Finally, back online!

Moved into the new studio space and after several days and several people trying to figure it out, we have our internet up and working now! I have lots to blog about but have to go out of town tomorrow and have to finish one of my needlepoint designs before I go, soooo I will get back to blogging when I get back. I will also have photos to share of the new studios!

New work!

Update: OK, so I couldn't get the video to work, so above is a photo of my latest piece. It's not a great photo, as it's difficult to get a good shot of such a large painting! This one is 48 inches square. I THINK it's done!
Still in progress, I cannot wait to move into the new studio space so I can finish it up! I just don't have the room at home! We are counting down the days until move in, Thursday is the day! We now only have one, possibly two, spaces available! We rented three on Friday and the one that is left could be split into two spaces. I'm having a difficult time getting anything done at the house, so it will be great to get in there!

Also, in preparation for my move, I'm cleaning out my stash of stuff! I have several embroidered, beaded butterfly and dragonfly brooches as well as some vintage Mucha and Vogue posters listed in my Etsy shop for incredible prices. Check them out!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Wow! Time has flown since my last post! I have been super busy with everything going on, but it's all good stuff, so I'm happy. We are still showing the new studio space to prospective renters. We were down to only 2 spaces left but unfortunately, a couple people had to back out on us so now there are 4 spaces available again. If you are interested you'd better jump on it soon though, we are making the rounds at First Friday this week so I don't expect there to be any spaces available after the weekend!

Lots of other exciting things happening as well! My husband will be appearing on television tonight on two different shows. They are both local cable access channel shows so unfortunately you have to be local to catch them. However, he does get a dvd of his appearance so I know he will be posting some video on his blog and youtube as soon as he can.

Also, it looks like a may have a position as curator for a local arts and entertainment venue. I don't want to mention any names until I know for sure. I should be meeting with the current curators soon. I will keep you posted.

I am close to finishing the second of two large canvases I've been working on over the past few weeks. They are reserved for a gallery on Canyon Road in Santa Fe. Again, I don't want to mention any names until I know for sure. I have taken some video of the first one and I'm waiting for my camera batteries to charge so I can upload and post it.

And in other news, I have several new needlepoint designs that will be released to the public at a trade show in Dallas next month. I have promised to save them for the show, so until then I can't post photos here.

The best news for me is that I'm finally feeling better after suffering through a bout with the flu for the past 3 weeks! It was the strangest sickness I've ever had. There is definitely a new strain going around this year! It seems just about everyone I know has had it and some of them have suffered for over 3 months! So, I count myself lucky to be feeling better after only 3 weeks! I just pray I don't relapse!

Attn. Albuquerque Locals: New Studio Space opening soon!

This new space is something I've been dreaming of for a long time! I along with 3 friends and my husband have finally found the perfect space and there are still 3-4 studio spaces available!

Call for Artists - Looking for high quality studio space?

Chromatic Horizon Studios, Albuquerque's newest art & music studio space, is about to open on Central Ave. two blocks west of University, in lovely east downtown Albuquerque. Get in on the ground floor of our eclectic opening, and enjoy the kind of studio you deserve!

We offer an intriguing, classy, centralized location in a large office space, with secure individual studios, 24 hour access and a great view of our ever-changing Albuquerque horizon. Studios range in price from $175 - $350, with central heat & refrigerated air, free wifi, an upscale reception area, nice restrooms, parking, a communal kitchenette, access to an excellent classroom / mini show space, and countless other perks, including open studio nights, courtyard shows, and more.

Best of all, we're an artist-run studio space and active community of artists devoted to making Chromatic Horizon a cool place to be. Teach classes in our conference room, participate in shows, special events--and decision making, in our democratic, pro-active environment. We hope to attract other members who want to participate in our events and planning!

Our artistic body so far consists of two painters, a photographer, a jeweler, a mixed media artist and even a classical guitarist/composer.

Please contact me for additional information, or if you would like to arrange a meeting to see the space. There is a jurying process (no fee), which requires a brief interview.



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How many people have your name?

A friend sent me this link and I found it very interesting that I am the ONLY Paula Manning-Lewis in the USA! There are 99 Paula Mannings and 744 Paula Lewis'. So I guess using the entire hyphenated name is a good thing as an artist since I am the only one!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Featured on another blog

George McKim was kind enough to feature me and my etsy shop on his blog! Thanks George! Now it's my turn to feature him. Stay tuned.......

It's a beautiful life!

So much going on right now, I barely have time to breathe! Figured I'd write a quick post to let you all know what's up. Several deals in the works, can't really say much until I know more, but stay tuned and I will keep you posted.

I'm working on my largest canvas to date, a 48 x 48" oil painting, a new spiral abstract flower.

I have a couple of Canyon Road galleries in Santa Fe interested in seeing more of my larger work which is why I'm busy painting more!

Preparing to move in to my new studio (again, I know, I've only been in this studio for 1 1/2 months!) at the beginning of March. Much nicer place(heat and air conditioning!) with a gallery too!

Spring is coming! I love this time of year! I'll post more news soon, I promise!

Another week already!

Dreamscapes #2, 20 x 20" oil painting on canvas

Sheesh! I've been so busy, I let another week slip by without a blog post. I'm working on new needlepoint designs that I can't share until they've been released to the public. However I do have a couple of photos to share. The first is my latest Dreamscape painting.



The other two are photos of a found art painted rock(what does she actually call them?) by Jafabrit that I was able to aquire all the way out here in New Mexico! Long story short, one of the Jafagirls has a gallery here in Albuquerque(Dreamscapes) and she gave it to me at her First Friday show last week. Jafabrit wanted me to post photos so she could see which one I got.




In other news, I'm planning to move my studio yet again, hopefully for the last time for awhile! Previously mentioned gallery, Dreamscapes, also rents studio space so that's where I'm going. It is actually only two blocks away from my current studio, still on 5th street. I'm excited as it is a very nice place and Jan, the owner, is a wonderfully nice lady!



Oh and in case I don't get back to post another blog before this weekend, my husband Aaron is playing a gig here in Albuquerque on Sunday afternoon at the Market Cafe located on the corner of Corrales Rd. and Alameda Rd. He plays from 12 to 2pm. So, if you are in the area, come out and enjoy some great guitar music and a yummy lunch!

A Whole Week!

I just realized that I mentioned my recycled, hand painted furniture in the last post, but forgot to post the photos. OOPS! See them in my Etsy shop. (I was unable to load them here, something up with blogger)

It's been a week since my last post. I was out of town last week from Wednesday to Saturday. I went down to Las Cruces (my home town) to help a long time and very dear friend pack up her mom's house. Her mom, also a cherished friend, is moving to New Hampshire to complete her PhD. She has lived in this house since before we were born (as far as I know), almost 40 years let's just say. It was like going back in time and reliving all my memories of growing up. I spent a LOT of time in that house. It was so much fun to hang out with my friend and her mom. We haven't spent time alone, just the girls without kids and husbands, in at least 20 years!

Since I came home I have been busy, busy, busy in the studio. I'm currently working on some new needlepoint designs. I hope to have all my designs posted together with a link to the company that is selling them VERY soon! As soon as I know where they are being sold retail, I will also post that information. I had contemplated selling them retail in my Etsy shop but decided that I didn't want to compete with the shops. So I will provide a list of shops as well as a link to the website where they can be purchased wholesale. So far I have 9 designs completed with a couple more in the works. However, there are a couple that I won't be able to share until later in the year because they will be released exclusively at a show in April. I will share more information about that as it comes available.

I am also currently working on finding companies to license my designs for use on tiles and fabric. If you have any recommendations please let me know.

More recycled paintings

Purple Night ACEO(2 1/2 x 3 1/2")

Green Moon 8" square oils on canvas board

I've been painting a lot of smaller pieces on recycled matboard scraps. Each piece is gessoed by me before I start. The mat scraps are plentiful in my framing studio. When I am out of ideas for larger paintings I like to paint small ACEOs or 6 - 8" squares. It helps to get my creative juices flowing and I usually come up with my next large painting concept while I'm at it. That is exactly what happened today! I painted Purple Night aceo and then came the Green Moon on 8" canvas board. Now I'm working on a similar idea on a 20" square stretched canvas. It was a very productive day in the studio. I've also jotted down some ideas for my next needlepoint designs.

Above and below are photos of all the aceo paintings, daily journal paintings and handpainted furniture I've finished in the past week. All are available in my Etsy shop.

Please Don't Break My Heart 7" square Oils on recycled matboard

Waves of Love 6" square Oils on recycled matboard

True Love ACEO

Flowerette ACEO

Heart in Love ACEO

Two Hearts ACEO


Music Playing 8" square Oils on recycled canvas board

Needlepoint designs a hit!

The weekend of January 11-13 my needlepoint designs made their debut at the TNNA(The National NeedleArts Association) Trade Show in Long Beach, California. They were a hit! My sales were great according to the company representing my designs! I debuted with 9 designs and had a few that sold really well. So, now I'm busy working on more new designs. If you are interested in seeing/buying any of my fine art needlepoint canvases, you will need to contact Lynda with Dreamhouse Ventures. I don't think she has my designs up on her website just yet, but I plan to post a page of my currently available designs with a link to her website until then. I will try to get all the images posted by this evening. It is so exciting to think about my designs going out into the world! My goal is to have at least 50 designs by the end of this year. I have 9 so far, so I guess I'd better get busy.

I also have a new section planned for my etsy shop. Recycled, handpainted tables. These are mainly the small, round, decorator tables. I have saved several from the landfill by taking them off people's hands on Freecycle. Freecycle is a great site, if you have never heard of it before, please follow the link and sign up! It is a national site, with smaller member groups around the country. Basically, people post listings of things they are trying to get rid of or things they want and other people respond to take things off your hands or to give you things you want, and it's all FREE! It's a great way to keep things out of the landfill and you would be surprised what people will take! It is so true that one man's trash is another man's treasure. I plan to put up the tables on my etsy site sometime this week. The cool thing about these tables is that they can be used as a table or hung on the wall like a piece of art. Plus, they're recycled!

I've been having a hard time deciding what to blog about. I have visited so many cool artist blogs and they all seem so much more interesting than mine! So, anyone out there, give me your ideas for what you want me to blog about. Is there any burning questions on your mind? What do you want to know? Do you like the blogs with nothing but images? Should I talk more about the art? Help me out people, I need ideas! :)

New aceo paintings in my shop

I've been trying to work out a slight painting funk by painting a bunch of little ACEOs (artist cards editions and originals), plus I did a little 6 inch square painting. You can find them in my etsy shop.

Dreamscape

Today's new painting is a 20 inch square called Dreamscape. If you look at the studio photos in my last post, you can see it in progress on my easel. This was a quick painting, it's a little different from what I've been doing, but it flowed from that place where painting comes easy and I never get frustrated. I've been working on another painting that I've named Controlled Chaos that has been nothing but frustrating. So, I took a break from that one to start another and Dreamscape is what resulted. I guess I should do that more often!

Not sure if I've mentioned it here yet, but I have put a bunch of paintings on sale in my Etsy shop. I'm working on cleaning out and organizing and decided to let some older work go at a scream of a deal! The discounts range from $5 off to $100 off!

New Paintings and Studio Photos

Reconstruction, 20 x 24 inches, watermixable oils on canvas

Two new paintings finished this week. The first one is called Reconstruction and I started it last year, just put the finishing touches on it Saturday. The second one is called Organized and it is one of my small daily journal paintings from yesterday.

Also see below, photos of my new smaller painting studio. Still at the Factory on 5th in Albuquerque, it's in a different building. At first I had a little trouble getting used to the smaller space, but now it just feels cozy! The new space is only around 8 x 12 feet. My office and framing workshop are now back at the house in one of the spare bedrooms vacated by my sons in November.

Organized, 8 inch square daily journal painting, Watermixable oils

Robert Genn's Twice Weekly Letter

For those of you who receive the emails from Robert Genn, I made it to the clickback!!! I was so excited to see it I had to share! For those of you who have never heard of it, check out http://painterskeys.com . This is a twice weekly email that discusses different apects of being an artist. I finally responded to Robert's last letter "Art in bad times" and my response was posted to the clickback ! Now if I can just get an answer to my question. If anyone has an answer, please let me know.

January 7th, Already!

Here it is the 7th and I still haven't finished organizing my studio and office/framing space. Good news is, I'm almost done! I had to wait for the person that was in my new studio to move out so I could move in. So, now I'm all moved out of the old studio and my new smaller painting studio is organized and clean! I started a new painting yesterday, my first new painting since the beginning of December. It feels good to be back to painting.

I'm currently in my home office/framing workshop. I'm working on cleaning out files, organizing my workspace, typing out my goals for 2008 so I can post them up on the wall and now....taking a break from it all to blog! :) I just realized it's been almost a week since I posted last and decided I'd better blog in order to keep my goals intact. I still need to post my list of accomplishments for 2007 and goals for 2008! I'm already behind! Most of my blog friends have already done it!

I guess I should go easy on myself, I did have to move out of my studio in to two new spaces. It isn't easy to split everything in different directions after having everything together for years.

I love having my painting studio separate from my office. I am now able to paint with no distractions, no internet beckoning me as I work! I will take and post photos sometime this week of the newest painting I finished on Saturday and the painting I just started yesterday. It's been cloudy and rainy here for two days, so I will have to wait for the sun to come out!

So far, 2008 has been a great year, and it's only just begun! One of my resolutions this year is to stay positive no matter what happens! But truly, it has been a great first week. I'm feeling so much better now that my studio is organized and my office is almost there!

I guess I'd better get back to sifting through papers!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

I know it's supposed to be a holiday, but I'm down at the studio today. I have to get my studio packed up and ready to move. I'm not moving far, across the parking lot, into a smaller studio.

I have lots to blog about, but not much time to do it right now. Once I get the studio cleaned, packed and hopefully moved(I'm waiting on another artist to move out of the new studio), I will blog about my accomplishments for 2007 and my goals for 2008. I'm looking forward to a wonderful year!

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!