Time Management

Painting in Progress, oil on canvas, 48" square
Detail

I've been working on this current painting for almost a month now?! I need to work on my time management! I haven't spent as much time painting as I would like so far this year. I know, it's only been a week! So much going on with the gallery, business planning, studio management, website updates, etc, etc. Excuses, excuses! Now that the business plan is essentially done, I should be able to get back on track with my painting/working schedule. I hope to have this painting finished by next week.

Lots going on here at Chroma Studios Gallery, check out the Chroma website for more information.

New Work, finally!

I have finally finished a new painting! I haven't titled it yet, but it is a 20" square oil painting on canvas. I was looking for a different shape to the flower petals and really liked the shape of this flower. Don't ask me what type of flower it is as I don't know. I tried to find out but couldn't find it anywhere. If anyone can tell me that would be great. This is obviously an abstracted image of the flower, but the real thing is a tiny little blossom.

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.

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!!!

Framing

Besides painting my rear off this week, I'm working on designing and building frames for my daily journal paintings. I am using raw lumber (1 x 3") to create my own frame moulding which will ultimately result in handmade, handpainted frames to compliment my smaller, 8 inch square paintings on canvas board. I will post photos once I get some completed. I have just finished putting the frames together and now I'm sanding and gessoing them to get ready for painting.

Earlier today I started my largest spiral abstract painting to date. It is on a 40 inch square gallery wrapped canvas. I've picked a color combo of yellow, red and brown. One of my favorite combos for sure. This painting WILL be finished for the Gallery show in Gallup August 9th. I'm thinking only positively on this one. I got quite a late start on painting it, but I will not give up until it's complete. I guess it's true that I have always worked best under pressure.

In addition to all that, I have to restock my matted prints to get ready for another weekend at the Tijeras Art Market. I just love that place! If you haven't been there and you get the chance, you should definitely check it out! The shady trees, the mountain breeze and of course the art! Also, there is always live music to enjoy too!

I will try to get some photos posted by the end of the week, although I can't promise anything with all I have going on!

Back to Normal (Sort of!)

Finally, things are getting back to normal around here. We still don't have a furnace, but we did install a wood burning stove over the weekend to supplement the fireplace in the main part of the house. Also, the weather is cooperating so it has been much warmer lately! It's supposed to be close to 60 degrees today.

So, I finally have a new progress photo to post! This is the 36 inch square canvas I am currently working on. I have set it aside for now to decide whether or not I will be adding more. Not sure yet. It's hard to see all the details in a photo this small, especially when the original is so large. What do you think? Is it done? This painting is going to be the center piece for my show in Gallup in March.

I have been busy painting little paper mache heart boxes for Valentines day. I will have them in my etsy shop by the end of the day. Also today, I will be posting many of my older originals at special prices. I need sales to make the money for the new furnace (the estimates start coming in today). So now is a great time to get some of my originals for great prices!

Also, the Beck prints are still buy one, get one free until February 15th. See the clearance section in my Etsy shop.

January 2007 Newsletter

I've been busy trying to get my to do list for January completed! Almost there, don't know that I will finish everything, but pretty darn close! Yesterday I finished my January '07 newsletter, you can see it HERE.

For today only, I have a special running in my Etsy shop. Buy one print in my clearance section and get one free!! Also, I still have FREE shipping until Midnight EST tonight!

I am very close to finishing the large painting I posted the progress photo of in the last post. I will try to get a photo of it today if I have time. This afternoon I am going to judge the Westside High School Art Show! Should be fun, although it is so difficult to make choices!

Couldn't do it!

Stay away from my blog that is! So, I'm weak! Kidding, but seriously, I wanted to build up some suspense for my new paintings. I can't do it, I miss the feedback! So, anyway, the top one is the finished larger canvas I mentioned a few days ago, haven't named it yet. It is a 20 inch square h2o oils on canvas. The second one is a much larger painting still in progress. It's a 36 inch square h20 oils on canvas. I plan to make this one the center piece for my gallery show coming up. Still a ways to go to finish it. I'm really loving working larger, may have to do more!

I have been able to get quite a bit of work done this week, with cutting myself off from the internet. Of course I've still been surfing around every morning and today I spent way too much time online, making up for lost time, right??? Yeah, right!!

Anyway, hope everyone is well, happy and feeling creative today!

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!

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.

Peace on Earth

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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.

Rested and Ready to go

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Yesterday was nice and relaxing, after getting the mats packed and shipped along with the other orders I had. Above is today's daily painting. The goal is to get back into painting one of these every day. I felt a little rusty today as it has been a few weeks since I painted a daily. It felt good to be back at it though. This painting is already up for sale in my Etsy shop. I'm running a Holiday Special on my daily paintings right now; $20 off the normal $50 price.

Tomorrow I will start a new large size painting. I have two 20 inch square canvases ready to go, still thinking about what I will paint. I know it will be a spiral abstract, just not sure of the colors or flower yet. Back in September while I was at the State Fair I took some great photos of different flowers in the flower section. The last red sunburst flower came from those photos.

It seems that every Holiday season I'm behind in everything I wanted to accomplish for the year. Then the Holiday season descends and I'm swamped with everything else I have to do! Maybe next year will be different, in any case, I think that will be my resolution for the New Year. Maybe I should call it a goal instead. Seems resolutions usually end up in failure!

Woke up to snow on the ground this morning. My guys even had a 2 hour delay day! Which is actually pretty funny because there was only a dusting of snow on the roads. Nothing like when we lived in Colorado and the snow had to be 4 feet deep before they would delay or close the schools! I guess the problem is, New Mexicans don't know how to drive in regular weather, so a little ice on the ground is cause for a major shut down. Of course by this time in the day, the sun is out and the snow is melted. It is still pretty cold out there.

I have a lot of new listings to put up today, so I'd better get busy!