SO WHAT AM I PAINTING NOW?

After selling a painting right off my lounge room wall (see previous post about my surprise sale)
i set about replacing the empty space on the wall with this painting.



Yet another painting featuring my favourite scheme- exposed skin, red hot textured clothing just perfect to touch, and a misty yellow/green/mustard background showcasing light and shadows.


The only thing missing from this painting, was the standard glass of red wine, that appears on many of the other artwork pieces that hang in my lounge room. lol










Then with a change in scenery, i started experimenting with different color schemes, different themes.....
I started working on a painting (inspired by pino daeni's artwork called  "Morning Breeze Lady").

This time, i decided to abandon my normal red romantic theme and quieten down the tones with nurturing green and yellow tones.

This artwork piece was perfect to match my brand new bedspread (which was light green with a few touches of pink....).

Then i started painting a few "sea change" images, of women, windblown, standing on the edge of the water.

Then i finally got sick of seeing beautiful women, in paint, on my canvas.

Was it the lack of male company, or the fact that i too, had discovered the new Grey's phase that was hitting the world? All of a sudden, i decided that i wanted to paint something else.

All of a sudden my brushes took a new path.....

A few of the ladies at the last retreat had suggested i try a bit of eye candy just for them. 
So, by popular request- and with Christian Grey as inspiration, i put my pencil to the canvas and tried something completely different!

Here's a sneak peak at my newest artwork....

Don't forget to sign up your email address in the box at the top of this blog, so you will receive an email reminder to come back and visit to see what is inspiring me again.

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.

HENRY ASENCIO HAS INSPIRED MY FIRST PROJECT FOR 2012

Another of my favourite artists is Henry Asencio. His completed artwork piece sometimes called 'untitled, woman in black dress' and other times called 'elegance'- is one of my favourite paintings, regardless of what it is called.

Whilst henry's painting features a vivid red background and a black dress, my version will be a little different, so it suits my loungeroom instead.

I LOVE the stance that his model had, so painting it with a view of hanging it in our loungeroom, i will be changing the color scheme.

With walls in a mustard color called "sandy beach"  in our room, and wanting it to keep this artwork piece similar to the other women in my loungeroom with red/burgandy textured dresses and motteled mustard color backgrounds, my artwork piece will look very different to henry's by the time i have finished.

here is the work on my 2012 project, so far....



a three toned mustard color is added to the background.

I have let the artwork piece sit for a little while in my studio and i think i still need to lighten the top and darken the lower portions, to give a real opposite feeling to the dark tones and highlights.

A few days later.......
On another day of my holidays, i set up my ipod on the speaker, with music blaring, i set to work on the dress and then the skin tones.

Here i am with my painting,
still being worked on.

the finished painting, waiting for it to dry
so i can hang it in the loungeroom

Don't forget to sign on at the top of the blog with your email address, so you can receive a personal email notification when i post more photos as the artwork piece takes shape.

Combining my two favourite pictures to create something new

male in blue, with pencil drawing of woman in blue

After finishing my male in blue artwork piece, i decided that i absolutely loved the blue paint splattered color theme in the background!

Wanting to then try out the next Asencio artwork piece, i decided to try out the same background for a matching female to don the walls in my newly finished family room at home.






So i made a start, graphing and pencilling in the woman on my canvas sheet.

original pencil drawing of woman in blue

Then i started to pull out the blue paints, and then the reds and yellows and a splatter of saphire too.

male in blue, framed, with partially completed woman in blue

Don't forget to come back to visit this blog to see how i throw some skin on and attack that figure hugging dress. If you add your email address to the top of this blog, you will receive a personal email with a link back here.
cheers
caroline

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.

SHOREHAM RETREAT - MAY 2011

Swan lake (donated to charity function)

In May 2011 we headed off to Shoreham to a Craft Weekend Retreat. Most of the ladies in attendance scrapbooked to their heart's content, and i got to paint all weekend after i purchased a little desk easel, so i wasn't off in the corner all by myself.

During the weekend, I and painted and drafted a few more ballet paintings to keep me busy ( and to replace the one above that was sold recently at the market) and more exciting, i had a few volunteers who posed for portrait practice.

Sandy, seated. (gifted to Sandy)

Sandy was one of the first to brave the cold weather in the name of art- as it is winter here in Australia in May.

The rest of the weekend i tried my luck at painting animals- cats and dogs belonging to the other ladies at the craft retreat.

The women were so excited to be gifted the finished products to take home with them.



Duchess (gifted to my niece Amy)



Bella (Gifted to Sarah)



Sandy's mate (gifted to Sandy)



Brewster the pup (Gifted to Peter)

MY INSPIRED BY WINE RANGE NOW HANGS IN MY HOUSE.

Time for a wine



A few of my "Inspired by Wine" paintings now take pride of place in my loungeroom, nestled near our bar.

With a change in color scheme to the house ( a beautiful sandy beach color- to remind us of our time at the beach in 2009), i have tried to compliment the artwork to the room.

The collection features both women and men, seated at the Bar.

Light up time at the bar

All inspired, once again, by my favourite artist Fabian Perez and the beautiful women in Argentina and those illusive mysterious men hidden in the corners of those smokey pubs.

Thinking over a drink

Each female piece, features textured clothing (just beautiful to run your hand over) and backgrounds have been designed to match the color scheme in my loungeroom.

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-

Mon Amour now has a new home

Mon Amour (gifted to the the winner of the comp, Terri)

Congratulations to Terri Day who kindly read my blog and shared it with a few friends via facebook.

I am pleased to announce that Terri's name was drawn by my niece Mikaylah and Terri is now the new owner of this original artwork piece called "Mon Amour".

I would like to take this opportunity to thank those who took the time to have a read of my blog, for those who ventured into some of my older posts- i hope you enjoyed the artwork and learnt a little about what inspired me to create that piece.

Most importantly, I would especially like to thank those special few friends that shared my blog on SEVERAL occasions. I REALLY appreciated your love and support.

If you haven't had a chance to have a REALLY good look at my blog, you are welcome to come back anytime and have a look at all the posts and don't forget to have a look at my links to my other blog "artists on the Loose" as well as my interactive facebook page "My friends keep telling me where to go".

If you are disappointed that you did not win this artwork piece, don't forget that copies of Mon Amour are available through my online store links on stretch canvas, in frames with matts, as laminated pictures, posters and of course on greeting cards and postcards. Prices start from a low $4 for a card.

Cards available on my Red Bubble online store

So i hope to see you back visiting me in the future, as i DO intend to offer up more artwork during the year as prizes to blog readers who share, as i am  really hoping to increase my blog following list.

So sign on as a follower, encourage your friends to check out my blog and sign on too, and come back and visit me every now and then, and in the meantime i will try to stay happy and inspired.

My painting now has a name!

Most recently, i completed the artwork piece shown above. And to encourage friends and family to join my art journey, i invited everyone to suggest a name. And now the winner has been chosen (see below).

I am happy to announce, that the winner of the "Name this painting" competition managed to not only capture the love i was trying to show being displayed by the couple but also captured my love of all things french.
Her suggestion of "Mon Amour" (or "My love" in english), was inspired.
So, i would like to thank Julie Richardson for naming this painting.

"Dancing through life"- my most personal artwork piece/My Motto

Dancing through life

"Dancing through Life" is my most intimate artwork piece, to date.
This painting is extremely significant to me, as it carries a very private message to myself, which i draw strength from each and every night and every morning when i awake.

The original canvas HAD been illustrated in pencil with a very dark self portrait of me seated crying in my art studio after everything that could go wrong, had gone wrong in my life. I had drawn the original illustration when i was in a very bad place, following the most horendous 18month period of my life.   After battling the traumatic effects of our house fire, my own personal health problems, my numerous surgeries, after helping my dad battle with his bowel cancer scare, helping with my mother's relocation to full time nursing care as her dementia escaladed and as i currently dealt with extremely personal issues now, i realised the illustration that hit that canvas reflected exactly how very down i felt.

As i sat there looking at the distressing looking illustration that had emerged from within me, i became both startled and confused, as i really didn't believe my self portrait should look like that!

I suddenly realised that even during all this adversity,  i had still managed to grow and develop and that my self portrait SHOULD be an uplifting, joyful painting, not a sad, sorry crying mess.
I realised that I was a positive person, that even though adversity, i still had a sense of humour, and that i still wanted to surround myself with postive experiences. I had lost weight, i was feeling good about myself, and i believed that i was in the best condition than i had ever been in, i was strong and that i deserved better in my life, so i decided  that i would not let these events bring me down.

So, my decision to not proceed to bring my original illustration to a completed painting was my breakthrough!  I actually chose to no longer be a victim of my circumstances any more, so i painted over the top of it. My conscious decision to "dance through life",  is (and will be) very significant, as i approach my 50th birthday in the next couple of years.

This painting will be a constant reminder to myself that i am strong woman, a positive person, that i am a funloving person that people WANT to spend time with, that i deserve to receive love & respect and that i deserve good things to happen in  my life and that i needed to stop allowing bad stuff to destroy me bit by bit.
So even while i still battle some private demons today, i do so with the knowledge that i CAN overcome all that is thrown in my direction. This new painting reminds me each morning to seek out others who WANT to share my journey, it will bring me the strength to release those who do NOT support me,  it reminds me to surround myself with happy people, to listen and dance to joyful music and to only be drawn to those people and things that are a positive influence on my life, from now on.

My niece LOVES Edward from Twilight

Edward by moonlight (gifted to my niece Mikaylah)

My niece's birthday is coming up on Anzac Day, so i thought i would paint her a painting of Edward from Twilight as part of her birthday gift.

So this is how i created her painting called "Edward by Moonlight".

Firstly i found a photo of edward to be my starting point:


Then i sketched onto my canvas:

Then i started to paint the details:

Then i added the skin tones.

                                                            

  And the final touch- moonlight (using a 20c piece) and added the odd star in the night sky.

Edward by Moonlight

I hope you enjoyed viewing the making of "Edward by Moonlight".