Cedar Lee July 29th, 2008

This year, most of my collectors have purchased my work online, so I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting most of them in person, or seeing their homes and offices where the art will hang.  I have a constant, unsatisfied curiosity about where all my sold paintings end up.

So it’s always nice when local collectors buy my work.  This couple recently became collectors of my work, and I was lucky enough to get some photos of them with my art in their home.  Natalie & Scott–I hope you enjoy these paintings for many years.

My garden is going full-force, and we are now producing quite a bit of our own food.  It’s a good thing we like to eat vegetables around here.  In addition to edibles, we also have a variety of flowers in full bloom–my yard seems to be the most colorful one in the neighborhood.  Click here to see some pictures.

My family’s reunion in Tennessee was a smashing success.  The vacation involved a lot of hanging out, games, adventures, discussions, good food and laughter.

Now I’m back in the studio for about a week before I leave town again, this time to house-sit for my parents and get in some hiking time to gather reference material for future paintings.

Speaking of which, it is about the time of year when I try to switch into “fall mode” with my landscapes and tree paintings.  So you can expect more fall colors and themes in my artwork over the next couple of months.  Right now I’m working on some ideas and sketches.  Stay tuned…

• Collectors , Garden
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Cedar Lee June 2nd, 2008

I just got an order for 7 paintings from a woman in Utah who will be opening an art gallery in the fall. In the past year, and in particular the past several months, I have been blessed with sales of my artwork. The most extraordinary thing about all my recent sales is that almost all of them were made by people coming to me–finding me, through word of mouth, through referrals from my collectors, and through the Internet. I don’t have an explanation for this snowball effect–I feel like I really haven’t done much to deserve it.

I keep an Excel file with information about every painting I do, whether or not they are sold and who bought them. Some of the buyers are anonymous mystery collectors–customers of my galleries that never had any personal contact with me. But I have the names of a lot of my collectors too. I’ve only been keeping good records like this for the past 2 and a half years, and regretfully, I never kept any information about paintings I sold before then, or who they went to.

In the past 2 and a half years, though, 41 people (or households, I should say–some are couples or families) have become collectors of my art. 12 of these collectors own more than one of my paintings. I know that some of my paintings have been purchased as gifts for other people. I have also given my art as gifts to many of my family and closest friends. So, I have no idea of the actual number of people in possession of my art, but it’s a lot more than 41.

In the past 12 months, I have sold more than double my sales from the previous 12 months.

If this trend continues in my career, I see my dreams coming true. I will be a success story in a typically brutal and thankless industry. For this, I feel more grateful than words can express.

The moral of the story: if you’ve been on the fence about whether or not to buy a painting from me, do it now while I am still relatively unknown to the public and while my prices are still low. I tell my collectors that art is always a good investment, because they’re getting something they can enjoy every day of their life forever, even if its value never goes up. My art is a good investment for this reason, and also because its value will go up. I am too tenacious for it not to.

I grow my garden with the same tenacity that keeps my art career going, and like my art career, it is now more bountiful than ever before. One of my first harvests of the year: sweet strawberries and crisp white icicle radishes:

More bounty–mulberries from a tree my husband and I found in a local park while walking our dog. The tree was bursting with ripe ones, so we took some!

I’ll have new paintings to show you soon!

• Art Career Happenings , Garden
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Cedar Lee May 19th, 2008

The Art By Cedar Magnet Sampler Packs are in!

Each sampler pack includes six large refrigerator magnets, each one featuring one of my favorite paintings from the “Looking Up” series. Each magnet is about 5.5″ x 4″.

They come in an attractive box and would be suitable as a gift. Individual magnets make great gifts too–it’s just a small thing, but the recipient will enjoy it every day.

Or, you can keep them all for yourself and cover your fridge with beautiful trees!

I’ve sent some of them to my gallery in Havre de Grace, so I have a limited supply in stock. Of course I’ll order more once these sell out, but get yours now for the quickest possible shipment.

Art By Cedar Magnet Sampler Pack: $19.99 apiece

Shipping & Handling Within U.S.:
$4 for 1
$5 for 2
$6 for 3
$7 for 4 or more

———————————————–

If you’re subscribed to my blog via Feedblitz, you’re eligible for free shipping. Just email me and once I verify you are in fact a subscriber, I’ll reply with the secret link (*wink wink*) to purchase them free of shipping charges.

Click here for a few pictures of my garden:

Now, I’ve got some painting to do…

• Art By Cedar Merchandise , Garden
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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 April 28th, 2008

I was recently contacted by some people who have a really tall wall in their house that needs a really tall painting. They’re commissioning a 6-foot-tall, 4-foot-wide painting of a fall tree. I won’t say any more about the plan for the painting (you’ll see that when it’s done.)

This will be one of the largest paintings I’ve ever done, which is exciting. For a painting this large, I have to build the underlying frame and stretch the canvas myself. Building large canvases is an art in itself, so I thought it would be cool to share that process with you.

I made this video explaining how I stretch a canvas:

So, that’s what I’ve been up to.

Also, this past weekend I got my garden mostly planted. I’m going to install a drip irrigation system, which will save me a lot of water and a lot of time this summer. I ordered enough irrigation hoses and connectors to install a low-pressure system in all the garden plots in my front and back yards. I can’t wait for the stuff to arrive in the mail!

My husband and I are going to start riding our bicycles more often. And for the past couple of weeks I’ve been lifting weights. I’m working on incorporating my plans to become ripped into my schedule. We’ll see how that goes.

This is a busy and happy time of year for me!

• Garden , Videos
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Cedar Lee April 12th, 2008

Sorry for the lack of updates–glorious spring is finally here and I’ve been spending more time outside than at my computer. Everything seems to be picking up speed.

My husband and I are working on our garden this weekend. One of my very best friends, Katrina, volunteers at a local horse farm teaching kids to ride once a week. Through her connections, I have scored a free, unlimited source of rich, already composted horse manure, the stuff I call “black gold,” for use in fertilizing my garden. Yesterday we procured 7 giant garbage bags of the stuff, and I have plans to go back for more.

Words can barely describe how giddy I was when I saw this mountain of manure at the horse farm. Ranging from colors of burnt sienna to a near-black charcoal, it is literally as tall as a 2-story building, and free for the taking. With the help of this beautiful addition to my soil, I am confident that I will grow the monster-sized veggies of my dreams this summer.

And, lacking the sheer awe of a 2-story-building-sized heap of composted horse manure, but probably of more interest to you, here’s the thing this post was supposed to be about:

Last night I attended Maryland Art Place’s “Out of Order” art show and silent auction, where I hung my painting “Glowing Water.” This is the third time I’ve taken part in this annual event, and it was fun! I met a lot of other artists.

Here’s me next to my painting:

As you can see, the place was packed:

And there was a lot of excellent art:

And I received many compliments on my work.

I’ll have new paintings to show you in my next update–for now, I’m off to dig in the garden!

• Art Career Happenings , Garden
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Cedar Lee April 4th, 2008

Blossoms, blossoms, everywhere!

This painting began with a photo of the bare branches of the tree in my backyard, like my previous painting “April Cherry Blossoms.” Once I had painted the branches onto the canvas, I proceeded to add an abundance of fluffy blossoms all over the place! The blossoms this time are white–in reality this tree blooms in pink, but I was in the mood for white, hopeful & pure. Gotta love creative license!

Snowy Blossoms
Acrylic on Canvas, 30″ x 24″

The sky in this painting includes colors that range from a very light sky blue to a darker blue with a hint of lilac–you can’t go wrong with cool colors like this! (The Pantone Color Institute, which is the leading authority on color trends, from interior design and fashion to popular colors for cars, has named “Blue Iris” as the official hottest color of 2008.)

I’m fully enjoying the warmer weather. Last weekend my husband and I tackled some landscaping work we’ve been planning for a long time. There’s now a beautiful brick border around the flower bed in the center of our lawn. I’ve been working out every day, and I’m constantly sore but it feels good to be getting in shape. I’m going dancing tonight. And this weekend I’ll be out digging and prepping my garden for planting.

Life is good!

• Garden , New Works: Trees
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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 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.

• Garden , New Works: Portraiture
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Cedar Lee November 21st, 2007

This past month the days have gotten shorter and grayer and colder. The change of seasons, lack of sunshine, and stressful events in my personal life have left me feeling under the weather. But today I’m feeling optimistic and happier than I have in a long time. I’m excited about Thanksgiving tomorrow. (My brother is coming from New York to see me!) In a few short weeks I’ll be going home to visit my parents in North Carolina. When I look outside my window today, I see the fall leaves at the peak of their splendiferous colors.

Here’s Cleveland, my baby Cleveland Pear tree–this is his first autumn in my front yard. (Yes, I realize it’s silly to name a tree, and no, I’m not sure that he’s male, but I don’t think he minds what I call him in any case.)

My new castle wall bricks are finally installed around the beds and my yard is looking much nicer.

I have a wonderful new collector named Julie, who recently bought 11 of my paintings. She was kind enough to send me pictures to show me how she has chosen to display some of them in her home. Click here to see the pictures!

I have painted three more lotus flowers–symbols of spiritual awakening, and for me, personal hope. Life is good.

Lotus IV
Oil on Canvas 20 x 20″

Lotus V
Oil on Canvas 20 x 20″

Lotus VI
Oil on Canvas 20 x 20″

If you’re interested in buying any of these new paintings before Christmas, just contact me for prices. (Blog subscribers get a holiday discount!)

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope you will be enjoying the company of friends and family, eating good food, and celebrating the good things that you have, whatever they may be.

• Collectors , Garden , New Works: Flowers
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