AND THE WINNER OF THE GOLDFINCH PAINTING IS...........

Edlira from Korsor, Denmark
Congratulations Edlira

Seems we've come into our rainy season here in Florida and it feels like another great day to paint. I'm going to work on a few more bird paintings I think.
Yesterday I pointed you in the direction of the shiftinglight blog and I took another look at it this morning, I really like this guys work. While I was on his site I clicked on the 'book' link to see what that was about and it took me to this really cool app (BookBuzzr) that lets you flip through some of the pages of his book. Curious....I went to the site the app came from......freado.com.
How cool is this.......you can win free books on this site. You just play some fun silly games to collect points and then use those points to bid on books. If you love books, check it out.
And here's the direct link to flip through some of Julian's book.

Here is this weeks painting that you can win.
Westie With Red Ball
5"x 7" on canvas board
Good Luck!
Drawing on 7/10/2011

I added two new birds to my daily paintings site......
the Blue Grosbeak
and a second Painted Bunting..........
Tomorrow the winner of the Goldfinch painting will be announced here and another small painting will be offered up.

I was up early today and as usual brought my coffee to where I start every day.....in front of the computer. I decided to search for 'ways to sell your paintings'. I'm not sure if that was a good idea or not. Right now I'm feeling like I should be sitting in a tiny child's chair in front of a tiny child's table with a coloring book and a box of crayons.
I tripped onto a 2006 article in USAtoday about daily painters. Useful information yes.....I learned of some art auction sites that I hadn't heard of before. But I also followed some links to look at the work of the subjects of the article. One in particular now has a new fan.............me!
I hope he, Julian Merrow-Smith, won't mind me sharing just a couple of his works here.
A self portrait (I'm assuming ) it was one of many...
Love this........
And this............
And this............
You have to go and look at this page that has every painting he's done since 2005....it blew me away. And scroll all the way down the page first (as he rightly suggests) where his earliest works are and watch as you scroll towards the top how his work progresses. I just found it amazing (and encouraging) to see how his work grew and improved over time......fascinating.
This painting (approximately 5"x 7") just sold at auction for $418......
Yes........I just let out a heavy sigh. Why do I torture myself...lol.

I finished up the second commissioned dog portrait this morning.

Feeling nostalgic I'm posting some of my favorite furniture make overs from the past year.

Yeah.....got one of the two dog portraits done this morning.

Sometimes I feel like I've been living under a rock. I just discovered yesterday that you can video chat on phones......I know.....where've I been!!
And now I see phones also have projectors in them......I can't keep up.

Projects for this coming week......painting two 5"x 7" portraits of these two cuties....
Recognize them? They were the subjects of a recent screen painting....
Then with those done and paid for I can pick up the three 40" square canvases I need for the next project, a beach painting across all three panels. This was the sketch I presented to the client for this job (I wish I had photoshop).

I received some photos in my email this morning that have triggered another walk down Memory Lane.
Photographer Roger Barone attended an interview/ book signing event at The Free Library of Philadelphia last night and snapped these photos. Check out his blog to see more.
The star of the show, Mr. Larry Magid.
Electric Factory Concert's Larry Magid along with his partner Alan Spivak are rock n roll legends. Together they dominated the concert scene, promoting and putting on some of the most memorable concerts in Philadelphia's history. And I was at a LOT of them. Back in the early/mid 70's I worked for these guys. My job was to coordinate the meals for the bands and their crew wherever the concerts were being held....The Spectrum, The Academy of Music, The Tower Theater, JFK Stadium......
And luckily for us, back then Roger was part of the change over crew at the Spectrum arena and was developing a love for photography. If you also want to take a trip down memory lane visit Roger's blog to see some fantastic behind the scenes photos of some of the biggest rock n roll legends in the world.
Larry's book is available in stores, but you can also get it on Amazon.com
(just copy My Soul's Been Psychedelicized into the search bar).

The big painting client is suppose to stop by today.
And I'm once again thinking about finding a 'real' job.....I know, I know, how many times have you heard me say this.
I completely fell apart yesterday, I don't think I can take much more of living with the stress of wondering how I'm going to pay the next months bills/rent.....its completely wearing me down.

I had two wishes this morning. One, I wish I still had Gladys. For you newbies here, this is/was Gladys.....
This was her inside when I first saw her........
And this is how I transformed her...........
This was her kitchen, the mirrored door was the bathroom..........
She was so tiny (a mere 21') but so livable. I had to give her up when I couldn't afford to park her somewhere.......my town does not allow RV parking on the street.........but that was then, this is now.......sigh.
Wish number two was I wish there were Trader Joes in Florida! Being one of their part time in-store artists would be a perfect job. Maybe its time to start thinking about moving again.
I'm going to get nothing accomplished today.

In case she's watching, The Wife of a Fisherman won my bird giveaway that was held over at the BetterAfter blog. I'm hoping to hear from her so I can set this bird free.
And make sure you revisit BetterAfter to take part in her latest giveaway, a very cool silhouette cutting machine you hook right up to your computer!

One of the most unusual volunteer opportunities I've come across for mural artists. Ever want to go to Ecuador? Be sure to read the volunteer information pack at the bottom of the page.

Well, I've finally heard from the large painting client, and she wants more. More palm, more large flowers, more jungle-ly.........sigh.

Ok. Pretty time consuming but I've started filling in more of the background to give a more dense feel and I'm putting in some more vines so I can add flowers and I'll add more plants at the bottom ......I think I'll even put in a low palmetto palm that reaches in from the right side in front of part of the zebra.

Taking a break from this today. There's still a bit more to add....the orange/red/yellow flowery bit to the plants in the bottom left corner and the client wants a bird sitting on the back of the zebra. I think I want to break up that ground greenery on the right too, put some patches of earth showing through, it just looks a little too dense. Then I'll go over the whole thing and detail and highlight where needed. Still wish I had some feedback from the client and the opportunity to get paid!.....rent's late again.....dang!

Don't Forget The Giveaway!

Don't forget to jump over to BetterAfter sometime this weekend and leave a comment for a chance to win one of my tiny 2"x3" paintings!
Painted Bunting

10:30am and almost there! My brushes however are beat...its off to the store to get some fresh ones.
OK back from the store and now officially broke again until the client this is for surfaces.

I spent about half a day working on a sketch and then got some more work done on the large painting. Tomorrow it will have all of my attention, I'd love to get this done asap. Still no word on the mural job up north.