No New Paintings Today

No new paintings today, but I thought I'd put up a new picture of David, which as usual I stole from his mom's MySpace page. He's getting so big! Standing up in his playpen, crawling all over the house, sitting up, and getting into everything in sight. He's even starting to eat some regular people food along with his baby food. They grow so fast, I wish I could have more time with him.

I think I'm going to take Debra's advice (I suspect Debra is the only person who reads this blog, but I'm going to pretend that there are more of you out there) and start doing smaller paintings. See how they sell. If I want to stay in business, I need to be flexible, so I'm willing to try something new and see how it flies. Time to make a visit to the art store!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

It's been a rough start to the year. I lost my sister two weeks ago, unexpectedly, although she was nearly twenty years older than me and in poor health, so it wasn't a total shock. But losing someone is never easy, even when it's not totally unexpected. We hadn't spent as much time together in the last couple of years as we used to. I've been so busy, and she had mobility problems, so getting together took more effort and planning than it used to. But when we did get together, we always had so much fun, taking long drives (especially to the ocean) and eating out. She was one of a kind, and my life won't be the same without her. I miss you, Sis!

On the painting front, I'm starting to feel a little bit discouraged. Sales are moving slowly. As in, pretty much not moving at all. I have a number of paintings listed at Etsy, and I've had exactly one sale there (Hi, Deb!) in the last sixty days. I've been listing new items and re-listing old ones, but no bites. I hadn't listed at eBay since before Christmas, but I moved four items over there from Etsy a few days ago. All four auctions ended this morning, with several watchers but no sales. I'm spending more money in eBay fees than I'm making. So this morning, I cancelled my eBay store. I still plan to sell there, but I can't justify paying the monthly fee for a store when I'm not bringing in any money from it. The listing fees are bad enough with no sales, but adding the store fee on top of those makes no sense. No matter how you look at it, that's a loss. I know it's this lousy economy. So I decided to slash prices in my Etsy store, and now most everything there is listed at half of what I was trying to sell it for before. We'll see if that makes a difference.

I'm so torn. I can undervalue my work, sell it so low I'm pretty much giving it away, and I'll have sales. Not a lot of sales, but I'll have sales. But if I list it for anywhere near what I believe it's worth, the sales just aren't there. I don't want to give away my work. On the other hand, if I want to keep on painting, with the cost of supplies and the lack of space for hanging them in my house, I have to sell. So I guess for the time being, until the economy improves, my philosophy will be that selling anything, even at a low price, is better than selling nothing. At least my work will be seen, and I'll continue to build a following.

She said hopefully.

The good news is that I did sell a painting this week to a local chiropractor and his wife, and they plan to hang it in his downtown office, plus they want me to do a commission of downtown for them, also for the office. So I'm not at a standstill, just a slowdown. This past Sunday, my daughter Jennifer and I went to Boston for Chinese New Year. I took hundreds of photos, and I'm hoping I may get a painting or two out of them. It was a nice break from the usual humdrum winter routine, and both of us needed the lift. We don't get as many days together as we'd like, because we're both working full-time and we live sixty miles apart in snowy Maine. But we try to always make it to Boston for the Chinese New Year celebration. It's the highlight of my year, with the dancing dragons, the bright colors, the firecrackers, and all the commotion!

Gables

Gables
12x12, acrylics on canvas
NOT FOR SALE
(this one has been claimed by my hubby)

My latest. This is a house I drove by this summer in Mount Vernon, Maine. Couldn't resist. It spoke to me. Enjoy!

I Saw the Light

I Saw the Light
16x20, acrylics on canvas
AVAILABLE

I decided I kind of like the song titles as titles for paintings, so I continued the theme with this one. I've been staring at this house, and another house beside it that I plan to paint soon, for months. They sit near my favorite Chinese restaurant, and every time I go there, I sit in my car in the parking lot and admire the way the light falls across the houses. I've taken several photos, and finally decided to go for it. In real life, there are many trees behind both these houses, but I decided to leave the sky clear because there's a lot going on, and I felt the trees would disrupt the balance. I didn't want to make the painting too busy.

I'm pleased with this one. All in all, not bad for a day's work.

Happy Together

Happy Together
11x14, acrylics on canvas
AVAILABLE

I have mixed feelings about this one. It didn't come out quite the way I had hoped. I'm discovering I have real trouble with reds. It took many, many layers of color before I managed to achieve the warm red glow I wanted on the front of the house. And then, I still couldn't quite capture it with the camera. In real life, the house front is a little bit softer, a little bit warmer, red than it looks in the photo. Still, I think I managed to capture the feel I was going for: two houses that sit side by side, solid buddies through thick and thin. I kept thinking "me and you" and then the lyrics from the old Turtles song popped into my head and I realized I had to title this one "Happy Together".

Red Sky at Night

Red Sky at Night
12x12, acrylics on canvas
AVAILABLE

This is the first painting I've done since I caught the Bug From Hell back around New Year's. I've been coughing for three weeks now, and it's getting old. But it seems to be lessening, a little at a time, so maybe there's hope that I'll get over it before May.

This painting is all about the color. Can you tell I have a thing for painting pink skies?

Enjoy!

New Year's Day

New Year's Day
16x20, acrylics on canvas
SOLD

Happy New Year! 2009 dawned sunny and cold here at Casa Viridian, with wind chills this morning nearing twenty below. But it was a beautiful, blue-skied day, the prettiest day this week, so I celebrated the new year by taking a drive with my camera. This is my first painting of 2009, titled, appropriately enough, NEW YEAR'S DAY. Hope you like it!