Bi-State Art Competition

Shine
5"x7"
Oil on Brass

I am excited to announce that two of my paintings, Bright Idea and Shine have been accepted to the 39th annual Bi-State Art Competition at the Meridian Museum of Art.

Bright Idea
12"x12"
Oil on Copper

Currently they are on their way to Meridian. Please join me in wishing them good luck, God speed, and safe travels!

You may remember Bright Idea from my series of "work-in-progress" posts. You were a part of its birth and development! Now don't you feel proud of our little painting going out on its own? ;-)

Work in Progress Finished- Take 2!

Oops, I lied. In my last post I told you that Bright Idea, my work in progress that you have watched me finish step-by-step, was done. However, the more I looked at it, the more I felt that something was missing. Let's play the "What's different?" game.
Here's the "finished" painting that I showed you in the last post:

And here it is now:

Do you see it? It's not the bolder color. Sorry, that was a photography error on my part. The second photo is truer to the actual painting. Look again. It's subtle and tiny, but I think that it makes a big difference. Do you give up?

It's the filament inside the lightbulb. I left it out on purpose originally because, though my work is classified as realism, I purposefully don't make it exact or photorealistic. That's where creative license comes in. Like I said, though, the more I looked at it, the more I realized it NEEDED the filament. My husband (and art critic in the best sense of the term) agreed. 

That's what I love about painting. No mistake is totally permanent. Some take more work than others, but everything is fixable. it's nice to have an area of life that's so forgiving. 

What do y'all think? Do you agree that the filament was a necessity? Have you ever thought something was finished and then revamped it? Maybe even totally. I'd love to see or hear about it!

To see the full journey from start to finish, check it out, here,  here, here, here, here, and here (in that order).

Work in Progress- FINISHED!

Here it is! Bright Idea is finished at long last.

To see the many stages it went through click here, here, here, here, and here (in that order). Now, I just need to make a frame.

Work in progress: Movin' right along!

Thanks to my wonderful baby getting on a nap-time routine, I've really made some progress on Bright Idea. I've decided that in a weird way working around baby girl's schedule has actually made me a little more disciplined. I know that I only have an hour to paint and I get right to work rather than letting other stuff get in my way and distract me. Here's how it looked my last post:

The next time I painted I mainly focused HERE: 

And here it is now:

I think all I have to do is figure out those silly corners that are giving me such trouble. Any tips anyone?

Work in progress (or "Guess who's back!")

I have an announcement. I, yes I, mother to a 5-month-old (and disorganized owner of 3 dogs AND now aspiring Pilates instructor- more on that later) am FINALLY feeling back to normal and am painting again. So, back to my work in progress, tentatively called Bright Idea. You may remember MONTHS ago, back before I wasn't so pregnant that painting was an aerobic endeavor, I started a painting. You can see the first posts here, here, and here. Well, I've gotten to work on it a few times lately and here's the current progress:

I'm going to have to stop categorizing my progress by day (day 1, day 2, etc.) because sometimes I get to work for 10 minutes, sometimes 2 hours, but the important thing is, I'm working and it feels great!

I need some help, though. The corners are bothering me. The bowl that I placed the lightbulb in to "pose" for this painting has a lattice-type pattern around the lip. I'm not sure how I feel about it in the painting, though. So talk to me people. What do you think? Is it distracting? Interesting? Does it add to the picture or is it just pointless? 

Tell me what's going on with y'all, too? Life changes making time for art difficult? How are you coping? Update me. 

Work in Progress- Day 3- Making (slow) progress

Work in progress- 2nd coat

I don't know if you can tell it or not, but I've started the second coat. I got about 1/4 of it done today. This stage is always just a little frustrating because, since it's my second coat, I feel like it should look better than it does. However, once I step back from it, I realize it really is coming along. I started at the top left corner , however I wiped off that paint and am going to go back to that part. I felt that the lattice work was looking too sharp and may draw attention away from the lightbulb and its reflections. I'll have to experiment with how best to do the corners.
On a side note, I'm thinking of calling this piece "Bright Idea," (Get it? It's a lightbulb...). What do y'all think?