And the winner is.....

Last week, as part of the 30 Days of Marketing Challenge, I promised a print to one lucky winner that signed up for my newsletter before midnight last Saturday.  Since I knew several of the people that signed up, I decided to use a random number generator to find the winner. 

And.... the winner is Joy Boothe.  Some of you may know Joy, she is the favorite trainer at the gym AND she is a fabulous writer (and a singer, too!).  In fact, if you would like to experience some of her work, you can read an excerpt from her novel online at the Great Smokies Review by clicking here.

Thanks very much to all who signed up for my Occasional Artzine.  And thanks, too, for all the wonderful comments about my work.  Y'all are great!

Sorry not to have new painting to share with you, but I'm on the road again and haven't had a chance to paint since Saturday.  

Thanks for stopping by!

susan
www.susangarriques.com
susan@susangarriques.com

Dealing with rain.....

Even with all the pre-planning my artist friends and I did for the Toe River Arts Council's Annual Paint Out, we forgot to make a backup plan in case it rained.  In hindsight, that was pretty silly, considering all the rain we get up here.

Well, this morning it started raining about 6 am and kept raining all day.  Luckily, for all the painters, it was a gentle rain and there was very little wind. Three of us started out together on a porch, painting a very colorful house that belongs to another artist.  By lunch time, I was not happy with my painting - and it was still raining.  

Not giving up, I headed over to the spot I originally intended to paint.  I was able to set my pochade box in the back of my car and paint from there.  My drop cloth is a clear shower curtain, which turned out to be perfect for keeping out the little bit of rain that was coming in the car.  

Painting in the back of the "art car"

The back of my car provided the perfect shelter to paint in.  Before too long, the rain stopped and I was able to put my pochade box on the tripod and paint standing.  Good thing, too, because painting in the back of the car works, but isn't the most comfortable.

And now... here is my "finished" painting.  It is hanging the Toe River Arts Council's Burnsville Gallery along with the paintings from all the other artists. It's a good show. If you live nearby, stop in for a look.  And don't forget to look back at yesterday's post to see the scene I was painting.

View From Green Mountain Road

Today is the last day to enter the contest for a free print.  Read about it in this blog post.  

Thanks for stopping by!!

susan

www.susangarriques.com

susan@susangarriques.com

Paint Out Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the Toe River Arts Council's annual Paint Out in Burnsville, NC.  Artists from all over Western North Carolina will be in town to paint.  Each year seems to attract more (and more talented) artists.  

Every year I drive around looking for the "perfect" spot to paint.  There are some absolutely drop dead gorgeous scenes around the bends in the mountain roads.  And absolutely no where to pull a car off the road, let alone set up an easel to paint.  The "perfect" spot would have a parking area, a level place to set up my easel in the shade, and a view, of course.  By now you  have probably figured out there are no "perfect" spots and what an artist has to do is create a painting from the whatever is available.  Ignore a tree, delete a building.  Add a mountain here, a garden there.  

This year, I decided that I really wanted to paint with another artist nearby, so one of my artist friends and I headed out looking for the perfect spot.  She found a pretty good one for us that is close to downtown Burnsville.  The only thing that would make it more "perfect" for me is if there were a creek running through it! (I'm still fascinated with water)  Of course, I suppose if I wanted to, I could just add a stream......

Here's a photo I took on Wednesday of the scene that we'll be painting tomorrow.  And as long as it isn't a "wiper" (ie. wipe the canvas clean of paint because the painting is so bad), I'll post the results here tomorrow evening.  

Don't forget about my contest!  It closes tomorrow (Saturday) and midnight.  Here's a link to the post about the contest...

Thanks for stopping by.  See you tomorrow! 

susan
www.susangarriques.com
susan@susangarriques.com

Contest!!!!! Win a print!

The 30 Days of Marketing are still in progress and today's task is to give something away.  I like that idea!  It's always fun to win something, so I'm going to hold a contest.  Another marketing tool is a newsletter, something I haven't been willing to take on yet.  Some of you know that I write the monthly newsletter for the Blue Ridge Fine Arts Guild, and the thought of writing two newsletters a month is, well, overwhelming.  Would I ever get to paint?  I do like to read other artist's newsletters and find them motivating.  So, with that in mind I will commit to an occasional newsletter.  Maybe to announce an upcoming exhibit.  Or a finished painting.  

Back to the contest.  Anyone who signs up for my Occasional Artzine will be automatically entered in a drawing for a print of my Eastern Phoebe Fledglings painting.  The print is approximately 6" x 8".  The contest will be open through Saturday, May 18th, 2013 at midnight.  Winner will be notified by email on Sunday, the 19th. 

Leave your name and email address below to enter the contest.  Good luck!  And thanks for signing up!



   

Thanks for stopping by!
susan
http://susangarriques.com
susan@susangarriques.com

Green......

We've had about 5 inches of rain here in the past few days, which has caused the rivers to rise and edges of the road to slide away.  Driving along the Toe River yesterday afternoon, I would guess it had come up at lease 4 feet from where we were seeing it just then.  It reminded me of what the edges of the Intracoastal Waterway looked like after a hurricane.  A major bathtub ring type look.  "Stuff" everywhere.  Logs, lumber, tires, plastic of all shapes.  Quite a mess.

So this morning, when I headed to the other side of town to paint along the Cane River, I wasn't sure what I would find.  It looked like the water there hadn't come up as high, but there was obvious damage.  What had been lovely gravel paths lined underneath with landscape cloth was just a long strip of black cloth mixed with red clay and some bits of gravel.  I could see that the water had come up at least a couple of feet and that where I was standing to paint had obviously been under water not too long ago.

The 30 Days of Marketing Challenge is still continuing and today's task is to post a demo of a painting.  Perfect task for today, since I was already planning to paint a plein air (out of doors) study.  One thing I've learned about plein air painting, is to approach the painting as a study,rather than a finished painting. Try to capture the feeling of the day.  The light and the colors and the values, too, but primarily the feeling.  The "perfect" painting can wait till the studio.

I started the day out with a photo of my scene....

A green morning on the Cane River

This is my pochade box. (It is a EasyL brand and sits on top of a tripod.) Next step is to do a thumbnail sketch.  That's my little sketch pad on the left side of my box.  My painting surface is a Raymar art panel that is 6" x 8".  At this point, the only paint I've put out is Ultramarine Blue, which I will sketch with on the panel.

Here is a close up of my thumbnail.  Much later in the painting's progression, I realized that the right side of the river appeared to be going uphill.  Looking back at my thumbnail, it appears that way there, too!  

And here I've done my sketch with UltraMarine Blue thinned with Turpenoid.   I was happy to have to thumbnail to refer to.  It helped me keep from including "everything" I was seeing on the canvas.

I started with the darkest darks.  The river looked darker than the bushes to me - the part I was looking at was under a fair bit of shade.  At this point, I've got all the "land" bits in.  And I can already tell it is going to be too green.  

Here it is with paint over the entire surface.  I like this part, the part where I can go in and make changes and corrections.  This is also where I see my river going up hill!  The light keeps changing.  The sky has changed from bright blue with white puffy clouds to mostly all big gray clouds.

And here is where I call it "done".  

My world has been getting greener every day and even more so with all the rain.  I often feel like I'm breathing green.  Today's painting most definitely fits my green life!

"Green Morning on the Cane River"
a 6" x 8" study in oil on Raymar art panel

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope you've enjoyed this demo.  

susan

www.susangarriques.com

susan@susangarriques.com

Rainy Sundays.....

It's been raining here pretty steadily for about 18 hours now.  Our house is on a ridge and I'm not worried about the creeks rising.  Some of my friends do live in places where the creek rising might be a problem and I'm hoping they are all safe and dry.

The wet and chilly weather has kept me in the studio, for which I am totally thankful for.  If it weren't for the rain, I'd be out mowing for sure.  Instead, I've been working on a large canvas - a 24" x 36".  This one is another water painting.  And will be "kept under wraps" till finished. 

Meanwhile, I've been working on the 30 Days of Marketing Challenge.  Two days ago, the task was to add 20 names to my email list.  Well, I'm totally embarrassed to admit this, but I don't really have an email list.  And I don't have a newsletter.  One of Leslie's suggestions was to use MailChimp, which I decided to give a try.  It was simple to use and fairly easy to add addresses from my Mac address book.  I was able to add a field to my website for people to sign up for my "occasional artzine".  And then.... I plunged ahead and did what MailChimp refers to as a campaign.  I have several paintings in the current Canine Art Guild's Online Exhibit - It's a Dog's Life.  And promoting that show has been on my to do list for several weeks.  Yesterday seemed like a good time to promote that exhibit to my "new" email list.  If for some reason you didn't get that email yesterday, please be sure to check out the exhibit - it is online at www.canineartguild.com/gallery   You can vote for your favorite painting, too!  

Yesterday's marketing task was an easy one - and even easier for me since I've had this set up for a couple of years now - Google Alerts.  Did you know that you can set up a Google Alert to let you know when your name has been mentioned out there in cyberspace?  

And today's task was to create a collage of some of our work.  Leslie suggested we use ipiccy.com.  It is an online photo editor.  Easy to upload photos and make a collage.  I decided to make one using 4 of my paintings from what I think of as my "Little Bird" series.  Here it is...

Thanks so much for stopping by!!!

Oh, and hey - if you aren't on my email list and would like to be - please be sure to shoot me an email!  

susan

www.susangarriques.com

susan@susangarriques.com

Day Two - 30 Day Marketing Challenge

Today's marketing task is to market an older painting that hasn't been sold yet.  Hmmm.... there are a few unsold paintings, so which one to choose?  I had one in mind, but then remembered another that I really like.  Since it is still for sale, I'm guessing that the person meant to own this painting just hasn't seen it yet.  

This is Early Morning.  Oil on a 16" x 20" canvas.  It is currently on display at the Design Gallery in Burnsville, North Carolina.  If you are interested in purchasing this painting, you can either contact Wendy at the Design Gallery (828.678.9869) or you can contact me(828.284.1771).  As a bonus - I'll make sure shipping is free. 

Early Morning       16" x 20"    oil on canvas            $1160.00

Thanks for looking and reading.  Please feel free to share this post with your friends.

See you tomorrow!

susan

www.susangarriques.com

susan@susangarriques.com