Back to normality?

After a week when the chook died (RIP Myrtle)..... the dog nearly died (get well soon Milo) and I felt like death, due to a nasty virus, I am glad to say that things seem to (at long last) be getting back to normal.
I have no plans to submit to any further exhibitions this yearafter having all six of my works rejected from the upcoming Battle contemporary fine art fair :-(
I am instead concentrating on attracting some commissioned work in the lead up to Christmas, I have finished one JRT commission and am working on a second........... both in pastels and both to be revealed at a later date.
In an attempt to make my art pay in 2011 I am trying one last time to get to grips with acrylics.
I am experimenting with some new interactive paints that I hope will cure my phobia of this lovely clean and practical medium........it would be very handy (and economical) to offer paintings that need no framing and can be sent off with greatly reduced packaging costs.

"Watching"

Today I had the opportunity to add the finishing touches to my Tiger painting at last, this one has been "almost" finished for what seems like ages so it was a pleasure to get it done.
It is quite large for one of my pastels at about 45 x 65 cm and is painted on Claire Fontaine Pastelmat

Watercolour!

I may have mentioned a watercolour commission that was giving me sleepless nights? well this is the one, I have now recieved confirmation from the client that she is happy with the result, but as usual I am a little unsure now that those doubts have crept in:-(

I love working with watercolour but do find it a challenge and for some reason most of my w/c commissions end up needing "adjustments" like this one did and once you start adjusting it seems to lose its magic for me.

Now that this one is done, I have an empty order book once again, so am grateful of the handful of originals sold at exhibition this year.

The upside of that is that I can spend more time on originals and at the moment designs for Christmas cards which is something that is permanently on the "to do " list!

Christmas card designs

This week was a busy on again on many fronts, I have complete my watercolour commission but have had to make a couple of adjustments to it at the request of the dogs owner I will update the client tomorrow and hope that all is now ok......I am seriously thinking that I should forget offering watercolour as a medium for commissions as I always seem to encounter problems with it.

The art exhibition at Battle ended today and I spent a busy morning helping to reunite artists and buyers with their paintings, I was lucky enough to sell two of mine this year and enjoyed some lovely positive feedback. Only one more show submitted to this year now and that one is juried so I won't know if any of my six submissions will get in until the end of the month.

I would normally be starting to get enquiries for Christmas commissions about now but things seem really slow this year so I am putting my time to good use working on some designs for Christmas cards, first up is a snowy dog painting of my brothers Wirehaired Dachshund Ellie

Day off

Had a wonderful day off yesterday and took a cultural trip to London with my brother and his good lady to see the summer exhibitions.
We had intended to catch the BP portrait awards but ran out of time due to spending ages enjoying the SEA's "The Horse in Art", I love the Mall galleries as a venue and the works on display were on the whole stunning! It was good to see Sally Lancaster's "One Small Step" and Laura Barber-Riley's "Wandering" up close and personal.........they were certainly not a let down!
The only thing that was dissapointing for me was the quality of some of the smaller works...in fact there were one or two so badly painted with glaring proportional errors that I'm amazed they got through the selection process.........of course my lovely brother felt obliged to note that these were all paintings by full members and let rip when asked by the stewards if he'd enjoyed the exhibition...........I just skulked out the door LOL
We then went to the Royal acadamy to see the tail end of the Summer exhibition... I really don't like the gallery here (or the charge to get in ) but nothing prepared me for the "work" on display ..........I have never seen so many blatent examples of the "emporers clothes" on display in one place and was further dismayed by the thousands of red dots it had generated! there were just a handful of skillful artworks amongst it but they took a lot of searching for to locate! the one highlight for me was the giant Gorrilla sculpture which was crafted from wire coathangers...amazing (and talented) stuff!
I think that will be my last ever visit to the RA and really wished we had spent the time in the National gallery at the BP awards instead (not only free entry but always high quality artwork by talented artists)
I think the RA has lost the plot, but then judjing by the red dots the public are more than happy to be conned:-(