Make Everyday a Black Tie and Tails Day

My husband and I have been enjoying the PBS show, Downton Abbey.  We have tried to watch one or two episodes each day while eating our dinner.  Last night we started watching season 5.

Never in my life have I experience watching a TV show from the first episode all the way to the end of the show.  I would always hear people talk about their "Show" is on tonight but I have never watched TV like that.  I've always been a hit and miss kind of viewer.  Never really having a favorite show or even knowing the time or date a specific show was airing but Netflix has changed all that.

Like so many other households,  3 years ago we canned our cable TV subscription and joined Netflix. Maybe a year ago I got involved in the show "Lost" and I was hooked.  Now we have watched every episode of NCIS, Longmire and Sherlock.  I find the experience much like reading a good novel.  I find myself getting involved with the characters and caught up in the story line.  I had watched lots of episodes of NCIS but now, having watched them in sequence, everything makes much greater sense because you know the history.  

I knew I would love Downton Abbey seeing as how I am completely in love with anything Jane Austin.  The only problem I faced was that Downton Abbey isn't on Netflix so I had to pay for a subscription to Amazon Prime to start watching the show.  So far I'm happy with that decision and since many of my art and business supplies are purchased on Amazon it makes the $100 expense a bit easier to deal with.

My Little "Downton Abbey" Mouse Sketch

I suppose I had better get this blog back on track since my focus isn't on critiquing TV shows but talking about my artwork.  The whole Downton Abbey influence is evident, at least to me, in my most recent sketch that I'm calling "Make Everyday a Black Tie and Tails Day".  I was thinking the other day about how the Crawley family often dress so formally just to eat dinner.  Their chauffeur turned son-in-law Tom complained about having to wear a tuxedo to dinner each night.  They put such stock in whether to wear their black or white bow tie.

So my little "Downton Abbey" mouse here is getting all dressed up for a special evening.  His top hat and bow tie are ready and he has just dipped his tail into the jar of black India ink to finish off his formal attire.  He was so much fun to draw yesterday.  I had a number of people watching me at McDonalds in the morning as I started working on the pen and ink work there.  I already have plans on starting a sketch of his date and perhaps I will let the influence of the beautiful "Lady Mary" help me with that one.

The original 5 x 7 matted sketch along with prints, art greeting cards and 4 x 6 art magnets are available in both my Etsy store or on my website

Creative Hyper-drive

My Journal Page

So I have a confession to make this morning....I'm in love the idea of artistic journaling for sometime.  That is where you keep a diary or journal but instead of just writing on the pages you use your creative or artistic skills to fill the pages with drawings, sketches and fancy fonts.  I belong to a Facebook group dedicated exclusively to this form of journaling and some of the posts are simply amazing.  The closed group is very large with over 20,000 members and many are so positive and encouraging that I love to share my sketching with them.  The conflict comes in because my sketching efforts are more to work out renderings for paintings or to come up with designs that I can use to matte and create a greeting card portfolio.  These sketches also don't necessarily meet the groups guidelines for posting because they are no longer inside a sketchpad.  Also, my own dear journal that I started almost 2 years ago sits on my drawing table untouched and not finished.

So yesterday the idea just hit me! I came up with the perfect solution to my conflict and I'm really excited about it.  I'm not sure why I didn't think of it sooner.  As I complete a sketch or painting, I am going to print out the artwork on a 4 x 6 card and attach it to a journal page.  Then I can add my thoughts about the piece, the date that it was completed and in this way I will fill my journal with pages that are especially interesting to me and create a fun portfolio of my work at the same time.  It's a win win in my book (Journal)!

So last night was my first entry using this format and low and behold I got so creative that I actually started writing a poem to go along with my "Resting Hummingbird" sketch.  This whole process got me so excited that I was formulating more poems for a couple of other sketches I have recently completed.  I was scribbling down a flood of ideas on a piece of scrap paper between brushing my teeth and and taking my vitamins.  If I hadn't been just drop down unconsciously tired, I might have filled several pages with madly scribbled pose.  Blow out the cobwebs!  My mind was in creative hyper-drive.

So don't you dare laugh at me but I decided I would share with you not only my journal page entry but my rough draft of the poem I wrote call "The Hummingbird Song".

            The Hummingbird Song
 The song you sing is hardly a song at all
I may not see you in the branches but I can hear your call
While the other birds fill the air with a melody so sweet
Your song is more like a sour off tune tweet
Or maybe it’s more like a chit, chee-dit or a chirp
To me it sounds more like the scolding I get when I loudly burp
 Not at all a pleasant sound to my ear
Rather it is more like I’m being scoffed and chided I fear
Makes me wonder how could one so cute, tiny and small
Have a disposition and attitude that's bigger than all?

Be sure and check out all my work on my website-Julie Townsend Studio

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

Gardens, Galoshes and Gravy

"Fence Post Rendezvous"

I am FINISHED!!!! And I finished this piece just in time to enter it in the Elks Helldorado Art Show today.  It was close, down to the wire actually, but I made it and am very pleased with the final results.

  I can say that with each painting I do, I learn so much.  This piece contained several difficult elements in the composition.  The children for one and the horse for two. This is the 5th painting in a series of pieces that I have titled "Down Country Roads".  Painting these pieces has provided such therapy to me as I recall little moments in my childhood growing up in the Ozarks of Central Missouri.

It has been my desire, with each piece I paint, to capture your imagination, strike a sweet chord with your own childhood memories or tell an interesting visual story that grabs your attention.

My mother always had a large garden plot that she put out vegetables in each spring and then we would reap the benefits come summer as we would start the harvesting the best tasting produce you can imagine.  The memory of the taste of fresh snapped green beans and tiny new potatoes cooked up with a piece of ham in mom's old cast iron skillet still makes my mouth water today.  I've made that comfort dish numerous times for my family but it has just never been the same.  Mom would tell us kids to go out to the garden and pick green beans, radishes, cucumbers, squash or tomatoes to add to our dinner that most often consisted of a fried meat of some kind, mashed potatoes and gravy.

I can also remember that I always had a pair of rubber boots to wear to protect my shoes from the snow, slush and deep mud.  For the area to be so green there must be lots of rain.  Way more rain that we have here in Las Vegas.  Most of us can barely justify owning an umbrella let alone buying full on rain gear for our children.  We also called those rubber boots "galoshes" and I remember having red ones that matched a red raincoat and hat with little yellow daisies printed on it.  I was quite stylish as I made my way to school in the rain.

In keeping with my other pieces in the series, I added the blue morning glories and tall grass along with several hidden creatures.  See if you can find two tiny baby cotton tail rabbits, a fat toad and a nest of quail eggs.  They are there, I promise.

On a personal note this piece is really special for me because I used my own grandson as model for the toddler reach in the basket to get a second carrot for the interested palomino.

I hope you enjoyed this little labor of my love and I invite you to check out the "Down Country Roads" series on my website and leave me a comment letting me know what you think.

You're Invited!

Please consider coming if you find that you have some free time on Sunday.  I would love to talk to you about my artwork and this beautiful gallery.

This Sunday, April 24th is my closing reception at the Boulder City Art Gallery

Sweet Rendezvous

WIP-"Fence Post Rendezvous"

The past two weeks my focus has been on my 5th piece in my series "Down Country Roads" which features the series' signature blue morning glories growing at the fence post along with the lush tall grass that grows extra tall there, uncut by the mower.  With this piece,  I decided to add some farm children.  I have such fond memories of growing up in the country where I could run and play without worry.  We lived down a country gravel road, surrounded by farmers and where slowing down to greet the horses and cows with screams of MOO would be a frequent occurrence.  

Nearly every mother on the road tended a rather large garden where the best tasting vegetables could be found.  I remember my mother often asking me to go out to the garden and pick something that would be served with our evening meal.  Maybe green beans, cucumbers, radishes or squash.  There is nothing better than fresh from the garden snapped green beans, new potatoes and ham cooked up in a cast iron skillet topped off with blackberry cobbler for desert using the blackberries that you labored to pick. Speaking from experience, picking blackberries is no easy task.   

This piece that I'm calling "Fence Post Rendezvous" combines some of these elements of my early childhood memories of country life. These two little towheads have been given the early morning chore of picking carrots for dinner but couldn't help but stopping for a few minutes to share a couple of their basket bounty with the neighbor's palomino. With his head full of curly blonde locks, I used my own 3 year old grandson as a model for the little boy at the basket.    

The debut for this piece is going to be the Elks Club Helldorado Art Show and I have just a few more days to get it finished because the call for art is this upcoming Sunday.  Sorry that this is a poor quality cell phone picture of the piece, but since it is still on my easel, I haven't taken the time to get out the good camera to photograph it.   I guess I was just really anxious to show my progress this morning to my blog readers. Rest assured,  I will be providing better images as soon as I finishing painting in the final details.  

I hope you enjoy this WIP (work in progress) blog.  I would love to hear your thoughts, comments or memories about your own "Country Childhood"  To see the rest of the pieces in this series check out my gallery tab or go to my website at http://www.julietownsendstudio.com/-gallery.html

Someone Needs a Makeover

Have you ever watched the show, What Not to Wear on TLC where Stacy London takes some frumpy fashion failure and transform her into a dynamic dashing diva?  The show always ended with a revealing of the NEW look and they would give us a reminder of the past by presenting a BEFORE and AFTER comparison.  I kind of feel that this is what I'm trying to do here while writing this blog.

I call this piece "At the Rivers Bend" and I painted it originally as a study on water reflection using a snippet from artist Jerry Yarnell's and his online school resources.  There was a lot about the piece that I liked but over the next two years, as my skills improved, there was more and more about the piece that I didn't.  

In preparation of hanging my exhibit "Down Country Roads" at the Boulder City Art Gallery, I was going through my closet and came across this piece.  I knew that the time had come to give this piece a COMPLETE MAKEOVER.  And just like the TV show, I have included a before and after photo and I thought I would also provide for your reading pleasure a personal commentary on the changes.

Before 

"At the River's Bend"- 18x24 Acrylic painting

1.- I lightened the sky and water.  I'm not sure what shade of blue I used originally, but it appears too dark and purple to me.  I'm guessing we might be looking at cobalt blue.  I changed the whole tone by lightening and brightening with cerulean blue instead.  The water is simply a reflection of the sky so they have to be the same color but just a few shades darker.  I also added some fluffy summer clouds.

2.  Probably the most obvious edit is the adding of the canoe and the fisherman.  I felt the original painting lacked a story and by adding the fisherman I have added a focus to the piece that was absent before.  I personally love fishing and whenever I look at a beautiful river or lake, I always wish I could throw up a lawn chair and grab my rod and reel.  I'm not much of a boater but for the sake of the composition, I think a canoe has much more appeal over an old lawn chair sitting in the grass.

  

3.  The tall reeds that are growing at the edge of the far bank were too uniform.  They appeared to be cut straight across like a hired landscaper had recently come along with giant hedge clippers and had given them a good trimming.  I always fall into that trap and have to consistently remind myself that in nature everything is random. It must be my years spent as an accountant because I still struggle with this.   I also moved the little tree to be growing behind the reeds instead of almost floating in water.

4.  I finished off my edits by embellishing the foreground and the little area in front of the canoe by adding a few fallen logs jetting out of the water and some rocks.  Almost every element added has to cast a reflection on the water so you can see I have duplicated the impression of the shape in the water.

I hope you enjoyed this little before and after comparison.  The new and improved "At the Rivers Bend" is currently added to my exhibit and is on display at the Boulder City Art Gallery.  I will soon be making the image available on my website at JulieTownsendStudio.com.  Just contact me if you questions about this or any of my other works.  

Thank you for stopping by and spending a few minutes of your day with me and my blog.