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!

I’ve been working on this video during my breaks, and it’s FINALLY here!! Most of my time was spent trying to find the right music to use that I could legally use, was hopefully free, AND that I liked. Super tall order. I found a track I really liked and also got a softer version and was able to put the two together.

Well, here you go – about an hour and a half compressed into 6 minutes. Time flies.

SaveSave

I haven’t said much about the theme since I started this, but I have been thinking about it a lot. The theme for the show will have everything to do with what is involved in flourishing. And a lot of the struggle happens in the beginning. I was reminded of what that feels like while I struggled for the first three days of this project. So much struggle to get going. And then at the end of this project I will have opened up the petals and everything will be on display, but people might not realize or may forget that there were tears and doubts, and many nights of very little sleep to get to that point of flourishing.

The end result of getting through a difficult situation is acceptance. We can’t flourish until we accept what has happened. We can grieve and we can wrestle with it but finally there just has to be this rest with what is. “It is what it is”, as I say to a few of my friends. It just plain is.

So when I looked at this painting it just seemed like a soft resting of what reality is. Therefore, “Acceptance”.

 

During the painting of “Acceptance” I took a complete video – filled my camera card 1 1/2 times. I’m sure I’ll pay for that soon with a slow computer. Me need more hard drive space. So, I’m working on a time lapse for this painting at the moment. The current struggle? Finding a long enough and pretty enough royalty free and $free music track to put with it. A tall order. About as tall as these delphiniums.

More blogging is coming your way today. The boards are on the truck for delivery today, so I decided not to buy any more boards at double the price at the store. I’ll make a schedule, blog and get the house back under control until they arrive. Maybe I’ll take a nap – 2nd night in a row of 5 hours of sleep and going non-stop during the day. I’m sure people live on less, but I’m a zombie.

Thank you for stopping  by!!!

SaveSave

I got some painting in tonight.

I’ve been eyeing a certain peony in my backyard knowing that tonight I would probably cut it and paint it. When I brought it inside, there was a little ant crawling around on the larger bud. He stayed for quite some time and I enjoyed seeing the movement as I painted. But then must have strolled somewhere else halfway through my painting and I haven’t seen him since. I named him Marvin.

My company for the evening, Marvin the ant.

​

…from this skill-squashing wooden surface. 

As you may have already seen on Instagram, I have decided to roll Gesso onto these cute little boards. This will hopefully give me a surface that I’m used to painting on.

Sadly, I have to wait 24 hours before being able to paint on the boards now. But I believe it will be worth the time setback.

And, who knows, now that I have learned how to prepare my own boards, I may have just found a cheaper way to paint. I’ll find out in a few days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So what do you do when you can’t paint? You get all the things done that you were stressed over not being able to get done while you were busy painting.

I mowed the lawn. I finished the laundry. I’m going to tackle the kitchen, and I might even give my dog a haircut.

So, followers, we have to wait one more day before seeing actual painting, but I promise you’ll see some soon.