Some of you have been waiting for this information for a while. I’m so excited to tell you  I have received the final word on how those of you watching from afar can make sure you get the paintings you have your little eye on.
Visit my website for all of the details, now.
View the current paintings to pick my flowers.

The Summer Mosaic group show is a four-day event at 171 Cedar Arts Center in Corning, NY featuring 24 artists who have each created 50 small works of art. That’s a lot of artwork! There will be acrylic and oil paintings, ceramic, photography, jewelry and more.

• Private Preview (Day 1)
The event begins July 20th at 5:30 with a private preview on the first evening. There will be live music and a special gift bag for the 1st 100 guests. Only those who have purchased a ticket may attend and purchase paintings, however, if you live too far away to attend, you can also buy a ticket to “attend” from afar. You can then also purchase paintings by following a few extra steps BEFORE July 19th. See my website for all of the details and links for purchasing tickets and securing your paintings with 171. Paintings that are purchased will be taken off the walls almost immediately, so if you want to see the entire show in tact, you’ll want to come this evening!!

• Mosaic Bash (Day 2)
The 2nd evening is more of a party that starts at 7pm and goes later into the night with live music, dancing and gourmet refreshments. Tickets must also be purchased for this evening in order to attend and buy paintings.

• New Moon Sale (Days 3&4)
On the 3rd and 4th day, (July 22nd & 23rd) the show is open to the public for anyone to come view and buy artwork during normal operating hours:
Saturday July 22nd • 9am-5pm
Sunday July 23rd • 12pm-5pm

Since purchased artwork will be taken home right away, it may look a little ransacked, but that’s the nature of this very interesting, art flying-off-the-walls, fundraiser.

SaveSave

I painted almost all day long. Got up at 4:30. But was unable to finish a painting until 1pm. I had hoped to have two down by then. Started another painting which I ended up wiping out two times before I said “uncle” and decided to wash my brushes and call it a day. If I’m to catch up to schedule I should paint 6 paintings before Monday morning. That ain’t happening. Not sure how to make this happen, but I’m so tired that nothing profitable is going to occur in the studio tonight.

I find myself having no idea how to set up the flowers for the next painting. No desire to paint any of them. I can’t visualize them painted (which is crucial). Just very empty right now.

Here’s the painting I did finish. #21. One painting in a whole lot of hours of work.
Maybe the painting fairy will get 6 done while I sleep.

3 rows completed. 4 more to go.

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!!