27.6.14

Well, its official I will be losing two clients soon, one at the end of August and another three weeks later.  I'm happy for them both but especially for the young family with the stay-at-home artist dad.  They sold their current home in less than 24 hrs and had their offer accepted on a home they wanted the very same day, how cool is that?!.....and their new place sounds just perfect for them, complete with a studio over the garage!
I got my phone switched over to Consumer Cellular and here's a surprise, I just used my mobile banking and it was so much faster than AT&T.  My car insurance has also been switched and I've decided to keep the basic cable and not use an antenna, I tried it out and the picture just kept breaking up ........ funny that didn't happen on my smaller set, the reception was really good, oh well its only $10 a month for the basic cable and there's always Hulu and other online options for other shows etc., my mac mini is hooked up to my big tv.

I plan to paint all weekend, five of the six ACEO paintings I posted on ebay have sold so I'd like to get some more up.

24.6.14

Peanut Butter and Jelly on ebay
Have I mentioned I may be losing two of my cleaning clients?  How ironic......I moved here to be close to my work and now two may be leaving.  In preparation I'm making a few changes to try and save some money.  I'm changing my car insurance from State Farm where I'm paying $71.51 a month to Nationwide where it will be $35.50 a month, a nice savings.  My contract is finally up with AT&T so I'm dropping them, another $70 and change a month and switching to Consumer Cellular for $20 a month......I hardly ever talk on the phone.  Still debating what to do with regards to cable service.  Making these changes has really shown me how stuck I've been in my comfort zone and that makes me very uncomfortable.  We seem to get this weird sense of loyalty to these companies even when we don't benefit........very strange.   Anyway I'm hoping making these small changes and getting more focused on my artwork will keep me from having to fill the void these departing clients will be leaving with new clients........wouldn't that be nice :-)

22.6.14

I was watching some art marketing videos on YouTube this morning while having my coffee and there was lots of talk on branding and focusing on what you do best.  There were also discussions about having the freedom to just paint what you love to paint versus painting just to earn money to live.  Suddenly a new name for a website popped into my head and fruitsofmylabor.org is now the new address of my ACEO paintings website.  With my strong leaning towards painting fruits plus the 'need' to earn a living it just made sense in several ways.  Of course I wanted fruitsofmylabor dot com but it's currently up for sale/bid and currently stands at $1,477.00 lol.....not doable.......dot org?.....$12 and change.

I learned a valuable lesson yesterday.  I hadn't checked in on ebay since I made my last sale a few weeks ago and I wasn't notified of any messages/problems, unfortunately.  When I was listing my new paintings yesterday I noticed I had a few messages and two were from a buyer who was trying to reach me earlier in the month, she was concerned about not having received two paintings she had bought. Then there was a third message from her saying she did indeed get them but after waiting for two weeks.  She was kind enough to acknowledge that I had mailed them when I said I did via the postmark and why it took two weeks to get from Philly to California will be an unsolvable mystery to us both.  The damage however was done,  by not being available to her inquiries two negative comments were left in my feedback which bumped my perfect 100 score to 98.3 :-(  I sent her my apologies of course and will from now on follow all my sales to completion.

21.6.14

Yeh!.....got my car's floor fixed and back home today.

And got a few new ACEO paintings up on ebay and I'll do some more tomorrow.




16.6.14

Finally finished porthole painting #3 and got them all mailed this afternoon.  The client did end up wanting more color so I added the coral and clown fish.
I had a short work day today so I came home and checked out some painting tutorials on youtube and came across this video, painting a silver cup.  I won't post the video here, its about an hour and a half long so you may want to go to youtube to watch it......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQr1knUDKKc
I've been wanting to join the Bright Light Fine Art website to access David Leffel instruction videos but $50 isn't in my budget right now so I've been watching little short clips of his on youtube, that's how I came upon this other artists videos.

And while I was visiting youtube I came across a tutorial on how to get TV channels without paying for cable.  I was really pissed when Comcast started scrambling their signals so you had to get a decoder after I had recently bought a TV with a built in tuner, I really felt like a hostage.  I only pay for basic cable anyway so I thought it'd be fun to try and see if this works, and to my surprise IT DOES!  There are two videos, part one is just making the cable but I already had several spare cables so I didn't need to make one,  I just cut one of the ends (connector) off to use as the 'antenna'. 


I didn't even add the additional copper wire that this person in the video uses.  I just used the existing wire inside the cable.
I attached the cable to the TV and I just put this end in my window and look at the picture....crystal clear, and 31 channels.  Remember to change your 'antenna' settings on the TV if you try this and it helps to live within the stations signal range, I'm in Philly so no problem getting reception.
I'm finally getting my car's floor pan fixed this week.  I found a welder who is only charging $203.04 Philadelphia Welding Co.  I was running out of time to get this done, its time for inspection/registration, and I surely wasn't going to pass inspection with the floor hanging down.  I'm so glad I didn't commit to the expense of buying a new car.
This weekend I will get back to doing my ebay paintings :-)

8.6.14

I've sent a picture to the client and I'm hoping this third one is finished.
hmmmm.....the left side of the bottom dolphin looks a bit too dark, needs correction.  Taking pictures of your work is always so helpful in pointing out problems.

7.6.14

Good news (for me anyway) is the opening of the Florida restaurant these paintings are for has been delayed a few weeks which gives me a bit more time to get this third one finished.  I've said it several times before, how I envy artists who have a partner that supports their career.  I find it so frustrating to have to focus on work to pay the bills rather than immersing myself in painting.
Anyway, here's how #3 is going.

Not too far from finished.  I obviously have some work to do on the bottom dolphin and then I'll add a lot of bubbles and let it be.  I'd love to get this finished this weekend so I can get back to my ebay paintings, today though I'm going to go visit with an older gentleman who's having some physical/mobility issues while his wife takes a bit of time for herself......tomorrow should be enough time to get this done.