Whimsical Wednesday

I don’t have much to post as I’m working on a licensing project of 20+ pieces; I spent the better part of Saturday digitally creating the panel backdrops (above) which I plan to paint on.

However, I did make a small collection of vibrant trees (bright colors usually not my M.O. as I tend to prefer working with grungy pastels like above, but try to stretch my palette every once in a while); here’s one of ‘em.

And I finished up an angel I had started working on during the holidays but hadn’t quite completed.

I hope to have more completed by next week, but I don’t know…my new schedule has been fantastic and with all the free time, you’d think I’d be painting like a fool, but strangely I’m getting to all the other things I haven’t done in a very long time (i.e. reading, relaxing without multi-tasking/working on a project) and things I’m needing to do (spring cleaning, organizing, finishing up old projects) and many, many things on the to-do list.  I’m one that finds it much easier to sit and paint when my environment and mind are clear and clutter free.  So, I’m hoping checking things off my long overdue to-do list means that it will clear more space/time to paint.  Meantime, I welcome the break.  It makes getting back to painting that much more exciting.

Hope your week is going well; thanks for stopping by to see what I’m up to!

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In progress…

A new friendship piece almost finished

I have a horrible habit of starting a bunch of projects and not finishing them.  Creating pieces is no exception and I have a good 20 or 30 unfinished pieces hanging around at any given point and though it drives me a bit batty, I continue to do it!

So last week, despite all the fresh ideas in my head, I forced myself to sit down and finish a bunch of pieces that were nearly complete but needed finishing touches.  And in about 6 hours, I had 30 “new” pieces to scan.  Turns out I was just excited to finish those as I would have been had I started new pieces.  Unexpected gratification!

I’ve finally got around to adding some of the images to my shop that I’ve shared here recently, in addition to some new pastry chef-inspired and coffee-insired girls:

But I am anxious to get started on new material and hope to share more in the near future!

Thanks for taking a peek!

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Whimsical Wednesday: Newer girls

It’s been a while since I shared some girls, so here are two I worked on during the fall:

Big Dreamer Girl

Lesson Girl

I’m taking a little break from creating this week so I can catch up on orders, inventory wrap-up and shop maintenance but hope to get back to the “softer” girls I was once creating.  I still think we can take a couple cues from these girls.

Hope your first week of the New Year is going swell!

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Whimsical Wednesday – New girl and upcycled photo frames

After taking a couple weeks off from painting for my trip back home, it was nice to get back to creating and this past weekend I painted a new girl, Sunny Girl:

And, I had been wanting to create some collage photo frames out of ones I found at my favorite thrift shop.  They each have a different theme and can be customized/personalized.

As much as I love to paint new girls/cakes/hearts, I really love to collage items giving them a new life.  I can’t be kept away from glue and papers for long.  It’s like I’m a perpetual pre-schooler.

I’ll be putting all these items in my shop in the near future.  My Oprah mosaics are gaining popularity and I’m itching to do some more pin-ups, so you can expect to see those type of items in the upcoming week!

Thanks for seeing what I’m up to.

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Anatomy of a painting

Usually I set aside time for my paintings on my “weekends” – Tue/Wed – and take care of regular business and day-to-day shop operations the rest of the week.  Usually.

And then there are moments like today I am sitting in my studio processing orders and a vision comes to mind.  When these visions pop into my head, I always stop what I’m doing and do a rudimentary sketch lest I forget the idea.  Typically I can shelve the idea for my painting days when I open up my journal and paint one of the sketches waiting to be brought to life.  Today’s vision was different.  I don’t know know why, but I felt this incredible desire to paint it…right then.

So I ran upstairs to my dining room table where I paint and where nothing was ready to go and just started pulling items out quickly.  I even worked quickly.  Typically I hem and haw during the process unsure of what to do next.  Not this time.  I had it completely in my mind and went to work and completed this 16×20 in 3 very short hours.

Now most people are surprised to hear that I sketch out my girls on a sketch pad with colored pencils.  Eventually I transfer my girl onto a background I’ve made and blend her into the piece by painting on her as well.  It’s chaotic and I even go into a bit of a trance at times.  I layer back and forth between paint and paper, stamps and ink.  I forgot to photograph these steps in between because I was so focused, but if nothing else, these few pictures will give you a wee bit of an idea.

David knows not to interrupt me or even sneak a peak while I’m working.  Not to sound like an arrogant artist – which I loathe the very thought of – but I need complete focus when I’m painting.  I’m already one of those that gets sensory overload very easily and can’t talk and listen to a movie while reading email at the same time (like David can).  I get really overwhelmed and irritated when I’m in deep concentration and get interrupted.  And I also get really paranoid that my piece won’t come out as I envisioned it so I work quietly and thankfully without interruption.  And I’m grateful for David’s patience during these short (and sometimes not-so-short) bursts.

Today it just so happened that David was sleeping while I was working on this piece and he woke up just as I was putting down the finishing touches.

When I think of this piece I think of cancer survivors – since I’ve been working with a lot of groups lately – but I also think of women who have survived domestic abuse, sexual assault, trauma, the death of a loved one or even a difficult life situation like divorce or a major transition.  This piece pays homage to the sisterhood out there, the millions of survivors who exude strength and determination everyday.

Thanks for following me on this incredible journey of new-found artistic ability.  I feel so incredibly grateful to have discovered this new creative outlet in just the last year and feel totally humbled to be able to share it with others.

♥

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Latest piece, still in progress…

While en route to visiting family last week, I took advantage of the first leg of my flight (which I had the whole row to myself!) and spread out my colored pencils and start sketching out some girls.  I knew that I wanted to create a couple more angels to make holiday cards with and during the 3 hour leg, I sketched out 3 of them.  However, this is only the beginning of each of them.  Many more hours go into painting and decoupaging over my sketches and creating the backgrounds for my pieces.

Because of travel, getting everything done before leaving and then completing orders when I got back, it’s been a good 2 weeks since I worked on a new piece and I was itching to get back at it.  Not to mention that if I have any hope of selling these for holiday cards, I need to get them done ASAP.  After finally catching up on orders, I was able to sit down this afternoon and get working on two of them.  Here’s one of them…she still needs touching up (her dress is bothering me and like a typical artist, I’m a perfectionist and not quite happy with it so I need to step away and come back to it tomorrow.) and I’m going to put the word “blessed” across her tummy:

The left side looks really dark because of the little light I had left in the day; it's actually much brighter, like the right side. I'll repost once it's truly finished.

I’ve run out of light and can’t photograph the second one, so I’ll do that one in my next post.  Not to mention that she’s looking a little jaundiced (!) and I need to balance out the color in her face (ha!).  I’m also going to be working tonight on some word pieces on small blocks of canvas…I’ll share that with you in my next post as well, so stay tuned!

Update: here it is finished and scanned (instead of photographed which always lends to wonky colors)

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Feeling unmotivated

You know those days, those weeks where you just have trouble going?  Yeah, I’m having one of those.  Don’t feel like cooking, cleaning, doing.  Just feel like vegging.  Lacking motivation to do things…except paint.  So I guess it isn’t so bad.  But the days are flying by and I’m wondering what I accomplished?  Maybe because we just got off our “weekend” and slothed through our weekend.  Lots of TV, lots of junk food, totally unhealthy.  And though that can sometimes feel great to do, I’m feeling more blase and crummy than relaxed.

So I’m feeling unmotivated yet have that creeping feeling that I gotta snap to it!  Still struggling with that balance, but went a little too far in the lazy zone!  Meanwhile, here’s a peak at my second painting.  I tend to always do two at a time…so here’s hopeful girl:

Here’s hoping that today will yield more productive results!

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New Piece – Intentions or Intentional Girl?

So on Monday and Tuesday night I worked on this latest piece.  It’s a reflective piece on my excitement about getting into my favorite publication.  Without getting all in your face about the law of attraction as I know some people think its crazy speak (that’s okay, I happen to think a lot of organized religions do the same!) I’ll simply say that I believe in it wholeheartedly and can look back on my life and count all the times I’ve sent a thought, a prayer, an intention out to the universe and received it back.  And yes, a positive attitude can go a long way.

With that said, I created this piece and am a bit stuck with what to call her.  I thought about calling her intentional girl, since asking for specific things in your life is intentional, but David thinks it sounds off and should be called intentions girl or something else.  To keep things consistent, I always title my pieces ” —” Girl, so what do you think?

I won’t be selling this original piece as it’s so deeply personal to me, but will have merchandise with this image in my store by next week.  Speaking of which, I am now selling journals/sketchbooks.  Only have one listing up now for a medium size but will have larger options as well as lined options and eco-friendly choices too.

In due time I’ll get my shop 100% stocked with all the available options possible, but meantime if you see an item you like but not the image, just send me a message and I can make it for you.  Trying to keep that balance going and taking things one day at a time.  For the past week+ its been working out great and although I need to still temper that perfectionist in me that wants to keep working at it until it’s all done, I’m just letting go and keeping things in check.  Even if it means losing out on some business opportunities, I am keeping the original goal in mind.

Hope you are having a fantastic day

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Friday shop update

Well, don’t really have much in the way of new items in my shops, just adding more options to my art shop, nothing that you haven’t seen lately.  And I didn’t add anything to my goodies shop as I’ve been pushing myself to list new items lately with no results; frankly I needed a break.  Not to mention that this past week I had to take care of a lot of admin/computer work so adding new items just didn’t happen.  But, I did make this new piece shown above, Miracle Girl (new merchandise as well as the original will be listed in my art shop this week/weekend).

However, I have been featured in several treasuries lately.  Treasuries are galleries on Etsy of up to 16 items that members curate/put together themselves.  It’s usually centered around a certain theme, not unlike art galleries.  It’s always fun when people choose you for their treasuries.  Here are the ones I’ve been featured in the last week:

This treasury titled, “Have the Courage to Grow Strong in Your Broken Places!” features my Brave Girl bookmark:

This treasury, “Into the Wild” features my Aspen tree photo:

My candle holder is featured in this “Enchantment” treasury:

This fun treasury called “Wood you have me, fire?” features my autumn themed gift tags:

My fall leaf stickers were featured in this treasury, “Autumn Leaves”:

This purple/red treasury, “I won’t get old” features my grape envelopes:

And my Italian door photo cards were featured here in this “Dreaming of Italy” treasury:

Finally, my favorite, “With a Grateful Heart” treasury featuring my gratitude girl note card:

If you get a moment, please check these treasuries out and see what other fabulous artists and goods are on Etsy!  Have a great weekend everyone!

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New Girl and artwork special!

Yesterday I finally got my opportunity to do the dance team photo shoot at the local high school I spoke of.  I had raging butterflies in my tummy as I knew this would be my first professional gig and I had 17 families depending on good pictures.  Despite a little bit of brief drama amongst the team and some chaos with people not bringing paperwork or payment, it all worked out in the end and after doing some minor retouching/color balancing, I can say that I’m very happy with how they came out.  I can’t post photos here as I haven’t received permission from anyone to post in my portfolio just yet, but will once I do.  The yellow aspen trees and green evergreens made for some beautiful backdrops!

Here’s the piece I recently did for my sister who is 44 and has just started grad school.  It’s been a while since she’s been out of college and the experience so far has been trans-formative.  It’s not just about learning material, she’s learning about herself and is coming to terms with many things she’s put on hold in her life.  While talking with her about this, I mentioned the quote, “when the student is ready the teacher will appear.”  This inspired the piece I sent out to her:

As you can see, this girl is pretty light.  Unlike my olive skin, dark hair and eyes, my sister is light, blonde and has blue/green eyes!  I’ll be listing merchandise of “Transformation Girl” pieces this week in my whimsical art shop.

This week my Brave Girl and Sisterhood Girls pieces are being featured in a blog that the author is dedicating to breast cancer awareness during the month of October.  She is featuring artists that create pieces related to breast cancer awareness.  I’m doing a small giveaway there and also offering 20% off to her blog readers who purchase an item in my art shop.  And it’s time I do that here too!

So that I don’t compete with this lovely blogger who is helping to promote my goods and my partnership with FORCE, I won’t offer the giveaway here at this time (perhaps in the future, though you can enter on her site) but I would like to offer 20% off  the purchase price on items in my whimsical art shop to you, my Green Earth Goodies blog readers, as well! (Please note that Sisterhood Girls and Brave Girls are not eligible for this discount as they are for charity, but perhaps while you’re shopping, you’ll still consider adding to your basket and 50% of the price will be donated to FORCE).  Just put “GEG blog” in the message to seller box when checking out and I’ll refund you the difference!  This offer will run until October 15th.  Get some early holiday shopping done and support a new artist at the same time!

Get some early holiday shopping done and support a new artist at the same time!  (Please note that I’m still updating my shop with all the possible options, so if you want a particular girl in a particular format that’s not listed, just click the link “Contact j.c.spock” to send me a message and I’ll take care of you or purchase the format you like and in the message to seller, indicate the girl you would prefer to have on your card or bookmark or print, for example).  Thanks for checking it out!

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