Camps are a big success!

My efforts at promotion have paid off and all of my camps are full! It's keeping me busy for at least 10 hours a day which is why most of you haven't heard from me. It's also why I'm not painting.... the two ponies I started are being neglected on my easel.

The upside is meeting some amazing young artists. I can't take credit for their talent, but it's rewarding to know I am nurturing it somewhat, providing the stimulus and materials to get them rolling.

Bummer! Bummer! Bummer!

I was so excited to get started on my paintings of the ponies. Today, however, I received my order for canvases and unfortunately they were defective. It really rankles me that Dick Blick would ship these! Admittedly they were on sale, but they are made by Winsor-Newton which I assumed would produce a quality product. One canvas is bowed and the other has a scalloped edge and a big dimple poked into it's canvas.

What else I've been doing...

I have been rather remiss in keeping up this blog. One of my big distractions has been my trying to promote my summer art camps. Several months back I made the decision to raise my rates and then our economy made the decision to plummet. Sign-ups are low so I had to do something. I created a flyer and for the first time have advertised. I like the graphics I designed and used it to update the header for this blog.

New project

Today I did a second photo shoot for my next commission. I LOVE my job! How cool is it to be in an arena while two Icelandic ponies frolic about? They nimbly avoided running me over.

Their owner loves my work, bought my Venus and Califa paintings, loved Detroit and asked me to paint each of her horses. These will be rather large - 24x36" - and will be quite dramatic hanging together.

On a side note: she says that this breed roams freely in Iceland. They are friendly and will let strangers approach and ride them!

Remember these cats? I had left Tabu red for my recent show, but promised the owner I would make him look more like her cat once the show was over. It was difficult doing so since the reference photo she'd provided was rather washed out (and, frankly, I liked Tabu in a raw, RED state!).

Unfortunately, last week, the owner wrote me to tell me that her cat had just passed away. Am I a lagger or what! Anyway, that motivated me and I got him finished. I emailed a copy of the final work to the clients and they replied:

I love it, Susan. It captures his spirit. I can't tell you how glad I am we had you do this. As hard as it is to look at his spunky little face, and as much as we miss him, we will absolutely treasure this portrait. Some things
are just meant to be...

At the library

An amazing array of line and pattern found recently in Ramona became a fun start for this image.

New Commission

It's wonderful when a lead actually materializes from an art show! I will be painting some icelandic ponies for a woman who has collected my work in the past. Here is my mock-up for how they will fit into her office.