Deadlines!

rushing at me with alarming speed!
Deadlines that have been bumped forward!
How far? About 4 weeks.
Lucky for me, I was wise and sage (and lovely and good with animals, too) and prioritized months ago. All I have to do now is re-photograph the work, colorbalance in photoshop, and email the happy camper on it's way.

And also, I have to take some commissioned work OUT of my head and put it ON paper. It looks quite nice where it is, not subject to the laws of dimensionality or static placement, although rather difficult to deliver in the agreed-upon format.

And then there are 2 more deadlines in May, which I am pretending is a very long way away and not really 14 days.

I took this last week off (art-wise) to play hostess to in-laws and my very own mum...now I will simply have to do a run-up to get back to where I ought to be.

The art of life

Today is Thursday. I have a list of things to do the length of my arm. I have accomplished maybe half of them. This morning I decided to throw the "need to" out the window & spend some fun time with my kids. We went to a kids museum, where they went art crazy as though we hadn't spent the morning up to our elbows in markers & crayons. I guess it's always better when it's someone else's supplies. I felt that way for a long time. My grandma is an artist (one of many in my family) and she always made sure I had art supplies. But it wasn't until high school that I started getting the good stuff: windsor & newton watercolors, prismacolor colored pencils, liquitex acrylic paints.

I've been doing watercolors again--they make for excellent backgrounds & small space fillers. And I have the giant John Pike palette, with many little rectangles filled with colors arranged chromatically. But the watercolor set that I keep coming back to, the one that I reach for first is the one that my grandma gave me for Christmas in 1994. It's a Windsor & Newton travel set. It has 12 tiny (8 ml) tubes of paint, and a #2 round brush, and the lid flips open to become your palette. Folded closed the whole thing is about the same dimensions of a business envelope. I'm not sure why it is my favorite--maybe because it was my first real set of tools, maybe because I made sure to toss it in my backpack every day for 4 years.

It isn't often that I am completely certain about something, but I am certain that I will use & treasure this set until the day it falls beyond repair.

Sneak Peek

I have finished the art for the next series that will be for sale on etsy.
I started with little rectangles that I painted with watercolors...

Then, I added the alphabet. And a few extras. Next step, I will glass & solder them. Then I can start on the next series, and work on some stuff I'm going to submit.
At this point I have enough ideas to keep me busy for quite some time.