30 Paintings in 30 Days: Raven (Day 3)

Today, I finally settled on my theme: The literary!  Hooray!  All of my canvases from here on out will be connected in some way to an author, a book, a play, or a poem. 

I paint Poe a lot, so as a challenge to myself, I decided to paint his raven instead.  I don't really paint birds, so um, SCARY.  Way scary.  But I did it.  Go me.

Except for the part where I was so scared I forgot to take progress pics.  Zero points for Ravendor.

30 Paintings in 30 Days: Yorick's Revenge (Day 2)

For Day 2 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge, I went straight for a color palette that's comfortable for me while tackling a subject that's uncomfortable for me: Skulls!  I like them.  I am fairly nervous to paint them.

So I challenged myself to paint one.

And then I decided to make a Shakespeare joke.  I confess I love the result.

On the way to the computer to post this, I asked my 14-year-old son if he got the joke.  He said, "Instead of Hamlet holding a skull, the skull is holding Hamlet."  Success!  I mean, I think of him as Shakespeare, who is also depicted holding a skull, but whatever.  Details.

30 Paintings in 30 Days: Emerging Figure

Happy New Year!

I know a lot of people who struggled with depression in 2014, so here's a figure emerging from the mist.  She's not completely in focus, but she'll get there!

Fancy Animals: ATCs

I did these animals in fancy outfits for an ATC swap.  The critter on the lower left is a Slow Loris.  The Fast Loris, obviously, was too quick for me to bundle up in Renaissance garb.

50 Canvases in 2014: Art for the Bathroom

This week, my challenge project is posted on wonderstrange!

http://www.wonderstrange.com/living-with-art-vintage-first-aid-kit/

50 Canvases in 2014: Make It Yours Challenge

Last week's challenge over on wonderstrange was to draw your favorite cartoon or comic character(s), but in your own style.

I did the PowerPuff girls,who shall reign with equal glory forever in the City of Townsville and the Kingdom of Amazing.  Here's my version:

There's a video of me painting the canvas right over here, if that's the kind of thing that winds your watch.  Or fights your bad guys.  Or spills your Chemical X.

Miracle Ride: The Auction!

(If you're visiting from PPF, you want the next post, although of course, you're more than welcome to comment on this post if you like!)

Apparently, I am a 42-year-old body trapped in the spirit of a five-year-old kid.

I could hardly wait for today to get here - the big day, the day of the auction for Miracle Ride, to which some friends and I had donated artwork - but when I woke up this morning, I was suddenly nervous and unsure of myself.  I didn't have butterflies in my stomach; I had moths, and possibly a small bird.  What if my canvas didn't sell?  What if I had dragged my friends down a rabbit hole?  I haven't been that anxious since my last piano recital!  When I was 15!

Here's what we had all donated, artist by artist.

First up, here's a Red Riding Hood sort of girl by Tanya F. Balding, done with Copics, because Tanya is crazy good like that.

Next up, Cindy Dauer sent these adorable cats on a motorcycle.  It was ridiculously fabulous!

Michelle Lydon sent many amazing prints (so generous!).  Some of them were so photoreal that I initially mistook them for photos.  For real.

Finally, Connie Carpenter sent this stunning watercolor that I pretty much wanted to keep for myself:

Here's how they all looked before I got the mat for Tanya's (the canvas near the middle is mine):

Now that you know what was on the block, I'll set the scene for the auction, held inside a big white tent at Lucas Oil Raceway.  It was 92 degrees by the time we arrived, and if I stood in the sun for more than a couple of minutes, the top of my scalp started to crackle, so the shade of the tent was very much appreciated!  A lot of the 12,000 bikers we saw had skipped the sunscreen during the ride, and the poor things had bright red faces and little white raccoon masks from where their sunglasses had been.  I felt bad for them, but at the same time, the sight of a 6'4" dude in leather with a reverse raccoon mask was a little comical.  I studied the ground more than once to hide a smile.




Event organizers had Italian sausages, hotdogs, beer, soda, and water available for free to the riders in a separate set of tents, so we grabbed a water and headed up to the auction table to see how everything was doing.  I was surprised to see 88 notebooks on the table for bidding.  There were a lot of things available!
  

It was hard to have a normal conversation inside the tent, not only because of the sheer number of people, but because of the drag racing taking place on the track about 300 feet away.  I SHOUTED A LOT TO MY MOTHER-IN-LAW.  She nodded a lot in return.

When the end of the auction drew near, one of the guys behind the table cut through the noise with a siren.  People were advised every three minutes as the clock ticked down, which caused the elbowing up by the table to get a little intense.  Finally, they counted down from ten and physically removed notebooks from the table, with some people still trying to write down their bids.

In the end, our artwork raised more than $250.  I didn't manage to get pictures of all of the buyers, but here are two of them.

I will definitely be donating again next year!