FROM ACROSS THE CONTINENT,
I GOT TWO PHOTOGRAPHS OF INTEREST FROM FAMILY:
The excitement of the day was cleaning the watercolor, pastel station that had gotten out of hand and organizing the pastel supplies that have been coming in steadily from online sources. I'm exhausted, but I'm ready for next week. Cluttered and dirty went to sparkling clean with a lot of walking in between the messy studio and the space that shouldn't be studio space. This previous to any workshop or reading painting is a painting I like. I like the angle. I like the authority that shows.
Aside from cleaning and stumbling into old work, I saw a design client this morning and by noon had an "As Built" floor plan and a recommended floor plan for a master bath ready for quoting. Last week's master bath, plus two more baths, fell through. Her wish list was too big. Her master bath space was insufficient for her wish list. She didn't have a budget. She was going to need a lot of drafting and shopping time. She did not want to pay a retainer fee for the assistance she required. We parted. She went off to find a new house. I went off to see another potential client. This woman has one bath,(a limited wish list), knows what she wants, said it clearly and has a reasonable budget. I don't need a retainer fee; she's my kind of gal. Her decisiveness leaves my next two days free to paint.
I GOT TWO PHOTOGRAPHS OF INTEREST FROM FAMILY:
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| A hawk dining on pigeon is hardly something someone expects to see at football practice. Yet there he was. After eyeing my DIL and assured she was not moving, the hawk finished his dinner. (Sorry for the digital distortion. Hawks don't like too little space between them and homo sapiens). |
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| My step great grandson's first hand picked Halloween pumpkin. It's a doozy. (Sorry for the blurriness, but the pumpkin was heavy). |
The excitement of the day was cleaning the watercolor, pastel station that had gotten out of hand and organizing the pastel supplies that have been coming in steadily from online sources. I'm exhausted, but I'm ready for next week. Cluttered and dirty went to sparkling clean with a lot of walking in between the messy studio and the space that shouldn't be studio space. This previous to any workshop or reading painting is a painting I like. I like the angle. I like the authority that shows.
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| Ellis at The Seashore, 8" x 10", 2012 ,oil. |
Aside from cleaning and stumbling into old work, I saw a design client this morning and by noon had an "As Built" floor plan and a recommended floor plan for a master bath ready for quoting. Last week's master bath, plus two more baths, fell through. Her wish list was too big. Her master bath space was insufficient for her wish list. She didn't have a budget. She was going to need a lot of drafting and shopping time. She did not want to pay a retainer fee for the assistance she required. We parted. She went off to find a new house. I went off to see another potential client. This woman has one bath,(a limited wish list), knows what she wants, said it clearly and has a reasonable budget. I don't need a retainer fee; she's my kind of gal. Her decisiveness leaves my next two days free to paint.
Love the hawk photo! "Really out on a limb!"
ReplyDeleteAlso love your step grandson photo. His expression is priceless.
"Ellis at The Seashore" is very well done. I especially enjoy the view you selected! Nice job Linda!
Michael
Me too. It's amazing. Who would have known they were out on a limb sitting on the bleachers watching their son's football practice?
DeleteThat expression on the kid's face is a shot in a million. Brittney, my step granddaughter, did a great job as usual. I go to FB just to see the photographs she posts; she's got talent she's treating casually. I guess I am too having never stepped out into the art business arena?
I think Napping at the Seashore is worthy of framing. I keep noticing it every time I pass the shelf on which it's stored.
Oh Linda!!! your step grandson is too adorable!!! that expression on his face is amazing. I hope to see that one on the canvas someday!! and you did an amazing job on Ellis!!! Not an easy angle!!
ReplyDeleteSTEP GREAT GRANDSON. He is adorable and his mother, my step granddaughter, has a lot of talent photographing children that she is ignoring. She is making a great mistake working in stock room and clerking jobs when she should be putting together a portfolio and looking for a photographic assistant position. I've told her that.
DeleteI like the Ellis painting. As for the survival of the fittest photo....ugh! Cute boy with pumpkin. Congratulations on the new job :)
ReplyDeleteThat photo is rather ugh, like something you'd see on the Discovery Channel, but can you imagine sitting in the bleachers watching you son's football practice and this thing swoops down out of the sky, sits down close to you and calmly goes about devouring his catch? I'm shocked Kelly held her ground and was calm enough to take the shot. It would have scared the hell-out-of-me. Amazing.
DeleteThanks. I designed that job last year. It wasn't surprising that she wanted to go ahead with it. The stock market has been pretty good over the last year. When the real estate market in the greater parts of the country recovers, that's really when construction (design/build) will recover, and with it, the economy. After the automotive industry, real estate and construction are this country's major industries and sources for jobs.
I like the angle of the Ellis painting very much! And that little boy with the giant pumpkin is so adorable! :)
ReplyDeleteI think it's the angle I like and my brush work too--BEFORE it became subconscious after a whole lot of thinking provoked by the workshop this summer and reading Schmid. I am so impressionable for an old lady.
DeleteLove the viewing angle on this portrait! Not easy but you nailed it!! Adorable photo of your grandson!
ReplyDeleteGREAT GRANDSON! He's my DIL's grandson. I've never met him. But when I found this photograph on his mother's FB page I had to keep it. That expression is just too funny. His expression would be challenging to paint, which is right up my alley of interest.
DeleteGreat pictures! I like the way you handled your portrait. An unusual angle handled " de main de maître".
ReplyDeleteThanks. Every time I went to those shelves to put something away, it caught my eye. It has caught my eye at other times. I do think I finally approve of something I've painted in the last months. It's a nice feeling. Thanks Helen
DeleteWonderful photographs and a fascinating perspective in the painting.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mick. No energy to pick up a brush after cleaning the watercolor/pastel station I couldn't stand looking at another minute. Luckily my daughter in-love from California (Kelly), sent me the amazing hawk photo she took at JD's football practice and I stumbled into this photo of Trevor taken by his mom Brittney, Kelly's daughter, posted on Face Book. I thought it was fantastic how she caught that face at that moment. I even think the blurriness is effective. It adds motion to the photo of a kid shaking from the weight of that giant (compared to him) pumpkin. Perfect Halloween image.
DeleteI was way too close to a buzzard yesterday. We both startled, and it flew off. It was in the oak, looking down on a potential meal and I was feet away from it, looking out an open second story window.
ReplyDeleteLove the photos and painting.
Congrats on the job.
Of three potential jobs reviewed this last couple of weeks, only one sold. One was a wash--too long a wish list--calling for over the top expenditures. Sticker shock hit and her space wasn't right for what she wanted. She did not want to retain me to help her out. This project I looked at yesterday has a chance of being sold--one bathroom, reasonable wish list, has a budget in mind.
DeleteThe amazing thing to me is we're quoting. The last three years quoting was nil. Now that the stock market has gotten promising over the last year, quoting has picked up. If the real estate market would recover, quoting would really pick up. The more you quote, the more likely a sale will be made. You don't need many sales a year to make a great living in design/build. Our business is really tied to the economic state of the country. Meanwhile, I'm having to refurbish design supplies JUST IN CASE WE ARE HAVING A RECOVERY, and still find time to paint. Having never made much money painting, design work takes priority. Maybe that's why I'm cleaning up my areas--and that's why portraiture interests me? Portraiture is not a twenty minute challenge; it takes time with lots of observation to get a likeness especially when I like unusual expressions --people responding to life-- poses that can only be caught with the camera. Design, on the other hand, comes easy after twenty seven years of soaking in the construction of interior spaces. Design work goes fast. Painting goes slowly.