Cedar Lee July 1st, 2009

This week I am in my gorgeous hometown of Asheville, NC for a few days.

Yesterday I visited my gallery in Waynesville, which is a small town about a 40-minute drive west of Asheville.  The area is hopping with culture and tourism, and Twigs and Leaves has a great location on Main Street, which is a fun place to walk around and enjoy interesting shops and good restaurants.

I was at the gallery to touch up 7 of my 9 recent sunflower panels, which had been slightly scuffed around the edges during shipping.  The damage was completely my fault, as I was in such a hurry to get them shipped off that I didn’t wait long enough for the oil paint to set, and it was still tacky.  I should have let them dry for another week.  (Oil paint dries sooo slowly!)  Lesson learned.

So, after several hours of meticulous touch-up work involving color-matching and careful brushstrokes, the paintings were restored to perfect condition.  They look great and are hanging in the front window of the gallery:

Next was a visit to meet one of my collectors in person while I was in the area.  She purchased 9 different sunflower paintings earlier this year and has displayed them in her home in a grid just like the ones above.

Her home, which she and her husband had built to their specifications and just moved into this year, is built of gleaming wood.  It’s architecturally beautiful, with large open spaces, wraparound decks, and big windows facing incredible mountain views.

When you walk in the front door, the first thing you see is my paintings hanging on the wall of their foyer.

The foyer and kitchen are one large open room–this angle is from the kitchen:

Here’s from the top of the staircase:

And here are the happy collectors!

They are very sweet people, and were gracious hosts.  I brought my mom along for the visit and we spent a couple of hours enjoying their company.

That’s me on the left.

So, this week is off to a fantastic start for me, and I still have my baby shower to look forward to later in the week.  My mother and mother-in-law are arranging it, and I can’t wait!  Unlike a traditional baby shower, men will be included.  They are planning to serve great food and it should be a good party.

I probably won’t update again till I’m back home in Baltimore next week.  I’ll leave you with this picture of my 12-year-old brother’s new kitten, Daisy.  She is possibly the cutest kitten I’ve ever met, which is saying a lot since cuteness is one of the defining qualities of kittens.

I hope everyone has a safe and festive 4th of July!

• Art Gallery Representation , Collectors , Family
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Cedar Lee May 11th, 2009

I’m staring at a beautiful blank 40″ x 30″ canvas, the white space rife with possibility.  I know what I’m going to paint on it, but I’m still working out the logistics of the design before I begin.  For now I’ll just say it’s going to be the newest addition to my “Looking Up” tree series!

The latest batch of sunflower paintings has been successfully shipped to the gallery in NC.  The gallery owner loves them, which makes me happy.  She’s sending me a copy of this year’s Waynesville Gallery Association brochure with my sunflower art on the cover, which is to be distributed all over Western North Carolina!

If someone’s going to sell your work for you, first they have to be a fan of it themselves–it’s such an obvious fact, but I remember a time not too long ago when I was so eager to show in any gallery, under any circumstances, that I didn’t even think about that part.

Now that I’ve developed long-term relationships with several galleries, I realize how lucky I am to work with people who relate to me well on a professional as well as a personal level, and believe in me and my work.  The painting I’m about to start is probably going to one of my Maryland galleries when it’s done–more on that later!

My puppy Blake was neutered on Friday.  For months we’ve known with dread that it was coming, and we couldn’t bear to say the word “neuter” in front of him, so we started calling it “his noodles appointment” and it stuck.  We’d say, “Do you think when Blake gets his noodles he’ll stop digging under the fence?” or “Oh Blake, I’m really sorry you have to get your noodles, my sweet little guy.” or in angrier moments, “Blake, you little @*#$!^, you ate my favorite shoes!!!  Boy do I have some noodles for you.”

Blake is now in recovery from his noodles and is doing well.  He has to wear the ridiculous Elizabethan collar, aka lampshade, to keep him from messing with his incision while it heals.  For the first day his eyes were so sad and he walked around with his head down, clumsily bumping his lampshade into things, and it compounded my already terrible guilt at what we’ve done to him.  But now he’s gotten used to wearing it and is acting like his normal self, so it’s not too bad.

I hope everyone had a great Mothers’ Day weekend!  This was the first Mothers’ Day when I could vaguely claim credit for being a mother.  I wasn’t sure if mothers-to-be count or not, but then I remembered the 3 months of nausea, vomiting and fatigue, my carefully orchestrated new diet, and the hours of baby-related research I now do every day, and decided that it totally counts.

• Art Gallery Representation , Art Plans , Family
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Cedar Lee June 27th, 2008

A couple years ago, I did a painting called “Emerald Leaves,” from a photo I took of an old, stately tree in a city park in Venice, Italy. Our trip there was a college graduation present to myself and a second honeymoon for my husband and I. “Emerald Leaves,” as you can guess, included an abundance of leaves in several shades of brilliant green.

The painting I finished yesterday is the same tree, from the same angle, but during the fall. The leaves of the tree are now shades of brown and warm orange.

This painting is going to a brand new gallery out in Utah that is opening in August!

40 x 30″, Oil on Canvas

Russet Leaves

Here’s a video of me painting “Russet Leaves:”

The YouTube link, for you to share with your friends: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCoYrvfixLo

Also for the Utah gallery, I made a near-copy of my previous painting “Daisies.” This version has more vivid colors and a slightly darker background than the original “Daisies.”

18 x 24″ Oil on Canvas

Daisies II

The painting demo event at the gallery last Saturday went great! I got a constant stream of curious visitors all day long.

I’m so grateful for all the people who stopped by to see me–besides the crowds of passing tourists, I was visited by a friend from high school, an employee of the North Carolina Arboretum who suggested I have an art show in their gallery, and a fellow artist, who until this point I had only met online!

At one point my entire family showed up and filled the gallery with boisterous laughter for a couple of hours.

• Art Gallery Representation , New Works: Flowers , New Works: Trees , Videos
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Cedar Lee June 20th, 2008

I’m in sunny Asheville, NC, having a great time with my family.

Tonight was a “Meet the Artist” event at the Twigs and Leaves Gallery. I am one of their 2 “featured artists” this month. The other artist is a jewelry maker who works with silver. She’s very nice and does great work.

Here are a few pictures I took tonight.

Me next to my paintings:

As you can see, they placed my work in a prominent spot, right by the window! Several times I saw people walking down the sidewalk outside pause at the window when they spotted my paintings, walk in the door, and make a beeline for them to get a closer look! This made me happy.

This is one of the most beautiful galleries I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot of galleries.

The spacious rooms, tasteful colors and great lighting complement a staggering variety of original artwork, jewelry, pottery, sculpture, housewares and furniture–all handmade by artists and artisans.

Me with Carrie Keith, one of the gallery’s owners. She is as sweet as she looks!

Tomorrow, (that’s Saturday, the 21st) I’ll be doing painting demos from 10 am to 5 pm at this gallery. People will get to see me in action at the easel, and I will get to answer all of their burning questions about art.

I’ll let you know how it goes!

• Art Gallery Representation
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Cedar Lee May 12th, 2008

I haven’t gotten much painting done lately, mainly because of my two jobs on-the-side (installing art shows at the local arts center and babysitting a little girl.) Both jobs are fun and rewarding, but I’m glad that they are extremely part-time affairs, because I’m feeling the need to spend some serious focused time at the easel.

I have managed to spend enough time painting that I’ve nearly finished the 6′ x 4′ tree I’ve been working on. I’ll put the finishing touches on tomorrow, if all goes well, and I should have it photographed so you can all see it later this week. The huge canvas is taking up my whole studio.

I’ve also been putting together a project that I’m really happy about–within the next couple weeks I will have ArtByCedar Magnet Sampler Packs for sale! Each sampler pack will include 6 different refrigerator magnets, each one featuring one of my favorite tree paintings from my “Looking Up” series.

These magnets are large–about the size of a postcard. They’ll come in an attractive little gift box, so you could give the whole set as a gift, or you could keep your favorites and give out the rest individually to friends and family.

These sampler packs will retail for $19.99 apiece. I’ll be offering free shipping to my blog subscribers. If you know you’ll want several, let me know so I can reserve them for you.

In other news, I cut my hair short for the first time in many, many years. The new hairstyle is really growing on me (no pun intended!)

Last week I made a new necklace. The beads are made of lapis lazuli, iolite, black onyx, sterling silver, and wood.

My garden is really coming along! I think it’ll be pretty spectacular this summer–I’m going to enjoy harvesting tomatoes and peppers in the sunshine, with the scent of herbs and flowers all around me.

Next week I’m getting a wisdom tooth, possibly two, extracted. I’ve never had any kind of dental surgery before (I’ve never even had a cavity as an adult) and I’ve heard horror stories from people I know. I’m absolutely terrified and filled with dread. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Next month I’ll be taking a trip to North Carolina. I’ll be at the Twigs & Leaves Gallery in Waynesville all day on Saturday, June 21, in conjunction with an “Art Walk” event happening in the town that day. I’ll be doing painting demonstrations and talking about my work with all the art lovers passing through.

In July, my family is having a huge reunion in the mountains of Tennessee. I’ve been in charge of planning the whole thing from the beginning, and it’s been a lot more work than I expected, but the plans seem to be coming together nicely and I’m really looking forward to it!

In August, I’m going to Ohio for a week to scout out some galleries. While I’m at it, I’ll be attending a contra dance weekend at a boy scout camp in Indiana with a friend. Then in September, if all goes according to plan, my husband and I will be going to West Virginia for a 3-day whitewater rafting and camping trip with a group of our buddies.

I’ve been doing a workout routine and actually sticking to it, and I feel great! My arms are definitely less noodley than they were a few weeks ago.

• Art By Cedar Merchandise , Art Gallery Representation , Art Studio , Garden , Jewelry
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Cedar Lee March 13th, 2008

I haven’t updated in awhile–life has just been speeding by!

I signed with a new gallery this week, the Premiere Fine Arts Gallery in Lambertville, New Jersey, owned and operated by Anthony Mustello.

This means I now have regular representation by 4 galleries. (“Regular representation” just means that they sell my paintings continuously and always have some of my artwork in stock–as opposed to a one-time showing.) So, that’s 4 business relationships I have now–relationships I must value and maintain.

My career is picking up speed as I become more established as a professional in my field. Of course I’m happy about that–I’m thrilled to share my talents with the world and to receive recognition for my work, and I’m so thankful for the income my art brings in. But at the same time, I am feeling the pressure to maintain a standard of quality in my work, and to spend enough hours on my artwork so that I am constantly creating something new and exciting.

I think I’m at a time in my life where I’m in the thick of it, so I can’t step back and see how well I’m doing (or not.) It just feels hard–and like I’m always falling behind and never up to my own standards.

However, that’s how I felt during my entire senior year of college too, and I came out of that with lots of experience, lots of friends, and a 4.0 GPA, achieving honors in my major. So, I’m going to just nurture my faith in myself and my work, and try to stay focused on my long-term vision without letting it make me too serious. At least, that’s the goal.

Anyway, here are a couple new pieces for you to see:

Mocha the Huntress
Acrylic on Canvas 8″ x 10″

(Reference photo courtesy of Ashley Van Alstyne–thank you Ashley for letting me use your beautiful photo!)

And this next one mimics the basic composition of my painting “Radiant Sky” but is actually quite different from that one.

The word ethereal means: characterized by lightness and insubstantiality; intangible. This painting turned out so airy and sunny. It looks like such a perfect day that it’s only halfway in the real world, and halfway in the realm of imagination.

So it’s titled: Ethereal Day
Acrylic on Canvas 24″ x 20″

I have been told before that I would be good at painting the scenery on theater sets, because my work sometimes has a dramatic, storybook quality. I think this painting definitely has that.

This past week I’ve done extensive modifications to one of my existing paintings, Upward Momentum. The collectors who are buying the painting were torn between this one and another one, but this one is bigger and they wanted the bigger size because they’re moving into a new home with lots of blank walls. So I made some changes to the painting to make it more like the other one they liked (Towering Trunk.)

Here’s the old version of the painting:

And here’s the new version:

As you can see, the composition remained the same, but everything else is now quite different. I like the new version a lot better–my favorite part is the beautiful highlights on the trunk of the biggest tree.

In other news, I’ve started germinating some of the seeds for my garden. Perhaps only fellow gardeners will appreciate the level of sheer giddy excitement I feel when I look on my windowsill and see this:

• Art Gallery Representation , Garden , New Works: Nature & Misc. , New Works: Portraiture , New Works: Trees
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Cedar Lee August 8th, 2007

I’ve been reading a little about lotus flowers lately, and was inspired to paint them. The lotus is such an amazing plant. Lotus flowers symbolize many things, including divine beauty, purity, love (romantic & non), faithfulness, and expansion of the soul. You see them a lot in Buddhist and Hindu art. The lotus is a metaphor for the light of the human soul transcending the darkness that surrounds it. It grows out of a mucky, scummy, vile swamp but is pure, clean and vibrant, perfectly symmetrical, delicate and fragrant. Every part of the lotus plant is edible. The seeds can lie dormant for hundreds of years and then be successfully germinated! Read more about lotuses…

Here are three new paintings for you. They are meant to be displayed together, but look great by themselves too. I love how they turned out and I plan to do more like them. They are all 20″ x 20″, Oil on Gallery-Wrapped Canvas.

Lotus I

Lotus II

Lotus III

Great news! I am now officially represented by three galleries. On Monday, I signed with the Canton Gallery in Baltimore. They have nine of my paintings on hand and I’ve promised them three more by September.

I met the owner, Carolyn, and the resident framing expert, Mercedes. I really clicked with them…both of these ladies are friendly, knowledgeable, passionate about art, and generally fun to be around. I’m really happy to have started such a great new business relationship, and the best part is they’re local, so delivering new artwork to them is not a big deal.

If you live in the Baltimore area, check them out! It’s a small, cozy gallery near the inner harbor.

Canton Gallery
2935 ODonnell Street
Baltimore, MD 21224
(410) 342-6176

In other news, I went whitewater rafting for the first time this weekend. We went 80 miles down the New River Gorge in West Virginia. The area is known as one of the top five spots in the world for whitewater rafting. These were quite possibly the most beautiful mountains I’ve ever seen in my life–the river cut through rock faces climbing up 50 feet in the air, and above that, mountains upon mountains straight up. The air was full of blue mist. I can’t even come close to describing it.

The trip took 9 hours, including a lunch break. Most of the rapids were class 3 but one of them was class 5 because the rocks were so close together. Certain parts were so scary I could hear my own heart pounding in my ears. At one point I climbed to the top of and jumped off a 21-foot cliff into the water. At certain points they let us jump off the raft and swim with the rapids. Then there were more peaceful parts where the water was calmly drifting and we just floated along.

The water was warm and the weather was perfect. All in all, it was incredible and I really want to go again. I might go again in the fall or the spring, when the water is higher and the rapids are all class 5.

There was one part where they had a photographer waiting on a rock to snap our picture. Here’s the picture. (I’m second from the front on the left side.)

• Adventures , Art Gallery Representation , New Works: Flowers
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Cedar Lee July 5th, 2007

This is just a quick little entry today. I feel like I’ve barely had time to think this week…I have to look at my calendar to tell you what day it is and what I’m supposed to be doing. Last Saturday we went out of town for a family event and got home very late Saturday night.

Then I hung my show on Sunday morning and had my opening on Sunday night. It was fun! (I didn’t get any good pictures because by the time I remembered to take pictures, the place was closing and we were getting kicked out. I’m sorry!) The show looks good though, I met some new people, and everything went pretty smoothly. The paintings will be up all month, so if you’ll be in the DC area anytime in July you can still go see them.

Monday, my mother-in-law came to visit, and my husband, dog and I all went camping with her in Pennsylvania. I hadn’t been camping in a long time, and I really enjoyed it. Sleeping on the ground was remarkably comfortable, and poking at a campfire, listening to birds, and breathing clean air was all so peaceful. Now I want to go camping again, but for longer next time.

So we got home from camping last night and watched fireworks. We just watched some little local ones from our front yard, and didn’t have a very good view of them, but still. Today, my friend from out of town was visiting and I spent most of the day catching up with her.

All of this time I have had this blank canvas sitting on my easel staring at me, and simply haven’t had time to paint anything on it.

I’ve got a meeting with a new gallery lined up a few weeks from now, to show them some artwork in person. The problem is I don’t have any artwork. My house is usually crammed full of artwork, paintings filling all available wall space and even stacked on the floor in my back room. At the moment though, pretty much all of my inventory is either displayed in a show, or up for sale in art galleries–which is a good thing. But now I have to do a lot of painting in a short amount of time, and it needs to get done whether I have out-of-town visitors or not, no matter what else is going on in my life, whether I feel inspired to paint or not.

Sooo….that’s where I am right now. I have this long to-do list of tasks that are small but still annoying, like “get eyeglasses repaired” and “take dog to vet for vaccine” and “buy whatever thing we’re out of.” I need to take care of all these annoying but necessary errands and chores that have been accumulating on top of everything else, and I’m feeling generally tired and frazzled, so maybe I should meditate or something.

But after I meditate, I’m gonna paint.

• Adventures , Art Gallery Representation , Life
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Cedar Lee May 23rd, 2007

So, I just signed with a new art gallery! It’s called Twigs and Leaves and it’s located in Waynesville, NC, about 35 minutes from Asheville in the heart of the beautiful Western North Carolina mountains.

Visit their website

They sell all kinds of artwork (paintings, sculptures) as well as jewelry, handmade furniture, pottery, and other crafts. They’re located on Waynesville’s Main Street, along with several other art galleries and different types of shops. It’s a nice place to take a walk. I went all up and down the whole street, and Twigs and Leaves stands out from the crowd. It’s really a beautiful gallery–excellent lighting, a clean, sunny atmosphere, and 2 floors with lots of wall space. The owners, Carrie and John Keith, are truly nice people, and I’m happy to start this business partnership with them.

They should have some of my paintings up on the wall by next week, so if you live in the WNC area, you ought to pay them a visit if you get the chance.

And if you don’t live in the WNC area, and you feel like taking a vacation, Western North Carolina is where it’s at! The Blue Ridge mountains are breathtaking, (you may notice they are one of my big inspirations) the people are friendly, and the atmosphere is thoroughly charming.

I’m working hard. New paintings coming soon…stay tuned…

• Art Gallery Representation
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Cedar Lee March 23rd, 2007

This painting is of my vivacious young cousin, Karen. It is a gift for her Bat Mitzvah celebration, which is coming up in April.

Progress on our kitchen is nerve-wracking at times, but steady. We have the new floor in and the wall cabinets hung, and we’re currently dealing with some plumbing issues. There is also a bit more electrical tweaking to do, and a lot of cosmetic work. But I think we will really see the results of our labor over the next couple of weeks, as things slowly come together.

Next week, I’m delivering 2 huge paintings to be hung at the new gallery that’s representing me. Hopefully they will sell…what do you think? =)

• Art Gallery Representation , Home Improvement , New Works: Portraiture
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