I'm Back!

Well, after months of badgering from unnamed fans, I'm finally up and running again from a much larger space in the same town. We finally decided around Christmas that it was to be our last in our old house--it was just too small for the four of us and two dogs and my art. I also really wanted a dedicated studio space that didn't have to be broken down and stored in the garage when we'd have guests. SO after probably 6 years of looking to find the right house, we bought a bank repo that tested our patience from the start! But it's been worth every hassle to get into this space that is nearly three times the size of our old place. I now have a studio in my house that remains a permanent work space.

We've run into pitfalls with that set-up already when some friends visited with their 4 year old twins and 7 year old son. The twins decided to add to my current painting--a commission--with their own creativity in permanent marker and grease pencil. Needless to say, I have to be more careful in the future with young visitors to set firm boundaries. Fortunately, paint is a very forgiving medium, so I just did a BUNCH of layers of gesso and more layers of paint. Now you can't see the crazy lines.

This painting is of my mechanic's pitbull named Elvira. Matt was the one who introduced me to the wonderful world of pitbulls and once he found out my current gig, he asked for a portrait of his precious Ellie as a Christmas gift for his girlfriend. Whoops! Missed that one...The good news is that she's almost done. I laid in the background today and need to tweak a lot more with her face, so I have a few more days of work ahead. I should be able to deliver it next week--I'm so excited to get her finished! This was a somewhat scary painting for me as Matt was a bit wigged out by my color choices. I sat paralyzed for a few weeks, trying to fit my brain into another box, then just decided to go ahead and paint as I do using the same colors. He'll love seeing his Ellie so much that he'll forget the rich colors. And my purpose in this world is to bring color into the lives of others any way I can, so he's getting a good dose!

I've used my same three colors in this as I have all the others--Cadmium Yellow, Alizarin Crimson and Pthalo Blue (red hue). I did sneak in some white, obviously.

Overall, I'm very happy with Ellie. She's been a fun one to paint--pitbulls have such lovely heads to recreate with all of the musculature and such.

Next up, I'll be painting for Father's Day at our current church, Eastside Foursquare. I've been invited to paint for all three services and will have a tryptic when done. I'll be sure to post about what it's like to paint for 4000 people once I change my pants :)