These are my latest commissions. One is of a kitty named Sophie that an awesome lady asked me to do for her. She was a lovely flame point persian. The cat I mean, not the lady. Hahaha! Anyway, the other is for our neighbors, who we really like a lot. They have 2 lamas and they wanted a painting of them. They also requested that I include a cabin, a stream, and the mountains in the background. The mountains are actually the exact mountains that are behind our (and of course their) home. So pretty. So if any of you out there want me to do a painting for you, let me know! Haha!

I don’t know whether or not any of you have noticed but lately my art has been changing. I’m not as concerned about how ‘realistic’ a painting is anymore. I’m much more interested in expressing myself creatively and sharing the way I feel about life and beauty. I want my paintings to flow with emotion and color. I want to drink deeply of the beauty that surrounds me and then create my own unique beauty that hopefully others will drink deeply of. I want my paintings to have a life of there own, not just look ‘real’. I kind of feel like I’m on an artistic journey. That sounds all dramatic, I know, but I love journeys and I constantly want to better myself and that includes (but isn’t at all limited to) my art.

Here’s a copy of the postcard that the gallery sent out to let people know about the show. How cool is this?

Maria doesn’t like the art piece she just finished. What to do? BURN BAD ART! Watch Ria and friends burn her art.

Sometimes it’s really hard for me to be an artist. So many people have so many different things to say about what I should paint and I have so many ideas of my own that it can get kind of confusing. I personally love to do portraits, landscapes, animals, figurative, urban scenes, pretty much whatever strikes me as beautiful or interesting. Sometimes I like to paint something because I feel like a story needs to be told. I like to tell people’s stories through their facial expressions or their body language or a moment in their lives. I like to paint things that are stimulating and challenging and really just a lot of fun. However gallery owners generally don’t like portraits or figurative work. They say people won’t buy a picture of someone that they don’t know.  Okay, so much for telling people’s stories… (more…)