Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Sea Scape Paintings, and can I have some feedback, please?

Good morning friends!

I wanted to share with you some new Seascape paintings I finished, for a grand total of 5 in my little series so far.  Not sure if I will add to it yet, since this past weekend I've had a Major Brain Wave on a new product to carry in the shop.  More on that later!

So here they all are, in order that I painted them!


Seascape #1
  
This one is on 8x8 super gorgeous textured paper

Seascape #2
This one is on 6x6 paper, a bit smoother type.  More muted colors.

Seascape #3
This is a bigger one, on 12x12 paper.


Seascape #4
Another small one, on 6x6 paper, I really like how the kelp/seaweed came out on this one.

Seascape #5
This is another one on 12x12 paper.  This time I did a little snail.  See him?


Hope you like these!  They would be very cute in a child's room, for some cute and colorful original art.  I am going to get them listed in my shop today, so you can even have one of these original paintings for your very own!  I will let you know when they are listed so you can check it out.

Now, as for my Major Brain Wave I mentioned earlier.  Do you want the long version or the short version?  Oh good, me too.  Long version it is!

When I first started my Etsy shop (I'm using this term loosely, since I never actually made any product to sell...) I wanted to create personalized wall hangings, like mini quilts.  Made for a child's room, with an appliqued picture and an applique of the child's name.  I had just made a beautiful one for my youngest niece and I LOVED how it turned out.  But...it was a lot of work!  And fiddly, fussy work, which I kinda hate.  So I said "never mind!" and never did anything with the shop.

Well, my Major Brain Wave over the weekend was to do this type of personalized wall art, but as a personalized watercolor painting!  Duh!  How cute would it be to have a painting of a little bird, boat, or flower, whatever, and have your new baby's name written on the painting, too?  You could have their birth date, too, or just their name.  This could be for an older child, too, of course.  And how special and personal for a wedding or anniversary gift, to have the couple's names and maybe their wedding date?  All original paintings, personalized with hand lettering.  All bright, colorful images, which is what I like to paint.

I love this idea!  So I am hoping for some feedback form my readers:  What do you think?  Good idea?  Terrible?  Let me know in the comments below!



Tuesday, January 5, 2016

My Studio

So I thought it would be fun to share what my studio looks like, if we can even call it a studio.  No no, we ARE calling it my studio, because every artist has a studio.  So, here is my studio!


Studio 

A teeny little spot in our spare room to call my very own!  I don't have to clean it up if I don't want to, so I can keep my momentum going.  A work in progress for sure, though.  I have some shelves I am going to put up on the wall, so the stuff hanging there now is going to be relocated.  I need a place to keep all my supplies, finished artwork and cards, shipping supplies, etc.  Right now it is kinda....everywhere.


And here is my inspiration/vision board.  A few inspiring images from the interwebs, and a beautifully painted card from an artist friend of mine.  And a play-dough charm, made by Thing 2.  My goal for this year is to sell 30 items a month.  


Vision/Inspiration Board    

Here are a few more shots of my work space things...

Paints, love these Daniel Smith watercolors. 

My palette, and some other paints.

My brushes.  I admit I bought these brushes because they were nice and because...they were green......

Mason jars for the win!  And washi tape to decorate them.  You can kinda see my purple "bone" folder, by my thumb. Love that thing!

A few paintings, some finished, some not.


And there you have it, folks!  I love having my own little space to work, and leave things out to dry, or to keep them visible so I can work on them throughout the day during parenting breaks.  Show me some love, and comment below what you think of my space, and I am certainly taking organization suggestions!