Tuesday, March 26, 2013

MaRcH MaDdNeSs

I am not quite sure why, but it seems like all of a sudden in the wildlife art world that while January and February are rather quiet... suddenly every possible deadline roles around from the middle of March to the middle of April, making this a rather hectic time of year for me as I scramble to get work done for shows, get my entry forms turned in, figure out what to send to what show!  Eeek!!  Between the Art Association of Northern Colorado, Bennington Art of the Animal Kingdom, International Society of Scratchboard Artists (ISSA), Settlers West Summer Show, Birds In Art (BIA), Colorado Governor's Invitational Exhibition, Society of Animal Artists (SAA) annual exhibition and the Ward Wildlife Art Show (via SAA) I will have 20 works submitted to all these different exhibitions!!!  Most can not overlap due to dates and risk of a work selling (not that I ever mind that problem!).  Some of the shows will only take one work out of two entries (SAA and BIA) and some I may not get juried in to at all, but you can see why us artists must keep a large producing a lot of work in any given year!  This list does not include Women Artists of the West exhibition (May 1 Deadline), The Greeley Stampede Invitational Western Art Show (end of June) and Art for the Sangres Show (end of September)... and I may be forgetting some shows off the top of my head too!

I had to actually create a spreadsheet to keep this all straight!

I decided to color "Bear With Me" and it will be headed to the Colorado Governor's Show at the end of April.  I think the color really brought out his personality.

"Bear With Me" ~ 12"x12" ~ Scratchboard and Ink

Back to work!  I have two works on the go right now - a lion (20"x36") and just started a bighorn sheep (18"x24").  Both are color boards and as a result difficult to photograph as WIP the ink creates a lot of shine until they are varnished.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

The Elightened

This was a fun one to create with all the feather shapes!  I am hoping most people will get the play on words with the title.  One aspect is 'the wise old owl' concept, and the other being that he is in the light.  Possibly an entry for Birds in Art this year, but not sure yet.

"The Enlightened" - 12"x12"- Scratchboard

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Mister Chipper

I loved this guys expression.  Even though he is a golden mantle ground squirrel and not a chipmunk I decided the title "Mister Chipper" fit his cute expression.  Size is 7"x5"

"Mister Chipper" - 7"x5" - Scratchboard


Saturday, March 9, 2013

How fast can you scratch?

So it might SEEM like I am cranking out a piece a day by the way my blog posts come together, but I actually often have multiple projects on the go at any one time.  The bear was about 80% done in Early February, but just got around to finishing him up today.  And the horse I have been working on concurrently with the bobcat over the past month.

Bears are full of amusing antics.  I love watching them play with items in their environments and at times they definitely seem to have a sense of humor!  Once of the challenges with them in art is that they have TINY eyes.  As a species they are driven mostly by smell, so they have no need for large eyes.  This makes capturing light in the eyes and personality in them quite difficult.  I loved this fellows 'give me a break' expression.



"Bear With Me" ~ 12" x 12" ~ Scratchboard
Zen is the name of this lovely Friesian mare, and I liked it as a title for this work as well.  This work will likely be headed to the Settlers West Invitational Art Show in May.


"Zen" ~ 22" x 14.5" ~ Scratchboard



Friday, March 8, 2013

"The Hunger Games"

Just completed this afternoon!  "The Hunger Games" - 24"x24" Scratchboard colored with ink

It is difficult to get a decent photo of this one as it is not yet varnished and has lots of shine to certain areas of it.


The Hunger Games ~ 24"x24"

Friday, March 1, 2013

"The Scout"

Completed last night! 

"The Scout"
16" x 20"
Scratchboard (of course)

You can view the 'scratch by scatch' details with zoomify on my web site at: http://www.cathysheeter.com/zm-thescout.html

The original is available.