been so low. It is 2:05 pm and I am writing this post from my bed for goodness sakes. Not cool. I know what is causing the lack of energy, I am just not comfortable talking about it. What I can tell you is that the next step is to learn to cope with it. But for now, I need to deal with this privately and not dwell on it.

I am also thinking of raising the prices of my pieces. Although it feels amazing to sell so much art, I cannot keep up the supply to meet the demands. My current style of realism and detail takes much more time than my paintings ever did. On top of that, my expectations of myself have also grown.  I feel that my work is of better quality than it was before. So taking all of these factors into consideration, I must raise my prices. Prices on my older work will remain the same.