Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!

It has already been quite the winter here in Albuquerque! On the 19th we had about 3 inches and then yesterday it started snowing in the late morning and didn't stop until this morning, so we woke up to 10 inches this morning!!!

Aaron and I took a walk over to the park and then down to the river and got some great shots of the snow! The first shot is of two of my sons and their friend on the 19th during the first snow, the second shot was taken last night and the rest are from this morning. Happy New Year!

This is the most snow we've seen since we lived in Colorado, and I guess they are getting even more snow up there! According to the local news this is a record amount of snow for Albuquerque. Other parts of the city have more than a foot.

Update: It started snowing again, it may not stop until tomorrow morning. I talked with my mom who lives on the east side, closer to the mountains and she said they got around 18 inches!

Our front yard last night, before all the snow fell

Looking east on Glendale Rd.

Looking down at the park from the top of the hill

Rio Grande with ice!

Bosque trees in the snow

Happy Holidays!

A quick post to wish all my cyber friends a Happy Holidays, whatever holiday you may observe! I will be offline for a week or so. This week we are spending at home, Saturday we will travel down south to visit my dad and brother/sister in law in El Paso/Las Cruces.

I hope to get some time during the holidays to paint, but if not, that's ok too! Hope everyone gets a chance to have some time off to spend with family and friends!

See you next year! :)

Today's Daily Journal Painting

Today's journal painting is called 'Worm Hole', it was inspired by the name of my brother's band. Last time I saw him he told me my spiral art would be perfect as an cd cover, so....here it is, my interpretation of Worm Hole! This is an oil painting on 8 x 8 inch canvas board.

Great information on links

I had to share this link that I found on the Art Biz Blog. Alyson always has great information on her blog, if you haven't been there, you should check it out.

Anyway, here is the link about links that I'm talking about;

http://data.fineartstudioonline.com/dataviewer.asp?keyvalue=126&page=Blog&subkeyvalue=410

I plan to post a new daily painting today, I haven't started it yet, but I figure if I post about it, then I HAVE to do it! Accountability... I love it!

Update: I still haven't painted the daily painting, but I did work on the large one some. Above is a new progress pic. Now I have to wait for this layer to dry, so I'm on to the daily painting.

Progress at last!

Click on the image to see it larger

Finally, the progress pic I've been promising. This one is going to take a while! Don't know if I said before, this is a 20 inch square canvas, oil painting. I haven't done a large size painting in some time. I love painting the small daily canvases but, the large ones can have so much more detail! I'm a little obsessive about detail, in case you haven't noticed. The detail is where I get lost in the painting zone. My favorite part about painting!

Cool Link

A good friend of mine sent me this link and I just had to share! This is an animated drawing of a woman done from the inside out. Very cool....check it out!

http://fcmx.net/vec/get.swf?i=003702

Hoping to post a progress pic later today! :)

Another rough day

Actually, I should say, rough weekend. If you read rough day you know I'm having problems with my 16 year old, middle son. Well, he cemented it, he's going to Arkansas to live with his dad. He doesn't want to, he's going because I want him to graduate from high school. I don't know what it is with my boys, hopefully not my youngest one too, but the older one went to live with his dad at 16 too. Hopefully, my ex will have better luck with him. He did in the past. It is just tearing me apart! I keep going back and forth between wanting him to go, knowing it will be good for him and not wanting him to go, knowing it's going to hurt. Luckily, everyone in the family is with me on it. I know it is going to be for the better in the long run, but my heart is breaking!
So, I'm dealing with my pain the only way I know how, I'm painting, or at least trying to. Obviously, I'm here typing right now, taking a break, right? I am about to go back to painting so I can post a progress pic later. I'm mulling a title for this painting, probably going to have something to do with heartbreak or torn in to a million pieces or something like that. I'd like it to be more positive though. I hate negative titles. Oh well, back to painting now.

New Lettered Mats!

Today I'm working on something a little different. I call these my lettered photo mats. The top one is currently for sale in my Etsy shop. They are all 10 x 20 inch mats. The Peace mat has 3 x 4 inch letters and the baby mats have 4 x 6 inch letters. I have filled the Peace mat with small giclee prints of my daily journal paintings. The baby mats are left empty so you can add your own 4 x 6 snapshots. The Peace mats are selling for $25 as it has my prints in it and the baby mats are going for $15.

I can also cut custom lettered mats with any name or word you would like. I plan to put up a listing for the custom lettered mats and they will go for $20.

Progress on Newest Floral Spiral

So, even with the rough day I had yesterday, perhaps BECAUSE of the rough day I had yesterday, I started my next Flower Spiral Abstract. This is an oil painting done on a 20 inch square canvas. This is a progress photo, there is still a lot to be done! Just wanted everyone to see that I am painting daily! I need to get some more small canvas boards so I can continue doing the daily paintings. I'm really liking this one so far! Click on the image to see the details better.

Rough Day

I'm having a rough day today. Hard to concentrate on work. I don't really like to write too much about my private life on here, but at this point, I need to get it out!

My 16 year old son is making our families' life hell. We have made the decision to send him back to live with his dad. This decision is based on the fact that his dad seems to have power over him, because when he has lived there in the past, his grades were great! He behaved himself. He did what he needed to do. This is a boy who has never done well living with me. He was diagnosed ADHD at the age of 5. This was a few months after my divorce from his dad. Looking back now, I think he really missed his dad to be totally honest. I hate to admit that! My ex is not a good person as far as I'm concerned. I mean he's much better than when we were together, but it kills me to know that he just has the magic touch with my middle son.

Without getting into all the details, I think he would be better off in the long run. This is really hard for me to admit! I feel like a failure as a parent! Which is also hard, because I know I'm a good parent, but.......and the doubt creeps back in. Being a parent is so damned difficult! I have so much more respect for my parents now. Why is 16 such an awful age??? It was awful for me, my oldest son and now the middle one. I hope the youngest will spare us!

I am trying to work on my latest large canvas right now, having a little luck, but I can't stop thinking about the problems with my son. I love him soooooo much, it's killing me! I guess I should get back to painting, hopefully get into the zone and forget about these problems for a little while! :)

Track of the Day

Time to do a little bragging! My husband (Aaron Lewis) recently posted one of his songs (he is a classical guitarist/composer) on Garageband.com and after only 2 days he was made the Track of the Day in the Classical section! Garageband.com is a site where musicians post their music for reviews and contests. Follow the link below to go listen to his song, "Awaken". It will only be on the front page for today, so go NOW! :)

http://www.garageband.com/genre/classical

Today I'm getting orders out and working on getting things together to put into our new flea market booth. We just moved into the indoor flea market this past weekend. We have been flea marketing for over 5 years, but haven't had an indoor booth in a while. We do it to make a little extra cash, but it's more of an excuse to feed our addiction to shopping yard sales!

I'm hoping to start my newest large sized painting either today or tomorrow. I will post a progress photo once I get going on it.

Great Hike in the Snow!

Yesterday, my hubby and I went for a great hike in the Sandias east of town. It was a little chilly, so we left around noon. The sun was out so once we got going it was perfectly warm. The cold air on the face was so invigorating that we made it farther than we expected. Ended up having to turn back because of the snow!

For anyone not familiar with New Mexico, we DO get snow here! In fact, there are several ski areas in the state. The amazing thing to me is that we can hop in the car, drive about 5 minutes east of town and hike up the mountain to the snow in a couple hours. I think it is this fact alone that has kept us living in the city for so long. We are both nature freaks and if it wasn't for the escape the mountains provide us, we would have moved away from Albuquerque years ago. Enjoy the photos!

Today, I'm working on cleaning and organizing so I can get more work done this week! I have such a hard time concentrating on work when the house is a mess. That has got to be the main pitfall with working from home.

Peace on Earth

Click Here to Buy

Today's daily painting is called Peace On Earth. It's been quite some time since I painted a peace theme, so, being that it's the Holiday season, I figured today was as good a day as any to paint peace! I used the red and green to give it a holiday feel, although being in New Mexico I guess it could be a chile theme as well. For those who don't know, the official question in NM is 'red or green?'. This is another 8 x 10 oil on canvas board and you can find it in my etsy shop for only $30! In fact, all of my daily paintings are specially priced for the holidays at $20 off the regular price.