Pet Portrait Commission - Harley

I wanted to share a pet portrait I was commissioned to paint earlier this year. It was a gift for someone so I had to keep it hush-hush. It has been presented to the recipient so I can now post it on my gallery.

Harley is a beautiful 10 year old Great Dane. She came to visit me in my studio twice. The first time was to get adequate photos of her to paint by and the second to was do some touch ups on her coloring in person near the end of the portrait process.

Harley is truly a "gentle giant." She patiently sat through my 30 or so clicks of the camera from all sides and angles and then later let me position her head to double check dots, spots, and coloring.

I was very pleased with the outcome of the portrait. She is a very lady-like and regal dog and the formal portrait suited her personality very much.

Bath House Show was Great!

I've been asked many times this week.."How did your show go?" Well..it was GREAT! Friday night was short and sweet, Saturday has a great crowd, Sunday was slow but ok. I sold a few of my new horse paintings which was ego gratifying as well as financially good! To the left is a shot of my booth. I had a great spot and many thanks to Enrique for a great show! Although the show was inside, the scenery outside on White Rock Lake was wonderful. Look for these sailboats in a painting sometime soon.

To those who follow my bog or visit my studio, you've seen the giant canvas on my easel for almost a year now. Well, I've been working on this painting recently as my goal is to have it done for my May Artfest show. Check out my progress so far on Making Friends.

Bath House Spring Art Mart

My first show of the 2008 season is this weekend!

The weather is looking pretty decent for a Texas spring so head down to White Rock Lake and stop by and say hello to me at the Bath House.

All the important details:

When: April 18-20

EXACTLY When: Friday, 7pm-9pm..the wine and cheese crowd..sounds like a nice Friday night date!

Saturday, 1pm - 8pm ... This cover all bases..past the kids' ball games, before date night..no excuses! Come see me!

Sunday, 11am - 6pm... Ok..I maybe you had a good excuse for Friday and Saturday, but I'll forgive you if come see me today!

Directions: Click Here

I've had horse fever this spring so you can check out the resulting 7 paintings ranging in size from 5" x 7" to 24" x 18". Spring Fever (above, 6"x12", acrylic) is a sneak peek of what I have been busy with this year.

There will also be a Silent Auction benefitting the Bath House and its activities. I've donated Fresh, a 6" x 12" acrylic. I painted this still life from some luscious looking produce I picked up from my weekly veggie lady in Wylie.

Getting ready for Limited Edition Prints

I'm very excited about my newest venture in the art studio. I'm currently working with a printing company to produce limited edition prints of some of my paintings. I've selected 4 paintings that I will print in an edition of 25. These prints will be roughly 1/2 to 1/3 of the original size. Obviously, I'm doing prints of some of my larger paintings.

To insure the uniqueness of the Limited Edition, I will not do another print (with the exception of notecards/postcards) of the original except for the possibility of a print that is the same size as the original painting. For example, if the painting is 36" x 24" and I do a Limited Edition print in the size of 12" x 8," I will not do another print of that painting unless it is 36" x 24" (with the exception of notecards/postcards). All prints will be hand-signed and numbered by me.

The first print I am working on is Well Seasoned: The Chipotle Chicken. The original painting is 30" x 30" priced at $925. The print will be either 12" x 12" or 10" x 10" (still in conference with the printer) printed on velvet watercolor paper, and will retail for $50 - $75. Print numbers 1 and 2 have already been sold so if you know you want this print and you have a favorite number..reserve it now! I'll be offering a "pre-show" discount for about 2 weeks after the print is in production...look for an e-mail soon! I'm hoping to have these in my hand within 2 weeks.

Early Christian Art Exhibit at the Kimball

Last week I was fortunate to visit the Picturing the Bible: The Earliest Christian Art at the Kimball Museum of Art in Forth Worth. I've had an interest in Christian art since I taught a History of Christian Art lesson in a Sunday School class several years ago. Don't get all excited about seeing it because Saturday was the last day of the exhibit...I just procrastinated and went at the last minute. You can read about the exhibit here although I'm not sure how long that link will work.

The time period of the artifacts on display was from about the 3rd century after the death of Christ through the 6th century. There were photographs of art from the walls of Roman catacombs, carved sarcophagus, jewelry, silver bowls and plates, illuminated Bibles, & more. The sheer amount of articles was impressive in itself.

The most memorable part of the visit to me was the early depictions of well-known Biblical stories, both from the Old and New Testaments. We all, no matter what level our church involvement, have heard of the typical Bible stories, Jonah swallowed by a whale, Jesus performing miracles, etc. Seeing these stories illustrated on silver or in stone over 1700 years ago really opened my eyes to how much we have "modernized" our views of Jesus and the Bible.

In the Greek translation of the story of Jonah, whale is not mentioned, it is a ketos or "great fish." Greeks also associated this word with sea serpent, so all of the imagery illustrating this story depicts Jonah being swallowed by a large sea monster resembling a fantasy-like dragon. Sort of levels the playing field between Christianity, Judiasm and mythology a bit.

Another point of interest to me was in the earliest imagery of Jesus . In several instances, Jesus is holding a wand to perform his miracles such as multiplying the fish and loaves to feed the multitude and to raising Lazuras from the dead. Unfortunately, since I waited till the last minute to see the exhibit, I can't easily pull up examples. If you Wiki 'depiction of Jesus' it discusses early imagery of Jesus with the wand as well.

Now, keep in mind this was just simple observations on my part. I know there is a lot of history I'm leaving out (such as how much early Christian imagery borrowed from Greco Roman art..hence the sea monster) and I would like to research the development of Biblical imagery further but for now I'm just reporting my initial reactions.

Why..what is my point? Jesus didn't always sport a beard and Jonah wasn't always hanging out in the whale's mouth. The images evolved and changed over time. Sometimes we get so ingrained in how something is supposed to look or how we've been told its looks..we forget to go out and look for ourselves.

I've got another tangent side note on the Biblical/Christian/Fantasy I'll go down another day! Yes, I am a Christians..just some of my own beliefs are a little unconventional.

For now...get out there and look at the world through your own eyes!