Steaming it up

Well I am still working on Serenade... background trees I am leaving fairly simple and somewhat similar to my other elk piece "The Challenger" on the off chance that they sell as a pair. 

I decided to give this guys some steamy breath to balance the left side of the board.  Not 100% done yet, but inching closer.  The steam is created with very fine grit sandpaper.

New work

While the elk piece is on a wee bit of a standstill I did manage to finish up a smaller piece (12"x12")  I am usually pretty good with titles, but nothing is coming to me for this one so I welcome suggestions.

As most of you know usually eyes are my favorite part of the animal to do so I don't often choose photos where the eyes are not a prominent feature, but I really liked the curve of the neck into the head and then the tongue rounding it out.  It just makes a really nice circle for MY eyes.  I hope you enjoy it too.

scratch, scratch, scratch

My cold seems to be clearing up and more energy to work on this one.  I am nearly done with ehelk, but there will be some subtle background elements still to go.

More Serenade

Some progress on the elk, though not moving on it as quickly as I would like with work, holidays and now a cold :(

September Serenade

I have started a new 24"x36" board of a bull elk, at the request of a collector.  It has the potential of being pre-sold if she likes the end result.  Keep your fingers crossed for me... but I guess if she doesn't like it hopefully some one else will down the road!

I am finding the angle on the head to be more difficult than I expected, in part because my primary reference is not as clear as it could be and I don't have any other photos at quite this angle.  Oh well, I will get it all sorted out.

Here is a bit of detail from the face area.  There are a LOT of lines on the face, building up the values slowly in order to get it just the way I want.

These big boards take time and with aprospective buyer on the elk my pair of wolves has been put on hold for now, but here is a bit of an update on them too.



Colored and Finished!

"The Naturalist" is now officially DONE!

14"x11"
scratchboard and ink
timber wolf and painted lady butterfly

To view it at 100% check out the zoomify version at: http://www.aphelionart.com/zmnaturalist.html


 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Limited edition prints are available as well as the original!

Happy Halloween

Well where do the days go... once again it has been too long since I have had time to post on here!

But like usual I have not been quite idle...

I just finished a decent sized colored commission, but am unable to post it at this time as it is a surprise birthday present for the person who will recieve it, so it has to wait until after their birthday to be shown.

I have also started several new boards including a bighorn sheep kid (8"x10"), an elk (24"x36")  and this horse piece (10"x8"), which I am calling Wisdom.

I heard recently that I have been accepted into the Colorado Governor's Show, to be held in April in Loveland, CO.

In other recent show news I had two works accepted into the Colorado Artist Guild art show and ended up winning 1st place in the drawing division with "Patience Is A Virtue".

I also had three works accepted into the Estes Park show "Lines Into Shapes" show and cleaned up there too winning 3 awards.  "Walking the Line" was the winner of People Choice and the Mayor's Award and "The Challenger" was winner of the Len Taylor Memorial Award (which I also won last year).

Back from Jellystone

I am now home from my Yellowstone trip as well, and I believe that will be my final longer out of town trip until 2011.  I had a wonderful trip and saw lots of critters, took LOTS of photos and enjoyed spending time with nature!

Now here it is October and I need to get cracking on some artwork!  Less computer time and more art time is in order for the rest of the year to prepare for all the shows I anticipate for 2011.

Here is an update on the larger pair of wolves on the 24"x36" board. 

As well as a progression on the small wolf (14"x11"), which I am pondering coloring

I am also still working on my commission and will be starting a few more boards very soon.

Cuteness!!

I spent yesterday at the Denver Zoo and a good portion of that time was spent watching 4 baby siberian tiger cubs, born May 31.  How cute are these little ones!!  There are two males and two females born to mother, Koshka (Koosh-kuh), and father, Waldemere (Wald-uh-meer).  I believe they are both first time parents.  More photos posted on facebook if interested.

Catching up! The last few weeks!!

Well what a busy time my last few weeks have been!  My art fair on August 28-29 was a success with lots of people coming through the  booth, decent sales and lovely weather.  My booth took 2nd place in the fine art category too!   Here are some pictures of my booth early Saturday morning before people were coming through.  There was a steady flow of people both days.  Originals on the back and left side walls, framed prints on the right side.

The left wall (originals other than the Greeley Poster)

Framed prints, cups, calendars, magnets, bookmarks and more on the right wall

Just two days after my art fair I flew out to San Diego for Society of Animal Artists 50th anniversary Exhibit opening of Art and the Animals.  What a fantastic time all weekend!  About 100 artists (as well as many spouses and patrons) were in attendance and it was so fun to visit with old friends as well as making new ones!  A wonderful group of people indeed.

I arrived on Tuesday afternoon to be able to do everything there was to do.  On Wed we went whale watching and although we did not see any whales we did find a large pod of bottle nose dolphins, as well as seals, sea lions, and various sea birds.  It was a lovely day on the water and I didn't even get sea sick!

Snowy egrets scuffle over bait fish on a boat in the marina

Brown pelican flies low over the ocean

Sea foam from an outgoing tide made great patterns

On Thursday we all bussed to the San Diego Wild Animal Park.  I had not been here in almost 15 years, and it had changed from how I remembered.  My favorite part of this day was a cheetah demo where a cheetah chased a ball.  I am excited to work from some of those photos in the future.

Male gerenuk courts with a female in estrus by demonstrating high stepping behavior.  She was ignoring him ;)

Bald Ibis - not exactly pretty in the typical sense, but I loved the iridescent feathers and lighting

Cheetah chases ball as part of a demo

Friday it was off to the famous San Diego Zoo!  What a zoo it is as well!  Tons of great photo opportunities!

Not really exotic, but this female red breasted merganser had great light and was actively preening

Grizzly bear shaking

Who can resist a meerkat in evening light??

Saturday was a busy day with meetings, talks by Robert Bateman, off to the museum to see the exhibit (finally) and the awards dinner.  I also did a scratchboard demo at the museum.  Here is a picture taken by a friend of me with "The Interrupted Drink" at the museum.  Darn plexi-glass picks up a lot of glare :(  The entire show of about 150 works was simply spectacular and it was a true honor to have work included in this exhibition.

The piece I worked on for my demo - 14"x11" Wolf

From San Diego I flew to San Fransisco to see my Aunt, Uncle and two cousins (ages 23 and 18), which I had not seen in about 10 years. 

It was fun to catch up, but now it is great to be home too!!!

2011 Scratchboard Calendars NOW Available!

This beautiful over sized 2011 wall calendar (measures 9.5"x12.25") is printed on glossy paper and makes a perfect gift or a beautiful accent to any house! Each calendar is hand signed by Cathy on the front cover with a custom inscription available at no extra charge (please include what you would like it to say in your paypal notes). Every month has a different scratchboard image from Cathy's work. This years calendar features both color and black and white works. Reasonably priced at just $15 (plus shipping of $5 in USA, $8 elsewhere) they are sure to delight!


Last year's calendar sold out, so order early to make sure you get one!

To buy one please go to: http://www.aphelionart.com/2011calendar.html

More Art Fair Fare

I spent most of today working on more stuff for my art fair which is 10 days away.  Coffee cups, travel mugs, aluminum bottles, and candles all with my work on them took up most of my day, though I did get a little bit of scratching done tonight too.

A bit of progress on the pair of wolves.  I Have started on wolf #2 though there is still quite a bit of work to do on #1 as well.  This is the full board pretty much.

The other project I have been working on is a piece that I will use for a demonstration for Society of Animal Artists in California at the start of Sept. at the show opening.  It is another wolf - size is just 11"x14" for this one for ease of traveling with it.  I'm thinking about the title of "A Hopper and a Pouncer" for it, as he is looking at a grasshopper.

The tale of the plastic bags

So last year at my first art fair all and all things went very well.  However on more than one occasion I had people ask me for bag for their merchandise - something I had not thought to bring along.  So recently I have been trying to find where to buy plastic bags at a reasonable rate.  I tried local hobby stores with no luck.  I asked at various stores and no one knew where to get them.  Sure, I could buy them online, but it was expensive and I just had not gotten it done and now the art fair is right around the corner!  OMG plastic bags are everywhere... so I started to think about just saving the ones I had... but thought it would be a bit tacky to be putting my work in target and walmart bags.  This dilemma seemed to be much more complicated than it should have been. 

Today I went to purchase a product for my gridwalls for hanging the mugs I will be making.  They deal with a lot of people that do art fairs and thought they might know.  They suggest a local retail store.  I drive over there and am quoted $125 for 1000 bags!!  Well I was not planning on spending over $100 for bags thank you very much.  I stop at party city on the off chance that they sell them.  They have small 12"x6" bags, but nothing larger.  However I explain what I am looking for and FINALLY I get a lead that they think Sam's club carries them.  Fortunately I joined Sam's club earlier this year and am now out just $12 for 1000 bags... now that is what I am talking about!!  They won't be large enough for my biggest prints, but should be able to accommodate all the other sizes.

Now I wish it had not taken me like 4 hours of running around to find them, but that should last me quite a while and now I know where to get them :)

Art fairing it :)

Art fairs are a pretty new thing for me.  I did my first one last year, a large outdoor show, and then one smaller one this spring.  They are also a fickle beast I have found just in the two I have done.  The first one was outdoors, nice weather and quite well attended.  The small one was indoors and poorly attended.  My sales reflected this.

Anyways the big outdoor one I am doing again and it is August 28-29 in Parker, CO at O'Brien Park.  If you live in the area please stop by!  Last year I mostly just had prints for sale (plus original work) and did quite well, but this year I am expanding my inventory and will have more variety of things carrying my art as well... this year will include calendars, bookmarks, magnets, mugs, prints and more!  I have been having quite a bit of fun making all of these things and hope it will be time well spent :) 

Here is a picture of just a FEW of the bookmarks.  I think they came out looking pretty good overall.  I should have everything else done by next week and will post a few more pictures.  After the art fair I may post some of the left over inventory on my website and etsy too.

Featured on "Illustration Pages" :)

My work is being featured on the highly regarded blog called Illustration Pages. They did a very nice write up and if interested you can read it at: http://www.illustrationpages.com/2010/08/scratchboard-artist-cathy-sheeter.html

I spent today getting ready for my art fair and very little time for art :(  My days go by too quickly and not enough time to get my art done recently it seems.