New Painting! - Chinese Wood Dragon

 

"Chinese Wood Dragon" - Watercolor and Gouache on paper - 15" x 11.5

 

He's done!  The Chinese Wood Dragon is done.  I am really excited by how he turned out.  I still have Fire and Metal left to do so those are my next couple projects.  After that I have a new commission for a Judaic piece.  I'm looking forward to that because it's been a while since I did any Judaica.

 

Also if you haven't noticed I'm running a give-away on my blog where I'm giving away free magnets with my art.  I'm very happy so many people are participating and it really shows me that I should probably make more art magnets for the Boneyard Arts Festival.

Here's a quick link to the give-away for those of you who haven't seen the magnets yet.  http://blog.shoshannabauer.com/want-to-win-a-magnet-with-my-art

 

Chinese Wood Dragon (c) 2012 Shoshanna Bauer All Rights Reserved

Want to win a magnet with my art?

 

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I created some magnets with a new printer and I was so pleased with how nice they turned out that I decided to give them away! I only have nine free magnets so if you want to win one here's how you can get a chance:

 

1. Comment on my blog, Facebook or Twitter  = 1 entry EACH

2. Add me on my Facebook page http://www.facebyook.com/ShoshannaBauerArt
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ShoshannaBauer
Or subscribe to my blog: http://blog.shoshannabauer.com = 1 entry EACH

3. Share, or retweet this post = 1 entry  

Each person has a chance of earning up to 6 entries! 

The contest ends Tuesday February 21, 2012 at 10:00pm CST  

**I will announce the winners on my blog so make sure you are subscribed!**

Feel free to email me with any questions regarding the contest.

Progress pic- Chinese Wood Dragon

My cat Bear likes this one. I'm not quite finished yet and I still need to put in a background.

Progress pic- Chinese Wood Dragon

13/50 Paintings in 50 Days - Wishing for Sun

"Wishing for Sun II" - Watercolor and Gouache on Paper -11.5" x 15"

Happy Valentines Day!
Here's a little update on my 50 Days Project.  Today is officially day number 41 and I have 13 paintings finished.  This is pretty decent considering I haven't done a single painting in over a year and I've been trying to substitute teach and manage my family at the same time.
I'm going to continue to create as many paintngs in this next 9 days but I'm already looking ahead to figure out another way to raise my productivity and still keep my part time job and get the dishes done and the family fed.  I think what I will do next is rather then trying to paint a certain amount of paintings in a set time, I will attemp to paint daily for 50 days.  It sounds easier then it is.
I'm hoping that creating a daily habit of painting will help me get around the times when I tend to procrastinate.  It will also give all my readers a chance to find out a little bit more about my process and they will get to see more progress pictures.
On another note I recently found out that I will be a Featured Artist at Heartland Art Gallery in Urbana, IL, April 19-22nd during the 2012 Boneyard Arts Festival   I have found that the earlier and more often I get the word out the better the turnout at the actual show.  I hope to see many of you there!

"Wishing for Sun II" (c) 2012 Shoshanna Bauer All Rights Reserved.

Progress Pic- Wishing For Sun II

I have a crazy headache tonight but hopefully I can at least finish this by tomorrow..

12/50 Paintings in 50 Days - Dwarf Warlord turned Wizard

"Dwarf Warlord turned Wizard" - Acrylic on 25mm Reaper Miniature sculpted by Werner Klocke

 

This is my first commission generated by a Twitter follower!  My instructions were to make him look like a warlord who had turned into a wizard.  The color ideas given to my by my client were Purples, with black and red accents.  I originally tried adding more black but he really needed a white shirt to give him more contrast and "pop".  

 

I really enjoy painting these mini's.  I charge $25 plush shipping for an individual 25mm miniature so if you are ever interested in having me paint one for you let me know in the comments and I can contact you about the details.  If you don't already have a mini I like http://miniature-giant.com  They have great prices and  you can have it shipped to me for free.

 

Progress pic-miniature commission

See the full gallery on Posterous

I just need to base and varnish this little guy and ship it off to his owner.
I took three pictures so check them all out!

12/50 Paintings in 50 Days - Misty Wood

"Misty Wood" - Watercolor on Paper - 11.5" x 15"

Sometimes I make a painting and I don't really have a lot to say about it.  I just painted this because it made me feel serene to look at.
(c) 2012 Shoshanna Bauer All Rights Reserved 

11/50 Paintings in 50 Days - Chinese Earth Dragon

‎"Chinese Earth Dragon" - Watercolor and Gouache on paper
11.5" x 15"

Here we go! When I first created Chinese Water Dragon it occurred to me that I should go ahead and make the other 4 elements of the Chinese Dragon sign. Luckily I was given more incentive when Chinese Water Dragon SOLD and the patron who bought it was also interested in commissioning me for the other 4! So here's the next piece in my Chinese Dragon Series. 
Chinese Earth Dragon(c)2012 Shoshanna Bauer All Rights Reserved

Gloria J Zucaro's "Wishful Thinking"

8"H x 8"W  Original Oil on Panel

Unframed $75.00/ $7.00 S&H

It has turned completely frigid and prospects of 4 to 8 inches of snow loom ahead.  Although I love to have cool sleeping conditions and love the four seasons, it is usually around this time of year that I really appreciate the thought of 70 degree temperatures with a slight warm breeze and sunny skies.  I saw these flowers near a weathered chair and vintage rusted car in Door County Wisconsin last July.  Take me there oh my imagination!  This is my Paint Party Friday entry for this week.  Happy PPF!

Gloria J Zucaro's "Pokey's Pals"

8"H x 8"W Original oil on Panel

$75.00 Unframed/ $90.00 Framed

Unframed/Framed

Option 1-Unframed $75.00 USD Option 2-Framed $90.00 USD

I had a lot of fun with this Daily Paintworks challenge because as you may have noticed, I love the color orange!  Apparently the designers have designated "Tangerine Tango" as the color of the year.  Our challenge was to paint a picture with the color of the year predominant.    My friend Ann Feldman beat me to the orange vegetables, so I raided my grandsons' toy box in my basement.  I kept calling "Pokey" " Gumby", until someone reminded me that "Gumby" is a little green rubber man, and this is his horse" Pokey"!  The fire truck is broken with its' ladder missing, but "what the hey"!  I like the weird little cross-eyed ball, too.


Below is a photo of "the beginning", my value study and start of putting in color.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Colorized Peacock"

5"H x 7"L Original Mixed Media Design

This is my final version of my thank you card to my daughter Faye and her family for the Christmas presents they gave to me.  A necklace and earrings, a journal and note cards all with a peacock motif were my lovely gifts this year.  I used ink pen and some metallic gel markers on watercolor card stock to make my artwork.  I think she will really like it, I do! :-)  Below is the card before I added color.  I would be interested to know which version you prefer.  Market research for future projects ya know!

9/50 Paintings in 50 Days - Ode to Robin

"Ode to Robin" - Gouache on paper - 15" x 11" 

Yesterday I was really fighting with two paintings I was working on. For the life of me I could not get anything to work. Today I awoke fresh minded and decided to take the advice of past instructors who would say "If you mess up keep going...you can't mess it up more and you just might save it." Another common phrase was "If you make a mistake, make it look on purpose." 
It's amazing how sometimes you have to take a step back in order to take a step forward. I revisited the bird painting I was working on and when I finished I wanted to dedicate it to someone who has inspired me at different times. (Though she may not even know it)
Thanks for the inspiration Robin Pedrero!  (go check her website out, she's really awesome)

Ode to Robin (c) 2012 Shoshanna Bauer All Rights Reserved

Progress Pic - The muse did not show up today

The muse did not show up today, but I did. I attempted not one but two paintings tonight and I just wasn't feeling either one of them. I took the "better" one downstairs to show my husband and asked him what he thought. I could tell he wasn't being completely honest with me when he nodded and said "cool.". He fessed up and I told him I didn't like it either.

He suggested not posting them but since this Challenge isn't about painting 50 GOOD paintings in 50 days I am going to post at least one of them. I'm a horrible judge of my own work anyway. Sometimes the paintings I like least are the ones people connect to. If I had any idea how this worked I'd be pretty rich by now.

Blogging about recovering from Artist's Block while in the midst of it is ironic. I can't help but remember Julia Cameron's book the Artists Way, where she says recovery is not linear. Sometimes for every step forward we take two steps back.

At least I showed up. Hopefully the muse will be back tomorrow.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Lucy's Box of Socks"

5"H x7"W Original Ink Design on Watercolor Cardstock

I spent an enjoyable evening preparing this "Thank You" card for my daughter Lucy and Grandson Alex to thank them for the Christmas gifts they gave me.  One of their gifts to me was a big box of all kinds of socks.  Some were black and some were white.  But there were also Christmas socks, socks with polka dots, socks with hearts, socks with penguins,socks with diamonds,socks with kites,socks with rainbows,socks with cupcakes,socks with polar bears,socks with cherries.  A whole lot of really fun socks!  I had told her I needed socks when she asked what I would like for Christmas...what a great surprise, a great big box of socks! Designs inspired by Zentangles.

This is my entry for Paint Party Friday.  Happy PPF.

8/50 Paintings in 50 Days! - Fire Sorcerer Miniature

"Fire Sorcerer" - Acrylic paint on 25mm Reaper Miniature sculpted by Bob Ridolifi

 

Some of you may not know this but I am a Gamer Nerd. I love RPG's and one of my "artist hobbies" is painting miniatures for fantasy games like Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder.

My friend commissioned me to paint his Pathfinder character's mini and so I'm counting it as 8/50 of my paintings since I never made any rules about the paintings being all two-dimensional. The description I was given for painting this guy was "very white skin, tribal tatoos on his face, and he should look like he's engulfed in flames."  Since the sculpt is actually for a wraithlike ghost and not flames persay I had to improvise a little bit by letting the colors tell the story rather then the miniature.

The cool part of doing this was after tweeting the Progress picture on Twitter I actually got commissioned to paint another mini by one of my Twitter followers! How cool is that? Gotta love teh interwebs!

 

7/50 Paintings in 50 Days - Chinese Water Dragon

"Chinese Water Dragon" - Watercolor and Gouache on Paper - 15" x 11"

The Chinese New Year of 2012 is the Dragon  (element water)!  I painted this guy with larger brushes and used some dry brush techniques to achieve the wispiness of his beard.  I'll admit I fought with him a few times and I'm still not sure I tamed him.  I finally decided to leave well enough alone before I mess up the painting all together. 

I love Asian mythology and culture and will humbly admit I am far from mastering this ancient subject in painting.  I hope you enjoy anyway. 

 

Chinese Water Dragon (c) 2012 Shoshanna Bauer All Rights Reserved.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Green Plate & Ham"

6"H x 8"W Original Oil on Stretched Canvas

$75.00  Staple-free sides painted black.  May be hung with or without frame.

    My Blog                                                      My Website

The Daily Paintworks Challenge for the week of January 8- 14 is to paint a picture of your breakfast.  Well, this was not my breakfast because I couldn't cook in the studio!  I actually had 2 slices of bacon, two fried eggs, and a healthy juiced fruit and vegetable combo that was made from 1 beet, 1 carrot, 1 apple, 1 orange and a one inch square of fresh ginger.  Oh, not to forget the large cup of Colombian coffee  "straight"! I haven't posted for a week because my children celebrated Christmas with me on the 7th. of January.  I was busy last week with some extra shopping and wrapping, and preparing or picking up food for the weekend.  So the ham in this picture is part of a Honeybaked ham we had.  I still have too much leftover, even though they each took some home.  Ham anybody?! 


I painted this over a previously used canvas.  I have photos of the canvas and my value study on my blog 
www.gloriajzucaro.blogspot.com 

6/50 Paintings in 50 Days - Medley

"Medley" - Watercolor and Gouache on paper - "15 x 11"

I decided to go the opposite way with this next piece from my last one (Rainbow Trout) because I felt my last painting was a little overly fussy.  I got some feedback from another professional watercolorist who reminded me of many tricks of the trade I already knew but had forgotten to use.  He said "Use a big brush and bigger paper if you can.  Bigger paper was out because I've already ripped up my supply into 1/4 sheets so that I can be sure to have enough to complete my challenge.  

Another thing he reminded me of was to use a watercolor board.  He reccomended masonite but I already had a board I had made in college out of a piece of pine covered in shellac.  The waterproof board holds in the moisture of the paper better and helps it dry more evenly.  Once I remembered these techniques I went back to an old subject (or non-subject) of mine..the abstract.

It's actually difficult to make good Abstract - Non-Objective art.  Usually when I make non-objective paintings I am explorting color relationships and form.   

I'm hoping as I get more and more in touch with my creativity again I will make more vivid paintings along this vein.  

 

Medley (c) 2012 Shoshanna Bauer All Rights Reserved.

5/50 Paintings in 50 Days - Rainbow Trout

"Rainbow Trout" - Watercolor on paper - 15" x 11"
Trout leap
against the stream
heading Nature's call

I wasn't nearly as productive today as I would have liked but I managed to start and finish this painting all in the last bit of the evening.  This painting spoke to me and told me of the fish within it, leaping against the current of a wild river.  I used to fish every summer with my grandparents when I was a kid and later with my Uncle and Aunt as an adult.
I love the taste of fresh caught trout, foil cooked over a campfire for breakfast in the morning.  Whenever I see trout it immediately brings me back to those wonderful summers in the mountains.

Rainbow Trout (c) 2012 Shoshanna Bauer All Rights Reserved.

4/50 Paintings in 50 Days - Roses' Desire

"Roses' Desire" - Watercolor on Paper - 11" x 15"

It's Friday!  I've completed 10% of my goal to paint 50 paintings in 50 days!  It feels SO good! I am going to try and crank out some more paintings this weekend that way I can get a chance to substitute teach sometime this week.  I'm missing the social interaction being holed up in my studio all week.  Which is why I LIVE for your comments on each painting.  So please don't hold back.  Even if you hate it.  I'd like to hear from you.
This new painting didn't start out having anything remotely to do with my past work "Wishing for Sun" when I first started it.  So when it started to have similarities I figured "Why not? Maybe it will become a series." So I pushed it to looking closer to the older work.  I'm not that into florals but hey, I let the paint tell me what it's supposed to be.  I like that these "florals" are very figurative.

Roses' Desire (c) 2012 Shoshanna Bauer All Rights Reserved.

3/50 Paintings in 50 Days - Ocean of Clouds

Allowing the process to unfold is a huge part of overcoming Artistic block.  There are so many opportunities to be self-critical and for me an excuse to back out.  The 50 Days project is perfect because it forces me to do the work regardless of the outcome. I have to ignore the snide comments in my head as my inner critic tells me I am a hack.
There was once a time when I even had to create an alter ego in order to create art.  I assigned all the bad paintings to the alter ego.
Here's the 4th painting in my 50 paintings in 50 days challenge.
"Ocean of Clouds" - Watercolor and Gouache on paper - 15" x 11"

Ocean of Clouds (c) 2012 Shoshanna Bauer All Rights Reserved

Progress piece

One of my friends asked me "How do you crank them out so quickly and so well?"

There is actually more then one answer to that, but what it really boils down to is me having a little ADD which ironically allows me to Hyperfocus, a little OCD which allows me to work a little obsessively, and a touch of perfectionism (ok a lot of perfectionism). That all combined with a serious dose of impatience (which is why I do NOT work in oils) makes a perfect amalgam for working with Watercolor!

I try and have a couple paintings going on at a time. That way if my ADD kicks in and I get bored, or some paint needs to dry I can work on something else.

Here is a glimpse of one of the paintings I'm working on.

2/50 Paintings in 50 Days - Cosmic Portal

I'm starting to feel good about this.  I've gotten a lot of great feedback and encouragement on my different social networking sites.  All this sort of stuff just helps me.  Ultimately what helps me the most is to remember that my paintings are not ultimately meant for me.  They are meant to go out into the Universe to bring Joy to others.

 

This painting explores the Inner and Outer Space and the connections between them.  

A glimpse
from beyond
the next Universe

 

"Cosmic Portal" - Watercolor and Gouache on paper - 11" x 15"