My happy place

You wouldn't think one little trip to the library could get me in so much trouble. Well, maybe if you know me, you would think it could. But what I'm saying is, I was just wandering through the library, minding my own business, when I found this!

Sooooo many beautiful studios, for everything from mixed media artists, to quilters to painters. Painters!

So many clever organizational systems. So many ideas. So many visually interesting uses for small spaces.

Now, I really like my teeny, tiny little studio. Every part of the visual chaos has meaning to me, or is inspiring to me, or is just fun to look at. It's busy, but I like it. See? Here's what my studio looked like when I found the magical, inspirational book at the library.  

Please note, in particular, the white hutch. Only it's not really white. Not a nice white. It's actually primer white. The same primer white it was 5 years ago when I bought it at a cute little shop and told myself, "Oh, I'll totally paint it and it'll be great!"

Five. Years. Ago. 



 

So, anyway. I brought home the magical inspirational book and with 24 hours every single thing in this room was stacked in the hall. Everything off the walls. Everything off the shelves. Everything. Then I dragged my wonderful running buddy, who also happens to be a genius at picking paint colors, to the paint store. Because, while I do alright painting with watercolors, I'm seriously challenged at choosing colors for things like furniture and walls.

Then I came home with paint. Not enough paint, apparently, because there would be two more trips to buy more paint. I also came home with tarps and brushes and painters tape. And stir sticks and screw drivers for opening paint cans. It seriously was an enormous amount of work. But if you want to inspire your husband to be encouraging, just dump a whole room full of stuff where everyone in the family is sure to trip on it about a thousand times a day. He'll be more than happy for you to spend every free moment working on your "project" if it means you will only get all your crap back in the room where it belongs!!!

But, hey! Between work and laundry and soccer tournaments it only took me 3 weeks to finish. During which time  I watched a whole lot of Olympics, and Friends reruns, and Pawn Stars and 80's movies, so it was time well spent, really.

And here's the end result.

That blank blue wall will be devoted entirely to my own work, but first I have to put up blinds, because I don't want the paintings to fade in the sun. Ooooohhh, and I'm putting up a fixture with Ott light bulbs, which you may not know, but they provide natural lighting and they will be the coolest thing ever, which is good, because each light bulb costs as much as a nice dinner out for one person. But it's all totally worth it, I think. Mark thinks so, too, now that all my stuff is back where it belongs.

Never thought I'd see the day

You can't say I haven't been warned. I know the dangers. Rachael Rossman is very clear about the havoc that can be wreaked by a studio cat. Hair on paintings. Colorful pawprints on paintings. Painting water used as a water dish.
But come on. Look at the cuteness. THE CUTENESS.
Mark still insists that this is a barn cat. But, honestly, I don't think even he completely believes it anymore. Every time I turn around, the kitten is in the house. More often than not, riding on Mark's shoulder as he goes about his day. I know. I don't believe it either. But, seriously, this is probably the single friendliest cat on planet earth. No one is immune to his charms.
And in the Cunningham family tradition, we seem unable to settle on one name. Here's the list so far.
Chumlee (from Pawn Stars)
Little Cat A (from The Cat In The Hat Comes Back)
Rootin' Tootin' Kitten Kabootin (from the Skippy Jon Jones books) This gets shortened to "Kabootin" or "Bootin")
Mousetrap Wellington III (from, well, my crazy family's overactive imagination)
So... I'll keep you posted on the transition from barn cat to studio cat, but I'm pretty sure that's what's gonna happen. It can't be helped.

Hen Party

Not sure why I have so much fun painting chickens. But I do. So here's some chickens. Tada!

(11x14 original watercolor on 300lb paper. Available for sale. $300. Email me at glorybeefarm@live.com if you are interested in any of my work, or in having a custom painting commissioned.)

Waiting For Summer

11x14 unframed watercolor (16x20 matted) $300

Hey, thanks for stopping by. I'm trying something new with this post. I hope it works. Seeing as how I'm a total technical genius, I'm sure it'll be great.

Wanna know what it is?

There is a soundtrack to this painting! Isn't that cool? I didn't start out with Chris Ledoux in mind, but every time I worked on this painting I'd find this song running through my head. Click here to start the music, then head on back. I think you'll find the song and the painting complement each other very nicely.

Feel free to comment on how I'm probably the most tech-savvy person you know.

(Okay, just discovered you have to right click on that link and then hit "Open a new tab" to play the music and still stay on this blog. I'm sure there's a way to fix this but if you think I know what that way might be, you've clearly never met me. Hope to figure this out for future posts. In the meantime, yep, tech genius. That's me.)

Thinning the herd

So here's a fun problem to have.

People are actually starting to ask to see my paintings.

Well, that's not the problem. I have a photo file entitled "Finished Work" synched to my iphone for just such occasions. Push a button and images of all my paintings are available at a moment's notice. But last night as I was showing my work to someone who might be interested in having a painting done, it occurred to me that a large number of paintings in that file were early works that I no longer feel represent what I am capable of. I found myself cringing and thinking, "Um, don't look at that one. Or that one. Or that one."

So my task for today was to ruthlessly edit that file and keep only paintings that I am truly proud to show off.

To tell you the truth, I was a little worried that there might not be much left when I got through. But know what?

There is.

Now if (when!) someone says, "Oh, you paint? Can I see?" I won't have to cringe.

Wanna see?

Gunther and Holly

Look at these sweetie pies! I didn't get a chance to meet them until after the painting was done, but they both had just the personalities I imagined them to have. Gunther practically vibrates with the "Let's have an adventure!" vibe. Try and keep up, would ya?

Holly, on the other hand, might as well be speaking english, her eyes are so easy to read. "I love you. Did I mention that I love you? Well, I'll just be right here if you need me. 'Cause I love you. Did I mention that?"

What a great combination.

Thanks, Debbi and Steve for letting me paint your lovely dogs. So glad that you were happy with the outcome!

Okay, I know some of you have seen some of these paintings before. I'm reposting them because: A.... I'm not totally sure which ones I've posted. B.... Even if I've posted them before it's been a while. And C...I'm really trying to get the word out about what I'm doing and focus on painting.

By the way, I'm gonna use "C" as the reason I'm so behind on posting on this blog. It's not laziness. It's NOT.

Anyway, if you've landed here, first of all, thanks. Second of all, um... thanks. And third of all, leave me a comment so that I can get the sound of crickets out of my head.

So, here's my plan. While I'm enjoying painting a wide variety of subjects, I've decided to narrow my focus. If you're laughing at the idea of me even having focus, well then, that just shows how well you know me.

Wait! Focus!

Custom pet portraits. That's where I'm going with this. So if you really love your dog or cat or hedgehog or iguana or horse and would like to have a custom watercolor portrait of your fuzzy or scaly or prickly friend, let's talk.

I work on 140lb watercolor paper, using fantastic artist grade paints by Graham's, Daniel Smith and Windsor and Newton.

I work from your photographs. Obviously, the better the photo, the better the painting. I prefer to see several photos of the same subject. You know your pet, and I probably don't, so I can't paint what I don't see.

An 11x14 custom portrait, unframed, is $300 and my turn-around time is currently 4-6 weeks. If you absolutely need another size, let's talk about it. For you super-organized types, it's not too early to start thinking about Christmas. You wouldn't believe what a great gift a custom painting makes.

Okay, that's it. That's what I'm doing. Tell your friends. Tell your enemies. Tell the guy who makes your coffee down at Starbucks. Then shoot me an email at glorybeefarm@live.com and let's get started!

Little different style for me. All hard edges. Bright, bright color. No subtlety. No background. No shadow anchoring the chicken to the ground. Looking for feedback. Do you like this style? Do you prefer some of the more complicated compositions of my other paintings? I'm trying to find a style to focus on, although part of me thinks that it's fun to do different styles. Also taking suggestions for a title. Okay. That's all I have to say about that. If you have an opinion, throw it my way. Unless it's, "Don't quit your day job." That's not really what I'm looking for. Ready... go.

Playing with color

Yesterday, for Mother's Day, my sweet boys (all three of them) gave me what I wanted most. Time to do whatever I wanted. That's right. After church, a whole afternoon stretched out in front of me with no obligations. No homework to help with. No hedgehog cages to clean. No soccer of any kind. Nothing but glorious freetime for painting as far as the eye could see.

So.....

I sat in my little studio with my current painting in front of me.

Cup of coffee?

Check.

Candles lit?

Check.

Music playing?

Check.

Fresh painting water?

Check.



Inspiration?

Uncheck.

Creativity?

Uncheck.

Ability to add one single thing to the painting in front of me.

Complete and total uncheck.


AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!

Why is it that I can never live up to the expectations of uninterupted painting time? It makes me feel like there's a little voice saying, "Okay, all your excuses are gone. Let's see what you can REALLY do."

I CAN'T TAKE THAT KIND OF PRESSURE!!!

Several times during the afternoon my sweet husband would find me reading, or pacing or playing computer games and gently say, "You need to go sit down and paint. Just pick up a brush and paint something."

And he was right, of course.

But I just could NOT do anything with my current painting. Could. Not. Do. It.

So I tossed it aside and picked up a picture of a chicken that I already had drawn in and decided to take a stab at it. My main motivation was that I had nothing invested in the chicken. If I screwed it up, I could just throw it away. That's very freeing, you know.

So I started. and the first section started out pretty good. But then I immediately screwed it up.
See that kind of purple area on the very front of the chicken? That is a very muddy purple, and MUDDY IS NOT GOOD.

But here's the thing. Once I knew that this painting was ruined, I felt free to try some new combinations of colors. I felt free to make notes right on the painting about what colors I was mixing. I felt free to mix some colors on the background area of the paper.

Some of them are pretty good.

Some of them are seriously homely.

I learned some stuff.

Someone once said, "Paint like you have all the paint and paper in the world." I love that advice. I learned some stuff, and all it cost me was a little bit of paint, and a piece of paper.

I can and will redraw the chicken. I'll use some of the colors I discovered on this rough draft. I will definitely NOT use some of the colors I discovered on this rough draft. I'm betting I'll come up with a pretty darn good chicken.

Best of all, by the end of the day yesterday, my creativity was back and painting was fun again. That's a pretty good payoff for a screwed up picture of a chicken.

Amber Waves of Grain...

This is my first commissioned painting, which, I gotta tell you, makes me feel like a pretty big deal.

Wheat is harder to paint than you'd think.

Enjoy, Karenpie.

Happy trails to you...

Moonlight Ride

This painting and several others are available for sale. If you are interested in seeing what I have available, or talking to me about having a painting made from your favorite photograph, just leave me a comment.

Just a little update...

The Grist Mill

Grandma and Nate

Just a little painting update. Both of these went as Christmas presents and so could not be revealed until after Christmas. Yes, I know Christmas was two weeks ago, which makes this AFTER CHRISTMAS!

The top painting is the Grist Mill up on the Lewis River. It's fun to visit in the fall when they use the water power of the grist mill to make fresh apple cider. If you haven't gone, you should try it.

The bottom painting is my mom and my sweet nephew Nathaniel.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I am going to stop procrastinating and go actually paint something.

If you hear a voice within you say, "you cannot paint," then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced. -Vincent Van Gogh

I am a creative dabbler. I can walk through Michael's or Joann's or Craft Warehouse and see 10 different crafty things that I think I'd like to try.

Here is a far-from-comprehensive list of things that I have tried:
*Photography

*Knitting

*Counted Cross Stitch

*Baking

*Blogging

*Writing

*Scrapbooking

*Stamping

*Card Making

You get the idea.

I've had varying levels of success and enjoyment with these and other methods of creative expression.

But for the last couple of years I have felt deeply dissatisfied with the dabbling. I'm tired of being a Jill of all trades, master of none. I have been searching for the "One Thing." Please picture Jack Palance in "City Slickers."

Now, please do not misunderstand me. In the big picture of my life, the One Thing is my relationship with God, followed by my family. Nothing else even makes the list. Nothing.

But I'm talking about the One Creative Thing. One thing that I don't get tired of within a year. One thing that I can do well. One thing that I find challenging and satisfying at the same time.

I've brought this longing to God, feeling a little trivial. A little silly. Wondering, in the grand scheme of things how important this is.

Here's the thing, though. God wants us to give Him all of ourselves. Not just the "spiritual" stuff. Not just the life-or-death stuff. All the stuff.

All the stuff.

So, when I see God answering my trivial, silly prayers by showing me that I AM A PAINTER, I am reminded in a very real way how much He loves me. How much my smallest concerns matter to Him. And all of a sudden, I don't feel so trivial after all.

I think I might be a genius

Okay, I know I'm not a genius, but I'm pretty sure I'm improving, if I do say so myself. And can I tell you how much fun I'm having????
This painting was a birthday gift for my dad (happy birthday, dad!) My dad can draw like nobody's business and has been so encouraging me with this painting stuff. Still, giving him something I made for his birthday felt a little like giving him a macaroni necklace, and, you know, that's just not as cute when you're not four years old.
I think he liked it, though.
Dads are pretty great that way.

Surprises are fun!

My sweet, sweet friend, Angel, moved away a year ago. Not just away, but AWAY. As in, Alaska. And not even metropolitan Anchorage. No. Homer, Alaska. Which I suppose is what you do when you're a good, supportive wife and your husband gets a job there.

But still. What about her friend in Battle Ground who totally misses her? What about that, I ask you?

So, when Angel posted a picture of her beautful daughter having the time of her life going over a jump, I thought, "I know what to do! I'll see whether I can paint that picture and send it to her and it will be a big surprise!

Confession... part of the reason for not mentioning to Angel that I was painting this picture was the fact that I figured, well, if the painting is horrible, I'll just throw it away and nobody will be the wiser.

I also figured, well, if the painting is not too horrible and I do send it, she won't be disappointed that it didn't live up to her expectations, because she doesn't have any!

Wasn't that clever of me?

So, here is the end result, which I was actually pretty happy with. I think Angel was, too.

Miss ya, sweetie.

New Paintings

Mason. Faces are really hard.

Summer to Fall

Tango

Sheep

If you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint," then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced. -Vincent van Gogh

"Buddies"

"Gizmo"

"Rise and Shine"

"Stella"

Beanie Boy