cedar’s blog

Cedar February 23rd, 2008

I have some more cat art for you!

Ada Monroe
8″ x 10″ Acrylic on Canvas
(Source photo courtesy of Kenna Hinkle–thank you for giving me a beautiful image to paint!)

In other news…

(Warning: Stop reading now if gardening-related rambling does not interest you!)

Yesterday I was thinking about the spring, and I started looking through seed catalogs, and I got really excited about my garden. So, of course, I placed an order for more seeds than I could possibly grow in the space that I have. I’ll have to be content with growing a few of each plant instead of using up every single seed packet like I want to.

Here’s what I got:

romaine lettuce (cosmo-savoy and jericho)
fire red leaf lettuce
dinosaur kale
spinach (viroflay and bloomsdale)
bush champion cucumbers
broccoli
tendergreen bush beans
imperial star artichokes
valencia onions
leeks
cantaloupes
orange bell peppers
green tomatillos
tomatoes (arkansas traveler, cherokee purple, and burbank)
basil
licorice mint
nicotiana jasmine-scented flowers
evening sun sunflowers
tiger’s eye sunflower assortment
multi-colored zinnias
2 pounds of german butterball potatoes

And I saved some seeds from the best plants in my garden from last year:

red bell peppers
green bell peppers
red hot chili peppers
jalapeños
watermelons
pumpkins
and butternut squash

…and I also got the “Garden Ecology Collection,” which is “eight varieties selected to provide habitat for pollinators, butterflies, hummingbirds, and other beneficials, while confusing garden pests.” Includes borage, butterfly weed, miyashige daikon, foxtail white wonder millet, tall fernleaf fiddleneck, bouquet dill, purple-throated mullein, and texas hummingbird sage.

I’m going to buy zucchini starts later on because really I just want one or two strong ones–zucchini takes up a lot of space. I always get my marigolds as starts because I know a good farmers market that always has them for a good price. And in the few areas of my yard not taken up by grass or a jungle of vegetables, I’m going to sprinkle wheat berries all around so my dog and cat will have wheat grass to munch on.

I can’t wait till the weather is warm and I can put on boots and work gloves and get a pitchfork and dig in my compost heap.

Eeeek! OMG OMG OMG! Clearly, I can’t contain my excitement.

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Cedar February 15th, 2008

The other day I went out in the backyard with my camera and laid on the ground under my cherry tree. Despite the beauty of the old tree, the photos I took had a pretty bleak feeling to them because of the utter lack of any type of foliage or other visible life–just branches and freezing cold sky. It was a cold day, and I scurried back inside after snapping a few quick photos.

In anticipation of springtime, I used creative license when making this painting–I used one of my photos as a reference but then embellished the image, adding a spattering of pink buds and blossoms. Cherry blossom season is so fleeting–if I get a little too busy, it’s easy to nearly miss the magical transformation of my tree every spring. I wish it could last longer. I’m going to make sure to spend enough time in my backyard this year.

April Cherry Blossoms
Acrylic on Canvas 30 x 24″

April Cherry Blossoms in a room:

And here is my first portrait of my cat, Quani. (I’ll probably do more of her.) As you can see, she has a very intense look about her.

Quani
Acrylic on Canvas 8 x 10″

Tomorrow we’re hosting a potluck dinner/movie nite. I’m going to make California rolls. I’m so looking forward to hanging out with my friends.

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Cedar February 11th, 2008

I have 2 changes of plans.

First change of plans:

I had told everyone that I was going to be working on a new body of work but that I wouldn’t reveal any of the paintings until the body of work is complete. I thought that it would be a good exercise in self-reflection–to see the direction my art might take when I am the only one who sees it, and there is no influence from the outside world.

It was a good idea in theory, and I know a lot of artists work that way, but I’m starting to realize that it isn’t going to work for me. For one thing, it’s fun to share my new developments with you. It’s encouraging to soak up your “oohs” and “aaahs” and it’s helpful to my growth to hear your criticisms and suggestions. I need that–I work out of my small studio in my home and rarely make real contact with the outside world, especially during winter when I have a tendency to hibernate. The exception is the realm of my social life, which gives my gregarious spirit a much-needed boost, but is more or less separate from my work life.

Also, the process of photographing a new work of art, cropping the photo, uploading it to my website and my blog, and writing about it, while tedious at times, is a tangible marker for me–a ritual of closing one project and moving on to the next, that helps me. It creates a record of all my work, which I can look back on with a glance to see where I’ve been and where I’m going.

So I’m going back to my old way of doing things–I’ll post all of my new work here as I create it.

With that lengthy explanation, I give you 2 recent works:

Heaven and Earth
Oil on Canvas
24″ x 36″ (Made up of 2 separate panels of 12″ x 36″, hung on the wall with about an inch between them)

Morning Sunbeams
Oil on Canvas
(Same dimensions as Heaven and Earth)

Morning Sunbeams in a sunny bedroom:

Second change of plans:

The daily paintings of cats–I had told you that I would be doing a series of daily paintings, cat portraits. I keep trying to get a start on this project, but my other work is continually beckoning.

I want to make more progress on these multiple-panel landscapes and see if the idea goes anywhere or if it ends up being a temporary experiment…I have to make new work to send to my galleries this spring…I’m planning trips out of town to talk to new art dealers…I’m in charge of organizing my family’s first family reunion in 13 years, which will happen in July…I’m trying really hard to eat well and get enough exercise…I have a household to run and pets to take care of and….blah blah blah. You get it.

I am simply going in too many different directions at once to be a daily painter on top of it all. I think I was too ambitious…most daily painters do one painting a day and post it online for sale. They don’t try to do one painting a day while simultaneously working on 5 ideas for other paintings, supplying galleries with new work, etc. They just do one painting a day. Not that that’s any small feat, which is my point. If I’m going to be a daily painter I can’t do so many other things at the same time.

So here’s the new plan: I will create 20 portraits of cats. I will work as quickly as I can, and I won’t stop until I’ve got 20, but it’ll take as long as it takes. I won’t pressure myself to finish one per day. If I need to focus on a landscape, or on the business side of my work for a few days, I will.

So, enough lengthy explanation.

Here are the first two cats in my series:

Tommy
Acrylic on Canvas
8 x 10″

Skitterbug
Acrylic on Canvas
10 x 8″

And more cat portraits are in progress!

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