Cedar Lee 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.

• New Works: Portraiture , New Works: Trees
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Cedar Lee 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!

• Art Plans , New Works: Nature & Misc. , New Works: Portraiture
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Cedar Lee December 14th, 2007

I just finished another portrait. I’m so happy with this one!

Erika
20 x 20″ Acrylic on Canvas

Want to watch Erika as she emerges from the canvas?

Here’s the YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otH4kSqZmvc

Or just watch it here:

I’m working on something potentially cool. I’ll keep you posted.

• New Works: Portraiture , Videos
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Cedar Lee December 5th, 2007

Three new portraits today! They are all acrylics, on 9 x 12″ gallery-wrapped canvases.

The first one is called “Hot Date 1954.” Here’s the reference photo I was given–as you can see, I had the challenge of taking a black-and-white reference photo and putting it into color on the canvas.

And the painting:

Detail:

The next one is called “Kurt and His Dad.” This photo was taken on Kurt’s wedding day.

The reference photo:

The painting:

Detail:

The last one is called “Millie” and my reference photo is another black-and-white. I’m not sure how long ago the photo was taken, but I know this striking young woman is a grandmother now.

I made a video of this one, so you can watch me paint it from start to finish!

And here’s the YouTube link, if you’d like to email it to your friends:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcXJsLHMe1o

It turns out that today’s snow is the just-enough-to-be-slushy-and-hazardous sort. Oh well. There’s plenty more winter ahead.

• New Works: Portraiture , Videos
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Cedar Lee October 31st, 2007

Here’s another pet portrait I just finished–a sweet cocker spaniel who was a loyal friend for 16 years. He passed away this year and is dearly missed by his people.

Boomer
12″ x 16″ Acrylic on Canvas

I think in this painting he looks like he is in “dog heaven,” complete with sunshine, grass, dandelion fluff, butterflies and ladybugs.

This week I got my copies in the mail of Zahir, the literary arts journal that features one of my paintings, Mountain Storm, on the cover of its Winter 2007 issue. It looks great! It makes me want to look into doing book cover illustrations.

I’m working on some more fall-themed paintings. My “Autumn Palette” is really growing on me–orange, red, yellow, brown….rust, pewter, olive green. I’m using a lot of earth tones straight out of their tubes…raw umber, burnt umber, raw sienna, burnt sienna…you name it.

I hope you all had a lovely Halloween. This is the first year in a long time I didn’t bother to dress up or go anywhere…probably because it fell on a Wednesday this year. Instead, I lit candles and hunkered down in my house and ate pizza and watched TV with my husband.

I got all the partying out of my system this past weekend, when I went to New York City to visit my brother. He took me out with ten of his friends to sing karaoke, and we didn’t get back to his apartment till after 5 am. I never considered myself a karaoke fan, but it was so much fun!

• Family , New Works: Portraiture , Publicity & News
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Cedar Lee September 27th, 2007

Here’s a portrait of a beautiful and well-loved dog named Rainy.

Rainy in the Sun
16″ x 12″ Acrylic on Canvas

I’ve been spending a lot of time in my head lately. I’m reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell and it’s fascinating.

This weekend I’ll be hiking about 20 miles through the mountains of western Maryland with my husband and friends. We’re going to hike in, camp out for one night, then hike out. I’m not the one planning it, so I’m not sure exactly what trail(s) we are doing, but we are going to sleep in hammocks. We’ll have to find a stream for water and boil it so it’s safe to drink. This will be my first time backwoods camping. I’m definitely going to eat well and sleep well before venturing out on this expedition!

I’ve got home improvement projects on my mind–I’m slowly but surely working up the momentum to get my bedroom painted, and to work on some landscaping in my yard before the weather turns cold.

Speaking of cold weather, if you’d like to commission a painting from me and have it in time to give as a Christmas or Hanukah gift, now is the time to talk to me.

Nothing makes a more unique and memorable gift than a work of original art, custom-made with one special person’s tastes and interests in mind. (Believe me, I know–I’ve given this type of gift a lot over the years!)

If (and only if) you are subscribed to this blog, you are eligible for a discount on Holiday Season Commissions–so subscribers, ask and you shall receive! (Email me for info.)

• Fun With Friends , New Works: Portraiture
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Cedar Lee September 17th, 2007

Here is a new painting, a commission. This is Buddy, a sweet canine soul who passed away several months ago and is dearly missed by his family. I could tell by looking at his photo that he was indeed a great “buddy.”

Buddy 16″ x 12″ Acrylic on Canvas

It’s a sad fact of life that dogs don’t live as long as people…they are such good friends to us and it is so hard to lose them when they die. But for the time that we have them with us, they make things better in so many ways.

On a recent trip to WNC (Western North Carolina) to drop off new artwork at my gallery in Waynesville, my husband and I took my little brother and sister and some of their friends camping for a night. My husband took this photo of my youngest brother (16 years my junior) with our dog, Clara.

How could I not be a dog person?

I want to share one more picture with you. I worked for a jewelry company for many years before I went full-time with my painting, and I still design a lot of my own jewelry. Here is a necklace I designed for my friend Leann, to wear on her wedding day. It’s made of freshwater pearls, garnet, black onyx, swarovski crystal, and sterling silver. (Her dress is going to be white with black and red accents.)

September 20th will be the 10-year anniversary of the day I met my husband, Kevan!
And the 23rd is the autumnal equinox!

It is really starting to feel like autumn now, where I live. The air has been cool and clear, the sun and the blue sky have taken on that crisp, intensely bright quality, and more and more trees are starting to change color. There’s been a cool breeze, and I’ve been listening to my wind chimes. Change is literally in the air.

In anticipation of colder weather, I did a little research and discovered a new & superior way of making hot chocolate. You won’t see me using any of those silly cocoa mixes this winter. I’ll be getting bricks of high-quality dark chocolate, grating them, and melting them in a pot of milk (or soymilk) with cinnamon and a dash of cayenne for that Aztec punch.

Sorry for the lack of updates lately…I’ve been seriously neglecting my blog. The combination of a business trip, automotive woes, home improvement projects, re-evaluation of finances, and hosting of a party on top of all my usual work & home responsibilites has put “updating my website” on the back-burner these past weeks. But it’s temporary. (I think.)

• Delicious Food & Drink , Jewelry , New Works: Portraiture , Pets
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Cedar Lee May 10th, 2007

Mothers Day is this Sunday…don’t forget to call your mom!

My own mom is an expert in all things motherly…she is currently a nurse who works with new mothers and babies, and she will be a midwife when she gets her Masters in midwifery. She taught childbirth classes for years, and used to run a home business as a supplier of baby products. Have a question about vaccinating your child? Cloth diapers vs. disposable? Nutrition for little ones? She’s the one to ask.

More impressive than all of this, though: she had 5 kids (of whom I was the first) and has spent many many years making sure we have everything we need, teaching us, talking to us, and loving us unconditionally. Here are the fruits of her labor:

This is a portrait commission that is being given as a Mothers Day gift:

Erin & Her Mom 20″ x 20″

The woman on the left is Erin, who was my best friend in 7th grade. When I moved away from her, we fell out of touch, and last year I found her on Myspace. (The Internet is awesome!) The woman on the right is her lovely mother.

Here is a work in progress that’s been sitting untouched on my easel for the past few days:

I’m not sure what it needs exactly, before it’s finished…but it will have to wait, at least until after this weekend.

We are in the final dramatic throes of our kitchen remodel. Being overeager, last week I scheduled a party for this Saturday night–to celebrate the finished kitchen, it will be a cooking party, followed by eating and movies. So now we are scrambling desperately to meet this looming deadline. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited about the party, but who knew the tiling would take me so long?!) It turns out the “finishing touches” are more work than we had thought. So that’s why I’ve been neglecting this blog so badly.

Once this all blows over–well, things will still be crazy, but at least I will stop talking about my kitchen.

And I will be able to start spending more hours in the studio again.

• Family , Home Improvement , New Works: Portraiture , Works in Progress
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Cedar Lee April 10th, 2007

Lots and lots of things are going on in my life right now. If you are one of the lucky people subscribed to my blog, you’ll have maybe noticed this. Here are a few of the things happening this week:

Finished another portrait commission: a beautiful red-headed lass by the name of Zoe Baumgartner Brown.

Zoe
16 x 12″ Acrylic on Canvas

We are making huge progress on our kitchen remodeling! The countertops were installed yesterday. We still have to hook up the plumbing, install new electric sockets, do all the tiling, baseboards, and other trim work, install a few more components on the cabinets, put shelves in the pantry, and other minor cosmetic things. Then we can set up the fridge and the range and start moving our dishes, food, small appliances, etc. back in! So there are still a few more weeks till we’re back to normal, but the end is in sight.
Click here to see photos!

We are throwing away our old sofa! It’s ancient, has been through a lot, and is really quite disgusting if you look closely. But I’m not one to waste, so I decided to take some of the old cushions and build a tiny dog sofa out of them for Clara. She loves it!

I know everyone thinks their own pets are cuter than everybody else’s, but come on, really. Clara’s cuteness can just be too much sometimes.

Just one more thing I want to share with you today. If you’re not an artist, this may help you understand some of what goes on inside us. I recently posed this question to some of my artist friends:

It seems to me that most of the time, getting to the point where I decide to paint and actually making myself START something is like, SO much harder than the actual painting part. Painting is easy once I start.

The exception to this rule would be when I’m in a creative frenzy and completely excited and inspired, in which case it’s easy to start painting….this does happen to me, but only occasionally.

It seems like I generally put as much or more effort into thinking/dreaming about what I’ll paint, and analyzing the possibilities, than I put into the part where I’m actually applying paint to the canvas.

Any of my painter friends ever feel this way too?

Here are a few of the responses I received:

Figuring out what to do, planning/sketching, takes just as long as really completing it! A lot of planning, time, and energy goes into the composition and details so it comes out looking polished in the end.

I sometimes find myself spending more time looking at what inspires me to paint than the actual process of painting. I have to kind of kick myself in the butt and tell myself to just get down to my studio and paint and stop thinking about everything I want to paint.
When I do get in the mode of painting though, everything is good and usually amazing things are happening. I just need to stay focused more on bodies of work and not jump around so much between so many mediums and things that interest me. I sometimes feel that I’m a young boy again and the world is my candy store. Completely overwhelming, in a good way though.

I keep a large file box of inspirational/reference pictures…magazine pictures, greeting cards, wrapping paper, old calendars, my own photos. When I am stuck I browse through my box and can usually find some element that will spark my interest. Most often I will find an element in several pictures that come together as a new concept. I am convinced the act of daily painting will ultimately bring out “our best” in painting. So, I have recently committed to the act of daily painting or drawing. (Most of which nobody will ever see.) The more I paint the easier it is to get started on the next …then LIFE throws me an interruption and I get all rusty and have to START again. I think that is the way it is supposed to be.

I spend hours and days stressing and beating myself up over starting a painting. For some reason it feels like the most difficult thing ever to just begin the damn painting. And it seems like at the most inconvenient times (like when I’m at work) is when I actually feel motivated enough to create something. It truly kills me, especially when I have nothing else to do and I feel like I should be spending all of my time creating art.

• General Ramblings About Art, Creativity, Philosophy , Home Improvement , New Works: Portraiture , Pets
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Cedar Lee March 27th, 2007

So I figured out how to add polls to my blog, and I’m really excited about it. Take this poll!

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Speaking of colors, here is a little painting I did today (8 x 10″) called “Summer in Technicolor.”

The weather was absolutely gorgeous today–almost 80 degrees and sunny! I walked by this awesome apple tree on my block that is blooming early. It was this huge explosion of pink and white–by far the prettiest tree I’ve seen in a long time. Today I also got a haircut and a new sun dress. Ahhhh, springtime!

• New Works: Portraiture , Polls
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