Shop Local!

I was mentioned and linked to on a local blog talking about shopping local on Etsy. Thanks to Spring Griffin for the link!

http://www.dukecityfix.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1233957%3ABlogPost%3A26821

Down with Commercialism!!

There is a great discussion going on over at Cynthia Guajardo's blog the past couple of days. She was unsure if she should veer off the regular artist post topics and go into the controversial subject, but I'm so glad she did! I feel the same way she does, but I'm not as good at expressing myself! I have to recommend the documentary The End of Suburbia to complement the discussion. My husband and I watched it about a week ago and I think it's an important topic! Some people may discount it and say it will never happen, but it's coming people! Wake up! I would tell you more about the subject but I think the movie says it all better than I ever could.

Another New Year

Our 2007 family portrait

Christmas is over and New Year's Eve is closing in. I have a love/hate relationship with the Holiday season.

I HATE the commercialism of it all. This year we gave mostly handmade by us or traded with other artist gifts. They were a hit!

I LOVE the family connection and the reflection on the year coming to an end. We went to see The Nutcracker ballet this year. My sister in law is the ballet mistress for the production in Las Cruces, NM. My brother started dancing in the production around 6 years ago. He's one of the uncles. It's so fun to see my heavy metal loving, musician brother dancing around to classical music. It's a little ironic! The show was amazing this year, we haven't been in about 5 years and they had all new costumes and sets. I love the ballet!

I LOVE looking forward to a fresh new year to start over and do things differently. I have many new goals and plans. I'm looking forward to a wonderful 2008! Election year again, hopefully with better results this time!

I doubt we will celebrate New Year's Eve this year. I can't stay up that late anymore. Actually, I have no desire to stay up that late. I love sleep! I'm more of a morning person now than I was in my younger years. I like to get up early and enjoy the peace and quiet of the morning before anyone else is awake.

Happy New Year everyone!

Commissioned Portraits

Painting portraits is my specialty. I have been painting commissioned portraits for almost 25 years! Nothing I paint is more challenging and rewarding. Below you can see some examples of portraits I've been commissioned to paint over the past few years.

I can work from life or photo, preferably photo for kids and pets. You may provide the photo or I can take photos for you for an extra $25.

My prices are moderate for my experience and are based on size, medium, and number of people/pets. Starting at $150 for a pencil 8 x10" with one person/pet and going up to $1,400 for an oil 20 x 24" with four people/pets. Email me for an exact quote for your commission.

Prices include basic professional framing. A 50% deposit is required to begin and the balance is due on approval of the portrait. You may also order prints or notecards to share your portrait with family and friends.

Buy Handmade

Here is a link to an article in the NY Times about buying handmade. I received it in an email from the Handmade Consortium, the group that started the Handmade Pledge for this holiday season. If you are interested in taking the Handmade pledge (not just for the Holiday season after all), click the logo on the sidebar to the right.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/magazine/16Crafts-t.html?em&ex=1198040400&en=f6aed7d6861c7a73&ei=5070

Being and artist married to a musician, we don't have a lot of money for buying handmade this year, but we will be MAKING most of our gifts this season. I also plan to do some trading with other artist friends in order to give gifts of art other than mine(my family must be tired of it already!).

I also take a cue from my mom who has been giving us handmade gifts for as long as I can remember! One of my husband's favorite gifts every year is the music themed shirt she makes for him every Christmas.

The article referenced above refers to the environment and global warming as a good reason to buy handmade, but more than that, for me it's about a gift that comes from the heart of someone taking time out of their lives to hand make something for you.

Peace on Earth and give handmade this Holiday season!

Changed my mind

So, after thinking about it for a week I have decided not to move out of the Factory on 5th after all. I will still be moving however, into a smaller studio. I'm moving my office and framing equipment to the empty rooms at the house and keeping my painting studio here. I will no longer be in the main factory building but I will have a smaller studio in the front office building. That will eliminate the problem of open ceiling and no privacy, plus the new studio has a skylight AND windows so my light will be much better. After telling all my artist friends about the move I decided I would miss the comraderie too much. Also, I need to have a place for studio visits that won't interfere with my home. I never have liked the idea of inviting clients to the house.

I was working late here at the studio last night and finished a couple more needlepoint designs. One I like, the other I'm not so thrilled with. I may work on it a little more to see if it can be salvaged. I will try to get photos posted soon. I will be working on a new design today as well.

I have to leave the studio early today because my brother's band is coming up from Las Cruces to play a gig in Albuquerque tonight. I have to get home and do some cleaning and cooking to prepare for their arrival. If you are here locally, go check out Wormhole at Burt's Tiki Lounge downtown. The show starts at 9:30pm.

Today's excitement!

I just received a call from the woman who is licensing my designs for needlepoint to let me know that I've sold my first canvas! Time to get busy painting more designs! Thanks Lynda!

Is that enough exclamation points for you? I know, I overuse them, but I'm just so tickled!

I will have some new designs posted soon. I'm currently working on a couple of smaller flower designs.

Blogstrings

Thanks to Ren for posting on her blog about this;
BlogStrings

My blog is now listed there too!

NEW ACEO limited editions

I mentioned in an earlier post that I would be putting up some special limited editions for the holidays. I know, it's kinda late for that(unless you buy soon!), but these will be in my etsy shop indefinitely. Of course they are small editions, only 10 each, so they will go fast at only $5 each!

I have 20 images total that I will be listing throughout today and tomorrow. Here's a link to my ACEO section so you can see them all together;
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=42046&section_id=5242019





Some of the images are ones that I have printed at other sizes, but some are not available anywhere else. The originals have sold and I never made prints of them before.

In other news, the show in Gallup was a great success! The weather was cold and snowing, we had to spend the night because the interstate was closed overnight. I was able to convince a couple of my artist friends to go along too, so we had a great time! Thanks again to Lyndon at House of Lyndon, for showing my work!

Factory on 5th and other thoughts

Tonight is the First Friday show at the Factory on 5th. I am almost ready in the studio, busy printing business cards and rehanging art on the walls.

My latest news regarding the Factory is starting in January I will no longer have my studio here. My two older sons have moved out of the house and it makes no sense to keep paying rent for an outside studio when we have two empty rooms at home.

In some ways I'm happy about the move, I will be able to work anytime of the day, I won't have to commute anymore which will save us money on gas, and we will save the money paid on rent.

In other ways I'm not happy about the move, I will miss the artist friends I've made at the Factory, I will no longer have a "place of business".

At the same time, there will no longer be the distraction of the dramas that occur when more than 5 artists are working in the same building. One of the problems I've always had with the Factory is that the ceilings are open so there is no real sense of privacy. Everyone knows each other's business. Music has to be low so it doesn't bother the other artists.

Some people don't have my sense of courtesy, so there is always someone else's music blasting over mine. I like to blast my music while I paint too, but I feel bad about annoying other people. I won't have to worry about that anymore.

Two Show Openings this week!

First Friday at the Factory is this Friday from 6-11pm. The Factory is located at 1715 5th Street in Albuquerque.

Saturday I will be at an opening in Gallup at the House of Lyndon, 227 Coal in downtown Gallup, from 6-9pm.

Also, I have been cleaning out my original drawer in my flat file and found a bunch of paintings that I listed in my Etsy shop. Clearance prices on most of these paintings. Lots of smaller sizes, watercolors, aceos, etc. Check out my Etsy shop to see what I have!

Goodbye to my little angel

I wish I had a better photo of him, but he hated to have his picture taken!



This has been a difficult weekend for me. My little Yorkie, Yoda, had to be put to sleep last night. His kidneys failed and he was at least 12 years old, so it was the best thing to do. Doesn't mean I won't miss him terribly.


He adopted us one day almost five years ago when he showed up on our front porch covered in blood. Turned out someone had kicked him and broken both his jaws and so of course looking for his previous owner was out of the question. It so happened that it was a couple of days before my sons left the state to go live with their dad for the year. Yoda got me through that very tough time without my kids because he needed nursing back to health. He was my little angel. I don't know what I would have done without him. I miss him so much, but I know he is better off now because he is no longer suffering.

Painting Frenzy

I've been busy painting everyday, finally getting into a rhythm, feels great!!! I have finished a couple of larger canvases as well as a daily journal painting and a new needlepoint design. Life, in general, is great these days, even with the colder weather!

Also, finally got around to updating my blog with a new header, a subscription sign up box and links to the other artists with studios here at the Factory on 5th(on the right hand sidebar). I also updated my blogroll list, wow, it's about time!

I now have my larger paintings up for sale on: http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/m/manlewis/

Deconstruction, 24 x 20" watermixable oils on canvas

Meditation, 20 x 20" Watermixable Oils on canvas

As usual, the smaller daily journal painting is up at Etsy.

Star Spiral, 8 x 8" watermixable oils on canvas board

Albuquerque Sun needlepoint design

Winter Arts & Crafts Show

Presented by the Duke City Renegades Art Guild (I will be participating in this show :)

Come on by the Factory on 5th and get a little holidy shopping time in!

What:
The Duke City Renegades, a local arts & crafts guild, is hosting their first-ever winter art show.

You’ll find original paintings, art boxes, photography, designer purses & bags, crochet handicrafts, vintage-inspired jewelry, assemblage, beaded and hand-forged jewelry, and even recycled fashion clothing–all under one roof! A wide range of prices and items will give you something to talk about!

The show is indoors in the main Factory gallery building.

When:Friday, November 30th, 2007. 4 p.m. - 10 p.m.

Where:At the Factory on 5th Art Space (in the main red brick factory building).
1715 5th St. NWAlbuquerque, NM 87102(between Aspen and Haines).
From I-40, take the 6th st. exit (one way, heading south), then make a left on Aspen and a left on 5th St. (one way, heading north). The Factory is on 5th St., right between Aspen and Haines.

Refreshments provided. Free parking.Contact: aunteres@juno.com for any additional info.

Hope to see you there!

Yay Monday!

After a long weekend of turkey and family, pie and pooping out(all day Sunday on the couch in front of the tv!), it's great to get back into the studio! I had planned to get at least one day of painting in, but of course that didn't happen. Actually, I did get into the studio for about an hour of painting on Saturday, while I waited to meet family for lunch. That doesn't really count though since I was just getting started when I had to stop!

I must say, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Lots of family, food, and football! We actually had the whole family together this year(except my dad, who we saw a week or so ago). I ate way too much, but it was all so yummy! The best part was, we went over to my in laws for dinner, so we didn't have to cook!

I LOVE my job! How many people can say they woke up excited about getting back to work this morning?! Even though Monday is my day to catch up on bookeeping, filing and all around office work, just being in the studio makes me happy!

I'm thinking about issuing some special edition prints for the Holiday season. Not neccessarily holiday art, but limited edition prints that will only be available until the end of the year. I also have many, many notecards to post in my Etsy shop. So keep an eye out for some fun new items in my shop in the next week or so.

Holiday Special!

From today thru December 15th you can buy one item in my Etsy shop and get the second item(of equal or lesser value) for 50% off!! Just wait for the revised invoice before you pay.

Happy Holidays everyone and hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Eat lots of turkey!

Thanks Ren!

For calling and letting me know that my "beautiful music" handpainted guitar made it onto the front page at Etsy.com! Check it out! I'm so excited! Now...if someone would just buy it!!! :)

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=16030

Secret revealed

So, if you read this blog with any regularity you remember me mentioning a connection I made while set up at the State Fair in September. The deal is happening now, so I think it's safe to announce without jinxing it! My art/designs are being licensed for a fine art handpainted needlepoint company that sells wholesale to shops. I'm so excited, it's great to finally be able to share the news! Below is a photo of my second design. The first design was already sent off for production and I forgot to take a pic of it. How it works is I will paint the original design on needlepoint canvas and then the original is sent off to a painting service that makes the copies that are sold. If you've ever seen a needlepoint canvas, you know that the weave of the canvas is open to allow for the threads to be sewn in. NOT easy to paint on! However, it is fun! My designs will be premiered at a trade show in January, so keep your fingers crossed for me that they do well!


Also below is my latest daily journal painting that I am about to list in my Etsy shop.

Misunderstood, 8 x 8" watermixable oils on canvas board

Silent Auction Art Show this weekend

Not sure what happened to this post?? It just disappeared!

Anyway, I will be participating in this show today!

Absolute Arts

I took the plunge today and have started an artist portfolio at Absolute Arts. I will no longer list my larger, more expensive original paintings on Etsy. You will now find all my originals other than my daily journal paintings at the following link; http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/m/manlewis/

Please do me a favor and check out my portfolio and let me know what you think! Thanks!

New Work, Finally!

It's not that I haven't painted anything new recently, it's that I haven't been keeping up with photographing and posting new work!

The first painting is the large canvas I've told you about in the past couple months. Finally finished!! I was so pleased with how it turned out. This is a 40 inch square canvas in watermixable oils. The second photo is a detail of the middle of the flower. I plan to post this one for sale on Absolute Arts, that is, once I get signed up for an account on Absolute Arts.

The Vortex, 40 x 40" watermixable oils

Detail

The other three paintings are daily journal paintings, 8 inches square.

In Time

Simple Spiral

Agitated

First Friday at the Factory on 5th; Tonight!

To all those who live here in the Albuquerque area, come down to the Factory on 5th tonight for our November First Friday show!

6 -11pm at 1715 5th Street

Over 20 artists will be showing with lots of free refreshments and entertainment by my wonderful husband, Aaron Lewis, on guitar!

Hope to see you there!

I will get back to posting more photos on my next post! :)

Day two of photos!

Day two of posting photos, today, more Grand Canyon and on to the Sequoia National Forest! If you didn't see the photos I posted yesterday, be sure to scroll down. I'm discovering that I am way too camera happy when I'm out with my camera! I still have a couple hundred to sift through! Stay tuned for day three! :)

This one I took of another hiker to give you an idea of scale!

After the Grand Canyon, it was on to the Sequoias, first photo shows the scale! huge!

I can never resist taking photos of pretty fall leaves!

Tomorrow I'll start posting the California coast and San Francisco photos.

In closing, I have to say it's SO GOOD to be back in my studio. I'm working on finishing a large painting that I've posted about before and I'm very pleased with how it's turning out! Can't wait to finish it and get some feedback! So, back to painting I go!

Home Sweet Home!

We arrived home last night and today I'm finally back at my studio! I'm so inspired by our trip that I can hardly wait to get back to painting. Seems there is always something to delay that. All in all we had a wonderful trip, check out a few photos below. I am going thru all the photos a little at a time. I took over 300 pics! These first few are from the Petrified forest and Grand Canyon, both in Arizona. Tomorrow I will get some more up. It's hard to pick which ones to post!

I hate to even mention it because I don't like to dwell on the negative, but the only bad thing that happened on the trip was having our van broken into while we were staying in the city! We ended up spending one of our days finding a place and waiting to have the window replaced! They only got Aaron's book bag and our hiking backpack because we took everything of value with us to the hotel room.(not that Aaron's music theory books aren't valuable, you just wouldn't figure anyone would steal them!) We're from Albuquerque, NM, we know better than to leave valuables in the car!

On the way home we stopped in Gallup at the House of Lyndon Gallery where I show my work. We dropped off new work on the way out and picked up the old work on the way home. I will be showing more new work at a show there in December. Lyndon now has the painted guitar, Universe and several other pieces. If you live in the area, please drop in and take a look at the new work and say hi to Lyndon while you are there! They have recently expanded the gallery to another room and it looks amazing!

OH AND DON'T FORGET this Friday is First Friday at the Factory on 5th. I will be showing the paintings that just came back from the gallery which will be new to the Factory since they've been at the gallery since before I moved in! :)

The first three were taken in the Petrified Forest National Park.

The rest were taken at the Grand Canyon. First and second are your typical tourist shots, the last three were taken on our grueling 4-5 hour hike! It was so awesome!!!

My birthday in San Francisco!

Today we rolled in to San Francisco! What a crazy, cool place! The trip so far has been way awesome! So far we've hiked the Grand Canyon(not the whole thing just a couple miles down) and Sequoia National Park, Oh and we stopped off at the Petrified forest on the first day out!

Today, my birthday, we had lunch in Santa Cruz and a great dinner in Chinatown! Tomorrow, we will go to Fisherman's wharf and around San Fran in general. Thanks to everyone for all the birthday wishes, here on the blog and by phone today. So happy to know that so many people care! I'm feeling kinda old as my knee and back are in pain from all the camping, hiking and walking! But, I'm having fun, so I don't care!

I have taken around 200 photos that I still haven't gotten downloaded to the laptop! I will try to get that done tonight so I can post some. I'm not sure that will actually happen until I get home though, but I promise to eventually share!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day, week, month and life! :)

Taking a Trip

Been busy the past week or so getting everything wrapped up before we take a trip to San Francisco. Getting everything packed up and ready to go today. We will be gone for 9 days and will start at the Grand Canyon for a couple days, then on to Sequoia Natl Park before getting to San Francisco the day before my birthday! I can hardly wait, should be lots of fun.

In reality though, this is meant to be mainly a business trip! We will be scouting out the area for galleries and shops to sell my work to, as well as looking for venues for Aaron to play guitar. Hope to also see a long lost friend that we haven't seen in ages! Also, this will be Aaron's first time to California and the Pacific coast!

Anyway, hopefully my camera batteries will cooperate on the trip so I can post lots of pictures when I get back!

Any Etsy orders that come in while I'm gone will be shipped out the week after Halloween when we get back.

More older new work

What I mean by the title is that this painting is an older new piece that I haven't yet posted here or on etsy. Today is the day! I'm working on getting everything posted that was skipped during the State Fair when I was too busy to post regularly. I hope to also have my two painted instruments up in the Etsy shop today. I finally put the beaded strings onto the guitar but still have to take some good photos.

This painting is called "Universe" and it's 20 x 20" oil on canvas.

UUGGHH!

Working on my portfolio today. Updating my bio, resume, and writing my artist statement. Writing is one my least favorite things to do. At least this type of writing. I journal and blog all the time, but this is professional writing! I have to sound educated and interesting. English was one of my better subjects in school, I always got As, but it is so difficult to write about myself. Anyone else out there have this problem? I almost wish I had one of those fill in the blank forms I could use and just input my information. I've been browsing the Art Biz blog for help. How fitting that she has been covering this subject recently! Alyson sure is a huge help!

Other than forcing myself to work on the business side of things, I'm getting ready for our trip to San Francisco. I can hardly wait! It has been over 20 years since I've been to California. One of the things I've been doing to get ready is searching galleries online in the San Fran. area. WOW! There sure are a lot to see. I'm trying to narrow it down online so when I get there it won't be so overwhelming. We will only be there for 4-5 days so I want to see as much as possible without wasting time on galleries where my art wouldn't fit in.

Here are the photos of my new studio that I've been promising for months! The photos are taken from the door looking in and going left to right respectively.

Office area with the portraits I've painted of my sweet hubby

Storage/Work area, I also have a nice tall window although it's east facing

The back wall with some of my older work

My painting area with comfy chair for reading/writing, large painting in progress