Thinking

Well, that was a huge storm that hit the East Coast last night.

I hope all is well with people who have been affected. Natural Disasters always put my own life into perspective. It makes me feel grateful for what I have and how unprepared we are for something of that magnitude. The city of Portland freaks out, and shuts down, when we get less than a half inch of snow. I can't imagine what it would be like here if something disastrous happened. And unfortunately, something will happen. Hopefully, not soon...

Anyway, on a lighter note, I've been listing some new items in my shop.

Stay Where You Are

A new painting and some new holiday postcards. I know Christmas is still two months away, but I felt like I should get them listed soon. It's still hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact that Thanksgiving is 23 days away. Yikes.

New Portland Postcards

Well, my thoughts are with those affected by the storm. I hope everyone, and every pet, is safe.

Progress

faceless man...

What a productive day.

as you can see I've made some progress on the American Gothic painting. Yes, the dude is missing his face, but it's coming, I promise.

The lady's face was quite a challenge. I don't know if you've ever tried to paint someone's face, but I feel like can safely say it is no easy task. Keep in mind I've never met the people in the painting. I have a photo that I'm painting from and it's about the size of a deck of cards. Not a lot of detail can fit into a picture the size of a deck of cards...

I also don't have a lot of portrait painting experience under my belt. I've only painted four; two of which were myself, the other two being Nate. Both people whom I'm very familiar with.

Nate thinks she looks just like the photo, and I have to say that gives me quite a bit of confidence. He's always very vocal when things look weird, or funny. I trust his judgement.

anyway, it's challenging, but really, the only thing I'm having a problem with is the faces. I feel like much of the painting is going along quite easily, and I'm enjoying the work so far. I'm really excited about adding all the details I have in mind. I think that's my very favorite part of oil painting; all the details at the end.

Today

2x2' oil on wood panel

This is what I was able to get started today.

Still needs some work, but I like the direction it's going!

I'm afraid these paintings I've been working on have been cutting into my world domination plans. I'm okay with that. I don't know what I'm going to do next, but I'm okay with that too.

I feel like I have to do this. Get this out of my system, or maybe keep them in my system. I'm not really sure. However, I like it and I'm just going to keep going with it.

Fall

Well, the official first day of Fall is about a week away, and it's already feeling very Fall like today.

Grey skies, cool air, and I even saw some leaves changing color on my walk with Chloe this morning. Where did Summer go? I feel like it had just gotten here last week. Oh well, that's Summer in Oregon. Gone in a blink of an eye.

I've already started prepping myself for the long winter. I'm envisioning lots of tea and cozy blankets. all I'm missing right now is a new winter coat and some new rain boots. My blue boots have giant holes in them... I guess they don't make rubber boots like they used to...

In other news, I got so much work accomplished today! I organized over 300 greeting cards and got some new paintings listed in my Etsy shop. The upside to not selling a lot at a show is that you're able to add all of that hard work to your Etsy shop when it's over. Now, hopefully people will enjoy them there! Maybe enough to purchase one ;)

Silver linings exist everywhere.