Back at the Easel and Silent Auction in December

This has been an awesome month! I'm finally getting back into a routine of painting every day. It feels really great to be back at the easel. It's been over 7 months since I lost my dad now and while some of you may be tired of hearing about it, I can't let it go that easily. Obviously. I have now finished exactly 2 paintings since April 9, 2008. Which is nothing compared to what I usually produce. I am more than ready to get back to my regular prolific self. The studios/gallery are getting easier to run, my husband has been helping out more and we are about to have a virtual assistant to help with some of the load. So, now I will have more hours in the day for painting. Plus, and this is pretty important, I have ideas coming back into my head that fit with my usual happy thoughts and paintings. I guess I should retract my previous statement, I have actually finished more than 2 paintings since dad died. Those other paintings I don't count though, because they were grief paintings and will never be sold.

The 2nd painting I finished (see the last post), now has a title. Since I was praying for a good election result while I painted it, I have titled it "Hopeful 2008".

I have been busy scheduling shows for the gallery for 2009 and have decided to do a featured show of my work in April. Yesterday I spoke with the woman who is licensing my needlepoint designs and got her ok to do a needlepoint/art show. I'm thinking about hanging the paintings alongside their corresponding needlepoint canvas and perhaps have a couple of them stitched to show what they look like once they are done.

In the meantime, next month we are doing a silent auction show to benefit the local Roadrunner food bank. 50% of the auction proceeds will go to the food bank with the other 50% going to the artist that created the work. I will post some of the pieces on my Chroma Studios blog so everyone will have a chance to bid on them, even if you can't make it to the gallery! If you are a local Albuquerque artist and would like to participate please contact me as I would like to fill the entire gallery with the silent auction pieces. At the end of the silent auction, closing reception, we will have a fun event, an artist exchange where artists will be able to trade their work with other artists in the show. Any pieces that don't sell in the auction, or extra pieces that artists bring in will be available for the exchange. Unless, of course, you aren't interested in participating in the exchange. Just a fun event for the Holidays!

New Grief painting.....Life Goes On......

Life Goes On

I think I may be finished with this painting now. This is the last (for now) grief painting. It's time to move on and get back to my regular paintings. I have a large one that I blogged about what seems like long, long ago. I was supposed to finish it the day my dad passed away, but it didn't happen for obvious reasons. My next goal is to finish that painting. Until then, here is a new painting, this one is 20 x 20", watermixable oils on canvas. I could probably do more, but I feel ready to move on!

Life is slowly getting back to normal. Summer is almost here. My youngest son finishes up the spring semester this week. Another trip down to Las Cruces to help my brother and his wife move into their new house! It has been HOT the last couple of days, topping 90 degrees!!! I can only imagine, it will be even hotter down south of here!

Also, coming up soon is the Grand Opening for our new studio spaces! Chroma Studios! I've started another blog just for Chroma news. I plan to interview our studio artists there as well as writing other interesting art related stories. We are having a grand opening reception/art show on the first Friday of June, June 6th 5:30-8:30 pm. If you are in the area, come down and see our great new space! We plan to have some fun summer art and music classes coming up soon as well. We will have more information about classes and upcoming shows at the opening.

Another planned event I'm excited about is our monthly Salon group. Our first topic of discussion will be "Censorship vs. Artist Responsibility". For anyone that doesn't know, a salon is a group of creative people getting together to discuss certain predetermined topics in a safe, friendly environment. We have had salons in the past, but it has been years!

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

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

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.

Back to work!

We had a great time camping at the beginning of the week. We found a new spot in the western mountains of New Mexico where we didn't see a single person the entire time! That is a true rarity when camping anymore! The weather was perfect, right around 80 degrees with overnight lows in the 50s. We hiked for hours and sat around the campfire. The boys took a couple of friends and enjoyed having their own camp away from us. Of course they came back for mealtimes!

Now I'm back to work in the studio. Getting ready for another show this weekend. This is a Saturday only show in downtown Albuquerque. The Neighborhood Market is located at 8th and Gold and runs from 10am to 4pm. I hope to see some locals out there this weekend! Last month, the local Albuquerque Tribune was out at the market shooting video and interviewing the promoter. Today the article came out in the paper and they have also posted a video with my painted guitar featured prominently in it! In addition to the Neighborhood Market video, my husband was recorded playing a couple songs on his guitar! So check out both videos below and let me know what you think!

The Neighborhood Market
http://abqtrib.com/videos/2007/jul/19/105/

Also, here's the link to the article
http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2007/jul/19/neighborhood-market-ignites-downtown-albuquerque-r/

Aaron Lewis
http://abqtrib.com/videos/2007/jul/10/102/

I hope to have some new paintings finished soon to post here. I'm working on a couple of larger pieces for the Gallup gallery show in August. I also need to get started on a much larger canvas soon.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!!

In between shows, I've been busy in the studio. Here are some new paintings I've recently completed. They are all 12 inches square on stretched canvas, H2O Oils as usual. They are all available for $300 each.

Red Hot

Heat

Pure Joy

Albuquerque Sun