Twiggs Studio * Red Tulips Original Oil Painting

Finish Line, 12x12, Oil on Canvas, $675

I love red.  No secret there.  In fact, my home AND my barn have red and black accents.  So it 's no wonder that I go there in my studio often  enough.

A very long time ago, I was told that red, not black, was the color for SIN.  Whatever that means.  I dont know anything about the color of sin or much about the psychology of color at all except that red is is supposed to be threatening..  even aggressive.

If a soccer team had an all red uniform from jersey down to the socks - solid red- they could - in theory, have a powerful psychological affect.  Enough perhaps to overwhelm the opposing team.  In theory anyway.  According to a study I read.  Online.  So we know it 's true, right?  :)

But I like it anyway.  I like the lavenders in the shadows and the orangey yellow glows.  And I dont think this painting is in any way, shape or form threatening.  Maybe quietly confident.  It wont scream from a hallway.  It's not loud.  And despite the 9 clear tulips and a few ambiguous ones it's a long way from busy.

Do you have a spot in your home ( or office, or wherever )that needs a mood-setter?  What mood are you looking for ?  :)

Twiggs Studio * Pansies in Smokey Blue Original Oil Painting

Study of Pansies in Smokey Blue, 8x8, Oil on Canvas, Etsy

Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holiday.  

I'm slowly perusing my way through this humbling, hard to digest book. In the book, Ryan Holiday tells how the media lures us with lies and rumors and their motives for doing so.  He tells how they need you to click to their page because the more clicks their page gets, the more they can sell ads for.  Whatever gets you to click - that's their job.  They are working for a paycheck like everyone else. Essentially, their job, isnt to report facts as we would like to believe but collect clicks, page views, impressions.  

Joe Friday would never make it in our world. 

Like gristle in a steak.  Mold on an otherwise sweet and juicy strawberry.  Or a chunk in your milk.  eeew - we bite, we follow links, we read, share and re-tweet (well, I dont re-tweet) until rumors become "facts" by the sheer nature of "everybody is saying it".  Like driving by an accident.  It's hard to look away, so we click.  Maybe the article is boring after all so we stop reading and venture elsewhere, but we already clicked, we landed on their page, they got their impression, page view, click, so they did their job.  The advertisers are happy. The blogger is happy.  The reader rarely knows nobody dared to fact check the pack of lies they just digested.  The cycle continues.

 I stumbled across Ryan Holiday while shopping for a workshop on Creative Live on how to use Etsy.  Scrolling through the "sale" page I came across the workshop "Smart PR for Artists & Entrepreneurs" with Ryan Hoilday.  Okay, I'll bite.  So I watched his blurb video and was intrigued.  But first, I thought, I better read his book to see what he's all about.  

via GIPHY

So instead of spending the first part of my mornings studying, reading Southwest Art magazine, Hawthorne on Painting, [insert miscellaneous art publication here], I spend them reading this book.  Etsy workshop delayed.   

And it's all fact. Absolutely true.  After all the guy says, trust me....I'm lying.  :/

BTW,  Pansies are back and I'm filling my studio with them!  

Twiggs Studio * Study of Red Blooms Original Oil Painting

Study of Red Blooms, 8x8, Oil on Canvas, Sold

It is raining hard today.  Actually it was raining hard yesterday and I think the day before but such is late winter here in the PNW.  Maybe that's why I'm drawn to darker, deeper and atmospheric paintings.  Because I relate to less sunshine, less clarity but I also seek out that spot of color?  Maybe.  If that were true then more artists in Western Washington would paint the way I do - but they dont.  I see more high key, brilliantly colored paintings than deep, dark, chiaroscuro paintings.  Many, many more.  

I do own one bright painting.  It was given to me by an artist that died soon after.  I was a new artist at the time and it inspired me when I walked by it.  It is brushy, painterly and has a very Van Gogh appeal to it.  It also goes with the couch.  But mostly, I have a connection to the artist and the work from an artist point of view.  I can relate to it.  As I look at it now I doubt I would look twice if I were to see if for the first time.  My experiences have changed the way I perceive art but this piece will always be special to me because I know a little bit about the artist.  Only a little bit but enough to give me a connection to him.  

It begs the question, why do people buy the art that they buy?  Why purchase one painting over another.  What is the appeal, the attraction, the connection?  Especially if you have never met the artist and know nothing about him/her.  Because it goes with the couch?  What if you buy a new couch?  What then?

I'll be touching on this more in future posts.  I suspect the answer is wide and varied but I have a few insights I might share.  After all, my house if filled with original art, mostly mine of course but I do pick and choose which pieces I display.   :)

*********************

I did this painting in steps.  While it was drying I realized I did not get the glow on the petals that I wanted.  I took it back to the studio and proceded to overplay the glow.  Again, I took it back to my studio for a third pass and was finally happy.  :)

After having fragmented studio time during the holidays I am slowly working myself back into a stronger routine.  It's frustrating to have other tasks interfere with studio time but I am finally getting some momentum.   Looking forward to a productive year !  :)

Twiggs Studio * Study in Lavender Original Oil Painting

Study in Lavender, 8x8, Oil on Canvas, Sold

Pink and purple.  Uber femenine.

Once again I began with a high key concept but ended in a mid key.  It's the deep, unsaturated darks that I gravitate to - although this painting has some very saturated pinky-reds and purples. 

In my quest for "authenticity" I go down many roads.  :)

Twiggs Studio * Study of Red Droopy Tulips 2

Study of Red Droopy Tulips 2, 8x8, Oil on Canvas, sold

For a moment I started to believe I should never purchase flowers on a Friday.  Especially if it is before a show.  I bought them, put them in a vase and had to wait until after the show, decompression and unpacking before I could get to the actual painting of them.

I have a mini fridge in my studio that I keep flowers in to hold them over from painting to painting but it only keeps them fresh for so long.  At some point they start to lose that fresh cut appeal.

I'm not sure that was a deficite for me.  I kind of liked the droopy, almost done look I got from these.  So much that I did another, larger gallery piece.  So that moment of early purchase regret passed and I learned something really important about myself.  There is real character in imperfect arrangements.  Droopy blooms.  Shortened stems.  Whatever.

Sure, the bold, symmetrical, happy bouquets are beautiful and have their place in artwork but it all depends on what statement you, as an artist, are trying to make.

Twiggs Studio * Study of Poinsettia and Christmas Balls Oil Painting

Study of Poinsettia and Christmas Balls, 8x8 Oil on Canvas, Sold

I actually painted this last December but couldnt let it go at that time.  I did it as a study for a gallery piece that you can see here:  http://artist14470.fineartstudioonline.com/workszoom/2237090  but it sold quickly so I just kept the small study for the holidays.

The balls were trickier than I suspected which is rapidyly becoming a familiar theme with my artwork.  My guess is that as long as I'm branching out into new territory I will always have new challenges to face.

The very reasons painting is so captivating are the ongoing challenges and the opportunity to solve them.

Study of Candy Canes Original Oil Painting

Study of Candy Canes, 8x8, Oil on Canvas, Sold

Hard to believe how much there was to see and translate with 4 candy canes. each twist of each color had to have its lights and darks, not smudge terribly with the neighbor color and still look painterly. Yikes. What did I get myself into?

Study of Blueberries Oil Painting

Study of Blueberries and Depth, 6x8 Oil on Canvas, Sold

This little study of blueberries was to re visit my earlier approaches at depth and atmosphere. The question looming in the far corners of my mind, "just how far back, exactly, IS the horizon?"

Renaissance * A Red Carnation Oil Painting

Renaissance, 10x20, Oil on Canvas, Sold

Softly lit and gently splayed carnations.  So many layers, so much to consider.  On the other hand less is more. 

If you like RED, and I do, here it is.  I wondered if I was going to be in over my head when I first started painting carnations but once I got into a groove they all started to come together.  (BTW, the study for this painting was posted here: http://loritwiggs.blogspot.com/2017/06/red-carnation-study-in-chiaroscuro.html   )   Here is the study image:  

Red Carnation Study

So from study to gallery painting I am learning more about technique and my personal spin on it.  I've found this principle to be true:

Darker colors recede when warm and come forward when cool

Lighter colors recede when cool and come forward when warm.

But rules were meant  to be broken from time to time.   It's helpful, though,  to have that little tidbit when something isnt working the way you think it should.  

For instance, the interior of the blooms are deep and I want them to recede.  If I mix Ultramarine blue with Crimson I will get a cool dark relative to Ultramarine mixed with red deep or especially red light which is uber warm.  Now I painted this a few months ago so I cant swear to what colors I used but I'm just sayin'.  So to get a deep interior to the blooms I'm inclined to use a warm red mixed with UB.  If Crimison/UB works then fine but if it doesnt give me the depth I want then I go warmer.  See?

This principle is useful for backgrounds and foregrounds alike but opposite (get it?).  If I want a dark background I find it is a bit of a tightrope walk because my darker colors are generally cool, ie: UB, Black.  To warm them I generally use lighter colors, ie: reds, yellows - which in turn lightens the color and I will lose the bold dark background to some degree.  I use a lot of Transparent Oxide Red which is pretty dark but transparent sooo...  I add some UB then warm it with either yellow and go greenish or maybe some red light.  Either way I want to keep the chroma down.  Dont want to saturate my background...  :(

Foregrounds are the opposite.  I want more chroma - but not so much that it competes with my subject.  AAAAnnnnd I want it to come forward.  So in the light areas I will go warmer, generally and relative to the surrounding color.  In the darker areas, like the corners I may try to brighten it with a little cooler color - Cooler, that is, relative to it's surrounding color.  It's all relative..

Good Grief.  I just read what I wrote and sound like a babbling know it all but it's just me thinking out loud on screen..  It's probably not as complex as I make it sound.  I suppose for some people it's all intuitive.  But I like to think about things like that.  After all, some of the best advice I got was from a workshop instructor  Robert Rohm who said to me:

" Ask yourself, is it lighter, darker, warmer, cooler?  "

That really sums it up.  

Tomato Sfumato * Butterfly Blooms and Cherries * Original Oil Painting

Butterfly Blooms & Cherries, Oil on Canvas, 10x20, $855

From Dictionary.com:

sfumato

[sfoo-mah-toh] 

 

• Word Origin

noun, Fine Arts.

1.

the subtle and minute gradation of tone and color used to blur or veil the contours of a form in painting.

Ahhh.. and Whew!  I am finally recovered from the Oldfield show.  My husband and I have all but perfected the art of R&R so art shows which are polar opposite to R&R can be, let's just say, taxing.  

That said, it was, and always is, a good experience.  

It used to be the Oldfield Western Art  Show but they have recently dropped the Western so collectors will not be limited to those loving only cowboy art - which there is plenty of - and good stuff too but collectors of several genres of art - including my primary genre, still life.

Old Worldly | Quiet | Serene

I heard several buzz words repeated in my booth.  "Old Worldly" was one I heard several times.  Also, "Quiet" and "Serene".  But one that was new to me was "Sfumato".  Sure, I've heard the word and was vaguely familiar with it's artful meaning but never really related it to my work.  When I google imaged Sfumato in Chrome I got a bunch of images of the Mona Lisa and the liqueur Amaro sfumato Rabarbaro from the Cappelletti website.  And from that site I quote:

"The term Sfumato derives from the italian word for smoke "fumo" .

It is traditionally associated with a style of Renaissance painting characterized by subtle transitions between areas of dark and light.

This speaks directly to the profil of this amaro wich marries a dark smokiness with nuanced bitter woodsiness from alpine herbs and notes of sweet alpine berries."

*the direct cut and paste quote allowed for misspelled words.  I did, however, change the font, size and color for emphasis...   :)

So what does that have to do with my artwork?  Hmm. I have considered myself a Chiaroscuro painter to some degree and often think about a smokey piano bar, hazy and blues-y (you know, like the singing the BLUES).  And since the Italian word for smoke is "Fumo" and "Sfumato" is drived from "fumo" then, yeah, I guess it does indeed have Sfumato qualities.  

CHIAROSCURRO | SFUMATO

Neither one really rolls off the lips but when you say them you sound really artsy.  It sounds like you know what you are talking about whether you do or not.  :)   I find that's true with a lot of artsy comments though.  Sure there are sciences and principals to be found but by and large a lot of artsy talk is opinion and theory.  Often no one is really truly right or really truly wrong.  

So, do I paint using Sfumato??  Or do I paint using Chjiaroscurro??  Neither you say?  Both? 

I shoot for QUIET INTROSPECT.   Those will be my new buzz words.  At least for a while.  

QUIET | INTROSPECT

Smokey, hazy, atmospheric, quiet.  What ev's...  It is what it is.  And perhaps even more introspective with that bottle of Cappelletti Amaro..    :) 

Another Pansy Painting :)

Study of Pansies and Apple, 8x8 Oil on Canvas, Etsy

I was hesitant to list this piece. Partly because I really like it and thought about keeping it. Also because it strays from my current direction in that is it's... well, let's face it, a little more cheerful than I usually paint. Bright colors against a brighter background isn't usually my style.

So much for style and authenticity, right? I guess I was just in one of those moods where light and bright was the song for the day.

As for keeping this piece, I guess I need brushes more. I use my small studies to fund my supplies so for that reason, I'm letting it go. Also, and this is big, I'm learning to NOT hold onto everything. Gotta let stuff go. Otherwise we'll end up on one of those TV shows that would embarrass the bee-geebies out of my kids. You know the ones.

I just gave 2 boxes of art magazines to the library and promised not to come back for 2 weeks to give them any more. :) It's my little effort to minimize the stuff around here.  It's baby steps.  Eating elephants.  A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step...    :)

Red Carnation Study in Chiaroscuro

Red Carnation Study,  8x8  Oil on Canvas, Sold

A lower key version of the previous carnation studies. I ended up doing a full size gallery painting with this palette.

Once again I've sprawled my flowers across the table top in my shadow box for a slightly less "arranged" look. But to be clear, they were arranged. And re arranged and re arranged and re arranged.

I know what you may be thinking... there are 4 carnations there. How much arranging can really be done. Apparently 4. :)

Study of Pansies and Brass on Green

 Study of Pansies and Brass on Green , 8x8 Oil on Canvas, Sold

I originally painted these pansies in a different vase. Every time I looked at it I felt that it lacked something. I took it back into the studio and edited in this brass pot. So much better. 

The lesson? That while the vase was greenish, it didnt relate well with the pansies and background. It was very blah which I thought would make the pansies pop. And it did but too much. They almost floated. This brass pot ties in well with both the pansies and background. The pansies still pop but their reflections on the brass help unify them. 

Thanks for looking! :)

Pink Carnations on Red - Floral Oil Painting...

Study of Carnations on Red, 8x8 Oil on canvas, Sold

​This time I went bolder with the background just to see what would happen.  I used my deep red drape for my set up wondering how pink on red would pan out.  Then I pushed the light to give it that little glow.

It certainly made a bolder statement.  A little sexier then the previous painting.  This one might even work in a bachelor pad where as the previous one, in my opinion, was a bit softer and more feminine.  

It looks great against my buttery - parchmenty colored walls and it sends a completely different message than the last one.  The carnation is facing forward sends a bold, in your face, I'm trying to tell you something - message.   

Maybe I'm over-thinking again.   :) 

Pink Carnation Study on Camel

Carnation Study on Camel, 8x8, Oil on Canvas, Sold

Carnations are a tenacious bloom. My son brought these over at Easter and they are still holding on. Unbelievable. 

I've never painted carnations before and really wondered what I was getting myself into with all the layers they have. It really gave me a chance to get in there and focus. Then I had to un-focus a little just to simplify them somewhat so they weren't quite so tight.

My thought here was about the pink blooms and how to make all that pink fit into my house - or any house. I had been told once that pink was the kiss of death relating to a painting. Stay away from it. But really, that only makes me want to paint it more...get the picture?

This experiment was painted with a camel-ish colored background because it's similar to my walls at home.  I did a quick color study on a scrap board and found it pleasing so it was time to get down and dirty and start painting.  The real test was staring at it in my house for a while to see if it really DID work or if I was just in denial about the whole PINK thing.

I like it.  It might not work in a bachelor pad.  More of a granny style bedroom kind of feel.  I actually have one of those (I refer to it as heirloom decor) and it would fit there nicely but it was drying in my TV room and frankly, it looked great there.  Or even my dining room which has cranberry accents.

I dont have any degrees in interior decorating and I'm starting to see how that could benefit me when I'm putting together a painting but at the end of the day, if I dont like it in my house, it doesnt get posted.

There you have it.  Pink Carnations on Camel.  :)

Back To My Roots

Study of Red Tulips, 8x8 Oil on Canvas, Click to Bid

​I think I may be going back to my roots.  That is lower key and quiet paintings.  While I havent posted them on Daily Paintworks I've been doing a lot of larger gallery pieces this year which have been very consuming.  So consuming that I often forget to eat lunch - which is saying a LOT.  That's right, I work straight through lunch and right up to dinner.  YOWZER! (Did I spell that right?)

But all this heavy lifting, so to speak, has me doing some "heaving thinking". 

Sometimes I wonder if I'm spinning my wheels in the studio.  Why am I really doing this??  Who am I doing it for ?  And various other philosophical questions clutter my thoughts - until I get my brushes wet.  From that point on it's pure and utter focus.  My thoughts turn to questions of hue and brush strokes and what would Richard Schmid do here?  But when the dust settles, I'm back to the age old question, what is it all for?

In an attempt to answer this deep, philosophical question, I've been throwing a few things against the wall to see what sticks.  So far, this is what I've come up with:

I live on a small farm. Why? Because my father shared his memories of his farm life as a boy then for a short period moved his family to a small farm - his roots.

As a young girl with a horse I too developed farm life memories and so convinced my husband to move us to a farm some 20+ years ago.  My roots

As an adult, I often wonder if all the work is worth it.  

• Hay has to be cut, raked, baled and stacked.  
• Tractors have to be maintained $$$.  
• Water pipes in the barn have to be protected from freezing weather and repaired when they werent.. :(
• Fields need to be cut in the off season to keep the weeds down and grass thick for better hay.
• Outbuildings need maintenance (we need a new roof on one of our lean-to's ASAP).  
• And that doesnt even account for the animals :  
• A geriatric horse.  
• Cows due to calf (while we are away no less).  
• Goats that are like puppies on steroids.  
• A dog who seems to search out skunks and a cat that has been here since, well, since forever.  I cant remember a time when she wasnt here.  
• Then of course there are the critters that come around just to keep us humble:  Raccoons, opossums, rodents of all shapes and sizes and of course the afore mentioned skunks.

I've decided that it's worth it.

So what does this have to do with my art?  I'm getting to that.  I think, and I'm still percolating on this, but I think I have rural farm life in my blood.  Sure, I fantasize about living in a condo with an extra room for a studio.  NO animals and NO yard to take care of.. Certainly no outbuildings. But when I go out to feed the animals with my husband in the morning and evening, I always have an appreciation for where we live.  I love my barn.  And I love seeing the cows in the fields.  I love taking care of my aging horse. Two decades plus later and I still love it.

Still, how does this affect my art?  I'm rural deep down.  Like everyone else I've had my share of crisis and like everyone else I've had to deal.  But I've learned a lot living on a farm.  And I give some credit for my (relatively healthy) emotional status to the slow but steady pace we've adapted here.  And it's my emotional status that drives my artwork. I often see people rushing off in so many different directions.  So many priorities.  So many commitments  (all of which used to be me).  And I often wonder if I'm just lazy.  Jury is still out.  But lazy or not, it works for me.  :)   We get things done.  We try not to lag and fall to far behind lest our farm will quickly get trashy.  But we also stop to smell the roses, lilacs and my new clematis vines.  

Can you see it yet?  How it relates?  I may be reading more into it than is there but here it is:  

I relate to quiet paintings.  Less is often more.  I think (still experimenting here) I gravitate towards dominantly warm paintings over cool.  I inject quiet atmospheric backgrounds vs. active brushy backgrounds.  (I do like brushy though.  It just rarely works in my pieces).   I dont put a lot of inorganic items into my paintings anymore.  I try but it never quite works for me and I often just take it back out.  

So I dont quite know how to articulate it yet but I can tell you that while I was the only (pretty much) exclusively (can you be "pretty much exclusive"?) still life painter at the Fred Oldfield Western Show last year I felt like I finally found my tribe.  Most of these people painted horses and mountains (beautifully so) and here I was with a booth of pansies.  But I felt like we were family.  

So there it is.  My rant.  I live on a small farm and I paint quiet atmospheric paintings.  Less is more.  Stop to smell the good stuff.  Fix the fences and bake a pie.  Enjoy today because time is the one thing you cant own (I got that from Marc Cuban. Dont know where he got it).  But that doesnt mean stay busy.  It means do what counts.  :)

Brrr... Cold Days Cold Roses

Frosty Mug, 16x20, Oil on Canvas, Click for info 

More Manganese Blue please.  What a great color.  Uber icy.  And paired with red it just makes me want to grab a sweater.  :)

This is so far from my earlier pieces that were warm and smokey that it almost looks like a different artist!  But I assure you, it's all me.  As always, I continue to experiment and push myself because...  well, I'd be bored to tears if I didnt.  

So this bright painting has been delivered to the gallery along with another one that I will post next week. Today I start a new project.  But I dont think it will include Manganese Blue.  It will likely be a warmer painting but still a new palette for me.  More on that later.  :)

Red Winter Roses Oil Painting

Winter Roses, 18x24, Oil on Canvas, Click for info

It's been a cold winter.  A long, cold winter.  I cannot remember a time of going out to the barn without my hat and gloves.  Everything I paint recently seems to reflect that in a much cooler palette.  

Spring is just around the corner - although I'm hard pressed to see that because it was 28 degrees this morning.  The silver lining, however, is that my studio is warm and cozy.  And my easel faces away from the window so once I'm underway, I am far from whatever is happening outside and happily locked into my own little world.  Still, as you will soon see with the next few posts, everything I paint has chilled.  For now anyway.

So this painting is titled "Winter Roses".  My concept started with Valentines Day.  Ironically, I am not a fan of Valentines Day.  It could come and go for all I care.  The kids are grown so I'm not buying those cute little cards and those little heart candies.  Also, all sugar seems to rest comfortably on my hips so I'm not a fan of that either.  BUT the thought of having (painted) roses that wont wilt and need water changed was a comforting thought.

Here's the paradox.  I dont care for Valentines Day but I used it as my "jumping off" concept for a romantic painting...  Its really the whole (currently acceptable) concept behind Valentines Day (far from the original history, I hear).  So what I was really focusing on was the love and sharing of ones self.  The giving of a gift (or the gift of giving..) that demonstrates your love, respect, appreciation.   Roses are the traditional medium for that in our society.  At least this week.  

People appreciate being appreciated.  I know I do.  Nobody is perfect so we focus on something that we have in common and start there.  Everybody brings something else to the table because our history has given us our own unique perspective.  Those personal experiences have left thin slices of information stored away in our subconscious that influences our decision making.  However skewed everyone else may think it is, it is very real and intuitive for us.   

These roses are for you, skewed person.  You are just trying to make your way in this crazy world like everyone else.  :)

Cut flowers are nice but already dead.  A painting will live forever, right??  RIGHT??

Holiday Gift Guide for Artists #2

Bright Christmas, 12x16, Oil on Canvas, Sold

The painting above is, as of yesterday, fresh off the easel and delivered to the gallery in Edmonds, WA.  If only poinsettias were on the shelves earlier - I may have more poinsettia paintings available. But as it is, I may get one or two more done before the season is over and we will all be moving on to other things.  

But as to the title of this post, I thought I would mention some of my favorite art related books that might be considered for gift giving.

Hawthorne on Painting

The Art Spirit

Art and Fear

Steal Like an Artist

The War of Art

Daily Painting: Paint Small and Often To Become a More Creative, Productive, and Successful Artist

The Simple Secret to Better Painting: How to Immediately Improve Your Work with the One Rule of Composition

Mastering Composition: Techniques and Principles to Dramatically Improve Your Painting

I understand this next one is really good but I still dont have it.  Kind of pricey:

Composition of Outdoor Painting

Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting

Creative Authenticity: 16 Principles to Clarify and Deepen Your Artistic Vision

The View From The Studio Door: How Artists Find Their Way In An Uncertain World

Hensche on Painting

Rembrandt: A Life

Oil Painting with the Masters: Essential Techniques from Today's Top Artists

This is a pretty good start for now.  I have others but these really stood out for me.  Granted, it's been a while since I've read some of them and I had some on my kindle which passed away about a year ago soooo...  That said, I've read a few of these more than once such as Hawthorne on Painting the Art Spirit and Creative Authenticity.  But they're all good.  

Happy Shopping and dont forget to click through from Ebates if you do that kind of thing. 

Christmas Gifts for the Discerning Artist

  

It's Christmas time-ish and that means we look forward to finding that something special for that someone special, right?

Is your someone special an artist?  Or a wanna be artist?

OR -- did you draw the name of an artist this year?  Was it mine?  :)

Here are some brainstorming ideas  from $ to $$$:

(If you are an Ebates user, dont forget to click through from that site!)

$      Value Finder Not to be confused with View finder- put this next to your palette. Dont underestimate the value of values.   :)

$      Color wheels are inexpensive and there are a blue billion of them out there.  Options are endless.

$       I just saw this mug warmer on a blog.  I could have used this when I first set up my studio.

$       View Catcher  I use this ALL the time.  Wish I had had it years ago.

$$     This is called a View Finder and it seems over priced but I guess that's the way it is with specialized items.  I dont have one but I've often wished I did.  It basically breaks the view down into a value structure by weeding out the indiscriminate values.  Trust me on this.

$$     I LOVE my subscription to Southwest Art Magazine.  And it's not limited to just barns, deserts and cactus as you might imagine.  There are plenty of still life, portrait and figure paintings as well.  It covers events, artist bios and competitions.  Pretty inspiring.  I dont know what I would do if I let my subscription run out.

$$     Artist Magazine and it's sisters Pastel Journal and Watercolor Artist.  There's also Acrylic Artist
Drawing, Beadwork, Lapidary Journal, Cloth, Paper, Scissors, and so many more.  Magazine subscriptions are the gift that keeps on giving, right?

$$     More ideas?  Is your artist on the road a lot or EVER?  How about a wet panel carrier? Or the more elaborate Wet Canvas Carrier.  I'm a canvas painter but when I'm on a plein air excursion I use panels exclusively for reasons I wont go into at this time.

$$$     If you have a really deep pocket maybe a pochade box (this is mine) or the many, many accessories that make painting outdoors fun.  Keep in mind the box is only as sturdy as it's tripod so that is an added expense...

$$-$$$     I have a detached studio with a corner for my Keurig and mini fridge - so many options here but I wish my fridge didnt have the freezer.  I have never had a use for that in my studio. However, I do put my florals in the fridge in between paintings.  They last so much longer that way.

Books, Books, Books!

My must have list is:
Alla Prima by Richard Schmid  ( I dont know what Alla Prima II is.  I've only read the original)
An Artist Teaches by David Leffel

Of course there are many more but I will save that for another post.   I really want to get out to my studio and finish my painting.  

Have fun shopping!  And dont forget to use Ebates to get your cash back!   :)