Awwchuuu....Spring is upon us

The winds have been fierce recently around the Southern Nevada area, and the pollen count has been in the HIGH range everyday. Add the COVID pandemic and I find it's just a perfect time to stay in the studio and be creative! I know much of the country has faced bitter cold and lots of snow so SPRING is always something to look forward to as we hunker down and try to stay warm. Drawing colorful spring flowers and little critters has been my focus for the past few weeks.  These little drawings have brought me a great deal of joy, and I am pleased at how this spring collection has turned so far. Who doesn't love dark purple irises, sunny daffodils and bright pink tulips? I'm already making plans to add crocus and gladiolus to finish out the spring blub flowers.  For my gardening friends, am I forgetting any other bulb flower? 

 I'm just dying to show you what I've done so far. Be prepared to smile.

 

 

Wouldn't these pieces make an adorable wall art collection for a baby nursery or a child's room. I have options where you can print them yourself or I would be happy to do that for you.  You can hope over to either of my Etsy Shops and just search SPRING.  Hint, hint....these would also make wonderful Mother's Day cards and gifts.    

PRINT YOUR OWN AT TOWNCO STUDIOS

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Z is for ZINNIA

  

One of my dreams has always been to have a cutting garden.  Alas in Las Vegas growing anything takes an extra amount of work that I just never seemed to have the time for.  Oh I have some flowers every year growing in pots around the front door but nothing like the flower gardens of my dreams.

I plant the usual geraniums, pansies, and chrysanthemums but a new favorite has emerged.  I tried to find zinnias a few years back at all the local garden centers and all I
could find were a pack of seeds.  I planted the seeds that spring and while they don't look like the pictured bright red flowers, I did get a sturdy plant full of orange blooms. They have successfully reseeded themselves every year after that.  They grow kind of tall (about 3 feet high) and spindly but they are a nice splash of color by my front door.

What is it about Zinnias?  I mean there are lots of great flowers but I just find them so cheerful, colorful and they just make me happy.   Add it to the fact that they are SO easy to grow makes them a favorite for many flowerbeds.  I was mildly surprised to find they are part of the daisy family but the information I was reading also said they were part of the sunflower tribe.  I didn't know that flowers were classified in tribes.  I mean family and species classifications I remember but I don't recall "Tribe" as a scientific classification.  Of course biology has been a number of years ago so maybe this is just unique to flowers or something new.








When my much awaited mega large set of Prismacolor colored pencils arrived the first sketch I did with them was that of Zinnias.  I absolutely love all the colors I now can choose from.  Just look at all those oranges, yellows and pinks.  The choices made for happy little zinnias.  My original artwork is a 5 x 7, matted to 8 x 10 and is available for purchase.  I can also make prints, magnets and greeting cards if you just love the design.  Send me a message and I will be happy to get you prices.

I love filling up my artistic journal pages and maybe this is cheating because I've gotten where I just add copies of my sketches into the pages and add my thoughts about each of the piece or share a poem that I wrote to go along with the artwork.  I know I'm really supposed to draw directly into the book but I just find that I enjoy this so much better.  It's combining my finished works that I like and yet I'm journaling about things that are important to me.  I thought I would share my Zinnia journal entry from last week to close out this blog post.

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Zinnia Journal Entry in my Sketchbook Journal

The First of a Flurry of Fluffy Feathers

Image as seen on my "Country Store and Cowbell" tab on my website

It always amazes me that I can spend an hour drawing a little sketch design and then spend two hours on the marketing of that sketch.   By the time you write 3 or 4 paragraphs about the piece, scan it, upload and edit the image and then upload the image to all the applicable websites, you have invested several hours of time. Not to mention the time spent writing this blog each week.

I've just recently expanded my marketing efforts by opening an Etsy store under Julie Townsend Studio.  Now that I have some smaller inventory such as art magnets and art greeting cards that feature my work to offer, I felt that an Etsy store might be a good idea.  I am also checking into putting my images on Zazzle, Cafe Press and Redbubble but haven't quite figured out how those all work.  Then of course I have been uploading my images for a number of years to Fine Art America.  I guess I should get and "A for effort" and hopefully someday all this work will begin to pay off as I brand my self and grow a group of collectors.  Well at least that is my plan and I've always heard that you make a plan and that you work the plan and marketing artwork is WORK!

Now that I have finished my 2nd Down Country Roads art card collection I'm ready to focus on a new theme or collection. Collection 1 is of my farm animal pen and ink sketches and the 2nd collection is of my five Down Country Roads paintings.  Here is the link to my Country Store.

 I was pretty excited this week to get my first order of each image in collection II in art magnet format.  The collector shared with me that the images make her remember her childhood on her grandparents Iowa farm and they make her smile.  What a touching thing for her to say.  That very much blesses my heart as an artist to know that my work has touched an emotion and in some way has lifted a spirit and made someone smile.

5 x 7 pen and ink sketch with colored pencil

So last night I got busy and pulled out my sketch pad and colored pencils.  This is what I came up with and I think this will prove to me an excellent start on a collection that features my favorite birds. Topping that list is no doubt in my mind, the feisty hummingbird.  Nothing makes me smile faster, except for maybe my grandchildren, then this tiny little winged aggressor that darts around my yard.

You had better be quick if you want to snap their picture because they only rest a few seconds before flying off in a flurry of fluffed feathers.

Original sketch is available along with prints, cards and magnets of this image at my website gallery.  Feel free to check it out along with all my other works.

Finished sketch before adding colored background

Shall we Take a Turn in the Garden

I have always wanted to have a cutting garden of my own.  One that I could go to early morning "While the Dew is Still on the Roses"; basket in one arm and floppy sun hat, tied firmly to my chin. I could cut baskets of beautiful flowers whenever I wanted.   A vase of fresh flowers always placed perfectly on my table and little bouquets piled up to give as gifts of appreciation for all my friends and neighbors.  I know what you're thinking, "This girl has watched too many Jane Austin movies."  You might be right with that assumption.  If I could quote Lady Catherine, "Miss Bennett, there seemed to be a prettyish kind of a little wilderness on one side of your lawn. I should be glad to take a turn in it, if you will favour me with your company.''

Reality is that all my adult life I have lived in a hot and VERY DRY desert.  I always plant flowers like geraniums, salvia, lavender and mum along with a variety of herbs each spring in pots around my front door but as soon as that summer sun hits the record temperatures in July and August I wimp out and nary a toe or the tip of my nose stays outside any longer that it take me to walk from my front door to the passenger side of my trusty Honda.

I guess I will have to settle for painting cutting gardens instead.  Recently, I have been fascinated with zinnias, lavender and black-eyed susans.  They have been a focus of both my canvases and cowbells and I'm in love with their bold colors and graceful lines.  I decided to combine two of them along with a feisty hummer in this composition that I am calling "Hummer in the Cutting Garden".  I hope you like it.

The original is painted on an 11 x 14 inch gallery wrapped canvas in acrylic and will be shortly available on my website at JulieTownsendStudio.com

"Hummer in the Cutting Garden"

Pretty as a Picture

You have probably heard of the old saying "Pretty as a Picture".  Up to this point in my painting, I have spent most of my time using reference photos to base my composition on and that has worked pretty well for me.  I really like using 5 x 7 photographs and normally will take a number of different images and use them as my inspiration. 

I recently used a photo taken by a fellow artist that was posted on facebook (very important that you obtain permission from the owner prior to copying a photo) and I painted it as a close rendition to what I saw on the photo.  I was so taken by the brilliance and color of this photograph.  It is an amazing shot full of cheerful bright colors.  There is just something about sunflowers that warm the heart of any country girl.

Original Photo taken by artist Janet Paden of Ohio

This was my original oil of the reference photo

My corrections so far have been removing the dark center under the butterfly and adding more blue to the background

The adjustments I made from my original painting was to remove the dark center that overshadowed the butterfly causing him not to stand out like I had intended.  I changed some of the background tint by adding more blue and lightened the centers of each flower by covering the paynes gray that I had over used in my first rendition. Still with additional critiquing done by a friend and an accomplished artist more changes are apparently needed.

    1.  The spent sunflower in the upper left corner has to go.  It is obvious that my intended focal point of this piece is the butterfly and yet the dark center of this sunflower draws your attention away from the butterfly.  My options are to paint it out completely or to reduce the size and add some petals of it's own so that it blends in with the rest of the composition.  
     2. I also plan to make the sunflowers less orange and more yellow so that the butterfly stands out even more.

As an artist, I needed to take a little more time considering the focal point of my composition.  Take the time to really look at your composition and consider your focal.  Ask yourself if there is there anything else in this composition that is overpowering or taking the attention away from that point?   A good suggestion is to have someone else take a quick glance and find out what they first noticed.  Which is what I did yesterday when I took my painting over for my friend to see.  I have also seen it suggested that you can also view the composition in a mirror and by seeing the image that you have grown so accustomed to backwards that it allows you too see the image from a different prospective.

The photo was an excellent start but my goal should always be as an artists to make my end result- PRETTIER THAN A PICTURE!