takes a brit....

lol

I'm in you? :eek:

Wow, I just saw the last in the case cat painting progression. You give me chills, girl, you're so good!

Geez, you guys are all so kind. It is almost like cheating to post my paintings here, because you say such nice things about them. Thank you, Bullitt, for posting the "Hilton Head Sunset" painting I created for you. I have had a lot of people ask me about that painting, actually. Perhaps I will have to do some more pieces in that style. Merc, I am sorry this one is not an auction. Maybe I should do an auction for a painting? Does anyone have any input on that?

Wednesday evening, we drove from Golden, CO, through the wind to Wichita, KS. We are here for the rest of the weekend. I am hoping to finish the painting on Sunday and send it to Sundae on Monday or Tuesday. Please stay tuned!

What size are those paintings? It's hard to tell from the photos.

I think in terms of artistic endeavours, people here are generally kind. They don't respond unless they have something positive to say. At least that's what I've experienced in the few things I've posted.

But in your case, Case, it's far more than that. You've also had commissions/ sales - which is people putting their money where their mouth is - and you should accept that your talent is well received in a disparate band of people & countries.

I will definitely take pics of the painting in situ.

Case you are very, very talented. I don't just mean you are technically competant. You have a very distinctive artistic 'voice', the way the images flow into and out of each other is wonderful.

I've been looking at photos recently and wondering what you'd make of them, having seen what came out of the photo of Sundae's cats.

umm wow. Do you have a diviant art profile? You can commission your work from there!

Some people do. Some people dont.

Dani, I gave Case completely free rein on my painting. I sent a number of pictures of the boys (when I still had boys plural) but added that anything she chose to create was fine by me, including a picture of myself if she preferred. I'd have taken a Case abstract to be honest.

I didn't want a paint by numbers copy of a photo, and I didn't want Case to feel confined to that, given her artistic imagination.

However, given that she has taken a simple (but to my mind, moving) photo of mine and recreated it a la Case, I would recommend anyone commissioning a similar piece of art. Case is an excellent painter, and can easily handle something closer to reality. But I suggest having a little something added to make it personal. The fact my painting has cherries in it makes me feel like a proper patron (like a Vespucci family wasp)

I really think you should do one. Just do it for yourself this time. Keep the money. I would bid on one if it appealled to me. I would suggest a theme that involves The Cellar and the Monkey at the top of the page. Or what ever you wanted to do. The world is your stage. Your stage is the Canvas. Post the painting as it progresses and let people do a silent aution via pm's only. Then post the winning person at the end but maybe not what the final bid was. Or maybe you could just post "current bid price is ___" so people know where to start from on each bid. It would be fun. Anyone else think this would be fun or a good idea?

Keep most of the money. If using the Cellar to auction it seems reasonable to give a percentage of the proceeds to the pot.

Yes if Case sets a minimum - this is her livelihood.

Also, the idea that she gives the "commision" to Tony is a great one. Practically it's hard for me to contribute to the jar and I felt so pleased that I was finally making a difference. This obviously won't apply to those who contribute regularly.

The jar was recently almost filled by another commission.

I can't wait until I personally have some free money to commission one outright.

Whew, sorry I haven't had a chance to respond. Just got back from Wichita last night and getting back into the family routine.

HLJ, the cats painting is 12" X 16". "Hilton Head Sunset" is 8" X 10". I do them all sizes, though.

I don't always use photos for reference..."Unremitting" was done without any kind of visual reference. I have painted portraits from life and from photos. I usually only use a reference if I am not completely use to drawing the subject. For instance, I have never painted a cat before. Especially not Sundae's cats, so I needed a photo reference for that. And Hilton Head Island would not look familiar to Bullitt if I had not used one of his photos. Both Sundae and Bullitt gave me a whole range of photos to choose from that I could use as a reference. I like working that way, so I can get my inspiration authentically, I suppose.

The auction idea is an interesting one, Merc. Does anyone remember back when I use to paint stylistic nudes? Those were created for the auction format (Ebay, specifically.) I would create a painting in one day, then list it on Ebay...only to get it noticed at all, I had to pay for a featured listing, where it was listed with (literally) 10,000 or more other paintings for that day. Most of the time, I would not receive a bid unless I set the starting price at around $30.00 or less and I had to pray that it would get above $50.00 so I could break even. I couldn't even consider putting a reserve on it. Sometimes I got over $100.00 for a painting. If that were the case, I figured I was making around $7.00 an hour (in profit.) I ended up running out of money for listings, one week, when none of my paintings got any bids (2 weeks after Christmas.) That was when I realized that Ebay was the wrong venue for my art. It could work for certain types of "assembly line" art, but not for me. There are still many folks who create really neat abstract pieces for Ebay and sell them there, making a decent income because of how they have streamlined their process. That method of creation stresses me out and defeats the purpose of what I am doing. (I know that was long, but just a background on my experiences using auction format.)

Anyway, I know the cellar is not Ebay...but, since my experiences with Ebay, I generally shy away from auctions because of the lack of control I have over my processes and pricing. I will consider it as a fun option, though. At this point, I want to finish the current commission campaign. I still need to finish up this painting and I have 1 or 2 others in the pipeline. Let's revisit this idea later on. And of course, I will definitely put a portion of the proceeds toward the cellar, whether there is an auction, or commissions or if people just purchase the paintings outright. That is the one thing I promise to do...there are many successes I would not have if it weren't for Tony. It is only fair to compensate him. In fact, that was sort of the point in this commission idea.

Sky, I set up a Deviantart profile once, but had trouble with the interface, so I mostly gave up. There are so many amazing digital artists there, that I felt a little overwhelmed and intimidated in that setting and felt that there might be better ways to promote paintings. I do have a myspace profile for my art, which I haven't done much with lately, but I plan to do some more promoting there, later...when I have more time and fewer children to entertain at home. :)

Thank you so much for your kind compliments, Dana. This was a piece that just sort of flowed out. I really love it when that happens, too. It happens most commonly when I am able to just naturally choose the composition and make it do whatever I would like. I personally love cats, and when Sundae mentioned Dylan being missing, I felt for her. The photo of the cats I had chosen prior to Dyl's disappearance seemed to be even more "right" in my mind.