Commissioned Artwork

Let me start out by saying that I hate doing commissions and usually refuse them. This one was presented to me with such heart and soul that I agreed to give it a try. No promises, but I had to be able to do it my way. The request was for two figures and a dog, a golden retriever who had recently passed. The colors were to be green, blue and purple. This was to be a wedding anniversary present.

So I got started and low and behold, this painting was as smooth and trouble free as there ever was. I had to do the dog over once, but he looks great. So with fingers crossed, I sent the picture to my client yesterday. Well, she loved it! It portrayed the exact moment when they walked a path in the woods at dusk immediately after their outdoor wedding ceremony. The Universe was smiling at us both that day.

Secret Entomologist

Ok, it's not art, but I found it on my way to the studio.





Today I painted a few more paintings and got a start on a custom painting.

Smoky Mountains or Where's my nicotine patch?

Wolf Moon

Summer Camp

The Summer Camp piece reminds me so much of the camp tie dye projects. It is made mostly with leather dye, the tree is done with acrylic paint. The purple part was a base of red and overlapped with turquoise. I love the way it melted into a beautiful purple. The white drops are also leather dye, the white is more opaque. I think of nurse shoes whenever I pick up the bottle.

Wolf Moon is a blend of colors you might see on a wolf, the browns and rusts of the undercoat and the gray blues of the outer coat on the face and back.

Smoky Mountain has a cloudy, smoke colored feeling to it. The colors look like drying tobacco leaves.

Hot and Tasty

New work destined for McFee Gallery:

Just Sleeping

Hot Flash

Wanted: Tire Swing (child optional)

These original paintings are definitely going to the gallery. They are all 9x12 gallery wrap. There are two more that I'm debating about-they are very abstract and it could be that I'm not used to them. If I still like them tomorrow, there's a good chance they'll go.


I'm keeping busy preparing for the Fall Gallery Walk. Many prints are shrink wrapped and in their new bin, ready for delivery. Probably too many. I might have to cull the herd.


Feel free to leave a comment and come back soon!

Cool Giclee Print

New listing on Etsy for this awesome Giclee gallery wrap print by David at REDIpix. (Link is on the right side of the blog) Isn't his work amazing? I love what it does for my paintings. The colors are a perfect match and have such a vibrancy about them. Notice the gallery wrapped sides. These are light weight and ready to hang. They will last a lifetime, because that's what giclees are all about.

One really nice thing about REDIpix is that you can have your own photos printed there-family, vacation or art shots. All on a variety of supports or flat to have them framed. Check it out and tell them I sent you. You will be amazed and inspired.

New artwork

Still having fun with photoshop!

Another Digital Painting

Playing around tonight with the digital painting technique. This one reminds me of a wheat field.

Digital Painting

Today I found out a few new things:

1. Shrink wrapping with a blow dryer is a blast! Who knew? I'm shrink wrapping some prints on foamboard and I'm addicted. Somebody stop me!

2. Digital painting--I'm learning more and loving it. I have a 16 y/o tutor.

For instance, this is mid-way through a digital painting:




This is after much more tinkering:


I like them both, each for different reasons.

Fun with Photoshop

There is so much fun to be had with Photoshop. I made some fabulous images with two of my paintings. I had 8 x 10 prints made of some of them today. I'm going to shrink wrap them on foam core backing. I'll send them to McFee gallery to put in a print bin. I have a lot to learn about working with Photoshop, maybe some tutoring is in my future.
















It's hard to pick a favorite, but the last one is pretty neat!

The Drop-off was a success!

This is the painting I didn't photograph yesterday: Fiesta Forest (one of my goals is to improve my titles-not there yet)



I took that one and several others to McFee Gallery in Indy today. They were well-received. We spent over an hour pricing, invoicing and discussing business. Here are some pictures documenting the visit:

Exterior view of the gallery. One of my paintings is visible in the window, it's the one with the gold frame. I don't frame them anymore, instead I use gallery wrap canvases.

Athomas, gallery manager, helping me with pricing. Some of the paintings are lined up on the floor under the window.

One of the paintings from the original batch. Notice the red dot?

One last picture. This is a gallery wall with one of my paintings visible, far right with red, yellow and blue in a frame.

There was some awesome artwork in there. I left inspired and ready to make my work more cutting edge. As I was leaving, a customer came in. (later I found out that she made a beeline for my paintings-probably will return for one of the smaller ones. )

Then I went to the Chocolate Shop 2 doors down and bought some truffles for the family. Mmm, they were yummy! I'll be visiting that shop everytime I go to the gallery. There's also a new wine shop on the block. Art, wine and chocolate: what else do you need?

Painting like Crazy!

Today I set my goal to finish enough paintings to justify a trip to Indy, (60 miles away) to deliver a batch to McFee Gallery. I needed to complete the second half of a small 10 x 10 square canvas, paint 2 bigger paintings (20 x 20) from scratch, and re-do one that I didn't like and try to make 3 quick 8 x 10 panel paintings. Also, paint all of the edges black that were naked or needed a touch-up, and varnish everything.

This is how it worked out: the small, square canvas took longer than it should have, but it's done. I varnished it and then took the photo. Turns out that is not the right order of things. The photo is horribly glared and makes the painting look like crap--it really is brighter and prettier in person. Here it is: Cold Moon



The two bigger (20 x 20 inches) paintings turned out pretty well. The first one is a knife painted background in bright oversaturated colors with 3 black tree silhouettes. But, in my busy-ness, I forgot to grab it and bring it outside to photograph with the others. Now it's dark and I will have to show you that painting tomorrow.

The second bigger painting is my favorite of the day. It's a Winter scene with Birch trees on an abstract blue and white background. It has a glow to it and it photographed exceptionally well.
I call it Winter Solstice:

I have decided after looking at this pic in the post that I really like it a lot. Is that conceited?

The next painting is one that I did several weeks ago and never really liked. So I re-worked it without re-painting the whole thing. It needed to have the colors changed and a few elements removed or adjusted. I took out the umbrella because it just didn't fit the mood of the piece.

This is the first version: the moon reflection wasn't working, the umbrella is awkward, the path edges are too prominent, I don't like the orange, and the grassy area is too dark.


So I made some changes, cooled down the color tone and here is After Dark:



Now I like it better, but there are bound to be people who like version 1 more. That's ok, I've noticed that sometimes people love the paintings that aren't my favorites and vice versa. Just goes to show that taste is highly individual.

On to the next task, the panels. I had prepped them with a background color this morning and went back in the afternoon to finish them. They were to be black birds on a wire in 3 different arrangements. The plan was to make them work as a set of 3 or as individuals. They were a disaster. Midway through the first one, I looked at it and thought it was boring. I re-painted it 2 more times before I gave up. I'll leave those for another day and idea.

Everything got edges painted black and varnished. I found a neat way to do the edges, normally a task that I dread. I use liquid black leather dye and a dauber. It goes on extremely smooth, with one coat coverage. One dip in the jar will cover 2 sides of a largish gallery wrap canvas. Dries fast, too. Probably because it's alcohol based.

Final count of paintings to deliver: 6 of the 10 x 10 squares, 2 of the 20 x 20 squares, one 16x20, and the huge diptych-48 x 30.

So I packed it in and headed back to the house. Then I called the gallery manager and made arrangements to meet him tomorrow in Indy at the gallery with my new work. I still have to wire them all-I'm considering taking them all to a frame shop in the morning and having them wire them for me. The last chore of the day is to make an inventory sheet to take with me.

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Inaugural Post!

Welcome to the first Gentry Art Blog Post! Woo Hoo!

Let me introduce myself: I've been painting for about 7 years now. I'm a wife and mother living in a university town in Indiana. I paint in a studio in a wooded area in the back part of our property. I've had paintings in private galleries, museums and nationally juried shows. My art is in the hands of collectors in several countries-US, Canada, England, Scotland, Russia come to mind.

Currently, I'm most excited to have my work newly accepted at McFee Gallery of Modern Art in downtown Indianapolis. http://www.mcfeegallery.com/ My work has been there for 2 weeks. The first weekend, which included a First Friday gallery walk event, they sold 4 paintings! Wow-great job guys! Last weekend they sold my largest painting, a huge 24 x 36 gallerywrap canvas with one from my Rainy Day Series. The First Friday in September also happens to be the big Fall Gallery Walk. (Indy has a big gallery walk in the fall and another one in the spring) So, as you can imagine, I'm painting like crazy to replace those that sold and provide plenty of stock. I'm sending a disc with all of my images and a picture of me because they will be adding me to their website as one of the regular artists!

I also have original paintings and prints listed on Etsy. For those who aren't familiar, Etsy is a website for artists and crafters to sell handcrafted work. My Etsy shop's website is www.gentryart.etsy.com. Etsy is a fabulous place to sell, they have a super friendly vibe. You can find the most interesting one of a kind items there. I plan to do all of my Christmas shopping there.

I've not listed on Ebay for a few weeks, but I hope to list some work there soon. Ebay has been having some problems lately with their new policies, so we'll have to see how that shakes out. Maybe some larger paintings or the giclees that are in the works. Those are being done by REDIpix at http://redipix.com/Home.html Let me just say that they do excellent work!

Now, on to my work. The piece I finished yesterday is actually a dyptich, mixed media of acrylic paint and leather dye. Each piece is 24 x 30 for a total size of 60 x 48!! My largest ever. The title is Black Forest and it is pictured above at the top of this page.

That's all for now!