A Most Successful Show Opening!

The Colorado Governor's Invitational Show and Sale opened this past Saturday.  This show is limited to Colorado artists, and you must be invited to get in.  You can also submit your work for their consideration, which is what I did and I was lucky and got in.  It was my first year in the show (obviously) and other than being told that sales had been pretty good last year I had no previous experience with the show to go off of. 

Since it was my first year I had to take in six pieces and they got to choose which four pieces they would hang.  Typically they choose two smaller pieces, which go downstairs, and two larger works to hang in an upstairs gallery.  They selected my three largest pieces from me and just one smaller work - all wildlife, and they sent me home with my two horses that I had brought as the other two works.

The four works that they chose were "Walking The Line", "The Brotherhood", "The Challenger" and "Patience Is A Virtue" 

There was a TON of  "what the heck is that medium!??" "and How do you do it!?!" "and how long does it take to do one??!!"   So lots of talking and educating (as usual).  And people kept coming over telling me that other artists and people had told them to make sure and take a look at the scratchboard artists work!!  The sales staff was blown away as well (and if you want anyone in your corner the sales staff would be them)!  And By the time the night was over three of my four works had sold, with strong interest in the fourth as well!!

It was really fun to meet the purchasers as well.  The people that purchased "Walking The Line" kept debating which room it would go into.  The lady told me they had bought a lot of art, but my piece was the one she was most excited about EVER!

And "The Brotherhood" was purchased by a couple that had two boys that were now in college.  The whole family loved wolves and the brother wolves reminded them of their sons, especially because of the title of the work!

I am not sure who the winning buyer of "Patience" was, as it was the work that was downstairs (and I was upstairs all night), but when I went down at the end of the night to see if it had sold I was told by the sales staff that it was the most popular work down there! 

Throughout the show I think about 35-40% of the work sold... so a good show all around, but I do believe I may have been one of the top sellers of the evening.

So to say it was a successful opening is a bit of an understatement I guess :)  I think it is very likely that I will be invited back next year as well.  Maybe once you do this art thing for a bit longer than I have you get used to shows where you make lots of sales, but I am not there yet in my career and every sale makes me feel like doing a happy dance still :) 

So anyone care to join me in a happy dance?!?

BTW I also have an art fair in Parker, CO this weekend.  If you live in the area be sure and stop by the Southeast Christian Church off of Jordan Rd. this weekend. 

Bee-Mused

Thats weird - I swear I posted an update to this piece a bit ago... but it is no where to be seen! 

"Bee-Mused" is the title I have selected for the wolf pair piece.  It is finished as a black and white, but I have decided to color it, so it is not fully completed yet.  I plan for it to be shown at the 2011 Greeley Stampede Invitational Western Art Show at the end of June.

Once again

Once again I have been lapse in posting to my blog.  Well I guess on the plus you don't have to check in on it very often :D  LOL  With a very busy summer ahead of me I am sure I will not be better about posting to it, but will when I can.

I have finished one small work of a Friesian stallion.  It is an 8"x10" piece that I titled "Nobility"  Friesians are my all time favorite breed to oogle at, though with a price of $10k almost the moment they are born the chance of me owning one any time soon seems unlikely.  Oh well, I still love them!!  This stallion is named Nolke Fan De Lege Geaen and I took the reference photo in 2009.























I also have recently gotten several works scanned for prints.  The new prints should be available at the end of the month.  One of them in of "Arabian Night"

In other news things have been going well on the show front.  I have had three works (out of three) selected for the Women Artists of the West annual exhibit to be in Rockport, Texas opening in June.  I also had two works selected for the Bennington Art Center's "Art of the Animal Kingdom" also to open in June (Bennington, VT).  I presently have a tiny piece titled "All Smiles" (5"x7") exhibiting at LSU "Animals in Art" Exhibit (Baton Rouge, LA).

Going For Gold

I have been a big slacker about keeping my blog updated and apologise... life seems to get in the way! At any rate here is the progress of my newest piece of a cat stalking some goldfinch. I have titled it "Going For Gold" size 18"x24"

Pyrography - the art of woodburning

While this blog is mostly about my scratchboard, I have taken a recent dabble into wood burning, also known as pyrography.

I did a bit of burning back about 8 or 9 years ago with a cheap woodburner bought at a local craft store for about $25.  It was a lot of fun and at the time I was relatively happy with the results, but I also knew that higher quality wood burners existed where you can control the temperature and use more variety of tips to get different effects (as well as much better results).  So a better wood burner has been one of those things that I had thought about getting on many occasions, but it never became a top priority of my disposable income.  Anyways this year when my parents asked me what I wanted for Christmas... finally that was what I told them.  My Dad is a woodworker, and has been for longer than I have been alive, so I knew he would know where to get one!  They got me an optima 2 burner and it comes with a couple of tips.  It is so fun to work with and I am hooked!

This was my first project with it and I was amazed how many similarities it shares with scratchboard, so it felt very natural and easy to me, though there is still plenty for me to learn and certain mistakes I hope not to make next time.  I am already planning my next project with it.

As you see it here is about life size.  It was just a small 5" x 8" blank (at least the working area).  The wood is basswood and I purchased it at hobby lobby, a local craft/art store chain.  I liked the natural look with the bark on.  However I am looking forward to working much larger (this small size was tough to get the details all as I wanted them with the size tips I have right now) and with a variety of different woods to see what I like.

I titled the piece "Caterwaul"  and this is it as a work in progress until what I am calling completed (though I may still mess with it a bit more)

Finished!!

"September Serenade" is officially completed and varnished and has taken a road trip to Boulder to Mary Williams Fine Art, one of the galleries that carries my work.  Now it is a waiting game to see if her client likes the piece.  If not I will bring it home and likely send it to some competitions or shows.  You can see the full view of the piece on my web site with the zoomify feature.  I also addedother new works,  Vinni and Takin' A Lickin',  to my web site.

After heading to Boulder I went up to Rocky Mountain National Park and it was snowing, but I still found a herd of bull elk.  It was fun to photograph them in the blowing snow.  I have not had a chance to look at them yet, but I guess you could say it was an elk kinda day.

Elk piece almost done

Last week I got to spend in Tennessee teaching a teacher in-service to 50 art teachers.  Almost everyone seemed to enjoy the class and many were excited to take the medium back into their classrooms to teach.  It was also fun to see the variety of styles and personalities come out in the pieces they created.

This week I felt determined to finish up the large elk, "September Serenade", which is a 2'x3' board.  The background gave me some problems, as seems to be normal for me and backgrounds, but I am fairly happy with how it finished up.  The steamy breath got ousted and a more complete background emerged.  I have signed it and am pretty much calling it done, though may tweak it a bit more tomorrow if I see anything that bugs me.  It is always a balancing act of trying to keep your main subject front and center vs having enough background to make the animal part of its natural environment.

One of my Christmas presents this year was a quiet air compressor to use with my airbrush indoors.  I've already used it a little bit and laid out a white clayboard (uninked scratchboard) for a project, but have to finish up some other stuff (couple of small commissions) before I will be making major strides on that one.

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.