Featured Artist for September and latest art

We are still in packing mode for our selling and buying home project.  It seems I've been packing mainly my art supplies and paintings for a million hours now and I'm not sure I've hit halfway yet :(  It makes me really really REALLY wonder if I really want to be an artist HAHAHA!  

However, I am keeping up with my artistic obligations as well.  Last night I had to paint my 2 5x5 canvases for Art Center of the Ozarks's annual 5x5 auction fundraiser.  I had lost track of deadline so I naturally resorted to acrylics.  I have packed most of my accessories for this medium because I don't usually work with it.  But thankfully, I can enjoy a very limited palette so when I got hold of my red, yellow, blue and white tubes, I know I had no worries.  Also helpful were my Beste Duo brushes  which I really hadn't played with until last night!  They were perfectly handy to have except I couldn't figure out what end to soak in water!  My solution was to paint very fast :D  Used one of our dinner plates for mixing...I usually use an enameled pan.

 

 "Isolated Peace" and "Purple Clumps" 5x5" acrylics on canvas

Above are the two finished pieces.  I'm so happy I managed to paint them after packing all day and definitely exhausted!  But it felt so good to have painted and to meet an obligation!  My friend Mary picked them up first thing the next day to deliver 3 towns away from me.  Thanks Mary!

 

Hey, I am honored to be one of 2 featured artists at Poor Richard's Art this month YAY!!!  The other artist is Damon Chatterton, a wonderful polymer clay sculptor!  I plan to be be there for the Twilight Walk come see me!!!

"Kathy" 8x10 watercolor on paper

Another success story I have to share is the completion of this tribute portrait of my very missed niece Kathy.  This is a gift of mine to my sister Anna for her birthday next week - Happy Birthday sis! Enjoy Hawaii!  I love you!

Cat Nap and Rembrandt ACEO watercolor art

"Cat Nap" 16"x12" watercolor on paper

I do love sleeping paintings!  Somehow they make me feel like I too have caught up on my rest!  This painting will be delivered today to Poor Richard's Art in Rogers, Arkansas along with some prints.  Recently they have sold a giclee on watercolor of my "Dreaming Sweet Dreams" and my original ACEO below.

"After Rembrandt Self Portrait 1659" 3.5"x2.5" watercolor on paper

This favorite ACEO I've painted was sold by Poor Richard's Art for $350.00!  It's quite exciting for me because it breaks my old ACEO record of $250.00 for this small format art!  Giddy and so grateful!!!

 

Here I wanted to show my "Bed Hair" ACEO along with my latest obsession the wasabi peas!!!  I've been crunching and doing my 30 days of painting this summer.  Hope you're all staying cool and doing outdoor fun stuff!

Poor Richard's Art makes 2nd gallery for me!

For many years I've considered applying to be a member of Poor Richard's Art in Rogers, AR, because it seems like such a cool place with its eclectic selection of artists and fine arts and crafts. But something always delayed me. For instance, I missed a flight home from a Cancun vacation last year so I couldn't make the meeting with their Artist Selection Committee. But this year, I visited the shop again and I was particularly impressed and very eager in pursuing showing there. So I made another appointment and met with a the panel last Saturday of March. Thursday I received email from committee chairperson Erin Neal (innovative mosaic artist) that I was indeed accepted!!! YAY!

Do click the above image which will take you to a cool artist page fellow PRA (Poor Richard's Art) artist Dave Clark (very unique abstract artist) made for me on the PRA website.

I matted and framed my latest piece so it is one of the paintings I dropped off yesterday. A wonderful jewelry artist and my good friend Mary Stewart was kind enough to drive me. Then we stopped a few doors up to Iron Horse Coffee Co. for a little coffee clutching :)

Jan Ironside and Erika Nelson photo by Mary Stewart

Here you see a new colleague Jan Ironside, and wonderful impasto artist, helps me get started in the new gallery. There I am big, as life, in my bright orange cargo pants! HAHAHA I'm calling it artist license, that's my story and I'm sticking with it ;) But if one would pick a theme in this post, it would be orange lol Not intentional, but my random choices tend to follow a color theme OYE! May this new endeavor be a blessed one too!