Cedar Lee December 30th, 2008

This is what my studio looks like today.  The gigantic canvas on the floor is something I just started.  It’s on the floor because it’s too big for my easel or any of my available walls.

I’m working on the under-painting, just the very first layers of color, which will serve as a base for the painting.  By the time I finish the painting, it will look very different.

This is going to be the newest addition to my Cosmic Dance Series.  But this one is different–for this one, I’ve taken four separate canvases, two 24″ x 36″s and two 24″ x 30″s, and attached them together to make one large canvas, 48″ x 66″.  They are not firmly attached yet, but eventually I will bolt them together into one solid piece.  If you look closely you can see the seams.

As I prepare to start my New Year, I’m feeling thankful for my little studio.

It’s true that I could use a bit more space–more storage, a workshop area for building canvases and frames, a shop sink and bigger windows–and someday I’ll have the studio of my dreams, with all of these things.

But for now, this will do just fine.

This is my place of business but also my beloved sanctuary.  It’s where the magic happens.

New Year’s Eve is tomorrow!  Are you excited?

I realize that the dates on the calendar are somewhat arbitrary, and there are other calendars that place their New Years elsewhere.  Technically we could choose any day of the year, celebrate what has happened in the past and decide to start fresh from that day forward.  In fact, that would probably be a healthy way to live.

But it’s all too easy, after months of hard work and play, everyday chores, and the constant busy stream of my thoughts, for me to lose perspective on my life.  So I see the New Year as a great opportunity for renewal.

I’m going to be doing some serious de-cluttering and re-focusing this week.  I’m going to take the time to feel good about all I’ve done this year, and also to be honest with myself about the areas (in my artwork, my business practice, and my personal life) that need improvement.  I’m pretty psyched about making a clean slate for myself.  I think it’s just what I need right now.

Happy New Year, everybody!

• Art Studio , Works in Progress
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Cedar Lee December 3rd, 2008

Okay–the next question from my Art FAQ list is “How do I get this home?”

Finally, a question with a simple answer!

If you are local to me (within an hour’s drive) I have no problem either arranging a convenient pick-up time for you or delivering and installing the work in your home for free. This is a nice thing I like to do, especially for people who don’t have a vehicle large enough to transport the work themselves.

If you are not local, I will ship you the artwork. Depending on the size of the artwork, shipping may cost anywhere from about $10 (for a small piece) to $100 and up if you are buying very large pieces. If a person buys multiple pieces, I often provide a discount on shipping or sometimes even free shipping.

For large pieces, I always build custom shipping crates. I pad all the edges of the painting with a type of foam tubing normally used for insulating copper pipes.

Then I build a crate that fits very snugly around the edges of the painting so it cannot shift at all. I use pine 1x2s or 1x3s for the 4 edges and Masonite hardboard for the front and back. I assemble it all with wood screws.

When the painting reaches its owner, he or she simply removes a few screws to open the crate.

I started using this method for shipping artwork a few years ago when I read a helpful tutorial by a fellow artist in one of my online art communities.

Click to read his tutorial:

For small pieces, I still usually pad the edges of the work with foam, but I will build a box out of sheets of cardboard instead of a wooden crate.

Never has one of my paintings failed to reach its destination safely.

When buying from any responsible art gallery, getting the artwork home should likewise be an easy process—it is standard for galleries to arrange for shipping or delivery of large artwork for a reasonable fee.

But once you get it home, how do you hang it? Next time I’ll explain in detail my simple formula for hanging any piece of wall art at eye level!

In personal news…

I recently went to New York City for 4 days to visit my brother.  It was awesome!  We saw a great improv comedy show, ate falafel and pizza, and went shopping for books and candy.

This is me with the brother in question, circa last year:

During my trip, I lost my glasses somewhere in the buzzing hive of the city.  There’s no telling what happened–did they slide out of my purse onto the floor of a shop or restaurant when I pulled out my wallet?  Were they crushed under hundreds of feet in the crowded subway?  I only need glasses for driving and watching movies, but they were my only pair.

I have since been to the eye doctor and ordered new glasses, which I will get this week.  The new frames I picked out are snazzy and stylish, and I’m pretty excited about them.  This time I am also getting a cheap backup pair.

While I was in New York, I also managed to pick up a nasty cold virus, which flattened me for several days last week and still has a grip on me, although I’m out of bed and working now.  Sadly, I missed Thanksgiving day with my husband’s family because I was sick.

My puppy, now going on 5 months old, has suddenly become more destructive than ever before.  My vet predicted that he was about to enter a bad “chewing phase.”  Apparently this is typical, although I don’t remember it being this bad with my first dog.

Oh man.  He has begun chewing on the corners of all the books on the bottom 2 shelves of my bookshelf.  He destroyed his own bed, pulling out all the stuffing.  He is methodically pulling up strands of fiber out of the rugs and chewing them.  He steals clothing from the hamper and chews on it–heaven forbid we forgetfully drape a shirt over the back of a chair!  He has now started stealing brushes and tools from my studio.  He found and destroyed all my wooden coasters.  He even ate my chapstick.

The only thing keeping me patient is the knowledge that he is just a teething baby, and it’s temporary, and he will respond to our training if we are consistent.

Ahh!  Stress!!  C’est la vie.  Christmas is coming up and I am feeling the crunch of deadlines.  I’m just going to be as productive as I possibly can this month, and that will have to be good enough.  I’m working on a couple commissions as well as additions to some of my ongoing series.

Here are a couple pictures of my studio today:

Canvases awaiting paint.

Messy desk.

I seem to have a lot going on at once right now.  I’ll have new paintings to show you soon!

• Art Studio , Information for Artists & Art Lovers , Pets
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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 January 21st, 2008

I know I haven’t been keeping in touch the past couple of weeks–I’m just in a state of flux.

I’m thinking about maybe becoming a “daily painter.” There is a whole community of daily painters online–artists who complete a small painting each day and post a picture of it online for sale the same day. I don’t know if I could do this–I guess the idea isn’t so scary if I’m working on a small scale, so I might try it and see how it goes. It would be cool to have something new to show everyone every day. Right now it’s just an idea that I’m entertaining.

If I become a daily painter, I’ll have to make sure I still have time to simultaneously work on my larger paintings. Do you remember the 2 landscapes I did last month, on multiple panels? I’m continuing on that idea of multiple panels. I have lots of ideas but I need to work on actualizing the things floating around in my mind. I’m feeling generally challenged and frustrated, like I’m in a total rut. I’ve done this long enough to realize that my “rut” is probably a sign of artistic growth, and I need to push through to the other side, where my art will eventually be richer in meaning and more polished in execution.

We’re in the process of moving all our clothes, furniture, etc. out of the bedroom so we can paint the walls a steely blue, install new baseboards, outlets and switches. We’re considering knocking all the shelves out of our closets and replacing them with large wardrobes. I’m going to paint over the ceiling mural above our bed:

and maybe replace it with a cooler ceiling mural–I’m not sure yet.

We bought our house when I was 20–I was recently looking at pictures from the time when we had just moved in. It’s amazing how drastically our home has improved over the past 6 years. I’m glad we’re the type of people that take a hundred photographs of every mundane detail of our lives. It makes it really obvious how much progress happens through the simple passage of time. Sometimes I need that reminder that if I just keep working, good things will definitely happen.

For example, here is what my “studio” looked like in 2001. (I’m not kidding.)

And here is my studio today!

I’ve started my belly dancing classes and I’m kind of excited about it. I bought 2 jingly coin-belt hip scarves on eBay, one black and one crimson. They’re not here yet. I can’t say I’m anything close to graceful at this point, because we’ve only had one class and we’re just learning how to isolate certain muscle groups and control the movements of our ankles, knees, and hips. But even if I never get good at it, it’s still fun.

I’m making a list of galleries I want to check out as possibilities for new places to sell my work in the coming year.

We decided to take our dog to a holistic vet. He told us a lot of things that I already knew intuitively, but needed to hear from someone knowledgeable. Now I feel much more confident about taking good care of my dog. He advised us to change her diet, so now instead of dog food, she eats mostly free-range chicken, beans, rice and veggies. She eats better than a lot of people I know! We’ve only been doing this for a little more than a week. The vet says it will help her maintain a healthy weight, give her more energy and a shiny coat, improve her overall health and extend her life by years. She sure is happy at dinnertime these days.

• Art Studio , General Ramblings About Art, Creativity, Philosophy , Pets
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Cedar Lee January 26th, 2007

Here’s another portrait: Kenna. This one was challenging at times, but I think I’m pleased with it.

The reference photo:

The painting:

This painting is 16″ x 12″. I’ve been doing smaller portraits lately. (Which is probably a good thing, since I was getting out of hand, painting enormous heads on enormous canvases. In one of my portraits, the person’s face was 27″ tall. Sheesh.) But to go along with my shift towards sanity in portrait-painting, I had to get some tiny paintbrushes, of course. I have 5 new paintbrushes with nearly microscopic bristles, and I’m really excited about them.

My friend and mentor Ron Ogle, who has generously given me guidance for years, sent me this advice in an email:

Have you considered TONING your white canvases – with, say, 2 parts yellow ochre and one part ‘light red?’ -thereby, as did Rembrandt, establishing middle flesh tones – before painting- which helps one get an even skin tone and, with practice, makes for more efficient painting. [[As if you need to paint faster...]] Where the toned canvas is close enough to desired flesh color it is left unpainted…. [ SEE REMBRANDT. FOREVER LOOK TO REMBRANDT. ]

In the past, I have experimented with toning my canvas before painting, and with portraits especially, I have noticed that it can be helpful. I think I’m going to do that from now on, and I was thinking that if I could figure out a persons average skin tone and use that as my starting point, it’d help even more. Then I wouldn’t have to continually mix the same color.

I’m pretty good at color mixing, but even so, it’s can be really hard to get skin tones exactly right. People have all kinds of weird colors in their skin that you wouldn’t expect…lime green, neon blue, all shades of purple, yellow, cool gray, warm gray, you name it. If you take it just a little too far with one of these intense colors, you end up with mayhem: an otherwise beautiful woman with a bright orange blotch on her cheek, or an unsightly green moustache, or a sickly pallor to her skin. But if you get it just right, with that vivid color incorporated in a subtle way, you get magic. Like realism but just a little better.

I’ve been thinking that toning my canvas might allow me to incorporate such colors while still keeping them in check, as I’d have that nice even skin tone to compare other colors with as I paint.

So I’m painting my next portrait on a toned canvas:

People have expressed interest in seeing more photos of my studio. It is after all, where I spend most of my life lately, so I figured I would share this lovely view of the wall that holds my excellent shelves. They have been invaluable in helping me stay organized, and it it’s possible to feel something as strong as love for a shelf, I would say that I love them.

Notice also my lucky bamboo. It makes me happy daily. I am finding that simple little things like this incorporated in my studio make it a much nicer work environment.

• Art Studio , General Ramblings About Art, Creativity, Philosophy , New Works: Portraiture
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Cedar Lee January 16th, 2007

The Poets & Painters event on Saturday night was a success! I met a few other working painters in my area and made some new friends and valuable contacts. It was a night of poetry and music, and my senses were overloaded even during the parts when I was not painting on stage.

As for the painting part, I felt like I really had no idea what I was doing, but on the upside, this freed me to experiment. At times it was really challenging–how do you take a piece of music that is going so fast you can’t keep track of the lyrics, or a poem that covers very abstract ideas, and use that input as inspiration for a painting, as you are listening to it?

Me, listening hard:

Some of the time, visuals popped into my head as I listened to the performers, and I just went with that, attempting to paint what I saw in my head. Whenever I drew a blank, I just tried to paint how I was feeling, by use of certain colors or brushstrokes (for example, frenetic vs. calm energy, passion vs. sadness, etc.) I was working under time constraints–the rules said I had to start a new painting every time a new poem or song began, and this gave me literally less than 5 minutes to work on most of the paintings. This yielded some interesting results–some paintings that were very uncharacteristic of my usual style, and some that felt more like doodles to me than completed artworks.

But the crowd was really excited to see me paint.  I got lots of applause, which made my heart flutter! I sold 2 of the pieces I made that night, and all-in-all, it was a lot of fun. I will probably do it again.

I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed this week. My husband has a cold, and I’ve been trying to keep him supplied with medicine, juice, soup and hugs. My dog threw up everything she ate yesterday and hasn’t eaten yet today, and I’m worried about her. I’ve got a huge pile of paperwork waiting on my desk, and I’m trying to keep up with getting orders for posters out quickly. I have 10 portrait commissions lined up at the moment, for which I am so truly grateful, but as you must know if you too are a busy person, being swamped with business sometimes makes you feel frazzled!

I am looking forward to the springtime!  I just can’t get it off my mind. I’m probably affected by spring fever more than anyone I know–I get it bad, starting at the beginning of winter, and lasting all through spring almost until summer. My dreams lately are filled with things like long days spent outdoors, warm breezes, twittering birds, and healthy little buds and shoots popping out of trees and dirt. Every year, the springtime jump-starts my creative energy, filling my mind with imagery and great ideas for paintings.

Every year, I never even realize quite how dead I was feeling all winter, until the springtime makes me feel like I’m coming back to life. Maybe you can relate? Maybe I’m just being melodramatic. *sigh* (Silly melodramatic artists!)

Here is a peek at what’s going on in my studio today:

• Art Career Happenings , Art Studio , General Ramblings About Art, Creativity, Philosophy , Life
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