Good morning.

Yes, I’m still here and I’m still going. Something crazy (in my opinion) happened this week. I decided to try the time lapse feature on my iPhone. Wasn’t sure how it worked, never really looked at it. So I paint, while taking video with it, don’t edit it, don’t put music to it, throw it up on Instagram for fun: “hey, I tried this…it turned out ok”.

3 days go by.

Whoa, Nellie…
In those three days, at the writing of this post, the video has had 6,800 views. And I’ve gained 223 new Instagram followers.
Things I’ve learned:
1. You just never know
2. You people like your time lapse videos.

I did end up putting the full version up (Instagram only allows 1 minute) and I added some music. If you want to see what people were reacting to, here it is on YouTube.

I’m excited about having 700 follows, but a look at the artists I follow who have 50,000 and 70,000+ followers quickly puts it all back into perspective. Just keep painting girl, you have not even come close to arriving. You haven’t even pulled out of the hangar, yet.

So much has happened. It’s getting hard to keep up as you can see – my blogging has gotten less frequent. I find my self posting updates to Instagram because it’s so easy and fast to do. So please follow me on Instagram to see what is currently going on in the studio.

I tackled some more paintings over the weekend. One being of a Hydrangea poof (probably not the correct name). I’ve never painted Hydrangea before so it was a little intimidating – all those tiny flowers! Would it take 5 hours? Because I just can’t afford to paint that long on one of these guys. Relying on my basic painting techniques, I made sure they were in mind the whole time. Starting with large shapes of value, I worked from the general form of the “poof” to the pattern of highlights and lastly to bringing some individual flowers in focus. I am really enjoying adding filler and other foliage into the paintings. It adds some depth and interest, and it’s just plain fun to whip hints of leaves and twigs around in the background.

I also set up the camera and took a video of the entire painting, which I will hopefully soon post as a demonstration. I talked through the process and what I was doing and why.

Finding a schedule that works is one thing, but sticking to it and also being able to stick to it because normal life doesn’t stop is a completely different thing. There are two half days of school left. Now the real juggling begins. It’s difficult now, I think soon sleep deprivation may start being a factor in this little marathon. I am only halfway through the days, and not nearly halfway done with the paintings. But, I’ll not focus on that too much.

My dog, Zoe, might be getting tired of this too. If I’m working the computer, I feel her paw tug at me, I turn around and see the sweetest little eyes saying, Mommy, I need you. Oh dear! If it’s late at night and I’m still working, she’ll take one of her stuffed animals up to bed without me. Cutie pie.

• We are still waiting a final word on how out of state fans can purchase these paintings. Rest assured, you will be able to – we are just working out the details of how.

So this grouping takes you through the weekend. Enjoy.

A new batch of fresh flowers from my florist.

Tackling Hydrangeas for the first time.

Almost finished.

My studio dog abandoned me.

Paintings #13-#16

Subjects for painting #17.

In addition to it being Father’s day, it is also my Mom’s birthday. My parents are amazing people and I love them so much. My parents have a saying that originated during my college days, “It’s never wrong to call.” So, basically – Call us! And not only that, but wake us up, interrupt us and we are for you.

My Parents with my son.

In fact, I probably wouldn’t be painting if it weren’t for my parents. I was a voice major and thought it would be a good idea to switch to art. I had a little bit of skill and the teachers said if I worked really hard, I could do well. I remember talking to my parents on the phone a few times about this possible change. It would put me behind a year since I was already a second semester Freshman. I would have an art major and a voice minor which meant since these were very time-consuming areas of study, I might not be able to also work and contribute to paying tuition. My Mom said, “Go for it!”

When it was a dream I had, they helped me navigate the difficulties but they also said, “yes!” I play the harp because when I was in high school I wanted to learn – and to help pay for that, my Mom went back into teaching. My parents sacrificed for me a great deal for me to reach my goals and dreams. (Now, like all good parents, they also said “no” quite a lot, but somehow they knew what all the healthy “no’s” and “yeses” should be.)

This past month, my Mom retired from teaching, having taught little kiddos for 32 years. My Dad worked as the business manager of the church I grew up in and spent countless hours pouring his love and energy into the church and school to be sure it ran the way it should. He is also fighting the battle against Cancer with optimism and getting his strength from God. To me, they are both courageous and generous.

So, today I celebrate my Mom and Dad.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad!  Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you!

Friday, I had hoped to get two paintings finished but it just didn’t happen. However, I did finish one painting and I am thankful for that.

I really enjoyed the purples, lavendars and blues and I love the deep purple stock. What fun that was. Then Saturday morning, I got up before the little man did and blocked in a sunny painting featuring snapdragons and a yellow rose. He woke up and occupied himself willingly so I decided to keep painting and was able to finish!

As of this morning, I am behind by 7 paintings according by my schedule. BUT, the little man is a Grandma’s house, today, so if I do two more, I will be starting to catch up. And I tried setting a 2 hour timer for myself this morning, and it was quite successful. I finished before the timer went off! Now, if I can keep that momentum going, I’ll be in shape soon, and maybe even get ahead.

Click for larger images and informative captions.

Early Friday morning. Assessing the next two paintings.

Blocking in.

Before – Look for a video in my previous post to see how I soften my edges.

Finished.

A fiery painting in the works. Yellow rose with Snapdragons.

This was a fun one. My son painted on the computer while I painted with actual paint. And we kept saying “Looket!” to each other. “Look what I have created!!”

I think I’ve done enough roses – maybe not…

I snagged some roses from my garden early this morning.

From white untouched board to this in 15 minutes. I was on a rolllllll.

Stopping to breathe.

Done before my timer went off. Thank you, Lord!!

I’ve had lots of people ask me, “How can I get one of these paintings?!?!” Here you go!

Click here, if you need to know this instant.

This information is for people who can attend the shows.
HOWEVER if you live out of state, please stay tuned as 171 is working on a way for you to also purchase paintings. So you still may want to see and understand how this show is going to work.

To sum up
The show is up from July 20th – July 23rd only. 4 days. That’s it.
45 days of blood, sweat and tears reduced to 4 days of celebration. 

This is a fundraiser and my paintings will be sold at an unusually low price. All artists will be selling their 6×6 artwork unframed except for the 50th work.
Nights 1 & 2 are open for ticket holders only and only those present may purchase a painting (hold on out-of-state peeps – we are working on a solution for you!) There will be live music and dancing and all sorts of partying at these two showings. Tickets are LIMITED, however! Act now if you want in. See this link to find out how you can get in.

Nights 3 & 4 are open to the public.

The Catch: When a painting is purchased, the buyer takes it home that night. So if you wait until day 3 & 4 you will see a portion of the show. It might look like the gallery was ransacked! (gasp).

Click here to go to 171’s website for all the juicy details, ticket pricing etc.!! 

Oh dear, I’m SO sorry for the stretch of days between blog posts. Weekends may be too busy to blog. And then I was recovering yesterday. Lately my thoughts have been:

Paint, paint, paint. When can I sleep next? Can I clean while I sleep? When am I going to have time to cook and clear the clutter? In July. That’s when.

Okay, let me quickly give you an update.

I have discovered a good system with work and sleep, this new system lasts successfully for 3 days until I crash and is as follows:

• Go to bed early (as much before 9pm as possible.)
• Get up at 4:30a and paint until my little one wakes up around 6:30a.
• Get him ready for school.
• Get him to school.
• Do necessary things like reading for a class, dishes, straightening (yeah, right).
• Then paint some more. Eat if I get lightheaded.
• By 1:30, assess if I can keep painting or if I must go to the store for things like milk, etc.
• Then I clock out as artist, and clock in as Mommy around 2:30p.
• Mommy until 7 or 8.
• Paint until 8:30 or 9.
• Shower and sleep til 4:30 again.

This worked beautifully for 3 days. I wasn’t even tired until 8 in the evening, and by the time normal people were getting out of bed in the morning, I had made significant progress which sent all sorts of positive energy my way, which helped me get through the rest of my day.

But, yesterday I crashed. Thought I was getting sick, killer headache, etc. I blame it on the fact that I didn’t get to bed as early as I was supposed to.

I have taken today off to blog and clean and get refreshed doing different things with my brain because I was simply burnt out on painting. So, this system worked and I now know the effects of not keeping to the self imposed rules of getting enough sleep. I will start another round tomorrow and see how long I last.

Since I blogged last, I painted four paintings. If you NEED daily updates, I am constantly posting to Instagram. Please go there to feed any of your update needs.

Click on an image to see the full caption and explanation. Enjoy!!! And keep following. I can’t tell you what all the comments on Instagram have been for me – huge encouragement! Thank you!

Gladiola – was pretty challenging. I’m still not sure how I feel about this one.

Deep magenta peonies from my garden. I started these early in the morning…

This was how they looked when I first started.

But the time I was finished painting in the evening, they had opened up – QUITE a challenge.

my view as I started painting the gorgeous Ranunculus.

Ranunculus completed with a hint of Mockorange.

Next up, I was finally able to get to these stunning yellow ladies. What a joy to paint these!

In progress, they were glowing already and I was having a little lesson in color.

My view as I finished these up Sunday evening.

ahhhh. Sunshine.

The last 4 paintings together. I am really enjoying seeing all of these paintings grouped together.

The view in my refrigerator.

More groupings. It’s feeling a bit flowery in here.