Sarah Fox Art

beCause

2009-10-19T11:24:00.000-07:00

I finished this project a week or two ago, and am just getting around to posting it now. We had to design a project for a cause that we like. I really like Kiva because it helps people help themselves, plus you don't have to be rich to give a micro-loan. I used Photoshop with traditional printmaking techniques in this one.
Photoshop and I still have a love/hate relationship. I LOVE Illustrator, it makes more sense to me for some reason. You draw things, click on them to move them around etc. With Photoshop I still seem to have trouble, I've unclicked the wrong box and things aren't moving etc. I will learn to love it though, I'm determined. I'm working on a music poster and I'm using Photoshop. We'll see how it goes, maybe the third time is the charm!

Compound Words

2009-10-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

For a project in my design 1 class we had to design logo like images based on compound words. These are my four favorites of the ones I did. I had a lot of fun with this project, but most importantly I proved to myself that I CAN concept, something I was really worried about going into this program. See if you can guess all the compound words!

The Birdcage Redo

2009-09-23T10:52:00.000-07:00

Well... to be quite honest, I'm not sure if I like it, but I said I would post everything so that's what I'm going to do. I'm still feeling a little frustrated with Photoshop and the whole computer. I think the idea was good, the drawing and painting were good. But when I put it in Photoshop it kinda lost something in the translation. I wanted it to look more like a screen print or something. Maybe that's my problem, I'm still thinking in terms of how I would do it by hand. But it's not awful for my first digital project. Could definitely be better. Oh well, I'm still learning.

One does want a hint of color

2009-09-16T11:50:00.000-07:00

For our first project in my computer class we have to use Photoshop to redesign a movie poster. We were supposed to pick either our favorite movie, or a movie that had a pretty awful cover. Luckily, one of my favorite movies happens to fall into both categories.

It's just a little outdated and... well... just not quite fabulous enough. I'm excited about the project not only because I'm learning how to use photoshop, but I also get to watch The Birdcage over and over again. I had forgotten the genius that is Nathan Lane as Albert! Not to mention Agador Spartacus.

Final Logos

2009-09-07T14:02:00.000-07:00

So here are the final logos that were based on one of our favorite things. I went with my two-headed mermaid because of ease of transport. Which one is the most successful?

This project has taught me to let go of what my idea of "good" art is. My first logo designs looked very similar to my paintings. Pretty, with lots of information. Great for a painting, not good for a logo. Simplify, simplify!! I have a feeling I'm going to have to repeat this to myself a lot!

These are a few of my favorite things!

2009-08-30T14:33:00.000-07:00

For our first design assignment, we were asked to create a personal logo based on our favorite thing. This got me thinking, what are some of my favorite things, what can I lug to school, and most importantly, what would make a great design??

My Aaron! I know he's not a thing. But he does have red hair, a great smile, kind eyes and freckles. Those are all some of my favorite things.

Ms. Lucy. She's an adorable smelly cat from the SPCA in San Leon (a no-kill shelter). She was two when we got her, and had lived her entire life in a cage there. She is the best best best pet anyone could ask for, and pretty adorable if you ask me.

Both of these are thing my Mom made. The top one is a quilt that she made for me that has pictures and things I love through-out my life. It's beautiful and whimsical and one of my favorite things. The second is a sculpture she made for her Master's thesis. She focused on fertility, and I think this is one of the most beautiful sculptures ever!

I love all cardigans. I always have one in my bag, because I'm always freezing. This is a personal favorite because of stripes, softness, and because it's huge.

My rubber-tree plant my dad gave me that has managed to survive it's 4th Austin summer, and my totally irresponsible watering. Its a real trooper!

Gunther, my German childhood bear and friend. He's had two eye replacements, a full stuffing replacement, been thrown on a stove, run through the washing machine, shipped across the country, and lived to tell the tale.

My grandma's wedding band. It's engraved with my her and my grandfather's initials. They were two people truly, truly in love. I miss her everyday.

A "lucky coin" my sister gave me that means the world to me.

Finally, a two-headed mermaid from Tibet!!! One of the coolest things I own that hangs above me in my studio.
I'll put up the final design that we work on tomorrow.

Art Girl Goes to Design School

2009-08-02T10:45:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
It's been a significantly long time since I have blogged. A lot has happened in the last few months. I won't bore you with the details that have a lot to do with the economy that we have all had to hear about too much lately anyways. Big businesses have crashed, and small newbie art businesses haven't fared much better.
One of the things that has changed is that I'm going back to school! I'm going to be studying graphic design at Texas State University starting this August. I'm really hoping I can combine my artistic style with some of the cool computer tools I'll be learning to use.
I'm planning on posting the good, the bad, and the ugly for the next few years of communication design school here along with any paintings I'll be doing.
I'm trying to throw myself into this new adventure and give it my best. You never know where life is going to take you, you make plans and it throws you a curve ball. All you can do is keep going. I've been repeating a favorite mantra of mine from Finding Nemo, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."

Moon

2008-12-04T14:56:00.000-08:00

A shadow-box I've been working on. I wanted to do the four seasons, this is winter at nighttime. My lovely friend Pearl modeled for me. It looks really cool in person because its pretty big and full of layers. Come and check it out this weekend at the Laguna Gloria Holiday Art Show. It's from 10-5 Saturday and Sunday (see the link to the right). I'll be there with a bunch of new work, stop by and say hi!

A Happy Mermaid

2008-11-23T19:35:00.001-08:00

I had a lot of fun doing this happy mermaid. I've been working on some smaller, more whimsical shadow-boxes while working on my bigger pieces and this is the first finished one. Something cheerful :)

Etsy!

2008-11-19T13:30:00.002-08:00

Yay! After some toiling and wanting to throw the computer out the window, I've finally got some things for sale up on Etsy! Check it out HERE. For now I have some small open-ended prints available (not the giclees I have at the shows). I want to use it to post smaller items and prints. We'll see how it goes :)

More Little Ones

2008-11-11T09:32:00.000-08:00

Here are some more of the little flowers I've been working on. I was trying to post one at a time daily on the blog...but that obviously hasn't happened so I'm just putting them all up now :) So which one's your favorite?
I'm working on a bunch of different things right now, a portrait, another big shadow-box lady, and 4 smaller whimsical shadow-boxes! I'm usually a one piece at a time kinda lady, but I'm having fun working on everything. Let's see if I go crazy!

News and Smaller Works

2008-11-06T09:24:00.000-08:00

Well I've been working on some smaller pieces lately for a couple of different reasons. They're fun, I can sell them for less money (perfect for Holiday gifts and the economy), and I get to use all these smaller buttons and beads that haven't found a home yet in my bigger pieces.

In other fun news, I'm now showing some of my work at a gallery here in Austin! If you're in Austin check out Haven Gallery on W. 6th street. The Gallery owner, Mindi Parti has collected some awesome work for the gallery. She has excellent taste (and I'm not just saying that because she liked my stuff :) She has work from the AMAZING sculptor Kimberly Willcox, as well as a wide range of contemporary craft and fine art. I'm really excited to be a part of the gallery! This little daffodil painting is there right now.

Jazz

2008-10-31T12:05:00.001-07:00

This piece has been done for awhile now, but I'm just now getting a chance to photograph it and put it up on the blog! My lovely friend Tara modeled for me for this piece. I think it's appropriate it ended up being a music piece since she's a singer-songwriter here in Austin. Check out her music here.
I've got one more show this year and it's going to be at the Laguna Gloria art museum here in Austin on December 6-7. So for the next month I'm going to be working on some smaller pieces, and a Winter Piece that I'm really excited about. Thank you to everyone that came out to see me in Richardson and in Houston!

Texas Live Oak at Dusk

2008-09-09T14:03:00.000-07:00

This is my little ode to Austin, Texas where I live. These beautiful, gnarly trees grow everywhere here. The picture for this was taken at the apartment complex across the street from where I live. I was originally born in New Jersey and spent all my summers there, so I never thought I would consider myself a Texan until I moved to Austin right after college. The wonderful people, the beautiful country side, the great music, laid back lifestyle, and the dedication to "keeping Austin weird" are something that has made me happy to call myself a Texan.
On an art note, the painted part of this piece (the tree) is five layers deep (woo-hoo). I cut it all out using a new tool that lets me make tight little spiral and cut even more detail then before. Be prepared to see tons of tiny spirals and intricate little details as I let the very small OCD part of my personality throw a big party.

Naiad

2008-08-01T14:51:00.000-07:00

I'm finally posting this painting! It's been finished for awhile, but I've been visiting with my family in New Jersey.
This was the first time I printed the fabric on my own. I could not find the pattern and colors I wanted, so I decided to try and print my own. I'm happy with the way it turned out, plus now I know I can make my own patterned fabric!
I'm tentatively titling this painting "Naiad". From Greek mythology, they are the spirits that embody streams and lakes.
Thanks again to my lovely friend Diane for modeling and being patient while a spent 2 or more months getting this one complete :)

Orchids

2008-07-05T09:42:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been a while! This shadow-box is one I finished awhile ago. I was trying to use some colors I never use. Pink!!

Art in the Park, Georgetown

2008-05-30T08:33:00.001-07:00

Come see me at Art in the Park this weekend! I'm in booth B26 and will be there Saturday May 31 and Sunday June 1. I have a new orchid shadow-box that will be shown for the first time along with my other originals and limited edition giclee prints. Come out for some food, fun, music and most importantly ART! Here's the website with directions and more information: http://www.gtownfestival.com/artinthepark.html

I'm back!

2008-05-03T13:12:00.000-07:00

Well, the show was a success! I learned a lot, made a profit and totally and completely exhausted myself. After taking a few days off from arting, and working a bunch of days latte-ing, I'm back to the drawing board... literally.
This is my next shadow-box I'm working on. I want to try and get at least 1-2 new pieces before the show May 30th in Georgetown. Here's hoping!
It's funny how sometimes the drawing makes the decisions for you. I started this one thinking I was going to use purples and yellows for the finished piece. The more I was drawing, the more and more this began to take on a kind of water under a full moon sort of feel... must be all the round shapes. So it's going to have lots of blues, and maybe some golds in there. The model for this one was my beautiful artsy fartsy crafty friend Diane.
I think the composition needs a few more tweaks, I think I'm going to move her over to the right a bit more.
Glad to be arting again!

Finished Peace and News

2008-03-30T22:01:00.001-07:00

Here's the finished "Peace" box. This is actually what the finished scans look like from the Legacy Fine Art Printers in Texas City. They did a great job yet again. This is about 3" thick with all the layers in it. The buttons are made of natural horn.
In other news, I just finally finished printing everything for the upcoming show this weekend. The night we finished printing I found out I was accepted into new show that's being produced in Georgetown, Texas! Yay! It's the first year, but it's put on by a lady that has put together some wonderful shows in the past. I'm very excited to be a part of it. Plus I'll get to visit Georgetown again, which is where I went to school at Southwestern University.

A Quick Story

2008-03-28T23:03:00.000-07:00

Well, my latest shadow-box is finished and I'll have a photo of it up soon! I sold my first big print today and had to share the story behind it really quickly. My dad works for Rohm and Haas chemical plant and is an extremely hard worker, it's a hard job that requires crazy hours and long shifts. At work my dad was showing some of the people he works with my website and one of the women he works with really loved the "Angel" piece I had done a while before. She told my dad she liked the print because to her the angel looked tired and a bit dusty, like how she imagined an angel to be, tired from a full day of her work. I think as an artist, this is kinda what it is all about for me. I want my work to touch people, visually, emotionally, whatever, and I just really enjoyed hearing her interpretation of this piece.

Peace

2008-03-14T21:53:00.001-07:00

Here's the drawing for my next painting. My beautiful friend Jackie modeled for me for this one. What would I do without out friends and family willing to pose??
On the last painting I did, I was inspired by the story of Pandora, on this one I was inspired by the work of Alphonse Mucha. I've been soaking up his work lately, a master of design and beauty.
I'm actually on schedule for finishing this by Monday. I've been painting and cutting wood through the nights and taking the week off from work. It's been really nice just working on art all day. :)

Pandora's Done

2008-03-08T13:41:00.000-08:00

Well, after working on it for almost 2 months, Pandora is finally finished!! The colors on this one are a little different in real life, but this is pretty close... the hair doesn't blend in with the background as much as in this picture.
This project was full of "oops I cut my painting in half", "I didn't know it took days and days and days to cut and sand plexi-glass", and "now how on earth am I going to put these pieces together". It was definitely the most challenging one I've worked on so far (most of that was because of the plexi-glass smoke). But it was worth it, because I think the smoke turned out pretty cool.... even though I don't know I'll ever use it again just because of how long it took to make it look good.
I'm trying to finish at least one more before the show in April, I'm aiming to finish it in a week and a half so wish me luck! I'll post the drawing when it's done.

Print, Print, Print

2008-02-18T08:16:00.000-08:00

So, where have I been lately?? I have been in Houston spending hours in a tiny room making giclee prints. I've learned so much so far, and have finally found a printer/scanner company that can scan my shadow-boxes and actually make them look really good. It's been a nightmare trying to figure out a way to reproduce my stuff... I had just about given up on it until I found these guys: http://legacyfineartprinters.com/
They are a father/daughter team, the daughter is an artist herself, who had a ton of trouble finding an effective, affordable way to print her work...so they decided to figure it out themselves, and they do a GREAT job. Plus, they are really nice. I stress the nice-ness because learning all this business stuff for the first time and having to deal with so many people on the phone, you realize how great it is to work with someone who is actually nice to you. So wherever you are out there, if you want some great scans or prints, I would give these guys a try, especially if you've had trouble somewhere else.
Pandora is still in the process of being created, she's been quite a project so far. Trying to cut plexiglass to create smoke, chopping of a Pandora arm, and not being able to decide what fabrics to use has made her a little more difficult than any of my past pieces... but I guess I should have figured that would happen considering the subject matter :) Hopefully she'll be finished soon.

Some Eggs

2008-01-30T08:26:00.000-08:00

So this was just a painting for fun :) The shadow-box process takes so long from start to finish and I've been having to do some much business stuff lately, I wanted to just paint. I took my cue from many of the daily painters who paint the raw eggs. Now I know why, they're fun! You get to put lots of highlights in, which is secretly kinda my favorite part.

Pandora

2008-01-18T15:33:00.000-08:00

Here's a drawing for my next shadow box. It's based on the story of Pandora, whose name means "full of all gifts". This story has always intrigued me because it so closely parallels that of Eve. Pandora was made of mud by the main god Zeus, and given to Epimetheus as a wife. Zeus then gave Pandora a sealed box that she could never ever ever open, just look at. After months she finally broke down and opened the box, out flew all the suffering for mankind.
Maybe it's my feminist background, or maybe it's my own insatiable curiosity, but I've always felt like I could understand where Pandora, and even Eve, were coming from.
Let me know what you think of the drawing and if you see any problems I could fix :)

Pomegranate

2008-01-13T10:19:00.001-08:00

This is a shadow-box that has been long in the making. It was originally inspired by a photograph quite a few months ago. I got my beautiful friend Meg to model for me.
I am really happy with the way this one turned out, but it took me a while to get used to it. It's much more contemporary than most of my other pieces. The clothing, the big pattern, the kinda flat swirling hair. Welcome to the 21st century Sarah!
A fun fact for this painting: even though I have only one pair of blue jeans, shirts with holes, and won't use the heater in fear of the electricity bill; I spent over $100 just in buttons on this one piece!! I guess we all find ways to fund the things we love to do :)

Iris and Resolutions

2008-01-08T13:24:00.000-08:00

So part of my New Year's Resolution was to get this blog up and going again. I miss talking about art and having a more informal setting to show work besides the ever so serious website. So here's the last shadow-box I finished. I'm trying to use more mixed-media things in my shadow-boxes because they make me happy and add to the tactile feel I'm going for, hence the colorful buttons.
A lot has happened since my last post in October of 2007 (eek! has it really been that long). I finally got into a big art show!! Hurrah, perseverance and hard work sometimes do pay off. I going to be participating in the Main Street Fort Worth Arts Festival. I'm really excited and honored to be in this show, and feel like I have so much to do before April. I'll keep everyone updated with more info. The dates for the show are April 17-20, 2008.
Hope everyone in blogger land is doing well!
P.S. I just realized after "publishing" this post how well the colors of the iris go with the colors of the blog...secret inspiration?? I think so!

Gerber Daisies

2007-10-02T13:07:00.000-07:00

This is a 16" x 20" oil painting I did for someone at work. They had really like the long gerber daisy shadow-box I had done so I did this one. I was trying to keep the energy and brightness I had in some of the small oils I had done before. This was a fun one to paint.

Figure

2007-09-27T12:44:00.001-07:00

I hadn't done a figure painting from life in quite awhile, I did this little one at the figure drawing/painting sessions I've been going to. I finished it in an hour and a half. I was happy I could still paint figures from life, that's what I was really good at in college. I had so much fun doing this, I can't wait until the next figure painting session!
P.S. I've updated me website with some new work. Check it out: www.sarahfoxart.com.

Vogue Vogue

2007-08-28T12:26:00.001-07:00

So, for anyone that knows me it might come as a shock to know I subscribe to Vogue magazine. I've always had a love hate relationship with fashion in general. I love love the beautiful photographs (Annie Lebovitz takes pictures for them!), and colors and design. I don't like all the super-skinny women and vacant gazes. But the magazine as a whole has some beautiful photos and design in it that are really inspirational, especially to people who love to paint figures (me me!) So this is a painting taken from one of the photos in this month's Vogue. The photographer is Steven Meisel and takes some beautiful pictures. This one especially reminded me of a Vermeer painting, so I just had to try and paint it.
I'm pretty happy with it. I think the hat/turban thing on her head looks a little like hair...but in daily painting there's always tomorrow! I really loved painting this, so I might try another Vogue image again. I'm trying to kinda find myself in the "daily painting" thing. I really enjoy painting fruit, but the paintings really didn't look like me in the end. I think this is getting closer to where I want to be with them. So thank you Steven Meisel for you beautiful photograph.

Portrait

2007-08-23T12:44:00.001-07:00

New hand! What do you guys think of this one (above)??

Here's the drawing for the portrait painting commission I've been working on. The couple I'm doing this for liked the angel painting I had done a while ago, with the flying dove. I want this to be a very special portrait for them, so please let me know what you think so far, and offer any critiques you might have. Thanks guys!

Cherries and a long blurb

2007-08-17T21:34:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,
I'm back...yay! Well I was going to be posting pictures of Costa Rica, or paintings I had done from pictures I took in Costa Rica, but it seems the pictures aren't cooperating with me. I can run a blog and a website, but please don't ask me to burn pictures to a CD because it is apparently beyond me.
So I have some cherries...which were sometimes on my Pina Coladas in Costa Rica. Yay I made a connection.
I'm not putting stuff on e-bay yet because I have about a hundred things I'm trying to do at once right now including: a portrait commission, applying for art festivals with my shadow-box work, working 35 hrs a week, and trying to keep doing a painting a day (or so). But if anyone has a desire to purchase any of these paintings feel free to e-mail me! And if anyone has advice about posting stuff on e-bay (Brendy) let me know.
Glad to be back!

The New Kid

2007-08-05T08:43:00.001-07:00

So this will be my last painting for a while. I'm going to Costa Rica!!! I hope to take lots of inspiring flower and landscape pictures while I'm there. I'll be gone until the 15th.
This plum painting was one of my favorites so far. I think I like the freedom just painting something round gives you (the nectarines). You can really put down some fun colors and crazy brush strokes and still have it be a plum. I named it The New Kid because it kinda looked like the two back plums were sizing up the front guy. My lame attempts witty titles!

Retro Mug

2007-08-04T06:59:00.001-07:00

So mugs are the things that are kinda hard for me to paint, I'm not sure why...I've really never been a fan of perspective. I always did figure painting or drawing, or recently flowers or fruit, all organic things with nice soft edges and room for exaggeration and a little distortion. But mugs! They really give you no room to budge, if that mug isn't exactly right...then everyone can tell it looks funny. So I was concentrating so hard on the drawing and getting the mug right on this one...I forgot everything I know about value. The whole painting is of the same value...hence the somewhat "blah-ness" of the final product. Good news is, I donated the blah painting to our Starbuck's corporate office (because they were asking for free art...don't you love it when people do that...sarcastic). So at least maybe I got some brownie points for it :)

The Meeting

2007-08-03T06:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm really really bad at titles! I always have been. My creativity really has nothing to do with words I guess. I was always the girl in high school and art school who's work was "Untitled". This bothers some artists quite a bit... they think that the title is another part of the art and say something important about the painting. But I've always thought of it as an afterthought. I think the paintings should kinda speak for themselves and people can call them whatever they please. That being said, if anyone has any titles for any of these paintings, don't hesitate to suggest, as I've got nothing.
Also, pretty soon all these paintings are going to be going up for sale on e-bay starting at $50 each. I'm going out of town for a week and a half, and didn't want to set all that stuff up if I wasn't going to be here. So around the 16th all that stuff is going to start happening here. :)

Habenero Stopper

2007-08-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

I wanted to find something beautiful to place in this delicate little vase... I ended up using a habenero pepper because I think they are so pretty and bright! :)

Peaches

2007-07-31T08:17:00.001-07:00

So this painting was my first encounter with Pthalo blue, (I'm not even sure if I spelled that right) and I LOVE it!! It has the ability to completely take over a painting if used for bad, but if used for the forces of good it creates such vibrant blues and green it makes me very happy!! This is one of my favorite paintings I've done in a long time, and I think it is mainly because of the colors!

Avacado Halves

2007-07-30T14:26:00.000-07:00

I got to go to a wonderful workshop this weekend the Carol Marine put on! I learned a lot and had a ton of fun. This was one of the paintings I did from the weekend!
I'm feeling inspired and am going to be setting up my blog for daily painting as soon as I get back from my vacation in mid-August. But for now, I'm going to just try to keep painting or drawing every day!

2007-07-25T09:54:00.001-07:00

Sorry it's been a while. I was on vacation, then when I got back, working to make up for the money I didn't have from being on vacation. :)
But I'm back. Here are some cupcakes I painted the other day before work. I painted it, then I ate it!! Yum Yum.
And this weekend, I'm going to Carol Marine's daily painting workshop. YAY YAY YAY! I'm so excited and a little nervous. But it will be so fun to paint and learn all weekend, and be surrounded by a bunch of other artists. So be expecting lots of new little paintings soon :)

Artist Day

2007-07-02T19:11:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much for everyone who came out to support me the other day! I had such a great day, and it was so good to see some old faces. :) These are some of the paintings that resulted from people bringing their own subjects into paint. The first two are a Mexican sweet bread, pan dulce, they are tasty and delicious and quite a challenge to paint! The third some habenero peppers, and finally a portrait of Star the puppy! She was a lot of fun to paint. Thanks again!!

Natalie's Room

2007-06-29T13:15:00.001-07:00

Yay! I finished the murals in Ms. Natalie's room. So her cute room will be waiting for her when she's born in August. It was so much fun to do some mural work again. The lion and zebra design is Kathy Hammond's. See her website in my links. I worked with Kathy painting murals in high school and in the summers, she's amazing, and may be the fastest painter ever! The tree and frog pond design is mine, you can't go wrong with smiling frogs and baby raccoons!

Come Visit Me!

2007-06-20T11:13:00.001-07:00

Hey Guys! I'm having a "Meet the Artist Day" at the Starbuck's on Far West where I work and where my work is hanging. I'm going to be painting there all day, little 5x7's original oils that will be on sale for $35. You can't beat that!! It's Saturday June 30th, starting at 11:00. I'm going to stay probably until about 4 or 5. I'll be answering questions about mural work, portrait commissions, and my Shadow Box painting. Stop by to say hi!

Earthy Lady

2007-06-13T09:57:00.001-07:00

YAY! It's finally done! So here's the finished earthy lady. Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I've been working on the business end of things lately. Setting up my new website: www.sarahfoxart.com , printing business cards, setting up a "Meet the Artist" day at the coffee shop that's hanging my work, etc. Busy, busy. Now that that's all over, hopefully I'll be painting a lot more (except for the fact I'm working a ton next week.....grrrrr).

Hmmmmm....

2007-05-31T11:39:00.000-07:00

I wonder why most of the time when I first go to my blog page half of the blog stuff is in Spanish...not my actual writing but the template parts. When I reload the page, it usually will turn to English, but not always. It kinda makes me feel like I'm going crazy..."Wait, did that say Marzo, Abril??" Does this happen to you??

Mini Mama

2007-05-25T07:24:00.001-07:00

I couldn't decide whether to post this finished study for the big painting, the big one will probably look very similar in digital format, plus the pics are pretty bad. But at Ms. Cat's request, I will give her something to look at :)
I included the bottom pic because that is much closer to the real coloring of the piece (please ignore the giant flash blur. She's a mini-mama, only 8" X 10".
P.S. The other day I hung all of my stuff in a coffee shop and will soon be posting pics of how it looks.

Earth mama

2007-05-17T12:41:00.000-07:00

Here's the small sketch for my earth mama. I tried to not make her as skinny as some of the previous ladies. The values are a little screwy...the dark won't be that dark and the big white space behind her will actually be more of a light-mid tone.
I've already got some beautiful fabric picked out for this one. All greens!!!

Gerber Daisies

2007-05-16T12:47:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest painting. A little poorly lit (there are the same color burgundy panels on both sides). Some dramatic gerber daisies.

Radish Love

2007-05-07T09:15:00.000-07:00

I loved these little radishes I bought. The only problem was they go bad so fast. I went to paint on the next time I had some time off and they were very sad looking. These two little radishes love each other very much :)

Little paintings

2007-04-29T14:23:00.000-07:00

Here are some little oil paintings I did recently just for some fun in between big projects. I've enjoyed doing them a lot. I tried painting on black for the first time after reading about it on Karin Jurick's site. I love the way she paints so I thought I'd try painting on black too, and I LOVE IT! Thanks to her for sharing some pointers.
I'm going to start trying to do a painting everyday for fun, and maybe to try and sell at the coffee shop or on-line. I've been really inspired by all the daily painting blogs. Check out my two favorites: Carol Marine, and Karin Jurick.....these ladies can paint!
The bottom painting is one of my home in Austin.

Angelic

2007-04-04T09:30:00.000-07:00

So here is the latest piece. I really wanted to do something monochromatic with just the hair and skin glowing with color. I decided to add the mother of pearl star buttons at the last minute and I think they really make the painting; I'll have to use more buttons on my paintings in the future. But these little buggers were a $1-$1.50 a button, so if anybody finds anything similar for cheaper, let me know. After this I'm ready to move on to something really bright and have bought some beautiful royal blue fabric for my next painting. There are all these intensely colored Gerber daisies out right now and I think I'm going to try my hand at those!
Sorry I didn't do better keeping up to date with the making of this box. I'll try again on this next project since it will be a little smaller.

Gladiolas and The God of Painting

2007-03-13T08:31:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest finished one. This one's a big one, about 4 feet tall. (Mine's the top one). I had recently seen a bunch of Van Gogh's paintings in New York and was so inspired by how bravely this man painted! I tried to take a close-up from the side about just how thickly he laid the paint on. Amazing!! I could have stared at this painting all day. Is was so incredible!!! So I tried to be a little more brave and really laid some thick paint down on the gladiolas. Not that you can tell that from the blurry picture I took....but it's on there :)

Pre-drill your oak, and other things I learned from this project

2007-02-22T11:35:00.000-08:00

Well, most of the things I learned from this project have to do with the fact that I switched from using pine for my shadowboxes to oak. Pine stains a little unevenly so I thought I'd try something else. Not being a wood working expert, I didn't know you have to pre-drill oak before you hammer a nail into it. When I started trying to hammer a nail in the frame, it wasn't moving. Not wanted to be called a weakling, I just hammered it as hard as I could... I knew it would move eventually. But that's when my poor thumb got in the way. I full forced hammered my thumb, blood immediately started pouring, and I ran to the bathroom to clean my throbbing wound. I poured alcohol on the wound and what happened next was a total surprise. I got super dizzy, fell backwards and threw up! I didn't know that could even actually happen. And before you start thinking I'm a total wuss, I've broken 7 bones in my body at once in a car accident, and never even got dizzy. I've hammered my fingers too many times to count, usually only cursing to myself. I don't know what happened... Aaron seems to think it was seeing all the blood, as the tendency to pass out or vomit in hospital type situations runs in the family (thanks Dad!).

Anyways, here is the little project that caused so much trouble. The pictures aren't too straight, sorry. I do love the way the oak looks, so I guess it was worth it! I'm doing two flower paintings in between my figure paintings, because they're fun and allow me to paint a little more loosely. Hope you like it!

Eve

2007-02-14T12:52:00.000-08:00

Here's my newest piece. This is my version of Eve. I wanted her to look dynamic and beautiful, with and expression of utter pleasure on her face. I had my beautiful sister Laura model for this one.

Recent Paintings

2007-02-12T11:33:00.000-08:00

All of these shadow box paintings are made by layering masonite panels, some painted on with oils, others covered with different types of fabrics, usually duponi silks. Sorry about the poor picture quality, I'm eventually going to get these scanned, but for right now all I've got is my old digital camera.