Portraits and Blurbs........Weather Worries

An imminent vacation is upsetting the applecart of my daily routine.

First off, the weather is brewing a cyclone where we are (not yet were) planning to swim with dolphins in Bimini.

Then, there is so much to do and so much more I want to do before going..... before my painting gets rusty from a week without. And yet, here I sit blogging with you, dear blogging buddies.

My commissions sit aside for my current state of mind...and again for a week on return. It's all part of the process. I allowed time for it.

To share before I go.......

• Portraits -- with all our recent landscape talk, it's easy to forget my portrait life. The Art of the Portrait, Journal of the Portait Society of America issue no. 40 arrived in full glorious color. I love the new format. It's a real magazine now. Plus it has me drooling over the 2009 conference in Washington, D.C. Membership in PSA includes a subscription to International Artists Magazine.

Nancy Moskovitz portraits - Here's a link on my site. I'll be painting a grandson portrait before long...probably in oil like my more recent work. We'll see.

• Blurb.com book - A Painting a Day by Duane Keiser - my copy arrived. I think blurb did a great job. It's worth considering for all artists. Duane has reached a tipping point; he has a following. He will be able to sell his books. Yesterday's oddment of a lady bug sold in a flash.

Excuse me. I have a picture book to get lost in.

Marketing for the Visual Artist Seminar in Daytona Beach, FL

The art marketing seminar is at the News Journal Center, 221 N. Beach St., Daytona, FL on Saturday, Sept. 13. -- I hope to post a flyer when available
For more info, contact Barbara Perrotti at bpanartist@earthlink.net

I'm honored and pumped to be a panelist on art marketing....from the artist's point of view. My goal is to give artists marketing knowledge, tools, and motivation to market their own work. I can't teach artists to fish in 30 minutes, but I hope to whet their appetite for the sport.

Program includes:

Panel Discussion with:

Jeffrey Shonkweiler from artistsregistry.com -- (not just for Floridians by the way)
Nancy Moskovitz - Artist - What you can do right now

Presentation by:

Josh Garrick from Millenia Fine Art, the largest art gallery in Southeast United State and arts writer for Orlando Home & Leisure Magazine

Box Lunch Round Table Discussion Groups with:

Sarah Higgins - Community Arts Manager, Harris House
Mike 'n Blake Fincher - Gold Leaf Gallery, DeLand, FL
Tim Ludwig - Artist
Jennifer Kerr Marsh - owner, Mosquito Mud Pottery - with tips for festivals
Jackie Schindette - Artist

Panel Discussion with:

Laura Stewart - Director, new Florida Museum of Women in the Arts, DeLand, FL
John Wilton, DBC, Artist

Same Oil Painting - Better Treescape Image

Deja vu? Here is a better quality image of 5x7 oil treescape painting Do Si Do.

What a difference Photoshop makes ..... plus I'm trying to improve my SEO skills. Emptyeasel caught me with my SEO pants down in this article about using descriptive titles for Google. Huge learning curve.

The painting offer stands. $50 to the first person to email me. $6 shipping.

Bonnie Luria asks "How do you get so much detail into a small canvas without coming up mud?"

The truth is............I come up mud!

Then I wait until at least the next day (torture for an acrylic painter). New paint goes down bright and clear. I can add dark accents by thinning with lots of medium.........same for signing my name.

Do Si Do

Do Si Do...5x7 oil on canvas panel

Those trees are dancing, maybe even square dancing. They appeared during my morning walk on an overcast day. I got my camera to catch that light.

I'm after pattern and "paint quality." Paint is applied thickly in many areas -- hiding the canvas weave.

I painted 3 tree branch pattern minis. This is the only one still standing. I'm getting better at pitching some instead of reworking to death.

I'm toying with exploring e-bay for selling minis....or a dedicated blog....or both....after dolphin swimming (see earlier post). For now...the first person to email me gets it for $50.
Gotta start somewhere.

* shipping extra

9 Marketing Resources for Artists - a list

In prep for the Sept. 13 art marketing panel discussion, I whipped up this list of resources in marketing for artists. It's meant to be a jumping off place. oops - Should be immediately accessible to all now - really - tricky stuff.

I would appreciate any additions, advice, corrections......you know the drill. Many thanks.

p.s. feel free to double check the links. :-)

New Blog Roll Format

Are you reading this on a blog reader such as Google Reader? A quick favor? Please click through at the title in order to see the new format..........and vote. The question asks your preferences for the new blog roll format. Nothing too taxing. So far, those who have seen it, like it as it stands. Soooo many choices to make..........

I subscribe to 34 blogs! It's the fastest way to keep up; luckily few post everyday. Sometimes I click through.......to post a comment for instance. Mostly I just speed through and miss the margin goodies.

In the studio, I continue to work on commissions and ...... daily paintings. I'm trying to figure something out and it helps. I confess to like painting small - must be my short attention span.

Out of the studio, I'm gearing up to swim with dolphins in Bimini. video link. You'll have one less blog to read next week.

I'll post images soon. I promise.

Landscape Painting Prelim and Progress

David and Lisa Midgett are a wonderful couple and the perfect clients. They have commissioned me for 2 very special paintings; one for him and one for her. I am loving painting these for each of their stylistically different tastes.

Today's post is on Lisa's painting shown above and still in progress.

It all began with a Lisa taking me to their Suwanee River house for a lovely morning of sketching and photographing her view from the upstairs porch. Sitting in Lisa's favorite spot, I soaked up the sights, sounds, and smells .....seeing why she loves it here....and falling in love with it too.

Sturgeon were splashing a racket in the river. Cicadas, crickets, and birds chirped, chittered, and sang. A cardinal lives in a nearby palm (more on that in a future post.)

Lisa treated me to lunch at their new restaurant Bubbaques on Hwy 27 in Bronson. It redefines the BBQ genre. Fun atmosphere and incredible food, especially the beans. Move over Sonny's

Top image shows the preliminary "sketch" ... a 6 x 12 inch oil. It features a sturgeon splash and 3 egrets flying by.The place of honor over the fireplace determined size and shape.

Below is the 24 x 48 oil painting in progress. It has joined its friends in the slide show to the right where each image follows a painting session. Click to see larger pics.

You enter this painting from the bottom right and follow the branches across and out. The Spanish moss is challenging....it's all about brushwork and edges. I'm still percolating on what wildlife we'll see across the water.