THE SURPRISE SALE

THERE IT WAS, SITTING QUIETLY IN THE CORNER DURING MY HUBBY'S 50TH BIRTHDAY PARTY, AND IT WAS SOLD SHORTLY THEREAFTER.

We recently celebrated my husband's 50th birthday at our home, and invited around 100 of his nearest and dearest friends to see in this milestone.

We had a houseful of people, some who had never visited the house before. The food was fantastic, the slushie machine a major hit and the booze flowed freely all night.

For me, the most surprising part of the whole night, was my latest artwork piece, that had graced the walls for less than a week, caught the eye of a friend's wife.

After initially saying no, it wasn't for sale, i had a rethink after they contacted me after the party to see if i could paint a second painting exactly the same. 

i was so surprised, as i thought it was the drink talking for them, but low and behold, they WERE serious. They loved it and really wanted to purchase the original or get me to paint another for their home.

Rather than paint an identical painting, the price was set for the original on the wall (at a discount, obviously, for a friend) and they returned on Australia Day to share a BBQ and they took the painting home with them, as they left.

Amazing, last thing i was expecting when hosting the party, was to sell my very first big artwork piece , and the best thing now is, i have a huge empty space on my wall, a brand new canvas on my easel and the world of possibilities has re-visited again.

SHOREHAM WAS A BLAST. OCTOBER 2011

semi nude reclining, in red, framed.

SHOREHAM OCTOBER 2011

Armed with a few henry asencio artwork pieces to inspire me, we headed down to shoreham.....

Well all 14 of us headed off to shoreham, most with scrapbooking supplies to keep them busy, whereas i packed up my brushes, paints and easels and with a handful of henry asencio paintings to inspire me, i headed off on camp.

check out this post to see my drafts, my finished artwork and the paintings completed by the few adventurous that picked up a brush for the first time.

I managed to finish off a handful of A3 size artwork pieces as well as finishing off the main artwork piece i wanted for my bedroom- the semi-nude reclining- my pencil draft can be seen here.

I started with my tried and tested flamenco style dancer....



Woman in Red dress, and Woman in red dress dancing.


then i commenced work on the main artwork piece once i was sufficiently limbered up....

And then on the last morning of the retreat, i worked on a fine looking young man with abs to kill. lol



Working on male in blue



I even found the time to let a few of the girls have a play with my paints, coaxing them nicely to be adventureous and they did extremely well ...

vicki with her flamenco dancer.

Sherryn with her aspendale sunset

Anne with her aspendale beach scene

Overall, the retreat was fantastic- plenty of wine, food galore, games played and so much crafting was done by all in attendance, and now the clock ticks down to the next retreat in March 2012.

THE BUILT IN BAR IN THE LOUNGEROOM HAS INSPIRED ME

Waiting at the bar

With a Bar taking pride of place in our loungeroom, and with my earlier artwork of the ocean at aspendale filling up my walls, i decided that the room could do with a "new theme", so i drew inspiration in the bottles of red that kept hanging around.

My "inspired by wine" collection have been inspired by my favourite artist Fabian Perez (once again).


below is a few of my drink inspired artwork pieces

 





TANGO PASSION NOW HANGS IN MY BEDROOM

Tango passion

Tango Passion

Well i ended up out in my paint studio at home today, couldn't wait until next tuesday's art class to finish my artwork piece. I know, impatiently little bunny, aren't i?

With the sun shining in and with my ipod blaring my favourite tango and pop songs, i picked up my brushes and went to work.

I added alot more light and dark shades to the background, and worked on those tricky skintones.

I hope you like the finished product.

RON MCDOWELL'S TANGO REBORN HAS INSPIRED ME

My pencil draft of tango passion

In my neverending quest for stunning Tango paintings to practice painting in class, i stumbled across an artist called Ron McDowell
(Ron is another artist who has an online store with fineartamerica.com.-
i can be found on this site too- the link to my fineartamerica website can be found on this blog- you can then type in Ron't name in the search engine on the site.)

I simply loved his artwork piece called Tango Reborn, so i have decided to complete an artwork piece of my own, inspired by this painting in class over a two week period called Tango Passion.

Below is Ron's original painting- Tango Reborn

Ron mcdowell's tango reborn

I just LOVE the lines of the bodies in this painting- and the shine in her patent leather shoes is stunning- soooo want a pair of red shoes like that!





So whilst away at the Weekend Retreat in Shoreham, i set aside time to pencil in my initial drawing based on Ron's painting one evening.

First week back in painting class, i set about creating my own version of this painting- based on my favourite color schemes.

So this is what i finished in my first 2 hour class on Tuesday night. I painted the background in a range of dark burgandy to lightened red tones-

I have just been inspired by Fabian Perez's artwork!

When i returned to my Art Class after my surgery, we were told that the group was no longer going to all paint the same thing, we were not longer going to follow our teacher by example. We were to bring in our OWN favourite photos or photocopies of our favourite artwork which we would attempt to copy with individual instruction from our teacher, Clive Sinclair of course.

Clive believes the best way to learn painting techniques was to develope them yourself.

So, i started to troll the internet for some inspiration, and what did i stumble across:

The most beautiful artwork by Fabian Perez!

Fabian's website address is : http://www.fabianperez.com/

Do yourself a favour and have a look at his absolutely beautiful work!

Shown here, is one of his lovely paintings. Absolutely stunning!!!

Fabian paints the most beautiful women in the world.

My all-time favourite from his collection, would have to be his flamenco dancers.

So with paints, brushes and a canvas sheet attached to a board and a photocopy of his beautiful red flamenco dancer in hand, i travelled to class........... and below are photos of MY finished artwork. I was really proud of this painting, as it was the very first one that really showed potential in class.

This is Fabian Perez's original artwork piece.



Flamenco Delight-



close up of flamenco delight

Relaxing on the bed

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