Original Art Can Make the Perfect Birthday Gift

I have tried now for the past couple years to create a special piece of birthday art for my grandchildren.  I've now decided to try to include my grown children in this tradition.  Today is my son Jason's birthday so I will start with the piece I made for him yesterday and then share a few other pieces that I have done in the past few months.  

Jason has just started to once again be careful with what he is eating and regularly exercising.  I had to make his birthday art reflecting this fact.  The adorable bunny in the corner is from my original color pencil artwork that I call "Don't Forget Your Vegetables".  The beets, turnips and cupcake are also drawings out of my sketchbook.  I added additional royalty free salad graphics to finish off the background.  That picture of Jason I found on his Facebook page is a real hoot and fits perfectly into my composition and with the magic of Photoshop, I can create a one of a kind birthday greeting.

The second piece I want to show you is for my little grandson, Noah who turned 5.  He loves the video game, Minecraft so I went to work figuring out just what I could create.  I knew I wanted to include his little stuffed enderman doll in the picture because he loves to take a nap with it.  I jokingly call it a spider and he is always correcting me on the point.  I drew my grandson, a sword and his little stuffed buddy in my sketchbook.  I used colored pencil to complete the sketch.  I then scanned that sketch into Photoshop and added the royalty free background, TNT and the pig to the picture.  This turned out so cute that I actually had it blown up to a 16 x 20 poster at Sam's Club.  You should have seen his eyes when he realized he was on a poster.  I also made him a sheet of personal stickers.  Here is how his birthday card turned out.

Hunter also has a November birthday so I had to work on a design that was special to a 1 year old.  I was informed he LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so I knew I needed to add Mickey in there for him.  When he was born last year I painted him a special elephant floating with balloon painting to decorate his nursery room.  He still has a number of elephant themed things so I grabbed my sketchbook and drew both a stuffed elephant and his sweet little face.  I once again used colored pencil to finish off the sketching part.  The rest of the image is from graphics that I used in Photoshop.  I think this turned out super cute!

Finally comes my two sweet September granddaughters.  Their birthdays are just 2 years and 1 day apart so I decided to make their art very similar.

Katherine turned 5 and is the owner of a giant doberman named Odin.  I sketched a simple likeness of both her and the dog and colored them in using Photoshop.  The bees and the purple flowers are also part of my sketchbook.  The rest of the composition comes from royalty free graphics.  I printed out a 5 x 7 image and matted it so she could frame it in her room.  I also had the image printed on a small tote bag using the print on demand services of RedBubble.com.  It turned out GREAT!

Sweet little Jenna turned 3 and she has a GIANT great Dane named Bane and yes the dog has one blue eye and one brown eye.  Both sketches turned out amazing and the girls love their personalized tote bags.

Brad and I have a total of 9 grand kids so just keeping up with their birthday art is a challenge but I'm loving the creativity that Photoshop allows me and all the GRANDMA points I'm scoring.    

To end this blog post, I thought I would show you one more commission artwork I finished this year.  This is a transaction that took place on my Etsy Shop back in May for a woman that lives in Canada.  Here is the 8 x 10 colored pencil commission piece I did using a few reference photos she sent me.    This piece features two curly haired sisters and their doberman puppy.  I believe this is going to be her brother's Christmas gift.       

Art is a Family Affair

Being an artist is for me very much a family affair.  I'm so blessed to have the support of my husband and children with making my dreams a reality.  I couldn't do this without them.  My husband follows me to galleries and artshows, helping pack and unpack the truck, hang artwork or make a frame if I need with very little complaining.  

My children endure a constant barrage of photographs sent to their cell phones of my newest works in all steps of completion and are always my most energetic cheerleaders.  My adorable grandchildren actually have no memory of a time when grandma didn't paint and there wasn't a "STUDIO" in my home.  I LOVE IT!  Here is one of them modeling my most recent masterpiece!  This little guy would make any artwork look good.  I love that he comes into the studio and picks up a dry brush and pretends he is painting chickadees with grandma.  I can't wait to be able to give them painting lessons and spark that creativeness that I know is there.  

Living in the Past...

I'm thinking about this past September.  Actually I have been thinking about it quite often because I enjoyed a wonderful afternoon on the beach at Lake Tahoe.  I believe the name of the beach was Sand Harbor and it was simply breathtaking.  My son and two of my daughter-laws, along with grand babies and my niece had a marvelous time soaking in the beauty. 

We all had a good laugh because shortly after we arrived, every living creature seemed to want to steal our picnic lunch of sub sandwiches and make it there own.  First, it was the squirrels, then the bees swarmed us and then finally came the sea gulls trying to snatch it right out of our hands.  I had to give in and surrender a portion of my sandwich by throwing it off into the boulders to serve as a distraction to the bees while we tried to gobble down the remainder of our sandwiches. 

The water at Tahoe is crystal clear and bright blue.  It is by far the most beautiful lake I have ever seen.  The sand is clean and bright and you are surrounded by gigantic boulders and majestic pine trees.  As an artist, I find that words really fail to adequately describe the beauty and a better outlet for me is to grab my sketch book and then later try to relive those colors and sounds using my paint brush in my studio. 


That is the blessing to me as an artist because most people are only left with photo to look at to remember but as a painter I actually get to revisit these experience in a deeper way so that my piece has life and energy to it. Thank you Lord for giving me the gift of art!

Quick study sketch

My painting is still in progress.  I have painted in my family on the beach and out in the water but now I am considering making them just a bit larger.  I think I need to have them stand out more but I'm still in the contemplative stage at this point in the painting where I have to stand back and study it to decide just what my next course of action will be. 

Current Work in Progress on my easel of a beach scene at Lake Tahoe.

Show Synergy Carried to the Easel

This has been one of the most productive weeks that I can recall for me as an artist and I think it is due to the energy I got from having so many friends and family that came out to celebrate the reception of my first art show on Oct 12th.  I had so much fun seeing all my work displayed and talking about each piece. It was like being a kid in a candy store.  That excitement couldn't help but flow out onto my easel.


Here is a preview of my new works that I have painted or finished up this past week.  We are still in the process of photographing, naming, varnishing and cataloging them but hopefully in the next week they will all be available on my website gallery at JulieTownsendStudio.com or hanging up at City of the World Gallery here in Las Vegas.

Blue Eyes Crying- 6x6 Oil painting

Sand Harbor at Tahoe- 6 x 12 Oil

Seeing Shades of Red- 18x24 Acrylic

Springtime Pansies- 12x16 Oil

Distractions of the REALLY Good Kind

This week has found my studio empty and rather neglected but occasionally that isn't a bad thing.  My mother-in-law turned 80 years old yesterday and to celebrate that huge milestone, I have taken the time to plan a surprise birthday party in her honor.  All my six children came to be with Grandma and with them came their wives and those precious grandchildren that they have blessed me with. Family and friends gathering together to share a meal and laugh is a good thing.  Actually it is a REALLY good thing!

We have heard over and over that our families must take priority over work and since I'm trying to become a serious artist, family responsibilities must come first.  It also doesn't hurt to step back for a short time when you are having a pivotal learning crisis in your creative world.  That is where I find myself as an artist because I was told that my all important light source in several of my paintings is confusing.  Obviously, I am not fully understanding how light and shadows interact and that is due to years of not truly observing my surroundings with the artist eye.  Your brain processes all of your surrounding but often we just take in information and never really consider what it is that we are looking at.  Only until we present conflicting images do we stop and think about the fact that something just doesn't look right.  So a little study of light and shadow is exactly what I need to do right now so that my paintings become more realistic and I'm not confusing my friend and instructor, Lily Adamczyk anymore with my "Your light coming from all direction" compositions.

Since no one is awake in the house yet, I have a lovely cup of hot tea and free access to the computer I decided to do some research on the subject.  I found a helpful blog titled "Making Great Paintings-Understanding the Light and Shadow Families."  Well making GREAT paintings sound really good to me so I started reading the article.  I found myself thinking how familiar some of these suggestions were and to my surprise I noticed that the website so appropriately called "Artist Mentors Online" is the creation of Kevin Macpherson. (AMO)  Well can you believe, that I am currently reading a book called "Putting More Light and Color in Your Oil Paintings" by none other than Kevin Macpherson.  I love to see artists that spend their precious time helping new artist like myself learn the secrets of the trade. I have only begun to scratch the surface of the treasure chest of knowledge that this website contains but I am loving his book right now.

So if you are like me and you find yourself needing to spend some in depth study on a specific trouble spot in your artistic journey, I would greatly suggest two things....1.  It's time to put on your walking shoes and go observe first hand the relationship that light and shadow have with each other.  This might require you coming to the same spot several times in that day so that you can see how the shadow changes in relationship to the sun.  2.  Find someone that already knows the stuff you need to learn and become an informational processing sponge.

Holding my Newest Grandson, Jonas

An Apple a Day

"An Apple a Day" is a 16 x 20 acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas that was inspired by our regular September trips to the Bradshaw's End of the Rainbow Apple Orchard near Caliente, Nevada.  This trip is an annual family favorite of ours.  As I began this piece, I couldn't help but remember all the family memories that are reflected by these three simple apples ripening on the branch.

In the painting, the warm sunlight reflects through the branches and seems to  kiss the apples with a warm glow of yellow and orange.  I know if you listen carefully, you can almost hear the warm afternoon breezes rustling through the leaves as you strain to reach for the really good apples that hang high above your head.  If you ever have a chance to take a drive out on Nevada Highway 317, through the "Rainbow Canyon", and it is during apple picking time you have to stop in at the Ranch, grab a bucket and head off through the tall grasses to hunt these beautiful treasures.


http://agri.nv.gov/Brochures/Nevada_Organic_ReviewJan05.pdf