Undecided

Now I'm questioning how I want to finish this piece off. I took the little door off and think it looks better that way and I'm second guessing my thoughts of turning this into a little herb growing station......ummmm??? I decided to distress the piece, it seemed in better keeping with it being a 'home made' cabinet......I do believe the top piece was made from a drawer, the top corners are dove tailed.
Before.......
I finished up the small blue table with the birds.
And I was finally able to find (online) the kind of drawer pulls I want to put on this piece, they come in a variety of sizes and finishes.
They fit over the top of each drawer, I'll probably have to chip out a bit of the wood to have them fit properly, but I like how they won't interfere with the painting.

New Piece of Furniture

I got a new piece today.......a dresser. I'm pretty sure I'm going to paint it, but can't decide on a color yet. I know that the bottom two drawers will be painted with a scene.....something old world.
I love the little silvery ring handles with the tiny flowers on them....very sweet.
I also started painting the small white oddball cabinet today, you can see it needs another coat or two). The color is actually much deeper...sort of an eggplant color....looks more cranberry here. I've decided to make it a herb growing station. I removed the wood panel that was laying loose in a hole cut in the counter part of the cabinet and will line the drawer with copper, then little potted herbs can be place in the opening right into the drawer. I'm going to put a small 'grow' light under the top part of the cabinet. I'm going to paint the recess panels that I've left white with paintings of herbs :-)
Tomorrow morning I clean and then back in the studio in the afternoon.

Thrift shop finds

This is the small side table I'm working on. As usual I was so anxious to start painting I neglected to consider the drawer handle location and will have to spend some time filling in the holes and finding more suitable handles.
This is my ten dollar drop leaf table that will be covered in artwork.
And this my quirky little five dollar home made cabinet......not sure what this will become yet.

Yeah....good news....the truck will be ready today and it was not the clutch, but a leak in the master cylinder, a less costly fix........still depleted my bank account, but at least I had it :-)
Forgot to post this...Monday I went back at the request of the client and added more to the moon in the space themed room.
That's the Apollo 11 behind the flag and Explorer flying by (this is a four year old's room :-)

In the next week or two I'll be going back to this home to do some raised vine work in a powder room, like in this photo from Spectacular Walls by Jeannine Dostal. This will be fun, its a new technique for me.
Can't wait to get back in the studio this afternoon. I'm finishing up a small side table and have picked up a couple of other inexpensive pieces ..... a ten dollar drop leaf table that will get murals on each leaf and a five dollar home made small cabinet that I'm not sure what it will turn into.
I'll post pics later today.

Its Always Something

Well today I take my truck to the mechanic to see whats up. I'm having trouble getting the truck into gear......any gear. Its happened twice in the last few days and now of course I'm nervous driving it. A friend helped out the first time, saw that the fluid was low (added some) and after many minutes of pumping the clutch it finally went into gear. But yesterday it happened again, so somethings up. I'm just hoping it doesn't involve having to replace the clutch, because I don't have that kind of money. I finally pay my rent and bills, have a few extra bucks in the bank, and now this. Its so frustrating, what do I do now?........how do I get to jobs so I can pay for the fix?......its always something.

Quick fun mural

Worked on a mural job yesterday and today.
This client saw a mural on my website and wanted a similar look......an outer space mural for a four year old.......so I said of course :-) You can see the before wall in a post below. I was originally thinking a cockpit view, but went for the whole wall instead.
Then the client wanted something over her boys bed, so she came up with the idea of two astronauts on the moon........the astronauts of course?..........her son and daughter.....how cute.
Tiniest portraits I've ever done for sure.

Working on a few things

I'm working on a few things this weekend.....finishing up the latest little pet portrait...
....started working on a new painting (just for fun and practice)...
....and working on sketches to turn this wall into a spaceship cockpit looking out onto the stars and planets for a potential client.

A sort of lucky day

Today, off in my own little world, driving through my neighborhood on the way to the studio enjoying the beautiful weather, I didn't realize their was a police car behind me. I did not come to a full stop at 3 stop signs (in my defense you can see way up the cross street before you even get to the sign) and I was apparently going over the 25 mph speed limit. When I pulled over and reached in my bag for my license etc, for probably the first time ever, I had left it home on the table....enter panic. All I kept thinking about was the rent being due, the truck needing a new clutch, and now this. Waiting in the truck for what seemed like forever, he finally came up to the truck and explained that he could have given me 5 tickets!!.......but the little sweetie let me off with a warning and told me to get my address changed on my license (that would have been ticket 5). Guess how happy I was!
Got to the studio and I decided to paint a large painting
instead of working on the dog portrait (I'll do it tomorrow), I just can't focus on intricate paintings when I'm feeling overwhelmed and stress over the rent and the truck needing a new clutch, but I will try tomorrow, they have been waiting a while now.

Whats been going on...

Spent the last couple of days working on marketing...making postcards ...fliers etc, and finishing a painting for a client. Today I'll be working on a dog portrait. My latest model....

A couple of days ago I started noticing a clicking sound under the front end of my truck....yesterday I stopped by my mechanic's shop and found out my clutch is going, it was the bearing making the noise. This is not good timing....little money and the rents due......been there, done that. I'll have to hope it'll hold on till more work comes.
I was contacted a few days ago by someone not happy with a job that had been done in her home, and asked me if I could ummmm?.....enhance it to more of what she envisioned, she had asked for a princess mural.
I was sent this picture of the wall she wanted work done on.
And I responded with this sketch. There will also be a horse drawn carriage on the road.
It sounded like there was a major communication problem between the artist and the client, and the client learned a big lesson.....always ask for a sketch of the project. Well, the client is very happy and I will do this work in early April.
Tomorrow I'm looking at another potential mural job....this one, a space themed room for a small boy.
I'm also meeting with a clay artist tomorrow who is interested in renting some space in My Studio. I'm also hoping he'll be interested in maybe leading some workshops.
Oh.......I got the lettering for My Studio's windows yesterday and got those up :-)

Losing a jeweler....and looking for a knitter

Well bummer.....I got a phone message from the jeweler who wanted to hold workshops in the studio saying she wouldn't be able to do it now, very disappointing. Looks like I will be dusting off my old skills and be teaching a beginners workshop myself.....I don't want to lose that class. Years ago I was heavy into beading and it'll be fun to get back into it. I'm hoping though that Lauren will still consider doing some more advanced classes when and if she's able to in the future.
Right now I'm focused on finding a wicked knitter.
I love all the new and funky designs that are out there for knitters and knitting seems to be so popular now....it'd make a great workshop. When I was a kid I used to knit my Barbie doll clothes. McCalls Needlework magazine used to have a new pattern every month and I couldn't wait for it!
Its back up to Jensen Beach tomorrow....the decorator wants some things added to the powder room mural in the model condo. Then its back down to the studio to finish up a painting I've been working on.

A flyer too!

Made up a flyer yesterday that I will hang on any bulletin boards I can find.
I've made another decision.......now that I have all this wonderful space to work in, I'm going to focus on painting murals on canvas in the future and limit on site work. I seem to be getting clients that are an hour or more away and working on canvas just seems more practical than all the driving back and forth. And to be honest?........I do much better work off site......no distractions, no worry about proper lighting, is there electric or ac/heat, no worry about owners property or other workers on site....etc. etc.etc.
While snooping around online this morning I came across a couple of articles that might be of interest to beginning muralists.....you can never get too much information in this business.
Article one and two.